Yuletide 2021 letter
Oct. 18th, 2021 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
weakinteractionHi! 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.
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; I write letters mostly because I like rabbiting on about my fandoms and I know that some people like to have details about their recip's preferences.
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. For what it's worth, I'm fine with shipfic containing 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.
In terms of the sorts of things that are covered by the optional challenges, I'm open to receiving IF, porn, worldbuilding, art and drabbles.
DNWs
Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Anatoly Sergievsky, Florence Vassy, Frederick Trumper, Svetlana Sergievsky
I'm happy for any combination of these characters to appear, from just one to all four via all points in between; you definitely don't have to include all four if you don't want to. If you're interested in going in a shippy direction, I ship pretty much all combinations of these four; in fact, one of my favourite things about the canon is the way that it isn't just a simple true-love-conquers-all story and there's no happiness not tinged with something else for anyone. I'm also OK with non-requested characters appearing prominently.
In general, anything exploring the messiness of their lives, either before, during* or after canon is very welcome here. On the future-fic front, the fact that Chess was written so close to the end of the Cold War but at a time when people had no idea that that was going to happen in that way, so soon, really intrigues me. Seeing how characters created in that sort of milieu adapt to the 1990s and beyond would be really interesting.
*Either during the events we see or in the gap between tournaments. (This is probably where it's worth saying that I find the '80s Broadway version much less satisfying for a number of reasons, so I would prefer it if you went with the two-tournaments version of the plot if it matters for what you're writing.)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Corazon Santiago, Deirdre Skye, Planet, Worldbuilding
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. (In fact, writing this letter is making me itch to fire it up again as I've got back into a 4X kick lately.) 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. On the other hand, if you do here is a link to my Press Start letter where I did specifically request the ship.) 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 worldbuilding front anything would be great, 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?) If you want more (much more) in the way of worldbuilding prompts, I have regularly requested this fandom in worldbuildingex in the past; here's a link to my letter from the last time I did.
1066 and All That
This really made me sit up and take notice when I saw it in the tag set. If you want to write this, please do feel free to go wild with whatever inspiration you might have had when you offered it; I will be sure to love it. Some possible ideas: how about exploring more modern history ("came to a ." aside) or the history of other countries in the same style? Or an in-universe review of the book? Or some student answers to the questions included throughout the book? Or even some sort of materials for teachers marking such questions, including exemplar answers but also various notes etc.? "Historical RPF" written from the book's characterisations of various people could also be a lot of fun.
Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Jones, Caine Wise, Worldbuilding
I really, really like Jupiter's transition during the film from "What? There are aliens?" to the "OK, I'm a space princess, let's do this" point where she can deal with the weird internal politics of the Abrasax family and go toe-to-toe with Balem. (FWIW, I definitely come down on the side of the ending as Jupiter taking a moment to recalibrate and reconnect with her recently-rescued-from-a-nasty-death family, not her turning her back on being the Queen of Space now; she seems pretty determined to try and stop the harvests in general to me).
Meanwhile, Caine's whole complicated backstory is practically crying out for further exploration, especially his time in the military, and whether there's anything more going on with his unusual splicing -- did the splicer who made him actually want him to rebel against the system? (I didn't request them but feel free to bring Stinger and Kiza into Caine-related plots.)
And for what it's worth I do ship it, primarily in a femdom-y way though I can readily imagine some topping from the bottom going on.
If you want to go into the space side of things, do feel free to play around with worldbuilding; this film really does it for me on that front in terms of leaving a lot of questions to be answered, but with a sense that there's some sort of general aesthetic going on behind it, even if not an outright completely coherent plan.
In general, what I'm looking for here is anything exploring the lives and/or loves and/or anything at all of these characters. Anything from a short vignette to a full-on sequel to the movie where Jupiter goes out and attempts to fix how rotten the galaxy is, or anything in between very welcome.
If you are interested in either the Jupiter/Caine shipping side or more specifics on worldbuilding ideas, my Space Swap letter from back at the start of the year might be of interest.
(Also, a quick fandom-specific note on my incest DNW: I don't object to the Abrasaxen being into Jupiter, if you decide to have them appear, as that's pretty much canon, but would rather Jupiter didn't reciprocate.)
The Avengers (TV 1961)
John Steed, Emma Peel
To be honest, I had a very hard time deciding which combination of characters to request here, but in the end I decided to go for the classic "Mrs Peel, we're needed!" combo. I am very open to Cathy or Tara appearing (either in a big adventure involving all of them, or some sort of episodic thing where Steed encounters aspects of the same problem across multiple years with different partners) and although I'm not requesting Brodny, you're welcome to include him if he fits your plot. Canon-typical shenanigans very much welcome* but I'm also open to some shippiness too.
*For what it's worth, my very favourite thing that happens in The Avengers is when they're both undercover separately and meet while both in their cover identities and have to pretend not to know each other, while simultaneously taking the chance to exchange information and take the mickey out of one another.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics)
Chelli Lona Aphra, Domina Tagge
This is another fandom where I thought long and hard about which characters to go for before plumping for just two, in this case the ones who are linked to the current status quo. I am very open to others appearing, though!
In general, I like Aphra's general failboatiness and striving to do the right thing and never quite managing to get all the way there, and the fact that despite how often things go wrong for her, she is actually very good at being a rogue archaeologist. Tagge is definitely a fine addition to the roster of Star Wars villains in the "capitalist profiting from the Empire" mould.
In general, canon-typical archaeological exploration/heist/getting out of scrapes shenanigans would be very welcome for this. For what it's worth, I do ship these two, and if you want more thoughts on that sort of thing, my Fandom Growth letter where I requested the ship specifically is here. (I will repeat what I said there that I have a specific exemption for my breathplay DNW in terms of Tagge using her sphere thingy.)
