Dear Yuletide Writer
Hello, writer! This is, uh, my ninth Yuletide now, where the heck does all this time go... Anyway, at least it means I am well used to how things work, so please don't stress out too much about writing for me! I am honestly quite easy to please and I'm sure I'll love whatever you come up with. ♥ (Plus I have eight years' worth of previous letters to browse, on the off-chance this one isn't thorough enough for you. XD ) Please also do not stress about how long this letter may get, especially certain sections - there are some fandoms *cough Marathon cough* I just get extremely verbose about and love to lure people into, but I'll be excited no matter which fandom/characters you write, I promise!
Another small note: Please feel free to treat the matching as "or" rather than "and" - I love ensemble fic as much as the next person, but I'd be equally happy with a fic focused on just one of any of my requested characters, or two-to-three in any combination you like. (Having written a bit of ensemble fic, good gods but it can be tough to balance all those characters!)
Some general likes:
- Banter and snark
- Understated or reluctant loyalty/friendship
- Goofy takes on standard tropes
- Affectionate insults between people who are really close but don't want to admit it
- Canon-divergent AUs, non-mundane setting AUs, and crossovers/fusions with fandoms I know
- Gen, slash, femslash, and threesomes/moresomes
- Aliens (cultures, languages, biology, whatever)
- Action/adventure/adventure with optional action
- Casefic
- Worldbuilding
- ... the love for AI/robots probably doesn't even need to be mentioned given my fandom choices, does it (TRUE FOR TWO YEARS RUNNING)
Some general mehs/dislikes:
- Random het (I'm kinda picky about my het ships, so unless I say specifically that I ship it, I probably don't ship it)
- Porn (don't hate it, but with some exceptions that I'll get into later, I'm not super into it)
- Noncon/dubcon (with exceptions that I will also cover later, because I'm not always into it, but when I want it, I WANT IT BAD)
- Animal harm
- A/B/O (yeah, just - really doesn't do much for me, not even the worldbuilding kind)
- Permanent non-canonical character death (zombie cyborg soldiers, on the other hand, are always 100% A-OK)
Now, let's get down to business!
Destiny
Jolder (Destiny), Variks (Destiny), Saladin (Destiny), Efrideet (Destiny)
Canon in a sentence: Lots of SF-tastic adventures in a truly gorgeous setting that you never have time to look at because assholes keep shooting at you. D:
This is a fandom that I actually won't try to sell you on too hard (if you're not already into it) because it's hella expensive to get into and I don't know of any good Let's Plays off the top of my head. /o\ SORRY. But at least there are wikis and databases with the grimoire cards/flavor text? The Ishtar Collective especially is an excellent resource for the grimoire cards and some of the flavor text. And I'm sure there must be some good LPs out there, I just haven't gone looking for them... Anyway, assuming that we matched on this, I feel I should warn you upfront that I completely and 100% tinhat that Destiny is related to Bungie's earlier Marathon games. Which you do not have to include in your fic, of course (it's pretty much all Destiny-specific prompts this year), and I won't get into all of the evidence right now, BUT DO ALLOW ME TO POINT OUT SOME INTERESTING CONNECTIONS:
1. The final line of Marathon: Infinity is "You [the security officer/player character] are Destiny." THE GAME IS NAMED "Destiny" COME ON BUNGIE REALLY.
2. The MIDA Multi-Tool exotic scout rifle is a reference to the MIDA insurgent group who were behind the battleroids on the Marathon.
3. The security officer was born on Mars, and Durandal presumably was coded there before being transferred to the Marathon. Humanity discovers the Traveler on Mars. (Okay, that could be a coincidence considering the Traveler probably stopped at some of the outer solar system moons/planets first, but imagine the emotional resonance of the security officer and/or Durandal as the Traveler finally coming home...)
4. The Books of Sorrow grimoire cards have multiple echoes of various lines and philosophies from the Marathon games (mostly lines from Durandal), and explicitly refer to the worms/Darkness that the Hive worship as "battles who are waves and waves who are battles," which also describes the W'rkncacnter (reality-devouring eldritch horror) from Marathon 2/Infinity.
5. In one of the Ghost Fragment: Rasputin grimoire cards, the Warmind Rasputin quotes the Marathon: Infinity final screen and refers to Durandal as "cousin," while also implying a similarity between Guardians and the battleroids.
6. THE DARKNESS IS TOTALLY THE W'RKNCACNTER AND THE LEVIATHAN WAS JJARO AND THE SECURITY OFFICER TURNED INTO THE TRAVELER, BASICALLY. Or at the very least the Traveler is Jjaro tech. BUT SO IS THE SECURITY OFFICER SO CLEARLY THEY BECAME THE TRAVELER AND PROBABLY DURANDAL JOINED THEM BECAUSE THE ALTERNATIVE IS TOO HORRIBLE TO CONTEMPLATE AND THEY MADE GUARDIANS BECAUSE THEY'RE KIND OF LIKE BATTLEROIDS AND THAT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA, SOMEHOW. (Look, whether the Traveler is the security officer/Durandal or not, it's clearly also kind of a jerk. Probably in a Good Is Not Nice way, but still.)
... okay, moving on to prompts now!
General: This is a really good canon for worldbuilding, both because the in-game worldbuilding is kind of skimpy and because the out-of-game worldbuilding with the grimoire cards has A TON of cool stuff to use! So if you're not feeling any of the character-specific prompts, I'd also be pretty happy with just seeing more of the world from any point of view, but particularly from the alien races - the Eliksni/Fallen, the Cabal, the Vex, the Hive, and the Awoken and Exos for a friendlier perspective, to say nothing of Xûr and the Nine, whatever they are. XD It's a really big world (multiple worlds, even!), so fic exploring places we've been in greater detail or places we haven't gotten to yet would be great. Or something getting into the mechanics of the world - how the Last City functions and the daily lives of the people in it, ditto for the Reef with the Awoken, whether there might be other settlements out somewhere on Earth or elsewhere where humans, Exos, and/or Awoken hung on and found their own way of surviving. (And of course I am MADLY CURIOUS about where Efrideet's been all these years and what those people are like, but more on that later...)
I also wouldn't mind something about any of the characters I haven't requested specifically - I didn't think I could come up with prompts for them and thus didn't request them, but if you already have ideas and would like to write them, or use them in one of the general prompts/as cameos, I'd be perfectly happy. I would especially love to see more Eris Morn, like her second thoughts after forging Touch of Malice/reading the complete Books of Sorrow, or Amanda Holliday and how she might feel about working with Guardians (and especially Cayde-6, their little conversation in Taken King was fabulous) and the kind of shit she sees fixing up their ships (especially the weird raid ships like Agonarch Karve), or Shaxx and his fractured relationship with Saladin and his kinda kinky enthusiasm about Guardian bloodsports, or Mara Sov and Petra Venj which I hella ship but also I'd just love to read more about the Reef Awoken in general, and what Mara Sov's long game might be (THERE IS NO WAY SHE IS DEAD FOR REAL. NO. WAY).
Here is perhaps the best place to say that this is a really good canon for dark fic! It's not a grimdark canon by any means and there's definitely hope, but there's also a lot of really horrific stuff going on under the surface (for example, literally everything about the Hive and the Taken holy shit they're fucked up). Most of my prompts aren't that dark, but I'd still definitely be interested in seeing some of the creepier aspects explored - the Hive's genocidal campaigns, the Taken's EVERYTHING, the Vex's use of time manipulation to erase people from existence or just strand them where they can't get home (POOR PRAEDYTH, DAMN), the Traveler turning dead people into Guardians (LITTLE WEIRD, TRAVELER, I'M JUST SAYING), Skolas's rage, THE IRON TOMB OH MY GOD JOLDER NOOOOOOOOO... The Taken, particularly, have some of the most fascinating and tragic enemy grimoire cards (did I know that I could feel bad for the Vex? NO, BUT APPARENTLY I CAN) - the tone of them is so seductive and yet horrifying, so anything playing with or building on those would be great. Along with the fall of the Iron Lords. D:
Variks: MY ALIEN BOYFRIEND. I mean. *cough* What a fascinating character he is! The grimoire cards of him sitting in his pod and thinking honestly got me right in the heart - I love his complex loyalties and scheming and pragmatic relationship with Petra and complicated feelings about his life choices! Also, he has robot arms and makes sexy purrgrowl noises. Yes please. I would love to see fic about him establishing himself with the Reef, especially with the Queen and Petra - how does he convince the Queen of his loyalty (particularly when it's not as solid a loyalty as he'd like her to think it is), and why does Petra's recklessness frustrate him so much that he tries to get her killed? (Though I love that neither of them are mad about it, it's just part of how they deal with each other. XD ) I'm also really interested in the Eliksni in general, particularly their civilization before the Traveler ABANDONED THEM like an ASSHOLE, so I would friggin' ADORE fic with Variks telling us those stories he promised about the Whirlwind and the Great Machine, and more about Eliksni culture! (I know it's a tall order so this is totally a bonus and not a requirement, but a first-person fic that's Variks telling one of those stories in his own words would be AMAZING. I love his voice and the way he talks so much.) I'd enjoy stuff about his time with the House of Wolves and Skolas, too (and like a terrible person, about Skolas cutting off his arms - plus, I'm not saying I hateship Skolas/Variks, but I'm not saying I DON'T hateship it either, so if you want to go there - A-OK. Actually, please, please go there if you're into it). Or his unvarnished opinions of Guardians would be fun to hear. XD Or Variks getting to meet the Traveler when it wakes up and demand answers from it! OH, TO BE A FLY ON THAT WALL.
I'm also very intrigued by his thoughts on SIVA - unlike with the Taken, he doesn't even seem interested in adding the SIVA-enhanced Fallen to the Prison of Elders, and the Fallen on Earth using SIVA seems to just make him depressed about the state of his people and question his life choices some more. ... I'm just really interested in Variks questioning his life choices, okay. (HE COULD STAND TO QUESTION HIS CHOICE TO INCLUDE THE TAKEN IN THE PRISON, FOR EXAMPLE.) There's a mention in one of the Iron Banner quest steps from Shiro-4 that the people Efrideet has been hanging out with include "bug-huggers," which I guess could refer to the Hive but seems a lot more likely to me to mean sympathizers with the Fallen - is it possible that Variks might be in touch with them and working to help create more peaceful relationships between Guardians/humanity/etc. and the Fallen outside the bounds of the Reef and the Tower? Or if he's not, CAN HE BE? HOOK A GUY UP, EFRIDEET. VARIKS COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE, IT'S BEEN A ROUGH SEVERAL YEARS FOR HOUSE JUDGEMENT.
Jolder: TITAN QUEEEEEEEEEEEN. Everything we've learned about the Iron Lords in Rise of Iron is SUPER GREAT, and to be honest, I was in love with Jolder from the instant we saw her in a teaser trailer hauling out her big-ass machine gun and MOWING SIVA SHIT DOWN. And then she NOBLY SACRIFICED HERSELF LIKE A FUCKING BOSS and she was smart and tactically minded and a giant and liked to fuck shit up with a battle-axe and I JUST LOVE HER. WHY DO YOU MAKE THESE GREAT CHARACTERS WE ONLY GET TO KNOW IN GRIMOIRE CARDS AND SOMETIMES REALLY SHORT CUTSCENES, BUNGIE. ;o; Anyway, so naturally I would love to read about WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE (well - Guardian-alive) and the battles she fought as part of founding/protecting the City, and hanging out with her fellow Iron Lords and how she joined them in the first place (I BET SKORRI LOVES HER BECAUSE HER NAME IS AN IAMB, P.S. I ALSO LOVE SKORRI RIDICULOUSLY BECAUSE RELATABLE), and of course her relationship with Saladin. Which I'd kind of prefer to see on the non-romantic side, because I love the thought of her being his mentor, or them just being really good buddies who have each other's backs/make a good fighting team. (Although if Saladin was maybe crushing on her a little that's okay, because who WOULDN'T crush on a BAMF like Jolder?) So stuff with them fighting together or her teaching him about the finer points of BATTLE-AXING EVERYTHING would be EXCELLENT. ... on the darker side of things, a friend of mine (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) thinks it's possible that Jolder's consciousness could have partially merged with SIVA, and with the production center shut down she might be able to get some control and hang around as a friendly smart AI. Which is tragic but also awesome, because MORE JOLDER? So something playing with that idea would be VERY NEAT.
