weakinteraction (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
weakinteraction) wrote2019-11-03 09:23 pm
weakinteraction) wrote2019-11-03 09:23 pm
Entry tags:
Yuletide 2019 DYA
Hi! Thanks for writing for me (or looking at my letter for other reasons, I guess). I'm weakinteraction on AO3 as well as here on dreamwidth, and I'm really looking forward to this year's Yuletide.
Before I go any further, I want to say that you should feel free to ignore this letter entirely if you want. As long as you avoid my DNWs (which are in the sign up), I'm very happy for you to write your own ideas. I'm a firm believer in ODAO in all directions, and this letter is only long because I like rabbiting on about my fandoms and I know that some people like details about their recip's preferencesand because I have a lot of reusable sections from previous exchanges.
More specifically, in terms of characters, you are welcome to use only some of my requested characters, or indeed none at all. (FWIW, I have requested character combinations that I'd be happy to see shipped together, and I've mentioned some shippy ideas in the prompts, but to expand on the ODAO point I want to be very clear that I am absolutely not expecting shipfic. You should also feel free to write shipfic about combinations not in my requests. I really am open to nearly anything, and I don't have any NOTPs among these canons.)
General likes
Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I am up for a wide range of types of fic, and equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale. I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, or digging into the canon's worldbuilding, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
I genuinely do like all of gen, slash, het and femslash (though for one reason or another the majority of the pairings I ship tend to end up being femslash). As a general rule when it comes to shipfic, I am more than happy to handwave that Everyone Is Bi And Poly for the purposes of fanworks. I certainly prefer this to breaking up canon pairings acrimoniously, though I'm also happy for them to just be AU-ed away. Following various discussions I've seen over the last little while, I think it's probably also worth saying that for shippy works, I am fine with unresolved pining (in fact, a good bit of angst over "we'll never be together" is one of my favourite things -- provided it's plausible that the character holds that belief), UST, unhappy endings, etc. as well as explicitly happy-ever-after type stuff. As long as at least one of the characters in the ship is clearly attracted to the other(s), it's shippy from my point of view.
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
DNWs
Captain Marvel (2019)
Requested characters: Maria Rambeau, Minn-Erva, Kree Supreme Intelligence, Carol Danvers
I've been into MCU since Iron Man, but my engagement with it stepped up enormously as a result of this film. (The finally-a-female-fronted-film thing is part of it, but tbh the '90s nostalgia is probably a bigger part; I've rarely watched a film where I owned so much of the soundtrack already.)
I'm very happy for you to write something set at any point in the timeline - before Carol gets mixed up in all this extraterrestrial stuff (and equivalently for the SI and Minn-Erva, before they'd ever contemplated Planet C-53), while Vers is in Starforce, between the end of the movie and Carol's reappearance for Endgame, or post-Endgame. On which note, do feel free to explore the Snap, either while it's in effect or the consequences after it's undone. On a slightly different note, if you happen to be into the comics, I have no objection at all you bringing in comics canon on things that the MCU has so far not explored, if it suits your story. (On which point, I know I didn't request Monica but you are *very* welcome to include her and if you do I consider Fury's "learn to glow like your Auntie Carol" line to be a huge nod in the direction of her possibly becoming Spectrum.)
There's all sorts of worldbuilding possibilities in the mix here, especially in terms of the details of how the Kree Empire works, how the SI keeps everything running, but also on Earth how Project PEGASUS ties into the bigger picture.
Shipping-wise, I have to admit that the most obvious combinations are Carol/the others, and Minn-Erva/SI, so they're the ones I'm going to mention specifically here. but if you can see ways to make other combinations work then absolutely go for it. I like sweet and fluffy Carol/Maria but I also like it with a bit more of an edge, eg exploring Maria's feelings about her having been away so long. Carol/Minn-Erva I see as much more tension that neither of them is happy with but can't deny exists. I think Carol/SI has a lot of interesting possibilities, again at multiple different points in the timeline (including Carol following through on the message she delivers via Yon-Rogg at the end). For Minn-Erva/SI, I see it in terms of a loyalty kink thing but also I'm interested in how Minn-Erva's extremely high levels of self-confidence tie into what she sees when she communes (I have a headcanon that it's herself, but don't feel bound by that).
