shmaylor | Recent Entries

UPDATE 11/18/24: Late-breaking addition of Girl Genius to my list of fandoms!

Hello dear podficcer for the Informal TUMBLR Podfic Exchange 2024! I'm so excited to listen to what you make for me!

A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I Like:
- Fake married
- Secret married!
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- Pining, oh dear god the pining
- Getting together
- Established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Humor and banter
- Outsider POV
- Time travel
- I love canon divergence/altered canon/what-if stories, but not full-out AUs (so no coffeeshop AU, vampire AU, high school AU, etc etc).
- Fics with bombastically happy endings
- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it probably could be okay eventually
- Fics that are so pretty and so poetic and also stab you in the chest with angst just a little.
- Robots, robot/human relationships, robots developing emotions because we can't help but make them in our own image

Do not wants:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on emotionally too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time playing pranks on each other etc is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.
All ratings are welcomed. I'm not usually into PWPs for podfic, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!
My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my own podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Fandom-specific interests, in no particular order:

Girl Genius:
- Hello I just read the entirety (so far!) of Girl Genius in less than 2 weeks. It hooked me immediately and I couldn't stop
- Agatha/Gil/Tarvek forever
- I also really adore Zeetha/Higgs
- The Jagers are the best <3
- I don't even know what else I want, my brain is still trying to absorb everything, but it seems like it would be a fun fandom to go WILD with the voices

Nancy Drew Video Games:
- This is my primary fandom right now, but it's not really a fic fandom, it's more of a 'tumblr nonsense posting' fandom, soooo there isn't a ton of fic to choose from but I wanted to put it on here anyway
- (I'm over at henrikvanderhussy.tumblr.com if you're interested in the tumblr nonsense posting)
- I enjoy basically any ship except Nancy/Scott Varnell, but if you really want some specific ships, I love Nancy/Frank and Nancy/Deirdre. I also like gen fic!
- Because it's not a big fic fandom, non-traditional formats would be fabulous! Meta, notfic and oral notfic, retell the plot of a game you don't remember well, tell me about your favorite side characters, etc, etc
- I've played and enjoyed Mystery of the Seven Keys, so content for it is fair game!
- Seriously, I'd love anything :D

The Locked Tomb
- I LOVE NONA SO MUCH
- Everything about Cam and Pal and Paul (life is too short and love is too long ahhhhh)
- This series is great because you can have fic with fucky body horror or humor or moments that rip your heart out or ALL at the same time
- Our girl Gideon is so annoying when we're not in her POV. Bless, love that for her. Tell me about wtf her and Ianthe have been up to during Nona the Ninth
- Mercymorn is terrible and I love her.
- The implications of Jod wiping all of the pre-resurrection memories, gah!
- deep dives into any and all side characters
- literally, all of the side characters, I mean it
- Is there any fic about The Angel?? I would love to know more about The Angel
- truly, there are so many more things I could put down, don't feel restricted by this list. If it's a good fic, I'm going to be into it
- (definitely no modern/mundane AUs though)

Star Wars Rogue One
- For shipping, I'm only interested in Cassian/K2, but I'm also into gen with the whole crew!
- Pre-canon stories
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. Aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or dealing with the trauma of their experience are both great.
- No thank you to "some die, some live" or grief stories
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff
- Stories about the in-between time from Andor to Rogue One

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH.
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- For Sparks Nevada shipping, I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

Hannibal
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom, and so is infidelity
- Some of my favorite side characters are Freddie, Abigail, Beverly, and Chilton

Wolf 359
- This podcast. It was made for me.
- Doug/Hera please please please please. AI/human relationships are my EVERYTHING
- If you're going to do finale or post-finale, make it a fix-it fic <333

Transformers Bumblebee (2018)
- Charlie/Bumblebee <333333
- I really want ship fic for this fandom and not gen fic!
- I don't know much about any of the other Transformers movies/shows/comics, so I'd prefer something that only has minimal amounts of non-Bumblebee 2018 characters please

And that's all I've got I think! Hopefully this was useful information for you! <3

Hello Dear Podficcer! I'm so excited about this exchange and to hear what you record for me!

A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I Like:
- Fake married
- Secret married!
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- Pining, oh dear god the pining
- Getting together
- Established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Humor and banter
- Outsider POV
- Time travel
- I love canon divergence/altered canon/what-if stories, but not full-out AUs (coffeeshop, vampires, high school, etc etc).
- Fics with bombastically happy endings
- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it probably could be okay eventually
- Fics that are so pretty and so poetic and also stab you in the chest just a little.
- Robots, robot/human relationships, robots developing emotions because we can't help but make them in our own image

Do not wants:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on emotionally too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other etc is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.
All ratings are welcomed. I'm not usually into PWPs for podfic, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!
My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my own podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Fandom-specific interests, in no particular order:

Nancy Drew Video Games:
- This is my primary fandom right now, but it's not really a fic fandom, it's more of a 'tumblr nonsense posting and flailing about ND34' fandom, soooo there isn't much good fic to choose from but I wanted to put it on here anyway
- (I'm over at henrikvanderhussy.tumblr.com if you're interested in the tumblr nonsense posting)
- I'm not into Nancy/Scott Varnell, but I enjoy any other ship as well as gen fic!
- Because it's not a big fic fandom, non-traditional formats would be fabulous! Meta, notfic and oral notfic, speculation about Mystery of the Seven Keys, try and retell the plot of a game you don't remember well, etc, etc
- Seriously, I'd love anything :D

The Locked Tomb
- I LOVE NONA SO MUCH
- EVERYTHING about Cam and Pal and Paul (life is too short and love is too long ahhhhh)
- This series is great because you can have fic with fucky body horror or humor or moments that rip your heart out or ALL at the same time
- Our girl Gideon is so annoying when we're not in her POV. Bless, love that for her. Tell me about wtf her and Ianthe have been up to during Nona the Ninth
- Mercymorn is terrible and I love her.
- The implications of Jod wiping all of the pre-resurrection memories, gah!
- deep dives into any and all side characters
- literally, all of the side characters, I mean it
- Is there any fic about The Angel?? I would love to know more about The Angel
- truly, there are so many more things I could put down, don't feel restricted by this list. If it's a good fic, I'm going to be into it
- (definitely no modern/mundane AUs though)

Star Wars Rogue One
- For shipping, I'm only interested in Cassian/K2, but I'm also into gen with the whole crew!
- Pre-canon stories
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. Aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or dealing with the trauma of their experience are both great.
- No thank you to "some die, some live" or grief stories
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff
- Stories about the in-between time from Andor to Rogue One

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH.
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- For Sparks Nevada shipping, I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

Hannibal
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom, and so is infidelity (sorry Molly! you're great!)
- Some of my favorite side characters are Freddie, Abigail, Beverly, and Chilton

Wolf 359
- This podcast. It was made for me.
- Doug/Hera please please please please. AI/human relationships are my EVERYTHING
- If you're going to do finale or post-finale, make it a fix-it fic <333

Hello Dear Podficcer! I'm so excited about this exchange and to hear what you record for me!

UPDATED 11/27: Now with detail (minimal) for Andor, and bonus surprise fandom Wolf 359!