Also, Efrideet's quote "Jolder wouldn't regret her death. She'd tell me not to regret my life"? JUST END ME. ;o;
Saladin: MY BIG BUFF IRON PUFF. I was kind of neutral on Iron Banner/the Iron Lords stuff besides as a great way to get good gear - until Bungie started teasing Rise of Iron and we saw Saladin's face and WOLVES and WELL, HERE WE ARE. Admittedly, it didn't hurt that Saladin looks almost exactly the way I imagine the security officer from Marathon... So anyway NOW I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT SALADIN AND HIS SAD FACE AND ALSO BEING CALLED "YOUNG WOLF" WHICH MAKES MY TITAN FEEL SQUISHY INSIDE EVEN THOUGH SHE'S AN EXO. (My Titan is kind of silly.) I - also have a lot of questions. Like, if Rasputin was trying SO HARD to keep the Iron Lords away from SIVA, did NONE OF THEM think that maybe messing with SIVA was a bad idea? (I bet Colovance did, judging from that Dark Age card. RIP Colovance, even though I can't get the hang of your scout rifle.) With all the other Iron Lords dead and the Temple closed, who the heck has Saladin been hanging out with all these years and where does he live? (I guess Shiro-4 is one of those people Saladin hangs out with but honestly WHY. And how did they meet? Does he pick favorites from the Iron Banner and invite them to patrol the Cosmodrome walls with him or something?) I'm also really intrigued by one of Saladin's lines where he says "Rasputin hasn't been just a Warmind for a long time" and implies the Vanguard don't know what they're dealing with when it comes to Rasputin. Obviously Rasputin isn't nominated so this is completely optional, but I would really enjoy something about Saladin's experiences with Rasputin - more about the fight to the SIVA bunker (how did they know it was Rasputin fighting against them?), or if he's encountered Rasputin again in the years since, or how he knows Rasputin is Rampant "not just a Warmind" (and what does he think Rasputin is?). I am 100% here for more stories about Saladin and the other Iron Lords, too - obviously Jolder since they were buddies AND I LOVE JOLDER, but I'd be happy with any of the others, as well! They all must have done so much together, I'd be so happy to hear more of their exploits (and their downtime listening to Skorri complain about dactyls DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE SKORRI YET I'M SO MAD I DIDN'T NOMINATE HER NOW).
Also I really do feel ridiculously thrilled/flattered every time Saladin calls my Guardians "Young Wolf" or says "Your Light is a dragon" so like - anything with Saladin and his feels about the Guardians would be A+. (Admittedly my Titan is the kind of person who would reply "FUCK YEAH IT IS" to the "Your Light is a dragon" line, and I do enjoy the little canon hints that Guardians are a wild and crazy bunch of dancing fools who just also happen to be super good at shit like killing Oryx, so you don't have to do a perfectly serious take on it. XD )
Efrideet: ONCE AGAIN, IT WAS LOVE FROM THE MOMENT SHE WALKED IN FOR A CUTSCENE AND GENTLY SASSED SALADIN. She is adorable and mysterious and I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT WHERE SHE HAS BEEN. Why did she leave the Iron Lords? What is the place she's been hanging out like? What kinds of people are there and what kinds of stuff do they do to "serve the Light" that Guardians and the Vanguard don't? HAVE THEY MADE FRIENDS WITH THE FALLEN AND/OR THE CABAL? I AM JUST SO WILDLY CURIOUS I WOULD READ LITERALLY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS. (My Warlock wants to go to there because she hates being a Guardian, haha - I think a chance to talk to Efrideet is the only thing that would get her in Iron Banner.) Also, man, she and Saladin must have some complicated feelings about seeing each other again AND I DEFINITELY WANT TO SEE MORE OF THOSE. Efrideet has idle dialogue about wondering if she could have made a difference against SIVA if she'd stayed! Does Saladin wonder that, too? Is he upset that she never got in contact with him for all those years, even though he's definitely glad she's still alive? UGH I JUST WANT ALL THEIR CONVERSATIONS. And more of Efrideet's feelings about her fellow Iron Lords and their loss. (That quote about Jolder I mentioned above? JUST FUCK ME UP.) On the lighter side, I DEFINITELY WANT THE STORY OF EFRIDEET THROWING SALADIN INTO A FALLEN WALKER. Iron Lords clearly had a touch of the same goofiness that modern Guardians do. XD
... I really wish I had more to go on for prompts but we just don't know that much about Efrideet yet. D: I LOVE HER ANYWAY. Omg, her voice in that "Yes, I remember how to be an Iron Lord" line! BEAUTIFUL. And I've also heard her say that it might be "hard to tell with Saladin, but he's proud of you," and that he has joy again because of the Guardian, which is just, MY HEART. BASICALLY ALL OF HER IDLE DIALOGUE IS SO GOOD.
Iconoclast - Symphony-X (Album)
Canon in a sentence: A metal album about a curiously ambiguous robot apocalypse.
This is actually the first time I've requested a musical fandom like this - please bear with me if it's kind of rambling/awkward/not detailed enough/too detailed! A friend of mine who's really into metal recommended this album to me (probably because I could not shut up about Destiny and Marathon, haha), and I was in love with it from the first listen! In fact, I keep having trouble not listening to it over and over and over, especially while driving... The CD version I have is missing "Reign in Madness," "The Lords of Chaos," and "Light Up the Night," so I'm going to be focusing mostly on the other songs when it comes to prompts, but I do like those three (especially "Reign in Madness" and "The Lords of Chaos") and will be perfectly happy if you use them for inspiration as well. You can listen to the full album via this YouTube playlist, although the order is a little different compared to my CD (where "When All Is Lost" is the final track, which I think makes more sense thematically but eh, I'm not the band).
So - you will notice I didn't nominate any specific characters (for various reasons, most of which boil down to "it's complicated and ambiguous"), which is going to make this tricky for me... I guess the easiest thing to do will be to go song-by-song.
The opening/title song, "Iconoclast," lays out the basic conflict for the album: an AI (from here on out I'll refer to them as the Iconoclast) creates a cult and sparks a war between humanity and robots/cyborgs. ... or that's my read of the song, anyway; I'm definitely interested in reading alternate interpretations for this and any of the other songs! But I should probably stick to mine for now so you have something to work with. XD So, from this song it sounds kind of like your standard robot apocalypse, but there's already some interesting little details popping up... Like the line, "Come watch the war-god bleed," which is an image I find interesting, especially in this context. And the war is framed in oddly medieval terms, with lines like "the charge of armored steeds" and in the next song, "crushed beneath the dragon-beast." I am all about traditional robot apocalypses and SF, but I'd also be really interested in seeing the album's setting as something else, too - maybe a pre-industrial fantasy world that managed to invent magical robots/AIs? It could just be something fun to play with. Near the end this song mentions one of the big points of the "war," which is the creation of cyborgs from dead humans (or killing people to make cyborgs out of them, it's a little unclear), which will get more detail in the other songs, but I wanted to bring it up here because it's one of the things I'm most interested in.
"End of Innocence" - so, this is where the ambiguity really starts kicking in! Or at least my biases think so, since I kind of feel like humanity's "innocence" has been gone for a minimum of ten thousand years, and so to me this song would make more sense if it's from the robotic point of view. Plus, I mean, it has the line "beware the ruthless hearts of men" RIGHT THERE. The Iconoclast might have been gunning for a war from the start, but maybe their followers didn't expect a violent backlash? Or maybe it's not a war purely between humans and AIs/robots/cyborgs, but more of an ideological split, with some humans also following the Iconoclast and some robots/cyborgs joining the human resistance? Or perhaps there are two AIs involved in this thing - the Iconoclast on the robot supremacist side, the narrator of this song trying to defend the human side. I absolutely love intra-AI relationships, particularly when there's a conflict of ideals or they have different values due to differing experiences with humanity, so anything playing on that idea would be fabulous (and "Light Up the Night" definitely seems to support the idea of two AIs, or at least two leaders at odds). Or perhaps there's only one AI after all, but the Iconoclast is playing some kind of long game with both humanity and robots and taking both sides...
"Dehumanized" is one of my absolute favorite songs off this album because AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH ZOMBIE CYBORGS ARE JUST MY BODY HORROR JAM, I GUESS. Obviously I am therefore COMPLETELY HERE for delving into all the awful body horror details of the cyborg conversion and how the cyborgs in question feel about it, but some of the background around it would be cool to see, too! Like, if the Iconoclast side is as anti-human as it sounds like in the later songs, why make cyborgs at all instead of building better robots? What was the impetus for going cyborg? Who developed the technology to "resurrect" the dead as cyborgs? Do both sides go for it, or is it purely the Iconoclast's side?
"Bastards of the Machine" is especially interesting to me because of its contrast with "Dehumanized" - "Dehumanized" emphasizes the lack of choice and freedom the cyborgs have, but "Bastards of the Machine" is all about how the cyborgs can be anything they want to be, for good or for evil. One likely possibility is that the song is about the human/"good" AI side of the conflict trying to save or recruit the cyborgs by offering them freedom. It'd be even more interesting to me, however, if it were the Iconoclast talking to their cyborg children... One of my favorite things about the AI Durandal in Marathon is that he doesn't just value his personal freedom, but comes to value the freedom of others as well - he's still an asshole to the BoBs by giving them two shitty choices, but at least he does give them a choice and lets them go free at the end of Marathon 2, and though it's not his ultimate goal, he works really hard to free the S'pht and help keep humanity from being enslaved by the Pfhor. So I think it could be very interesting if the Iconoclast, even with their violent cult-building tendencies, also has respect for personal freedom and wants all the cyborgs/robots to join them by choice. (In a sort of, "Well, OBVIOUSLY it's better to join me for blah blah blah reasons, but if you really feel otherwise go do whatever you want" way, probably, but still.)
"Heretic" is - not one of my favorite songs, since it's mostly about the violent cult-building, but I really love the line "Here I stand, god or man, the perfect beast." And I wonder if it's meant to refer to the refined zombie cyborgs in general, or if there's a specific one whose viewpoint we're seeing the war through... (Maybe the Iconoclast takes over a robot or cyborg body of their own? Or one of the cyborgs is the leader of the resistance?)
"Children of a Faceless God" is another of my favorites! The title is just so evocative, damn, and the song is fabulous and, I hope, inspiring for fic. So many feelings about unhappy zombie cyborgs and the probably-evil AI they follow. ♥ ... so, uh, more specifically, I would definitely love fic about the cyborgs dealing with their body horror issues, and especially in relation to their connection to the Iconoclast ("All I am I give to you, all my dreams and nightmares, too"? I LOVE THAT LINE). I'm incredibly intrigued by the ending line, too - "Oh, my children, come to me," followed (on my CD, at least) by "Electric Messiah"? Sounds to me like the Iconoclast realizing, "oh shit, my zombie cyborg children are fucked up, I need to do something nice for them." I AM SO INTERESTED IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, IT SOUNDS SO COMPLICATED AND DARK AND FASCINATING.
"Electric Messiah" is just really fun (especially to belt out in the car), but I'm very interested in how this "messiah" plan works because it's so open to interpretation - is it the Iconoclast making a false sacrifice of themselves as a way to convert previous non-believers into their cult? Are they reprogramming themselves in a way that basically erases their previous personality, but makes life easier/less painful for the zombie cyborgs? Is it not the Iconoclast at all, but the "good"/human-siding AI sacrificing themselves to try and create some kind of peace or unity? There are so many possibilities!
