Yuletide 2025
Oct. 13th, 2025 08:49 pmDNW
AI content
First Person POV
Scat
Spitting
Urethral sounding
Tribbing/scissoring/vulva to vulva sex
Cervix Penetration
Soulmate/one and only AUs
Permanent Character Death
Suicide/self harm/eating disorders
Mundane AUs in fantastical settings (e.g., putting Sabrina Spellman in a coffee shop AU)
Hopeless endings
Torture/interrogation
Characters explicitly discussing and/or naming their sexuality/gender
Sexuality/gender used as a plot device
Characters using different pronouns than their canonical ones
Any ships not requested - I'm alright with combining the ships I've requested, but please do not include any I did not. (Mentions of past relationships are fine, though!)
W&M with food (versus paint, slime, etc)
Explicitly stated monogamy (I'm fine with a requested two-person ship being the only ship in the work, and no one has to be explicitly polyam, I just don't want any of the characters in them explicitly saying they'll only ever love each other/they gave up a FWB for their partner/they're not poly/they'll never fuck anyone else/they turned down other intimate or sexual relationships because of their partner).
Polyam fic focusing on the POV character setting their partner up with someone else.
Explicit on screen polyamory or consent negotiations
General Likes
Fairy tales motifs | domesticity | transformation, physical and emotional | genderfuckery | snapshots in time | awkward emotional sincerity | places with personality | pining | daemon AUs | non-monogamy | cooking and baking | second person | horror movies | dad jokes | uncommon signs of affection | physical affection | grey area relationships | accidental marriage | dreamscapes | devotion
- Fairy tale motifs, biblical (as in Tanakh and Torah) motifs, mythological motifs in general. People turned into animals, riddles, things not being what they seem, things falling into patterns that we can recognize, even if it takes a little bit of time. Princesses and monsters and giants and talking animals, having to go on a journey but coming back.
- Characters bonding over domestic things (especially cooking/baking/grocery shopping/other things to do with food), characters arguing over domestic things, characters making up with each other with domestic things. People doing each other’s laundry as a sign of affection, people making food for each other as a sign of affection, or to show their annoyance, but they love them anyway.
- Transformation, especially wings/extra arms. Preferably with some horror, but not too much of the “snapping of bones” variety. “My body isn’t mine anymore/my body has changed” but not the visceral gooey bits of it, more the existential threat.
- Themes of things repeating, traditions, “we’ve done this before, but let’s try it again anyway, to see what works.”
- Casual genderfuckery - guys in skirts and girls in suits, and nobody cares, apart from possibly finding that particular person hot. No deep rumination on gender, just comfort in playing with it.
- People saying the wrong thing, then trying to fix it, and all parties not being perfect, but more or less muddling through. Characters reconciling after a long time apart.
- Little moments captured at certain times of day - late night cups of tea at the dinner table, watching the sunset while walking down the street, the quiet moment in a kitchen while a party is going on outside.
- Skin hungry characters finally being “fed” with platonic, romantic, or sexual touch.
- Long, meandering, organic conversations that go on tangents.
- Food. I love cooking, I love lavish meal descriptions, characters planning foods, having favorite foods, making food for each other as a sign of affection or as a sign of annoyance (“I told you that if you didn’t stop whistling I’d make that casserole you hated, and here we are!”), food for romance, for apologies. People remembering their loved one’s favorites, or misremembering them. People cooking together - I will happily read lavish descriptions of yeast bubbling and tomatoes being chopped and all the other minutiae associated with cooking and food and the way people show they care with it!
- Baking bread. More than anything else, I love making bread - I’d love to see characters learning how to do it, making mistakes, getting better, getting worse. Yeast blooming (or not blooming, as the case may be), the warm water. Something about things getting bigger, something about things resting, about the way you have to slow down when you make bread. The sensation of dough between your fingers, the stickiness against your fingers, the crunch of crust in your back teeth… I just. I like bread.
- Characters who are bad at being emotionally sincere trying very hard to do so.
- People at the beach - warm sand, the sun beating down, the quiet when it gets late, ice cream and sandwiches while sitting under a beach umbrella.
