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Dear Jukebox DJ 2022
Apr. 15th, 2022 05:36 pmDear Jukebox DJ,
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and create something for it, or both? In any case, I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song/frame of the video as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song or video suggests a picture or a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the canon in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
However, I do have a few Do Not Wants:
DNW (general):
-Long fic. Anything more than about 5000 words or so and I start getting anxious about reading and commenting in a timely fashion while still giving the story the attention it deserves, so I’d just rather you didn’t.
-Purely introspective stories with no action or character interaction
-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure/interactive/game-style fic
-Body image issues. I don’t mind brief mentions, but please don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on a character hating their body.
-It-was-only-a-dream type endings
-Torture for information (torture for fun/religious ritual/to enforce compliance is fine)/violent interrogation methods
DNW (smut):
-Sounding
-Infantilization
-That thing where one or more of the people involved doesn’t know what sex is or realize they’re having it
-Religion kink--like, using religious paraphernalia as sex toys, religious garb acting as fetish wear, or kinking on breaking religious vows of chastity. Sex with gods, devils, demons, or while being a god is okay and even great though.
-One partner calling out another’s name during orgasm
General likes (fic): I really like all kinds of fic, from silly fluff, action and adventures and worldbuilding to smut and hurt/comfort. Feel free to take it darker, too: violence, character death, betrayal, consent issues sexual and otherwise, bad things happening to characters I like AND characters I like doing bad things. I’m open to different POVs and tenses, and unusual fic formats like poetry and epistolary/documentary fic. In terms of romance and/or sex, I like any number of participants (as long as there are few enough that you can keep track of all the anatomy) and any gender combination. In general, I'm open to alternate gender interpretations of characters in the songs/videos.
A brief and really not exhaustive list of story elements I especially like: Comfort after a nightmare, self-sacrifice, loyalty and trust issues, elections, platonic bed-sharing, hugs, language geekery, communication issues, breakups (either the kind where the original relationship is eventually patched up, or where the people involved manage to forge a different but still mutually satisfactory type of relationship afterward, or where nothing is okay again and everything hurts), ethical dilemmas, food porn and food preparation, parenting/childcare, exploration of canon-appropriate religious themes.
General likes (art): Bright palettes with jewel tones, especially turquoise and rose, but also monochrome with lots of shading. Curves, soft bellies and big noses; also, hair. The kind of character portrait where a lot of thought has gone into details of clothing, hairstyle, etc even if nothing in particular is happening. Loose sketchy comick-y things that illustrate a character moment or interaction. Hair-touching, face-touching, hand kissing, forehead kissing, hugs from behind. I also like things that incorporate text and images in various ways, like calligraphy, comics, maps and diagrams, and I’m really fond of watercolors and Art Nouveau-inspired stylings.
If you want to make me smut, here are a few of my (many) favorite kinks: D/s dynamics, informal kink negotiation that feels true to the dynamic of those particular characters (although under-negotiated kink or the assumption that the negotiation has taken place offscreen are also a-ok), magic/superpowers/highly advanced technology or whatever unique features of the setting or characters being used for sexual purposes, improvised restraints and sex toys, blades, slicing/tearing off clothes, fingers in mouths, loyalty kink, trust kink, praise kink--especially the kind where the praised party is somewhat reluctant or embarrassed to accept the praise (creepy praise kink like e.g. in scenario where a rapist praises their victim for being good while threatening them is also great), one or more participants not getting off during the scene but enjoying it anyway, semi-public or outdoor sex, awkward sex, situations where different participants have different understandings of what’s going on (as in, A thinks the sex is consensual but B is actually mind-controlled, or A is putting on a show for C, who unbeknownst to B is watching the whole thing, or A thinks it’s a casual hookup but B is in love and afraid to mention it because they don’t want to ruin what they’ve got, or whatever.) In general, I like a lot of weird stuff (and vanilla stuff too!) so if there’s something you want to write or draw, unless I’ve specifically DNW’d it, it’s probably okay.
