Dear Yuletide Writer, 2013!
Oct. 7th, 2013 12:46 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skazkaThis is my fourth year doing Yuletide and I'm really excited about this year's bunch of fandoms! This letter's a bit heavy on the giddy gushing/prompts phrased as questions, so sorry about that, and it got long, but optional details = optional. I've got a lot of disjointed thoughts and feelings, but as ever, it boils down to "whatever you want to do, mostly". There's also some vague/haphazard spoilers for my canons in here, which for most of them isn't such a big deal but Truth Or Dare is a fairly recent film, so heads-up.
Fandoms are Milton's Paradise Lost, the IF game The King Of Shreds And Patches, 2012 horror film Truth Or Dare (Truth Or Die in US markets) and Demon Knights (comic).
Paradise Lost
[Something about the nature of Eve's happiness, and how she is when she's considered by herself, maybe? The fallen angels' attempts to amuse themselves in Hell with philosophy and screwing around; does Belial seek recognition or does he gain pleasure just from talking and talking and never doing much? The aftermath of Satan's first defeat, Satan/Belial talky hatesex, or an account of how Death was conceived and Sin's time among the angels prior to the rebellion. Any pairings or gen.]
(Caveat: there's some iffy sexist stuff in the way Milton handles Eve. I really love Eve, but I'm not feeling that stuff; feel free to explore the qualities she possesses that Milton attributes to her sex, and I find her tenderness/curiosity/eminent loveability really interesting, but feel free in your fic to tangle with Milton's sexism, or not, as you please.)
I'm fascinated with Eve's account of her vision in Book 5 and her responses to it, despite Adam's attempts to neutralize her fears with a rational explanation. Milton seems to put a lot of emphasis on discourse and dialogue and its place in their partnership, but the way they're stated to be fashioned introduces a kind of lopsidedness that doesn't rest entirely easily for either of them, or for me as a reader. I'm also curious about Eve's response to her own reflection -- her beauty according to Adam seem to be a kind of microcosm for all of Creation's beauty, but is this something she can fairly partake in in the same way? Is it meant to be for her own sake at all? Maybe something about Eve's happiness -- what that is in relation to Adam, to Creation, to herself, to God? Is there disquiet in her from the start? What heralds their Fall or sets it off from surrounding disquiet? (All the symbolic weight heaped into Eve's beauty, her face and hair, is also cool but I don't know if it's possible to springboard a fic off of that. If she's ornamental, can that be more meaningful than her pleasingness to Adam?)
(The bit with Adam making a garland for Eve also broke my fucking heart -- both for the somewhat naive nature of Adam's labors in light of what's just taken place and for the way it marks a change in the Garden and the entrance of death into their equation.)
Satan and his comrades really interest me -- especially Beëlzebub, as the one Satan whispers to, and Belial as sophistically well-spoken statesman. Belial personifies not just deceit but bad counsel under the gloss of beautiful speech, and I can't help but wonder what his role was in Heaven prior to open rebellion and his relationship to his fellows, who seem to grasp little of dissembling. His relationship to Satan interests me also; is there any strain later on when his oration in favor of peaceful sloth had been so publicly set forward? I'm also curious about his "gamesom mood" in Book 6 and the fallen angels' self-assurance, deriding God and the remaining angels with such blithe enthusiasm. How does Belial take defeat? A lot's probably been said about Satan and I'm more interested in a depiction of his flaws than his virtues. (On another level, um, I am very curious about post-fall from heaven spiteful hatesex, between whomever the writer pleases, though Satan/Belial would certainly be talky sex. For whatever measure of "sex" the fallen angels can have now that they're presumably no longer mingling in perfect harmony like Raphael describes in Book 8.)
I'm really curious about the fallen angels' attempts to create "society" in their Hell, both their physical attempts at establishing architecture and their philosophizing, making music, exploring, etc. I'm willing to bet Belial is totally feeling the opportunity to sit around and bullshit (for sloth's sake? is there the possibility of personal acclaim?) and I'm curious about what they do for downtime when they're suddenly freed up from the obligations of serving God.
There's also the reunion of Sin and Satan; I'm really down for a further exploration of that metaphor (massively fucked-up as it is!) and its relation to the Trinity as well as relationships of desire and violence. (Either both Sin and her father together, or considered separately.) How is Sin's attractiveness, even beauty different from Eve's? From the angels'? What is her nature as both Sin and sign? At what point in Satan's conspiracy does Sin turn up anyway, or is Death conceived, and how does these events take place against the backdrop of Heaven?
(I would absolutely not say no to fic about the angels who remain allied with God, or about Death, or on the relationship between the Son and God the Father, or what's happened with the Holy Spirit in the course of this poem.)
**
The King Of Shreds And Patches
(Interactive fiction game by Jimmy Maher, available here.)
[Lucy's suffering the influence of the King In Yellow manuscript; the story of how the play changed hands and the effect it had on the creative types it's crossed paths with; an account for Moore's losing his mind before things got as bad as we see when he's in Bedlam and what his relationships with his fellow playwrights might have been like; Robert and Lucy coming clean to one another about what they've respectively been up to. Any pairings or gen.]
(I've never encountered a fic-writing fan of this game, so you are firmly in my good books already, Yule writer!)
I am super fascinated by the way the physical manuscripts ofThe King In Yellow has changed hands and how the contagious ideas within it have spread (and the powerful implications the printing press and the theater carry in this particular time frame for the spread of ideas!) , the cabal of people associated with the play and the King, and in particular the influence it has on artistic circles, especially ones who are already a tight-knit group (if not emotionally close and supportive, then at least dimly aware of one another and occasionally cooperative/competitive) or who have perhaps other secretive ties besides.