- Inclement weather. Snow, rain, thunderstorms. Characters getting caught up in it, characters taking shelter from it, characters getting ready to go out in it. I love the way the weather can set the scene.
- Isolation, real or imagined. The way an apartment late at night can feel like an island of light in the middle of a vast ocean, or being on an actual small boat on a vast ocean. Isolated cabins in the mountains, beach houses late at night, empty streets at the very end of the day. That sweet desolation you feel, looking over an empty space and it’s just you and the one you love.
- Places with personality. Old houses with a lot of rooms, towns that have history, forests that love you and also kind of want to eat you, the ocean that will tell you its secrets as it swallows you up.
- Pining that’s trying to be subtle but isn’t. People in denial about their own feelings, then giving in to them in private. People being embarrassed and happy and sad and complicated at being in love, platonically or romantically or in ways that even they aren’t sure about.
- Daemon AUs. Please give me all the people with their souls on the outside of their bodies as animals. People with daemons that make total sense, people with daemons that make everyone double take, daemons that are small enough to hide in someone’s sleeve, daemons that are big enough to lean on. Furry daemons that you can run your fingers through, daemons with fur that whispers against the skin. The intensity of someone else touching your daemon, or the intimacy of touching someone else’s.
- Non-monogamy. People loving each other deeply and hard in different ways. People understanding that you can’t be everything to one person, or people learning to understand it. People doing their relationships in the “wrong” order, but finding happiness. People not realizing they’re in love with multiple people and sorting it out, or finding the delight in it. Even if the focus is on two particular characters, background mentions of other lovers, knowing that there's always more behind the scenes.
- Holidays & traditions, human ones or otherwise. Chocolates in heart shaped boxes on Valentines Day, latkes on Hannukah, people sharing the things that make them happy, and creating new ones. Blending traditions together, or clashing over how to make them work, but making them work.
- Second person, if you feel comfortable writing in it!
Satanic Panic
I love this movie so much. It's so… ridiculous and so sincere at the same time. The way that it talks about income inequality and the unfairness of capitalism. The way it points out sexism. The fact that at one point Rebecca Romijn's character puts her whole arm down into her husband's neck… altogether A+. It has weird incest vibes if you wanna go towards there, it's got fun weird femslash vibes if you want to go there, it's got fun world building… it's an altogether excellent fun romp, & I really recommend it if you want a fun, ridiculously gory horror movie with a surprising amount of heart!
Judi Ross - This girl is such a mess, and I love her so much. She's this complicated mix of selfish brat (how could she not be, the way she was brought up?) and someone who wants to do better (look at how she helped Sam!), and the mix of it is super compelling to me. What's it like, growing up the rich (clearly neglected) daughter of a Satanist cult? What's her relationship with her mother? She presumably grew up with this particular social circle - were they ever friends? What was it like, being kidnapped by the people who she grew up with, seeing them about to kill her (by DILDO!!!). I'm also curious about her relationship with her mother as well, however you want to go with it - I'm happy with incest or without, but… well, what's their relationship like? Does she WANT her mother to love her? Is she afraid of her? And what about her relationship with her dad? Samuel seems kind of… unimportant, but. Still. And her and Sam! The way Sam may have been the closest she's ever had to a real friend, the way Sam was willing to do all that stuff for her… urgh. I've got so many feelings about this kid, and I'd love to see where you can go with them!
Danica Ross - Oh, Danica. I'll admit to some shallowness - at least half of my interest in this movie is just Rebecca Romijn being Tall and wearing Red and being scary and hot and Mommy in so many ways that make me want to chew through walls. She's such an interesting character - she always comes out on top, even when she is literally stabbed in the head, and how can I not love that in a woman? She mentions that she has given up so much, but… has she? Is she just a rich child of privilege, another in a long line of Satanists? Or is she a woman who clawed her way to the top and is pulling the ladder up after herself? How does she feel about Judi? Why did she only have the one child (if she did have one child)? And she yet she taught her the Book anyway… there's so much history between the two of them that can be explored! And again, feel free to go incest if you want to. Feel free to get weirder about it, if you want - demons or dead siblings or… well, whatever you want! I love these characters, and you can go so many fun places with them!