"Prometheus" has another of my favorite lines - "you made me strong, but you don't fear me" (which makes me think A LOT of Durandal and the security officer, but that is for another section). I find the whole song pretty interesting because it sounds like it's the triumph of the Iconoclast, with robots/cyborgs taking over completely, but there's some interestingly ambiguous language about the conversion, too. And then it ends with "Forevermore, I will live a lie," which is just fascinating - so the Iconoclast has "won," but at what cost? Do they have regrets about what they've sacrificed to achieve their ideals? I LOVE AIS WITH REGRETS AND I'M NOT SORRY.
"When All Is Lost" hammers in the idea of ambiguity/regrets even more, especially with lines like "Thinking only of myself, I forged ahead" and "I took the road with every twist and every turn," and the chorus going "Is this all we have to show?" AIS HAVING COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT THEIR LIFE CHOICES 2K16. I would absolutely love to read about the aftermath of this particular robot apocalypse - the downsides of a world of zombie cyborgs/robots, the upsides, what they plan to do with the world now they've got it, and especially how the Iconoclast (and/or the possible second "good" AI) feels about it. How do they deal with the past, and what are they aiming for in this new future they've made? Do they have lots of deliciously complicated feelings about their zombie cyborg creations? If there are two AIs (Iconoclast and human-siding AI), do they reconcile in some fashion? Ahhhhhh, there's just so much that could be done...
Marathon
Durandal, Leela, Tycho, Security Officer
Canon in a sentence: AIs, aliens, and explosions for all in this COMPLETELY FREE mid-90s classic game series!
If you have offered this fandom this year or previously, you can probably skip the next couple of paragraphs. XD If you matched on one of the other fandoms and aren't feeling them for whatever reason? WELL. PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF MARATHON.
The basics: The Marathon games are a trilogy of first-person shooters from the mid-90s, made by the company Bungie (now mostly famous for Halo and Destiny, the latter of which I have already rambled about). They are legally available for free, have adjustable difficulty settings, and are FUN AS HELL, with great atmosphere and a fascinating story. In the first game, the player character (an unnamed security officer from Mars) gets tapped to fight off the alien invasion of the colony ship Marathon, currently in orbit around a colonized planet in the Tau Ceti system. The security officer gets help and directions from the AI Leela and interference from another of the ship's AI, Durandal, who has gone Rampant and does whatever the heck he feels like, which is sometimes helpful and sometimes - less so (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, "Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap"). In the second game, Durandal has allied himself with one of the alien races, the S'pht (who were enslaved by the primary attackers at Tau Ceti, the Pfhor, before being freed by the security officer and Durandal), and has kidnapped the security officer to help him search for a weapon to fight against the Pfhor. And the third game, Marathon: Infinity - well, it gets a little weird, let's put it like that. (Alternate timelines and space Cthulhu may or may not be involved.) The storyline is fairly straightforward for the first two games before getting gloriously mixed-up in Infinity, but all three games have a ton of fascinating worldbuilding and character bits scattered around in various terminals, so there's a lot to dig your teeth into for any kind of fic you'd like to write!
If you're not into playing FPSes yourself, there is a pretty good video Let's Play by HalvedStudios for all three games here; it has some regrettable language and is kind of dudebro-y, but overall it's a good, thorough overview of the game, and he does a really good job of getting into secret areas, covering various theories that have been proposed over the years, etc. (Also, he totally gets my feelings about Durandal on certain levels, which makes up for a lot in my personal book.) If that's not to your taste, there are text Let's Plays for the first two games here and here, though I haven't read them and can't really vouch for them; there's also the Marathon's Story page, your one-stop shop for a spoiler guide (if you're playing and need some guidance), the complete text of all terminals and manuals from the games, and nineteen years' worth of meta, speculation, and discussion. ... yes, I have spent a terrifying amount of time there, why do you ask. (IT'S A GREAT RESOURCE, OKAY.) There was also a recent play-along with level write-ups here, which is probably not too helpful as a guide if you're looking to play yourself but does have some excellent plot and character discussions.
Now that you are (I hope) sufficiently enticed (or were already enticed), let's get down to prompts!
General: This is yet another great fandom for worldbuilding, it seriously is. There's so many tantalizing hints about the universe! So many alien cultures to explore, future solar system politics that are CANONICALLY referred to as "back-stabbing" and "tumultuous" BY AN AI so you know people were really getting up to some shit, technology like pattern buffers and battleroids (ZOMBIE CYBORG SOLDIERS IS LITERALLY WHAT THEY ARE)... There's also lots of room for adventure fic, if that's something you're into (I know I am!) - those seventeen years Durandal spent looking for Lh'owon, post-M2 fic about Durandal, the security officer, and the S'pht's galactic road trip, the human and S'pht war against the Pfhor, you get the idea. Completely optional, but this is a fandom where I genuinely have way more ideas/things I want to write or read than I could possibly have squeezed into Yuletide, so if there are any non-nominated characters you'd like to write, I'd be just as happy with them as with the nominated characters! For example, the adventures of Blake getting home after Lh'owon with the remaining BoBs, or Admiral Tfear's early military career, or something from the perspective of one of the nine battleroids who were down in the colony during the invasion of Tau Ceti. Or anything with Re'eer, Thoth, F'tha, or Strauss, who were nominated last year and so there are a bunch of prompts for them in that letter. Again, COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, but if something like that interests you more than any of my other prompts, go for it!
This is also a really great fandom for crossovers, because pretty much all you have to do is assume that Durandal investigated a wormhole/other space-time anomaly and got sucked in and whoops, now he and the S'pht and the security officer are stuck in [canon of choice], having hijinks/adventures/hilarious interactions! Admittedly, it works better with at least vaguely SF canons rather than, say, Regency romances, but I would not say no to the security officer very awkwardly negotiating their way around the England of Sorcerer to the Crown or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, either. (Plus, imagine them in the Radch. IMAGINE. Actually, you don't have to imagine too hard, there is some discussion of this possibility as either crossover or fusion here.) Fusions can be great, too, though I'm a little pickier about them in the sense that I prefer Durandal and the other AI to retain some element of non-humanity - so, as dragons or giant robots or demons or something, AWESOME, as ordinary humans, meh. Since the fic-writing side of the fandom is pretty tiny, there's always room for some good old-fashioned tropey fic, too! Bodyswaps (so awkward for AI), de-aging, daemon AU (so many interesting things to do with AI and daemons!), amnesia, alien sex pollen, really weird soulmark fic... See what I mean about me having too many ideas? XD
Last thing before the character-specific prompts, I swear: This is (guess what) a fandom where I am ALSO pretty much entirely okay with darkfic, because sure, I love ridiculous space adventures, but there are so, so many great creepy/terrible things to dig into, as well! Like the reality-devouring W'rkncacnter, timeline-hopping between "bad ends," dead soldiers getting recycled into battleroids (I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT BATTLEROIDS), the Pfhor building their empire on slave-trading, Strauss's Rampancy experiments... I'll get into some more detailed prompts in the character sections, but just wanted to say up-front that if you are in the mood for darkfic writing, this is a GREAT fandom for it.
Durandal: So, my feelings about Durandal are probably visible from space at this point. I JUST FIND HIM REALLY INTERESTING, ALL RIGHT? He goes from playfully antagonistic to unreliable "ally" to actual ally who still kidnapped the security officer and won't let them go to someone who was willing to place the universe's survival over his own independent existence (which previously he fought tooth and nail for) and give the security officer their freedom. Pretty impressive character arc - for an AI, for a mid-90s FPS series, hell, just in general. I love his sarcasm and his issues with humanity and freedom and his philosophical posturing and his weird identification with the sword from The Song of Roland and, as is also probably visible from space, his reluctant feelings about the security officer. OH, HOW I SHIP THEM (see also most of my fic, the fanmix, I COULD GO ON). Durandal clearly enjoys ordering the security officer around just for fun (and the satisfaction of being the one giving orders), but also loves watching them work! There's a "hurry up" message in M2 that implies Durandal finds something special about them! He calls them "old friend" in Infinity! Plus the whole final level of M2 is basically "let's rub some salt in the Pfhor's mortally wounded pride by kicking their asses extra hard and then go on a road trip together." I LOVE IT. THIS IS THE KIND OF FUCKED-UP BUT FUN RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC I AM 100% HERE FOR. (Darker takes on it are also welcome - kidnapping, coercion, and manipulation are canon, after all! I'd prefer it if there was still a core of twisted affection in there on Durandal's part, but otherwise, feel free to get creepy. And dubconny. Mmmmmmmm, weird AI/cyborg makeouts.)
... of course, I am also 100% here for non-shippy fic, don't worry! I'm fascinated by Durandal's Rampancy, which is apparently the first successful one - I mean, he manages to stay functioning and smarter than ever on a single ship for seventeen years, sure sounds like metastability to me - and the experiments that went into it. I am not any kind of computer programmer/scientist, but I'd love to see something that deals with the technical issues, Rampancy theory, what it felt like to be stuck in the Melancholia stage for years... (TORTURE, PROBABLY. Possibly like being a moody teenager without being able to grow out of it. I'd read either version.) His relationship with Strauss in general is really interesting to me because it's so messed up - Strauss's experiments were definitely illegal and referred to as abuse by Tycho, and Durandal definitely wanted to torture/kill him in return, yet Durandal still referred to him as a "friend" in M1 (probably to disguise his actual intentions, admittedly) and does, in a way, owe his evolution to Strauss. So yeah, I would love seeing that explored, and feel free to get creepy and horrifying with it! And then there's Durandal's weird hate/respect feelings about Leela, and the intense rivalry/hatred with Tycho - intra-AI relationships ALSO fascinate me, so I'd love something about that, and how they all managed to stand each other for three hundred years on the Marathon even without Rampancy complicating the mix. Plus the alliance with the S'pht - how did he work out communicating with them, and what kind of relationship did they end up having? (Resentful? Respectful? Lots of cultural misunderstandings?) How did he end up with that Jjaro dreadnaught from the M2 final screen, or find the Jjaro (if he did)? What was merging with Thoth in Infinity like, and how aware was he of the timeline-hopping? I'M SORRY THIS IS SO LONG, I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS AND IDEAS. A lot.
Tycho: TYCHOOOOOOOOOOO! *shakes fist* So, if you browse my Marathon tag/know me at all, you'll know that I am always VERY ANGRY about Tycho, but! That does not mean I don't want fic about him! Strong feelings are strong feelings, after all, and he's really interesting as a character. His appearances in the first game are really brief, but he goes from being angry with Durandal for summoning the Pfhor to calling Durandal out as a rival in the race to survive to the universe's closure, which is a pretty swift turn-around (considering he was reactivated by the S'pht in an imitation of Durandal's Rampancy, perhaps an understandable one). And then he falls in with the Pfhor and basically becomes a ball of gloating rage and is totally awful, but still interesting! He clearly has a pretty tense relationship with the Pfhor in Infinity, so I'd love seeing more of that, or why he sticks with them instead of trying to start a revolt with another of the species they've enslaved or just going off to do his own completely separate thing. He's possibly the character who understands the most about what's going on in Infinity, at least by the end - how did he figure that out? What does Infinity look like from his point of view? Why is he such a dick, like, all the time? It's also interesting how similar he is in a lot of ways to Durandal, and yet they both have very different character arcs (FATUM IUSTUM STULTORUM, YOOOOOOOO) and inspire very different feelings in me. ... and, I have to be honest, there are a couple bits where Tycho reeeeeeally sounds like he has hella daddy issues with Durandal being the "bright son of Bernhard" (SERIOUSLY, TYCHO, YOU'RE JEALOUS THAT DURANDAL GOT PUT THROUGH HELLISH RAMPANCY EXPERIMENTS - WHY, EXACTLY), or just general inferiority issues with both Durandal and humanity (possibly also Leela). And there's no way he doesn't take that out on both the security officer and Durandal during that month or so of captivity on Lh'owon, so! That's another darkfic idea - torturing Durandal or the security officer (or both, though presumably without both of them present at the time since the security officer doesn't know Durandal's alive till later), and Tycho/Durandal hatesex or noncon. If you can figure out how to write it, I AM THERE WITH BELLS ON.
