It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

Yuletide 2016 is a go, with nominations now open!

I always forget that you only get three, and even on a year were I've been eh on media I have way more things to nom than I have space for. So here are the things I'd nom if the noms were unlimited.

1. You Could Make a Life

This is an m/m hockey love story that doesn't quite follow romance novel conventions because it was an original fic posted on AO3 to start. The best entry point for the series has been taken down from AO3 and Kickstarter self-pub'd. You can buy it here. If you're interested I can also see if it's kindle lend-able. But I'm not nom-ing those characters anyway. There's like a dozen spin offs at this point and I want either more Liam and Mike or more David (and Georgie with endgame David and Jake. Georgie doesn't come in until like a million words in).

2. Him and Us

While we're on a theme here are some real, legit romance novel m/m hockey romances. Us is probably my legit favorite book of the year so far. Wes and Jamie are best friends from hockey camp growing up until the last night of their senior year a bet goes too far (and by too far I mean blowjobs). Wes, who is beginning to realize he's gay, is horrified by what he pushed his straight best friend into and promptly stops talking to Jamie. Jamie isn't all that phased by the blowjob but doesn't know why his best friend stopped talking to him. Four years later they meet up again when their college teams play each other in the Frozen Four. They still have it. And then Wes follows Jamie back to camp where they are both counselors. And then they fall in love and it's wonderful.

(Vaguely related, if you like fic where the guys fall in love with their best friend while councilors at the summer champ the two of them first met at, I still routinely go back and re-read and love this fic. Maybe that plot is just the best and more everything should have that plot.)

3. Lovely Little Losers

This is the slow burn-iest slow burn of all web series canons. Peter and Balthazar are all embarrassing crushes in the fourth video for Nothing Much to Do, a modern-day, High School AU web series of Much Ado About Nothing set in New Zealand. And then there is much shenanigans and misunderstandings and songs and apology poems, and they finally get together at the end of the sequel, Lovely Little Losers. And after all that lead up I want a million words of them finally together. If you are into web series, these are fun, although probably longer than they need to be and there are a few points where they drag.

4. The Outs

It is a web series set in NYC centered around exes Mitchell and Jack and it's about hating someone you once loved, and then hating them less and then moving on and learning to be friends again. The original six-episode series is absolutely perfect. It is so wonderful that Alan Cummings was like, hey, I love your show, can you write me into it. Season Two came out earlier this year, and was wonderful and beautiful and left so many juicy questions open for a potential season three, or some really good fic.

5. Please Like Me

This is an Australian sit-com centered around Josh. In the very first episode Josh comes out as gay and (completely unrelated to the first point) his mom tries to kill herself. And the show delivers with hilarious and heartbreaking follow-through. You might have seen gifs of this show on tumblr. That's how I first heard about it. I don't know what exactly I'd want for it for Yuletide, like some of the others, but it deserves a fandom.

Honorable Mention: The Raven Cycle

I'm pretty sure this fandom doesn't qualify because there are too many fan works for it already. But back when it was it qualified I got possibly my favorite Yuletide fic in this fandom: The Gates of Horn. It's a pre-canon story about Ronan getting his tattoo, and I don't think it's been Joss'd (I don't remember all the details). And if it qualified I'd want all the post-canon Ronan and Adam fic and also all the post-canon Blue and Henry fic (sorry Gansey). I've read some of what's out there, but none of it's what I'd get made to order. I do love this one though: The Hang of Being Alive Again.