Jukebox Letter 2021

[rhovanel]

Dear Jukebox creator,

Thank you so much for creating something for me! This is my favourite fic exchange and I'm really excited to be doing it again. I’m always thrilled to receive anything that someone has made for me, so don’t worry, I’ll be happy with whatever you come up with. All of my prompts are just possible prompts, and if you have your own idea or plot bunny, you are welcome to chase it.

For the most part, I’ve chosen songs with imagery and emotions that really speak to me, and I’m interested in fan works that flesh out the world and the feeling of a song. I particularly love science fiction and fantasy, and a lot of my choices lend themselves to those genres - but don’t feel obliged to do this.

I've only requested songs here - if these tracks have music videos, I probably haven't seen them or I'm not interested in them. Most of these songs come from albums/bands I adore, and if you share my love for them, please feel free to include references to other tracks on their respective albums. 

General Likes

If you're writing fic, feel free to use whatever tense you feel fits the story/song - I have no problem with first or second person stories. If you're writing a relationship, I adore F/F relationships, but am more than happy with any other combination of gender identities.  

• fanworks that play with form and narrative: epistolary, poetry, time loops, etc.
• angst - break my heart, author
• fanworks about storytelling and the power of narratives
• stories about women!
• found families
• bittersweet endings
• fanworks about the power of hope and persevering through difficult times 
• character studies
• mutual pining-happy ending narratives
• heists and adventures
• equal power dynamics between people
• characters who are competent and unapologetic about who they are
• relationships based in communication - talking, challenging and testing one another, wordy declarations/gestures of love
• banter and humour
• moments of quiet intimacy
• stars, trees, and the sea

Art likes: Honestly, if you’re drawing me something I will probably backflip out the window, because I have no artistic talent and am constantly in awe of what other people produce. I am fond of landscapes, mundane, slice-of-life moments, and non-sexual intimacy between characters. I love bold colours and interesting line work, and I like tarot style art, art nouveau, and comics. But really, anything is awesome, I am terrible at art prompts.

DNWs:

• • no PWP - explicit sex is okay, I would just prefer it to be part of a story, rather than the whole focus.
  • no A/B/O dynamics
  • no pairings with a major power imbalance (e.g. student/teacher, etc)
  • no non-con or dub-con
  • no incest or underage
  • no stories with internalised prejudice as the main theme (homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, etc)
  • no kidfic
  • no explicit depictions of abuse (physical or emotional)

Conversation Piece - Julien Baker (Song)


So do you think when I die I’d get a second try? / To do everything right I couldn’t the first time?

This is such a beautiful song about regret and sadness. I'd love something that explores the literal meaning of the song - I adore ghost stories and spooky romances. I can imagine this as either a ghost who falls in love with a human, or a ghost who returns to haunt a lost love. But this song is also about two people slowly fading away from one another, and that would also be cool to explore if you wanted to go less literal. I'm happy with any kind of tone, from angst to happy to bittersweet. 

I’m really taken with the twin ideas in this song - the idea of being seen, and the idea of second chances. There are so many options to explore this - from the fantastical, such as a time loop or invisibility, or just the way that human relationships work. 

Half Light I - Arcade Fire (Song)

You say you hear human voices / but they’re only echoes

The lyrics to this song feel like poetry to me. I love the image of people moving through a half light, some kind of transitional period that’s neither here nor there. The song imagines seeing a familiar place in a new light, and there’s so much potential here to explore. I get real otherworldly vibes from this song, and the sense that this is a landscape devoid of people, which might be an interesting avenue - is this some kind of dream world, or alternate universe? Are the characters in the half light of outer space, or a solar eclipse? 

I’m also really interested in the connection the song draws between the half light and freedom - but the night tears us loose / and in the half light we’re free. What are these characters running from, and why is there freedom in the in-between?

Hall of Fame - The Howl and the Hum (Song)

See I live in the moment, I live in the moment / It’s just not this one

This song evokes such a rich image of two people meeting again long after their past glories, unable to move on from some forgotten history. I have all the usual questions here - who are these people? Are they ex-friends, or lovers, or enemies (or some combination of all of them)? And what were the battles that they won? Are they war captains? Spaceship pilots? Superheroes? Pirates? Cowboys? The list is endless, so follow your imagination! Anything that that fleshes out the world of the song and the relationship between the characters would be amazing.

There are so many lines and images in the song that I adore - medals covered in dust, a different face with the same eyes - so feel free to flesh out anything that strikes you. 

The Housebuilding Song - David Ferguson (Song)

No matter what the weather / we’re together 

I refuse to apologise for this. This song may be more familiar to you as the song from Red Dead Redemption 2 - obviously I’m not asking for a RDR2 work. I am just endlessly enchanted by this song - who would have thought that the best country bop of the last few years would be buried in the middle of Red Dead Redemption 2? All I want here is a fanwork about building a lil house, so let your imagination run wild. I will honestly love whatever you come up with. 

I love the feel of this song - the rhythm, the repetition, the feeling of achievement and safety and companionship. There are so many options here - something that explores who these people are who are building a house together, and why, and where. Are these people building a house for themselves, or do they build houses for others? What kind of house is this? You could even take up the challenge of writing something from the perspective of the house itself. Just build me a lil house.

ivy - Taylor Swift 

How’s one to know? I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones / In a faith forgotten land

Both folklore and evermore were such beautiful surprises - I’m still so fascinated by the rich imagery and storytelling in the worlds that Taylor Swift has created here. Ivy is my favourite from evermore. I ladore the imagery in this song - snow, stones, ivy, bones. I would be really interested in something that explores the world of this song. I definitely get a fantasy vibe from this - curses and dreamlands and borrowed time - and it would be amazing to explore that in more detail (but of course you don’t have to!).

Ostensibly, the song is about a married woman in falls in love with someone else, but there is flexibility in your interpretation, in terms of the identity of these characters and the relationships between them. And with all Taylor songs, I’m always here for F/F relationships.   

The Temptation of Adam - Josh Ritter

You said fusion was the broken heart that’s lonely’s only thought

 

Josh Ritter is one of the finest storytellers working today. I was lucky enough to get two Josh Ritter stories last year, but there can never be enough!

This song paints such an evocative picture of two people falling in love in a missile silo. I would love anything that explores this world and these characters - who are they, and why are they in the missile silo? How do they negotiate one another in their cramped living arrangements, and how do they fall in love? The song has such a wonderfully bittersweet tone, of a relationship with a rapidly approaching half-life (to borrow the song’s nuclear imagery), and I’d love something that explores this mood.

I can see a lot of potential in this song for something epistolary - diary entries, logs, even a love story told through crossword puzzles - so if that’s something you’d like to do, go for it. And I am a sucker for science, so if you want to explore the science side of things (or use lots of science metaphors like the song itself), don’t hold back! And finally, it’s absolutely not necessary, but I would die for F/F here.