I'm really curious about David Moore, both who he used to be prior to exposure to TKiY and what the King's influences do to him. His future's not looking too bright after game's end, and an examination of the nature of his madness could go some really dark places, but I'm keenly interested in the form the play's intrusions into his consciousness take and his slow decline, if matters could have gone differently or if he could have been saved. What was his relationship like to Shakespeare and to Croft, maybe to Marlowe? (I'm preeeetty convinced there were some awkward romantic/sex-friends snarls there.) As a musician among poets, what are his specialties? (Which is not to say that he must necessarily do the one and never the other.) What kinds of collaborations has he written and how does he feel about his work? What's his disposition while sane? How does the King's influence take root in him, and why does it take such a disturbingly sensuous manifestation in the Jester? (I'd be hella interested in something with him or another affected by the play's contents trying to articulate this in private, in a position where he's more lucid than when he accounts these experiences in-game, and either he or his audience being cringingly aware of the uneasy undertones to what they're hearing.)
Even assuming Robert gets out of the game's events more or less unscathed, what marks dos this leave on him? Where does his position -- in close proximity with poets, playwrights, and political types but not fully one of them either in a professional capacity -- leave him? What the hell happens to that ever-handy hook? What's it like to return to work after these events? He's remarkably capable and inventive and I'd like to read more of his adventures.
Lucy's a bit of a puzzle for most of the game; she and Robert have an awkward history together, though they're still friendly, and her notes, though welcome, rarely herald anything good happening. Have her experiences with The King In Yellow left a mark on her body of work as a writer? I'd be very interested to see both of them struggling to reintegrate into their earlier habits and lives after their brush with the occult, if they even can. (Des Robert ever come clean regarding his suspicions about her chastity/romantic ties to Van Der Wyck and co.? Do they end up on the same page? I can't imagine her being thrilled at some of his suspicions along the way, or perhaps the player's, if they're especially genre savvy.) She's been personally betrayed by someone to whom she'd grown close, and lost a young, vulnerable family member as well. How does she grieve her cousin? Does she wind up in a creative-types cabal of her very own, maybe of other women writers? (Hopefully without human sacrifices.)
I'm not extensively familiar with Shakespearean scholarship or the Elizabethan era, but if you want to write fic exploring any aspects of it or the relationship between the game's events and hinted conspiracies and the historical reality, go for it.
**
Thomas Of Woodstock (play):
(Available, it just so happens, online here.)
[Something exploring Anne of Bohemia's virtues, please, both as hers alone and as they counteract and counterweigh Richard's youthful folly. Or the whole weird gang of misbehaving bros in Richard's orbit -- what really makes Richard so susceptible to flattery? Does his position as a former child-king leave him especially vulnerable to it? Or something about how Richard handles grief, both for virtuous Anne and vicious Greene. Any pairings or gen.]
Anne of Bohemia is the light of my life! I'm interested in what her virtues look like when they're not serving as a foil to Richard's sins, as well as her role as intercessor, and how she consciously tries to act alongside or against Richard to mitigate his missteps or to counteract his folly. Anne's shifting sense of national identity (her "let me be Englished" speech), especially in contrast to Richard's eminent Englishness (and then the specter of sketchiness that he was born in France after all, and maybe his excesses are a little more fit for the Continent than good old honest England...) really interests me. She uses the language of charms and spells in her first scene and it seems like her virtue (her beauty?) is so eminent that it compels respect. Her private actions and political actions are pretty tightly bound together by her relationship to her sovereign/spouse, but I'm also down to read about her acting privately, her relationships to other women and other wives, and to her family back home.
Richard's "wildness" in comparison with his father is curious; he comes across very young and very bright and sparkly and lively, and his minions considerably more malignant than Shakespeare's portrayal. There's the possibility entertained that what's wrong with him might be fixed, doctored out of him somehow either by the clearing-away of his leechy treacherous friends or some other means, and I don't know which I'd find sadder, the view that his personal downfall couldn't have been averted or the thought that the really destructive stuff could have been and wasn't. The ivy metaphor Arundel gives early on is very striking, moreso to me than all the language of cankers and caterpillars and leeches that jumps to mind elsewhere, but I don't know if there can be a compromise made -- especially if you take the view that some of his favorites are, in one capacity or another, also romantically/sexually involved with him or competitors to Anne -- between his seeming need for these friendships and the fact that all his current false friends happen to be working in their own interests. I don't know if Richard's naive or undiscerning for having such friends as he does, if he really thinks they're harmless, or if that sells short any potential for real malice or vice in him personally, but I'd like to know how he makes the judgment calls that he does and what's really up with his folly. It'd be easy to discount him outright as just young and dumb, but how young is he really, what does it mean to be that young when it's also a milestone of having already been king for years? (How dumb is he, really, for that matter.)
Greene plots with fantastic deviousness (and god, Tresilian has some real panache too!) I love the bit in Act One, Scene 2 with Tresilian assuring Greene and Bagot he'll work the law in their favor (Greene's line "The King is young, aye, and a little wanton; so perhaps are we" makes me wonder about his own character and how he views his fate as potentially tethered to Richard's. He's also spitting mad and surly in that scene. Tresilian's naked glee at his change in state is pretty great; it's interesting to see their spirits and tempers rise and fall over the course of the play, as their fortunes do. (What's Tresilian's comparative age and experience count for when he's having to counsel impetuous Richard and all his young jackass friends?)
(For that matter, Anne serves to deflect Greene's vices, not just Richard's -- "Oh gentle Greene, throw no more fuel on / but rather seek to mitigate this heat", though Richard immediately turns around the tears/weeping imagery she brings to the table to a matter of blood and violence. How does she interact with Greene and Bagot, both as themselves and as extensions of her king?)
I'm a huge jackass and I am fascinated by the way Richard processes grief in this play -- both his world-ending, destructive grief for Anne and his somewhat misplaced grief for Greene. But Anne's death really hurts; the omens attending it are spooky as hell and Richard takes them to heart hard. Something about how she dies, or where she doesn't, or dies differently, would be way up my alley. (If you want to write uncle!fic I am definitely down for that -- "plain Thomas" is a real puzzle to me. This play is also definitely humorous -- it has a musical number, for Christ's sake, and Nimble's punning and skeeving -- so jump on that too!)