A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I Like:
- Fake married
- Secret married!
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- Pining, oh dear god the pining
- Getting together
- Established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Humor and banter
- Outsider POV
- Time travel
- I love canon divergence/altered canon/what-if stories, but not full-out AUs (like coffeeshop, vampires, high school, etc etc).
- Fics with bombastically happy endings
- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it probably could be okay eventually
- Fics that are so pretty and so poetic and also stab you in the chest just a little.
- Robots, robot/human relationships, robots developing emotions because we can't help but make them in our own image

Do not wants:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on emotionally too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other etc is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.
All ratings are welcomed. I'm not usually into PWPs for podfic, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!
My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my own podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Fandom-specific interests, in no particular order:

The Locked Tomb
- I LOVE NONA SO MUCH
- EVERYTHING about Cam and Pal and Paul (life is too short and love is too long ahhhhh)
- This series is great because you can have fic with fucky body horror or humor or moments that rip your heart out or ALL at the same time
- Our girl Gideon is so annoying when we're not in her POV. Bless, love that for her. Tell me about wtf her and Ianthe have been up to during Nona the Ninth
- Mercymorn is terrible and I love her.
- The implications of Jod wiping all of the pre-resurrection memories, gah!
- deep dives into any and all side characters
- literally, all of the side characters, I mean it
- Is there any fic about The Angel?? I would love to know more about The Angel
- truly, there are so many more things I could put down, don't feel restricted by this list. If it's a good fic, I'm going to be into it
- (definitely no modern/mundane AUs though)

Star Wars Rogue One
- For shipping, I'm only interested in Cassian/K2, but I'm also into gen fic!
- Pre-canon stories
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. Aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or dealing with the trauma of their experience are both great.
- No thank you to "some die, some live" or grief stories
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Andor
- Look, I haven't even been able to start watching yet, but I know I'm gonna love it
- Watch this space for updates if this is a fandom you want to make podfic for
- Update 11-27: GUHHHH I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO ADD. This show is so good I'm melting a little. I'm not into Dedra/Syril, but otherwise go ham

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH.
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- For Sparks Nevada shipping, I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

Hannibal
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom, and so is infidelity (sorry Molly! you're great!)
- Some of my favorite side characters are Freddie, Abigail, Beverly, and Chilton

Severance
- I have no idea if there's even any good fic for this fandom. All I know is that I've just finished the show and my brain is screaming!?!
- THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS. Soft stories about Burt/Irving! What the fuck is up with Ms. Casey! Resolve that cliffhanger! Harmony is terrifying! Let's all contemplate the horror that is capitalism! Mark's sister is literally the only well-adjusted person on this show! WHY DO THE NUMBERS FEEL SCARY

Wolf 359
- This podcast. It was made for me. All of you are fired for not telling me about it sooner.
- Doug/Hera please please please please. I haven't read any fic yet because I still have about 10 episodes left to listen to, but I took the smallest peek in the fandom tag and I am SO STOKED that there are a significant number of fics for an AI/human relationship. (Romantic not platonic stories please and thank)

Hello Dear Podficcer! I'm so excited about this exchange and to hear what you record for me!

A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I Like:
- Fake married
- Accidentally married/woke up married
- secret married!!
- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows.
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- Pining, oh dear god the pining
- Getting together
- Established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Humor and banter
- Outsider POV
- Time travel
- I love canon divergence/altered canon/what-if stories, but not full-out AUs (coffeeshop, no-powers, vampire, etc etc).
- Fics with bombastically happy endings
- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it probably could be okay eventually
- Fics that are so pretty and so poetic and also stab you in the chest just a little.
- Robots, robot/human relationships, robots developing emotions because we can't help but make them in our own image

Do not wants:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on emotionally too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other etc is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.
All ratings are welcomed. I'm not into PWPs, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!
My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my own podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Fandom-specific interests, in no particular order:

The Locked Tomb
- love Harrow/Gideon
- weird skeleton sex
- Camilla and Sextus, either gen or shippy (I'm forever in my feelings about 'go loud', a scene which I have re-read at least 15 times)
- Harrow/Ianthe where everything is fucked up in a delicious way??
- Mercymorn is terrible and I LOVE HER SO MUCH
- deep dives into any and all side characters and pre-canon worldbuilding
- literally, all of the side characters, I mean it
- definitely no modern/mundane AUs

Star Wars Rogue One
- Really only interested in Cassian/K2 for shipping in this fandom. Also into gen fic
- Pre-canon fic
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. Aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all good stuff.
- No thank you to "some die, some live" fic
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH.
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- For Sparks Nevada shipping, I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

Leverage: Redemption
- I love all parts of Leverage, but I'm specifically asking for fic that has been written since Leverage: Redemption premiered
- Eliot/Parker/Hardison is my forever ship
- Stories that fill the time gap between the original series finale and the new episodes
- Outsider/newcomer POV with Mr Wilson or Breanna joining the team
- Team heist fic!

Hannibal
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- like...if someone isn't covered in blood at least once, I'm not interested
- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom
- Some of my favorite side characters are Freddie, Abigail, and Chilton

Our Flag Means Death
- So I have been #struggling to read any fic or download new podfic in the past few months, whiiiich means even though I deeply deeply enjoyed OFMD, I have no idea what the big trends are in the fic. So if there's anything that's considered a "must read", go for it! (Even if it's already been podficced. I haven't listened to it, so your version will always be my favorite version <3)
- Looking for big emotions in this fandom, as opposed to gentler or quieter stories

Severance
- Again, I haven't read any new fic in months, I have no idea if there's even any fic for this fandom. All I know is that I've just finished the show and my brain is screaming!?!
- THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS. Soft stories about Burt/Irving! What the fuck is up with Ms. Casey! Resolve that cliffhanger! Harmony is terrifying! Let's all contemplate the horror that is capitalism! Mark's sister is literally the only well-adjusted person on this show! Why do the numbers feel scary! WHAT THE FUCK IS A WAFFLE PARTY

Happy #ITPE my Dear Podficcer! It's been a strange, strange life lately and I'm so excited to get to share in a joyful thing with you <3

A Non-Exhaustive List of Things I Like:
- Fake married
- Accidentally married/woke up married
- secret married!!
- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows.
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- piiiiining, oh dear god the pining
- Getting together
- Established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Humor and banter
- Outsider POV
- Time travel
- I love canon divergence/altered canon/what-if stories, but not full-out AUs (coffeeshop, no-powers, vampire, etc etc).
- Fics with bombastically happy endings
- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it probably could be okay eventually
- I've been using the phrase "beautiful sharp-edged things" to describe a particular type of fic I love. Which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets a certain kind of feeling across?? The type of story that's so pretty and so poetic and also stabs you in the chest just a little.

