Dear Yuletide Writer Letter - 2016
Dear Yuletide writer:
Yay, we have at least one fandom in common! Just for that, may I say that you totally rock! I hope that you have an eventful Yuletide.
Below you will find what basically amounts to an essay on what I like lol. I can’t help it, I just tend to get a bit carried away when it comes to fic and what I love about it. Kind of like the snowball effect, once you get me talking about it, I find it a bit hard to slow down. First off, may I preface all of this by saying that these are general ideas. If you have a particular idea that really hits you, I know what that can be like. You lock the plot bunny in the cellar only to find that it tunnels its way out :P If you have a specific fic you want to write, please do. I promise you I will be thrilled with it. Just having fic written in any of the below fandoms would be amazing as it’s not something that I get to experience all too often.
Enough waxing eloquent, onto the good stuff now, right?
p.s. - before you get into reading prompt specifics later on in this letter, please be aware that the prompt for each fandom is likely rife with spoilers (mostly canonical moments that I’m using to demonstrate what I love about the story or moments I would love to see expanded on in fan-fic). If you hit a fandom where you’d like to read the canon material but haven’t, and that is not the prompt you are visiting this letter for, I would recommend skipping that entire prompt and finding the fandom/prompt we share in common.
General Likes
I am a whumper through and through. My favorite genres are hurt/comfort and angst. I am not such a huge fan of permanent disability maiming; I like more acute trauma and then fics that focus on the aftermath and the recovery phase. My favorite dynamic is probably when you have one character not really taking care of themselves after getting injured. Cue a friend stepping in and fussing over them (such cuteness!). I love fics where people are protective of their loved ones as a general rule.
That’s one dynamic I like, I also have several others! I love cute fuzzy animals in all forms. Any fic that focuses on the relationship between a character and an animal (pet, animal that followed them home, etc.) is amazing.
I like fics that have an element of surprise in them. I like when you have one character being underestimated, or ones where they really do something that their loved ones didn’t expect, something out of left field that really humbles them. Maybe a character has secret hobby that no one knows about that would impress them. Maybe it's a specific sacrifice that the character makes for another teammate or loved one. I really love fics where we get to see a new side of our favorite characters that brings further depth to how we perceive them.
I like fics that have an element of pursuit to them. Maybe it’s a character running away because they are just overwhelmed and need some time to process and think about something that’s happened in their life. I love the idea that a friend or other individual cares enough about them to go outside their normal routine, track that individual down, comfort them, and tell them that it’s going to be okay. There are other iterations of this as well. Maybe a character is missing and a friend organizes the search to locate and/or rescue them. This one’s pretty open to interpretation.
I am a person who loves angst in all of its forms. I like characters who face hardship that breaks them in some visceral way, that has warped them into something that at first glance doesn’t meet the definition of beauty. Despite that, though, characters thrive and they find a way to move through it and past it and find someone who sees that bent shape not as something broken, but unique, a testament to the hardships they’ve faced and successfully overcome. I would ask that if you are going angst heavy (which I do so love!) to maybe balance it out with a few light moments too, and happy endings are much appreciated :D
I like fics that flesh out a character’s back story. For instance, some of my favorite fics fuse the past and the present. It’s often a character with a shadier past who doesn’t really share much about their life, but through some event or another parts of their past leak out. Their friends are there to help them with the fallout, and remind them that even if they had a hard past, they can make up for it in the present.
To balance out the angst factor, I also really do love fluff and the kind of fic that makes your heart melt. Humor is great, believable crack is excellent, unexpected shenanigans are pure gold.
I am a bit of a tomboy myself in real life so I also really love fics that play with gender dynamics. For example, I love Disney’s Mulan because we see a woman riding off to war and throwing off pretty much every female stereotype in existence. I love fics where a female is perhaps underestimated and somehow saves the day, etc.
I will say that I tend to fall on the gen side of the shipping spectrum. I usually prefer friendship fics where a team or a group of friends has become almost like a family unit. If you prefer to ship your characters, I’m totally fine with that, write what comes naturally to you. I’m pretty flexible about such things, but would ask that if you are shipping the fic focus on the emotional as opposed to physical relationship.
