Dear Yuletide Writer 2021

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you in advance for writing for me! I've written a little about what I love about the canons I've requested and included some prompts, but if you have a totally different idea, go for it! I'm excited for whatever you come up with.

General likes: Pining (mutual or otherwise), hurt/comfort especially when it's heavy on the comfort, pretending to be married/dating, fake dating turns real in general, happy endings, soulbonding/mates/any kind of weird psychic connection bonding scenario. I'm a big fan of AUs, so if you want to write one that's out there, I'll probably be happy to receive it. (With the exception that I'm not a huge fan of cyberpunk scenarios.) I also love all the canons I requested and am more than happy to receive a fic rooted firmly within them. 

General dislikes: Permanent major non-canonical character death (I’m fine with canon character deaths such as in FF 2015 and past plot important character deaths like Louise as she pertains to Kaine's story), infidelity between the main couple in case of shipfic, any mention of harm to animals, unhappy endings. All of my requests are for Marvel fandoms but please no references to the MCU or MCU-based characterization. 

I'm Traincat at Ao3 and tumblr and @hellotraincat on twitter if you want to poke around.

Fantastic Four (Comics)

Johnny Storm, Peter Parker

One thing I love about these two is the sheer breadth of their history, spanning from the ‘60s until today -- the teenage rivalry, the deep trust and affection between them even back before Johnny knew Peter's name or face – and how the relationship has stayed so important to both characters over all that time. Their long history of saving each other. The fact that canonically every Christmas they meet up at the Statue of Liberty. The way Johnny will tell Peter anything, from when he messed up by asking Ben to be his best man to the fact that the "Alicia" he married was actually a Skrull spy, and also the fact that he slept naked in his bed. What was up with that one!! I love the banter and the jokes but also how they can flip the switch and be serious with each other in an instant. I admit I'm more partial to fic set post-identity reveal, after they’re adults, but identity porn is always fun. I’m also extremely weak to the fact that they canonically hang out every Christmas morning at the Statue of Liberty and would love to get holiday fic. I also mentioned I really love AUs! I think they fit a lot of fun AU scenarios, especially a romcom styled one, although in almost all AU settings I prefer that Peter keeps his powers.

 

When it comes to canon fic, they have so much history and they've known each other literally their entire careers, so a game I like to play is to pick any point in their shared canon and reimagine it if they were in a relationship at that time. What changes and what stays the same? For example, what does Fraction's Fantastic Four run look like if Peter's along for the ride? How much does it up the angst of Johnny leaving Peter his family if they’re together when Johnny sacrifices himself in Hickman’s run? Do torrid feelings get in the way of Johnny’s wedding in Fantastic Four #300? What’s THAT version of the Clone Saga even look like? I'm also interested in how Johnny’s celebrity and Peter’s dual identity play into how the public views their friendship and/or relationship. Johnny can define himself by public perception, to the point of his own detriment, while Peter has an extremely mixed relationship with the press. Is Spider-Man ever accused of dragging the Human Torch into shady business? Tarnishing his reputation? Do they get snapped by tourists at Lady Liberty? Related, there has got to be Spider-Man/Human Torch RPF in-universe, and Johnny googles himself enough to probably know about it. 

I'm totally down with smut and would feel remiss not pointing out that 1) Peter's canonically used webbing in the bedroom, 2) Johnny really seems to dig the idea of "Peter Parker in charge", and 3) Peter "loves" when Johnny "does what he says." (Thanks, Peter Parker: Spectacular Spider-Man #3.) One thing I do not want in regard to this request is any positive mentions of Lyja or Johnny's relationship with Lyja.

Scarlet Spider

Kaine, Flash Thompson, Aracely Penalba

You definitely don't have to use all my requested characters for this request, although I would also be very happy if you did, but I need Kaine included. I'm happy get either Kaine&Aracely focused fic or Flash/Kaine focused fic. I very much ship Flash/Kaine, but I view Kaine and Aracely as having a strictly familial relationship and DNW shipfic for them. If you do want to use all three, I would also love shipfic where Flash is convinced he has to win Aracely over, and Aracely takes shameless advantage, much to Kaine's chagrin. ("You DON'T have to buy her stuff, she knows where I keep the duffel bag of stolen cash.")

So first off, I'm obsessed with Kaine Parker. He's one of my top favorite Marvel characters. I think that "broody clone of the hero" is such a quintessentially comics trope, but at the same time Kaine is very much his own character and not just Peter But Edgier, and I think his Scarlet Spider run did such a good job of growing his character beyond who he was in the Clone Saga and letting him explore what life could offer him once the clone degeneration was cured: a home, a family, and his own blossoming identity. Obviously a huge part of that is his relationship with Aracely. I think it's pretty clear that initially he sees a lot of himself in her, and his saving her is in a way saving his younger self, but I love how their bond grows out of that and how devoted they are to each other. Kaine is her champion! She knows he would never hurt her! He fought werewolves to protect her! They have a psychic bond! I would love to see more exploration of that, of the connection between them and possibly how it ties into Kaine's own former psychic abilities. I'm also very good with them having a spa day in Houston.

