Dear Yuletide Goat
Bless you, Yule Goat, for coming to write me something. I hope you have a lot of fun with it.
AO3 Handle: Thimblerig
General Likes and Dislikes
I like japes and humour and swashbuckling, snark and banter, bitter-sweet stories where things aren't ever really going to be okay but there's a moment to sit in the sun right now so we'll do that, and also - simple happy stories where nothing bad ever happens. I have a strong kink for non-sexual intimacy, whether that is established lovers sharing a quiet moment, two buddies forgetting that personal space is a thing, or even frenemies having a shitty argument while matter-of-factly making each other breakfast (even down to the peculiar mustard on the eggs) because they just know each other that well.
As far as sex and violence go, my comfort levels top out at about PG13. If it's part of the story then mention it, but I'd prefer it to be off-stage or suggested rather than graphic. Cleavage not nipples, as it were. I really don't like non-con.
I've read some awesome AUs in the past, so if the story you want to write takes you to canon divergence or the characters as Film Noir detectives or Space Pirates or whatever, I am down with that.
If you only want to write one of the characters I listed, or bring in a few others that you like, that's just fine.
Baldur's Gate
Phaere, Solaufein
Things I Like About the Canon
Things I've had fun with in the game - the way it can bounce from high tragedy to inane comedy and back again. The way there were hundreds of tiny stories going in the background, if you went looking. The banters that the NPCs threw at each other, full of sharp edges and flavour, that always told you a little bit about both characters. The way I could create a different PC and watch the story play out a bit differently every time.
Possible Prompts
What does life look like where the sun never shines and everybody (who counts) sees in infrared? Where children can grow well into adulthood while their parents never visibly age? Where being mean and aggressive is (probably) taught as a survival trait, and simple niceness looks like appeasement looks like weakness... By drow standards, Phaere is the admirable person - upwardly mobile, hard working, fabulous, and Solaufein is somewhere between a namby-pamby twit and a Traitor To The City That Nurtured Him. How do people speak of those two, then? How did Solaufein come to the worship of Ellistrae? How's it working out for him now? What's he going to do after quitting the city - is he going to try connecting with surface elves, or set up his own little community of dissenters? Or, if you feel like it, give me Phaere and Solaufein when they were young and foolish, when they were two plucky kids against the world; give me Phaere and Solaufein when they loved each other.
The Invisible Library, by Genevieve Cogman
Irene, Kai, Lord Vale
Things I Like About the Canon
I like the tongue-in-cheek tropiness of it and the mannered, arch dialogue that most people use. Dirigibles. The way alligators can just come through the door! It's that kind of story! The way that Irene has so many issues with Bradamant and Bradamant has them right back, but in a different way. That characters come with expansion pack pasts and, as of the end of the first book, have many mysteries yet to be plumbed. The guiding avocations of the Librarians ("'Give' books away? How very... frivolous.") That Vale flat-out called Irene on her ethics, and she didn't... really... have a good answer. The way Irene dresses so discreetly, in grays and browns to blend in, but also so neat and careful, that she's carrying a lot of badassitude under the neutral colours. That Kai slides from Streetpunk With A Heart to Courtly Gent (is the first just a disguise he was wearing? For how long and why? Or is it a true part of his nature?) The way Vale juggles sharp eyes and deduction with his weird intuition and a core of sword-steel ethics.
Possible Prompts
Given what we eventually learn about Kai's background and his feelings on family, what the everlasting frack was he doing on Shadowrun World? What's up with Lord Vale's dreamcatcher? Maybe some hurt/comfort with Irene's injured hand. Or a book retrieval caper. Several time we see Irene consciously put on her Leadership Face in a stressful situation - how does that look to the others? I was getting subtext that Irene and Kai badly want Lord Vale to like and respect them. Do they ever get competitive about that? Possessive? Do they start waxing poetic about his beautiful collections and then catch themselves with awkward coughs? On Vale's side: several times in the first book he seemed very wary of those two and the forces they represented - has he decided to trust them now, or is he still keeping a reservation about it all?
Ladyhawke
Isabeau, Navarre
Things I Like About the Canon
The gorgeous period costumes, and the wonderful landscapes and sets. The eeriness of the magical realism vs. the practicalities of keeping each other fed and clothed. Navarre's grim duty playing off the comedy of Phillipe and the priest. Man, Isabeau was pretty. The intense loyalty Isabeau and Navarre held for each other whatever shape they were in. The fear and the beauty as Isabeau fell from the tower and her screams turned to a hawk's cries. Swordfights and adventures and a mounted duel! In the church! The desperation when Navarre couldn't stop the bell ringing and he thought he'd gotten Isabeau killed. That epic, epic spinning hug that played over the end credits...
Possible Prompts
For this movie I'd be very happy with just a slice-of-life scene during the curse. But also - when they were young, what was it about those two that caught each other's eye? How was Navarre different from a hundred other knights? How was Isabeau different from a hundred other ladies? Did they do all the conventional courting things like walking in the gardens and writing poems and songs? There's a scene where Isabeau was running through the woods trying to catch rabbits - clearly she'd been picking up feral instincts. Are they going to stay once she's all the way human? Has Navarre picked up wolfy characteristics, and just hides them better? (Or maybe they pass under the traditional mannerisms of a knight.) What's the first real conversation those two have, post-curse?
Thank you again, Goat - may you have an enjoyable Yuletide.