Dear Once Upon a Fic Writer
This is my letter for the Once Upon Fic exchange! (
once_upon_fic).
Dear writer, as ever, I am very excited for this exchange! Thank you for considering my prompts.
General fairy tale ideas
For stories written for fairy tales, I welcome:
-A sense of awe or the numinous, or uncanny things. I love seeing characters take in the sheer consciousness-expanding weirdness of magic. I love it when the presence of magic adds to the sense of atmosphere.
-(in contrast, I also welcome) Characters whose familiarity with magic affects their perspective on the world. It's fun to explore characters who take prosaically for granted things that would amaze us.
-Stories that play around with characters' genders or sexualities. Trans, ace, nonbinary, etc, characters all welcome. (Please also see DNWs.)
-A romantic story reinterpreted as non-romantic - or a non-romantic story reinterpreted as romantic.
-Stories that loosely blend elements of more than one fairy tale to create a new story. As long as at least one story I've requested plays a prominent part, you're welcome to draw ideas from stories I didn't request this year. (Please also see DNWs.)
-Stories that focus on or give backstories to magical artefacts and architecture and landscapes. I love glass mountains and golden bridles and enchanted knives.
-Setting AUs! Mundane, in space, in a particular country or time, centred on a particular industry or career - go wild! I really enjoy seeing how the shape of a fairy tale comes through in a very different context. Exception: please no mundane AUs for Heer Halewijn.
-Canon divergence AUs.
General likes
I love competence, loyalty, and trust. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love xeno, voyeurism, dubcon, noncon, telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors and artists incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or obscure that thing is. You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.
Do-Not-Wants:
Harm to hands, amnesia, substance abuse; crack; narrators breaking the fourth wall; issuefic where the story and characters are the vehicle for a modern social issue that does not come up in canon.
To be clearer (hopefully!) about crack & narrators breaking the fourth wall: although I've seen this done well, I'm really picky about the execution, so please avoid stories in which the narrator knows all fairy tales and is commenting on them from a point of elevated knowledge. I'm fine with a narrator - especially an unreliable narrator! - who is also a character, and who has a specific, personal reason for telling a story. Crack taken seriously is welcome, but instead of pure crack, I'd prefer humour that is grounded in the events of stories and the characters' natural reactions to those events, or humour that preserves a sense of depth, wonder, and strangeness.
To be clearer (hopefully!) about issuefic: I'm happy to get conflict and resolution around issues like gender equality, or the horror of war, or capitalism, or religious tolerance, where it suits the characters or fairy tale. However, please also give the characters goals and struggles that relate to other things. If you're writing a story about a social issue like these, I'd prefer the protagonists have flaws, and the opportunity to grow and change, rather than being perfect mouthpieces for morality (or being lectured by other perfect mouthpieces for morality).
If my DNWs are unclear, sorry, and please feel free to ask for clarification through my co-mod, Rosencrantz.
The BearI love the good cheer of this story and the princess's relatable desire to get out and see the world. I love her actually-a-witch ally, I love the picturesque details of the wheelbarrow and bearskin, I love that she and the prince are (kinda) friends before they're romantic interests, and I love that she giggles at the prince during the identity shenanigans. More shenanigans welcome (more mischief with the wheelbarrow?), or just an exploration of the story. I'd particularly like a story that keeps a cheerful or at least hopeful tone.
-Is there a funny story behind why the witch chose the bearskin and the wheelbarrow? Why those items?
-Does the princess also have some kind of weather sense or weather magic, or just really good timing?
-If you could soften or retcon the kicking, that'd be great. Not so keen on casual violence. Though possibly the identity shenanigans are the princess's revenge for his thoughtlessness there?
-Does anyone think it's weird that the prince's servant is a bear? Maybe the queen and prince don't get visitors very often? My theory is that the prince is a very *minor* noble, and does not possess much land at all, really.
-Is there ever a reconciliation between the princess and her father? OK if not, but could be interesting to see. Does the witch ever come back into the princess's life?