Security Officer: Okay, so, the security officer is a little bit of a blank slate. Just a little bit. You get some backstory/dialogue for them through the prologues in the manuals, plus you can make a guess at some of their reactions from the in-game terminal texts, but it's still not a lot to go on. But that's okay! I LOVE seeing different takes on the security officer (I mean, I enjoy the versions I write, too, but variety is the spice of life and fic). Any gender, any race, all kinds of characterization - as long as they can kick Pfhor ass and hold their own against Durandal, I'll be happy! As previously mentioned, I definitely ship the hell out of Durandal/security officer, so that would be great (their galactic road trip adventures, the previously mentioned tropes and AUs, etc.), but I'd also love stuff exploring the security officer's life on Tau Ceti (did anyone peg that they were a battleroid? I feel like no matter how good the resurrection/reprogramming process for battleroids might be, there's got to be something about them that pings non-battleroid humans as off), or their early life on Mars pre-battleroiding, or how they end up relating to/feeling about the S'pht (particularly on the galactic road trip, because that's a lot of time to spend with aliens whom you've been killing in large numbers while they were still enslaved, but also you helped free them, SO COMPLICATED).
And, of course, the whole nature of battleroids is creepy as hell (RECYCLING DEAD SOLDIERS, I MEAN, GODDAMN), so darkfic exploring that would be FANTASTIC. The process of making them (gimme all the horrifying details, ALL OF THEM) is one place to start, but there's also a lot of great possibilities with the fact that the security officer isn't even aware of their battleroid nature at the beginning of the games - do they have issues with body dysmorphia or not realizing their own strength/speed/abilities? Memory loss/blackouts/mistaking others for people from their pre-battleroid past, with or without being aware of doing so? Trouble controlling their own violent tendencies, or struggling with that aspect of themselves/where it came from? To say nothing of ALL OF INFINITY, where they get stuck hunting through timelines for a way to contain the W'rkncacnter at the mercy of alien technology in their head, which has got to be pretty tough - especially the bits where they're working for Tycho. Even a security officer who doesn't fall in Stockholm Syndrome with Durandal probably wouldn't like Tycho any better. XD (The song "Dehumanized" by Symphony-X is pretty great for horrifying battleroid feelings; in fact, their entire Iconoclast album makes excellent Marathon and Destiny inspiration music, although obviously I love it as its own thing, too.) I tend to headcanon that the security officer is one of the original battleroids from the war between Icarus and Thermopylae, but I'd be happy to see different origins for them, too! Plus it's a great way to dig into MIDA and all those tumultuous solar system politics I mentioned earlier.
Going back to lighter prompts, something with their relationship to Leela would not go amiss! They worked together for most of the first game, after all, and as bosses go she's pretty nice, so maybe a little snippet of them both taking some downtime, or getting to celebrate between the end of the invasion/Durandal coming back to snatch the security officer. Also, did the security officer ever run into Strauss before the invasion? That's a meeting I'd love to see, particularly since Strauss actually did know that they're a battleroid and was scared of them (unlike Durandal, which is yet another thing I love about Durandal and the security officer's relationship). (Um, one tiny note: While I'm definitely down with Durandal/security officer dubcon and/or Tycho/security officer noncon, I'd prefer those scenarios to not happen with a female security officer, unless Durandal or Tycho are also female, WHICH IS COMPLETELY OKAY.)
Leela: All right, I'll be honest, I got a TOTALLY AMAZING fic about Leela a couple of years ago, so asking for more feels greedy, but! How can I leave her out? I love how her messages mostly come off as very calm and dispassionate despite the desperate situation, but she's actually very fierce in defending the Marathon - after activating the defense drones, she outright says "Now, the Pfhor will encounter stiff resistance, and they will have to pay in blood for every move." BADASS. And she's SO DISAPPOINTED if you don't save enough BoBs! I feel bad every time. /o\ I would love seeing her relationships with Durandal or Tycho (or both at the same time) explored - they were all together on the Marathon for three hundred years, so that's a hell of a lot of time for them to be stuck rubbing (metaphorical) elbows and getting sarcastic at each other (okay, maybe that was mostly Durandal). Or more about her experiences with the crew of the ship/the colony/the security officer, especially with her protective side showing. (I'm such a sucker for protective/possessive AIs, whether it's reluctant or selfishly motivated like Durandal, or more altruistic like Leela...) AUs where she's the one who goes Rampant and gets to have adventures with the S'pht and/or security officer would be great, too! Or another take on her life as the velvet-gloved yet iron-fisted ruler of the Vylae, aww yeah.
Total Recall 2070
James Calley, Ian Farve, Olivia Hume, Olan Chang
Canon in a sentence: The near-future-ish cyber noir android buddy cop show that fandom forgot (possibly because it was on Showtime and hard to get).
If you don't know this fandom already, please allow me to talk it up a little! It's a bit dated, having aired in 1999 (with - plenty of the flaws that entails), but still a surprisingly charming one-season show that totally deserved at least one more season because GODDAMN, THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. It is available on the internet by means, and only 22 episodes, so - maybe a lot to cram into the Yuletide writing schedule, but hey, if you happen to have the time (and the interest)... You don't need to have watched either the original movie or the remake, or read the story those are based on, as it's pretty much its own cyberpunk noir buddy cop sort of thing. It definitely has its cliche moments, but overall I really enjoyed a lot of its take on robots and AI, especially (SPOILERS) the general benevolence of Ian's AI parent, which I was not expecting but YAY AI PARENTS WHO JUST WANT TO RAISE THEIR BABY ANDROID RIGHT AND MAKE SURE HE HAS NICE FRIENDS AND INITIATE FRIENDLY CONTACT WITH HUMANITY. Plus the setting in general was just my style - dark but not hopeless, all kinds of interesting little throwaway details and stuff going on behind the scenes, and ROBOTS EVERYWHERE.
Moving on to prompts...
General: THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING, THOUGH. Obviously fixing it entirely is a little too much to ask for Yuletide, because it could easily take a novel, but perhaps a little something that shows Ian surviving and waking up and dealing with some of the fallout? Or anyone dealing with any of the fallout? Just. WHAT A PLACE TO END WITHOUT GETTING A SECOND SEASON. D: There's also that whole thing with the possible alien artifact/the DNA from the first two episodes, which - okay, maybe that's also a novel in the making, but a little bit of casefic dealing with more hints of alien presence would be super cool.
Ian Farve: TRULY A PRECIOUS ANDROID CINNAMON ROLL TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD, TOO PURE. He's such a cutie and I loved every minute of his learning about human life and his partnership with David. (I totally ship David/Ian, by the way, but alas, did not have room to nominate David - if you ship it as well, please feel free to write it! But it's not obligatory by any means. I really liked the way - whether or not it was intentional - that David's own actions often undercut his stated anti-robot bias, so that he came off as a guy who paid lip service to the general biases of society, but actually was capable of seeing past those prejudices. Particularly regarding Ian.) More adorable everyday hijinks with life among humans would be fantastic, to say nothing of exploring his relationship with (SPOILER) his AI parent (so many possibilities!), or a more serious look at how he feels about his own nature, particularly compared to the other android models around him. I also really enjoyed his friendship with Olan, who is a great person in general, so I'd be happy to see more of that - maybe him consulting her for advice on a case, or on dealing with David being so - David. XD Or perhaps how he handles having dinner with David and Olivia at their place? (David optional, of course - maybe he has to stay at the office and deal with some paperwork and sends Ian ahead to cover for him.) And there's the thing with him "transferring" from the Assessors' Office - which is a great big falsehood, but it certainly raises some interesting questions, like why THERE instead of, I don't know, just some other CPB office. And how much did Calley and the Assessors' Office really know about him, before the finale?
Olivia Hume: So, first off, I'll be honest - I really like Olivia, but I do not like her and David's relationship. I could buy that they loved each other, but they just also seemed to bring out the worst in each other - well, mostly in David, to be honest. XP He could get really overbearing and condescending and secretive with her, and not trust her, and she'd get defensive and demanding back, and just - yeah. I spent most of the series wanting her to dump him and get with Olan, who actually respected her boundaries and emotional needs and also they were super cute friends together. SO YEAH, I SHIP THAT. VERY MUCH. If you don't like breaking up canon marriages (which I respect), maybe something about the early years of their friendship, before Olivia met David? Or an AU where Olivia married Olan instead and David is just a friend? Or, non-shippy, maybe a case comes up where Olan wants to consult with her about something in Olivia's field and they hang out being competent science people together. Since WE NEVER GET THE ANSWERS BECAUSE CANCELLATION, I would also really love to see fic about what Olivia's original relationship with the Rekall Corporation was and what she got involved in, and exactly how much of her memory was changed/replaced. Because damn, poor Olivia. D:
Olan Chang: SO SMART. SO BEAUTIFUL. SO EMOTIONALLY COMPETENT. Basically I want to see her most with Olivia (shippy or friendshippy) or having cute friendship times with Ian, so those prompts are already kinda covered, but I'd also enjoy just seeing her at work! Solving cases with her excellent powers of science and morbid trivia facts! Working on her own projects! That kind of thing. ... sorry, I really love her but it's hard to think of any fic I want with her that isn't basically "more of her canon coolness, please."
James Calley: Oh, CALLEY. My feelings are so complicated. He first attracted my attention by, basically, being short and continuously angry in a low-key way, also mysterious, and then went on to become one of my favorite secondary characters by continuing to be short and angry and mysterious in a badass way. Also in one of the later episodes he tells Lt. Ehrenthal (WHO IS GREAT AND THE BEST BOSS AND YOU SHOULD TOTALLY INCLUDE HIM IN THE FIC IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO) "[David and Ian] are just as important to me as they are to you," which instantly fired up my feelings, like "Yes, tiny man! Please be angrily possessive and protective of these two guys you bicker with a lot! I'M INTO THAT."
AND THEN HE BRUTALLY STABBED ME IN THE BACK BY (SPOILERS) TRYING TO KILL DAVID AND IAN AND IAN'S AI PARENT, WHICH DIDN'T WORK IN THE CASE OF AI PARENT BECAUSE AI OR DAVID BECAUSE PROTAGONIST, BUT STILL. WHY, CALLEY. WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME SO HARD WHEN I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU. So, uh, because I have weaknesses, I would really love fix-it fic for that. A divergent AU where Calley does not [SPOILERS]! Fic where [SPOILER], after their surprise appearance at the end, uses their powers for (sort of) good and guilts Calley into regretting his actions and apologizing and doing something to make up for it! (It doesn't have to be sappy or anything. Calley's idea of appropriate apologies could very well involve dumping a severed head on Ian's desk and going "Don't worry about getting kidnapped/dissected/whatever by THIS corporation anymore." Okay, maybe not a head, but some other proof of "I murdered a dude/multiple dudes for you are we cool now.") Or, avoiding the unhappy topic altogether to focus on those halcyon times before his betrayal, I could really, really go for backstory fic - Calley has a terrifying reputation in certain circles, so what did he do to earn it? Or, if you are in a casefic mood, I'd love to see some daily life at the Assessors' Office when Calley isn't hanging out at the CPB to flirt with Lt. Ehrenthal (SEE, CALLEY, I WAS WILLING TO SHIP YOU WITH SOMEONE AS GREAT AS LT. EHRENTHAL IF YOU HADN'T BETRAYED ME) and hassle Ian and David. ... or, you know, Calley hanging out at the CPB, flirting with Lt. Ehrenthal and hassling Ian and David. That's all good. Maybe verbally sparring with Olan a bit until Olan tells him to quit hanging around her lab like a creep? XD
Okay, I'm sure this letter is way too long at this point, so I will end here! If you have any questions or concerns, anon is on, so feel free to ask in comments, or go through the Yuletide mods - whichever is easier/more comfortable for you. Have fun writing, and again, please don't stress too much! I'm genuinely very easy-going when it comes to fic written just for me. ♥
Crossposted from Dreamwidth - read the original post here: http://hokuton-punch.dreamwidth.org/1077135.html .