Do not wants:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on emotionally too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- domestic violence and non-con. mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other etc is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.
All ratings are welcomed. I'm not so much for PWPs, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!
My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my own podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Fandom specific interests, in no particular order:

The Locked Tomb
- Harrow/Gideon
- Camilla and Sextus, either gen or shippy (I'm forever in my feelings about 'go loud', a scene which I have re-read at least 15 times)
- Harrow/Ianthe where everything is fucked up in a delicious way??
- weird skeleton sex
- deep dives into any and all side characters and pre-canon worldbuilding
- definitely no modern/mundane AUs

Star Wars Rogue One
- Cassian/K2 is the ship of my heart for this fandom
- Pre-canon fic
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.
- No thank you to "some die, some live" fic
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- For Sparks Nevada shipping, I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

The Magnus Archives
- your classic Elias/Peter divorce fic
- TMA is a workplace comedy
- crack treated seriously
- I love Jon/Martin the most, but you can talk me into basically any combinations and permutations of the archives staff
- I adore the chaos element that Helen brings to everything
- Not really interested in any of the side avatars or statement-givers that appear only once or twice
- Love a good poignant or earnest Magnus fic, but I've read so many of them that I'd prefer something on the funny or crackfic side for this fandom

Leverage: Redemption
- I love all parts of Leverage, but specifically for #ITPE 2021 I'm asking for fic that has been written since the new Leverage: Redemption episodes aired this summer.
- Eliot/Parker/Hardison is my forever ship
- Stories that fill the time gap between the original series finale and the new episodes
- Outsider/newcomer POV with Mr Wilson or Breanna joining the team
- Team heist fic!

Hannibal
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- like...if someone isn't covered in blood at least once, I'm not interested
- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom
- Some of my favorite side characters are Freddie, Abigail, and Chilton

The Expanse (TV)
- Bobbie/Chrisjen(/Cotyar)
- (All I wanted in S5 was for Bobbie and Chrisjen to reunite and they DID for like 5 whole seconds and those 5 seconds were GREAT)
- No grief fic please! Either Cotyar lives or isn't really mentioned much!

Dear Podficcer, I adore you and I'm very excited to hear what you create for me! I've also moved apartments and started a new job recently and am very tired in general, which means I would love to listen to something comforting <3

For me, comforting means either: something funny, something gentle, or something I'm familiar with.
1. Funny is pretty self explanatory :D
2. To me gentle fics are a little soft and quiet, and they cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions. Maybe it's sweet and happy and all okay at the end, or maybe it's not all okay at the end but you feel like it could probably be okay eventually.
3. The go-to for things I'm familiar with is bookmarks. Anything that I've ever bookmarked in the fandoms I signed up with, or anything I've bookmarked in any fandom from 2019 through now would be a great gift. With those you can go wild. Funny, tragic, soft, dark, angsty, joyful, whatever speaks to you.

Likes:
- Fake married
- Accidentally married/woke up married
- secret married
- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows. (dating instead of married is also super legit for these tropes)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- getting together
- established relationship
- Origin stories and character studies
- Team humor fic and banter
- I love canon divergence and altered canon, but not full AUs (coffeeshop, fairytale, vampire, etc).

Do not wants:
- strong secondhand embarrassment
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- straight-up curtain fic. I know that may sound contradictory to me wanting something comforting, but I still do like a little bit of plot or introspection or character exploration.
- domestic violence and non-con. mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.
- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other etc is fine.

Fandom specific, in no particular order:

Star Wars Rogue One
- Cassian/K2 is the ship of my heart for this fandom
- I also love more gen-focused team feels
- No thank you to "some die, some live" fic

What We Do in the Shadows
- I've read almost nothing in this fandom, so I'm coming in pretty blank slate in terms of what's out there, but I'm assuming there's some great humor fic!

The Locked Tomb
- Harrow/Gideon
- Camilla and Sextus, either gen or shippy (I'm forever in my feelings about 'go loud', a scene which I have re-read at least 15 times)
- weird skeleton sex
- no modern/mundane AUs

Thrilling Adventure Hour
- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH
- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be top tier
- I'm fond of Croach/Sparks/Red and Sparks/Ginny

The Magnus Archives
- your classic Elias/Peter divorce fic
- TMA is a workplace comedy
- crack treated seriously
- I love Jon/Martin the most, but you can talk me into almost any ship involving the archives staff. Not very interested in the smaller side characters or avatars, except for Helen!

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. Podficcer, you are a wonder and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Happy ITPE Dear Podficcer!

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier for you to narrow your fic search. But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it!

Likes:

- Fake married

- Accidentally married/woke up married

- secret married!!

- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows. (dating instead of married is also super legit for these tropes)

- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)

- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best

- piiiiining, oh dear god the pining
- getting together
- established relationship

- Origin stories and character studies

- Team humor fic and banter

- I love canon divergence and altered canon, but not full AUs (coffeeshop, fairytale, vampire, etc).

- I've been using the phrase "beautiful sharp-edged things" to describe a particular type of fic I love. Which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets a certain kind of feeling across??

- Gentle fics that quietly cup you in their palms and support you through the tough emotions and maybe it's not all okay at the end, but you feel like it could probably be okay eventually

- I'm sorry this has all gotten very poetic. please ignore those two things if they don't make any sense

Do not want:

- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic

- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on too)

- heavy secondhand embarrassment

- infidelity

- unrequited love

- domestic violence and non-con. mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.

- Hazing. i.e. anything a person has to do when joining a group/organization that doesn't have a purpose beyond embarrassing, inconveniencing, shaming, or hurting them. The power dynamic of new person vs established group is what makes this bad for me. Teammates who have been together a long time pranking each other or whatever is fine.

Generally the maximum amount of violence/messed-up stuff I like in fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in a particular canon.

All ratings are welcomed. I'm not so much for PWPs, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great!

My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Things I like in specific fandoms (in no particular order) (seriously, I'm equally happy to get gifts in any of these fandoms):

The Locked Tomb

- Harrow/Gideon, obviously

- Harrow/Ianthe where everything is fucked up in a delicious way??

- Camilla and Sextus (forever in my feelings about 'go loud', a scene which I have re-read at least 15 times)

- weird skeleton sex

- WORLDBUILDING and deep dives into side characters

- please please no modern/mundane AUs

The Old Guard

- Nile's introduction to being immortal and her developing relationships with the others

- Team banter!

- Joe/Nicky. I love them being soft, but I also love exploring that transition from murder to not-murder

Black Sails

- James/Thomas. The tragedy and eventual healing of their story, hngggg it kills me

- Anne/Jack/Max

- This is a fandom where I love to be hit with the angst-with-a-happy-ending feelings

- not into Silver/Flint

Teen Titans (Animated Series)

- I just started rewatching this show and I'm rolling around in delightful nostalgia. I haven't actually ever read fic for it, so I don't know what's there, but I thought I'd put it on my list anyway!

- I'm here for TEAM and BANTER and SLICE OF LIFE

- I don't have any knowledge of the comics or the Teen Titans Go! series

Westworld

- I finished this show like 3 days ago and haven't read any fic yet, but hot damn there is so much cool stuff that could come from this canon.

- ROBOTS. WHAT IS SENTIENCE. WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A PERSON. ROBOTS DEVELOPING EMOTIONS BECAUSE WE CAN'T HELP BUT MAKE THEM IN OUR OWN IMAGE.

- My most loved characters: Delores, Maeve, Bernard, Elsie, Felix, Charlotte

- From the briefest glance in the tag, the fandom seems to be very interested in Logan Delos and I can't overstate how much I don't care about him

The Thrilling Adventure Hour

- Beyond Belief is my favorite segment and I love Frank/Sadie SO MUCH

- Captain Laserbeam or Sparks Nevada content would also be great.

The Expanse (TV)

- Bobbie/Chrisjen(/Cotyar)

- No grief fic please! Either Cotyar lives or we just don't mention him!