Crossovers with outside fandoms aren't encouraged in this exchange, but if you wanted to cross over two or more of the songs I'm requesting, I wouldn't mind at all.
Alibi - Dessa (Song) youtube | lyrics
I'm intrigued by the family relationship of the narrator and the interlocutor: are they biological family? Did they grow up together? What's their shared history like, and how did they end up on different paths? I also want to know what, exactly, the interlocutor needs an alibi for. One possibility is that the narrator might be planning on killing the interlocutor's no-good lover before the lover can involve, implicate, or hurt them further, and I'd like to see how that plays out. Is the interlocutor aware of the narrator's plans? Will they try to stop the narrator? If forced to choose between their lover and the narrator, what will they do?
Black Swan - Rhiannon Giddens (Song) youtube | lyrics
I love the creepy sound and atmosphere of this song, and I’d love art or a story that captures it. The nature of all the characters is so mysterious: the narrator, their lover, the sun, moon, and stars, the black wave, and the black swan itself. I’m intrigued by the idea that the ring, meant to bind the lovers together, ended up driving them apart, and I’d love to read about the narrator’s quest to be reunited with their lover, whether or not it’s ultimately successful.
Build Me Up From Bones - Sarah Jarosz (Song) youtube | lyrics
This is a love song between a twisted mockery of life and the necromancer who reanimated them, right? I’d love something that captures both the aching tenderness of it and the inherent horror behind the premise. Were the necromancer and the undead creature lovers in a previous life, and the necromancer refused to give them up after their death? Or is it more of a Pygmalion and Galatea situation, where the undead is a new person created to the necromancer’s specifications? Give me all the intense devotion and us-against-the-world (with torches and pitchforks) please!
Daydreaming - Scenic Route to Alaska (Music Video) youtube with lyrics in the description
There are so many possibilities of what could be happening here--is the protagonist a clone? In a time loop? The victim of a mad science experiment? Caught in a simulation? Whatever it is, their disorientation and terror come through really strongly and I’d love a story or art that captured some of that feeling. I’d also like to know what changes in circumstance cause some versions of the protagonist to be so hostile and violent, others apparently friendly, and still others just trying to muddle through the best they can.
Feuer - Faun (Music Video) youtube | lyrics (English translation with original German)
Castles! Swords and axes! Evil kings and ragtag bands of forest outlaws! Magical musical instruments! Maybe a princess who joins the rebels secretly, and/or a destined hero? This video has all the cheesy high fantasy vibes, and I am here for it, whether played straight or given some subversive twist.
Mean Well - Dear Reader (Music Video) youtube | lyrics
The lyrics suggest someone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, or an experiment of Mad Science abandoned by their creator. I really dig the old-timey monster-movie aesthetic of the video, and the juxtaposition of the creepy and the mundane; the jerky and repetitive images might hint at the narrator being somehow unglued in time, stuck in a time loop or plagued by visions of the future/past? I'm interested in the relationship between the narrator and the individual they're addressing, and also about the people/other creatures attached to the "eyes everywhere" and if, in fact, they mean well.
The Mountain - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer (Song) youtube | lyrics
The narrator of this song, born into mundane circumstances, transcends them through epic journeys, becoming immortal or even divine—at the cost of becoming alienated from the ordinary world, and perhaps dying over and over in various mythic ways. Where do their journeys take them? What strange people do they meet and lose along the way? And what about the mountain, their constant pursuer and preoccupation?
The Night We Met - Lord Huron (Song) youtube | lyrics
Is the narrator a driver, and the interlocutor some sort of urban-legend supernatural hitchhiker? Or the other way around? "I am not the only traveler / Who has not repaid his debt"--I'm intrigued by the implication that the narrator has incurred some sort of debt that they haven't been able to repay, that this is perhaps the source of their supernatural problems, and that this is a story that plays itself out over and over. And now the narrator is seeking to undo the whole thing by traveling back in time and telling their younger self not to do it--will it work? Will they get stuck in a time loop, forever causing the thing that they're trying to prevent, or will they find some way to break free? Is a happy ending possible for either the narrator or interlocutor, or perhaps even both?