**
Demon Knights (comic):
(23-issue comic by DC; if you want a heads-up on where it can be found, give me a shout.)
[An exploration of Al-Jabr as medieval science hero, especially in light of the awesome scientific and academic discoveries going on in the medieval Muslim world; Sir Ystin's adventures through history and something dealing with his knightly calling and chasing after Camelot after Camelot, kingdoms doomed to fall and him perhaps doomed to fail; Exoristos' status as exile and whether she'd ever be okay or at home in the non-Amazonian world. Any pairings or gen.]
I really love Al Jabr as basically an 11th century Science Hero -- for a different set of parameters re. the sciences than we're used to in modern comics, maybe, but I'm really curious about his skills/pursuits, how he conceptualizes what he does and now it gels with some of his teammates' standards of what constitutes useful skills/combat. His philosophically and theologically-charged Ironic Hell scenario when the whole gang's being tormented by thematically appropriate nightmares really got under my skin and I'd like to see a more extensive exploration of it. I'm really interested in his future after the events of issue #23 -- is he immortal now also? what does this mean for the city he's been carefully curating all these years? Why is this his ideal retirement anyway, and what does his city mean to him? He seems better adjusted in a lot of ways than his teammates; how does he feel about what they've gone on to do, and how do they feel about him? Will they ever be welcome in his city?
Exoristos is a bit of a puzzle to me -- maybe in the course of a longer comic she'd have gotten multiple arcs but over the course of the story so far she takes some knocks and never seems to achieve the fullness of her potential. I find boisterous-bruiser types pretty fantastic and she's a valuable asset to the team; I'd be interested in seeing the whole warrior-without-a-leader archetype explored in her. Amazon society really does have some serious advantages in some respects over what she finds in Medieval Europe, but it (and she) remains flawed and I'd really like to see more exploration of the relationship between those cultures, and between the Amazon identity and ideals that Exoristos remains marked with inwardly and what the reality may have been for her in the past. Something exploring the nature of her exile, or those relationships she left behind her? It would be interesting to see if she could come to a place where she'd be really comfortable living among non-Amazons or if she hadn't returned whether she'd be doomed to pine for it
I've also requested Sir Ystin; part of what I like best about this character is his personal definition of knighthood-- his personal identity, his nobility-slash-arrogance, his role. The spell Merlin laid on him means he'll keep coming back to Camelot, to Arthur, and to the Grail, whatever those things may mean at different times, and I find that really intriguing but pretty troubling and disheartening as well. The premonition that he will lose everything he loves -- whether because he is immortal and they aren't, or because everything pales in comparison with his quest, or just the innumerable things that can go wrong in relationships to human beings who will ultimately fail him, or he them, it's pretty bleak for me and I'd love to see that fleshed out a little in ways the series never really had an opportunity to get to. Also. Shining Knight's adventures through history. Doing good, insulting people in Welsh, being very shiny. (With magical telepathically soul-bonded Pegasus in tow, hell, I don't know.)
This is a fandom where I'm really enamored of its setting and canon-flavored hijinks all on its own, so if you just want to explore the take on medieval fantasy it shows and the fun stuff it does with language/culture/region I'd be so into that. (If you wanted to do an AU, I'm especially interested in point-of-divergence AUs -- what if Ystin didn't "recover" from being bitten by Cain? (Cain's "sweetest I ever tasted" line is creepy as hell, so... take that to a dark place, if you feel the need, yikes.) What if the team didn't get back together for their vampire-hunting reunion, or stuff went really off the rails on their first quest together? -- or new time periods/settings. Genre AUs are also really welcome, especially if the team dynamic's still present and updated to fit. (Modern day heist-plot fic?)
Tl;dr caveat -- I personally interpreted Sir Ystin/Shining Knight as a transgender man; I'm down for reading most other takes on Shining Knight's gender situation but I'm not really interested in reading something where Ystin's a cisgender woman pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver out of necessity in order to be a knight. I love that trope, but it's just not what I want to read here. (If you see Ystin as a cis woman who happens to fill societal roles reserved mainly for men in certain places and times, and to fill them very well, and who consequently has long ceased giving a fuck about how people call them/the ties people are trying to summon on when they refer to "our sex", ec., I'd be interested in reading that too, just not the "no one can know my secret!" angst and other baggage that the former trope suggests.) At the same time, I don't particularly want to read Trans Issues 101 fic, fic where Ystin angsts about gender identity, or fic where gender identity conflict is why Shining Knight and Exoristos broke up; fics that don't omit Ystin's visible differences or that explore them would be welcome, but not a treatise on 11th century fantasy European transphobia. If you'd rather not write about trans* stuff at all or have it come up in the fic at any point, that's also fine.
**
Truth Or Dare
(2012 horror film; available on Netflix Instant as 'Truth Or Die'. Spoilers below.)
[I'd maybe be interested in fic about screwed-up Hautbois family tension; something with Luke's ambivalent relationship to his friends-turned-hostages and or to Felix/his drug dealer friend; something where Gemma's escape attempt is more successful or introspective fic about what she's realizing has gone down here. The aftermath of that first party and what it did to all their relationships, or an alternate ending to the nightmarish weekend where Gemma lives, or where Justin "triumphs", where Felix did indeed die, etc. Gothic horror AUs! Family curses! Het/slash/femslash/gen all fine, but please, no Justin/Gemma.]
The Hautbois family situation lends this movie reeeally well to historical AUs already in my head and I'd be really interested in seeing those aspects (tradition, family honor, intergenerational complicity and revenge) explored. David Oakes tends to get cast in period stuff (though always with loads of family baggage! I wonder why?) so seeing him as a really fucked-up, brutal 21st century man with such... for lack of a better word, medieval mindsets, was weird and piqued my curiosity. Justin completely falls apart over the course of the film; he starts out downright affable and composed but his absolute unilateral obsession with revenge and with the family honor are always right there under the surface, and I'd like to read about his efforts to keep a socially acceptable face on that stuff for as long as it takes to get everybody corralled into the groundskeeper's cottage.