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics)
Requested characters: Chelli Lona Aphra, Magna Tolvan
Aphra rapidly became my new Star Wars fave when I finally got round to reading the Darth Vader comics and I jumped straight onto her ongoing. I love how spiky she is, her hidden depths, her ability to bullshit her way through pretty much any situation, and her reluctant moments of something approaching morality. My fave things about Tolvan are how ambiguous she seems to feel about almost everything (the Empire, the Republic Aphra, her cybernetics) and the fact that she's quietly a tactical genius. Exploration of Tolvan's backstory very welcome if that's what you're interseted in.
Worldbuilding-wise, Aphra's "day job" as a rogue archaeologist gives lots of opportunities for digging into weird Star Wars-y ideas. (Feel free to bring in things from other branches of SW canon for her to explore if you want.)
I do ship Magna/Tolvan hard, and my shipping of it has only stepped up a notch with the way recent canon developments have turned them from fun adversaries-to-somewhat-reluctant-lovers to what's almost a feast of my favourite angsty tropes. Mindwipes, switching sides, I love you but I can't trust you, etc. are all great.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Requested characters: Corazon Santiago, Deirdre Skye
As a general note, I am extremely agnostic about Alien Crossfire; feel free to do any of ignore it, incorporate it, or borrow some elements from it while ignoring others completely.
I still love this game nearly two decades later and regularly go back to it. It's genuinely the best storytelling I've ever come across in a 4X (and the fact that so much of that storytelling plays with my favourite tropes is a bonus). I still get shivers every time the first fungus pops and the first interlude from the Book of Planet comes up when I start a playthrough. Anything at all that gets at the sense of the strangeness, difficulty but also beauty of life on a new planet would be very cool.
For this fandom, I am definitely interested in something about the relationship between the Gaian and Spartan factions, and their respective leaders. (I ship it hard, but it's fine if you don't want to go down that road.) The "canon" story that comes out in the Datalinks quotes and wonders videos implies a war where the Gaians eventually completely overrun the Spartans with mind worms, and I would definitely be up for darkfic along those lines if the inspiration strikes you.
In general, the screaming pain sphere thing that captured leaders get put in when you defeat a faction (and all the "swear a pact to serve me" stuff if you let them capitulate has quite strong BDSM-y overtones to me). But each time you play a game you get a brand new history of planet, and I don't consider the "canon" version any more or less valid than any other possibility. So I'd also be up for something similar with the tables turned and Santiago winning, or a grand alliance between the Gaians and the Spartans (cemented by the union of the two leaders?), or arguments in the planetary council (leading to hatesex?), or anything else that occurs to you.
On the other hand, I'd also be very happy with general worldbuilding stuff, especially about Planet, but I'm also always intrigued by what random citizens would make of living in the implied world, especially taking the game mechanics too literally. (e.g. what's it like to be on a workforce who were drafted in to hurry a Secret Project, only for another faction to finish it earlier that same year?)
Lady of the Shard
(This is a relatively short webcomic available for free here, takes half an hour to an hour to read.)
Requested characters: Acolyte, Old God, Radiant Goddess
I love the sort of slightly dreamy tone that permeates the story; I'm particularly fond of the way most of the art is usually very simple, almost stick-figure-y, but then the closer things get to the divine, the more detailed it becomes. All of the pairings have their own different dynamics but I think what unites them for me is this kind of feedback loop between the divine and the human; there's all sorts of interesting implications about the nature of belief buried in there, if you want to explore the more philosophical side of it. I'd be interested in pretty much anything and everything for any of these ships (and I am definitely OK with mind-control/reality-altering dubcon in the Acolyte/Old God and Old God/Radiant Goddess pairings; if you go for the threesome OTOH I see that as more redemptive and would prefer that not to go down those lines).
