Dear Yuletide 2011
Goddamn, I haven't used this journal in forever. It's way, way behind on updates of my own fic, and I completely fail at ever getting all my favorite bookmarks in the same place. Some of my stuff, though still out-of-date, is here, and my woefully incomplete delicious bookmarks are here. I'm horrible at keeping up with these things consistently, but if you want things to browse that should give you a decent idea of how crazy I am/the variety of genres I enjoy. I am have no squicks other than scat, and no triggers.
Dear Yuleauthor,
Thank you so much for writing me a present this year. I already know you are awesome, because everyone in Yuletide is awesome. Furthermore, you volunteered to write one of my fandoms, which means you have excellent taste, because my love for every facet of every one of these works is unbounded. Honestly, anything you write for any of them would likely make me keel over with glee, especially if it’s in the tone/style of the original source. (Consequently, what I want out of each of them is rather different.) Most of the ideas I’m throwing out, in my optional details and here in this, are just bunnies that occurred to me, but if you are enthused about another story in one of these canons, go for it.
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman (short novel)
What I love most about this book is how shamelessly exuberant it is. Even though it’s clever and poignant and sad in places, even though it looks at the underbelly of unfortunate complications to superheroing, it does it WITHOUT getting grimdark and violent. It’s just as ridiculous and over the top and earnest and brightly colored as the comics and cartoons it’s based on. I love that tone, the sense of a world in which nothing is too wild to stumble into or too extreme to pull off. Vampire robot dinosaurs! Magma ocean! Evil twins that sold the planet to aliens in a galaxynet scam!
Seriously, anything. Make me laugh, make me stare in disbelief. My favorite characters are Doctor Impossible and Lily, Baron Ether, and Fatale, so any of those getting up to larger than life shenanigans and getting to be real/vulnerable people a little bit along the way? Would be golden.
I’m also intrigued by Feral, and what motivates him to keep working the streets, and the effect it’s had on him. If you go with this, it’s fine if it’s more bittersweet, but I’d still prefer it not be super gritty or angsty.
Ship-wise, I’m perfectly happy with gen, het, slash, and femmeslash. The pairings that most pique my interest are Doctor Impossible/Lily, Fatale/Feral, Fatale/Lily, and Baron Ether/Mechanist, but please don’t feel the need to write romance if it’s not part of the story, or to limit yourself to those if a different pairing strikes you; I’d prefer the focus be on outer crazy adventures and inner character psychology rather than romance/smut.
Succession Duology - Scott Westerfeld (Two short novels: The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds)
Once again, I adore everyone. I asked for post-canon in my signup details, because the ending is among the most epic cliffhangers I’ve ever suffered. I certainly don’t expect a whole history of the collapse of the Risen Empire, but I would love a glimpse of it, a snapshot of how it affected a few of the characters I love, or how they affected it.
What I love most about Succession is how complicated and real the politics feel. Everybody thinks they’re doing the right thing for less-than-pristine reasons, but they aren’t equivalent, and everybody has their own agenda, and they all have actual impacts on what happens to people, and nothing ever goes quite according to plan, because there’s these other people just as awesome and competent and driven as you are, and they have goals too.
I love that Succession doesn’t shy away from the high costs OR real benefits of both tyranny/order/stability and freedom/chaos/breakdown. I’d love to see some positive AND negative effects (though not necessarily equal ones) of the empire falling, wherever and whenever in that fall you set it.
There are a lot of people you could focus on to show that. I’m just rambling and babbling ideas I’ve had. You can take any one of them and run with it in any direction you like, or if you think of something I didn’t, you can absolutely go with that too! This is just me brainstorming Cool Things that Might Happen.
If you do make the House the Rixmind of Home, then the House would be in a really interesting position to fill the power vacuum left in the capital by a broken empire, and maybe the ability to break a stalemate - or worse, a war of attrition - between balanced Senatorial and Imperial forces on the planet. The House is young and immature and hungry for attention and praise - even with a massive mind, it might not be that great at taking care of people. Would it care? Would it play the part for Nara, even if it didn’t? Would the responsibility change it into a better house-person-AI-thing? A worse one? How would Nara react to that?