I’m also a bit odd in that there are specific stylistic devices that I love to see in fic, to me it really just lifts the fic one peg higher. One major one that I really love is when the fic has a sense of circularity about it. By circularity, I mean a fic that starts with an idea, a line, and somehow the author manages to bring that idea/line back at the end. It just gives the fic a really nice feeling of tying up all the loose ends. I also have a weird thing for extended metaphors, when an author is able to employ them well it can be a thing of true beauty.
If you’ve stayed with me thus far you will probably see that one of the strongest themes that runs through many of the things that I like revolves around one character expressing how much they care for a friend or loved one, whether it be expressed through protectiveness, caring for them in the aftermath of an injury, taking the time to seek them out, etc. I’ve requested many such fics and have received many wonderful ones in turn.
This year I am also trying to take the opportunity to step into another realm, which is expanding on interesting characters or moments in the fandoms I’ve selected that aren’t huge moments in the canon. It’s often just an idea or person that the author had and I stop for a minute and think, “That is *so* cool! I would love to read more about this particular idea!” Some fics are awesome because they are all about the hurt/comfort, but some are awesome simply for the elegance of their plotline. I’ve made a sordid attempt to choose a few fandoms/prompts that fall into this category, small moments or concepts or minor characters from stories that I would love to read more about. If you want to throw in some of the hurt/comfort stuff for these, I will of course, be thrilled. More than anything, though, just tell me a good story. Flesh out those characters or ideas that the author just didn’t have the space to write about in their books and I will be thrilled and bouncing up and down with squee, I promise :D
At least for me, I’ve also found it useful when recipients have linked me to stories they have adored for one reason or another. It gave me a starting point to go from. If you are interested, these are a few stories that I’ve really enjoyed. Most are in one particular fandom (Leverage), so if you are not familiar don’t worry about it. This is more just another resource if you’re curious, but feel free to totally skip over it if you’d like.
Escapology - (Leverage Fandom) - http://pogrebin.livejournal.com/79455.html?style=mine - I really like this fic for the style, it’s one of the best-written fics I’ve ever read. The use of an extended metaphor is also amazing.
Thicker Than Blood - (Leverage Fandom) - http://scout-lover.livejournal.com/24293.html#cutid1 - This fic is a wonderful use of backstory, fic circularity, and angst that I just sort of adore.
Four Times Parker Dreamed About Having a Family- (Leverage Fandom) - http://amazonziti.livejournal.com/26719.html - I loved this fic for the character back story and believable angst.
Home Sweet Home - (Leverage Fandom) -http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5805723/1/Home_Sweet_Home - This is an example of the pursuit-oriented fic that I love. A character is not living in her apartment, her friends engage in a humorous game of Cat and Mouse to figure out where she is living these days.
The River Serpent - (Mulan, Twisted Princesses Fandom) - http://archiveofourown.org/works/302477 - This is one of those fandoms where I saw the image and wanted to know more about it. This story fleshes out the back story quite nicely and I just *adore* the storytelling. There are those stories that are excellent for their plots, this is one of those fics.
This is just a small slice of fics that I love. For a longer list, feel free to check out my delicious page with the tag “noteworthy:” http://www.delicious.com/hollow_echos/noteworthy. If you are worried about being triggered for anything and would like a summary of the stories listed above before reading them, all three stories listed above can be found my my delicious page here with summaries to go with them.
General Dislikes
Unless designated otherwise, I prefer gen and friendship fics to shipping. I prefer fics that focus on the emotional relationship between two characters as opposed the physical/sexual side. If you like to write smut, indulge! There is absolutely nothing wrong with a good sex scene, but I would ask that the overall focus of the story be on the emotional side of the relationship instead of PWP. I also generally prefer fics based at least loosely in the canon!verse as opposed to crossovers or AU’s. Minor AU's are totally fine (and can be a lot of fun, I write many of these myself), where you take a moment in a fic and move out in a different direction than what the canon followed. The kind of AU's I generally have found a bit harder to get into are the ones that take the characters from a show/series and place them in a different universe, time period, etc.
I totally respect that everyone has their own kinks, I assure you, I certainly have some odd ones too. I do have a few squicks though, that I would ask be avoided unless they are critical to the plot. Squicks for me include death fic, mpreg, and incest.
