Holly Poly 2021 Dear Creator Letter

[definitelynotscott]

WIP - Let me just slap this up here so I have a URL to put in.
Okay. I think this will do.

Thanks for joining in! I'm going to write a bunch of stuff, but it's intended as a HELP if you're not sure what to do, not as any kind of dictate. So take what you want, leave what you don't, and have fun creating! I'm looking forward to seeing what you make!



General

THEMATIC LIKES - I like fun adventure things and competent people being awesome. Banter is good. Culture Clash is delightful! I like when people respect each other even when they hate each other. I like sensory/sensual descriptions - not necessarily sexual ones. Getting together is always exciting, but I also enjoy established relationships and the ease that comes from being together so long and being able to rely on each other.

VISUAL LIKES - I like all sorts of art. Anything with these goobers will make me happy. Cuddle-piles and mutual naps are great. Formal poses like they're getting their portrait taken can be fun! Something set up like a candid shot of them relaxing or on an outing (picnic! hot air balloon! library! grocery shopping! stargazing!). Action things like exploring a ruin, or getting in a fight, or competing in a sport (*cough*karuta*cough*). I'm very easy to please on the art front. XD
For vidding I don't... actually know anything about that so maybe I've picked difficult things to vid for (maybe the League videos don't work with each other very well or the fact that I picked two characters who barely exist in Arthurian Mythology). So I apologize if that's a thing - feel free to either go creative with fancasting or symbolism or just skip past to the fandoms with more readily available footage.

AUDITORY LIKES - I'm pretty neutral toward sound effects, though I do like humor so a well-timed *BOING* (or the like) would definitely tickle me. Not a fan of huge, sudden volume increase/decrease.
I like a lot of different music, though I tend to lean toward lyrics with narrative (ballads, certain country, folk songs, humor/novelty music, showtunes, Gilbert & Sullivan). I've never gotten into the harder rap, but it's not a hard "no" especially older stuff. I like orchestral music. Cellos. Horns. Oh! Songs made with nontraditional instruments are cool (like that Playing Darude on a phone video).

DISLIKES - Incest, infidelity, torture, gore, rape/non-consensual stuff, mind control, mental collapse/breakdown, and similar darker themes aren't my cup of tea, especially if there's no light at the end of the tunnel. I dislike kindness being implicitly tied to naiveté and/or stupidity. I'm not a fan of the phrase "Make me a woman", though I'd probably be amused by an inversion of some sort. And the "Young woman/girl hates and fears her awesome powers" trope has me closing award-winning books.

You may have noticed that I requested ships with siblings in them while also claiming I don't like incest. Just put those in a V configuration (or... spokes or whatever for the ones with more than three people involved) and it'll be fine. I like a kind of Sibling Polygamay/We Wanted to Stay in the Same Family so We Both Married the Same Person/Our Family Is Very Important and We Aren't Going to Break It Up Just for a Relationship/We Can Share a Sweetheart Because We've Got Such a Strong Sibling Bond kind of vibe, but also My Sibling Is a Disaster So I Will Bring Us Both a Family and/or These Two Disasters Are Mine Now.

Specific

LEAGUE OF LEGENDS - Lux is my favorite in League of Legends, which you might have deduced from her presence in ALL the ships. :P Sometimes Janna and Talon are asexual in my headcanons so you can play with that if you want. NOT a fan of the new lore, so if you don't want to use the old Institute of War lore please use the skinlines or go full AU of your own. If you just like the skinlines, that's fine I'd love to see what you come up with! I always request this fandom for Purimgifts if you want to look at previous stuff I've requested I'm sure there's plenty in my old letters from that exchange. I don't particularly want either Demacians or Noxians (or even Piltoverians) "converted" to the other side, I like it when there's still tension and differences, they just come to the realization that they're willing to either put up with them or think the eternal struggle to convince the other side they're right is tolerable.

Art Stuff
Lots of room for visual themes based on the different countries. I like... the height difference between Lux and the tall boys (Darius, Draven, Talon). You can... emphasize that. Though probably Janna and Ezreal are taller than her too. There's the shadow/light theme with Talon/Lux. All the blondies together is good, maybe driving around in a convertible three-musketeers-commercial-style. Or examining an artifact Ezreal found.

Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard/Darius/Talon
All three of them spent time alone (or at least in charge for Darius) in Noxus at a young age. Talon and Lux both specialized in stealth and infiltration. Darius and Lux are both career military. I'd love to see how their similarities and differences mesh and/or clash. If you want to go angsty they all have loyalties pulling in different directions (Darius in Swain's faction, Talon in the Du Couteau faction, Lux all the way over in the Demacian "Let's encourage a Noxian Civil War" faction).

Garen Crownguard/Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard/Darius
I mostly see this starting as a political relationship and developing from there, but could also see it as Ah Yes I See Your Respect for My Sibling Your Good Sense Raises You in My Esteem or something like that. You know how people will talk AROUND something or use alternate phrasing when they're discussing something in front of children or pets? "I was thinking of taking some locomotion not in the house after dinner, but don't mention it in front of the dog." or "Please bring home some fried tubers and poultry chunks on the way home." Well I was thinking that would be kind of fun to use in a contentious multilingual household like this one - you could have Darius & Lux vs. Garen (Noxian), or Garen & Lux vs. Darius (Demacian). Plotting a trick or planning a surprise, or just doing it purely to wind up the other party.

Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard/Darius/Draven
This could just as easily be another political relationship. But I've also seen some nice timeline-manipulations where Lux met them before they joined the army and were living on the streets of Noxus! I'm fully open to Noxus having normalized polygamy (one town spouse, multiple army spouses who cycle through as they're deployed or returned to the city). Or you could go with something where one of the brothers was reported dead and the remaining brother stepped up to support the "widow" - eventually resulting in a relationship that has to be reconfigured when the first husband comes back from the dead (like, in a happy way - not a lot of jealousy but a lot of "this is weird and different we'll have to adjust a bit").

Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard/Ezreal/Janna
The Blonde Squad! It took me a while to come around to shipping Lux with these two because I wanted her to have friends AND lovers. But sometimes you just want to see a relationship grown from and steeped in friendship, y'know? I think a trip to the beach would be fun for them, especially with cool underwater ruins nearby. Or Lux starting down the Elementalist path by learning from Janna and taking on a second element.

Luxanna "Lux" Crownguard/Darius/Draven/Ezreal/Janna
I don't actually know about sedoretus except from Fanlore, but they sound interesting and it says siblings can join in there, so that's an option here! The Blonde Squad already being together and then adding Draven, who drags Darius along is also fun.

OVERWATCH - I don't have a lot of opinions in this fandom, I'm pretty easygoing on which lore or what part of the timeline should be emphasized. I generally default to all three of them being bi, though if you have different preferences go for it. V or triangle or a stable molecule of two with one bouncing electron who comes and goes are all fine with me. I just like to see love and respect (though there's still the opportunity for plenty of hurt even with that).
Please do use Cole's new name though.

Jesse McCree/Genji Shimada/Angela "Mercy" Ziegler
These three all have the potential to be such disasters even though they're all very competent in their own fields. I like thinking about how Angela and Cole met when they were both fairly young, and how they were both taking on adult responsibilities early. They both met and worked with Genji at a point where he was so filled with negative emotions, but they still managed to make a connection with him. Also, if you wanted to do something fun with Cole's reporter alternate identity that sounds fun.

Guendoloena/Gwenddydd|Ganeida/Myrddin|Merlin
There's not much out there for either of these ladies, so I'd be happy with pretty much anything. I tend to think of Merlin as that special kind of disaster who has flashes of ABSOLUTE COMPETENCY, and Gwenddydd taking after him a bit, just in different ways, since they're twins. To be able to survive the absolute anarchy of these two I envision Guendoloena as almost inhumanly easygoing, which can easily be mistaken for being wishy-washy. Though I'd love to see your interpretation of them too! The great thing about older stories is that they've been retold and reinterpreted so many times by so many people that your own version is just another addition to the canon. Go wild and bring these two underrepresented ladies to life.

Ayase Chihaya/Mashima Taichi/Wataya Arata
I like it when Chihaya still sees non-friendship-type relationships as secondary. Karuta and friendship are bound up together for her, and she's just not Chihaya without that obsessive streak, you know? I like the complexity of Taichi and Arata relating to each other. Watching them be a little prickly with each other, but still so important to each other.