Dear Yuletide Writer 2020
Welcome and thank you! I'm sorry this took so long. I'm Morbane at AO3, and this year I have requested The Blending Series, The Seer and the Sword, Psmith, Love & Legends, and The Neverending Story.
General likes/dislikes
Do Not Wants: amnesia, drug abuse & addiction, harm to hands, infidelity
-exceptions: infidelity is fine for Blending, Neverending Story; canon-typical amnesia is fine for Neverending Story.
Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. 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 magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love 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 incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird 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.
The Blending Series - Sharon Green
(no characters nominated)
From my sign-up: This series is my ridiculous-governmental-system, magical-training-montages, team-of-polyamorous-underdogs catnip! I am very fond of it, possibly because of rather than in spite of its flaws. I would love to read about original characters in this verse, and if you'd prefer to write about existing characters, Jovvi and Tamrissa are particular favourites (either as they are in canon or in a canon divergence plot), or perhaps Naran in the years before the challenges.
More thoughts:
So this is an eight-book series set in a fantasy world where having magical affinity for Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, or Fire is common, and where our main setting of Gandistra is traditionally ruled by a matched - or perhaps match-made - set of masters of these elements, because according to prophesy, that's how Gandistra must be ruled or a terrible calamity will result. Also, every twenty-five years, a new set of adepts has to be selected through competitions.
If you think that this is a very elaborate set-up, you are right, and that is part of its appeal to me, because of course it's become corrupted and of course the practical details are frantically handwaved and of course it's wonderfully ripe for a set of righteous underdogs to come along, overcome their personal hang-ups, and overcome the competition to be The! Best! And! Most! Enlightened! Rulers! Who also have to be a sort-of polycule! Because sex makes their combined magic stronger!
Part of me is laughing in delight at how ridiculous the implications (and sometimes, the plots) get; part of me is really earnestly along for the ride. I love the descriptions of the use of magic at heightened occasions and for mundane tasks; I love the way the series protagonists becomes a tightly-knit team alongside the development of romantic/sexual attractions, not just because of them; I love what's hinted at regarding practical worldbuilding, especially as it relates to governance, and I love the gaps that are left in practical worldbuilding and what scope one has in filling them. What a sandbox!
I seized the opportunity to request this with no characters because worldbuilding & original characters are perennial loves of mine. An original set of characters thrown together in some other competition year would be A+. Another noble group who are meant to play second fiddle to the "correct" group? A selected noble group who actually have consciences? A different underdog group? And such a group negotiating what the sex angle means for them would be fascinating. I do mean negotiating - blissful sex would be welcome, but so would other more complicated reactions that allow for dignity/agency.
But! I enjoyed the canon characters too. I liked Jovvi's deep ingrained distrust of authority, how she approached the ongoing problem of exercising consensual/ethical control over others, and her evolving sense of what it meant to her to be the authority. I liked Tamrissa's aggressive power that increasingly came from a position of strength rather than fear, and I liked watching her learn to trust others around her. I found Rion's earnestness appealing, found Lorand pleasant enough, and found Vallant and Naran appealing mostly when they appealed to characters I was more interested in (sorry). So if you want to write about canon characters, go for it, please, and I hope I am giving you enough to work with! (Canon ships are fine, though please fewer misunderstandings between Vallant and Tamrissa. Jovvi/Tamrissa is also welcome, as are other relationships within the Blending.)
More prompts:
Seer and Sword - Victoria Hanley
Landen, Torina, Dahmis
From my sign-up: A prince enslaved, a princess betrayed, the secret identities they adopt, and the noble king whose ally they become - who seriously has a crush on them both. More please? Especially, more of the OT3? There is so much pining, and there can always be more pining, but I'd also love more adventure, or post-canon choices, or canon divergence, or a happy (or bittersweet) resolution to the OT3 pining.
More thoughts:
So I got a lovely fic for this last year, but I would like more, please. This is a short middle-grade fantasy novel, part of a trio but effectively standing alone. (I read Healer's Keep a long time ago and have little recollection of it; I read Light of the Oracle most recently, but that's extremely different.) The plots and characterisation here are not complicated, but I love this book for its absolutely giant helpings of secret identities, pining, and dramatic reveals.