Prompt Specifics
Fandom: Liveship Traders Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Characters: Paragon, Althea Vestrit, Brashen Trell
One thing I love about Robin Hobb’s books is her really interesting take on dragons - how they almost went extinct, and how their story arc (trying to survive that threat of extinction) weaves through most of her various series. I find how the dragon story arc weaves into the Liveship Traders series to be absolutely fascinating - how wizardwood was actually cocooned dragons, how Liveships are the echos of what those dragons may have been.
Perhaps no character captures that dichotomy better than Paragon - robbed of his rightful life as a dragon, instead fated to serve as a liveship to human deck hands. Wrapped up in all of that is his madness suffered from the tradgedies that have befallen him over the years. We see moments of absolute clarity, and moments where he devolves into that madness.
I know we get glimpses of how Paragon reconciles his newfound knowledge of what he truly is - where he discusses that he could’ve chosen to be bitter but instead chose to make what he could of the life he was given. I’d love to see an introspective piece or really any story that explores the theme of Paragon reconciling what his life is now (as a liveship) compared to what it may have been as a dragon had his life gone a different direction. How does he feel when Tintaglia’s shadow sweeps over his deck as she flies overhead - is it a joyous hope for how he may still help save dragonkind? Or a sadness over what he will never have?
Later series also explore how he was disappointed by what came of the crop of dragons that they helped guide up the river to the cocooning grounds - I’d also be fascinated by any sort of story that explored that whole journey/his part in it and what he thought of it.
Paragon’s life and what he became also aren’t entirely wrapped up in solely what dragons are or were or may become. The Liveship series is also a tale of humans - of how Althea and Brashen help Paragon find redemption and a purpose in life. How maybe what he lost in being denied becoming a dragon, he finds a different happiness with Brashen and Althea. Any story that explored his relationship with them would also be a well-loved fic.
Honestly, this series is just so fascinating on the whole. If your story hits on dragons or Paragon in any form, or liveships, I’m probably a very happy reader. If my rambling sparked some sort of inspiration, even if it goes in a totally different direction, please run with it. Sometimes our inspiration takes us in directions we didn’t expect, but I’d much rather say follow that thread to see where it goes than trying to write a fic that doesn’t come naturally to you. Write what feels right, don't conform to a particular part of this prompt if it feels like fitting in a box that isn't right for you. This series is all about super fascinating themes, ideas regarding dragons, etc - getting to read in this verse is honestly a treat in and of itself.
Fandom: The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater
Characters: Puck Connolly, Sean Kendrick
This book is a newer one for me. I’ve talked in another prompt how growing up with horses colored much of my childhood, but that would be an understatement. I was the lanky kid who spent class time doodling horses in the margins of my notebooks and lived for the moments I could spend at the barn. Horses were my childhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I grew up on the Pony Club books and every other horse related book I could get my hands on. I arrived at this book via a random Tumblr post a few weeks ago and devoured the book in a single evening. When I explored the tag set and found that someone else had nominated this book for Yuletide I was bouncing up and down with excitement.
It is a book written for a younger audience, sure, but that didn’t stop me from adoring it. I loved it. You could tell the author knew horses just from the way she spoke of them, the terminology she used, and everything in between.
This book was a tale of two individuals, Puck and Sean, backed into a corner with winning the races being their only way out. Despite the fact that they will compete against one another, their relationship and love for one another still blossoms.
I love their relationship with one another, the idea of the high-spirited water horses, the fact that they would rather risk giving up everything up to and including their lives before they would give you their four-legged companions.
The ending gave us some closure, but I was left wondering what their lives after the races looked like. It seemed that Corr fancied Dove, do they have a colt or a filly together someday? Do Puck and Sean stay working at the farm or start their own stable? Does Sean keep working with the water horses every year? Does it play out like George Holly predicted where Puck and Sean would train and breed and he’d come from America each year to buy from them?
I’d love anything set post-canon, more or less. Tell me about how things played out for our characters and their beloved horses and I’d be the happiest person in the world.
