Dear Yuletide Writer,
Oct. 13th, 2013 07:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gogollescentomfg I'm so late on this; my apologies if you, whoever you are, have already followed this link and found it vacant. But thank you! for offering one of my fandoms, for having committed yourself to be my mind slave in this one task over the next couple of months, etc. Nothing I write here should be taken as more than a vague proposal to be added to the primordial fic-soup: I like throwing ideas out, but I will be delighted with whatever story you choose to tell.
Some narrative elements I have historically enjoyed include jokes of all kinds, the power of friendship as an efficacious if not always positive force in the world, extended flights of introspection, rough sex, weird scenery, characters thinking about their loved ones in less than flattering terms, dreamy mind control, moments of humor in somber scenes, moments of melancholy in the midst of glib good cheer, and pirates. There's not much I would strongly urge you to avoid, although I would appreciate it if you skipped any lengthy and accurate conversations about feelings or relationships--as noted above, I'm happy to see the characters meditate on their emotional connection to others and their personal struggles, but, well. Talking about your issues. Who does that?? Probably a lot of people. Nevertheless. In the same vein, if you do end up writing porn for me, I'd prefer that the focus not be on negotiating kinks and safety and the like, unless you think it's absolutely necessary for the characters (and kinks) involved.
And that's it for the general info, I think. On to the fandoms!
1. The Aubrey-Maturin Series, by Patrick O'Brian
Request: I'd really like something with Stephen and Diana, or Sophie later on in the series after Diana dies. Alternatively, any sort of not-entirely-happy look at Jack and Stephen during one of the darker moments in their friendship. OR a silly space AU. See letter for... further... indecisiveness.
I like how I brazenly said "see letter" as though either letter or indecisiveness existed when I was writing this prompt. No, but seriously: I love these books, I love what might generously be termed their central sedoretu, and if I have one regret about the series it's that Diana and Sophie were so shortchanged by the later volumes. Stephen/Diana is the inequal, disastrous, mutually limiting marriage of my heart, and anything that reframes or explores their particular dynamic honestly would make me terribly happy. Sophie gets a lot less pagetime, but she has some moments of really devastating insight, the moreso because she is of all of them the most untouched by bizarre adventures on the other side of the world, and her relationships with Jack and Diana are both pretty skeletal, though suggestive. We get the clearest looks at her as a person through Stephen, resident pitiless observer and patronizing friend--that bond also begs investigation/complication, although it's more present in the text. And finally: I ship Stephen and Jack a fair bit, although I'm more interested in their peculiar mixture of intimacy and unbridgeable distance than I am in the mechanics of sex in a hammock, much as the latter have occupied my mind after some late-series enemas. They topple regimes! They get stuck in six-year time loops! They understand each other in a way that involves very little hope of change or, by about book five, increased self-knowledge as a consequence of their friendship! GOOD TIMES.
2. The Oxford Time Travel Universe (Connie Willis)
Request: Kivrin/Dunworthy is a guilty pleasure, but not one I ask you to sample; mostly, I'm just interested in their friendship, particularly in the aftermath of their respective disastrous drops.
I... yeah. I just always end up thinking about Kivrin's involvement behind the scenes in Colin's quest to rescue Dunworthy from WWII in Blackout; it seems like an inevitability to me, despite the lack of textual support. And then the reunion afterwards, with a mentor who in almost a decade hasn't changed at all--jeez, what a mess. In general Dunworthy readjusting to the 2060s after Blackout is a timeframe that appeals to me, especially if you include his interactions with various other ex-proteges and coworkers from The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Or, hell, Fire Watch, as offset from the rest of the series Bartholomew's experience is. Same goes for Kivrin post-Doomsday: I'm primarily interested in her and Dunworthy, but also in her relationship with Badri and Colin and Lupe Montoya, who looked so long and hard for her skeleton.
3. The Hilary Tamar Mysteries, by Sarah Caudwell
Request: I would eat up anything for this canon, but Hilary is my favorite, and I have a soft spot for Julia/Selena in despite of all reasonable barriers.
'Hilary is my favorite' probably does not convey the degree to which Hilary Tamar is my forever don; they are just so lazy, and pompous, and self-aggrandizing, and bad at distinguishing a hangover from a poisoning, that I could probably roll around forever in the consolation that is their POV. So there's that. Otherwise, I'm of course attached to all members of 62 New Square + Julia--Julia/Selena is, yes, my pet pairing, but I also like Julia/Ragwort a lot, and Selena/the crew. I could read an entire story of just Selena referring to the crew as the crew.
In general this canon lends itself to slightly fluffier material than my other requests, although I would love to see a more The Sibyl In Her Grave-shaded story, if you were moved to it. Shenanigans! Case law! I will probably not understand anything you put in about case law, but I will be very impressed and will appreciate the atmospheric effect.
4. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Request: Anything with the captives of Faerie--Stephen, Arabella, Emma Pole. Doesn't matter whether it's set within the timeframe of the book or outside it, at the uneasy reunion.
What it says on the tin, I guess. These three end happily, sort of, but it's a long road back to Earth/to a little barrow in Faerie, and it's not so much that any of them get what they want as it is that they get the chance to want, and act on it. Tell me about the camaraderie that sprung up during those endless midnight balls, or the creepy dubcon dancing, or the camaraderie that springs up again when the book is done and Arabella and Emma go on a voluntary expedition into Lost-hope for whatever reason. That makes it sound like I'm all about the group dynamic, but I'd be just as pleased with fic focusing on any one of these characters, or on all of them individually, as they cope with and later recuperate from their ordeal.