In canon, there's something satisfying about Dahmis' admiration for Torina and how, lacking any indication of reciprocal interest, he doesn't court her. I also like that Torina gets a chance to live and reflect apart from the court, and Landen spends the intervening years honing his skills as a leader. And I love that both Torina and Landen take action to ally themselves with Dahmis - but Torina moves first!
But I'd also love canon divergence, especially if you can include different permutations of the secret identities, foiling of treachery, and dramatic rescues that canon contains. Maybe Landen saves Dahmis' life, or Torina foretells that Vesputo will use the Sword and arranges for Landen to steal it for Dahmis herself. Maybe, at the end of canon events, Landen's name is still not cleared, or something requires Torina to remain in exile for now. Anything that involves bravery or dramatic reveals would be A+.
I enjoy shipping between any combination of the three characters, and especially, all of them together. Dahmis is so charmed by Landen! Landen carries out a dangerous mission for Dahmis and requests only his friendship as a price! Landen wants to literally lean on Dahmis when Dahmis is asking him if he's sure of his plan against the Sliivites! I can't even. Meanwhile, of course, Dahmis can't think of Torina without admiring her self-possession and her beauty, and Torina and Landen's mutual adoration started from when Landen was given to Torina as a slave and she instantly set him free. Normally I'm not keen on misunderstandings, but here I would be totally keen on "he/she doesn't love me, they love each other,"-type misunderstandings as long as they're resolved. Smut also welcome, whether it has plot around it or not.
And worldbuilding following on from the end of canon as it stands would also be neat. As I said, I'm very rusty on Healer's Keep, so you're welcome to incorporate that or ignore it. Bellandra has been under Archeld's control so long - what's involved in its restoration? How does Torina settle into the role of queen? What other challenges face Dahmis? (I acknowledge a story about Bellandra's restoration may touch on dark/serious decolonisation themes - that's fine as long as there is optimism for the future.)
More prompts:
Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
Rupert Psmith, Mike Jackson
From my sign-up: I love the deep comfort and delight these two have in each other. I'd love to see them on an era-appropriate adventure, close to home or very far away; involve them in local politics and community again, or devise a minor or domestic issue that especially calls for Psmith's eloquence and Mike's empathy. Or send them to another setting - fantasy or sci-fi welcome - or, whatever else you do, just focus on how much Psmith approves of Mike and how Mike appreciates Psmith and I will be very happy.
More thoughts:
Although all four Psmith books are charming, I'm especially fond of Mike and Psmith and Psmith in the City, because they have the most Mike in them. I enjoy Psmith as an amiable agent of chaos and/or purpose, who is always two steps ahead except when, out of polite curiosity or a sense of fair play, he allows circumstances to catch up with him, but his deep and unstrained friendship with Mike is truly a joy. I love how cheerfully and frequently he showers Mike with compliments, and seems to genuinely regard Mike as a solid cornerstone of an otherwise capricious world, while Mike obviously thinks the world of Psmith and provides both an appreciative audience and a steadying influence for his schemes.
I'd prefer a story that handwaves the canon love interests (they're welcome to show in platonic roles) and either ships Psmith and Mike, or at least focuses on their platonic closeness. I love it when Psmith's stoicism, quick wits, and sense of the absurd get a chance to shine - there's something delightful about how relaxed he is about confounding a social norm or playing a (mild!) prank and then observing events unfold, with a high confidence, always borne out, that nothing can really go too wrong. But I'd prefer that any victims of his whims are not harmed or deeply upset, or are merely receiving their just desserts. I also enjoy a study in the contrast between Psmith's snobbish tendencies and how genuinely interested he is in his fellow man. And I also love it when Mike's best qualities drive the action - his sense of fairness, his willingness to help others, his readiness to meet what comes, his relative equanimity, and his ability to reconsider a previously-formed opinion.
I don't know a lot about the historical setting of the canon, and I enjoy seeing it through Mike and Psmith's eyes; I enjoyed the local politics subplot of City, for example, and the tenements issue in Journalist - another focus like that would be welcome. More international cricketing adventures, different possible careers, different travel around the world? And I also love seeing fantastical worlds though Psmith and Mike's eyes, especially if the different settings allow for displays of loyalty and attempted self-sacrifice from either party.