Perpetrator
This is one of my absolute favorite films - the weird, dreamy atmosphere combined with the raw, horny discomfort of being a teenager. Especially being a teenager. I love the metaphorical power of becoming someone else (and having it passed on by other people), I love the way it's about women support each other, I love how gross it is and how… understanding it is of how selfish and kind teen girls can be. I love how it captures that weird complicated feeling of knowing that the adults in your life love you and want to help you however they can, but also that they can't always help you. It's just… urgh. And the way that they all get together to save the girls, the way they defeat her father… urgh. I love it. I love it so much. It's such a weirdly kind film, an understanding film, but also vicious and painful in all the best ways possible. The whole world of it feels so hyper-real, from the way everyone talks to the endless use of mirrors. The way that everything is just a little too gross (… the blood vomit scene) but also so very… real? I think this is the first film I've ever seen where someone's period blood became a plot device, and I'm all for it. And just the… strangeness that comes with growing up, from joining a community, from realizing that you're part of a long line of people who are like and unlike you. I think there's so much fun to be had in this world, with these characters.
Electra - Electra is such a fun character - the minute we see her talking to the cop and frowning… I loved it. The way that she's so matter of fact - "if I was gonna try dick…" - the way that she's so ride or die for Jonny from the getgo (can you blame her?), the way she describes her mom thinking she's a spoiled brat… I feel like she's a really clear eyed person in a world that's so very strange and dreamy, and I'd really love to see more about her. Maybe what stuff was like before she met Jonny, maybe the adventures after the film (she DID eat the guy's heart, after all), or maybe something completely different! I'm also perfectly happy with shippy Jonny/Electra!
Hildie Baptiste - Oh, she is so wonderful! "A fiend's fiend" and… yes. Please and thank you. Just how old is she? I'd love to see something about her finding out her Forevering (and when - if you wanna make her older than a regular human, by all means, please do!), something about what she's done through the years regardless of what. And her connection with Jean! Did she have a sister? A brother? Why did Jean come to stay with her, specifically, after Jonny was born? I just. She's such a neat character. I feel like there are infinite possibilties with her, and I'd love to see them! I'm also happy if you want to go to Jean/Hildie or Jonny/Hildie, or even Jonny/Hildie/Jean places! Regardless, just. Wherever you wanna go with her, please know I will love it!
Jean Baptiste - Jean is such a compelling character. She's loved her daughter for so long but never actually let herself be herself. She clearly suffers when she's being Gene (thinking of the way she just… passes out), she knows how difficult it is to be a black woman in the world and opted out… until she didn't. The way she and Jonny have to learn how to communicate now that she's actually being herself instead of Gene… it's absolutely fascinating. Especially fascinating to me is the way that she decided to be herself when she rescued Jonny, the way she finally let herself be herself when Jonny was an adult… there's just so much juicy meat to dig in to with her, and I'm sure it'll be great. Feel free to ship her with anyone, up to and including Jonny or Hildie!
Jonny Baptiste - Our hero! As soon as we meet her and we see her stealing a fancy dress from a closet that doesn't belong to her I knew I was in love. The way she wants her dad to love her even as he makes her crazy ("I think there's something wrong with Gene"), the way she butts heads with Hildie but still ends up depending on her… and then her connection to Electra? And how complicated and scary forevering is for her - the scene with her in the party?! Urgh, I love her so much. The way she is selfish and a bit of a kleptomaniac, but she also has that root of kindness; towards Electra ("you shouldn't [bury your miscarriage] alone"), towards the kidnapped girls, all of it. She's so brave and so vulnerable at the same time, she's so tender, she's in over her head but she keeps going anyway… so many things about her just make me clutch my chest and groan in all the best ways possible. I love it. Please and thank you.
Hellbender
This is an odd little film. I didn't entirely know what I was expecting when I put it on, but going from That opening scene (the hanging!) moving to Mother and Izzy singing together in their badass corpse makeup… it all feels so very isolated and off balance, and I mean that as the highest compliment. I love the claustrophobic openness of the setting - the way it's just the two of them in the woods, even after she meets the other girl. And I love the way that so much of it is about the ways people hurt each other, the ways people are connected to the natural world. The way that it's about growing up and finding out who you are - what you are - and how dangerous that can be for those around you, the way you can pull away from your parents and what that might mean. What it means to be part of society versus pointedly not of society, the way that Izzy didn't get a choice of being in society versus Mother did, the dangers of it all… it's such a juicy contrast, and there's so many fun things you can do with it!