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; I write letters mostly because I like rabbiting on about my fandoms and I know that some people like to have details about their recip's preferences.
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. For what it's worth, I'm fine with shipfic containing 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.
In terms of the sorts of things that are covered by the optional challenges, I'm open to receiving IF, porn, worldbuilding, art and drabbles.
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)
Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Anatoly Sergievsky, Florence Vassy, Frederick Trumper, Svetlana Sergievsky
I'm happy for any combination of these characters to appear, from just one to all four via all points in between; you definitely don't have to include all four if you don't want to. If you're interested in going in a shippy direction, I ship pretty much all combinations of these four; in fact, one of my favourite things about the canon is the way that it isn't just a simple true-love-conquers-all story and there's no happiness not tinged with something else for anyone. I'm also OK with non-requested characters appearing prominently.
In general, anything exploring the messiness of their lives, either before, during* or after canon is very welcome here. On the future-fic front, the fact that Chess was written so close to the end of the Cold War but at a time when people had no idea that that was going to happen in that way, so soon, really intrigues me. Seeing how characters created in that sort of milieu adapt to the 1990s and beyond would be really interesting.
*Either during the events we see or in the gap between tournaments. (This is probably where it's worth saying that I find the '80s Broadway version much less satisfying for a number of reasons, so I would prefer it if you went with the two-tournaments version of the plot if it matters for what you're writing.)
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Corazon Santiago, Deirdre Skye, Planet, Worldbuilding
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. (In fact, writing this letter is making me itch to fire it up again as I've got back into a 4X kick lately.) 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. On the other hand, if you do here is a link to my Press Start letter where I did specifically request the ship.) 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 worldbuilding front anything would be great, 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?) If you want more (much more) in the way of worldbuilding prompts, I have regularly requested this fandom in worldbuildingex in the past; here's a link to my letter from the last time I did.
1066 and All That
This really made me sit up and take notice when I saw it in the tag set. If you want to write this, please do feel free to go wild with whatever inspiration you might have had when you offered it; I will be sure to love it. Some possible ideas: how about exploring more modern history ("came to a ." aside) or the history of other countries in the same style? Or an in-universe review of the book? Or some student answers to the questions included throughout the book? Or even some sort of materials for teachers marking such questions, including exemplar answers but also various notes etc.? "Historical RPF" written from the book's characterisations of various people could also be a lot of fun.
Jupiter Ascending
Jupiter Jones, Caine Wise, Worldbuilding
I really, really like Jupiter's transition during the film from "What? There are aliens?" to the "OK, I'm a space princess, let's do this" point where she can deal with the weird internal politics of the Abrasax family and go toe-to-toe with Balem. (FWIW, I definitely come down on the side of the ending as Jupiter taking a moment to recalibrate and reconnect with her recently-rescued-from-a-nasty-death family, not her turning her back on being the Queen of Space now; she seems pretty determined to try and stop the harvests in general to me).
Meanwhile, Caine's whole complicated backstory is practically crying out for further exploration, especially his time in the military, and whether there's anything more going on with his unusual splicing -- did the splicer who made him actually want him to rebel against the system? (I didn't request them but feel free to bring Stinger and Kiza into Caine-related plots.)
And for what it's worth I do ship it, primarily in a femdom-y way though I can readily imagine some topping from the bottom going on.
If you want to go into the space side of things, do feel free to play around with worldbuilding; this film really does it for me on that front in terms of leaving a lot of questions to be answered, but with a sense that there's some sort of general aesthetic going on behind it, even if not an outright completely coherent plan.
In general, what I'm looking for here is anything exploring the lives and/or loves and/or anything at all of these characters. Anything from a short vignette to a full-on sequel to the movie where Jupiter goes out and attempts to fix how rotten the galaxy is, or anything in between very welcome.
If you are interested in either the Jupiter/Caine shipping side or more specifics on worldbuilding ideas, my Space Swap letter from back at the start of the year might be of interest.
(Also, a quick fandom-specific note on my incest DNW: I don't object to the Abrasaxen being into Jupiter, if you decide to have them appear, as that's pretty much canon, but would rather Jupiter didn't reciprocate.)
The Avengers (TV 1961)
John Steed, Emma Peel
To be honest, I had a very hard time deciding which combination of characters to request here, but in the end I decided to go for the classic "Mrs Peel, we're needed!" combo. I am very open to Cathy or Tara appearing (either in a big adventure involving all of them, or some sort of episodic thing where Steed encounters aspects of the same problem across multiple years with different partners) and although I'm not requesting Brodny, you're welcome to include him if he fits your plot. Canon-typical shenanigans very much welcome* but I'm also open to some shippiness too.
*For what it's worth, my very favourite thing that happens in The Avengers is when they're both undercover separately and meet while both in their cover identities and have to pretend not to know each other, while simultaneously taking the chance to exchange information and take the mickey out of one another.
Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (Comics)
Chelli Lona Aphra, Domina Tagge
This is another fandom where I thought long and hard about which characters to go for before plumping for just two, in this case the ones who are linked to the current status quo. I am very open to others appearing, though!
In general, I like Aphra's general failboatiness and striving to do the right thing and never quite managing to get all the way there, and the fact that despite how often things go wrong for her, she is actually very good at being a rogue archaeologist. Tagge is definitely a fine addition to the roster of Star Wars villains in the "capitalist profiting from the Empire" mould.
In general, canon-typical archaeological exploration/heist/getting out of scrapes shenanigans would be very welcome for this. For what it's worth, I do ship these two, and if you want more thoughts on that sort of thing, my Fandom Growth letter where I requested the ship specifically is here. (I will repeat what I said there that I have a specific exemption for my breathplay DNW in terms of Tagge using her sphere thingy.)