For shipfic, I'd enjoy many things. One specific thing, because I feel Mike/Psmith is especially suited for it: although I love and welcome pining, I'd really love to see them at that very brief stage of a relationship when they're in love and one of them has figured it out and is secure in the other's affections, but the other person doesn't yet quite know/hasn't quit confessed. Just that blissful feeling when one has recently realised that their feelings are or will be returned and is absolutely basking in how much they adore the other person, how great they are, how likely all their daydreams are to come true - proud and a little possessive and just happy. I think this would be easier to do with Psmith than Mike, because Mike spends less time reflecting on his own emotions, but any way you could swing it would be great. Pair it with some sort of peril and rescue plot, where the person in whose head we are is very keen to get to the declaration of love part but there's this pesky danger in the way? That would be amazing. Again, this is NOT the only kind of shippy fic I want, it's just one that has presently taken hold of my imagination and I can't seem to describe it in more precise terms.
I'd also prefer for a shippy fic to be light on simple endearments from either Mike or Psmith; I would prefer them to be sparing (I see Mike as likely to be embarrassed, most of the time or at least at first, by 'darling', 'beloved', etc, and Psmith likely to prefer more elaborate compliments) and therefore utterly electric when they land.
More prompts:
Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Helena, MC, Witch Queen
From my sign-up: Evil sexy mentors, identity issues/dopplegangers, and magic - yes please! The dark backstory between Helena and her mistress the Witch Queen is fascinating to me, as is Helena's healing from it; I love the supportive relationship between Helena and the MC against the background of that history; and the wary feelings that the MC and the Witch Queen have for each other are also fascinating to me. Basically anything focusing on these character dynamics would be excellent.
More thoughts:
Love and Legends is an isekai visual romance novel where the main character lands in a fantasy world and is mistaken for the recently-vanquished Big Bad, a sorcerous queen. I'm afraid I've only really played one route (Helena's) and am still in season 6 of 9 released, but what I lack in canon completion I promise I make up for in enthusiasm. (If you're curious, it's freemium but very slow to play if you don't spend money on it.)
So Helena is the Witch Queen's former favourite apprentice, and they had an intense and abusive relationship where the Witch Queen gave Helena knowledge, skills, and purpose, convinced Helena that she was nothing without the Witch Queen, added sexual sadism into the mix, and required Helena to do terrible things in her name. The Witch Queen is vanquished and our protagonist turns up; during a period in which the Witch Queen's spirit occasionally invades the MC's mind, Helena gradually falls in love with this newer, kinder version of the woman she hated almost as much as she loved.
Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.
I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.
The Witch Queen is welcome either as an on-stage presence, or just as someone who is never far from Helena and the MC's thoughts. Similarly, a scene between the Witch Queen and Helena in which the MC does not have lines or appear is fine, even if it's pre-canon and the MC hasn't turned up yet - evil sorceresses and their willing or unwilling pupils are a dynamic I love across many canons.
I didn't request him specifically, but I'd also enjoy seeing Alain, either as part of a messed-up sexual dynamic involving Alain/Helena/Witch Queen, or during canon, won over to the MC's side, and involved with Helena and the MC either platonically or romantically/sexually.
No name preference for MC. Please no readerfic, but other second person styles are fine.
More prompts:
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
(no characters nominated)
From my sign-up: This is one of my favourite books in the world. I love the scope of Fantastica and its myriad array of creatures, and I love that there can be conflict between those creatures, and consequences to the stories our hero so easily spins. Some things to explore: new visitors to Fantastica; records of Fantasticas that existed in another visitor's time; intertwined adventures, post-Bastian, for the characters Bastian met; lies escaping Fantastica; ways for Fantasticans to create their own stories by living them rather than telling them.
More thoughts:
It's hard to describe how much I love this book, since I read it before my teens and it has delighted me every time I've come back to it. I love Xayide and Uyulala and Gaya, the Dark Princess, and the sphinxes. I love thinking about the idea of following one's heart's desire as a sort of sacred charge, as Grograman discussed with Bastian, I love thinking about Gmork's speech to Atreyu about Fantasticans becoming lies, and I love thinking about the different ways hinted at to travel in and out of Fantastica.