-Later on, the bearskin comes in handy for some sort of intrigue!
-The prince and princess's children get up to mischief with the wheelbarrow.
-I just really want more of these characters. They charm me so much.
-I especially love the identity porn so please keep some of that if reimagining this in an AU!
-What if the prince had let the bear come with him to the ball?
The Colony of CatsThis story is both charming and disturbing - you have the goodnatured maiden keeping house for a bevy of highly intelligent cats, and then you have nonconsensual body modification (even to the good sister) and its after-effects. A cute story about being the cat's maid would be great; so would a more serious look at Lizina's life after. And I'm fascinated by the coachman - how did he come to learn the language of the cats? What use does he make of it after?
-This was a beloved fairy tale for me as a kid because I loved the idea of keeping house for sentient cats. I'd love more fantastical domesticity.
-No one knows where they got the money to pay for everything, nor who paid it, for all this happened so very long ago - I'm curious!
-Crossover with The Girl Who Became a Boy, and specifically, the church full of snakes?
-The two jars and their effects are so incredibly specific, and even as a kid, I thought 'but what if Lizina didn't want either of them?' Feel free to explore them further! Maybe the cats are so rich because they somehow have just one piece of magic and they always arrange to use it instead of actually paying their debts... Maybe not.
-A sci-fi retelling might make better use of the donkey's tail and golden star. Hi-tech body mods? Gene splicing?
-What happened to the second sister?
East of the Sun and West of the MoonI love this fairy tale's vast open landscape, the imaginative promise of the title, and the way that the heroine (who knows her own mind, and says 'no' firmly but also isn't afraid) makes a mistake but fights to redeem it. I'd love to know more about the girl's journeys - carried away by the bear, and seeking him - and about the bear's backstory. Who is he and how did he come to be engaged to the troll princess? A story just about the North Wind, or just about the troll princess, would also be welcome.
-How did the bear come to choose his wife?
-More fantastical domesticity in the early days of the girl and the bear's marriage! What was it like to keep house for a bear?
-Especially in a modern context, "Don't talk alone with your mother," a red flag, even if it passes in a fairy tale. Examine this?
-Does the bear have some gift of foreknowledge? Did someone else give him cryptic warnings about what he must do to escape the trolls?
-How was the bargain struck, that the bear must live a year with his new wife if he wished to be free of the trolls?
-I adore the idea of the location east of the sun, west of the moon. Anything that plays with or rationalizes this would be beloved.
-How do all these old magical women know that the girl "was the one who should have had him"? Is there a reason this couple is the hot gossip topic among sages?
-Do the three golden items have any particular powers or histories, besides being unusual?
-What's it like to ride on the back of the wind?
-Was there some trick to the washing of the shirt?
The Groac'h of the Isle of LokI'm fascinated by the magical artefacts and transformations in this story - it all feels part of a much bigger story. Why does the Groac'h collect her suitors? (Did Houarn really nearly eat his fellows?!) Is the Groac'h one of many powerful underwater denizens? How did Bellah come to possess her magical artefacts? What did the horse think? What are the other suitors' stories?
-I would love any magical worldbuilding about rules about what can be transformed into what.
-How did Korandon come to marry the Groac'h - was there ever love between them?
-Canon-divergence: either Houarn or Bellah stays longer in the Groac'h palace before being transformed or defeated, and the mind games stretch out for longer. UST welcome - after all, the Groac'h declares herself in love with Bellah, and at that point, Bellah has not asked her for anything.
-Backstory for any of the other suitors!
-The Groac'h declares to Houarn that her husband is dead: as a somewhat off-the-wall idea, what if she's telling the truth as she knows it, but is living non-linear time in which she has already experienced (possibly caused) Korandon's death?
-Tell me more about the lives of Bellah and Houarn and the suitors after breaking the enchantment.
-Tell me more about Bellah and Houarn's original childhood dreams.