Fandom: Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Characters: Sazed, Vin, TenSoon
To me, one of the fabulous things about Brandon Sandersen is his ability to come up with rather amazing magic systems and the Mistborn is no exception. I love the premise of the different metals and how they complement and contrast one another. How the different creatures of this world come to encompass some aspect of that magic system from the hematelurgic spikes to how they give rise to the kandra or the other creatures that the Emperor created. The magic system in and of itself is just amazingly complex and so interesting.
One of the creatures I love the most is the idea of the kandra - of their final contract, what they were tasked with doing, how they arise from Mistwraiths with the blessing of a magic-infused spike. I find it fascinating to imagine what sorts of difficult decisions they are asked to make in the name of honoring the human holder of their contract. Perhaps no creature encompasses that dilemma better than TenSoon. We see such an interesting evolution in his character - from a bitter jaded creature who hated Vin and humans in general, to someone who came to love Vin and have ultimate faith in her. We see moments in that evolution, but there are only so many pages in a book and a lot of characters/plotline to cover. I’d love to see a story that gave us further insight into that evolution - how did TenSoon’s journey look from bitterness to viewing Vin as a companion, friend, and comrade in the fight to save their world?
And in all of that, Vin honestly didn’t try to win him over. She won him over just by being herself - by asking questions, by genuinely wanting to know who he was. It was in acts like realizing how much he despised canine bones for a time and not wanting him to be miserable - for just caring enough to ask what he wanted, she showed him more respect than how many former contract-holders? The relationship between TenSoon and Vin is absolutely fascinating to me, and I’d love any fic that explored that evolution.
In a totally unrelated arena, if you wanted more ideas, I also love the relationship between Vin and Sazed. Again, one of Vin’s unique attributes is she really doesn’t seem to care what other people think - she does things her own way. At the beginning of being recruited and groomed to be the team’s spy at court, she is quite the unique ex-street urchin. Ball gowns and balls are a frivolity she doesn’t quite understand, she should gourge herself on food when the opportunity presents itself because who knows the next time she might be starving? Trust no-one.
The journey from that to who she ultimately becomes is a very startling transformation, and Sazed is asked to both train her and help foster that transformation in a way that I have to imagine was a task of dualities. Maybe it was pride in seeing her growth, or the sadness in seeing the trauma she suffered as a child to have become the person she is. Maybe it’s some awe at what power she possesses or the fear he has that a person he cares for may be hurt. In a way, Sazed is an integral mentor for Vin, a member of her adopted family, a person she comes to trust. I’d love to see any fic that explores Vin’s transformation from Sazed’s perspective - we see how she transforms - from a child most immediately concerned with just taking the steps needed to survive, to a person willing to sacrifice herself for their cause (as evident in the ways Sazed is asked to patch her up after some pretty dire run ins - you could also totally take a hurt/comfort bend on that if it’s your thing).
He trains her knowing that she will put herself into harm's way, knows she will risk getting killed by a powerful adversary. Does he worry about what guilt he may bear in her death for the fact that he helped train her in the skills she'll need to step onto that battlefield? Or as is one of his foundational character traits, does he simply have faith and hope that things will work out despite those odds and that is enough to carry him through on his part in their plot to overthrow the empire? Is there pride as she masters new skills or fear for her well-being at the moments she steps out into the mists on her next mission?
On the whole, I just love getting to see Vin transform in the series, but I’d love to see a fic that explored Sazed’s relationship with her as well as his thoughts as he inspires and bears witness to that transformation.
In Summation
Well, I feel like I’ve written an essay :P I hope that I haven’t overwhelmed you with too much here. I’ve been caught before where I just didn’t feel that I had enough information to go on when writing a gift fic for someone so I really try to make sure that you don’t have the same issue. I’ve basically thrown together a conglomeration of everything that I could think of in hopes that something would catch your eye/spark a plot bunny, and you could run with it. Please, please, please, don’t assume that all of this needs to go into a fic, I think that fic might read a bit strangely and disjointed lol. Take what pieces work for you and play with those, don’t worry about the rest. More than anything else, write what feels write to *you,* I want this to be as much fun for you to write as it will be for me to read!
Happy Yuletide, good luck writing, and I cannot wait to see what you produce :D
Thanks,
hollow_echos
Yay, we have at least one fandom in common! Just for that, may I say that you totally rock! I hope that you have an eventful Yuletide.