I often re-read The Neverending Story and want answers to particular puzzles, but on this particular re-read, what has struck me most is appreciation for paradoxes and things that shouldn't exist together and do. How there are things and patterns in Fantastica that are true for almost all time, and yet Fantastica is entirely reborn and rebuilt in the book - and, it is implied, as been reborn and rebuilt in this way before. Somehow it's possible for the Childlike Empress to assure Atreyu that all the humans who have come to Fantastica and helped it have brought something enriching back to our world, and it's also possible for the City of Old Emperors to exist. Fantastica contains beautiful, ugly, evil, and good things, and I am appreciating anew the ways in which the book allows logical or emotional tension to exist, sitting with it for a spell. I don't know if that's helpful - please ignore if not. On the other hand, I loved so many Fantastican landscapes that could not be appreciated by people other than Bastian, or were destroyed - a way to cheat and preserve them in some way would be welcome.
Stories that play Fantastica "straight" would be welcome - concentrating on a visitor's heroic quest, continuing an unfinished story, or taking literally some other statement of canon fact about how Fantastica and its relation with other world(s) operates. So would something a bit more meta. Maybe someone arrives by portal and is incorporated into a journey (or recruited by Gmork's shadowy masters, or similar)? What about a hero quest gone wrong, where the visitor's desire is not simply to be the hero of their own story, but something darker - a darkness that the Childlike Empress, with her famed neutrality, allows? How would that end?
More prompts:
Previous Blending Series prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Love & Legends prompts: Chocolate Box 2019
Previous Neverending Story prompts: Worldbuilding 2017
Previous Psmith prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Seer & Sword prompts: Yuletide 2019, fffx 2020 This entry is also posted at https://morbane.dreamwidth.org/46578.html. There are
comments. Please comment either here or there.
General likes/dislikes
Do Not Wants: amnesia, drug abuse & addiction, harm to hands, infidelity
-exceptions: infidelity is fine for Blending, Neverending Story; canon-typical amnesia is fine for Neverending Story.
Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. 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 magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love 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 incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird 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.
The Blending Series - Sharon Green
(no characters nominated)
From my sign-up: This series is my ridiculous-governmental-system, magical-training-montages, team-of-polyamorous-underdogs catnip! I am very fond of it, possibly because of rather than in spite of its flaws. I would love to read about original characters in this verse, and if you'd prefer to write about existing characters, Jovvi and Tamrissa are particular favourites (either as they are in canon or in a canon divergence plot), or perhaps Naran in the years before the challenges.
More thoughts:
So this is an eight-book series set in a fantasy world where having magical affinity for Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, or Fire is common, and where our main setting of Gandistra is traditionally ruled by a matched - or perhaps match-made - set of masters of these elements, because according to prophesy, that's how Gandistra must be ruled or a terrible calamity will result. Also, every twenty-five years, a new set of adepts has to be selected through competitions.
If you think that this is a very elaborate set-up, you are right, and that is part of its appeal to me, because of course it's become corrupted and of course the practical details are frantically handwaved and of course it's wonderfully ripe for a set of righteous underdogs to come along, overcome their personal hang-ups, and overcome the competition to be The! Best! And! Most! Enlightened! Rulers! Who also have to be a sort-of polycule! Because sex makes their combined magic stronger!
Part of me is laughing in delight at how ridiculous the implications (and sometimes, the plots) get; part of me is really earnestly along for the ride. I love the descriptions of the use of magic at heightened occasions and for mundane tasks; I love the way the series protagonists becomes a tightly-knit team alongside the development of romantic/sexual attractions, not just because of them; I love what's hinted at regarding practical worldbuilding, especially as it relates to governance, and I love the gaps that are left in practical worldbuilding and what scope one has in filling them. What a sandbox!
I seized the opportunity to request this with no characters because worldbuilding & original characters are perennial loves of mine. An original set of characters thrown together in some other competition year would be A+. Another noble group who are meant to play second fiddle to the "correct" group? A selected noble group who actually have consciences? A different underdog group? And such a group negotiating what the sex angle means for them would be fascinating. I do mean negotiating - blissful sex would be welcome, but so would other more complicated reactions that allow for dignity/agency.
