Yuletide letter
Oct. 21st, 2023 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meteordustDear Yuletide Writer,
Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me! I love all these fandoms, and I'm keen to see what you do in them! I've provided some prompts in case you're looking for inspiration, but I'd also love to see whatever other ideas capture your imagination.
For me, it's about the characters and their interactions. I'm not a stickler about researching canon details, as long as the spirit of the characters and the flavour of their world is there. I want to see adventures that might have been, or missing moments from between scenes, or a slice of their daily lives, or where the future might take them.
LIKES: Some of the things I enjoy in stories are: undying loyalty, personal bravery, risking self to protect others, displaying cool competence, big damn hero moments, special everyday moments, banter, hijinks, confessions exposing emotional vulnerability, conversations loaded with unspoken meaning, tough people showing a soft side, and soft people showing a tough side. Some of my favorite tropes and genres are: amnesia, angst with a happy ending, animal transformation, arranged marriage, bodyswap, cosmic horror, curtainfic, five things fic, getting together, hurt/comfort, marriage of convenience, mystery solving, requited pining, road trips, sex pollen, slice of life, stranded together, and time travel.
DISLIKES: I generally prefer optimistic stories in exchanges, so I'm not keen on anything that is brutally violent or hopelessly bleak. However, I don't mind darkness during the story, as long as there is a glimmer of light at the end. Endings that are bittersweet or ambiguous are also fine.
DO NOT WANT: Noncon, underage, bleak endings, crossovers, setting change AUs like high school, coffee shop, or omegaverse (but canon divergence AUs are fine).
RATING: I am open to gen or ships for these characters. For the latter, I'd enjoy anything ranging from unresolved sexual tension, to getting together, to established relationship. I'm fine with explicit sex, but it's usually not the most important part of the story for me.
STYLE: I'm fine with first, second, or third person. I'm fine with past or present tense. I'm fine with stories of any length, including stories that start in media res or consist of a scene that implies a larger plot.
POV: I'm open to stories from the point of view of a different character from the ones requested, especially if they provide an interesting perspective on the requested characters.
INTERACTIVE FICTION: I like interactive fiction and would welcome it.
AO3: I have gifts enabled and am open to treats.
I've listed more details under each individual request.
I hope this helps. Have fun writing!
Yours sincerely,
meteordust
(AO3 name Serenade)
***
Request 1
Fandom: Falcon - Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Characters: Falcon, Agidy Yelov
Details: Your codename is Falcon. You are a Special Agent of TIME, sworn to protect the timelines from chaos. You have psionic powers, your trusty blaster, an intelligent supercomputer, and a time machine called Falcon's Wing. Awesome! You are also assigned a vital mission to uncover the renegade changing history, get framed as a traitor and hunted by your colleagues, and discover that your superior officer has set you up. You die a lot because this is a gamebook series with a difficulty setting of ridiculous.
Note: Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, this gamebook series is narrated in the second person. Falcon's gender is unspecified. In my head, I think of Falcon as male, but I'm also open to leaving it unspecified.
Ideas:
- I've always been fascinated by Yelov and the complicated relationship Falcon has with him - once chief and subordinate, now renegade and enforcer. (And later on, Falcon even gets promoted into Yelov's old job, which must be a strange reversal.) I'd love to see them cross paths again, whether they're hunting each other, working together against a common foe, forced to cooperate to survive, or having a doomed torrid affair.
- I want all the emotional fallout of the betrayal that the gamebook skims over. Yelov is clearly obsessed with revenge, but how does Falcon feel about things? Yelov was respected as a leader: ambitious, dedicated, and deadly. Did Falcon admire him? What did Yelov think of this talented new recruit? Was Falcon always meant to be a pawn or originally destined for more?
- I like the camaraderie between Falcon and the other Special Agents, like Bloodhound and Lynx, so I'd be interested in anything from dramatic joint missions to the office holiday party. What was it like when they were being mentored by Yelov, eg what kind of lecture, demo, or training mission might he have given?
- While the characters often travel back to historic events, I'm more interested in the present day of 3033 AD and its galactic adventures, or the far future and its dying suns and strange civilisations.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I ship Falcon and Yelov.
Canon: There are six books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book, The Renegade Lord.
Resources: The Falcon books are out of print, but they can be found secondhand on AbeBooks, eBay, and Amazon. Falcon at Demian's Gamebook Web Page contains brief information about the series. PDFs of the books used to be available for download at Home of the Underdogs, but not anymore, although copies of the archive seem to float around on filesharing sites. There is also a Let's Play community playthrough of the entire series on the RPG.net forums, although I haven't read the whole thread.