It seems fairly obvious that Justin's not been all right since at least when he came back from Afghanistan, but frankly I doubt he was when he left. What happened to Felix and Justin's mother? What's her place in this? Is their father as complicit in these goings on as Justin makes him out to be, or is he totally full of shit? Justin's weird protectiveness of Felix gives me huge creeps, but it's very compellingly portrayed and as something that happens against Felix's will -- or that perhaps was once welcome, even wanted, before their relationship went dark places. Felix's personality doesn't get fleshed out a ton more beyond his awkwardness, fear, and desire; what's his inner life like outside of the flashbacks we get? Were there ever happier times with his classmates and with his family? (Not that they'd make everything he was afraid of any easier to take.) Watching the movie I half-expected Felix to be the real architect of the torture weekend -- maybe an AU where he was, or where he did indeed die and is watching these proceedings as a ghost? (If you feel the urge, there's definitely the potential for really fucked-up Justin/Felix.) I'd prefer nothing where his vulnerability after the suicide attempt is capitalized on, however.
Luke is singled out really quickly by Justin as the one he's going to make his accomplice; what does he see in him, anyway? Is it something fundamentally different than the utility that leads the others to keep him around for what he can do for them? Is it that he doesn't even like these guys, anyway? He was more than ready to fuck over Felix if it meant knocking a rich kid down a few pegs; Felix is humiliated, shown off as pathetic and desperate and twitchy; maybe Luke fears that if he stops being useful he'll be seen for what he is, which is something similar. There's some really obvious class conflict in Luke's storyline and I'd be interested in hearing about his life before the film and his sort of semi-outsider status, especially in relation to what he's willing to do to get an "in" and what he does at Justin's behest -- to save himself, or to buy his way into a different world than the one he's struggling in. There's also some crazy weird Justin/Luke vibes, which I am frankly all about for fucked up power struggles and tenuous loyalty.
Gemma is rocking some gothic heroine vibes and I would be really interested in seeing that more fully developed. Her compassion or attempted tenderness gets her into some trouble, trying to appeal to Justin's humanity and Felix's gentleness, but she's not actually in the wrong to be uncomfortable with Felix's attentions and she holds out as long as she fucking can. When she holds Felix hostage, she's desperate but she knows exactly which of the groundskeeper's buttons to press to make him at least hesitate. Obviously her plotline hits a pretty hard brick wall, but I'd love to read something where her escape is more successful, or where she faces off against the boys and isn't overcome. (Please don't pair Gemma and Justin, though.) Eleanor wasn't among the nominated characters, so feel free to skip out on her, but I love the contrasts in their sometimes-rocky fucked-up-people friendship and the sacrifices they were willing to make for one another. Femslash, maybe?
Likes And Kinks
I love explorations of loyalty/fealty, especially concrete physical symbols thereof, and more generally I'm really interested in the marks and signs on someone that show who they are, what they have endured, and where they are in relation to other people. These can be lasting signs (scars as signs of hardship, physical traits, etc.) temporary attributes (badges, cloaks, chains of office, rings, crowns) or formalized actions -- clasping hands, offering sacrifices, exchanging kisses, swearing oaths. Oaths of friendship, wedding stuff, other formal and informal bonds. This counts even if that loyalty/trust is betrayed, misplaced, quickly shifted onto someone else, etc. (Eplicitly D/s dynamics don't float my boat, but informal stuff coming from circumstances or formal rank does.) Clothes! I dig clothes a lot! I like what people are eating and what they're doing around the house/around camp.
I dig casefic/continuing-adventures-type stuff or missing scenes/backstory/stuff that the canon breezes past as having happened but declines to show. (Backstory fic is right up my alley! And if you want to write fics set in better days, given the tone of most of my canons, that's totally cool.) Shout-outs or allusions to the medium of the canon really get me, and I like running into little love letters to the source text (or critiques depending on how you actually feel about said source text). I love strong atmosphere, dreaminess, gothic horror stuff (isolation, decay, not being sure if you can trust your senses, etc.) and pastiches of other writing styles. I love whump, torment, characters getting put through the wringer, characters getting mindfucked, and strained/fractured mental states (as well as the aftermath of all of the above!) I'm down for violence/torture (though rating and tagging accordingly is a big plus!) and very down for whumpy noncon/dubcon or stuff with similar vibes.
Wow, this sounds like I'm in it for super dark fic and super dark fic only, but I really love humor fics (even very silly humor). They're really really fun at that time of year and I'm a lot more of an easily amused goofball than this list of grim tropes makes me sound. Fic that's framed like an in-universe document (secret diaries, case writeups, letters, fictitious plays, etc.) really interests me.
I am very down for AUs of all kinds! Historical reframings, changes of circumstance (what if x had won instead of y, what if p had been a different gender, appearance swaps, etc.) and canon-divergent stuff is cool; I don't usually go out for high school student or space opera-type AUs, but anything that strikes your writerly fancy I'd love to see.
Kink-wise, I love "nonstandard" sex (both unusual for that setting/social context or for fanfic sex when there's still a dominating tendency to write "passionate kiss, clothes disappear, one finger, two finger, wait where's the sachet of lube, three fingers, cock" -- I dig partially/mostly-clothed sex, intercrural sex, oral sex that's not just a prelude to Real Penetrative Sex, etc.), informal/non-typical sexual relationships without a ton of drama, characters talking in bed (as in before/after sex or sleep, not necessarily during!), non-sexual intimacy, and (nooot likely in my fandoms, but) caning. I'm also into stuff that sounds and reads as very sexually charged, but isn't 'quite' sex-- like the creepy, mindfucky sexual undertones to the Yellow King's influence in KoSP, for instance. Symbolic sex, I guess.