That's all I got. Take inspiration from or ignore these scattered directives at your leisure, and, please, have fun with satisfying my wildest desires. <3
Some narrative elements I have historically enjoyed include jokes of all kinds, the power of friendship as an efficacious if not always positive force in the world, extended flights of introspection, rough sex, weird scenery, characters thinking about their loved ones in less than flattering terms, dreamy mind control, moments of humor in somber scenes, moments of melancholy in the midst of glib good cheer, and pirates. There's not much I would strongly urge you to avoid, although I would appreciate it if you skipped any lengthy and accurate conversations about feelings or relationships--as noted above, I'm happy to see the characters meditate on their emotional connection to others and their personal struggles, but, well. Talking about your issues. Who does that?? Probably a lot of people. Nevertheless. In the same vein, if you do end up writing porn for me, I'd prefer that the focus not be on negotiating kinks and safety and the like, unless you think it's absolutely necessary for the characters (and kinks) involved.
And that's it for the general info, I think. On to the fandoms!
1. The Aubrey-Maturin Series, by Patrick O'Brian
Request: I'd really like something with Stephen and Diana, or Sophie later on in the series after Diana dies. Alternatively, any sort of not-entirely-happy look at Jack and Stephen during one of the darker moments in their friendship. OR a silly space AU. See letter for... further... indecisiveness.
I like how I brazenly said "see letter" as though either letter or indecisiveness existed when I was writing this prompt. No, but seriously: I love these books, I love what might generously be termed their central sedoretu, and if I have one regret about the series it's that Diana and Sophie were so shortchanged by the later volumes. Stephen/Diana is the inequal, disastrous, mutually limiting marriage of my heart, and anything that reframes or explores their particular dynamic honestly would make me terribly happy. Sophie gets a lot less pagetime, but she has some moments of really devastating insight, the moreso because she is of all of them the most untouched by bizarre adventures on the other side of the world, and her relationships with Jack and Diana are both pretty skeletal, though suggestive. We get the clearest looks at her as a person through Stephen, resident pitiless observer and patronizing friend--that bond also begs investigation/complication, although it's more present in the text. And finally: I ship Stephen and Jack a fair bit, although I'm more interested in their peculiar mixture of intimacy and unbridgeable distance than I am in the mechanics of sex in a hammock, much as the latter have occupied my mind after some late-series enemas. They topple regimes! They get stuck in six-year time loops! They understand each other in a way that involves very little hope of change or, by about book five, increased self-knowledge as a consequence of their friendship! GOOD TIMES.
2. The Oxford Time Travel Universe (Connie Willis)
Request: Kivrin/Dunworthy is a guilty pleasure, but not one I ask you to sample; mostly, I'm just interested in their friendship, particularly in the aftermath of their respective disastrous drops.
I... yeah. I just always end up thinking about Kivrin's involvement behind the scenes in Colin's quest to rescue Dunworthy from WWII in Blackout; it seems like an inevitability to me, despite the lack of textual support. And then the reunion afterwards, with a mentor who in almost a decade hasn't changed at all--jeez, what a mess. In general Dunworthy readjusting to the 2060s after Blackout is a timeframe that appeals to me, especially if you include his interactions with various other ex-proteges and coworkers from The Doomsday Book and To Say Nothing of the Dog. Or, hell, Fire Watch, as offset from the rest of the series Bartholomew's experience is. Same goes for Kivrin post-Doomsday: I'm primarily interested in her and Dunworthy, but also in her relationship with Badri and Colin and Lupe Montoya, who looked so long and hard for her skeleton.
3. The Hilary Tamar Mysteries, by Sarah Caudwell
Request: I would eat up anything for this canon, but Hilary is my favorite, and I have a soft spot for Julia/Selena in despite of all reasonable barriers.
'Hilary is my favorite' probably does not convey the degree to which Hilary Tamar is my forever don; they are just so lazy, and pompous, and self-aggrandizing, and bad at distinguishing a hangover from a poisoning, that I could probably roll around forever in the consolation that is their POV. So there's that. Otherwise, I'm of course attached to all members of 62 New Square + Julia--Julia/Selena is, yes, my pet pairing, but I also like Julia/Ragwort a lot, and Selena/the crew. I could read an entire story of just Selena referring to the crew as the crew.
In general this canon lends itself to slightly fluffier material than my other requests, although I would love to see a more The Sibyl In Her Grave-shaded story, if you were moved to it. Shenanigans! Case law! I will probably not understand anything you put in about case law, but I will be very impressed and will appreciate the atmospheric effect.
4. Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, by Susanna Clarke
Request: Anything with the captives of Faerie--Stephen, Arabella, Emma Pole. Doesn't matter whether it's set within the timeframe of the book or outside it, at the uneasy reunion.
What it says on the tin, I guess. These three end happily, sort of, but it's a long road back to Earth/to a little barrow in Faerie, and it's not so much that any of them get what they want as it is that they get the chance to want, and act on it. Tell me about the camaraderie that sprung up during those endless midnight balls, or the creepy dubcon dancing, or the camaraderie that springs up again when the book is done and Arabella and Emma go on a voluntary expedition into Lost-hope for whatever reason. That makes it sound like I'm all about the group dynamic, but I'd be just as pleased with fic focusing on any one of these characters, or on all of them individually, as they cope with and later recuperate from their ordeal.
That's all I got. Take inspiration from or ignore these scattered directives at your leisure, and, please, have fun with satisfying my wildest desires. <3