Some specific prompts: An external perspective (e.g. the other acolytes, a visitor from the Distant Stars, the Titans). Something post-canon about how things work in the new universe. Expansion on any of the key moments in canon, either in terms of an introspective piece about what one of the characters is feeling at that point, or filling in some of the fade-to-blacks.
Ready for It - Taylor Swift (Music Video)
Requested characters: Caged Cyborg, Hooded Cyborg
I'm very much open to worldbuilding in general about the cyborg dystopia implied in the video, but some sort of exploration of this or some other encounter between the two Taylor-Swift-cyborgs very welcome. (From a worldbuilding point of view, I am agnostic on whether they're just random cyborgs who happen to be played by Taylor Swift, or Taylor Swift the singer exists in the past of the canon and the cyborgs are modelled on her.) I really love the way everything transforms when it gets to the "in the middle of the night, in my dreams ..." bits.
Prompts: Why is the naked one in the cage? Are they on opposing sides of some conflict? Is this some sort of upgrade? Do they share some sort of computerised dreams? What happens next. Backstory about how they came to exist. Use and abuse of shapeshifting powers.
Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett
Requested characters: Berenice Grimaldi, Sancia Grado
My favourite things about this canon are the industrialised magic thing with the scriving, and the Renaissance-plus-magitech setting, which I found very effective (especially the way there are basically city-states within a city-state, but also the fact that it's all happening in the shadows of long-ago people who had much more powerful magitech).
From a worldbuilding point of view, there seems to me to be a huge amount to explore and I would be very happy for you to go for any of it, but the things that most immediately spring to mind are scriving, in general (how it hacks reality, other types of scrived devices than the ones we get shown in canon), and all the backstory with the Hierophants.
Shipping-wise, I was really rooting for Sancia/Berenice and assumed it would be a slow burn so I was thrilled canon went there so quickly. I do really like Sancia's touch starved thing and think that has a lot of potential. I'm also interested in Berenice's POV on how Sancia is very different to most of the people she'd have encountered up to now -- I would think that that's part of the attraction, but also something that might lead to misunderstandings and complications as their relationship develops.
Before I go any further, I want to say that you should feel free to ignore this letter entirely if you want. As long as you avoid my DNWs (which are in the sign up), I'm very happy for you to write your own ideas. I'm a firm believer in ODAO in all directions, and this letter is only long because I like rabbiting on about my fandoms and I know that some people like details about their recip's preferences
More specifically, in terms of characters, you are welcome to use only some of my requested characters, or indeed none at all. (FWIW, I have requested character combinations that I'd be happy to see shipped together, and I've mentioned some shippy ideas in the prompts, but to expand on the ODAO point I want to be very clear that I am absolutely not expecting shipfic. You should also feel free to write shipfic about combinations not in my requests. I really am open to nearly anything, and I don't have any NOTPs among these canons.)
General likes
Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I am up for a wide range of types of fic, and equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale. I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, or digging into the canon's worldbuilding, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
I genuinely do like all of gen, slash, het and femslash (though for one reason or another the majority of the pairings I ship tend to end up being femslash). As a general rule when it comes to shipfic, I am more than happy to handwave that Everyone Is Bi And Poly for the purposes of fanworks. I certainly prefer this to breaking up canon pairings acrimoniously, though I'm also happy for them to just be AU-ed away. Following various discussions I've seen over the last little while, I think it's probably also worth saying that for shippy works, I am fine with unresolved pining (in fact, a good bit of angst over "we'll never be together" is one of my favourite things -- provided it's plausible that the character holds that belief), UST, unhappy endings, etc. as well as explicitly happy-ever-after type stuff. As long as at least one of the characters in the ship is clearly attracted to the other(s), it's shippy from my point of view.