Yuri on Ice:

- Yuri P./Otabek, and how Yuri is bad at feelings and denies even having them, but people love him anyway

- Canon ages or waiting to get together until later are both great, but I really hate the "we will wait to have sex until the very second you turn 18, and then deflower you immediately"

- I have A Lot of feelings about performance and the effort involved in producing that kind of art with your body while also being competitive about it, so fic exploring any of that is extra delightful.

Hannibal

- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff

- like...if someone isn't covered in blood at least once, I'm probably not interested

- dubcon is totally fine in this fandom!

Roswell New Mexico

- gosh this show! my bisexual alien disasters!!

- I'm not tied to a particular ship in this fandom and I'm looking more for good quality writing here rather than specific tropes or pairings!

- Hard no to Michael/Alex fic that treats Maria badly (or any fic that treats Maria badly, but lbr Michael/Alex fic is where you're going to find it)

- Liz & Rosa navigating what it means to be sisters again

- Maria, Michael, and Alex messily figuring out how to make a poly relationship work for them

Star Wars - Rogue One

- THE SADDEST CANON. I ENJOY SUFFERING

- Pre-canon fic

- Fic that ends where the movie ends; aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.

- Everybody Lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.

- No thank you to "some die, some live"

- Team feels

- Cassian/K2

- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Wayfarers (Becky Chambers Books)

- Jenks/Lovey. please dear god, this is the pairing of my heart and I'm still fucked up about it and I need fic, but tragically there isn't any. So this is a long shot wish more than anything else.

I’m on twitter and tumblr @ theshmaylor and just shmaylor on AO3!

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. Podficcer, you are a wonder and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Dear Podficcer,

It's ITPE time!! *insert wacky waving inflatable arm tube man gif here*

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier on you. Less guesswork, yeah? But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it.

Edited 11/27: ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING GIDEON THE NINTH

Likes:
- Fake married
- Accidentally married/woke up married
- secret married!!
- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows. (dating instead of married is also super legit for these tropes)
- Ladies being awesome
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- piiiiining, oh dear god the pining
- Origin stories and character studies
- I love canon divergence and altered canon, but typically not full AUs
- I've been using the phrase "beautiful sharp-edged things" to describe a particular type of fic I love. Which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets a certain kind of feeling across??
- Gentle fics that convey 'we know you have strong feelings about this thing and it hurts your heart, and we're going to take you in our cupped palms and quietly guide you through. and it might not be full sun on the other side, but at the very least there's a break in the clouds' (why yes I did crib that from a ridiculous twitter thread I wrote last year)
- Robots. Crying about robots. Robot/human relationships. Robots developing emotions because we can't help but make them in our own image.
- I'm sorry this has all gotten extremely esoteric and poetic, why am i Like This. please ignore the above three things if they don't make any sense

Do not want:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when there isn't plot or character study or a little something else going on too)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- domestic violence and non-con. Mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.
- Hazing. This is a trigger, so even if it's tame, do not.

Overall, the maximum amount of violence/messed-up stuff I want from fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in the canon. Rogue One, everybody dies fic? Oh yeah, for sure. Worth It? Sorry, only pining and Soft Content^TM allowed here.

All ratings are welcomed. I'm not so much for PWPs, but sex scenes as part of a larger story are great if you want to record something explicit!

I used to be a huge multishipper, but I've been getting more and more OTP-ish lately, so I'm really only interested in the pairings I've listed for each fandom.

My own work is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

Specifics for fandoms (in no particular order):

Yuri on Ice:
- Yuri P./Otabek, and how Yuri is bad at feelings and denies even having them, but people love him anyway
- Canon age difference or aged up Yuri or nothing developing until later are all fine, but I really hate the "we will wait to have sex until the very second you turn 18, and then deflower you immediately"
- I have A Lot of feelings about performance and the effort involved in producing that kind of art with your body while also being competitive about it, so fic exploring any of that is extra delightful.

Hannibal
- I'm in full swing Hannibal feels resurgence here
- Hannibal/Will and all that fucked up murder husbands stuff
- like...if someone isn't covered in blood at least once, I'm not interested
- add in Abigail for the whole murder family!

Roswell New Mexico
- uhhh this is going to make me sound like a dick, but most of the fic I've read in this fandom hasn't been very good. So I'm looking more for quality here rather than specific tropes or pairings
- Max/Liz isn't especially interesting to me, but I LOVE Liz, so either gen or ship fic with her would be excellent
- Michael/Alex, if it hits some of my favorite tropes and doesn't bash Maria
- I'm not 100% sold on Michael/Maria, but I can be convinced into it with good fic
- has anyone written Maria/Rosa high school fic?? Because I'd be here for it
- future fic! predict season 2! because holy shit that ending, where are we going from here?

Buzzfeed Worth It
- Andrew/Steven
- S O F T
- that mutual pining. hnnng (have you seen the way these boys look at each other??)
- Steven-moving-to-New-York angst (but now he's back!! and no one in fandom knows exactly when he moved again??!)

Killing Eve
- The Eve/Villanelle dynamic is the best thing ever
- I haven't actually read anything post S2 and I would love to see how fandom has run with it after that amazingly fucked up finale
- The infidelity Do Not Want is retracted for this fandom

Leverage
- This is my forever fandom, and Eliot/Parker/Hardison is my forever ship
- I'm always up in that Eliot angst where he thinks he doesn't deserve the two of them. (But obviously he does, and they show him that)
- Case fic with the whole team is also my jam.

Star Wars - Rogue One
- THE SADDEST CANON. I LIKE TO SUFFER, OKAY.
- Pre-canon fic
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.
- Big no to "some die, some live"
- Gen team feels
- Cassian/K2
- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

Mad Max Fury Road
- Post-canon & healing
- Mostly prefer gen, but Cheedo/the Dag is very sweet.
- And Furiosa/Max if it takes the time to work through their trauma first

Brooklyn 99
- gen whole squad humor fic
- Jake/Amy
- Amy/Rosa
- Rosa/Gina
- This fandom is especially gold for fake married fics because undercover police work, and I 1000% endorse them.

Person of Interest
- oh man this fandom is so good for my robot-human relationships feels
- Root/Shaw, Root/Shaw/The Machine, Root/The Machine, or gen focused on any of those relationships
- Weird transhumanism stuff that blurs the line between where Root ends and The Machine begins
- AUs where Root doesn't die
- fics where Root does die but then lives on in some way through The Machine

Wayfarers (Becky Chambers Books)
- there are 25 fics for this fandom and literally none of them are relevant to my interests, but if any of what I want appears between now and when you record (or if you want to not!fic it) I would love it
- Jenks/Lovey. please dear god, this is the pairing of my heart and I'm still fucked up about it and I need fic
- anything at all about Sidra

Into the Spiderverse
- gen fic
- especially the father & son relationship between Miles and Jefferson
- Miles being the MOST gen Z

The Good Place
- With this fandom you can talk me into basically any romantic permutations and combinations between the 4 humans, and I'm also fond of Janet/Jason
- Janet-centric fic
- humor!

I’m on twitter and tumblr @ theshmaylor and just shmaylor on AO3

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. Podficcer, you are a wonder and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Dear creator,

I am SO. EXCITED. about this whole damn exchange. If you look at the entry right before this one, it's for last year's ITPE and the first 4 things on my Likes are about marriage tropes. Anything you make I'm going to be super jazzed about.