But! I enjoyed the canon characters too. I liked Jovvi's deep ingrained distrust of authority, how she approached the ongoing problem of exercising consensual/ethical control over others, and her evolving sense of what it meant to her to be the authority. I liked Tamrissa's aggressive power that increasingly came from a position of strength rather than fear, and I liked watching her learn to trust others around her. I found Rion's earnestness appealing, found Lorand pleasant enough, and found Vallant and Naran appealing mostly when they appealed to characters I was more interested in (sorry). So if you want to write about canon characters, go for it, please, and I hope I am giving you enough to work with! (Canon ships are fine, though please fewer misunderstandings between Vallant and Tamrissa. Jovvi/Tamrissa is also welcome, as are other relationships within the Blending.)
More prompts:
- Naran's life before joining the blending is really interesting to me. She's very gifted in her aspect, but in book 6 she started to realise that some things had been kept from her. How did her training go? Or explore her relationships with other practitioners of her aspect, or her expectations about meeting Rion?
- Both our protagonist blending and Kambil's blending deal with the revelation that they are expendable and escape/go underground. What does that mean for Gandistra?
- Show me what it's like in the normal day-to-day life of a ruling Blending.
- What happens to the middle-plus adepts?
- How do adepts train each other in normal circumstances?
- Power swap among the protagonist Blending
- The protagonist Blending is prevented much more effectively from winning the competitions - and they turn into rebel leaders
- Tamrissa escapes her husband much earlier than in canon; this changes the protagonist dynamic
- A normal, lawful-good ruling Blending prepares to hand over power and retire
- Power plays among the nobles to set up the competing noble Blendings
- For an especially dark prompt: dubcon or noncon in play among a competing Blending, maybe with the Spirit member abusing their aspect, or several of the members ganging up on another.
Seer and Sword - Victoria Hanley
Landen, Torina, Dahmis
From my sign-up: A prince enslaved, a princess betrayed, the secret identities they adopt, and the noble king whose ally they become - who seriously has a crush on them both. More please? Especially, more of the OT3? There is so much pining, and there can always be more pining, but I'd also love more adventure, or post-canon choices, or canon divergence, or a happy (or bittersweet) resolution to the OT3 pining.
More thoughts:
So I got a lovely fic for this last year, but I would like more, please. This is a short middle-grade fantasy novel, part of a trio but effectively standing alone. (I read Healer's Keep a long time ago and have little recollection of it; I read Light of the Oracle most recently, but that's extremely different.) The plots and characterisation here are not complicated, but I love this book for its absolutely giant helpings of secret identities, pining, and dramatic reveals.
In canon, there's something satisfying about Dahmis' admiration for Torina and how, lacking any indication of reciprocal interest, he doesn't court her. I also like that Torina gets a chance to live and reflect apart from the court, and Landen spends the intervening years honing his skills as a leader. And I love that both Torina and Landen take action to ally themselves with Dahmis - but Torina moves first!
But I'd also love canon divergence, especially if you can include different permutations of the secret identities, foiling of treachery, and dramatic rescues that canon contains. Maybe Landen saves Dahmis' life, or Torina foretells that Vesputo will use the Sword and arranges for Landen to steal it for Dahmis herself. Maybe, at the end of canon events, Landen's name is still not cleared, or something requires Torina to remain in exile for now. Anything that involves bravery or dramatic reveals would be A+.
I enjoy shipping between any combination of the three characters, and especially, all of them together. Dahmis is so charmed by Landen! Landen carries out a dangerous mission for Dahmis and requests only his friendship as a price! Landen wants to literally lean on Dahmis when Dahmis is asking him if he's sure of his plan against the Sliivites! I can't even. Meanwhile, of course, Dahmis can't think of Torina without admiring her self-possession and her beauty, and Torina and Landen's mutual adoration started from when Landen was given to Torina as a slave and she instantly set him free. Normally I'm not keen on misunderstandings, but here I would be totally keen on "he/she doesn't love me, they love each other,"-type misunderstandings as long as they're resolved. Smut also welcome, whether it has plot around it or not.