Mother - Her! I will freely admit that a little bit of this is based on my crush on Toby Adams, who is gorgeous and does amazing films. I love the way that we see her moving in the world - she both does and does not exist within it. The way that she keeps Izzy away from the world at large for both Izzy's sake and for the safety of others. And the way she just so casually hurts herself in order to do her magic - the sight of her jabbing into her own cheek will always be more than a little bit of a !!!! for me. The way she's so protective of Izzy and also so worried about it… I can't get enough of it. I'd love to see more of her history - she's so old, she's so matter of fact about it… there's just so much about her we don't know (and I know that's part of the character), and the way she just… kills that guy? The way she wants the power of magic and blood and all of it… there's so much to explore. The "if you break my heart, I'll devour you" is still so juicy I want to eat it with a fork and knife, and the connection? Yesssssss. If you want to go with Mother/Izzy (noncon or whatever) it's cool! There's so much weird, complicated shit between the two of them!
Izzy - Oh, I love her so much. She doesn't entirely know who she is, she's coming into her power, coming into her self. I love how she loves and resents her mother at the same time, I love how she's trying so hard to figure out… well, all of it. I love the way that she wants to be part of the real world but at the same time she's afraid of it… and here's a question; just how long has she been this young? I've gotten a vibe that there's at least a little bit of attraction between her and Amber - if you want to explore that, go for it! I would love to see more of her coming into her own, more of her figuring out what her powers are, more of what it means to live in the real world instead of a weird little bubble with her mom. I mean, heck, how does she live with knowing that she's not sick! Stumbling into performing socially acceptable gender (or refusing to), learning what it means to be more powerful than everyone around her… there's so much to explore with her, to be honest, and I'd love to see wherever you wanna go with her!
AI content
First Person POV
Scat
Spitting
Urethral sounding
Tribbing/scissoring/vulva to vulva sex
Cervix Penetration
Soulmate/one and only AUs
Permanent Character Death
Suicide/self harm/eating disorders
Mundane AUs in fantastical settings (e.g., putting Sabrina Spellman in a coffee shop AU)
Hopeless endings
Torture/interrogation
Characters explicitly discussing and/or naming their sexuality/gender
Sexuality/gender used as a plot device
Characters using different pronouns than their canonical ones
Any ships not requested - I'm alright with combining the ships I've requested, but please do not include any I did not. (Mentions of past relationships are fine, though!)
W&M with food (versus paint, slime, etc)
Explicitly stated monogamy (I'm fine with a requested two-person ship being the only ship in the work, and no one has to be explicitly polyam, I just don't want any of the characters in them explicitly saying they'll only ever love each other/they gave up a FWB for their partner/they're not poly/they'll never fuck anyone else/they turned down other intimate or sexual relationships because of their partner).
Polyam fic focusing on the POV character setting their partner up with someone else.
Explicit on screen polyamory or consent negotiations
General Likes
Fairy tales motifs | domesticity | transformation, physical and emotional | genderfuckery | snapshots in time | awkward emotional sincerity | places with personality | pining | daemon AUs | non-monogamy | cooking and baking | second person | horror movies | dad jokes | uncommon signs of affection | physical affection | grey area relationships | accidental marriage | dreamscapes | devotion
- Fairy tale motifs, biblical (as in Tanakh and Torah) motifs, mythological motifs in general. People turned into animals, riddles, things not being what they seem, things falling into patterns that we can recognize, even if it takes a little bit of time. Princesses and monsters and giants and talking animals, having to go on a journey but coming back.
- Characters bonding over domestic things (especially cooking/baking/grocery shopping/other things to do with food), characters arguing over domestic things, characters making up with each other with domestic things. People doing each other’s laundry as a sign of affection, people making food for each other as a sign of affection, or to show their annoyance, but they love them anyway.