Heer Halewijn | alternate sourceThis ballad is new to me and I'm fascinated by the adventure between the deeply evil, seductive Halewijn and the brave princess, who seems to succeed by wits and by leveraging her beauty rather than by any superhuman power of her own. Give me more details of the princess's preparations, or give me backstory for Halewijn, or tell me the story of a maiden who came before our heroine, and who tried to defeat him and failed.
-Halewijn backstory? I'm fascinated by the idea that he got his powers through a deal with the devil - or a failed deal with the devil. What was he trying for, and (how) was it corrupted?
-Tell me about the protagonist's relationship with her sister and her brother? Is she younger or older than them?
-While you're welcome to focus on the princess's heroic quest, or other gen, I'm also really up for something dark and/or kinky! A previous maiden's seduction and murder? Or explore the period when the princess was under Halewijn's control - I like imagining her request about the shirt either as cunning rebellion, OR as a sincere sentiment. Characters who are being mind-whammied to believe they want things other than what they want make for really interesting horror for me. I'm also fascinated by the idea that Halewijn's influence fundamentally changed the princess, rather than going away when he died.
-That said, a healthy past or future relationship for the princess is also welcome!
-Halewijn: vampire?
-I'm curious about when he tries to compel the princess to call his friends for aid. What friends would these be?
-DNW specifically for this canon: no entirely mundane AUs, please. While the parallels to an 'ordinary' rapist or serial killer are there, I'd prefer they stay parallels only - please keep a supernatural element. Thanks!
Kemp OwyneAs I am fond of stories about princesses and dragons, I'm especially interested in this character who is both! Tell me more about why Isobel's stepmother cursed her, and why she chose the condition she did for breaking the curse. Tell me how Isobel felt about Kemp Owyne and about relying on him to break the curse. And where did she get the magical artefacts with which she bribes Kemp Owyne in some versions? And how is is that the broken curse rebounds more forcefully on the stepmother - is this just karma, or due to Isobel's own magical abilities?
-I'd love the scene of Kemp Owyne and Isobel's first meeting and conversation.
-Kinky version welcome! Maybe more than a kiss was required.
-What if the stepmother was lying about the means to break the curse?
-In the song, Isobel "goes away" briefly each time Kemp Owyne kisses her. Is there a reason for this? (Just untwisting her hair? The part about being tied to the tree/mountain with her own hair is quite evocative.)
-Either a version where Kemp Owyne and Isobel knew each other before the transformation, or a version in which they didn't, is welcome. For the former, playing up the identity porn aspect would be neat!
The Lute PlayerI love this queen's courage and resourcefulness - both at home and abroad. I'd love more of a look into her head during this story - how does she come up with her plan? How does she get on with managing the kingdom? Does she intend for her husband to recognize her at first, or is it an unexpected development when he doesn't recognize her? Why does she not reveal herself to him? And after the big reveal - how did this affect their relationship going forward? What was it like for the king to rule after his long campaign and exile?
-So was the queen always that awesome or was it more a case of discovering what things she'd never known she could do because she had to?
-Did the king know she had a gift for music? One thing I like to imagine is that the queen learned to play musical instruments as part of a thorough courtly education (along with things like embroidery and flower arranging) and never imagined she'd use it in this way, but that's just one theory!
-Any further detail on the setting would be wonderful! History, politics, culture, etc.
-Add magic?
-More about the queen's adventures on the way to get the king?
-I'm baffled by the story detail of it being 3 years before the queen found out what happened to the king. Feel free to either retcon that, or explain it.
-Some character development for the king? I have misgivings about his warmongering and also about his fiscal policies.
The Princess and the PeaThis story raises so many questions. What exactly is a real Princess? From the story, we can infer it's someone of incredibly delicate constitution and refinement... or is maybe not that simple? Why was the princess travelling? Was she also in search of a suitable husband, or was the original object of her quest something else?
-This seems like it would suit a bizarre landscape or dreamscape - is the Prince trying to escape a world of mirrors and simulacra? I mean I guess the tale is talking about proper noble blood, etc, for a real princess, but I am fascinated by the focus on what is real and it could be taken so many ways.