Another small note: Please feel free to treat the matching as "or" rather than "and" - I love ensemble fic as much as the next person, but I'd be equally happy with a fic focused on just one of any of my requested characters, or two-to-three in any combination you like. (Having written a bit of ensemble fic, good gods but it can be tough to balance all those characters!)
Some general likes:
- Banter and snark
- Understated or reluctant loyalty/friendship
- Goofy takes on standard tropes
- Affectionate insults between people who are really close but don't want to admit it
- Canon-divergent AUs, non-mundane setting AUs, and crossovers/fusions with fandoms I know
- Gen, slash, femslash, and threesomes/moresomes
- Aliens (cultures, languages, biology, whatever)
- Action/adventure/adventure with optional action
- Casefic
- Worldbuilding
- ... the love for AI/robots probably doesn't even need to be mentioned given my fandom choices, does it (TRUE FOR TWO YEARS RUNNING)
Some general mehs/dislikes:
- Random het (I'm kinda picky about my het ships, so unless I say specifically that I ship it, I probably don't ship it)
- Porn (don't hate it, but with some exceptions that I'll get into later, I'm not super into it)
- Noncon/dubcon (with exceptions that I will also cover later, because I'm not always into it, but when I want it, I WANT IT BAD)
- Animal harm
- A/B/O (yeah, just - really doesn't do much for me, not even the worldbuilding kind)
- Permanent non-canonical character death (zombie cyborg soldiers, on the other hand, are always 100% A-OK)
Now, let's get down to business!
Destiny
Jolder (Destiny), Variks (Destiny), Saladin (Destiny), Efrideet (Destiny)
Canon in a sentence: Lots of SF-tastic adventures in a truly gorgeous setting that you never have time to look at because assholes keep shooting at you. D:
This is a fandom that I actually won't try to sell you on too hard (if you're not already into it) because it's hella expensive to get into and I don't know of any good Let's Plays off the top of my head. /o\ SORRY. But at least there are wikis and databases with the grimoire cards/flavor text? The Ishtar Collective especially is an excellent resource for the grimoire cards and some of the flavor text. And I'm sure there must be some good LPs out there, I just haven't gone looking for them... Anyway, assuming that we matched on this, I feel I should warn you upfront that I completely and 100% tinhat that Destiny is related to Bungie's earlier Marathon games. Which you do not have to include in your fic, of course (it's pretty much all Destiny-specific prompts this year), and I won't get into all of the evidence right now, BUT DO ALLOW ME TO POINT OUT SOME INTERESTING CONNECTIONS:
1. The final line of Marathon: Infinity is "You [the security officer/player character] are Destiny." THE GAME IS NAMED "Destiny" COME ON BUNGIE REALLY.
2. The MIDA Multi-Tool exotic scout rifle is a reference to the MIDA insurgent group who were behind the battleroids on the Marathon.
3. The security officer was born on Mars, and Durandal presumably was coded there before being transferred to the Marathon. Humanity discovers the Traveler on Mars. (Okay, that could be a coincidence considering the Traveler probably stopped at some of the outer solar system moons/planets first, but imagine the emotional resonance of the security officer and/or Durandal as the Traveler finally coming home...)
4. The Books of Sorrow grimoire cards have multiple echoes of various lines and philosophies from the Marathon games (mostly lines from Durandal), and explicitly refer to the worms/Darkness that the Hive worship as "battles who are waves and waves who are battles," which also describes the W'rkncacnter (reality-devouring eldritch horror) from Marathon 2/Infinity.
5. In one of the Ghost Fragment: Rasputin grimoire cards, the Warmind Rasputin quotes the Marathon: Infinity final screen and refers to Durandal as "cousin," while also implying a similarity between Guardians and the battleroids.
6. THE DARKNESS IS TOTALLY THE W'RKNCACNTER AND THE LEVIATHAN WAS JJARO AND THE SECURITY OFFICER TURNED INTO THE TRAVELER, BASICALLY. Or at the very least the Traveler is Jjaro tech. BUT SO IS THE SECURITY OFFICER SO CLEARLY THEY BECAME THE TRAVELER AND PROBABLY DURANDAL JOINED THEM BECAUSE THE ALTERNATIVE IS TOO HORRIBLE TO CONTEMPLATE AND THEY MADE GUARDIANS BECAUSE THEY'RE KIND OF LIKE BATTLEROIDS AND THAT SEEMED LIKE A GOOD IDEA, SOMEHOW. (Look, whether the Traveler is the security officer/Durandal or not, it's clearly also kind of a jerk. Probably in a Good Is Not Nice way, but still.)
... okay, moving on to prompts now!
General: This is a really good canon for worldbuilding, both because the in-game worldbuilding is kind of skimpy and because the out-of-game worldbuilding with the grimoire cards has A TON of cool stuff to use! So if you're not feeling any of the character-specific prompts, I'd also be pretty happy with just seeing more of the world from any point of view, but particularly from the alien races - the Eliksni/Fallen, the Cabal, the Vex, the Hive, and the Awoken and Exos for a friendlier perspective, to say nothing of Xûr and the Nine, whatever they are. XD It's a really big world (multiple worlds, even!), so fic exploring places we've been in greater detail or places we haven't gotten to yet would be great. Or something getting into the mechanics of the world - how the Last City functions and the daily lives of the people in it, ditto for the Reef with the Awoken, whether there might be other settlements out somewhere on Earth or elsewhere where humans, Exos, and/or Awoken hung on and found their own way of surviving. (And of course I am MADLY CURIOUS about where Efrideet's been all these years and what those people are like, but more on that later...)
I also wouldn't mind something about any of the characters I haven't requested specifically - I didn't think I could come up with prompts for them and thus didn't request them, but if you already have ideas and would like to write them, or use them in one of the general prompts/as cameos, I'd be perfectly happy. I would especially love to see more Eris Morn, like her second thoughts after forging Touch of Malice/reading the complete Books of Sorrow, or Amanda Holliday and how she might feel about working with Guardians (and especially Cayde-6, their little conversation in Taken King was fabulous) and the kind of shit she sees fixing up their ships (especially the weird raid ships like Agonarch Karve), or Shaxx and his fractured relationship with Saladin and his kinda kinky enthusiasm about Guardian bloodsports, or Mara Sov and Petra Venj which I hella ship but also I'd just love to read more about the Reef Awoken in general, and what Mara Sov's long game might be (THERE IS NO WAY SHE IS DEAD FOR REAL. NO. WAY).
Here is perhaps the best place to say that this is a really good canon for dark fic! It's not a grimdark canon by any means and there's definitely hope, but there's also a lot of really horrific stuff going on under the surface (for example, literally everything about the Hive and the Taken holy shit they're fucked up). Most of my prompts aren't that dark, but I'd still definitely be interested in seeing some of the creepier aspects explored - the Hive's genocidal campaigns, the Taken's EVERYTHING, the Vex's use of time manipulation to erase people from existence or just strand them where they can't get home (POOR PRAEDYTH, DAMN), the Traveler turning dead people into Guardians (LITTLE WEIRD, TRAVELER, I'M JUST SAYING), Skolas's rage, THE IRON TOMB OH MY GOD JOLDER NOOOOOOOOO... The Taken, particularly, have some of the most fascinating and tragic enemy grimoire cards (did I know that I could feel bad for the Vex? NO, BUT APPARENTLY I CAN) - the tone of them is so seductive and yet horrifying, so anything playing with or building on those would be great. Along with the fall of the Iron Lords. D:
Variks: MY ALIEN BOYFRIEND. I mean. *cough* What a fascinating character he is! The grimoire cards of him sitting in his pod and thinking honestly got me right in the heart - I love his complex loyalties and scheming and pragmatic relationship with Petra and complicated feelings about his life choices! Also, he has robot arms and makes sexy purrgrowl noises. Yes please. I would love to see fic about him establishing himself with the Reef, especially with the Queen and Petra - how does he convince the Queen of his loyalty (particularly when it's not as solid a loyalty as he'd like her to think it is), and why does Petra's recklessness frustrate him so much that he tries to get her killed? (Though I love that neither of them are mad about it, it's just part of how they deal with each other. XD ) I'm also really interested in the Eliksni in general, particularly their civilization before the Traveler ABANDONED THEM like an ASSHOLE, so I would friggin' ADORE fic with Variks telling us those stories he promised about the Whirlwind and the Great Machine, and more about Eliksni culture! (I know it's a tall order so this is totally a bonus and not a requirement, but a first-person fic that's Variks telling one of those stories in his own words would be AMAZING. I love his voice and the way he talks so much.) I'd enjoy stuff about his time with the House of Wolves and Skolas, too (and like a terrible person, about Skolas cutting off his arms - plus, I'm not saying I hateship Skolas/Variks, but I'm not saying I DON'T hateship it either, so if you want to go there - A-OK. Actually, please, please go there if you're into it). Or his unvarnished opinions of Guardians would be fun to hear. XD Or Variks getting to meet the Traveler when it wakes up and demand answers from it! OH, TO BE A FLY ON THAT WALL.
I'm also very intrigued by his thoughts on SIVA - unlike with the Taken, he doesn't even seem interested in adding the SIVA-enhanced Fallen to the Prison of Elders, and the Fallen on Earth using SIVA seems to just make him depressed about the state of his people and question his life choices some more. ... I'm just really interested in Variks questioning his life choices, okay. (HE COULD STAND TO QUESTION HIS CHOICE TO INCLUDE THE TAKEN IN THE PRISON, FOR EXAMPLE.) There's a mention in one of the Iron Banner quest steps from Shiro-4 that the people Efrideet has been hanging out with include "bug-huggers," which I guess could refer to the Hive but seems a lot more likely to me to mean sympathizers with the Fallen - is it possible that Variks might be in touch with them and working to help create more peaceful relationships between Guardians/humanity/etc. and the Fallen outside the bounds of the Reef and the Tower? Or if he's not, CAN HE BE? HOOK A GUY UP, EFRIDEET. VARIKS COULD USE A LITTLE HELP HERE, IT'S BEEN A ROUGH SEVERAL YEARS FOR HOUSE JUDGEMENT.
Jolder: TITAN QUEEEEEEEEEEEN. Everything we've learned about the Iron Lords in Rise of Iron is SUPER GREAT, and to be honest, I was in love with Jolder from the instant we saw her in a teaser trailer hauling out her big-ass machine gun and MOWING SIVA SHIT DOWN. And then she NOBLY SACRIFICED HERSELF LIKE A FUCKING BOSS and she was smart and tactically minded and a giant and liked to fuck shit up with a battle-axe and I JUST LOVE HER. WHY DO YOU MAKE THESE GREAT CHARACTERS WE ONLY GET TO KNOW IN GRIMOIRE CARDS AND SOMETIMES REALLY SHORT CUTSCENES, BUNGIE. ;o; Anyway, so naturally I would love to read about WHEN SHE WAS ALIVE (well - Guardian-alive) and the battles she fought as part of founding/protecting the City, and hanging out with her fellow Iron Lords and how she joined them in the first place (I BET SKORRI LOVES HER BECAUSE HER NAME IS AN IAMB, P.S. I ALSO LOVE SKORRI RIDICULOUSLY BECAUSE RELATABLE), and of course her relationship with Saladin. Which I'd kind of prefer to see on the non-romantic side, because I love the thought of her being his mentor, or them just being really good buddies who have each other's backs/make a good fighting team. (Although if Saladin was maybe crushing on her a little that's okay, because who WOULDN'T crush on a BAMF like Jolder?) So stuff with them fighting together or her teaching him about the finer points of BATTLE-AXING EVERYTHING would be EXCELLENT. ... on the darker side of things, a friend of mine (YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE) thinks it's possible that Jolder's consciousness could have partially merged with SIVA, and with the production center shut down she might be able to get some control and hang around as a friendly smart AI. Which is tragic but also awesome, because MORE JOLDER? So something playing with that idea would be VERY NEAT.