Oleander - Sarah Harmer (Song) youtube | lyrics
Is the narrator of this song singing to a woman, or to a houseplant? If you just look at the words, it might be a houseplant--but it's a houseplant she's got weirdly intense feelings towards. I like to think that this is the story of a human woman and her nature-spirit ex-girlfriend who she would like to get back together with. I like the sense that the narrator has realized and learned from the mistakes that she made the first time around, and I would be interested in either a happy or bittersweet ending.
Sweet Jezebel - Mean Mary (Song) youtube | lyrics
I am here for hot woman-on-demonic-guitar action, although if you wanted to give Jezebel an alternate humanoid form for smut purposes, that would be cool too. Shipping aside, I'm wondering about Jezebel's point of view on this--how does she feel about being a temptation, to be used and heroically cast aside? What's her relationship with the mysterious Devil-like stranger? Like I said above, I'm not really interested in an interpretation where these events are nothing but a hallucination--even if the narrator's life seemingly picks up where it left off, I'd like to see some indication that the events of the song are real on some level, and that the narrator and Jezebel made some kind of lasting impression on each other, even if they never see each other again. Alternatively, I'd be intrigued by a scenario where they were somehow reunited, for better or for worse.
If for some reason you want to stalk me, I am dead easy to stalk; I'm minutia_r (or occasionally minutia-r) all over the internet: here, AO3, tumblr, deviantart, ff.net, and probably one or two other places I don't recall off-hand.
Thank you! You are awesome, I am really looking forward to seeing what you make for me, and I hope you get great stories and/or art out of this exchange, too!
Hi there! May I compliment you on either your excellent taste in music or your willingness to try something new and create something for it, or both? In any case, I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with.
I don’t expect you to treat every line of the song/frame of the video as canon the way you might for a book or TV show. If you want to do a close reading of the text, that’s cool! If some phrase or image or mood from the song or video suggests a picture or a story to you, then run with that and don’t worry too much about contradicting or fitting the rest of the canon in around it--and especially don’t worry about the prompts in this letter, which are really just there to give you ideas in case you’re stuck.
However, I do have a few Do Not Wants:
DNW (general):
-Long fic. Anything more than about 5000 words or so and I start getting anxious about reading and commenting in a timely fashion while still giving the story the attention it deserves, so I’d just rather you didn’t.
-Purely introspective stories with no action or character interaction
-Choose-Your-Own-Adventure/interactive/game-style fic
-Body image issues. I don’t mind brief mentions, but please don’t spend a lot of time dwelling on a character hating their body.
-It-was-only-a-dream type endings
-Torture for information (torture for fun/religious ritual/to enforce compliance is fine)/violent interrogation methods
DNW (smut):
-Sounding
-Infantilization
-That thing where one or more of the people involved doesn’t know what sex is or realize they’re having it
-Religion kink--like, using religious paraphernalia as sex toys, religious garb acting as fetish wear, or kinking on breaking religious vows of chastity. Sex with gods, devils, demons, or while being a god is okay and even great though.
-One partner calling out another’s name during orgasm
General likes (fic): I really like all kinds of fic, from silly fluff, action and adventures and worldbuilding to smut and hurt/comfort. Feel free to take it darker, too: violence, character death, betrayal, consent issues sexual and otherwise, bad things happening to characters I like AND characters I like doing bad things. I’m open to different POVs and tenses, and unusual fic formats like poetry and epistolary/documentary fic. In terms of romance and/or sex, I like any number of participants (as long as there are few enough that you can keep track of all the anatomy) and any gender combination. In general, I'm open to alternate gender interpretations of characters in the songs/videos.