Broadly, the two categories of things I like are:
1. marriage first and then oh god we actually have feelings/oh god how am I going to hide my feelings. So, accidentally married, fake married (for a con, undercover, tax purposes, so you don't have to testify in court, etc etc).
2. secret married (for any reason at all honestly) and then the subsequent reveal to people they know or the public at large.

And anything that falls under the tags I picked out in the signup are obvs great too. Happy endings please!

Check out my recent ITPE letter for additional things I like.

Do not wants:
- Hazing. This one is a trigger, so even if it's tame, do not.
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity
- unrequited love
- domestic violence and non-con, though non-graphic mentions of it are fine

Notes on repods: I know for exchanges/challenges, people sometimes feel like they shouldn't make repods, but please don't let that deter you! I know it's gonna be special because you made it especially for ME

Dear Podficcer,

ITPE is one of my favorite times of the year and I'm so excited that it's here!

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier on you. Less guesswork, you know? But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it.

Likes:
- Fake married

- Accidentally married/woke up married

- secret married (my kingdom for a Worth It secret married fic)

- why do so many of my favorite tropes involve marriage?? who knows. (dating instead of married is also super legit for these tropes)

- Ladies being awesome
- Groundhog day/reincarnation (they keep meeting and/or dying over and over until they get it right)
- Emotional vulnerability is hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- piiiiining oh dear god the pining
- OT3s
- Origin stories and character studies
- I've been using the phrase "beautiful sharp-edged things" to describe a particular type of fic I love. Which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets a certain kind of feeling across??

- Gentle fics that convey 'we know you have strong feelings about this thing and it hurts your heart, and we're going to take you in our cupped palms and quietly guide you through. and it might not be full sun on the other side, but at the very least there's a break in the clouds' (why yes I did crib that from a ridiculous twitter thread I wrote earlier this year)

- Robots. Crying about robots. Robots developing emotions because as humans we can't help but make them in our own image.
- i'm sorry this has all gotten extremely esoteric and poetic, why am i Like This. please ignore the above three things if they don't make any sense
- Usually I prefer things set in the canon universe better than full-on AUs.

Do not want:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when there isn't any plot. I don't need much plot, but just...something?)
- heavy secondhand embarrassment
- infidelity

- unrequited love

- domestic violence and non-con. Mentions of it and canonical stuff are fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory. I'm good with dub-con though!
- Hazing. This one is a trigger, so even if it's tame, do not.

Overall, the maximum amount of violence/messed-up stuff I want from fic is proportional to the maximum amount of violence in the canon. Rogue One, everybody dies fic? Oh yeah, for sure. Serial killer AUs in Unsolved? Love em, let's do it. Worth It? Sorry, only pining and Soft Content^TM allowed here. Less violence than canon is always swell, but in terms of max violence, that's typically where the limit is.

Any rating, general audiences through explicit, is a-okay. Not!fic is totally welcome too.

My own podfic is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my works (that aren't group podfics) are a good indicator of what I like.

Things I like in specific fandoms:
Buzzfeed Worth It

- this is the fandom I'm drowning in the most right now <3333

- Andrew/Steven

- S O F T

- that mutual pining. hnnng (have you seen the way these boys look at each other??)

- Steven-moving-to-New-York angst

Buzzfeed Unsolved

- Ryan/Shane, Ryan/Shane/Sara

- Serial Killer AUs

- I'm ambivalent about the demon AUs! If it's well written and has other stuff I like, I'm all for it. But the trope in and of itself gives me no strong feelings of like or dislike

Killing Eve

- I just watched the whole show last week and I am in love???

- The Eve and Villanelle dynamic is the best thing to ever be

- I haven't ready any fic yet but there MUST be some deliciously messed up Eve/Villanelle and I want it
- The infidelity Do Not Want is retracted for this fandom

Leverage
- This is my forever fandom, and Eliot/Parker/Hardison is my forever ship. If it has the OT3, it can’t be wrong.
- Gen fic or case fic with the whole team is also my jam.

Star Wars - Rogue One
- THE SADDEST CANON. I LIKE TO SUFFER, OKAY.
- Pre-canon.
- Fic that ends where the movie ends. aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain.
- Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.
- Dislike like "some die, some live" (somehow grief/mourning is a step too far for my sadness needs)

- Gen team feels

- Cassian/K2

- K2-focused fic about what are emotions, when is a robot a person, all of that messy philosophical stuff

MCU
Ensemble/team fics are amazing. Even if it’s focused on a particular ship or character, I love the huge ensemble cast possibilities here, and I love fic where characters who don't interact in canon meet each other (and even though the netflix shows aren't part of my signup, spillover of characters from those shows is cool). Also, basically any f/f fic or female focused story is a go.

There is SO MUCH in this canon, but I'll list some favorites:

- Natasha Romanoff, especially her origin story
- Natasha/Clint
- Tony & Jarvis & all the robots
- crack-y team fic
- Natasha/Bucky, focused on their joint history as brain-washed assassins
- Natasha/Maria
- Darcy-is-the-only-sane-person-here-GOD
- Allllll the female friendships

Mad Max Fury Road
- Post-canon & healing
- Mostly prefer gen, but Cheedo/the Dag is v. sweet.
- And Furiosa/Max if it takes the time to work through their trauma first

Brooklyn 99
- gen whole squad humor fic
- Jake/Amy

- Amy/Rosa

- Rosa/Gina
- This fandom is especially gold for fake married fics because undercover police work, and I 1000% endorse them.

Carmilla (webseries)
- Hollstein

- Laf/Perry
- Continually sobbing over Danny Lawrence and how she has a spark inside her and fought so hard and then became what she was fighting against (aka Danny character studies or post-canon redemption. probably gen, but any f/f pairing that isn't endgame Danny/Laura is good)

The Queen's Thief
- Gen/Irene/Costis
- Costis is willing to do anything (anything *eyebrow waggle*) for his rulers

- Gen is a little shit

Person of Interest
- oh man this fandom is so good for my robot-human relationships feels
- Root/Shaw, Root/Shaw/The Machine, Root/The Machine
- Weird transhumanism stuff that blurs the line between where Root ends and The Machine begins
- AUs where Root doesn't die
- fics where Root does die but then lives on in some way through The Machine

Odds and Ends
[aka tiny tiny fandoms and side things I didn't put on my sign-up]
- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Look there is absolutely zero Jenks/Lovey fic. But if somehow ANY were to appear between now and when you record, I would be ecstatic. I'm still really fucked up about that ending, please make it better
- Within the Wires, Hester/Oletta
- Beyond Belief, Frank/Sadie (and obviously Frank/Sadie/booze)
- I'm not really into crossovers/fusions most of the time, but Welcome to Night Vale fusions are great and are the exception!

I’m on twitter @theshmaylor, also theshmaylor over on tumblr, and just shmaylor on AO3

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. All of this was info to guide you and not anything to be 100% beholden to. Podficcer, you are a wonder and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Stealing the questions from blackglass because I really like the ones she used!

Stats:
39 podfics for a total of about 22 hours and 186k words. So definitely less than 2016 (30hrs, 265k), but not as much less as I thought. I've felt like I haven't done hardly anything since September, so I was surprised by the final total. Plus, I also made a podfic posting tutorial!