***
Request 2
Fandom: Fortress Series - CJ Cherryh
Characters: Tristen, Barrakkêth
Details: Even though I have requested both these characters, I would be happy with a story just about Tristen or just about Barrakkêth.
Tristen
- I love that Tristen is kind and trusting and loyal, learns to be brave and just, and chooses not to be ruthless like his predecessor. I love when he surprises people with his good qualities and overturns their expectations. I love when he gets to rescue someone with his combat skills, help someone with his magical instincts, or solve a dispute with wisdom and compassion.
- Exploring the relics of the past. What ancient ruins still exist in Amefel? What memories do they unfold for Tristen? Can any of them be rebuilt for use again, like how unwalled Althalen becomes a sanctuary for refugees?
- Enjoying leisure time with his friends and allies, which normally they get precious little chance to do, in between the demands of politics and war. They spend so much of the story split up, I'd love for them to just hang out together for a week.
- Discovering new and marvellous things: traditions, foods, baby animals, etc. I love the wonder with which Tristen sees the world.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I ship Tristen with Crissand, or Cefwyn, or Ninévrisë. No infidelity please (ie before Cefwyn and Ninévrisë get together, or they never got together and the alliance was made differently, or they have a special understanding about Tristen, or the three of them have a relationship). I am also open to shipping Tristen with Barrakkêth.
Barrakkêth
- There's so much mystery around the origins of the Sihhë! Were they born, made, or always existing? Was there friendship between the five of them who came down from the north? Why did they agree to help Mauryl overthrow the Galasieni?
- What was Barrakkêth like as a ruler? What did the fortresses and the cities look like in those days? What was his relationship like with the aetheling who was ancestor to Crissand?
- If all Place is one Place and all Time is one Time, did Barrakkêth know the future? Could he foresee Tristen? Is there anywhere in the gray space they can talk? What was his purpose in writing the Book?
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I don't have any particular preferences for Barrakkêth, so feel free to write whoever you want.
Canon: There are five books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book, Fortress in the Eye of Time.
Resources: The Fortress books are available in print and ebook formats.
***
Request 3
Fandom: Fallen London
Characters: Worldbuilding
Details: I adore the quirky charm of Fallen London, I'm fascinated by the deeper mythology especially the earlier cities, and I'm moved by the sense of connection between all the very different people living here.
Ideas:
- Estival - I love this unique annual event so much. I love how someone makes a well-meaning attempt to start an innocuous new endeavour, and it brings about an existential threat to the city, reveals deeper secrets, and unites everyone in a common goal. Snapshots from a future or past Estival? What promising venture might some optimistic citizen decide to undertake? How does it all go terribly wrong? What bizarre scavenger hunt do people have to do this time? What new addition to the city is left behind afterward?
- The Neon Future - I love the dreamlike glimpses we get in Irem of this possible future for the Neath. I like to imagine that there were ways to protect the inhabitants of the Fifth City when the Sixth and Seventh fell, so that the survivors live side by side with the newcomers. I love this colourful cyberpunk city with new technology and familiar faces. I love how this kind of movement in time feels both wistful and exciting. I just want to sink into the experience of living here. What are the notable landmarks or latest trends? How does the Neath adapt to technology, or technology adapt to the Neath? Did the Masters watch the Moon landing on TV, or track the Solar Orbiter mission to the Sun?
- The Tracklayers' City - I love this hopeful idea of a home of their own for the tracklayers. Is it a workers' paradise? How much is it like and unlike London itself? Does it become a power in the Neath, or a sanctuary from the other powers? Maybe a newcomer spends their first day in the city. Or an oldtimer lives through the first fifty years of its history.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. I'm fine with canon characters or original characters.
Canon: Fallen London is a free-to-play text-based browser game. If you're already familiar with playing Fallen London, but just haven't reached particular storylines yet, I'm fine for you to work off wiki research and other resources instead. I'm fine with spoilers for any Fallen London content.
I haven't played the other Failbetter Games like Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. I'm fine for you to include content and spoilers from them, as long as the story can be understood without having played them. (This is an exception to my crossovers DNW.)
Resources: Fallen London has a gameplay wiki and a lore wiki.
Fandom Specific Do Not Want: I don't want mention of the Liberation of Night. (Mentioning the Revolutionaries otherwise is fine.)