On the flip side, what happens to the Emperor? I’m utterly fascinated by him. He does such horrible things, but he’s so intelligent and complex and arrogant and slightly twisted but not psychotic, and his motives make sense but at the same he takes them too far - which is part of how he got to be a living god of dozens of star systems in the first place. Does he ever feel guilt for ordering the execution of his sister? Does the civil war knock him down a few pegs, hiding in a ditch in a backwater planet with a few loyal marines, or is he arrogant to the last? Does he give up and kill himself? Despair at the destruction of his people? His power? Does he go back to his scientist roots and invent ridiculous awesome tech to repel the hated threat of Alexander? Does he go stark raving mad? And please, what happens to his cats???
I’m a total sap, so Nara and Laurent finding each other, decades later, getting a spot of happiness as the empire shatters and then being kickass and brilliant and dedicated together to improve conditions for whoever they can - oh, that would make me ridiculously happy. (If you do this, I’m perfectly happy with a little smut or without it, as long as it’s still focused on the characters and the conditions of whatever corner of the empire they’re in. No PWP please, and no erasing Laurent’s disability/prosthetics/body issues.)
Or you could write about Laurent and Alexander, both against the Emperor, but very much at cross-purposes with respect to the people of the empire, but who fear and need each other two much (respectively) not to work together. Seeing that tenuous back-and-forth dynamic, with each of them using each other, with Alexander being impossibly smart but Laurent always being cleverer than people expect, would be incredible to see.
This world is so vast, on the scale of lightyears and galaxies and centuries of social upheaval. There are so many amazing possible stories. Pick any one that inspires you, authorling. Take whatever of my ramblings works for you and leave the rest and don’t look back.
Erfworld (Webcomic: Volume 1, volume two, and Prequel novela-in-progress.)
I feel like I covered what I love about Wanda/Jillian in my optional details. Please don’t make them fluffy or erase their massive unhealthy issues, but it’s fine whether they do or don’t actually have to deal with those issues in the fic, or if they just color the interactions. Outright smut/torture or smutless tangled emotional/identity/power dynamics character study with a romantic/erotic edge would be equally awesome. Oh, and please don’t make Jillian any less badass just because she’s the sub!
If you write about Charlie, what I love most about him is how cutthroat and manipulative and charming he is, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek re: our world’s Charlie’s Angels at all times.
What I love most about Tramennis is how sharp and effective and devoted to his kingdom he is, not as the traditional fantasy/DnDworld warrior hero, but as the diplomat who also fights when he must. Let him shine for all the bureaucrats and ambassadors who don’t get to be in the spotlight. And let him get a few wisecracks in, serious responsibilities or no.
Dear Yuleauthor,
Thank you so much for writing me a present this year. I already know you are awesome, because everyone in Yuletide is awesome. Furthermore, you volunteered to write one of my fandoms, which means you have excellent taste, because my love for every facet of every one of these works is unbounded. Honestly, anything you write for any of them would likely make me keel over with glee, especially if it’s in the tone/style of the original source. (Consequently, what I want out of each of them is rather different.) Most of the ideas I’m throwing out, in my optional details and here in this, are just bunnies that occurred to me, but if you are enthused about another story in one of these canons, go for it.
Soon I Will Be Invincible by Austin Grossman (short novel)
What I love most about this book is how shamelessly exuberant it is. Even though it’s clever and poignant and sad in places, even though it looks at the underbelly of unfortunate complications to superheroing, it does it WITHOUT getting grimdark and violent. It’s just as ridiculous and over the top and earnest and brightly colored as the comics and cartoons it’s based on. I love that tone, the sense of a world in which nothing is too wild to stumble into or too extreme to pull off. Vampire robot dinosaurs! Magma ocean! Evil twins that sold the planet to aliens in a galaxynet scam!
Seriously, anything. Make me laugh, make me stare in disbelief. My favorite characters are Doctor Impossible and Lily, Baron Ether, and Fatale, so any of those getting up to larger than life shenanigans and getting to be real/vulnerable people a little bit along the way? Would be golden.
I’m also intrigued by Feral, and what motivates him to keep working the streets, and the effect it’s had on him. If you go with this, it’s fine if it’s more bittersweet, but I’d still prefer it not be super gritty or angsty.
Ship-wise, I’m perfectly happy with gen, het, slash, and femmeslash. The pairings that most pique my interest are Doctor Impossible/Lily, Fatale/Feral, Fatale/Lily, and Baron Ether/Mechanist, but please don’t feel the need to write romance if it’s not part of the story, or to limit yourself to those if a different pairing strikes you; I’d prefer the focus be on outer crazy adventures and inner character psychology rather than romance/smut.