A brief and really not exhaustive list of story elements I especially like: Comfort after a nightmare, self-sacrifice, loyalty and trust issues, elections, platonic bed-sharing, hugs, language geekery, communication issues, breakups (either the kind where the original relationship is eventually patched up, or where the people involved manage to forge a different but still mutually satisfactory type of relationship afterward, or where nothing is okay again and everything hurts), ethical dilemmas, food porn and food preparation, parenting/childcare, exploration of canon-appropriate religious themes.
General likes (art): Bright palettes with jewel tones, especially turquoise and rose, but also monochrome with lots of shading. Curves, soft bellies and big noses; also, hair. The kind of character portrait where a lot of thought has gone into details of clothing, hairstyle, etc even if nothing in particular is happening. Loose sketchy comick-y things that illustrate a character moment or interaction. Hair-touching, face-touching, hand kissing, forehead kissing, hugs from behind. I also like things that incorporate text and images in various ways, like calligraphy, comics, maps and diagrams, and I’m really fond of watercolors and Art Nouveau-inspired stylings.
If you want to make me smut, here are a few of my (many) favorite kinks: D/s dynamics, informal kink negotiation that feels true to the dynamic of those particular characters (although under-negotiated kink or the assumption that the negotiation has taken place offscreen are also a-ok), magic/superpowers/highly advanced technology or whatever unique features of the setting or characters being used for sexual purposes, improvised restraints and sex toys, blades, slicing/tearing off clothes, fingers in mouths, loyalty kink, trust kink, praise kink--especially the kind where the praised party is somewhat reluctant or embarrassed to accept the praise (creepy praise kink like e.g. in scenario where a rapist praises their victim for being good while threatening them is also great), one or more participants not getting off during the scene but enjoying it anyway, semi-public or outdoor sex, awkward sex, situations where different participants have different understandings of what’s going on (as in, A thinks the sex is consensual but B is actually mind-controlled, or A is putting on a show for C, who unbeknownst to B is watching the whole thing, or A thinks it’s a casual hookup but B is in love and afraid to mention it because they don’t want to ruin what they’ve got, or whatever.) In general, I like a lot of weird stuff (and vanilla stuff too!) so if there’s something you want to write or draw, unless I’ve specifically DNW’d it, it’s probably okay.
Crossovers with outside fandoms aren't encouraged in this exchange, but if you wanted to cross over two or more of the songs I'm requesting, I wouldn't mind at all.
Alibi - Dessa (Song) youtube | lyrics
I'm intrigued by the family relationship of the narrator and the interlocutor: are they biological family? Did they grow up together? What's their shared history like, and how did they end up on different paths? I also want to know what, exactly, the interlocutor needs an alibi for. One possibility is that the narrator might be planning on killing the interlocutor's no-good lover before the lover can involve, implicate, or hurt them further, and I'd like to see how that plays out. Is the interlocutor aware of the narrator's plans? Will they try to stop the narrator? If forced to choose between their lover and the narrator, what will they do?
Black Swan - Rhiannon Giddens (Song) youtube | lyrics
I love the creepy sound and atmosphere of this song, and I’d love art or a story that captures it. The nature of all the characters is so mysterious: the narrator, their lover, the sun, moon, and stars, the black wave, and the black swan itself. I’m intrigued by the idea that the ring, meant to bind the lovers together, ended up driving them apart, and I’d love to read about the narrator’s quest to be reunited with their lover, whether or not it’s ultimately successful.
Build Me Up From Bones - Sarah Jarosz (Song) youtube | lyrics
This is a love song between a twisted mockery of life and the necromancer who reanimated them, right? I’d love something that captures both the aching tenderness of it and the inherent horror behind the premise. Were the necromancer and the undead creature lovers in a previous life, and the necromancer refused to give them up after their death? Or is it more of a Pygmalion and Galatea situation, where the undead is a new person created to the necromancer’s specifications? Give me all the intense devotion and us-against-the-world (with torches and pitchforks) please!