- Transformation, especially wings/extra arms. Preferably with some horror, but not too much of the “snapping of bones” variety. “My body isn’t mine anymore/my body has changed” but not the visceral gooey bits of it, more the existential threat.
- Themes of things repeating, traditions, “we’ve done this before, but let’s try it again anyway, to see what works.”
- Casual genderfuckery - guys in skirts and girls in suits, and nobody cares, apart from possibly finding that particular person hot. No deep rumination on gender, just comfort in playing with it.
- People saying the wrong thing, then trying to fix it, and all parties not being perfect, but more or less muddling through. Characters reconciling after a long time apart.
- Little moments captured at certain times of day - late night cups of tea at the dinner table, watching the sunset while walking down the street, the quiet moment in a kitchen while a party is going on outside.
- Skin hungry characters finally being “fed” with platonic, romantic, or sexual touch.
- Long, meandering, organic conversations that go on tangents.
- Food. I love cooking, I love lavish meal descriptions, characters planning foods, having favorite foods, making food for each other as a sign of affection or as a sign of annoyance (“I told you that if you didn’t stop whistling I’d make that casserole you hated, and here we are!”), food for romance, for apologies. People remembering their loved one’s favorites, or misremembering them. People cooking together - I will happily read lavish descriptions of yeast bubbling and tomatoes being chopped and all the other minutiae associated with cooking and food and the way people show they care with it!
- Baking bread. More than anything else, I love making bread - I’d love to see characters learning how to do it, making mistakes, getting better, getting worse. Yeast blooming (or not blooming, as the case may be), the warm water. Something about things getting bigger, something about things resting, about the way you have to slow down when you make bread. The sensation of dough between your fingers, the stickiness against your fingers, the crunch of crust in your back teeth… I just. I like bread.
- Characters who are bad at being emotionally sincere trying very hard to do so.
- People at the beach - warm sand, the sun beating down, the quiet when it gets late, ice cream and sandwiches while sitting under a beach umbrella.
- Inclement weather. Snow, rain, thunderstorms. Characters getting caught up in it, characters taking shelter from it, characters getting ready to go out in it. I love the way the weather can set the scene.
- Isolation, real or imagined. The way an apartment late at night can feel like an island of light in the middle of a vast ocean, or being on an actual small boat on a vast ocean. Isolated cabins in the mountains, beach houses late at night, empty streets at the very end of the day. That sweet desolation you feel, looking over an empty space and it’s just you and the one you love.
- Places with personality. Old houses with a lot of rooms, towns that have history, forests that love you and also kind of want to eat you, the ocean that will tell you its secrets as it swallows you up.
- Pining that’s trying to be subtle but isn’t. People in denial about their own feelings, then giving in to them in private. People being embarrassed and happy and sad and complicated at being in love, platonically or romantically or in ways that even they aren’t sure about.
- Daemon AUs. Please give me all the people with their souls on the outside of their bodies as animals. People with daemons that make total sense, people with daemons that make everyone double take, daemons that are small enough to hide in someone’s sleeve, daemons that are big enough to lean on. Furry daemons that you can run your fingers through, daemons with fur that whispers against the skin. The intensity of someone else touching your daemon, or the intimacy of touching someone else’s.
- Non-monogamy. People loving each other deeply and hard in different ways. People understanding that you can’t be everything to one person, or people learning to understand it. People doing their relationships in the “wrong” order, but finding happiness. People not realizing they’re in love with multiple people and sorting it out, or finding the delight in it. Even if the focus is on two particular characters, background mentions of other lovers, knowing that there's always more behind the scenes.
- Holidays & traditions, human ones or otherwise. Chocolates in heart shaped boxes on Valentines Day, latkes on Hannukah, people sharing the things that make them happy, and creating new ones. Blending traditions together, or clashing over how to make them work, but making them work.
- Second person, if you feel comfortable writing in it!