-and everywhere things went wrong - like what?
-Is the princess in the story a con artist? I'm getting that vibe
-Is the pea magical or cursed?
-Is the pea something arranged between the princess and the prince to get around the prince's parents' objections?
-I'm curious about the king going to open the town gate himself in the middle of a storm. Is this a very understaffed castle?
-How did the king and queen's courtship go, that this royal family has such odd ideas about how to discover/prove a real princess?
-A more serious disquisition on authenticity also welcome, in amongst all the whimsy.
RumpelstiltskinThe biggest question to me is, what did Rumpelstiltskin want the miller's daughter's child for? Maybe he didn't intend any harm to it - or maybe, even if he had nefarious designs, he himself was caught in a trap. Also, how did he know the miller's daughter was in such dire straits? I suspect collusion between the king and Rumpelstiltskin, or that Rumpelstiltskin put the idea in the miller's head. I also feel very sympathetic to the miller's daughter! Promising a child is a terrible thing to do, but she had few options, and perhaps she had some reason to believe she could balance her debt some other way before it came due. What did she learn, settling into her role, between her task and when Rumpelstiltskin came back into her life?
-So how did the miller's daughter get out of turning straw into gold for the rest of her life? The king seemed like the type of person who'd never stop asking for more, but we only see her being forced to perform this task before the wedding.
-Rumpelstiltskin makes a hell of an exit once the queen tells him his name. Why???
-Rumpelstiltskin also made an art of the Overly Informative Villain Monologue before its time. Again, why? Why was he singing his secrets to the world?
-Very dark/dubcon prompt: the demand for a firstborn child is actually the demand that the miller's daughter carry Rumpelstiltskin's child.
-A lighter version in which the king and queen's first child merely serves an apprenticeship, or a period of service, with Rumpelstiltskin, would also be welcome.
-Does the king ever get some kind of comeuppance for having made threats on the miller's daughter's life?
-Please note I have never seen Disney's Once Upon a Time - please no canon from that.
This entry is also posted at https://morbane.dreamwidth.org/42018.html. There are
comments. Please comment either here or there.
once_upon_fic).
Dear writer, as ever, I am very excited for this exchange! Thank you for considering my prompts.
General fairy tale ideas
For stories written for fairy tales, I welcome:
-A sense of awe or the numinous, or uncanny things. I love seeing characters take in the sheer consciousness-expanding weirdness of magic. I love it when the presence of magic adds to the sense of atmosphere.
-(in contrast, I also welcome) Characters whose familiarity with magic affects their perspective on the world. It's fun to explore characters who take prosaically for granted things that would amaze us.
-Stories that play around with characters' genders or sexualities. Trans, ace, nonbinary, etc, characters all welcome. (Please also see DNWs.)
-A romantic story reinterpreted as non-romantic - or a non-romantic story reinterpreted as romantic.
-Stories that loosely blend elements of more than one fairy tale to create a new story. As long as at least one story I've requested plays a prominent part, you're welcome to draw ideas from stories I didn't request this year. (Please also see DNWs.)
-Stories that focus on or give backstories to magical artefacts and architecture and landscapes. I love glass mountains and golden bridles and enchanted knives.
-Setting AUs! Mundane, in space, in a particular country or time, centred on a particular industry or career - go wild! I really enjoy seeing how the shape of a fairy tale comes through in a very different context. Exception: please no mundane AUs for Heer Halewijn.
-Canon divergence AUs.
General likes
I love competence, loyalty, and trust. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love xeno, voyeurism, dubcon, noncon, telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors and artists incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or obscure that thing is. You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.
Do-Not-Wants:
Harm to hands, amnesia, substance abuse; crack; narrators breaking the fourth wall; issuefic where the story and characters are the vehicle for a modern social issue that does not come up in canon.
