ITPE Dear Podficcer Letter 2020

[littleredrobinhood]

 

Dear Podficcer

Hi, I’m LittleRedRobinHood on AO3, and I’m so excited to hear what you make for me for ITPE this year! I’m sure whatever you make will be amazing and I’ll be able to hear the love and work you put into it. Here is the stuff you need to know

Likes:

·         Team as family/found family/team ensemble dynamics, strong friendships/platonic relationships

·         Soulmates/soulmate identifying marks, especially when subverted/inverted

·         Subverted/inverted tropes in general

·         Worldbuilding – especially scifi/fantasy/magic AUs, or worldbuilding with subverted/inverted tropes

·         Fake dating, marriage of convenience, mutual pining

·         Hurt/comfort!! – emotional or physical or both! - also angst with a happy ending

·         People trusting each other with secrets/opening up to each other – this usually works really well with the hurt/comfort (secret relationship, coming out, magic powers that are looked down on, etc) and I do definitely like that. It also works for more light hearted stuff, like super hero AUs, or something with hijinks and misunderstanding that are humorous rather than angsty

·         Made for audio works/works in non-traditional formats

My two favorite ~vibes are basically the opposite ends of the spectrum – angsty hurt/comfort, or light hearted team-as-family hijinks. Or Idiots to Lovers - My favorite not-yet-canonical AO3 tag.

Don’t Mind:

·         Rule 63/Always a Girl – prefer no name changes though, if possible

·         Non famous family members as characters

·         Canon (or real life I guess) levels of violence and injury

·         Vague references to covid, like “the pause” and/or “the bubble” - Hockey fics set in the bubble are probably ok, as long as the focus is on the hijinks/surreal experience of being stuck in a hotel with all your teammates and rivals and not the grim national reality that lead to needing that to happen.

Dislikes:

·         Large age gaps or power imbalances, or daddy kink – such as Pekka Rinne/Juuse Saros or Mitch Marner/Matt Martin, or any student/teacher relationship

·         Infidelity

·         Dubcon, except if both parties have consumed alcohol but would consent otherwise

·         Mob/Mafia AUs – surprising popular in Hockey, but I’m not a fan

Hard No:

·         Patrick Kane, as main or side character

·         Kyle Dubas/William Nylander (or any other GM/player if those exist)

·         Incest of any kind

·         Rape/non con

·         Smut/PWP – I don’t mind limited sex scenes, including works that would be rated E on AO3, but I prefer the sex not be the focus on the work, and it not be especially long or detailed. I don’t mind works where sex as a concept is prominent in the work, such as works where sex occurs briefly (or off screen) and is referred back to often, or sex is the goal (as in getting together) and is frequently referenced, or stuff like that – I just don’t want extended graphic sex scenes or works that are primarily sex scenes, and prefer that if sex occurs, it's secondary to the plot

o   Also, I don’t want BDSM, kink, xeno, gang bangs/group sex, or a/b/o

o   I tried to make this more specific and less of a judgment call that previously, but I know this does depend on the person and the fic – I’m sorry

Hockey RPF

Hockey RPF is my main fandom, so most of my likes come from that, although they also apply to my other fandoms. I am not super tied to a specific pairing or team, but I do have some preferences:

Top Teams/Pairings:

·         For basically all of these, I am cool with team ensemble stuff as well as/in addition to pairings. Also, these are just my top pairings – other pairings (on these or other teams) are usually also fine

·         Flyers

o   TK/Nolan ! – I have read /a lot/ of TK/Nolan recently

o   Kevin Hayes – still not sure how I feel about him w/ Carter Hart (depends on the fic), but I like his dynamic in fics in general

§  I just love a good Flyer’s ensemble in fics – Kevin Hayes, Carter Hart, Claude Giroux, Ivan Provorov, etc, etc

·         Caps

o   Nicky/Ovi !

·         Avs

o   Pretty much whatever pairing, including Tyson Barrie or Alexander Kerfoot (RIP, they’re not dead, they’re just in Toronto) as well as Nazem Kadri

·         Canucks

o   I have been here for Brock Boeser/Elias Pettersson for a while now, and I’m glad they are finally getting the apprecation they deserve

o   Also Quinn Hughes deserves more appreciation

·         2015 draft class

o  Basically any combo of Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel, Dylan Strome, and Mitch Marner

o   Connor McDavid is going through a lot right now – someone give him a hug

o   Also, Team North America ensemble is also fun, in addition to just the 2015 guys

·         Also interested in rare pairs, OT3s, and Women’s Hockey players

Least Favorite Teams/Pairings:

·         Sid/Geno

o   I actually do like this pairing, but there’s just /so much/ content for them out there that I would prefer to see something different

·         Sidney Crosby/ Claude Giroux

·         Leon Draistaitl/Matthew Tkachuk

o   I don’t hate enemies to lovers, but these two just don’t appeal to me

·         Tyler Seguin/Jordie Benn

o   I’ve read too much Tyler/Jamie, so now I feel weird about this for some reason

·         Bruins

o   Just – bad vibes, not a fan idk

·   

Again, I’m totally into OT3s/polyamory, gen, friendship, women’s players, or your rare pair of choice – if something matches my likes, I probably won’t mind what pairing or team.

I like both hockey fic and AUs. I don’t mind non hockey AUs, but I prefer AUs where they still play hockey, such as soulmates or magic existing as part of the NHL. My favorite non-hockey AUs are sci fi/fantasy

Check Please

The majority of my fic reading for this fandom was during or after Year 2, so I read a lot of fics where either The Kiss at the end of Year 2 didn’t happen or Jack/Bitty are much more closeted in Year 3. Basically Jack is Sad. I do love that angstier, more “realistic” stuff, and the alternate get togethers. However, I also love the team as family and general hijinks of the Samwell Crew, and would love that kind of more lighthearted fic as well.

I went to (and still cheer for) an ECAC hockey school, so I would also love stuff about the team’s relationship to the student body/campus/fans, causing weird trouble on campus, actually attending class, or some kind of student outsider perspective. Unfortunately, this also means I know when there are college hockey realism mistakes, but I can overlook those for the sake of fic :)

I am pretty strongly here for Jack/Bitty, and don’t want to see them shipped with other characters. But otherwise, I am not too set on ships. Any combo of the frogs and/or Farmer is cool, as well as Shitty/Lardo. I do like Ransom/Holster, but I would absolutely /love/ to see bros forever, platonic life partners Ransom&Holster. Also Jack&Shitty friendship, especially freshman!Jack and Shitty

While I like Kent as a character, I do see him as an antagonist and don’t want fic where he is a main character or part of a main ship. (past Jack/Kent is ok, but not present day stuff)

Leverage

100% here for the Hardison/Parker/Eliot. I like their romantic relationship but it’s mainly that they are the most important people to each other and they always have each other’s backs that’s important to me. So I also love team as family for this team (also potentially including Nate and Sophie). I like hurt/comfort for these guys, but I feel like a majority of it is hurt!Eliot (for good reason), and I would love to see hurt!Hardison or Parker instead. Or just the team comforting each other in general.

I don’t mind AUs, but would prefer AUs where they still do jobs (or equivalent) rather than full “non powered” AUs. I also like case/job fic and outsider POV. There are some really fun outsider POV casefics, and stuff featuring the brewpub staff

Misc/Other things I like

·         Fake Buzzfeed Unsolved (etc) episodes about other fandoms

o   Social media or like far outsider perspective stuff (esp made for audio) is very interesting to me, and this is a way I’ve seen it done that’s very cool. I also saw a My Brother My Brother and Me cross over (although not /only/ an episode) recently and it was so cool 

o   I know people also do this with the Magnus Archive, but unfortunately I know nothing about TMA

o   I also have listened to some good BFU RPF but not enough to have strong preferences

·         I like The Adventure Zone Balance and Graduation but have not read a lot of fic – would not mind canon-adjacent team fic

·         Recently re-watched Avatar the Last Airbender. I love all the tumblr post canon team fics posts (ie Toph as Zuko’s “advisor” or Zuko working in the Jasmine Dragon) but haven’t found much stuff I like on AO3. Not sure if I specifically don’t like Kataang or if I just like team fic and want these poor children to rest before they worry about kissing. I’m not hugely interested in Zutara or Zukka (is that what Sokka/Zuko is called?) either, but I think they’re more interesting than Kataang or Zuko/Mai. I have also seen some interesting canon divergence concepts on tumblr, like if Zuko joins the gaang earlier or characters with different bending types or stuff like that, that could be interesting, but like I said, I haven’t found the good stuff on AO3.

·
Polygon - extremely into actual Polygon content, and have dabbled in RPF as well. There are some very good magic AU/urban fantasy fics. Prefer BDG/Pat Gill and don't like slash with the McElroys. Absolutely no Nick Robinson

·         I have seen The Mandolorian season 1 and have enjoyed listening to podfics about it, but I have not read fic. I also only know the basics about the wider Star Wars universe