Most popular?
Not counting pod_together (since the text is also included in the post) or multivoice (since for most of them Reena's amazing popularity is throwing off my stats :P), my podfic with the most kudos was Something Dumb to Do, with Rules in second place. Daredevil must be the most popular fandom I'm recording in. Also, Something Dumb to Do is 4 hours of fake married, so obviously it's great stuff.

Most underappreciated?
I would probably say my body's itching to (press on the bruises you hide with a smile). I mean, it's PWP with the beautiful Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan? I'm surprised there wasn't more of an audience there. Honorary mentions for sarasvati sung me to sleep and Northern Lights because more people need to be in Alice Isn't Dead fandom goddamnit.

Personal favorite, for whatever reason?
I'm obviously bad at these questions because I'm picking more than one work for everything, BUT WHATEVER. Read-Only Memory: just, gosh, this fic. I got to spend hours recording and editing and immersing myself in it and crying a little, and it turned out almost exactly as I wanted it. Also, I got an number of people into Cassian/K2 because of that podfic mwhahaha. like you know i am better than the worst thing i ever did: this fic has such a relentless quality to it, with sentences that go on forever and little turns of phrase that stab you like knives, and somehow I managed to capture that. I love the way my pacing and dynamic volume changes feel like waves rolling.

Most difficult to make?
Gestalt. SO MANY SOUND EFFECTS. Since it was pod_together, we intentionally included effects that way, but I don't think I realized at the beginning how many soundscapes I was trying to make. Plus, it was on a deadline. So enter a whole week of me doing basically nothing but going to work and adding sound effects to this podfic.

Most "ah ha ha I can't believe I'm doing this"?.
slow dancing on the soapbox. Mostly because we recorded it in a conference room at bessyboo's workplace. Can you even believe??

Most fun to make?
Keep Your Head Down and Santa Claws is Coming to Town. Fandom? MICHAEL BUBLE BEING STALKED BY A VELOCIRAPTOR. Best best best. Recorded at Podfic Summer Sizzle with the most delightful people of ever. We laughed so much the entire time, and inkjunket's perfect velociraptor screech, recorded in one take, caused us all to die for about 5 minutes.

Was there one that didn't turn out the way you wanted?
as cuddly as a cactus. Multivoice in a room with eh sound quality, and with three different versions that I wanted to add up to something interesting when taken as a whole. I don't think I was able to clean up the sound quality well, and I don't think the word-by-word version turned out in a way that anyone was really willing to stick around for the interesting meta discussions.

Biggest learning experience?
Probably the space potato AU tumblr not!fic I read at the Podfication Live Performances. Obviously for a live performance, you don't edit and repeat and perfect each line, so that was an exercise in learning to let go and keep on if I made a mistake. And because of that way of thinking, I actually made less mistakes than I would if I were recording at home. I'm trying to translate that headspace over to my normal podficcing to make recording and editing less arduous. I'm not going to leave mistakes in my podfic, but I'd like to make less of them on the way. I haven't really achieved it yet, but that experience is definitely helping me to learn how to do that.

What's next?
I've got a Jessica Jones fake married in the works, and it's going to be the first long thing I've made in ages, so I'm really excited for that. And then there's going to be ~a thing~ coming in April. I'm keeping it under wraps for now in case it doesn't actually work out, but if everything goes as planned, a new podfic challenge will be happening!

Dear Podficcer,

Hi there! This is my third time doing the Informal Twitter Podfic Exchange, and I'm so goddamn excited.

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier on you. Less guesswork, you know? But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it.

General Likes:
- Fake dating/fake married is my very favorite trope always
- Found family <3
- Ladies being awesome
- Reincarnation/groundhog day (they keep meeting and/or dying, over and over until they get it right)
- Emotions are hard, but they're Trying Their Best
- OT3s
- Origin stories and character studies
- Canonical character death. Not in the sense of grief/mourning, but telling their story before they died. Giving them more depth through backstory and POV focus. Making the character and their death more meaningful.
- Characters processing their trauma that canon glosses over and getting hopeful (if not necessarily happy) endings
- I describe some of my favorite fics as "beautiful sharp-edged things" which uhhhh, I don't know if that helps, but maybe it gets the feeling across??
- Robots. Crying about robots. Robots developing emotions because as humans we can't help but make them in our own image.
- Umm clearly from a couple of those items I do like Suffering, but don't feel like you have to make me sad. Fake married, found families, and ladies are happy things yes yes?
- Usually like the canon universe better than full-on AUs.

Do not want:
- pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- curtain fic (I like fluff, but not so much when the entirety of the fic is fluff)
- PWP. I'm all for sex/porn within a larger fic context, but I get kind of specific about the things I'm interested in when it's just porn, so let's skip it. Caveat: PWPs from my AO3 bookmarks list are definitely great
- infidelity
- domestic violence/rape. Mentions of it and canonical stuff is fine, but please nothing graphic that's been added to give a character A More Tragic Backstory.

Trigger:
- Hazing. Even if it's pretty tame, do not.

Any rating, general audiences through explicit, is a-okay. Not!fic or meta are totally welcome too.
Doesn't need to be a fic that is new-to-me. Things on my bookmarks are great if you're feeling stumped!

Fandom specific stuff:
Leverage
This is my forever fandom, and Eliot/Parker/Hardison is my forever ship. If it has the OT3, it can’t be wrong.
Gen fic or case fic with the whole team is also my jam.

Star Wars - Rogue One
THE SADDEST CANON. I LIKE TO SUFFER, OKAY.
Pre-canon.
Fic that ends where the movie ends. aka everyone dying, but it's hopeful and their sacrifice isn't in vain. Umph.
Everybody lives AUs. Celebratory or growing through the trauma of their experience, all of it is good stuff.
Do not like "some die, some live" (somehow grief/mourning is a step too far for my sadness needs)
Cassian/K-2SO
Cassian/Jyn(/Bhodi)
Nice things happening to Bhodi Rook
Jyn Erso is a BAMF

Marvel
Ensemble/team fics are amazing. Even if it’s focused on a particular ship or character, I love the huge ensemble cast possibilities here, and I love fic where characters who don't interact in canon meet each other. Also, basically any f/f fic or female focused story is a go.

There is SO MUCH in this canon, but I'll list some favorites.
To break it down the way the mods have for the challenge:

MCU (primary movie canon)
Natasha Romanoff, especially her origin story
Steve Rogers, the most extra bisexual, coming out at press conferences
Natasha/Clint
Tony & Jarvis & all the robots
teeeeam fic, crack fic
Natasha/Bucky (esp. focused on their joint history as brain-washed assassins)
Natasha/Maria
Darcy-is-the-only-sane-person-here-GOD
and similarly, Sam is the only sane person around all these superheroes who need to chill out.
Allllll the female friendships
I like Steve/Bucky, but there is already SO much podfic of it, so perhaps not for this challenge. Totally cool if it's background or not the main focus.
(no Steve/Tony please)

The Defenders
Jessica/Trish !!!!
Claire Temple being the best around forever
Anything with Karen Page having a complex emotional landscape and being awesome and breaking my heart
Matt/Foggy(/Karen)
Post Defenders, I'm totally feeling Karen/Trish

Individual Fandoms
Spiderman Homecoming - I'm mostly here for how this intersects with the main movie canon. Humor fic with Peter hanging out with the Avengers.
Agent Carter - I'm weak for Peggy/Dottie reluctantly having to work together against a bigger threat (and/or hate sex)

Mad Max Fury Road
Post-canon & healing
Mostly prefer gen, but Cheedo/the Dag is v. sweet.
And Furiosa/Max if it takes them time to work through their trauma first

Brooklyn 99
gen whole squad humor fic
Jake/Amy
Amy/Rosa
Rosa/Gina
This fandom is especially gold for fake married fics because undercover police work, and I 1000% endorse them.