To be clearer (hopefully!) about crack & narrators breaking the fourth wall: although I've seen this done well, I'm really picky about the execution, so please avoid stories in which the narrator knows all fairy tales and is commenting on them from a point of elevated knowledge. I'm fine with a narrator - especially an unreliable narrator! - who is also a character, and who has a specific, personal reason for telling a story. Crack taken seriously is welcome, but instead of pure crack, I'd prefer humour that is grounded in the events of stories and the characters' natural reactions to those events, or humour that preserves a sense of depth, wonder, and strangeness.
To be clearer (hopefully!) about issuefic: I'm happy to get conflict and resolution around issues like gender equality, or the horror of war, or capitalism, or religious tolerance, where it suits the characters or fairy tale. However, please also give the characters goals and struggles that relate to other things. If you're writing a story about a social issue like these, I'd prefer the protagonists have flaws, and the opportunity to grow and change, rather than being perfect mouthpieces for morality (or being lectured by other perfect mouthpieces for morality).
If my DNWs are unclear, sorry, and please feel free to ask for clarification through my co-mod, Rosencrantz.
The BearI love the good cheer of this story and the princess's relatable desire to get out and see the world. I love her actually-a-witch ally, I love the picturesque details of the wheelbarrow and bearskin, I love that she and the prince are (kinda) friends before they're romantic interests, and I love that she giggles at the prince during the identity shenanigans. More shenanigans welcome (more mischief with the wheelbarrow?), or just an exploration of the story. I'd particularly like a story that keeps a cheerful or at least hopeful tone.
-Is there a funny story behind why the witch chose the bearskin and the wheelbarrow? Why those items?
-Does the princess also have some kind of weather sense or weather magic, or just really good timing?
-If you could soften or retcon the kicking, that'd be great. Not so keen on casual violence. Though possibly the identity shenanigans are the princess's revenge for his thoughtlessness there?
-Does anyone think it's weird that the prince's servant is a bear? Maybe the queen and prince don't get visitors very often? My theory is that the prince is a very *minor* noble, and does not possess much land at all, really.
-Is there ever a reconciliation between the princess and her father? OK if not, but could be interesting to see. Does the witch ever come back into the princess's life?
-Later on, the bearskin comes in handy for some sort of intrigue!
-The prince and princess's children get up to mischief with the wheelbarrow.
-I just really want more of these characters. They charm me so much.
-I especially love the identity porn so please keep some of that if reimagining this in an AU!
-What if the prince had let the bear come with him to the ball?
The Colony of CatsThis story is both charming and disturbing - you have the goodnatured maiden keeping house for a bevy of highly intelligent cats, and then you have nonconsensual body modification (even to the good sister) and its after-effects. A cute story about being the cat's maid would be great; so would a more serious look at Lizina's life after. And I'm fascinated by the coachman - how did he come to learn the language of the cats? What use does he make of it after?
-This was a beloved fairy tale for me as a kid because I loved the idea of keeping house for sentient cats. I'd love more fantastical domesticity.
-No one knows where they got the money to pay for everything, nor who paid it, for all this happened so very long ago - I'm curious!
-Crossover with The Girl Who Became a Boy, and specifically, the church full of snakes?
-The two jars and their effects are so incredibly specific, and even as a kid, I thought 'but what if Lizina didn't want either of them?' Feel free to explore them further! Maybe the cats are so rich because they somehow have just one piece of magic and they always arrange to use it instead of actually paying their debts... Maybe not.
-A sci-fi retelling might make better use of the donkey's tail and golden star. Hi-tech body mods? Gene splicing?
-What happened to the second sister?
East of the Sun and West of the MoonI love this fairy tale's vast open landscape, the imaginative promise of the title, and the way that the heroine (who knows her own mind, and says 'no' firmly but also isn't afraid) makes a mistake but fights to redeem it. I'd love to know more about the girl's journeys - carried away by the bear, and seeking him - and about the bear's backstory. Who is he and how did he come to be engaged to the troll princess? A story just about the North Wind, or just about the troll princess, would also be welcome.
-How did the bear come to choose his wife?
-More fantastical domesticity in the early days of the girl and the bear's marriage! What was it like to keep house for a bear?