And worldbuilding following on from the end of canon as it stands would also be neat. As I said, I'm very rusty on Healer's Keep, so you're welcome to incorporate that or ignore it. Bellandra has been under Archeld's control so long - what's involved in its restoration? How does Torina settle into the role of queen? What other challenges face Dahmis? (I acknowledge a story about Bellandra's restoration may touch on dark/serious decolonisation themes - that's fine as long as there is optimism for the future.)
More prompts:
- Torina and Dahmis wrote letters to each other before Vesputo's betrayal; Dahmis has no idea that Vineda is his former correspondent
- Dahmis has his own secret identity shenanigans
- Dahmis, with Landen on his mind, disguises himself (maybe with a magic disguise?) to seek out anonymous sex; he runs into Landen, who is acting on the same impulse
- Established relationship; any two of them in bed together with the third absent but the present two talking about their fantasies for the third
- Landen and Torina decide that if Bellandra's independence is to be restored, they cannot marry. While for most of my prompts, I'd prefer happy endings, you can pile on all the angst here
- Landen and Torina marry, but cherish the occasions on which all of Torina, Landen, and Dahmis can be in the same place and enjoy each other's company
- I'm usually neutral on baby plots, but in this case, something incredibly tropy about Torina carrying either Landen's or Dahmis' child and both of them doting on her would be welcome
- Mid-canon: Torina risks herself to carry some warning to Dahmis or Landen, and Vesputo captures her. Landen and Dahmis have to rescue her.
- Perhaps, instead of turning from Dahmis when she learns of his alliance with Vesputo, Torina instead plans to drive a wedge between them. What if Bellanes' identity is revealed while Torina's remains obscured?
Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
Rupert Psmith, Mike Jackson
From my sign-up: I love the deep comfort and delight these two have in each other. I'd love to see them on an era-appropriate adventure, close to home or very far away; involve them in local politics and community again, or devise a minor or domestic issue that especially calls for Psmith's eloquence and Mike's empathy. Or send them to another setting - fantasy or sci-fi welcome - or, whatever else you do, just focus on how much Psmith approves of Mike and how Mike appreciates Psmith and I will be very happy.
More thoughts:
Although all four Psmith books are charming, I'm especially fond of Mike and Psmith and Psmith in the City, because they have the most Mike in them. I enjoy Psmith as an amiable agent of chaos and/or purpose, who is always two steps ahead except when, out of polite curiosity or a sense of fair play, he allows circumstances to catch up with him, but his deep and unstrained friendship with Mike is truly a joy. I love how cheerfully and frequently he showers Mike with compliments, and seems to genuinely regard Mike as a solid cornerstone of an otherwise capricious world, while Mike obviously thinks the world of Psmith and provides both an appreciative audience and a steadying influence for his schemes.
I'd prefer a story that handwaves the canon love interests (they're welcome to show in platonic roles) and either ships Psmith and Mike, or at least focuses on their platonic closeness. I love it when Psmith's stoicism, quick wits, and sense of the absurd get a chance to shine - there's something delightful about how relaxed he is about confounding a social norm or playing a (mild!) prank and then observing events unfold, with a high confidence, always borne out, that nothing can really go too wrong. But I'd prefer that any victims of his whims are not harmed or deeply upset, or are merely receiving their just desserts. I also enjoy a study in the contrast between Psmith's snobbish tendencies and how genuinely interested he is in his fellow man. And I also love it when Mike's best qualities drive the action - his sense of fairness, his willingness to help others, his readiness to meet what comes, his relative equanimity, and his ability to reconsider a previously-formed opinion.
I don't know a lot about the historical setting of the canon, and I enjoy seeing it through Mike and Psmith's eyes; I enjoyed the local politics subplot of City, for example, and the tenements issue in Journalist - another focus like that would be welcome. More international cricketing adventures, different possible careers, different travel around the world? And I also love seeing fantastical worlds though Psmith and Mike's eyes, especially if the different settings allow for displays of loyalty and attempted self-sacrifice from either party.