I won't be disappointed if I don't get a massive kink-fest -- I'm perfectly fine with any of these fandoms being written chastely as the driven snow, or with ace characters, celibate characters, characters whose most important relationships are platonic, characters who are too busy to linger on love much, or UST vibes (from innocent to sizzling)
Squicks and Do-Not-Wants
Tropes I'm not super into: alpha/beta/omega-type alternate universes, magical "woke up a girl"-type genderswap. I'm also not big into restraints, D/s AUs, ageplay, teacher/student sex, or sexual instruction as a kink (whether deflowering or one person "teaching" another how to please a partner).
I would like to request that my giftfic not include child grooming, habitual self-injury, or eating disorders. Stuff like dubcon/noncon, incest, suicide, sporadic incidents of self-harm, etc. seem downright likely for some of my fandoms, and are absolutely fair game, but please tag or CNTW. (There's obviously some touchy territory with ambiguous ages for Satan and Sin in Paradise Lost fandom, but just don't write Sin as a child/young teen-equivalent, and I'm doing fine.) I'm okay with characters forgetting to eat or mentions of fasting for religious purposes, but if something includes penitential fasting or non-ED dietary issues, I'd appreciate a note on that too. Ditto for religious self-mortification or similar. If you're super worried about something, noting it or tagging it is about the best you can do and I won't hold any kind of grudge -- I don't want you to have to trash your 10k fic because you got that deep into it and suddenly realized that something in it looks a bit like child grooming, or that you mention a character fasting kind of a lot, but if you're someone who plans fic out meticulously out in advance, it's just something I'd like to skip.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask via a Hippo -- sorry for the abundant teal-deer and have a fun, creative Yuletide!
Fandoms are Milton's Paradise Lost, the IF game The King Of Shreds And Patches, 2012 horror film Truth Or Dare (Truth Or Die in US markets) and Demon Knights (comic).
Paradise Lost
[Something about the nature of Eve's happiness, and how she is when she's considered by herself, maybe? The fallen angels' attempts to amuse themselves in Hell with philosophy and screwing around; does Belial seek recognition or does he gain pleasure just from talking and talking and never doing much? The aftermath of Satan's first defeat, Satan/Belial talky hatesex, or an account of how Death was conceived and Sin's time among the angels prior to the rebellion. Any pairings or gen.]
(Caveat: there's some iffy sexist stuff in the way Milton handles Eve. I really love Eve, but I'm not feeling that stuff; feel free to explore the qualities she possesses that Milton attributes to her sex, and I find her tenderness/curiosity/eminent loveability really interesting, but feel free in your fic to tangle with Milton's sexism, or not, as you please.)
I'm fascinated with Eve's account of her vision in Book 5 and her responses to it, despite Adam's attempts to neutralize her fears with a rational explanation. Milton seems to put a lot of emphasis on discourse and dialogue and its place in their partnership, but the way they're stated to be fashioned introduces a kind of lopsidedness that doesn't rest entirely easily for either of them, or for me as a reader. I'm also curious about Eve's response to her own reflection -- her beauty according to Adam seem to be a kind of microcosm for all of Creation's beauty, but is this something she can fairly partake in in the same way? Is it meant to be for her own sake at all? Maybe something about Eve's happiness -- what that is in relation to Adam, to Creation, to herself, to God? Is there disquiet in her from the start? What heralds their Fall or sets it off from surrounding disquiet? (All the symbolic weight heaped into Eve's beauty, her face and hair, is also cool but I don't know if it's possible to springboard a fic off of that. If she's ornamental, can that be more meaningful than her pleasingness to Adam?)
(The bit with Adam making a garland for Eve also broke my fucking heart -- both for the somewhat naive nature of Adam's labors in light of what's just taken place and for the way it marks a change in the Garden and the entrance of death into their equation.)
Satan and his comrades really interest me -- especially Beëlzebub, as the one Satan whispers to, and Belial as sophistically well-spoken statesman. Belial personifies not just deceit but bad counsel under the gloss of beautiful speech, and I can't help but wonder what his role was in Heaven prior to open rebellion and his relationship to his fellows, who seem to grasp little of dissembling. His relationship to Satan interests me also; is there any strain later on when his oration in favor of peaceful sloth had been so publicly set forward? I'm also curious about his "gamesom mood" in Book 6 and the fallen angels' self-assurance, deriding God and the remaining angels with such blithe enthusiasm. How does Belial take defeat? A lot's probably been said about Satan and I'm more interested in a depiction of his flaws than his virtues. (On another level, um, I am very curious about post-fall from heaven spiteful hatesex, between whomever the writer pleases, though Satan/Belial would certainly be talky sex. For whatever measure of "sex" the fallen angels can have now that they're presumably no longer mingling in perfect harmony like Raphael describes in Book 8.)
I'm really curious about the fallen angels' attempts to create "society" in their Hell, both their physical attempts at establishing architecture and their philosophizing, making music, exploring, etc. I'm willing to bet Belial is totally feeling the opportunity to sit around and bullshit (for sloth's sake? is there the possibility of personal acclaim?) and I'm curious about what they do for downtime when they're suddenly freed up from the obligations of serving God.
There's also the reunion of Sin and Satan; I'm really down for a further exploration of that metaphor (massively fucked-up as it is!) and its relation to the Trinity as well as relationships of desire and violence. (Either both Sin and her father together, or considered separately.) How is Sin's attractiveness, even beauty different from Eve's? From the angels'? What is her nature as both Sin and sign? At what point in Satan's conspiracy does Sin turn up anyway, or is Death conceived, and how does these events take place against the backdrop of Heaven?
(I would absolutely not say no to fic about the angels who remain allied with God, or about Death, or on the relationship between the Son and God the Father, or what's happened with the Holy Spirit in the course of this poem.)
The King Of Shreds And Patches
(Interactive fiction game by Jimmy Maher, available here.)
[Lucy's suffering the influence of the King In Yellow manuscript; the story of how the play changed hands and the effect it had on the creative types it's crossed paths with; an account for Moore's losing his mind before things got as bad as we see when he's in Bedlam and what his relationships with his fellow playwrights might have been like; Robert and Lucy coming clean to one another about what they've respectively been up to. Any pairings or gen.]