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
DNWs
- character or ship bashing
- non-canon-divergent AUs like coffee shops, A/B/O, etc. (canon-divergent ones, on the other hand, are a big yes as mentioned above)
- pregnancy/kidfic
- watersports/scat/emetophilia/bloodplay/breathplay/vore
- violent non-con (coercion/mind control/etc. are fine)
- incest
- underage (which I define as people under 16 having sex)
Captain Marvel (2019)
Requested characters: Maria Rambeau, Minn-Erva, Kree Supreme Intelligence, Carol Danvers
I've been into MCU since Iron Man, but my engagement with it stepped up enormously as a result of this film. (The finally-a-female-fronted-film thing is part of it, but tbh the '90s nostalgia is probably a bigger part; I've rarely watched a film where I owned so much of the soundtrack already.)
I'm very happy for you to write something set at any point in the timeline - before Carol gets mixed up in all this extraterrestrial stuff (and equivalently for the SI and Minn-Erva, before they'd ever contemplated Planet C-53), while Vers is in Starforce, between the end of the movie and Carol's reappearance for Endgame, or post-Endgame. On which note, do feel free to explore the Snap, either while it's in effect or the consequences after it's undone. On a slightly different note, if you happen to be into the comics, I have no objection at all you bringing in comics canon on things that the MCU has so far not explored, if it suits your story. (On which point, I know I didn't request Monica but you are *very* welcome to include her and if you do I consider Fury's "learn to glow like your Auntie Carol" line to be a huge nod in the direction of her possibly becoming Spectrum.)
There's all sorts of worldbuilding possibilities in the mix here, especially in terms of the details of how the Kree Empire works, how the SI keeps everything running, but also on Earth how Project PEGASUS ties into the bigger picture.
Shipping-wise, I have to admit that the most obvious combinations are Carol/the others, and Minn-Erva/SI, so they're the ones I'm going to mention specifically here. but if you can see ways to make other combinations work then absolutely go for it. I like sweet and fluffy Carol/Maria but I also like it with a bit more of an edge, eg exploring Maria's feelings about her having been away so long. Carol/Minn-Erva I see as much more tension that neither of them is happy with but can't deny exists. I think Carol/SI has a lot of interesting possibilities, again at multiple different points in the timeline (including Carol following through on the message she delivers via Yon-Rogg at the end). For Minn-Erva/SI, I see it in terms of a loyalty kink thing but also I'm interested in how Minn-Erva's extremely high levels of self-confidence tie into what she sees when she communes (I have a headcanon that it's herself, but don't feel bound by that).
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics)
Requested characters: Chelli Lona Aphra, Magna Tolvan
Aphra rapidly became my new Star Wars fave when I finally got round to reading the Darth Vader comics and I jumped straight onto her ongoing. I love how spiky she is, her hidden depths, her ability to bullshit her way through pretty much any situation, and her reluctant moments of something approaching morality. My fave things about Tolvan are how ambiguous she seems to feel about almost everything (the Empire, the Republic Aphra, her cybernetics) and the fact that she's quietly a tactical genius. Exploration of Tolvan's backstory very welcome if that's what you're interseted in.
Worldbuilding-wise, Aphra's "day job" as a rogue archaeologist gives lots of opportunities for digging into weird Star Wars-y ideas. (Feel free to bring in things from other branches of SW canon for her to explore if you want.)
I do ship Magna/Tolvan hard, and my shipping of it has only stepped up a notch with the way recent canon developments have turned them from fun adversaries-to-somewhat-reluctant-lovers to what's almost a feast of my favourite angsty tropes. Mindwipes, switching sides, I love you but I can't trust you, etc. are all great.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Requested characters: Corazon Santiago, Deirdre Skye
As a general note, I am extremely agnostic about Alien Crossfire; feel free to do any of ignore it, incorporate it, or borrow some elements from it while ignoring others completely.
I still love this game nearly two decades later and regularly go back to it. It's genuinely the best storytelling I've ever come across in a 4X (and the fact that so much of that storytelling plays with my favourite tropes is a bonus). I still get shivers every time the first fungus pops and the first interlude from the Book of Planet comes up when I start a playthrough. Anything at all that gets at the sense of the strangeness, difficulty but also beauty of life on a new planet would be very cool.