For shipfic, I'd enjoy many things. One specific thing, because I feel Mike/Psmith is especially suited for it: although I love and welcome pining, I'd really love to see them at that very brief stage of a relationship when they're in love and one of them has figured it out and is secure in the other's affections, but the other person doesn't yet quite know/hasn't quit confessed. Just that blissful feeling when one has recently realised that their feelings are or will be returned and is absolutely basking in how much they adore the other person, how great they are, how likely all their daydreams are to come true - proud and a little possessive and just happy. I think this would be easier to do with Psmith than Mike, because Mike spends less time reflecting on his own emotions, but any way you could swing it would be great. Pair it with some sort of peril and rescue plot, where the person in whose head we are is very keen to get to the declaration of love part but there's this pesky danger in the way? That would be amazing. Again, this is NOT the only kind of shippy fic I want, it's just one that has presently taken hold of my imagination and I can't seem to describe it in more precise terms.
I'd also prefer for a shippy fic to be light on simple endearments from either Mike or Psmith; I would prefer them to be sparing (I see Mike as likely to be embarrassed, most of the time or at least at first, by 'darling', 'beloved', etc, and Psmith likely to prefer more elaborate compliments) and therefore utterly electric when they land.
More prompts:
- Plausible careers are welcome but so are implausible ones - maybe Mike's father has had a Whim and dragged Mike and Psmith into it, maybe you just make them musicians or inventors or society hosts or something with as much or as little explanation as you choose
- One is sent on a long journey with some danger involved and the other sets off after them. Dream sharing?
- First-time sex leads to a misunderstanding that it was casual only, leading to pining, leading to resolution of pining and even better sex
- I don't think I'm as enthusiastic for hurt/comfort as the rest of the fandom, sorry, and am not naturally into sickfic or whump. But one of this pair saving the other from peril, or taking on a difficulty (emotional or physical) to save the other, are both A+
- Crossovers - Narnia? Oz? MCU? Pern? Anything I've written or received or prompted for is fair game.
- Something fantastical or steampunk-y in the otherwise-canon setting? Psmith as diplomatic representative to aliens/beings from another dimension? Psmith very slightly detached from the ordinary course of time? Mike discovers Excalibur?
- A setting in which either of them acts at the other's bodyguard - maybe a world in which athletes like Mike have very high status, or where Psmith is a diplomat or politician or some sort of noble?
- A much older, happily together Mike and Psmith, perhaps from an outsider perspective or competently mentoring others.
Love & Legends (Visual Novel)
Helena, MC, Witch Queen
From my sign-up: Evil sexy mentors, identity issues/dopplegangers, and magic - yes please! The dark backstory between Helena and her mistress the Witch Queen is fascinating to me, as is Helena's healing from it; I love the supportive relationship between Helena and the MC against the background of that history; and the wary feelings that the MC and the Witch Queen have for each other are also fascinating to me. Basically anything focusing on these character dynamics would be excellent.
More thoughts:
Love and Legends is an isekai visual romance novel where the main character lands in a fantasy world and is mistaken for the recently-vanquished Big Bad, a sorcerous queen. I'm afraid I've only really played one route (Helena's) and am still in season 6 of 9 released, but what I lack in canon completion I promise I make up for in enthusiasm. (If you're curious, it's freemium but very slow to play if you don't spend money on it.)
So Helena is the Witch Queen's former favourite apprentice, and they had an intense and abusive relationship where the Witch Queen gave Helena knowledge, skills, and purpose, convinced Helena that she was nothing without the Witch Queen, added sexual sadism into the mix, and required Helena to do terrible things in her name. The Witch Queen is vanquished and our protagonist turns up; during a period in which the Witch Queen's spirit occasionally invades the MC's mind, Helena gradually falls in love with this newer, kinder version of the woman she hated almost as much as she loved.
Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.
I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.
The Witch Queen is welcome either as an on-stage presence, or just as someone who is never far from Helena and the MC's thoughts. Similarly, a scene between the Witch Queen and Helena in which the MC does not have lines or appear is fine, even if it's pre-canon and the MC hasn't turned up yet - evil sorceresses and their willing or unwilling pupils are a dynamic I love across many canons.
I didn't request him specifically, but I'd also enjoy seeing Alain, either as part of a messed-up sexual dynamic involving Alain/Helena/Witch Queen, or during canon, won over to the MC's side, and involved with Helena and the MC either platonically or romantically/sexually.