Satanic Panic
I love this movie so much. It's so… ridiculous and so sincere at the same time. The way that it talks about income inequality and the unfairness of capitalism. The way it points out sexism. The fact that at one point Rebecca Romijn's character puts her whole arm down into her husband's neck… altogether A+. It has weird incest vibes if you wanna go towards there, it's got fun weird femslash vibes if you want to go there, it's got fun world building… it's an altogether excellent fun romp, & I really recommend it if you want a fun, ridiculously gory horror movie with a surprising amount of heart!
Judi Ross - This girl is such a mess, and I love her so much. She's this complicated mix of selfish brat (how could she not be, the way she was brought up?) and someone who wants to do better (look at how she helped Sam!), and the mix of it is super compelling to me. What's it like, growing up the rich (clearly neglected) daughter of a Satanist cult? What's her relationship with her mother? She presumably grew up with this particular social circle - were they ever friends? What was it like, being kidnapped by the people who she grew up with, seeing them about to kill her (by DILDO!!!). I'm also curious about her relationship with her mother as well, however you want to go with it - I'm happy with incest or without, but… well, what's their relationship like? Does she WANT her mother to love her? Is she afraid of her? And what about her relationship with her dad? Samuel seems kind of… unimportant, but. Still. And her and Sam! The way Sam may have been the closest she's ever had to a real friend, the way Sam was willing to do all that stuff for her… urgh. I've got so many feelings about this kid, and I'd love to see where you can go with them!
Danica Ross - Oh, Danica. I'll admit to some shallowness - at least half of my interest in this movie is just Rebecca Romijn being Tall and wearing Red and being scary and hot and Mommy in so many ways that make me want to chew through walls. She's such an interesting character - she always comes out on top, even when she is literally stabbed in the head, and how can I not love that in a woman? She mentions that she has given up so much, but… has she? Is she just a rich child of privilege, another in a long line of Satanists? Or is she a woman who clawed her way to the top and is pulling the ladder up after herself? How does she feel about Judi? Why did she only have the one child (if she did have one child)? And she yet she taught her the Book anyway… there's so much history between the two of them that can be explored! And again, feel free to go incest if you want to. Feel free to get weirder about it, if you want - demons or dead siblings or… well, whatever you want! I love these characters, and you can go so many fun places with them!
Perpetrator
This is one of my absolute favorite films - the weird, dreamy atmosphere combined with the raw, horny discomfort of being a teenager. Especially being a teenager. I love the metaphorical power of becoming someone else (and having it passed on by other people), I love the way it's about women support each other, I love how gross it is and how… understanding it is of how selfish and kind teen girls can be. I love how it captures that weird complicated feeling of knowing that the adults in your life love you and want to help you however they can, but also that they can't always help you. It's just… urgh. And the way that they all get together to save the girls, the way they defeat her father… urgh. I love it. I love it so much. It's such a weirdly kind film, an understanding film, but also vicious and painful in all the best ways possible. The whole world of it feels so hyper-real, from the way everyone talks to the endless use of mirrors. The way that everything is just a little too gross (… the blood vomit scene) but also so very… real? I think this is the first film I've ever seen where someone's period blood became a plot device, and I'm all for it. And just the… strangeness that comes with growing up, from joining a community, from realizing that you're part of a long line of people who are like and unlike you. I think there's so much fun to be had in this world, with these characters.
Electra - Electra is such a fun character - the minute we see her talking to the cop and frowning… I loved it. The way that she's so matter of fact - "if I was gonna try dick…" - the way that she's so ride or die for Jonny from the getgo (can you blame her?), the way she describes her mom thinking she's a spoiled brat… I feel like she's a really clear eyed person in a world that's so very strange and dreamy, and I'd really love to see more about her. Maybe what stuff was like before she met Jonny, maybe the adventures after the film (she DID eat the guy's heart, after all), or maybe something completely different! I'm also perfectly happy with shippy Jonny/Electra!
Hildie Baptiste - Oh, she is so wonderful! "A fiend's fiend" and… yes. Please and thank you. Just how old is she? I'd love to see something about her finding out her Forevering (and when - if you wanna make her older than a regular human, by all means, please do!), something about what she's done through the years regardless of what. And her connection with Jean! Did she have a sister? A brother? Why did Jean come to stay with her, specifically, after Jonny was born? I just. She's such a neat character. I feel like there are infinite possibilties with her, and I'd love to see them! I'm also happy if you want to go to Jean/Hildie or Jonny/Hildie, or even Jonny/Hildie/Jean places! Regardless, just. Wherever you wanna go with her, please know I will love it!