Below you will find what basically amounts to an essay on what I like lol. I can’t help it, I just tend to get a bit carried away when it comes to fic and what I love about it. Kind of like the snowball effect, once you get me talking about it, I find it a bit hard to slow down. First off, may I preface all of this by saying that these are general ideas. If you have a particular idea that really hits you, I know what that can be like. You lock the plot bunny in the cellar only to find that it tunnels its way out :P If you have a specific fic you want to write, please do. I promise you I will be thrilled with it. Just having fic written in any of the below fandoms would be amazing as it’s not something that I get to experience all too often.
Enough waxing eloquent, onto the good stuff now, right?
p.s. - before you get into reading prompt specifics later on in this letter, please be aware that the prompt for each fandom is likely rife with spoilers (mostly canonical moments that I’m using to demonstrate what I love about the story or moments I would love to see expanded on in fan-fic). If you hit a fandom where you’d like to read the canon material but haven’t, and that is not the prompt you are visiting this letter for, I would recommend skipping that entire prompt and finding the fandom/prompt we share in common.
General Likes
I am a whumper through and through. My favorite genres are hurt/comfort and angst. I am not such a huge fan of permanent disability maiming; I like more acute trauma and then fics that focus on the aftermath and the recovery phase. My favorite dynamic is probably when you have one character not really taking care of themselves after getting injured. Cue a friend stepping in and fussing over them (such cuteness!). I love fics where people are protective of their loved ones as a general rule.
That’s one dynamic I like, I also have several others! I love cute fuzzy animals in all forms. Any fic that focuses on the relationship between a character and an animal (pet, animal that followed them home, etc.) is amazing.
I like fics that have an element of surprise in them. I like when you have one character being underestimated, or ones where they really do something that their loved ones didn’t expect, something out of left field that really humbles them. Maybe a character has secret hobby that no one knows about that would impress them. Maybe it's a specific sacrifice that the character makes for another teammate or loved one. I really love fics where we get to see a new side of our favorite characters that brings further depth to how we perceive them.
I like fics that have an element of pursuit to them. Maybe it’s a character running away because they are just overwhelmed and need some time to process and think about something that’s happened in their life. I love the idea that a friend or other individual cares enough about them to go outside their normal routine, track that individual down, comfort them, and tell them that it’s going to be okay. There are other iterations of this as well. Maybe a character is missing and a friend organizes the search to locate and/or rescue them. This one’s pretty open to interpretation.
I am a person who loves angst in all of its forms. I like characters who face hardship that breaks them in some visceral way, that has warped them into something that at first glance doesn’t meet the definition of beauty. Despite that, though, characters thrive and they find a way to move through it and past it and find someone who sees that bent shape not as something broken, but unique, a testament to the hardships they’ve faced and successfully overcome. I would ask that if you are going angst heavy (which I do so love!) to maybe balance it out with a few light moments too, and happy endings are much appreciated :D
I like fics that flesh out a character’s back story. For instance, some of my favorite fics fuse the past and the present. It’s often a character with a shadier past who doesn’t really share much about their life, but through some event or another parts of their past leak out. Their friends are there to help them with the fallout, and remind them that even if they had a hard past, they can make up for it in the present.
To balance out the angst factor, I also really do love fluff and the kind of fic that makes your heart melt. Humor is great, believable crack is excellent, unexpected shenanigans are pure gold.
I am a bit of a tomboy myself in real life so I also really love fics that play with gender dynamics. For example, I love Disney’s Mulan because we see a woman riding off to war and throwing off pretty much every female stereotype in existence. I love fics where a female is perhaps underestimated and somehow saves the day, etc.
I will say that I tend to fall on the gen side of the shipping spectrum. I usually prefer friendship fics where a team or a group of friends has become almost like a family unit. If you prefer to ship your characters, I’m totally fine with that, write what comes naturally to you. I’m pretty flexible about such things, but would ask that if you are shipping the fic focus on the emotional as opposed to physical relationship.