-Especially in a modern context, "Don't talk alone with your mother," a red flag, even if it passes in a fairy tale. Examine this?
-Does the bear have some gift of foreknowledge? Did someone else give him cryptic warnings about what he must do to escape the trolls?
-How was the bargain struck, that the bear must live a year with his new wife if he wished to be free of the trolls?
-I adore the idea of the location east of the sun, west of the moon. Anything that plays with or rationalizes this would be beloved.
-How do all these old magical women know that the girl "was the one who should have had him"? Is there a reason this couple is the hot gossip topic among sages?
-Do the three golden items have any particular powers or histories, besides being unusual?
-What's it like to ride on the back of the wind?
-Was there some trick to the washing of the shirt?
The Groac'h of the Isle of LokI'm fascinated by the magical artefacts and transformations in this story - it all feels part of a much bigger story. Why does the Groac'h collect her suitors? (Did Houarn really nearly eat his fellows?!) Is the Groac'h one of many powerful underwater denizens? How did Bellah come to possess her magical artefacts? What did the horse think? What are the other suitors' stories?
-I would love any magical worldbuilding about rules about what can be transformed into what.
-How did Korandon come to marry the Groac'h - was there ever love between them?
-Canon-divergence: either Houarn or Bellah stays longer in the Groac'h palace before being transformed or defeated, and the mind games stretch out for longer. UST welcome - after all, the Groac'h declares herself in love with Bellah, and at that point, Bellah has not asked her for anything.
-Backstory for any of the other suitors!
-The Groac'h declares to Houarn that her husband is dead: as a somewhat off-the-wall idea, what if she's telling the truth as she knows it, but is living non-linear time in which she has already experienced (possibly caused) Korandon's death?
-Tell me more about the lives of Bellah and Houarn and the suitors after breaking the enchantment.
-Tell me more about Bellah and Houarn's original childhood dreams.
Heer Halewijn | alternate sourceThis ballad is new to me and I'm fascinated by the adventure between the deeply evil, seductive Halewijn and the brave princess, who seems to succeed by wits and by leveraging her beauty rather than by any superhuman power of her own. Give me more details of the princess's preparations, or give me backstory for Halewijn, or tell me the story of a maiden who came before our heroine, and who tried to defeat him and failed.
-Halewijn backstory? I'm fascinated by the idea that he got his powers through a deal with the devil - or a failed deal with the devil. What was he trying for, and (how) was it corrupted?
-Tell me about the protagonist's relationship with her sister and her brother? Is she younger or older than them?
-While you're welcome to focus on the princess's heroic quest, or other gen, I'm also really up for something dark and/or kinky! A previous maiden's seduction and murder? Or explore the period when the princess was under Halewijn's control - I like imagining her request about the shirt either as cunning rebellion, OR as a sincere sentiment. Characters who are being mind-whammied to believe they want things other than what they want make for really interesting horror for me. I'm also fascinated by the idea that Halewijn's influence fundamentally changed the princess, rather than going away when he died.
-That said, a healthy past or future relationship for the princess is also welcome!
-Halewijn: vampire?
-I'm curious about when he tries to compel the princess to call his friends for aid. What friends would these be?
-DNW specifically for this canon: no entirely mundane AUs, please. While the parallels to an 'ordinary' rapist or serial killer are there, I'd prefer they stay parallels only - please keep a supernatural element. Thanks!
Kemp OwyneAs I am fond of stories about princesses and dragons, I'm especially interested in this character who is both! Tell me more about why Isobel's stepmother cursed her, and why she chose the condition she did for breaking the curse. Tell me how Isobel felt about Kemp Owyne and about relying on him to break the curse. And where did she get the magical artefacts with which she bribes Kemp Owyne in some versions? And how is is that the broken curse rebounds more forcefully on the stepmother - is this just karma, or due to Isobel's own magical abilities?
-I'd love the scene of Kemp Owyne and Isobel's first meeting and conversation.
-Kinky version welcome! Maybe more than a kiss was required.