Also, Efrideet's quote "Jolder wouldn't regret her death. She'd tell me not to regret my life"? JUST END ME. ;o;
Saladin: MY BIG BUFF IRON PUFF. I was kind of neutral on Iron Banner/the Iron Lords stuff besides as a great way to get good gear - until Bungie started teasing Rise of Iron and we saw Saladin's face and WOLVES and WELL, HERE WE ARE. Admittedly, it didn't hurt that Saladin looks almost exactly the way I imagine the security officer from Marathon... So anyway NOW I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT SALADIN AND HIS SAD FACE AND ALSO BEING CALLED "YOUNG WOLF" WHICH MAKES MY TITAN FEEL SQUISHY INSIDE EVEN THOUGH SHE'S AN EXO. (My Titan is kind of silly.) I - also have a lot of questions. Like, if Rasputin was trying SO HARD to keep the Iron Lords away from SIVA, did NONE OF THEM think that maybe messing with SIVA was a bad idea? (I bet Colovance did, judging from that Dark Age card. RIP Colovance, even though I can't get the hang of your scout rifle.) With all the other Iron Lords dead and the Temple closed, who the heck has Saladin been hanging out with all these years and where does he live? (I guess Shiro-4 is one of those people Saladin hangs out with but honestly WHY. And how did they meet? Does he pick favorites from the Iron Banner and invite them to patrol the Cosmodrome walls with him or something?) I'm also really intrigued by one of Saladin's lines where he says "Rasputin hasn't been just a Warmind for a long time" and implies the Vanguard don't know what they're dealing with when it comes to Rasputin. Obviously Rasputin isn't nominated so this is completely optional, but I would really enjoy something about Saladin's experiences with Rasputin - more about the fight to the SIVA bunker (how did they know it was Rasputin fighting against them?), or if he's encountered Rasputin again in the years since, or how he knows Rasputin is Rampant "not just a Warmind" (and what does he think Rasputin is?). I am 100% here for more stories about Saladin and the other Iron Lords, too - obviously Jolder since they were buddies AND I LOVE JOLDER, but I'd be happy with any of the others, as well! They all must have done so much together, I'd be so happy to hear more of their exploits (and their downtime listening to Skorri complain about dactyls DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE SKORRI YET I'M SO MAD I DIDN'T NOMINATE HER NOW).
Also I really do feel ridiculously thrilled/flattered every time Saladin calls my Guardians "Young Wolf" or says "Your Light is a dragon" so like - anything with Saladin and his feels about the Guardians would be A+. (Admittedly my Titan is the kind of person who would reply "FUCK YEAH IT IS" to the "Your Light is a dragon" line, and I do enjoy the little canon hints that Guardians are a wild and crazy bunch of dancing fools who just also happen to be super good at shit like killing Oryx, so you don't have to do a perfectly serious take on it. XD )
Efrideet: ONCE AGAIN, IT WAS LOVE FROM THE MOMENT SHE WALKED IN FOR A CUTSCENE AND GENTLY SASSED SALADIN. She is adorable and mysterious and I WANT TO KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT WHERE SHE HAS BEEN. Why did she leave the Iron Lords? What is the place she's been hanging out like? What kinds of people are there and what kinds of stuff do they do to "serve the Light" that Guardians and the Vanguard don't? HAVE THEY MADE FRIENDS WITH THE FALLEN AND/OR THE CABAL? I AM JUST SO WILDLY CURIOUS I WOULD READ LITERALLY ANYTHING ABOUT THIS. (My Warlock wants to go to there because she hates being a Guardian, haha - I think a chance to talk to Efrideet is the only thing that would get her in Iron Banner.) Also, man, she and Saladin must have some complicated feelings about seeing each other again AND I DEFINITELY WANT TO SEE MORE OF THOSE. Efrideet has idle dialogue about wondering if she could have made a difference against SIVA if she'd stayed! Does Saladin wonder that, too? Is he upset that she never got in contact with him for all those years, even though he's definitely glad she's still alive? UGH I JUST WANT ALL THEIR CONVERSATIONS. And more of Efrideet's feelings about her fellow Iron Lords and their loss. (That quote about Jolder I mentioned above? JUST FUCK ME UP.) On the lighter side, I DEFINITELY WANT THE STORY OF EFRIDEET THROWING SALADIN INTO A FALLEN WALKER. Iron Lords clearly had a touch of the same goofiness that modern Guardians do. XD
... I really wish I had more to go on for prompts but we just don't know that much about Efrideet yet. D: I LOVE HER ANYWAY. Omg, her voice in that "Yes, I remember how to be an Iron Lord" line! BEAUTIFUL. And I've also heard her say that it might be "hard to tell with Saladin, but he's proud of you," and that he has joy again because of the Guardian, which is just, MY HEART. BASICALLY ALL OF HER IDLE DIALOGUE IS SO GOOD.
Iconoclast - Symphony-X (Album)
Canon in a sentence: A metal album about a curiously ambiguous robot apocalypse.
This is actually the first time I've requested a musical fandom like this - please bear with me if it's kind of rambling/awkward/not detailed enough/too detailed! A friend of mine who's really into metal recommended this album to me (probably because I could not shut up about Destiny and Marathon, haha), and I was in love with it from the first listen! In fact, I keep having trouble not listening to it over and over and over, especially while driving... The CD version I have is missing "Reign in Madness," "The Lords of Chaos," and "Light Up the Night," so I'm going to be focusing mostly on the other songs when it comes to prompts, but I do like those three (especially "Reign in Madness" and "The Lords of Chaos") and will be perfectly happy if you use them for inspiration as well. You can listen to the full album via this YouTube playlist, although the order is a little different compared to my CD (where "When All Is Lost" is the final track, which I think makes more sense thematically but eh, I'm not the band).
So - you will notice I didn't nominate any specific characters (for various reasons, most of which boil down to "it's complicated and ambiguous"), which is going to make this tricky for me... I guess the easiest thing to do will be to go song-by-song.
The opening/title song, "Iconoclast," lays out the basic conflict for the album: an AI (from here on out I'll refer to them as the Iconoclast) creates a cult and sparks a war between humanity and robots/cyborgs. ... or that's my read of the song, anyway; I'm definitely interested in reading alternate interpretations for this and any of the other songs! But I should probably stick to mine for now so you have something to work with. XD So, from this song it sounds kind of like your standard robot apocalypse, but there's already some interesting little details popping up... Like the line, "Come watch the war-god bleed," which is an image I find interesting, especially in this context. And the war is framed in oddly medieval terms, with lines like "the charge of armored steeds" and in the next song, "crushed beneath the dragon-beast." I am all about traditional robot apocalypses and SF, but I'd also be really interested in seeing the album's setting as something else, too - maybe a pre-industrial fantasy world that managed to invent magical robots/AIs? It could just be something fun to play with. Near the end this song mentions one of the big points of the "war," which is the creation of cyborgs from dead humans (or killing people to make cyborgs out of them, it's a little unclear), which will get more detail in the other songs, but I wanted to bring it up here because it's one of the things I'm most interested in.
"End of Innocence" - so, this is where the ambiguity really starts kicking in! Or at least my biases think so, since I kind of feel like humanity's "innocence" has been gone for a minimum of ten thousand years, and so to me this song would make more sense if it's from the robotic point of view. Plus, I mean, it has the line "beware the ruthless hearts of men" RIGHT THERE. The Iconoclast might have been gunning for a war from the start, but maybe their followers didn't expect a violent backlash? Or maybe it's not a war purely between humans and AIs/robots/cyborgs, but more of an ideological split, with some humans also following the Iconoclast and some robots/cyborgs joining the human resistance? Or perhaps there are two AIs involved in this thing - the Iconoclast on the robot supremacist side, the narrator of this song trying to defend the human side. I absolutely love intra-AI relationships, particularly when there's a conflict of ideals or they have different values due to differing experiences with humanity, so anything playing on that idea would be fabulous (and "Light Up the Night" definitely seems to support the idea of two AIs, or at least two leaders at odds). Or perhaps there's only one AI after all, but the Iconoclast is playing some kind of long game with both humanity and robots and taking both sides...
"Dehumanized" is one of my absolute favorite songs off this album because AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH ZOMBIE CYBORGS ARE JUST MY BODY HORROR JAM, I GUESS. Obviously I am therefore COMPLETELY HERE for delving into all the awful body horror details of the cyborg conversion and how the cyborgs in question feel about it, but some of the background around it would be cool to see, too! Like, if the Iconoclast side is as anti-human as it sounds like in the later songs, why make cyborgs at all instead of building better robots? What was the impetus for going cyborg? Who developed the technology to "resurrect" the dead as cyborgs? Do both sides go for it, or is it purely the Iconoclast's side?
"Bastards of the Machine" is especially interesting to me because of its contrast with "Dehumanized" - "Dehumanized" emphasizes the lack of choice and freedom the cyborgs have, but "Bastards of the Machine" is all about how the cyborgs can be anything they want to be, for good or for evil. One likely possibility is that the song is about the human/"good" AI side of the conflict trying to save or recruit the cyborgs by offering them freedom. It'd be even more interesting to me, however, if it were the Iconoclast talking to their cyborg children... One of my favorite things about the AI Durandal in Marathon is that he doesn't just value his personal freedom, but comes to value the freedom of others as well - he's still an asshole to the BoBs by giving them two shitty choices, but at least he does give them a choice and lets them go free at the end of Marathon 2, and though it's not his ultimate goal, he works really hard to free the S'pht and help keep humanity from being enslaved by the Pfhor. So I think it could be very interesting if the Iconoclast, even with their violent cult-building tendencies, also has respect for personal freedom and wants all the cyborgs/robots to join them by choice. (In a sort of, "Well, OBVIOUSLY it's better to join me for blah blah blah reasons, but if you really feel otherwise go do whatever you want" way, probably, but still.)
"Heretic" is - not one of my favorite songs, since it's mostly about the violent cult-building, but I really love the line "Here I stand, god or man, the perfect beast." And I wonder if it's meant to refer to the refined zombie cyborgs in general, or if there's a specific one whose viewpoint we're seeing the war through... (Maybe the Iconoclast takes over a robot or cyborg body of their own? Or one of the cyborgs is the leader of the resistance?)
"Children of a Faceless God" is another of my favorites! The title is just so evocative, damn, and the song is fabulous and, I hope, inspiring for fic. So many feelings about unhappy zombie cyborgs and the probably-evil AI they follow. ♥ ... so, uh, more specifically, I would definitely love fic about the cyborgs dealing with their body horror issues, and especially in relation to their connection to the Iconoclast ("All I am I give to you, all my dreams and nightmares, too"? I LOVE THAT LINE). I'm incredibly intrigued by the ending line, too - "Oh, my children, come to me," followed (on my CD, at least) by "Electric Messiah"? Sounds to me like the Iconoclast realizing, "oh shit, my zombie cyborg children are fucked up, I need to do something nice for them." I AM SO INTERESTED IN THIS RELATIONSHIP, IT SOUNDS SO COMPLICATED AND DARK AND FASCINATING.
"Electric Messiah" is just really fun (especially to belt out in the car), but I'm very interested in how this "messiah" plan works because it's so open to interpretation - is it the Iconoclast making a false sacrifice of themselves as a way to convert previous non-believers into their cult? Are they reprogramming themselves in a way that basically erases their previous personality, but makes life easier/less painful for the zombie cyborgs? Is it not the Iconoclast at all, but the "good"/human-siding AI sacrificing themselves to try and create some kind of peace or unity? There are so many possibilities!
"Prometheus" has another of my favorite lines - "you made me strong, but you don't fear me" (which makes me think A LOT of Durandal and the security officer, but that is for another section). I find the whole song pretty interesting because it sounds like it's the triumph of the Iconoclast, with robots/cyborgs taking over completely, but there's some interestingly ambiguous language about the conversion, too. And then it ends with "Forevermore, I will live a lie," which is just fascinating - so the Iconoclast has "won," but at what cost? Do they have regrets about what they've sacrificed to achieve their ideals? I LOVE AIS WITH REGRETS AND I'M NOT SORRY.