Daydreaming - Scenic Route to Alaska (Music Video) youtube with lyrics in the description
There are so many possibilities of what could be happening here--is the protagonist a clone? In a time loop? The victim of a mad science experiment? Caught in a simulation? Whatever it is, their disorientation and terror come through really strongly and I’d love a story or art that captured some of that feeling. I’d also like to know what changes in circumstance cause some versions of the protagonist to be so hostile and violent, others apparently friendly, and still others just trying to muddle through the best they can.
Feuer - Faun (Music Video) youtube | lyrics (English translation with original German)
Castles! Swords and axes! Evil kings and ragtag bands of forest outlaws! Magical musical instruments! Maybe a princess who joins the rebels secretly, and/or a destined hero? This video has all the cheesy high fantasy vibes, and I am here for it, whether played straight or given some subversive twist.
Mean Well - Dear Reader (Music Video) youtube | lyrics
The lyrics suggest someone suffering from Stockholm Syndrome, or an experiment of Mad Science abandoned by their creator. I really dig the old-timey monster-movie aesthetic of the video, and the juxtaposition of the creepy and the mundane; the jerky and repetitive images might hint at the narrator being somehow unglued in time, stuck in a time loop or plagued by visions of the future/past? I'm interested in the relationship between the narrator and the individual they're addressing, and also about the people/other creatures attached to the "eyes everywhere" and if, in fact, they mean well.
The Mountain - Dave Carter and Tracy Grammer (Song) youtube | lyrics
The narrator of this song, born into mundane circumstances, transcends them through epic journeys, becoming immortal or even divine—at the cost of becoming alienated from the ordinary world, and perhaps dying over and over in various mythic ways. Where do their journeys take them? What strange people do they meet and lose along the way? And what about the mountain, their constant pursuer and preoccupation?
The Night We Met - Lord Huron (Song) youtube | lyrics
Is the narrator a driver, and the interlocutor some sort of urban-legend supernatural hitchhiker? Or the other way around? "I am not the only traveler / Who has not repaid his debt"--I'm intrigued by the implication that the narrator has incurred some sort of debt that they haven't been able to repay, that this is perhaps the source of their supernatural problems, and that this is a story that plays itself out over and over. And now the narrator is seeking to undo the whole thing by traveling back in time and telling their younger self not to do it--will it work? Will they get stuck in a time loop, forever causing the thing that they're trying to prevent, or will they find some way to break free? Is a happy ending possible for either the narrator or interlocutor, or perhaps even both?
Oleander - Sarah Harmer (Song) youtube | lyrics
Is the narrator of this song singing to a woman, or to a houseplant? If you just look at the words, it might be a houseplant--but it's a houseplant she's got weirdly intense feelings towards. I like to think that this is the story of a human woman and her nature-spirit ex-girlfriend who she would like to get back together with. I like the sense that the narrator has realized and learned from the mistakes that she made the first time around, and I would be interested in either a happy or bittersweet ending.
Sweet Jezebel - Mean Mary (Song) youtube | lyrics
I am here for hot woman-on-demonic-guitar action, although if you wanted to give Jezebel an alternate humanoid form for smut purposes, that would be cool too. Shipping aside, I'm wondering about Jezebel's point of view on this--how does she feel about being a temptation, to be used and heroically cast aside? What's her relationship with the mysterious Devil-like stranger? Like I said above, I'm not really interested in an interpretation where these events are nothing but a hallucination--even if the narrator's life seemingly picks up where it left off, I'd like to see some indication that the events of the song are real on some level, and that the narrator and Jezebel made some kind of lasting impression on each other, even if they never see each other again. Alternatively, I'd be intrigued by a scenario where they were somehow reunited, for better or for worse.
If for some reason you want to stalk me, I am dead easy to stalk; I'm minutia_r (or occasionally minutia-r) all over the internet: here, AO3, tumblr, deviantart, ff.net, and probably one or two other places I don't recall off-hand.
Thank you! You are awesome, I am really looking forward to seeing what you make for me, and I hope you get great stories and/or art out of this exchange, too!