Succession Duology - Scott Westerfeld (Two short novels: The Risen Empire and The Killing of Worlds)
Once again, I adore everyone. I asked for post-canon in my signup details, because the ending is among the most epic cliffhangers I’ve ever suffered. I certainly don’t expect a whole history of the collapse of the Risen Empire, but I would love a glimpse of it, a snapshot of how it affected a few of the characters I love, or how they affected it.
What I love most about Succession is how complicated and real the politics feel. Everybody thinks they’re doing the right thing for less-than-pristine reasons, but they aren’t equivalent, and everybody has their own agenda, and they all have actual impacts on what happens to people, and nothing ever goes quite according to plan, because there’s these other people just as awesome and competent and driven as you are, and they have goals too.
I love that Succession doesn’t shy away from the high costs OR real benefits of both tyranny/order/stability and freedom/chaos/breakdown. I’d love to see some positive AND negative effects (though not necessarily equal ones) of the empire falling, wherever and whenever in that fall you set it.
There are a lot of people you could focus on to show that. I’m just rambling and babbling ideas I’ve had. You can take any one of them and run with it in any direction you like, or if you think of something I didn’t, you can absolutely go with that too! This is just me brainstorming Cool Things that Might Happen.
If you do make the House the Rixmind of Home, then the House would be in a really interesting position to fill the power vacuum left in the capital by a broken empire, and maybe the ability to break a stalemate - or worse, a war of attrition - between balanced Senatorial and Imperial forces on the planet. The House is young and immature and hungry for attention and praise - even with a massive mind, it might not be that great at taking care of people. Would it care? Would it play the part for Nara, even if it didn’t? Would the responsibility change it into a better house-person-AI-thing? A worse one? How would Nara react to that?
On the flip side, what happens to the Emperor? I’m utterly fascinated by him. He does such horrible things, but he’s so intelligent and complex and arrogant and slightly twisted but not psychotic, and his motives make sense but at the same he takes them too far - which is part of how he got to be a living god of dozens of star systems in the first place. Does he ever feel guilt for ordering the execution of his sister? Does the civil war knock him down a few pegs, hiding in a ditch in a backwater planet with a few loyal marines, or is he arrogant to the last? Does he give up and kill himself? Despair at the destruction of his people? His power? Does he go back to his scientist roots and invent ridiculous awesome tech to repel the hated threat of Alexander? Does he go stark raving mad? And please, what happens to his cats???
I’m a total sap, so Nara and Laurent finding each other, decades later, getting a spot of happiness as the empire shatters and then being kickass and brilliant and dedicated together to improve conditions for whoever they can - oh, that would make me ridiculously happy. (If you do this, I’m perfectly happy with a little smut or without it, as long as it’s still focused on the characters and the conditions of whatever corner of the empire they’re in. No PWP please, and no erasing Laurent’s disability/prosthetics/body issues.)
Or you could write about Laurent and Alexander, both against the Emperor, but very much at cross-purposes with respect to the people of the empire, but who fear and need each other two much (respectively) not to work together. Seeing that tenuous back-and-forth dynamic, with each of them using each other, with Alexander being impossibly smart but Laurent always being cleverer than people expect, would be incredible to see.
This world is so vast, on the scale of lightyears and galaxies and centuries of social upheaval. There are so many amazing possible stories. Pick any one that inspires you, authorling. Take whatever of my ramblings works for you and leave the rest and don’t look back.
Erfworld (Webcomic: Volume 1, volume two, and Prequel novela-in-progress.)
I feel like I covered what I love about Wanda/Jillian in my optional details. Please don’t make them fluffy or erase their massive unhealthy issues, but it’s fine whether they do or don’t actually have to deal with those issues in the fic, or if they just color the interactions. Outright smut/torture or smutless tangled emotional/identity/power dynamics character study with a romantic/erotic edge would be equally awesome. Oh, and please don’t make Jillian any less badass just because she’s the sub!
If you write about Charlie, what I love most about him is how cutthroat and manipulative and charming he is, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek re: our world’s Charlie’s Angels at all times.
What I love most about Tramennis is how sharp and effective and devoted to his kingdom he is, not as the traditional fantasy/DnDworld warrior hero, but as the diplomat who also fights when he must. Let him shine for all the bureaucrats and ambassadors who don’t get to be in the spotlight. And let him get a few wisecracks in, serious responsibilities or no.