jukebox_fest letter

[badritual]

Dear Creator,

Hi! This is my first time doing this challenge and I'm really looking forward to it! (I'll probably be copying and pasting some stuff from previous letters here. You can find past letters here and here if you're interested.)

Please don't be intimidated by the size of the letter! The prompts and ideas are only suggestions! I'm totally fine with mixing and matching tropes/likes/kinks/etc. to come up with a story too!

Table of Contents

1. What I Love
   
2. DNWs
   
3. Stuff I Like
   
4. The Dead Waltz - Radical Face (Song)
   
5. Would You Fight For My Love? - Jack White (Music Video)
   
6. Lazaretto - Jack White (Song)
   
7. Lay Down In the Tall Grass - Timber Timbre (Song)
   
8. Demon Host - Timber Timbre (Song)
   
9. Pillars of Salt - Murder By Death (Song)
   
10. Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum - Nick Cave and the Dirty Three (Song)
    
11. Sax Rohmer #1 - The Mountain Goats (Song)
    
12. Open Your Eyes - STRFKR (Music Video)
    
13. Secret - The Pierces (Music Video)


What I Love: I'm currently really into gothic romance/gothic horror/horror of any stripe really. I also love ambiguous/happy for now/sad endings (though I am not opposed to happy endings in the slightest). I love things that make me think, and are not necessarily tied up with a neat pretty bow.

I love characters dealing with mortality (of their careers or their lives). I also dig found family/families of choice, pining, minor miscommunication, undercover as married, mistaken for dating, pretend dating, enemies to lovers, enemies to friends to lovers, friends to lovers, poly/poly-v relationships, popular clichéd tropes inverted (i.e. gay for you, married in Vegas, A/B/O, soulmates/soulmate marks, etc), meet-cutes/meet-uglies, and epistolary/use of social media pastiche (use of fake texts, tweets, facebook posts, emails, and more. This is a good example of what I mean here. So is this, this, this, this, and this).

My main DNWs are listed below. Exceptions will be noted:

DNWs:
• noncon
• underage
• violence against women (domestic violence or abuse, mostly)
• violence against animals/animal death
• A/B/O, BDSM, and kneeling 'verses (basically 'verses where the "switch" is always set to on)
• mpreg
• watersports/scat
• unrequested kinks, tropes, likes, pairings (unless otherwise mentioned)
• mundane AUs (especially mundane AUs of fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural/etc. universes)
• vampire and werewolf AUs

Stuff I Like:
• gothic/gothic romance/horror/ghost stories!!!
• time travel/time loops/time fuckery
• pining
• miscommunication (within reason)
• poly/poly-v relationshps
• found family/families of choice
• undercover as married/pretend dating/accidental dating/fake marriage
• enemies to lovers
• enemies to friends to lovers
• popular clichéd tropes inverted
• amnesiafic
• epistolary/social media pastiche
• future fic
• casefic
• ensemble fic
• long-distance relationships
• complicated relationships
• power imbalances/power dynamics/power dynamics inverted
• professional/career jealousy
• small town AUs (small town in the suburban gothic sense, not cute, quaint villages and whatnot)

Fic and fan art for all fandoms! I'll be happy with M/F, M/M, F/F as well as threesomes/moresomes, and/or gen!

There's a list of sources here!

The Dead Waltz - Radical Face (Song)

The Dead Waltz (lyrics video)

I adore this song. It's so haunting and evocative—I would love if you took the lyrics literally, but I would also really enjoy a more metaphorical interpretation! Or you can base your fic off the mood the song inspires in you as you listen to it! It doesn't necessarily have to have a supernatural element.

Prompts/ideas:
     ◊ Give me some backstory on the Narrator and the Daughter. Have her powers gotten her in trouble before? What if they have to go on the run together?
     ◊ Maybe the Daughter is a necromancer or someone who communicates with the dead.
     ◊ Maybe rather than having supernatural powers, the girl really is just a sleepwalker whom the locals regard suspiciously.
     ◊ Go the apocalypse/dystopian AU route! Maybe the Daughter fights zombies and the Narrator promised to protect her.
     ◊ What about a Buffy the Vampire Slayer type scenario, with the Daughter as a slayer and the Narrator as a guide or guardian?

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes. For this fandom, I would be interested something with gothic shades/undertones (or overtones). Thing dark, dramatic works like Caravaggio, Goya, Gentileschi, and others for mood (doesn't have to be in their style though).
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Would You Fight For My Love? - Jack White (Music Video)

Would You Fight For My Love?

I get sorta mid-century mob/crime vibes from this video, along with shades of Kubrick's version of The Shining. Maybe Jack is a crime boss being haunted by the memory of a lost lover. Is she a ghost or an illusion? Or is something else going on? Was Jack responsible for what happened to her? (What if Jack is the one who's doing the "haunting," without realizing it?)

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes.
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Lazaretto - Jack White (Song)

Lazaretto

I'm interested in the more metaphorical interpretations of the song (though you can write about lepers if you really want to!). If you bring Detroit (the city, the music, the people, etc.) into the mix, I'll worship the ground you walk on.

I've seen this song interpreted as the fall of Lucifer, the story of an actual leper, and the semi-autobiographical story of White losing custody of his children in his divorce. I've also seen it interpreted as Jack's creative process (Jack quarantining himself during his writing). You can run with any of these interpretations, mash them up, pick one you like, or come up with your own!