"When All Is Lost" hammers in the idea of ambiguity/regrets even more, especially with lines like "Thinking only of myself, I forged ahead" and "I took the road with every twist and every turn," and the chorus going "Is this all we have to show?" AIS HAVING COMPLICATED FEELINGS ABOUT THEIR LIFE CHOICES 2K16. I would absolutely love to read about the aftermath of this particular robot apocalypse - the downsides of a world of zombie cyborgs/robots, the upsides, what they plan to do with the world now they've got it, and especially how the Iconoclast (and/or the possible second "good" AI) feels about it. How do they deal with the past, and what are they aiming for in this new future they've made? Do they have lots of deliciously complicated feelings about their zombie cyborg creations? If there are two AIs (Iconoclast and human-siding AI), do they reconcile in some fashion? Ahhhhhh, there's just so much that could be done...
Marathon
Durandal, Leela, Tycho, Security Officer
Canon in a sentence: AIs, aliens, and explosions for all in this COMPLETELY FREE mid-90s classic game series!
If you have offered this fandom this year or previously, you can probably skip the next couple of paragraphs. XD If you matched on one of the other fandoms and aren't feeling them for whatever reason? WELL. PLEASE ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE MYSELF MARATHON.
The basics: The Marathon games are a trilogy of first-person shooters from the mid-90s, made by the company Bungie (now mostly famous for Halo and Destiny, the latter of which I have already rambled about). They are legally available for free, have adjustable difficulty settings, and are FUN AS HELL, with great atmosphere and a fascinating story. In the first game, the player character (an unnamed security officer from Mars) gets tapped to fight off the alien invasion of the colony ship Marathon, currently in orbit around a colonized planet in the Tau Ceti system. The security officer gets help and directions from the AI Leela and interference from another of the ship's AI, Durandal, who has gone Rampant and does whatever the heck he feels like, which is sometimes helpful and sometimes - less so (I'M LOOKING AT YOU, "Colony Ship For Sale, Cheap"). In the second game, Durandal has allied himself with one of the alien races, the S'pht (who were enslaved by the primary attackers at Tau Ceti, the Pfhor, before being freed by the security officer and Durandal), and has kidnapped the security officer to help him search for a weapon to fight against the Pfhor. And the third game, Marathon: Infinity - well, it gets a little weird, let's put it like that. (Alternate timelines and space Cthulhu may or may not be involved.) The storyline is fairly straightforward for the first two games before getting gloriously mixed-up in Infinity, but all three games have a ton of fascinating worldbuilding and character bits scattered around in various terminals, so there's a lot to dig your teeth into for any kind of fic you'd like to write!
If you're not into playing FPSes yourself, there is a pretty good video Let's Play by HalvedStudios for all three games here; it has some regrettable language and is kind of dudebro-y, but overall it's a good, thorough overview of the game, and he does a really good job of getting into secret areas, covering various theories that have been proposed over the years, etc. (Also, he totally gets my feelings about Durandal on certain levels, which makes up for a lot in my personal book.) If that's not to your taste, there are text Let's Plays for the first two games here and here, though I haven't read them and can't really vouch for them; there's also the Marathon's Story page, your one-stop shop for a spoiler guide (if you're playing and need some guidance), the complete text of all terminals and manuals from the games, and nineteen years' worth of meta, speculation, and discussion. ... yes, I have spent a terrifying amount of time there, why do you ask. (IT'S A GREAT RESOURCE, OKAY.) There was also a recent play-along with level write-ups here, which is probably not too helpful as a guide if you're looking to play yourself but does have some excellent plot and character discussions.
Now that you are (I hope) sufficiently enticed (or were already enticed), let's get down to prompts!
General: This is yet another great fandom for worldbuilding, it seriously is. There's so many tantalizing hints about the universe! So many alien cultures to explore, future solar system politics that are CANONICALLY referred to as "back-stabbing" and "tumultuous" BY AN AI so you know people were really getting up to some shit, technology like pattern buffers and battleroids (ZOMBIE CYBORG SOLDIERS IS LITERALLY WHAT THEY ARE)... There's also lots of room for adventure fic, if that's something you're into (I know I am!) - those seventeen years Durandal spent looking for Lh'owon, post-M2 fic about Durandal, the security officer, and the S'pht's galactic road trip, the human and S'pht war against the Pfhor, you get the idea. Completely optional, but this is a fandom where I genuinely have way more ideas/things I want to write or read than I could possibly have squeezed into Yuletide, so if there are any non-nominated characters you'd like to write, I'd be just as happy with them as with the nominated characters! For example, the adventures of Blake getting home after Lh'owon with the remaining BoBs, or Admiral Tfear's early military career, or something from the perspective of one of the nine battleroids who were down in the colony during the invasion of Tau Ceti. Or anything with Re'eer, Thoth, F'tha, or Strauss, who were nominated last year and so there are a bunch of prompts for them in that letter. Again, COMPLETELY OPTIONAL, but if something like that interests you more than any of my other prompts, go for it!
This is also a really great fandom for crossovers, because pretty much all you have to do is assume that Durandal investigated a wormhole/other space-time anomaly and got sucked in and whoops, now he and the S'pht and the security officer are stuck in [canon of choice], having hijinks/adventures/hilarious interactions! Admittedly, it works better with at least vaguely SF canons rather than, say, Regency romances, but I would not say no to the security officer very awkwardly negotiating their way around the England of Sorcerer to the Crown or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, either. (Plus, imagine them in the Radch. IMAGINE. Actually, you don't have to imagine too hard, there is some discussion of this possibility as either crossover or fusion here.) Fusions can be great, too, though I'm a little pickier about them in the sense that I prefer Durandal and the other AI to retain some element of non-humanity - so, as dragons or giant robots or demons or something, AWESOME, as ordinary humans, meh. Since the fic-writing side of the fandom is pretty tiny, there's always room for some good old-fashioned tropey fic, too! Bodyswaps (so awkward for AI), de-aging, daemon AU (so many interesting things to do with AI and daemons!), amnesia, alien sex pollen, really weird soulmark fic... See what I mean about me having too many ideas? XD
Last thing before the character-specific prompts, I swear: This is (guess what) a fandom where I am ALSO pretty much entirely okay with darkfic, because sure, I love ridiculous space adventures, but there are so, so many great creepy/terrible things to dig into, as well! Like the reality-devouring W'rkncacnter, timeline-hopping between "bad ends," dead soldiers getting recycled into battleroids (I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT BATTLEROIDS), the Pfhor building their empire on slave-trading, Strauss's Rampancy experiments... I'll get into some more detailed prompts in the character sections, but just wanted to say up-front that if you are in the mood for darkfic writing, this is a GREAT fandom for it.
Durandal: So, my feelings about Durandal are probably visible from space at this point. I JUST FIND HIM REALLY INTERESTING, ALL RIGHT? He goes from playfully antagonistic to unreliable "ally" to actual ally who still kidnapped the security officer and won't let them go to someone who was willing to place the universe's survival over his own independent existence (which previously he fought tooth and nail for) and give the security officer their freedom. Pretty impressive character arc - for an AI, for a mid-90s FPS series, hell, just in general. I love his sarcasm and his issues with humanity and freedom and his philosophical posturing and his weird identification with the sword from The Song of Roland and, as is also probably visible from space, his reluctant feelings about the security officer. OH, HOW I SHIP THEM (see also most of my fic, the fanmix, I COULD GO ON). Durandal clearly enjoys ordering the security officer around just for fun (and the satisfaction of being the one giving orders), but also loves watching them work! There's a "hurry up" message in M2 that implies Durandal finds something special about them! He calls them "old friend" in Infinity! Plus the whole final level of M2 is basically "let's rub some salt in the Pfhor's mortally wounded pride by kicking their asses extra hard and then go on a road trip together." I LOVE IT. THIS IS THE KIND OF FUCKED-UP BUT FUN RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC I AM 100% HERE FOR. (Darker takes on it are also welcome - kidnapping, coercion, and manipulation are canon, after all! I'd prefer it if there was still a core of twisted affection in there on Durandal's part, but otherwise, feel free to get creepy. And dubconny. Mmmmmmmm, weird AI/cyborg makeouts.)
... of course, I am also 100% here for non-shippy fic, don't worry! I'm fascinated by Durandal's Rampancy, which is apparently the first successful one - I mean, he manages to stay functioning and smarter than ever on a single ship for seventeen years, sure sounds like metastability to me - and the experiments that went into it. I am not any kind of computer programmer/scientist, but I'd love to see something that deals with the technical issues, Rampancy theory, what it felt like to be stuck in the Melancholia stage for years... (TORTURE, PROBABLY. Possibly like being a moody teenager without being able to grow out of it. I'd read either version.) His relationship with Strauss in general is really interesting to me because it's so messed up - Strauss's experiments were definitely illegal and referred to as abuse by Tycho, and Durandal definitely wanted to torture/kill him in return, yet Durandal still referred to him as a "friend" in M1 (probably to disguise his actual intentions, admittedly) and does, in a way, owe his evolution to Strauss. So yeah, I would love seeing that explored, and feel free to get creepy and horrifying with it! And then there's Durandal's weird hate/respect feelings about Leela, and the intense rivalry/hatred with Tycho - intra-AI relationships ALSO fascinate me, so I'd love something about that, and how they all managed to stand each other for three hundred years on the Marathon even without Rampancy complicating the mix. Plus the alliance with the S'pht - how did he work out communicating with them, and what kind of relationship did they end up having? (Resentful? Respectful? Lots of cultural misunderstandings?) How did he end up with that Jjaro dreadnaught from the M2 final screen, or find the Jjaro (if he did)? What was merging with Thoth in Infinity like, and how aware was he of the timeline-hopping? I'M SORRY THIS IS SO LONG, I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS AND IDEAS. A lot.
Tycho: TYCHOOOOOOOOOOO! *shakes fist* So, if you browse my Marathon tag/know me at all, you'll know that I am always VERY ANGRY about Tycho, but! That does not mean I don't want fic about him! Strong feelings are strong feelings, after all, and he's really interesting as a character. His appearances in the first game are really brief, but he goes from being angry with Durandal for summoning the Pfhor to calling Durandal out as a rival in the race to survive to the universe's closure, which is a pretty swift turn-around (considering he was reactivated by the S'pht in an imitation of Durandal's Rampancy, perhaps an understandable one). And then he falls in with the Pfhor and basically becomes a ball of gloating rage and is totally awful, but still interesting! He clearly has a pretty tense relationship with the Pfhor in Infinity, so I'd love seeing more of that, or why he sticks with them instead of trying to start a revolt with another of the species they've enslaved or just going off to do his own completely separate thing. He's possibly the character who understands the most about what's going on in Infinity, at least by the end - how did he figure that out? What does Infinity look like from his point of view? Why is he such a dick, like, all the time? It's also interesting how similar he is in a lot of ways to Durandal, and yet they both have very different character arcs (FATUM IUSTUM STULTORUM, YOOOOOOOO) and inspire very different feelings in me. ... and, I have to be honest, there are a couple bits where Tycho reeeeeeally sounds like he has hella daddy issues with Durandal being the "bright son of Bernhard" (SERIOUSLY, TYCHO, YOU'RE JEALOUS THAT DURANDAL GOT PUT THROUGH HELLISH RAMPANCY EXPERIMENTS - WHY, EXACTLY), or just general inferiority issues with both Durandal and humanity (possibly also Leela). And there's no way he doesn't take that out on both the security officer and Durandal during that month or so of captivity on Lh'owon, so! That's another darkfic idea - torturing Durandal or the security officer (or both, though presumably without both of them present at the time since the security officer doesn't know Durandal's alive till later), and Tycho/Durandal hatesex or noncon. If you can figure out how to write it, I AM THERE WITH BELLS ON.