Jean Baptiste - Jean is such a compelling character. She's loved her daughter for so long but never actually let herself be herself. She clearly suffers when she's being Gene (thinking of the way she just… passes out), she knows how difficult it is to be a black woman in the world and opted out… until she didn't. The way she and Jonny have to learn how to communicate now that she's actually being herself instead of Gene… it's absolutely fascinating. Especially fascinating to me is the way that she decided to be herself when she rescued Jonny, the way she finally let herself be herself when Jonny was an adult… there's just so much juicy meat to dig in to with her, and I'm sure it'll be great. Feel free to ship her with anyone, up to and including Jonny or Hildie!
Jonny Baptiste - Our hero! As soon as we meet her and we see her stealing a fancy dress from a closet that doesn't belong to her I knew I was in love. The way she wants her dad to love her even as he makes her crazy ("I think there's something wrong with Gene"), the way she butts heads with Hildie but still ends up depending on her… and then her connection to Electra? And how complicated and scary forevering is for her - the scene with her in the party?! Urgh, I love her so much. The way she is selfish and a bit of a kleptomaniac, but she also has that root of kindness; towards Electra ("you shouldn't [bury your miscarriage] alone"), towards the kidnapped girls, all of it. She's so brave and so vulnerable at the same time, she's so tender, she's in over her head but she keeps going anyway… so many things about her just make me clutch my chest and groan in all the best ways possible. I love it. Please and thank you.
Hellbender
This is an odd little film. I didn't entirely know what I was expecting when I put it on, but going from That opening scene (the hanging!) moving to Mother and Izzy singing together in their badass corpse makeup… it all feels so very isolated and off balance, and I mean that as the highest compliment. I love the claustrophobic openness of the setting - the way it's just the two of them in the woods, even after she meets the other girl. And I love the way that so much of it is about the ways people hurt each other, the ways people are connected to the natural world. The way that it's about growing up and finding out who you are - what you are - and how dangerous that can be for those around you, the way you can pull away from your parents and what that might mean. What it means to be part of society versus pointedly not of society, the way that Izzy didn't get a choice of being in society versus Mother did, the dangers of it all… it's such a juicy contrast, and there's so many fun things you can do with it!
Mother - Her! I will freely admit that a little bit of this is based on my crush on Toby Adams, who is gorgeous and does amazing films. I love the way that we see her moving in the world - she both does and does not exist within it. The way that she keeps Izzy away from the world at large for both Izzy's sake and for the safety of others. And the way she just so casually hurts herself in order to do her magic - the sight of her jabbing into her own cheek will always be more than a little bit of a !!!! for me. The way she's so protective of Izzy and also so worried about it… I can't get enough of it. I'd love to see more of her history - she's so old, she's so matter of fact about it… there's just so much about her we don't know (and I know that's part of the character), and the way she just… kills that guy? The way she wants the power of magic and blood and all of it… there's so much to explore. The "if you break my heart, I'll devour you" is still so juicy I want to eat it with a fork and knife, and the connection? Yesssssss. If you want to go with Mother/Izzy (noncon or whatever) it's cool! There's so much weird, complicated shit between the two of them!
Izzy - Oh, I love her so much. She doesn't entirely know who she is, she's coming into her power, coming into her self. I love how she loves and resents her mother at the same time, I love how she's trying so hard to figure out… well, all of it. I love the way that she wants to be part of the real world but at the same time she's afraid of it… and here's a question; just how long has she been this young? I've gotten a vibe that there's at least a little bit of attraction between her and Amber - if you want to explore that, go for it! I would love to see more of her coming into her own, more of her figuring out what her powers are, more of what it means to live in the real world instead of a weird little bubble with her mom. I mean, heck, how does she live with knowing that she's not sick! Stumbling into performing socially acceptable gender (or refusing to), learning what it means to be more powerful than everyone around her… there's so much to explore with her, to be honest, and I'd love to see wherever you wanna go with her!