I’m also a bit odd in that there are specific stylistic devices that I love to see in fic, to me it really just lifts the fic one peg higher. One major one that I really love is when the fic has a sense of circularity about it. By circularity, I mean a fic that starts with an idea, a line, and somehow the author manages to bring that idea/line back at the end. It just gives the fic a really nice feeling of tying up all the loose ends. I also have a weird thing for extended metaphors, when an author is able to employ them well it can be a thing of true beauty.
If you’ve stayed with me thus far you will probably see that one of the strongest themes that runs through many of the things that I like revolves around one character expressing how much they care for a friend or loved one, whether it be expressed through protectiveness, caring for them in the aftermath of an injury, taking the time to seek them out, etc. I’ve requested many such fics and have received many wonderful ones in turn.
This year I am also trying to take the opportunity to step into another realm, which is expanding on interesting characters or moments in the fandoms I’ve selected that aren’t huge moments in the canon. It’s often just an idea or person that the author had and I stop for a minute and think, “That is *so* cool! I would love to read more about this particular idea!” Some fics are awesome because they are all about the hurt/comfort, but some are awesome simply for the elegance of their plotline. I’ve made a sordid attempt to choose a few fandoms/prompts that fall into this category, small moments or concepts or minor characters from stories that I would love to read more about. If you want to throw in some of the hurt/comfort stuff for these, I will of course, be thrilled. More than anything, though, just tell me a good story. Flesh out those characters or ideas that the author just didn’t have the space to write about in their books and I will be thrilled and bouncing up and down with squee, I promise :D
At least for me, I’ve also found it useful when recipients have linked me to stories they have adored for one reason or another. It gave me a starting point to go from. If you are interested, these are a few stories that I’ve really enjoyed. Most are in one particular fandom (Leverage), so if you are not familiar don’t worry about it. This is more just another resource if you’re curious, but feel free to totally skip over it if you’d like.
Escapology - (Leverage Fandom) - http://pogrebin.livejournal.com/79455.html?style=mine - I really like this fic for the style, it’s one of the best-written fics I’ve ever read. The use of an extended metaphor is also amazing.
Thicker Than Blood - (Leverage Fandom) - http://scout-lover.livejournal.com/24293.html#cutid1 - This fic is a wonderful use of backstory, fic circularity, and angst that I just sort of adore.
Four Times Parker Dreamed About Having a Family- (Leverage Fandom) - http://amazonziti.livejournal.com/26719.html - I loved this fic for the character back story and believable angst.
Home Sweet Home - (Leverage Fandom) -http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5805723/1/Home_Sweet_Home - This is an example of the pursuit-oriented fic that I love. A character is not living in her apartment, her friends engage in a humorous game of Cat and Mouse to figure out where she is living these days.
The River Serpent - (Mulan, Twisted Princesses Fandom) - http://archiveofourown.org/works/302477 - This is one of those fandoms where I saw the image and wanted to know more about it. This story fleshes out the back story quite nicely and I just *adore* the storytelling. There are those stories that are excellent for their plots, this is one of those fics.
This is just a small slice of fics that I love. For a longer list, feel free to check out my delicious page with the tag “noteworthy:” http://www.delicious.com/hollow_echos/noteworthy. If you are worried about being triggered for anything and would like a summary of the stories listed above before reading them, all three stories listed above can be found my my delicious page here with summaries to go with them.
General Dislikes
Unless designated otherwise, I prefer gen and friendship fics to shipping. I prefer fics that focus on the emotional relationship between two characters as opposed the physical/sexual side. If you like to write smut, indulge! There is absolutely nothing wrong with a good sex scene, but I would ask that the overall focus of the story be on the emotional side of the relationship instead of PWP. I also generally prefer fics based at least loosely in the canon!verse as opposed to crossovers or AU’s. Minor AU's are totally fine (and can be a lot of fun, I write many of these myself), where you take a moment in a fic and move out in a different direction than what the canon followed. The kind of AU's I generally have found a bit harder to get into are the ones that take the characters from a show/series and place them in a different universe, time period, etc.
I totally respect that everyone has their own kinks, I assure you, I certainly have some odd ones too. I do have a few squicks though, that I would ask be avoided unless they are critical to the plot. Squicks for me include death fic, mpreg, and incest.