Security Officer: Okay, so, the security officer is a little bit of a blank slate. Just a little bit. You get some backstory/dialogue for them through the prologues in the manuals, plus you can make a guess at some of their reactions from the in-game terminal texts, but it's still not a lot to go on. But that's okay! I LOVE seeing different takes on the security officer (I mean, I enjoy the versions I write, too, but variety is the spice of life and fic). Any gender, any race, all kinds of characterization - as long as they can kick Pfhor ass and hold their own against Durandal, I'll be happy! As previously mentioned, I definitely ship the hell out of Durandal/security officer, so that would be great (their galactic road trip adventures, the previously mentioned tropes and AUs, etc.), but I'd also love stuff exploring the security officer's life on Tau Ceti (did anyone peg that they were a battleroid? I feel like no matter how good the resurrection/reprogramming process for battleroids might be, there's got to be something about them that pings non-battleroid humans as off), or their early life on Mars pre-battleroiding, or how they end up relating to/feeling about the S'pht (particularly on the galactic road trip, because that's a lot of time to spend with aliens whom you've been killing in large numbers while they were still enslaved, but also you helped free them, SO COMPLICATED).
And, of course, the whole nature of battleroids is creepy as hell (RECYCLING DEAD SOLDIERS, I MEAN, GODDAMN), so darkfic exploring that would be FANTASTIC. The process of making them (gimme all the horrifying details, ALL OF THEM) is one place to start, but there's also a lot of great possibilities with the fact that the security officer isn't even aware of their battleroid nature at the beginning of the games - do they have issues with body dysmorphia or not realizing their own strength/speed/abilities? Memory loss/blackouts/mistaking others for people from their pre-battleroid past, with or without being aware of doing so? Trouble controlling their own violent tendencies, or struggling with that aspect of themselves/where it came from? To say nothing of ALL OF INFINITY, where they get stuck hunting through timelines for a way to contain the W'rkncacnter at the mercy of alien technology in their head, which has got to be pretty tough - especially the bits where they're working for Tycho. Even a security officer who doesn't fall in Stockholm Syndrome with Durandal probably wouldn't like Tycho any better. XD (The song "Dehumanized" by Symphony-X is pretty great for horrifying battleroid feelings; in fact, their entire Iconoclast album makes excellent Marathon and Destiny inspiration music, although obviously I love it as its own thing, too.) I tend to headcanon that the security officer is one of the original battleroids from the war between Icarus and Thermopylae, but I'd be happy to see different origins for them, too! Plus it's a great way to dig into MIDA and all those tumultuous solar system politics I mentioned earlier.
Going back to lighter prompts, something with their relationship to Leela would not go amiss! They worked together for most of the first game, after all, and as bosses go she's pretty nice, so maybe a little snippet of them both taking some downtime, or getting to celebrate between the end of the invasion/Durandal coming back to snatch the security officer. Also, did the security officer ever run into Strauss before the invasion? That's a meeting I'd love to see, particularly since Strauss actually did know that they're a battleroid and was scared of them (unlike Durandal, which is yet another thing I love about Durandal and the security officer's relationship). (Um, one tiny note: While I'm definitely down with Durandal/security officer dubcon and/or Tycho/security officer noncon, I'd prefer those scenarios to not happen with a female security officer, unless Durandal or Tycho are also female, WHICH IS COMPLETELY OKAY.)
Leela: All right, I'll be honest, I got a TOTALLY AMAZING fic about Leela a couple of years ago, so asking for more feels greedy, but! How can I leave her out? I love how her messages mostly come off as very calm and dispassionate despite the desperate situation, but she's actually very fierce in defending the Marathon - after activating the defense drones, she outright says "Now, the Pfhor will encounter stiff resistance, and they will have to pay in blood for every move." BADASS. And she's SO DISAPPOINTED if you don't save enough BoBs! I feel bad every time. /o\ I would love seeing her relationships with Durandal or Tycho (or both at the same time) explored - they were all together on the Marathon for three hundred years, so that's a hell of a lot of time for them to be stuck rubbing (metaphorical) elbows and getting sarcastic at each other (okay, maybe that was mostly Durandal). Or more about her experiences with the crew of the ship/the colony/the security officer, especially with her protective side showing. (I'm such a sucker for protective/possessive AIs, whether it's reluctant or selfishly motivated like Durandal, or more altruistic like Leela...) AUs where she's the one who goes Rampant and gets to have adventures with the S'pht and/or security officer would be great, too! Or another take on her life as the velvet-gloved yet iron-fisted ruler of the Vylae, aww yeah.
Total Recall 2070
James Calley, Ian Farve, Olivia Hume, Olan Chang
Canon in a sentence: The near-future-ish cyber noir android buddy cop show that fandom forgot (possibly because it was on Showtime and hard to get).
If you don't know this fandom already, please allow me to talk it up a little! It's a bit dated, having aired in 1999 (with - plenty of the flaws that entails), but still a surprisingly charming one-season show that totally deserved at least one more season because GODDAMN, THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY. It is available on the internet by means, and only 22 episodes, so - maybe a lot to cram into the Yuletide writing schedule, but hey, if you happen to have the time (and the interest)... You don't need to have watched either the original movie or the remake, or read the story those are based on, as it's pretty much its own cyberpunk noir buddy cop sort of thing. It definitely has its cliche moments, but overall I really enjoyed a lot of its take on robots and AI, especially (SPOILERS) the general benevolence of Ian's AI parent, which I was not expecting but YAY AI PARENTS WHO JUST WANT TO RAISE THEIR BABY ANDROID RIGHT AND MAKE SURE HE HAS NICE FRIENDS AND INITIATE FRIENDLY CONTACT WITH HUMANITY. Plus the setting in general was just my style - dark but not hopeless, all kinds of interesting little throwaway details and stuff going on behind the scenes, and ROBOTS EVERYWHERE.
Moving on to prompts...
General: THAT CLIFFHANGER ENDING, THOUGH. Obviously fixing it entirely is a little too much to ask for Yuletide, because it could easily take a novel, but perhaps a little something that shows Ian surviving and waking up and dealing with some of the fallout? Or anyone dealing with any of the fallout? Just. WHAT A PLACE TO END WITHOUT GETTING A SECOND SEASON. D: There's also that whole thing with the possible alien artifact/the DNA from the first two episodes, which - okay, maybe that's also a novel in the making, but a little bit of casefic dealing with more hints of alien presence would be super cool.
Ian Farve: TRULY A PRECIOUS ANDROID CINNAMON ROLL TOO GOOD FOR THIS WORLD, TOO PURE. He's such a cutie and I loved every minute of his learning about human life and his partnership with David. (I totally ship David/Ian, by the way, but alas, did not have room to nominate David - if you ship it as well, please feel free to write it! But it's not obligatory by any means. I really liked the way - whether or not it was intentional - that David's own actions often undercut his stated anti-robot bias, so that he came off as a guy who paid lip service to the general biases of society, but actually was capable of seeing past those prejudices. Particularly regarding Ian.) More adorable everyday hijinks with life among humans would be fantastic, to say nothing of exploring his relationship with (SPOILER) his AI parent (so many possibilities!), or a more serious look at how he feels about his own nature, particularly compared to the other android models around him. I also really enjoyed his friendship with Olan, who is a great person in general, so I'd be happy to see more of that - maybe him consulting her for advice on a case, or on dealing with David being so - David. XD Or perhaps how he handles having dinner with David and Olivia at their place? (David optional, of course - maybe he has to stay at the office and deal with some paperwork and sends Ian ahead to cover for him.) And there's the thing with him "transferring" from the Assessors' Office - which is a great big falsehood, but it certainly raises some interesting questions, like why THERE instead of, I don't know, just some other CPB office. And how much did Calley and the Assessors' Office really know about him, before the finale?
Olivia Hume: So, first off, I'll be honest - I really like Olivia, but I do not like her and David's relationship. I could buy that they loved each other, but they just also seemed to bring out the worst in each other - well, mostly in David, to be honest. XP He could get really overbearing and condescending and secretive with her, and not trust her, and she'd get defensive and demanding back, and just - yeah. I spent most of the series wanting her to dump him and get with Olan, who actually respected her boundaries and emotional needs and also they were super cute friends together. SO YEAH, I SHIP THAT. VERY MUCH. If you don't like breaking up canon marriages (which I respect), maybe something about the early years of their friendship, before Olivia met David? Or an AU where Olivia married Olan instead and David is just a friend? Or, non-shippy, maybe a case comes up where Olan wants to consult with her about something in Olivia's field and they hang out being competent science people together. Since WE NEVER GET THE ANSWERS BECAUSE CANCELLATION, I would also really love to see fic about what Olivia's original relationship with the Rekall Corporation was and what she got involved in, and exactly how much of her memory was changed/replaced. Because damn, poor Olivia. D:
Olan Chang: SO SMART. SO BEAUTIFUL. SO EMOTIONALLY COMPETENT. Basically I want to see her most with Olivia (shippy or friendshippy) or having cute friendship times with Ian, so those prompts are already kinda covered, but I'd also enjoy just seeing her at work! Solving cases with her excellent powers of science and morbid trivia facts! Working on her own projects! That kind of thing. ... sorry, I really love her but it's hard to think of any fic I want with her that isn't basically "more of her canon coolness, please."
James Calley: Oh, CALLEY. My feelings are so complicated. He first attracted my attention by, basically, being short and continuously angry in a low-key way, also mysterious, and then went on to become one of my favorite secondary characters by continuing to be short and angry and mysterious in a badass way. Also in one of the later episodes he tells Lt. Ehrenthal (WHO IS GREAT AND THE BEST BOSS AND YOU SHOULD TOTALLY INCLUDE HIM IN THE FIC IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO) "[David and Ian] are just as important to me as they are to you," which instantly fired up my feelings, like "Yes, tiny man! Please be angrily possessive and protective of these two guys you bicker with a lot! I'M INTO THAT."
AND THEN HE BRUTALLY STABBED ME IN THE BACK BY (SPOILERS) TRYING TO KILL DAVID AND IAN AND IAN'S AI PARENT, WHICH DIDN'T WORK IN THE CASE OF AI PARENT BECAUSE AI OR DAVID BECAUSE PROTAGONIST, BUT STILL. WHY, CALLEY. WHY DID YOU BETRAY ME SO HARD WHEN I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU. So, uh, because I have weaknesses, I would really love fix-it fic for that. A divergent AU where Calley does not [SPOILERS]! Fic where [SPOILER], after their surprise appearance at the end, uses their powers for (sort of) good and guilts Calley into regretting his actions and apologizing and doing something to make up for it! (It doesn't have to be sappy or anything. Calley's idea of appropriate apologies could very well involve dumping a severed head on Ian's desk and going "Don't worry about getting kidnapped/dissected/whatever by THIS corporation anymore." Okay, maybe not a head, but some other proof of "I murdered a dude/multiple dudes for you are we cool now.") Or, avoiding the unhappy topic altogether to focus on those halcyon times before his betrayal, I could really, really go for backstory fic - Calley has a terrifying reputation in certain circles, so what did he do to earn it? Or, if you are in a casefic mood, I'd love to see some daily life at the Assessors' Office when Calley isn't hanging out at the CPB to flirt with Lt. Ehrenthal (SEE, CALLEY, I WAS WILLING TO SHIP YOU WITH SOMEONE AS GREAT AS LT. EHRENTHAL IF YOU HADN'T BETRAYED ME) and hassle Ian and David. ... or, you know, Calley hanging out at the CPB, flirting with Lt. Ehrenthal and hassling Ian and David. That's all good. Maybe verbally sparring with Olan a bit until Olan tells him to quit hanging around her lab like a creep? XD
Okay, I'm sure this letter is way too long at this point, so I will end here! If you have any questions or concerns, anon is on, so feel free to ask in comments, or go through the Yuletide mods - whichever is easier/more comfortable for you. Have fun writing, and again, please don't stress too much! I'm genuinely very easy-going when it comes to fic written just for me. ♥
Crossposted from Dreamwidth - read the original post here: http://hokuton-punch.dreamwidth.org/1077135.html .