(I've never encountered a fic-writing fan of this game, so you are firmly in my good books already, Yule writer!)
I am super fascinated by the way the physical manuscripts ofThe King In Yellow has changed hands and how the contagious ideas within it have spread (and the powerful implications the printing press and the theater carry in this particular time frame for the spread of ideas!) , the cabal of people associated with the play and the King, and in particular the influence it has on artistic circles, especially ones who are already a tight-knit group (if not emotionally close and supportive, then at least dimly aware of one another and occasionally cooperative/competitive) or who have perhaps other secretive ties besides.
I'm really curious about David Moore, both who he used to be prior to exposure to TKiY and what the King's influences do to him. His future's not looking too bright after game's end, and an examination of the nature of his madness could go some really dark places, but I'm keenly interested in the form the play's intrusions into his consciousness take and his slow decline, if matters could have gone differently or if he could have been saved. What was his relationship like to Shakespeare and to Croft, maybe to Marlowe? (I'm preeeetty convinced there were some awkward romantic/sex-friends snarls there.) As a musician among poets, what are his specialties? (Which is not to say that he must necessarily do the one and never the other.) What kinds of collaborations has he written and how does he feel about his work? What's his disposition while sane? How does the King's influence take root in him, and why does it take such a disturbingly sensuous manifestation in the Jester? (I'd be hella interested in something with him or another affected by the play's contents trying to articulate this in private, in a position where he's more lucid than when he accounts these experiences in-game, and either he or his audience being cringingly aware of the uneasy undertones to what they're hearing.)
Even assuming Robert gets out of the game's events more or less unscathed, what marks dos this leave on him? Where does his position -- in close proximity with poets, playwrights, and political types but not fully one of them either in a professional capacity -- leave him? What the hell happens to that ever-handy hook? What's it like to return to work after these events? He's remarkably capable and inventive and I'd like to read more of his adventures.
Lucy's a bit of a puzzle for most of the game; she and Robert have an awkward history together, though they're still friendly, and her notes, though welcome, rarely herald anything good happening. Have her experiences with The King In Yellow left a mark on her body of work as a writer? I'd be very interested to see both of them struggling to reintegrate into their earlier habits and lives after their brush with the occult, if they even can. (Des Robert ever come clean regarding his suspicions about her chastity/romantic ties to Van Der Wyck and co.? Do they end up on the same page? I can't imagine her being thrilled at some of his suspicions along the way, or perhaps the player's, if they're especially genre savvy.) She's been personally betrayed by someone to whom she'd grown close, and lost a young, vulnerable family member as well. How does she grieve her cousin? Does she wind up in a creative-types cabal of her very own, maybe of other women writers? (Hopefully without human sacrifices.)
I'm not extensively familiar with Shakespearean scholarship or the Elizabethan era, but if you want to write fic exploring any aspects of it or the relationship between the game's events and hinted conspiracies and the historical reality, go for it.
Thomas Of Woodstock (play):
(Available, it just so happens, online here.)
[Something exploring Anne of Bohemia's virtues, please, both as hers alone and as they counteract and counterweigh Richard's youthful folly. Or the whole weird gang of misbehaving bros in Richard's orbit -- what really makes Richard so susceptible to flattery? Does his position as a former child-king leave him especially vulnerable to it? Or something about how Richard handles grief, both for virtuous Anne and vicious Greene. Any pairings or gen.]
Anne of Bohemia is the light of my life! I'm interested in what her virtues look like when they're not serving as a foil to Richard's sins, as well as her role as intercessor, and how she consciously tries to act alongside or against Richard to mitigate his missteps or to counteract his folly. Anne's shifting sense of national identity (her "let me be Englished" speech), especially in contrast to Richard's eminent Englishness (and then the specter of sketchiness that he was born in France after all, and maybe his excesses are a little more fit for the Continent than good old honest England...) really interests me. She uses the language of charms and spells in her first scene and it seems like her virtue (her beauty?) is so eminent that it compels respect. Her private actions and political actions are pretty tightly bound together by her relationship to her sovereign/spouse, but I'm also down to read about her acting privately, her relationships to other women and other wives, and to her family back home.
Richard's "wildness" in comparison with his father is curious; he comes across very young and very bright and sparkly and lively, and his minions considerably more malignant than Shakespeare's portrayal. There's the possibility entertained that what's wrong with him might be fixed, doctored out of him somehow either by the clearing-away of his leechy treacherous friends or some other means, and I don't know which I'd find sadder, the view that his personal downfall couldn't have been averted or the thought that the really destructive stuff could have been and wasn't. The ivy metaphor Arundel gives early on is very striking, moreso to me than all the language of cankers and caterpillars and leeches that jumps to mind elsewhere, but I don't know if there can be a compromise made -- especially if you take the view that some of his favorites are, in one capacity or another, also romantically/sexually involved with him or competitors to Anne -- between his seeming need for these friendships and the fact that all his current false friends happen to be working in their own interests. I don't know if Richard's naive or undiscerning for having such friends as he does, if he really thinks they're harmless, or if that sells short any potential for real malice or vice in him personally, but I'd like to know how he makes the judgment calls that he does and what's really up with his folly. It'd be easy to discount him outright as just young and dumb, but how young is he really, what does it mean to be that young when it's also a milestone of having already been king for years? (How dumb is he, really, for that matter.)
Greene plots with fantastic deviousness (and god, Tresilian has some real panache too!) I love the bit in Act One, Scene 2 with Tresilian assuring Greene and Bagot he'll work the law in their favor (Greene's line "The King is young, aye, and a little wanton; so perhaps are we" makes me wonder about his own character and how he views his fate as potentially tethered to Richard's. He's also spitting mad and surly in that scene. Tresilian's naked glee at his change in state is pretty great; it's interesting to see their spirits and tempers rise and fall over the course of the play, as their fortunes do. (What's Tresilian's comparative age and experience count for when he's having to counsel impetuous Richard and all his young jackass friends?)