Carmilla (webseries)
Hollstein
Laf/Perry
Continually sobbing over Danny Lawrence and how she has a spark inside her and fought so hard and then became what she was fighting against (aka Danny character studies or post-canon redemption. probably gen, but any f/f pairing that isn't endgame Danny/Laura is good)

ETA: And apparently Danny isn't going to be in the upcoming movie so fucking justice for Danny 2k17

The Queen's Thief
Gen/Irene/Costis
Gen is a little shit

Sense8
Canon pairings and ensemble/found families. Honestly I just love ALL OF THE SENSATES SO MUCH

The Good Place
I don't even know?? I haven't actually read fic for this fandom, but the S2 premiere just happened and it's full of awesome and I'm feeling super joyful about this show

Odds and Ends
[aka small fandoms and side things I didn't put on my sign-up]
The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - I'm still really fucked up about Jenks and Lovey, please make it better
Alice Isn’t Dead - Alice/Keisha
Within the Wires - Hester/Oletta
Beyond Belief - Frank/Sadie (and obviously Frank/Sadie/booze)
Supernatural - I haven't actively been in the fandom for years, but I'm feeling nostalgic about the amazing ladies of this show

My own podfic is generally very self indulgent and recorded for me, so my works that aren't group podfics are a good indicator of what I like.

I’m on twitter @theshmaylor, also theshmaylor over on tumblr, and just shmaylor on AO3

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. All of this was info to guide you and not anything to be 100% beholden to. Podficcer, you are wonderful and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Okay so Analise010 asked for a Tegan and Sara primer, but I didn't find any I liked, so I had to make my own. And then well...it became a lot. SORRY FOR THE EXCESSIVE LENGTH. But also I'm lazy and didn't include photos, that was a step too much effort.

The Basics
Tegan and Sara are a band. It feels weird to call them a band when it's just the two of them (plus whoever's in their backing band at the time), but wikipedia calls them an "indie pop singing duo" and that's worse, so let's go with 'a band'.

They are both lesbians. No, they're not dating. They're identical twins. Their faces are incredibly similar so I don't know why I even have to say that, but a surprising number of people think they're dating, so.

For a while it was very easy to tell them apart, but then Tegan took out her labret piercing, and their hair for the Love You to Death tour is more similar than it's been in years. But I think Tegan cut her hair sometime in the past few weeks, so hopefully it's simpler again. Sara has a narrower face than Tegan. You can also use their tattoos to tell them apart, but honestly we'll be here all day if I continue at this level of detail. When they're preforming, Tegan always stands on the left side of the stage and Sara on the right (from the perspective of the audience).

Both of them write songs, sing, and play instruments. Generally, they don't create together. They each write their own songs and then work together to polish and edit them. Whichever sister wrote the song is the one who sings lead vocals on it.

They have EIGHT albums. So many! And as far as anyone knows, they're planning on making even more music. We're gonna do this shit chronologically.

1. Under Feet Like Ours (1999)
Listen, maybe don't start here. There are some gems to be found, but they were babies (only 19 years old!), and it shows. Plus, about half the songs also appear on their second album, so you won't be missing a lot. It was initially released with the band name "Sara and Tegan" until they decided it sounded better the other way, changed it, and haven't looked back since.

My fav tracks
Clever Meals
This is Everything

2. This Business of Art (2000)
Again, about half the tracks come from Under Feet Like Ours and it was only released a year later, so it feels a little young too. But by picking the best bits of their previous album and adding in new material, it definitely feels like a step up.

My fav tracks
My Number
Not With You
Hype

3. If It Was You (2002)
This is where we start to get a little less folky. More pop-y, more electronic, and definitely more upbeat. More love and breakup songs, less undirectional teenage angst.

My fav tracks
Living Room - This is a Tegan and Sara CLASSIC. If they play it at a show, it's usually in the encore, and the entire room ERUPTS when it starts.
Underwater
I Hear Noises
Terrible Storm

4. So Jealous (2004)
This is kind of the beginning of their mainstream success. A lot more critical attention and some radio play for their singles. The first time I ever heard of Tegan and Sara was between this album and the next. I was in high school and fell for them hard, and honestly they've been my favorite band ever since.

My fav tracks
I Was Walking With a Ghost - The White Stripes covered it, which honestly probably contributed to T+S's popularity a lot, but I think that fucking cover is awful
Where Does the Good Go
Speak Slow
Fix You Up

5. The Con (2007)
This is it. This is the album. This is the one that cemented their success and brought in many of their lifelong fans. And it's the reason I'm even writing this fucking thing in the first place. Today they announced The Con X - a tenth anniversary tour where they'll be playing an acoustic arrangement of all songs in album order, and I've been excitedly swooning about it all day, which is why Analise asked for a primer.

My fav tracks
The Con
Hop a Plane + Soil, Soil - two tracks that appear in that order on the album and you have to listen to them in a row. The mood change is just everything and so perfect. I'm probably in the minority for putting Soil, Soil on my favorites list though, so do what you want with that...
Burn Your Life Down
Nineteen - listen, this probably isn't the best track ever, but it's so satisfying to wail along with. Great stuff at live performances
Back In Your Head
Dark Come Soon

(I know it's a lot, but count yourself lucky that I didn't just list the whole album)

6. Sainthood (2009)
Getting even more electronic here! This was probably their most experimental album I think. It's also the first time they co-wrote a song, "Paperback Head". That's not one of my favorite songs, but I'm glad they tried out something new.

My fav tracks
Hell
Alligator - which I mostly just love because Sara says it was inspired by Rihanna, which makes no sense to me when you listen to the song
The Ocean
Sentimental Tune
Someday - for this one, I'm just gonna leave you with a quote the Autostraddle review, which imprinted on me very early after I first listened to it and now it's all I can think about every time I hear the song: "At first listen, this track may sound like an anthem a garage band might be inclined to write, one of those “fuck you, world! we’re gonna be famous one day!” tracks – but IT’S NOT, and that’s partly why it’s so great. This isn’t about how the world has wronged Tegan. It makes me think of a 17-year old Tegan getting over a first relationship and putting on a false bravado to prove she’s going to become something, like she’s trying to convince herself rather than anyone else."

7. Heartthrob (2013)
This is where people started throwing around the word 'sellout'. Which, in general, as a concept can just fuck off entirely. Yes, I think they were trying to reach for more mainstream success, but why is that a bad thing? More success = more chances to hear them live and a better likelihood of getting even more music. Plus, there seems to be this idea that musicians at the start of their careers have the most artistic freedom and are the most 'real', and after that they're doing what the record label wants. But that doesn't make any goddamn sense. Do you think 19 year old Tegan and Sara had any clue how to navigate the music industry and ensure that their artistic vision got out there? No. They've said in multiple interviews that they're originally piano players who were basically forced into the indie folk acoustic guitar thing. This album brings those keyboards to the forefront and they don't have to pick up guitars at all if they don't want to. Plus, no matter the change in sound, the lyrics are pure Tegan and Sara. That's never going to change.