Prompt Specifics
Fandom: Liveship Traders Trilogy - Robin Hobb
Characters: Paragon, Althea Vestrit, Brashen Trell
One thing I love about Robin Hobb’s books is her really interesting take on dragons - how they almost went extinct, and how their story arc (trying to survive that threat of extinction) weaves through most of her various series. I find how the dragon story arc weaves into the Liveship Traders series to be absolutely fascinating - how wizardwood was actually cocooned dragons, how Liveships are the echos of what those dragons may have been.
Perhaps no character captures that dichotomy better than Paragon - robbed of his rightful life as a dragon, instead fated to serve as a liveship to human deck hands. Wrapped up in all of that is his madness suffered from the tradgedies that have befallen him over the years. We see moments of absolute clarity, and moments where he devolves into that madness.
I know we get glimpses of how Paragon reconciles his newfound knowledge of what he truly is - where he discusses that he could’ve chosen to be bitter but instead chose to make what he could of the life he was given. I’d love to see an introspective piece or really any story that explores the theme of Paragon reconciling what his life is now (as a liveship) compared to what it may have been as a dragon had his life gone a different direction. How does he feel when Tintaglia’s shadow sweeps over his deck as she flies overhead - is it a joyous hope for how he may still help save dragonkind? Or a sadness over what he will never have?
Later series also explore how he was disappointed by what came of the crop of dragons that they helped guide up the river to the cocooning grounds - I’d also be fascinated by any sort of story that explored that whole journey/his part in it and what he thought of it.
Paragon’s life and what he became also aren’t entirely wrapped up in solely what dragons are or were or may become. The Liveship series is also a tale of humans - of how Althea and Brashen help Paragon find redemption and a purpose in life. How maybe what he lost in being denied becoming a dragon, he finds a different happiness with Brashen and Althea. Any story that explored his relationship with them would also be a well-loved fic.
Honestly, this series is just so fascinating on the whole. If your story hits on dragons or Paragon in any form, or liveships, I’m probably a very happy reader. If my rambling sparked some sort of inspiration, even if it goes in a totally different direction, please run with it. Sometimes our inspiration takes us in directions we didn’t expect, but I’d much rather say follow that thread to see where it goes than trying to write a fic that doesn’t come naturally to you. Write what feels right, don't conform to a particular part of this prompt if it feels like fitting in a box that isn't right for you. This series is all about super fascinating themes, ideas regarding dragons, etc - getting to read in this verse is honestly a treat in and of itself.
Fandom: The Scorpio Races - Maggie Stiefvater
Characters: Puck Connolly, Sean Kendrick
This book is a newer one for me. I’ve talked in another prompt how growing up with horses colored much of my childhood, but that would be an understatement. I was the lanky kid who spent class time doodling horses in the margins of my notebooks and lived for the moments I could spend at the barn. Horses were my childhood and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I grew up on the Pony Club books and every other horse related book I could get my hands on. I arrived at this book via a random Tumblr post a few weeks ago and devoured the book in a single evening. When I explored the tag set and found that someone else had nominated this book for Yuletide I was bouncing up and down with excitement.
It is a book written for a younger audience, sure, but that didn’t stop me from adoring it. I loved it. You could tell the author knew horses just from the way she spoke of them, the terminology she used, and everything in between.
This book was a tale of two individuals, Puck and Sean, backed into a corner with winning the races being their only way out. Despite the fact that they will compete against one another, their relationship and love for one another still blossoms.
I love their relationship with one another, the idea of the high-spirited water horses, the fact that they would rather risk giving up everything up to and including their lives before they would give you their four-legged companions.
The ending gave us some closure, but I was left wondering what their lives after the races looked like. It seemed that Corr fancied Dove, do they have a colt or a filly together someday? Do Puck and Sean stay working at the farm or start their own stable? Does Sean keep working with the water horses every year? Does it play out like George Holly predicted where Puck and Sean would train and breed and he’d come from America each year to buy from them?
I’d love anything set post-canon, more or less. Tell me about how things played out for our characters and their beloved horses and I’d be the happiest person in the world.