I'm particularly drawn to these lyrics:

They wanna blow down the prison
They're lightin' fires with the cash of the masses
And like the dough, I don't fall down
I'm so Detroit—I make it rise from the ashes

(What if the narrator of the song was the city of Detroit itself?)

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes.
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Lay Down In the Tall Grass - Timber Timbre (Song)

Lay Down in the Tall Grass

I love this song so much. It gives off this slightly creepy, Southern Gothic vibe that I adore. It also kind of reminds me of a dark waltz.

The song it apparently not really about anything. I think Taylor Kirk said it was just based around images from dreams.

I'd love something in the vein of horror/dark fantasy/Southern Gothic!

Prompts/ideas:
     ◊ The subject of the song digs the Narrator out of his grave and brings him home. Does the Narrator grow dependent on the subject? Or vice versa?
     ◊ Take a more metaphorical approach! Maybe the Narrator is only feeling buried, figuratively, and the subject of the song "frees" him in some way...but at a price?
     ◊ Perhaps the subject is a mad scientist in the Frankenstein mold and he intends for the Narrator to provide the necessary body parts for his creature.
     ◊ The Narrator is a zombie and the subject is the person who loves him.
     ◊ Maybe the song is a metaphor for a "dead" relationship that the characters in the song just won't let die.

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes.
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Demon Host - Timber Timbre (Song)

Demon Host

The song is about a man, a non-believer, on the threshold of death, wondering what he'll see when he dies.

Metaphorical death, literal death, zombies, I'll even make an exception for vampires, all are good!

Prompts/ideas:
     ◊ The Narrator has a conversation with the Reverend.
     ◊ The Narrator has a conversation with the Demon Host.
     ◊ The reaper has come for the Narrator, but he's not ready to go.

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes.
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Pillars of Salt - Murder By Death (Song)

Pillars of Salt

Pillars of Salt comes off Murder By Death's concept album, Who Will Survive, and What Will Be Left of Them?, in which the Devil wages war on a small Mexican border town. Pillars of Salt takes inspiration from the Biblical story of Lot and his wife. The band said of the song:

We were inspired by the idea of a body falling apart. In our version, all the people who made a deal with the devil have started to slowly decompose and fall apart. They regret their decisions and wait to die. The wicked are being punished and most of the town has given up hope.

The Narrator sings that he made a deal with the Devil to escape the devastation of the town, but comes to regret it.

A character piece on the Narrator and his family, their experiences, perhaps the motivation to make a deal with the Devil, would be lovely. What does his family think of the deal he made? Do they appreciate it, at first, or were they never on board? Or what about a scene between the Narrator and the Devil as he makes his deal?

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes. I'd love something dark and atmospheric, perhaps with the townspeople turning into "pillars of salt."
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Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum - Nick Cave and the Dirty Three (Song)

Time Jesum Transeuntum Et Non Riverentum

This song was a hidden track on the X-Files "Songs in the Key of X" soundtrack.

A literal interpretation of the song, with demons and demon hunters haunted by the aftermath of their hunt, would be great! Or something more metaphorical would work too. Maybe instead of demon hunters, it's a religious group or priest(s) who grow disillusioned.

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes.
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Sax Rohmer #1 - The Mountain Goats (Song)

Sax Rohmer #1

John Darnielle wrote of the song:

there’s a feeling of menace in threat in his stories that’s kind of addictive, and the tight-frame atmosphere he crafts has a real appeal to it, especially if you’re working in a room with concrete floors and without any natural light.

He also says he grew up a fan of pulp literature, and the song is an homage to that style.

(The imagery of this song is reminiscent of this other one by Darnielle.)

Prompts/ideas:
     ◊ Spies! Narrator and Agent (the "her" of the final verse) are rival spies in love who get separated and try to find their way back to one another.
     ◊ The song's spy imagery as a metaphor for an impossible relationship!

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes. I'd love something bright and colorful, with bold lines, for this one! Maybe in a comic book style?
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Open Your Eyes - STRFKR (Music Video)

Open Your Eyes

This is a fun video! Maybe the guy and the two aliens find time for a threesome before they jet off in defeat? 👀 Or perhaps they come back because they want another chance to defeat him... or zap him to their planet so they have the advantage? Maybe he tries to tell/sell his story but no one will believe him, so he tries to get the aliens to come back to prove it?

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes. Bright, colorful, with bold lines would be great for this one!
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Secret - The Pierces (Music Video)

Secret

This is such a great, creepy video with a lot of potential.

You could go with the sort of creepy waltz/carnival/circus vibe the music inspires, or stick with the story being told through the video.

What's the blonde girl's (Cat) secret? Why is it so important that the brunette (Allison) keep it? Are they sisters? Friends? Lovers? Enemies? Is Allison just playing dead? Is she a zombie? There's also a little bit of a black swan vibe in the video with the chorus: maybe they're rival dancers whose rivalry explodes in violence? Why does it appear Cat is dressing/making Allison up to look like her? Is she planning on faking her death and running away? Is there another reason she's dressing Allison up as herself?

Art-wise, I'm not a fan of chibis but everything else goes. I'd love something dark, gothic, and atmospheric.
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Once again, I'd like to stress that my prompts/ideas are only suggestions! Don't feel constrained by them! Mix and match as you please, or come up with something completely on your own without my input. They're just meant as a guide.

You can check out my other dear author letters here for a better idea of the kind of tropes I like! If you need any clarification please contact the mods (or reach out to me, if permitted).