My fav tracks
Closer - the music video is an amazing giant queer sleepover party and everyone should watch it
I'm Not Your Hero
Drove Me Wild
How Come You Don't Want Me
I Couldn't Be Your Friend

8. Love You To Death (2016)
It's just over a year old and they're currently touring on this album cycle. This is the album where (in addition to their songs about romantic relationships) they have some distance from some of the rough patches they've had as sisters over the years and can finally write music about that. White Knuckles and 100x are both songs inspired by those times. Plus, they made a video for every single song on the album.

My fav tracks
Boyfriend - their queerest song to date, don't let the name fool you
U-turn - oh god I love this song but the music video is terrible. Okay so it's not a terrible video in and of itself, but I don't like it at all for this particular song
Dying to Know
Stop Desire
Hang on to the Night

Misc
Yay! You made it to the end of my babbling about each album, so do you know what that means? MORE BABBLING ABOUT OTHER THINGS. I'll try to keep it short though (mostly because I'm lazy and want to eat dinner soon)

- When they recorded The Con, they also filmed the entire thing and turned that into a movie with a 'chapter' (about 10 mins each) for each track. It is DELIGHTFUL and a great entry point for getting a feel for their personalities and learning more about them beyond just liking the music. A wonderful person has collected the chapters here and here

- Banter! A super important part of Appreciating Tegan and Sara is their concert banter. They talk more during shows than any other band I know of and a lot of it is fucking hysterical. It also feels like their way of setting boundaries, you know? They share so much and talk about things from their past very freely, which stops people from poking into their current personal lives more than they might otherwise. Maybe at some point I will make a curated list of my favorites, but see above re: lazy etc. For now, just search youtube for Tegan and Sara best banters. You'll find plenty.

- Live screw-ups. There is always one song that Tegan can not remember the words to or play all the way through. As soon as she figures it out, it'll happen to another song (Admittedly, this is happening less lately as they play more festivals and want to look good in front of randos who don't know much about them). Which leads to plenty of fabulous footage of Tegan fucking up a song and swearing. Sara also fucks up occasionally, but less often. Sometimes they power through, sometimes they restart, and sometimes they have the audience sing it. And I can't explain why it's so adorable and precious but it just IS. Again, not gonna link to vids, but the song "Northshore" has some of the best because it's so fast.

And now I'm done typing for real this time :)

Dear Podficcer,

Hi there! This is my second time doing the Informal Twitter Podfic Exchange, and I could not be more excited!!

I’m putting lots of detail in this letter not to be overwhelming or because I’m super picky, but because I’m hoping lots of info will make it easier on you. Less guesswork, you know? But whatever you make me, I’m totally going to love it.

General likes and dislikes:
- Fake dating/fake married is my very favorite trope always
- Found family <3
- Ladies being awesome <3
- I adore fics that hit me in the feels but then have a happy ending (I actually wrote a small meta about that recently that explains it better)
- Generally prefer in-universe to AUs
- Not fond of infidelity, miscommunication trope, or bashing of other ships
- Please no pregnancy fic, kid fic, or de-aged fic
- Not big on straight-up curtain fic or pure fluff (fluff is great, but I’d love some plot to go with it)
- Exception to that ‘needs a plot’ thing is humor. I’m totally here for all humor and no plot
- Dubcon is fine, but I’m not into non-con (this is a preference, not a trigger. So if there's something you think is borderline in a fic that otherwise fits perfectly, go for it! Or feel free to message me anonymously to ask about the specific situation)

Any rating, general audiences through explicit, is a-okay.
Doesn't need to be a fic that is new-to-me. Things on my bookmarks list are great if you're feeling stumped!

Fandom specific stuff:
Leverage
Oh I am all about that OT3! I will go down with this ship forever and for always. If it has the OT3, it can’t be wrong.
Gen fic or case fic with the whole team is also my jam.

Ghostbusters (2016)
I fell head over heels for this movie. Any and all ships between the four of them (bonus points if you find good Abby/Erin though. I feel like that ship has been underappreciated) and group gen fic is love. Complex thinky fics about any of their backstories and how they became the women they are.

MCU
(This includes everything except Agents of Shield. Anything Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy or all the Netflix shows or Agent Carter. And crossovers between those are great too)
Ensemble/team fics are my fav in this fandom. Even if it’s focused on a particular ship or character, I love the huge ensemble cast possibilities of the MCU. And I could ship anything in this fandom. For real. If it’s well done, I’m here for it. To help narrow it down a bit more some of my most favorites are Darcy Lewis, Natasha Romanov, Peggy Carter, Claire Temple being the best around forever, Steve/Bucky, Darcy/Clint, Bucky/Sam, Natasha/Clint. DD specifics: Avocados at law, Foggy/Matt, Foggy/Matt/Karen, Karen/Frank, anything with Karen Page having a complex emotional landscape and being awesome and breaking my heart. JJ: Jessica/Trish, gosh those two are so much and it's so great. Please no Kilgrave redemption. LC: Luke/Jessica, Luke and Claire being a kickass team (not so much into them as a romantic ship), MISTY KNIGHT.

Sense8
Canon pairings and ensemble/found families. Honestly I just love ALL OF THE SENSATES SO MUCH

Carmilla
Hollstein, Laf/Perry, continually sobbing over Danny Lawrence and how she has a spark inside her and fought so hard and then became what she was fighting against.

Star Wars
Really mostly just The Force Awakens. I am all about that Rey/Finn/Poe OT3 life and about them being cute as hell while saving the galaxy.

Brooklyn 99
Jake/Amy, Amy/Rosa, Rosa/Gina, gen whole squad humor fic

Supernatural
My main joy and loves from this fandom are the ladies, femslash or gen. Favs: Ruby, Bela (my kingdom for a great demon!Bela fic), Claire, Krissy (and especially Claire/Krissy), Jo, Charlie, Meg, Jody, Rowena, Abaddon. All of the ladies and only the ladies, basically.

Long Shot Fandoms
aka “I know I’m not going to match with anyone on these, but I might as well put them in my letter because wouldn’t it be cool as hell if these tiny fandoms I love got some podfic?”
Alice Isn’t Dead (Alice/narrator)
Within the Wires (narrator/listener)
Nancy Drew video games (Nancy/Frank, Nancy/Hardcore Sleuthing <3)

I’m on twitter @theshmaylor, also theshmaylor over on tumblr, and just shmaylor on AO3

That was a lot of things, but I hope it was useful. All of this was just info to guide you and not anything to be beholden to. Podficcer, you are wonderful and a delight, and I hope you have a ton of fun with this exchange. I can’t wait to listen <3

Hi, I'm Shmaylor! I created this account solely to participate in podfic challenges and coms, so I won’t actually be posting here very often.

You can find me most often on tumblr, and I’ve also recently started using twitter. You are totally welcome to follow or message me on any platform.

All of my podfic is on AO3. I’m not planning on crossposting anything here, so this isn’t the place to go looking for new updates.

I give blanket permission to do any further transformative fannish creation with any of my works, as long as credit is given to me. Feel free to sample or remix my audio in any way you'd like. That being said, if you're using sections that are recognizable as phrases, I obviously can't speak for the original author. And of course, I would love to be linked to something created out of my works if you want to. You can leave a comment, or contact me on tumblr or twitter!