Fandom: Mistborn - Brandon Sanderson
Characters: Sazed, Vin, TenSoon
To me, one of the fabulous things about Brandon Sandersen is his ability to come up with rather amazing magic systems and the Mistborn is no exception. I love the premise of the different metals and how they complement and contrast one another. How the different creatures of this world come to encompass some aspect of that magic system from the hematelurgic spikes to how they give rise to the kandra or the other creatures that the Emperor created. The magic system in and of itself is just amazingly complex and so interesting.
One of the creatures I love the most is the idea of the kandra - of their final contract, what they were tasked with doing, how they arise from Mistwraiths with the blessing of a magic-infused spike. I find it fascinating to imagine what sorts of difficult decisions they are asked to make in the name of honoring the human holder of their contract. Perhaps no creature encompasses that dilemma better than TenSoon. We see such an interesting evolution in his character - from a bitter jaded creature who hated Vin and humans in general, to someone who came to love Vin and have ultimate faith in her. We see moments in that evolution, but there are only so many pages in a book and a lot of characters/plotline to cover. I’d love to see a story that gave us further insight into that evolution - how did TenSoon’s journey look from bitterness to viewing Vin as a companion, friend, and comrade in the fight to save their world?
And in all of that, Vin honestly didn’t try to win him over. She won him over just by being herself - by asking questions, by genuinely wanting to know who he was. It was in acts like realizing how much he despised canine bones for a time and not wanting him to be miserable - for just caring enough to ask what he wanted, she showed him more respect than how many former contract-holders? The relationship between TenSoon and Vin is absolutely fascinating to me, and I’d love any fic that explored that evolution.
In a totally unrelated arena, if you wanted more ideas, I also love the relationship between Vin and Sazed. Again, one of Vin’s unique attributes is she really doesn’t seem to care what other people think - she does things her own way. At the beginning of being recruited and groomed to be the team’s spy at court, she is quite the unique ex-street urchin. Ball gowns and balls are a frivolity she doesn’t quite understand, she should gourge herself on food when the opportunity presents itself because who knows the next time she might be starving? Trust no-one.
The journey from that to who she ultimately becomes is a very startling transformation, and Sazed is asked to both train her and help foster that transformation in a way that I have to imagine was a task of dualities. Maybe it was pride in seeing her growth, or the sadness in seeing the trauma she suffered as a child to have become the person she is. Maybe it’s some awe at what power she possesses or the fear he has that a person he cares for may be hurt. In a way, Sazed is an integral mentor for Vin, a member of her adopted family, a person she comes to trust. I’d love to see any fic that explores Vin’s transformation from Sazed’s perspective - we see how she transforms - from a child most immediately concerned with just taking the steps needed to survive, to a person willing to sacrifice herself for their cause (as evident in the ways Sazed is asked to patch her up after some pretty dire run ins - you could also totally take a hurt/comfort bend on that if it’s your thing).
He trains her knowing that she will put herself into harm's way, knows she will risk getting killed by a powerful adversary. Does he worry about what guilt he may bear in her death for the fact that he helped train her in the skills she'll need to step onto that battlefield? Or as is one of his foundational character traits, does he simply have faith and hope that things will work out despite those odds and that is enough to carry him through on his part in their plot to overthrow the empire? Is there pride as she masters new skills or fear for her well-being at the moments she steps out into the mists on her next mission?
On the whole, I just love getting to see Vin transform in the series, but I’d love to see a fic that explored Sazed’s relationship with her as well as his thoughts as he inspires and bears witness to that transformation.
In Summation
Well, I feel like I’ve written an essay :P I hope that I haven’t overwhelmed you with too much here. I’ve been caught before where I just didn’t feel that I had enough information to go on when writing a gift fic for someone so I really try to make sure that you don’t have the same issue. I’ve basically thrown together a conglomeration of everything that I could think of in hopes that something would catch your eye/spark a plot bunny, and you could run with it. Please, please, please, don’t assume that all of this needs to go into a fic, I think that fic might read a bit strangely and disjointed lol. Take what pieces work for you and play with those, don’t worry about the rest. More than anything else, write what feels write to *you,* I want this to be as much fun for you to write as it will be for me to read!
Happy Yuletide, good luck writing, and I cannot wait to see what you produce :D
Thanks,
hollow_echos