(For that matter, Anne serves to deflect Greene's vices, not just Richard's -- "Oh gentle Greene, throw no more fuel on / but rather seek to mitigate this heat", though Richard immediately turns around the tears/weeping imagery she brings to the table to a matter of blood and violence. How does she interact with Greene and Bagot, both as themselves and as extensions of her king?)
I'm a huge jackass and I am fascinated by the way Richard processes grief in this play -- both his world-ending, destructive grief for Anne and his somewhat misplaced grief for Greene. But Anne's death really hurts; the omens attending it are spooky as hell and Richard takes them to heart hard. Something about how she dies, or where she doesn't, or dies differently, would be way up my alley. (If you want to write uncle!fic I am definitely down for that -- "plain Thomas" is a real puzzle to me. This play is also definitely humorous -- it has a musical number, for Christ's sake, and Nimble's punning and skeeving -- so jump on that too!)
Demon Knights (comic):
(23-issue comic by DC; if you want a heads-up on where it can be found, give me a shout.)
[An exploration of Al-Jabr as medieval science hero, especially in light of the awesome scientific and academic discoveries going on in the medieval Muslim world; Sir Ystin's adventures through history and something dealing with his knightly calling and chasing after Camelot after Camelot, kingdoms doomed to fall and him perhaps doomed to fail; Exoristos' status as exile and whether she'd ever be okay or at home in the non-Amazonian world. Any pairings or gen.]
I really love Al Jabr as basically an 11th century Science Hero -- for a different set of parameters re. the sciences than we're used to in modern comics, maybe, but I'm really curious about his skills/pursuits, how he conceptualizes what he does and now it gels with some of his teammates' standards of what constitutes useful skills/combat. His philosophically and theologically-charged Ironic Hell scenario when the whole gang's being tormented by thematically appropriate nightmares really got under my skin and I'd like to see a more extensive exploration of it. I'm really interested in his future after the events of issue #23 -- is he immortal now also? what does this mean for the city he's been carefully curating all these years? Why is this his ideal retirement anyway, and what does his city mean to him? He seems better adjusted in a lot of ways than his teammates; how does he feel about what they've gone on to do, and how do they feel about him? Will they ever be welcome in his city?
Exoristos is a bit of a puzzle to me -- maybe in the course of a longer comic she'd have gotten multiple arcs but over the course of the story so far she takes some knocks and never seems to achieve the fullness of her potential. I find boisterous-bruiser types pretty fantastic and she's a valuable asset to the team; I'd be interested in seeing the whole warrior-without-a-leader archetype explored in her. Amazon society really does have some serious advantages in some respects over what she finds in Medieval Europe, but it (and she) remains flawed and I'd really like to see more exploration of the relationship between those cultures, and between the Amazon identity and ideals that Exoristos remains marked with inwardly and what the reality may have been for her in the past. Something exploring the nature of her exile, or those relationships she left behind her? It would be interesting to see if she could come to a place where she'd be really comfortable living among non-Amazons or if she hadn't returned whether she'd be doomed to pine for it
I've also requested Sir Ystin; part of what I like best about this character is his personal definition of knighthood-- his personal identity, his nobility-slash-arrogance, his role. The spell Merlin laid on him means he'll keep coming back to Camelot, to Arthur, and to the Grail, whatever those things may mean at different times, and I find that really intriguing but pretty troubling and disheartening as well. The premonition that he will lose everything he loves -- whether because he is immortal and they aren't, or because everything pales in comparison with his quest, or just the innumerable things that can go wrong in relationships to human beings who will ultimately fail him, or he them, it's pretty bleak for me and I'd love to see that fleshed out a little in ways the series never really had an opportunity to get to. Also. Shining Knight's adventures through history. Doing good, insulting people in Welsh, being very shiny. (With magical telepathically soul-bonded Pegasus in tow, hell, I don't know.)
This is a fandom where I'm really enamored of its setting and canon-flavored hijinks all on its own, so if you just want to explore the take on medieval fantasy it shows and the fun stuff it does with language/culture/region I'd be so into that. (If you wanted to do an AU, I'm especially interested in point-of-divergence AUs -- what if Ystin didn't "recover" from being bitten by Cain? (Cain's "sweetest I ever tasted" line is creepy as hell, so... take that to a dark place, if you feel the need, yikes.) What if the team didn't get back together for their vampire-hunting reunion, or stuff went really off the rails on their first quest together? -- or new time periods/settings. Genre AUs are also really welcome, especially if the team dynamic's still present and updated to fit. (Modern day heist-plot fic?)
Tl;dr caveat -- I personally interpreted Sir Ystin/Shining Knight as a transgender man; I'm down for reading most other takes on Shining Knight's gender situation but I'm not really interested in reading something where Ystin's a cisgender woman pulling a Sweet Polly Oliver out of necessity in order to be a knight. I love that trope, but it's just not what I want to read here. (If you see Ystin as a cis woman who happens to fill societal roles reserved mainly for men in certain places and times, and to fill them very well, and who consequently has long ceased giving a fuck about how people call them/the ties people are trying to summon on when they refer to "our sex", ec., I'd be interested in reading that too, just not the "no one can know my secret!" angst and other baggage that the former trope suggests.) At the same time, I don't particularly want to read Trans Issues 101 fic, fic where Ystin angsts about gender identity, or fic where gender identity conflict is why Shining Knight and Exoristos broke up; fics that don't omit Ystin's visible differences or that explore them would be welcome, but not a treatise on 11th century fantasy European transphobia. If you'd rather not write about trans* stuff at all or have it come up in the fic at any point, that's also fine.
Truth Or Dare
(2012 horror film; available on Netflix Instant as 'Truth Or Die'. Spoilers below.)