I know Kaine and Flash only have the one relatively brief interaction, but their chemistry was so good and I think they should kiss on the lips. Possibly with some more fighting together first. I loved their Minimum Carnage banter -- if you can call Flash attempting to get along and Kaine struggling like a cat about to get a bath every step of the way banter. I do headcanon both Flash and Kaine as being attracted to men, although I think Flash is much more aware of this than Kaine, who was grown in a basement lab and raised for like two whole months by the only father figure he has, an abusive professor in a fursuit who tried to kill him, and so is maybe not very good at self-reflection as a result of that. I do think that Flash is attracted to Peter, and so I wouldn't mind a reflection of what it means for him to be in a relationship with Peter's clone, but if you do go down that route I would like it established that Flash genuinely likes Kaine for who Kaine is, and not because he's Peter's clone. I also wouldn't say no to a non-powers AU where Kaine's always had a crush on football star Flash but is convinced he only sees him as Peter's moody little brother.

I do think Kaine has, understandably, a lot of issues with intimacy and touch and the trust that comes with those things, stemming from the Jackal's abuse of him but also in more recent canon from being assaulted by Shathra in the guise of Annabelle, and also generally from believing he doesn't deserve to be touched kindly because he views himself as a worthless monster. So I would also love fic where Kaine explores touch and intimacy with Flash and learns what he does and doesn't like, and maybe that he really enjoys surrendering on his own terms and letting Flash be in charge for a while.

If you want to set things after the Scarlet Spider run, I'm very much fine either taking or leaving anything that happens to Kaine after the New Warriors run, including Spider-Verse and Clone Conspiracy. If it's post Clone Conspiracy, I would like for Kaine's face to be healed of the clone scars, because he's right and it's not fair that Ben gets magically healed and Kaine doesn't. I'm also always very partial to Kaine with longer hair, as much as I appreciate his character development buzzcut. 

Fantastic Four (2015)

Johnny Storm

I love this stupid movie so much!!! It has a 9% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it is the BEST FANTASTIC FOUR MOVIE EVER MADE and possibly the best Marvel movie ever made, somehow, don't think too hard about it. One of the things I really like about this movie is that it is really just barely a superhero movie -- it is a movie about people who get powers, but it is not a superhero movie, and that's amazing. And I absolutely love its take on Johnny Storm, and how they avoided all the most classic pitfalls for his character: he's not a joke, he's some over the top skirt chaser acting as a hormonal teenage boy audience stand in. He's insecure and unsure of his place and and he's a brilliant mechanic who loves cars and he makes terrible jokes about Victor and he's got the best smile. I feel like there's so much more to explore with this version of Johnny because he's the last of the core four to be introduced and he gets comparatively little screen time. While I love the Ben/Reed shippiness in the movie and I’m not opposed to them being together, I’d prefer to keep them background. I’m very interested in Johnny’s relationship with his sister and his father, which seems estranged at the beginning of the film, and his own personal relationships with Reed and Victor. (I’m definitely not against Reed/Johnny, Ben/Johnny, or Victor/Johnny. If you wanted to involve Marvel characters outside of the Fant4stic cast, I ship Johnny with Peter Parker and I'd be very interested in a take on a Fant4stic Wyatt Wingfoot or the Silver Surfer.) 

I'd love something exploring Johnny's absence from Baxter at the beginning of the movie, and how his sister haven't (or have) been talking, or a peek into Johnny's childhood. Before Baxter? At Baxter? His relationship with their father? Given that Fant4stic is so heavily rooted in Ultimate Fantastic Four, what's its version of Mary Storm look like and how does Johnny navigate a relationship with her? (If she still left her family to go search for Atlantis, I wouldn't be mad.) What’s Johnny doing at the beginning of the movie besides building the Toyota? One thing that interests me about main continuity comics Johnny is how, despite having a bright and kind personality and also being a beautiful celebrity, he doesn’t really have much in the way of friends. Does that isolation extend to this Johnny? What are the reasons he left Baxter? (Has he ever made out with the racer he blows a kiss to in his introductory scene? I do headcanon basically every Johnny Storm as gay, including this one.)

Johnny has a very different relationship with his powers than the others -- Sue calls them "abnormal" and wants to get rid of them, Ben is traumatized by his transformation, while by the time we catch up with Reed after the timeskip he seems to have adjusted to his powers. On the flipside Johnny, if anything, has perhaps embraced his powers a little too much. H seems naively trusting of his military handlers, something I’ve always read, when you compare it to his relationship with his father, as him craving attention and approval. I'd love to read something about if Johnny's ever frightened of his own inherently destructive abilities. One thing I love about Johnny in main comics continuity is his battle to fine tune his control of his powers to the point where he can use them to soothe burns and siphon off body heat, and I’d love to see this Johnny on a similar journey, or get a look into his feelings about what his new powers could do to people. I'm obsessed with Johnny's cut line from the trailers: "We should use these powers to help people." Once they're released from the military's hold, what does he do with his powers? It's hard to envision this version of Johnny in a sterile lab space for very long -- although notably, another cut scene has him claiming lab space and saying he needs "a big ass sun roof."

I also really love how music is used in the movie in connection with the Storm siblings. While Sue has the bigger connection to music in the movie, Johnny has Standing in the Shadows of Love by the Four Tops playing in his introductory scene. I’d love an exploration of Johnny and music, and what it means to him, or even just a Johnny-focused team karaoke night. (Who else is going to make the other three and/or, while they’re building the teleporter, Victor go, after all?)