No name preference for MC. Please no readerfic, but other second person styles are fine.
More prompts:
- The MC and Helena travelling the realm together when peace is achieved
- Cooking and potions!
- Shenanigans land MC in the fantasy world as if at the start of one of the good side/ retainer routes, but with the memories of several seasons' worth of Helena's route; she schemes to win Helena (and Alain?) over to the side of good
- More mental influence by the Witch Queen of the MC - or Helena
- The MC learns that she can invade the Witch Queen's mind in return; among the ethical issues, this leads her to unpleasant memories
- The Witch Queen spies on Helena & the MC and makes plans
- The Witch Queen gains the upper hand and takes both Helena and the MC captive again
- Circumstances require the MC to pretend to be the Witch Queen for a mission, with Helena along for the ride
- The MC enlists the help of one of the retainers to make a surprise gift for Helena
- Ritual sex is required for healing magic, either with Helena/MC or Helena/MC/Alain.
The Neverending Story - Michael Ende
(no characters nominated)
From my sign-up: This is one of my favourite books in the world. I love the scope of Fantastica and its myriad array of creatures, and I love that there can be conflict between those creatures, and consequences to the stories our hero so easily spins. Some things to explore: new visitors to Fantastica; records of Fantasticas that existed in another visitor's time; intertwined adventures, post-Bastian, for the characters Bastian met; lies escaping Fantastica; ways for Fantasticans to create their own stories by living them rather than telling them.
More thoughts:
It's hard to describe how much I love this book, since I read it before my teens and it has delighted me every time I've come back to it. I love Xayide and Uyulala and Gaya, the Dark Princess, and the sphinxes. I love thinking about the idea of following one's heart's desire as a sort of sacred charge, as Grograman discussed with Bastian, I love thinking about Gmork's speech to Atreyu about Fantasticans becoming lies, and I love thinking about the different ways hinted at to travel in and out of Fantastica.
I often re-read The Neverending Story and want answers to particular puzzles, but on this particular re-read, what has struck me most is appreciation for paradoxes and things that shouldn't exist together and do. How there are things and patterns in Fantastica that are true for almost all time, and yet Fantastica is entirely reborn and rebuilt in the book - and, it is implied, as been reborn and rebuilt in this way before. Somehow it's possible for the Childlike Empress to assure Atreyu that all the humans who have come to Fantastica and helped it have brought something enriching back to our world, and it's also possible for the City of Old Emperors to exist. Fantastica contains beautiful, ugly, evil, and good things, and I am appreciating anew the ways in which the book allows logical or emotional tension to exist, sitting with it for a spell. I don't know if that's helpful - please ignore if not. On the other hand, I loved so many Fantastican landscapes that could not be appreciated by people other than Bastian, or were destroyed - a way to cheat and preserve them in some way would be welcome.
Stories that play Fantastica "straight" would be welcome - concentrating on a visitor's heroic quest, continuing an unfinished story, or taking literally some other statement of canon fact about how Fantastica and its relation with other world(s) operates. So would something a bit more meta. Maybe someone arrives by portal and is incorporated into a journey (or recruited by Gmork's shadowy masters, or similar)? What about a hero quest gone wrong, where the visitor's desire is not simply to be the hero of their own story, but something darker - a darkness that the Childlike Empress, with her famed neutrality, allows? How would that end?
More prompts:
- Continue one of the stories that shall be told another time
- Two friends visit Fantastica at once. Or one person from our world follows another there to rescue them
- I want to know the story of a lie that crosses over into our world! Is there a path to redemption/healing?
- How does Gmork cross between worlds, and what other creatures can do this in the same way he does?
- More intricate and wondrous monsters, geographies, peoples, and cultural traditions!
- Involve the sphinxes again somehow
- "Nothing is lost," she said. "Everything is transformed."
- Ways for Fantasticans to make their own stories
- Trading something other than memories for wishes.
Previous Blending Series prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Love & Legends prompts: Chocolate Box 2019
Previous Neverending Story prompts: Worldbuilding 2017
Previous Psmith prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Seer & Sword prompts: Yuletide 2019, fffx 2020 This entry is also posted at https://morbane.dreamwidth.org/46578.html. There are
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