Thank you so much for offering to write a story for me! I love all these fandoms, and I'm keen to see what you do in them! I've provided some prompts in case you're looking for inspiration, but I'd also love to see whatever other ideas capture your imagination.
For me, it's about the characters and their interactions. I'm not a stickler about researching canon details, as long as the spirit of the characters and the flavour of their world is there. I want to see adventures that might have been, or missing moments from between scenes, or a slice of their daily lives, or where the future might take them.
LIKES: Some of the things I enjoy in stories are: undying loyalty, personal bravery, risking self to protect others, displaying cool competence, big damn hero moments, special everyday moments, banter, hijinks, confessions exposing emotional vulnerability, conversations loaded with unspoken meaning, tough people showing a soft side, and soft people showing a tough side. Some of my favorite tropes and genres are: amnesia, angst with a happy ending, animal transformation, arranged marriage, bodyswap, cosmic horror, curtainfic, five things fic, getting together, hurt/comfort, marriage of convenience, mystery solving, requited pining, road trips, sex pollen, slice of life, stranded together, and time travel.
DISLIKES: I generally prefer optimistic stories in exchanges, so I'm not keen on anything that is brutally violent or hopelessly bleak. However, I don't mind darkness during the story, as long as there is a glimmer of light at the end. Endings that are bittersweet or ambiguous are also fine.
DO NOT WANT: Noncon, underage, bleak endings, crossovers, setting change AUs like high school, coffee shop, or omegaverse (but canon divergence AUs are fine).
RATING: I am open to gen or ships for these characters. For the latter, I'd enjoy anything ranging from unresolved sexual tension, to getting together, to established relationship. I'm fine with explicit sex, but it's usually not the most important part of the story for me.
STYLE: I'm fine with first, second, or third person. I'm fine with past or present tense. I'm fine with stories of any length, including stories that start in media res or consist of a scene that implies a larger plot.
POV: I'm open to stories from the point of view of a different character from the ones requested, especially if they provide an interesting perspective on the requested characters.
INTERACTIVE FICTION: I like interactive fiction and would welcome it.
AO3: I have gifts enabled and am open to treats.
I've listed more details under each individual request.
I hope this helps. Have fun writing!
Yours sincerely,
meteordust(AO3 name Serenade)
***
Request 1
Fandom: Falcon - Mark Smith and Jamie Thomson
Characters: Falcon, Agidy Yelov
Details: Your codename is Falcon. You are a Special Agent of TIME, sworn to protect the timelines from chaos. You have psionic powers, your trusty blaster, an intelligent supercomputer, and a time machine called Falcon's Wing. Awesome! You are also assigned a vital mission to uncover the renegade changing history, get framed as a traitor and hunted by your colleagues, and discover that your superior officer has set you up. You die a lot because this is a gamebook series with a difficulty setting of ridiculous.
Note: Like the Choose Your Own Adventure books, this gamebook series is narrated in the second person. Falcon's gender is unspecified. In my head, I think of Falcon as male, but I'm also open to leaving it unspecified.
Ideas:
- I've always been fascinated by Yelov and the complicated relationship Falcon has with him - once chief and subordinate, now renegade and enforcer. (And later on, Falcon even gets promoted into Yelov's old job, which must be a strange reversal.) I'd love to see them cross paths again, whether they're hunting each other, working together against a common foe, forced to cooperate to survive, or having a doomed torrid affair.
- I want all the emotional fallout of the betrayal that the gamebook skims over. Yelov is clearly obsessed with revenge, but how does Falcon feel about things? Yelov was respected as a leader: ambitious, dedicated, and deadly. Did Falcon admire him? What did Yelov think of this talented new recruit? Was Falcon always meant to be a pawn or originally destined for more?
- I like the camaraderie between Falcon and the other Special Agents, like Bloodhound and Lynx, so I'd be interested in anything from dramatic joint missions to the office holiday party. What was it like when they were being mentored by Yelov, eg what kind of lecture, demo, or training mission might he have given?
- While the characters often travel back to historic events, I'm more interested in the present day of 3033 AD and its galactic adventures, or the far future and its dying suns and strange civilisations.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I ship Falcon and Yelov.
Canon: There are six books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book, The Renegade Lord.
Resources: The Falcon books are out of print, but they can be found secondhand on AbeBooks, eBay, and Amazon. Falcon at Demian's Gamebook Web Page contains brief information about the series. PDFs of the books used to be available for download at Home of the Underdogs, but not anymore, although copies of the archive seem to float around on filesharing sites. There is also a Let's Play community playthrough of the entire series on the RPG.net forums, although I haven't read the whole thread.