-What if the stepmother was lying about the means to break the curse?
-In the song, Isobel "goes away" briefly each time Kemp Owyne kisses her. Is there a reason for this? (Just untwisting her hair? The part about being tied to the tree/mountain with her own hair is quite evocative.)
-Either a version where Kemp Owyne and Isobel knew each other before the transformation, or a version in which they didn't, is welcome. For the former, playing up the identity porn aspect would be neat!
The Lute PlayerI love this queen's courage and resourcefulness - both at home and abroad. I'd love more of a look into her head during this story - how does she come up with her plan? How does she get on with managing the kingdom? Does she intend for her husband to recognize her at first, or is it an unexpected development when he doesn't recognize her? Why does she not reveal herself to him? And after the big reveal - how did this affect their relationship going forward? What was it like for the king to rule after his long campaign and exile?
-So was the queen always that awesome or was it more a case of discovering what things she'd never known she could do because she had to?
-Did the king know she had a gift for music? One thing I like to imagine is that the queen learned to play musical instruments as part of a thorough courtly education (along with things like embroidery and flower arranging) and never imagined she'd use it in this way, but that's just one theory!
-Any further detail on the setting would be wonderful! History, politics, culture, etc.
-Add magic?
-More about the queen's adventures on the way to get the king?
-I'm baffled by the story detail of it being 3 years before the queen found out what happened to the king. Feel free to either retcon that, or explain it.
-Some character development for the king? I have misgivings about his warmongering and also about his fiscal policies.
The Princess and the PeaThis story raises so many questions. What exactly is a real Princess? From the story, we can infer it's someone of incredibly delicate constitution and refinement... or is maybe not that simple? Why was the princess travelling? Was she also in search of a suitable husband, or was the original object of her quest something else?
-This seems like it would suit a bizarre landscape or dreamscape - is the Prince trying to escape a world of mirrors and simulacra? I mean I guess the tale is talking about proper noble blood, etc, for a real princess, but I am fascinated by the focus on what is real and it could be taken so many ways.
-and everywhere things went wrong - like what?
-Is the princess in the story a con artist? I'm getting that vibe
-Is the pea magical or cursed?
-Is the pea something arranged between the princess and the prince to get around the prince's parents' objections?
-I'm curious about the king going to open the town gate himself in the middle of a storm. Is this a very understaffed castle?
-How did the king and queen's courtship go, that this royal family has such odd ideas about how to discover/prove a real princess?
-A more serious disquisition on authenticity also welcome, in amongst all the whimsy.
RumpelstiltskinThe biggest question to me is, what did Rumpelstiltskin want the miller's daughter's child for? Maybe he didn't intend any harm to it - or maybe, even if he had nefarious designs, he himself was caught in a trap. Also, how did he know the miller's daughter was in such dire straits? I suspect collusion between the king and Rumpelstiltskin, or that Rumpelstiltskin put the idea in the miller's head. I also feel very sympathetic to the miller's daughter! Promising a child is a terrible thing to do, but she had few options, and perhaps she had some reason to believe she could balance her debt some other way before it came due. What did she learn, settling into her role, between her task and when Rumpelstiltskin came back into her life?
-So how did the miller's daughter get out of turning straw into gold for the rest of her life? The king seemed like the type of person who'd never stop asking for more, but we only see her being forced to perform this task before the wedding.
-Rumpelstiltskin makes a hell of an exit once the queen tells him his name. Why???
-Rumpelstiltskin also made an art of the Overly Informative Villain Monologue before its time. Again, why? Why was he singing his secrets to the world?
-Very dark/dubcon prompt: the demand for a firstborn child is actually the demand that the miller's daughter carry Rumpelstiltskin's child.
-A lighter version in which the king and queen's first child merely serves an apprenticeship, or a period of service, with Rumpelstiltskin, would also be welcome.
-Does the king ever get some kind of comeuppance for having made threats on the miller's daughter's life?
-Please note I have never seen Disney's Once Upon a Time - please no canon from that.
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