For this fandom, I am definitely interested in something about the relationship between the Gaian and Spartan factions, and their respective leaders. (I ship it hard, but it's fine if you don't want to go down that road.) The "canon" story that comes out in the Datalinks quotes and wonders videos implies a war where the Gaians eventually completely overrun the Spartans with mind worms, and I would definitely be up for darkfic along those lines if the inspiration strikes you.
In general, the screaming pain sphere thing that captured leaders get put in when you defeat a faction (and all the "swear a pact to serve me" stuff if you let them capitulate has quite strong BDSM-y overtones to me). But each time you play a game you get a brand new history of planet, and I don't consider the "canon" version any more or less valid than any other possibility. So I'd also be up for something similar with the tables turned and Santiago winning, or a grand alliance between the Gaians and the Spartans (cemented by the union of the two leaders?), or arguments in the planetary council (leading to hatesex?), or anything else that occurs to you.
On the other hand, I'd also be very happy with general worldbuilding stuff, especially about Planet, but I'm also always intrigued by what random citizens would make of living in the implied world, especially taking the game mechanics too literally. (e.g. what's it like to be on a workforce who were drafted in to hurry a Secret Project, only for another faction to finish it earlier that same year?)
Lady of the Shard
(This is a relatively short webcomic available for free here, takes half an hour to an hour to read.)
Requested characters: Acolyte, Old God, Radiant Goddess
I love the sort of slightly dreamy tone that permeates the story; I'm particularly fond of the way most of the art is usually very simple, almost stick-figure-y, but then the closer things get to the divine, the more detailed it becomes. All of the pairings have their own different dynamics but I think what unites them for me is this kind of feedback loop between the divine and the human; there's all sorts of interesting implications about the nature of belief buried in there, if you want to explore the more philosophical side of it. I'd be interested in pretty much anything and everything for any of these ships (and I am definitely OK with mind-control/reality-altering dubcon in the Acolyte/Old God and Old God/Radiant Goddess pairings; if you go for the threesome OTOH I see that as more redemptive and would prefer that not to go down those lines).
Some specific prompts: An external perspective (e.g. the other acolytes, a visitor from the Distant Stars, the Titans). Something post-canon about how things work in the new universe. Expansion on any of the key moments in canon, either in terms of an introspective piece about what one of the characters is feeling at that point, or filling in some of the fade-to-blacks.
Ready for It - Taylor Swift (Music Video)
Requested characters: Caged Cyborg, Hooded Cyborg
I'm very much open to worldbuilding in general about the cyborg dystopia implied in the video, but some sort of exploration of this or some other encounter between the two Taylor-Swift-cyborgs very welcome. (From a worldbuilding point of view, I am agnostic on whether they're just random cyborgs who happen to be played by Taylor Swift, or Taylor Swift the singer exists in the past of the canon and the cyborgs are modelled on her.) I really love the way everything transforms when it gets to the "in the middle of the night, in my dreams ..." bits.
Prompts: Why is the naked one in the cage? Are they on opposing sides of some conflict? Is this some sort of upgrade? Do they share some sort of computerised dreams? What happens next. Backstory about how they came to exist. Use and abuse of shapeshifting powers.
Foundryside - Robert Jackson Bennett
Requested characters: Berenice Grimaldi, Sancia Grado
My favourite things about this canon are the industrialised magic thing with the scriving, and the Renaissance-plus-magitech setting, which I found very effective (especially the way there are basically city-states within a city-state, but also the fact that it's all happening in the shadows of long-ago people who had much more powerful magitech).
From a worldbuilding point of view, there seems to me to be a huge amount to explore and I would be very happy for you to go for any of it, but the things that most immediately spring to mind are scriving, in general (how it hacks reality, other types of scrived devices than the ones we get shown in canon), and all the backstory with the Hierophants.
Shipping-wise, I was really rooting for Sancia/Berenice and assumed it would be a slow burn so I was thrilled canon went there so quickly. I do really like Sancia's touch starved thing and think that has a lot of potential. I'm also interested in Berenice's POV on how Sancia is very different to most of the people she'd have encountered up to now -- I would think that that's part of the attraction, but also something that might lead to misunderstandings and complications as their relationship develops.