***
Request 2
Fandom: Fortress Series - CJ Cherryh
Characters: Tristen, Barrakkêth
Details: Even though I have requested both these characters, I would be happy with a story just about Tristen or just about Barrakkêth.
Tristen
- I love that Tristen is kind and trusting and loyal, learns to be brave and just, and chooses not to be ruthless like his predecessor. I love when he surprises people with his good qualities and overturns their expectations. I love when he gets to rescue someone with his combat skills, help someone with his magical instincts, or solve a dispute with wisdom and compassion.
- Exploring the relics of the past. What ancient ruins still exist in Amefel? What memories do they unfold for Tristen? Can any of them be rebuilt for use again, like how unwalled Althalen becomes a sanctuary for refugees?
- Enjoying leisure time with his friends and allies, which normally they get precious little chance to do, in between the demands of politics and war. They spend so much of the story split up, I'd love for them to just hang out together for a week.
- Discovering new and marvellous things: traditions, foods, baby animals, etc. I love the wonder with which Tristen sees the world.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I ship Tristen with Crissand, or Cefwyn, or Ninévrisë. No infidelity please (ie before Cefwyn and Ninévrisë get together, or they never got together and the alliance was made differently, or they have a special understanding about Tristen, or the three of them have a relationship). I am also open to shipping Tristen with Barrakkêth.
Barrakkêth
- There's so much mystery around the origins of the Sihhë! Were they born, made, or always existing? Was there friendship between the five of them who came down from the north? Why did they agree to help Mauryl overthrow the Galasieni?
- What was Barrakkêth like as a ruler? What did the fortresses and the cities look like in those days? What was his relationship like with the aetheling who was ancestor to Crissand?
- If all Place is one Place and all Time is one Time, did Barrakkêth know the future? Could he foresee Tristen? Is there anywhere in the gray space they can talk? What was his purpose in writing the Book?
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. If you would like to include shipping, I don't have any particular preferences for Barrakkêth, so feel free to write whoever you want.
Canon: There are five books in this series. However, I would be perfectly happy with a story based only on the first book, Fortress in the Eye of Time.
Resources: The Fortress books are available in print and ebook formats.
***
Request 3
Fandom: Fallen London
Characters: Worldbuilding
Details: I adore the quirky charm of Fallen London, I'm fascinated by the deeper mythology especially the earlier cities, and I'm moved by the sense of connection between all the very different people living here.
Ideas:
- Estival - I love this unique annual event so much. I love how someone makes a well-meaning attempt to start an innocuous new endeavour, and it brings about an existential threat to the city, reveals deeper secrets, and unites everyone in a common goal. Snapshots from a future or past Estival? What promising venture might some optimistic citizen decide to undertake? How does it all go terribly wrong? What bizarre scavenger hunt do people have to do this time? What new addition to the city is left behind afterward?
- The Neon Future - I love the dreamlike glimpses we get in Irem of this possible future for the Neath. I like to imagine that there were ways to protect the inhabitants of the Fifth City when the Sixth and Seventh fell, so that the survivors live side by side with the newcomers. I love this colourful cyberpunk city with new technology and familiar faces. I love how this kind of movement in time feels both wistful and exciting. I just want to sink into the experience of living here. What are the notable landmarks or latest trends? How does the Neath adapt to technology, or technology adapt to the Neath? Did the Masters watch the Moon landing on TV, or track the Solar Orbiter mission to the Sun?
- The Tracklayers' City - I love this hopeful idea of a home of their own for the tracklayers. Is it a workers' paradise? How much is it like and unlike London itself? Does it become a power in the Neath, or a sanctuary from the other powers? Maybe a newcomer spends their first day in the city. Or an oldtimer lives through the first fifty years of its history.
- Relationships: I'm fine with gen or ships. I'm fine with canon characters or original characters.
Canon: Fallen London is a free-to-play text-based browser game. If you're already familiar with playing Fallen London, but just haven't reached particular storylines yet, I'm fine for you to work off wiki research and other resources instead. I'm fine with spoilers for any Fallen London content.
I haven't played the other Failbetter Games like Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. I'm fine for you to include content and spoilers from them, as long as the story can be understood without having played them. (This is an exception to my crossovers DNW.)
Resources: Fallen London has a gameplay wiki and a lore wiki.
Fandom Specific Do Not Want: I don't want mention of the Liberation of Night. (Mentioning the Revolutionaries otherwise is fine.)