[I'd maybe be interested in fic about screwed-up Hautbois family tension; something with Luke's ambivalent relationship to his friends-turned-hostages and or to Felix/his drug dealer friend; something where Gemma's escape attempt is more successful or introspective fic about what she's realizing has gone down here. The aftermath of that first party and what it did to all their relationships, or an alternate ending to the nightmarish weekend where Gemma lives, or where Justin "triumphs", where Felix did indeed die, etc. Gothic horror AUs! Family curses! Het/slash/femslash/gen all fine, but please, no Justin/Gemma.]
The Hautbois family situation lends this movie reeeally well to historical AUs already in my head and I'd be really interested in seeing those aspects (tradition, family honor, intergenerational complicity and revenge) explored. David Oakes tends to get cast in period stuff (though always with loads of family baggage! I wonder why?) so seeing him as a really fucked-up, brutal 21st century man with such... for lack of a better word, medieval mindsets, was weird and piqued my curiosity. Justin completely falls apart over the course of the film; he starts out downright affable and composed but his absolute unilateral obsession with revenge and with the family honor are always right there under the surface, and I'd like to read about his efforts to keep a socially acceptable face on that stuff for as long as it takes to get everybody corralled into the groundskeeper's cottage.
It seems fairly obvious that Justin's not been all right since at least when he came back from Afghanistan, but frankly I doubt he was when he left. What happened to Felix and Justin's mother? What's her place in this? Is their father as complicit in these goings on as Justin makes him out to be, or is he totally full of shit? Justin's weird protectiveness of Felix gives me huge creeps, but it's very compellingly portrayed and as something that happens against Felix's will -- or that perhaps was once welcome, even wanted, before their relationship went dark places. Felix's personality doesn't get fleshed out a ton more beyond his awkwardness, fear, and desire; what's his inner life like outside of the flashbacks we get? Were there ever happier times with his classmates and with his family? (Not that they'd make everything he was afraid of any easier to take.) Watching the movie I half-expected Felix to be the real architect of the torture weekend -- maybe an AU where he was, or where he did indeed die and is watching these proceedings as a ghost? (If you feel the urge, there's definitely the potential for really fucked-up Justin/Felix.) I'd prefer nothing where his vulnerability after the suicide attempt is capitalized on, however.
Luke is singled out really quickly by Justin as the one he's going to make his accomplice; what does he see in him, anyway? Is it something fundamentally different than the utility that leads the others to keep him around for what he can do for them? Is it that he doesn't even like these guys, anyway? He was more than ready to fuck over Felix if it meant knocking a rich kid down a few pegs; Felix is humiliated, shown off as pathetic and desperate and twitchy; maybe Luke fears that if he stops being useful he'll be seen for what he is, which is something similar. There's some really obvious class conflict in Luke's storyline and I'd be interested in hearing about his life before the film and his sort of semi-outsider status, especially in relation to what he's willing to do to get an "in" and what he does at Justin's behest -- to save himself, or to buy his way into a different world than the one he's struggling in. There's also some crazy weird Justin/Luke vibes, which I am frankly all about for fucked up power struggles and tenuous loyalty.
Gemma is rocking some gothic heroine vibes and I would be really interested in seeing that more fully developed. Her compassion or attempted tenderness gets her into some trouble, trying to appeal to Justin's humanity and Felix's gentleness, but she's not actually in the wrong to be uncomfortable with Felix's attentions and she holds out as long as she fucking can. When she holds Felix hostage, she's desperate but she knows exactly which of the groundskeeper's buttons to press to make him at least hesitate. Obviously her plotline hits a pretty hard brick wall, but I'd love to read something where her escape is more successful, or where she faces off against the boys and isn't overcome. (Please don't pair Gemma and Justin, though.) Eleanor wasn't among the nominated characters, so feel free to skip out on her, but I love the contrasts in their sometimes-rocky fucked-up-people friendship and the sacrifices they were willing to make for one another. Femslash, maybe?
I love explorations of loyalty/fealty, especially concrete physical symbols thereof, and more generally I'm really interested in the marks and signs on someone that show who they are, what they have endured, and where they are in relation to other people. These can be lasting signs (scars as signs of hardship, physical traits, etc.) temporary attributes (badges, cloaks, chains of office, rings, crowns) or formalized actions -- clasping hands, offering sacrifices, exchanging kisses, swearing oaths. Oaths of friendship, wedding stuff, other formal and informal bonds. This counts even if that loyalty/trust is betrayed, misplaced, quickly shifted onto someone else, etc. (Eplicitly D/s dynamics don't float my boat, but informal stuff coming from circumstances or formal rank does.) Clothes! I dig clothes a lot! I like what people are eating and what they're doing around the house/around camp.
I dig casefic/continuing-adventures-type stuff or missing scenes/backstory/stuff that the canon breezes past as having happened but declines to show. (Backstory fic is right up my alley! And if you want to write fics set in better days, given the tone of most of my canons, that's totally cool.) Shout-outs or allusions to the medium of the canon really get me, and I like running into little love letters to the source text (or critiques depending on how you actually feel about said source text). I love strong atmosphere, dreaminess, gothic horror stuff (isolation, decay, not being sure if you can trust your senses, etc.) and pastiches of other writing styles. I love whump, torment, characters getting put through the wringer, characters getting mindfucked, and strained/fractured mental states (as well as the aftermath of all of the above!) I'm down for violence/torture (though rating and tagging accordingly is a big plus!) and very down for whumpy noncon/dubcon or stuff with similar vibes.
Wow, this sounds like I'm in it for super dark fic and super dark fic only, but I really love humor fics (even very silly humor). They're really really fun at that time of year and I'm a lot more of an easily amused goofball than this list of grim tropes makes me sound. Fic that's framed like an in-universe document (secret diaries, case writeups, letters, fictitious plays, etc.) really interests me.
I am very down for AUs of all kinds! Historical reframings, changes of circumstance (what if x had won instead of y, what if p had been a different gender, appearance swaps, etc.) and canon-divergent stuff is cool; I don't usually go out for high school student or space opera-type AUs, but anything that strikes your writerly fancy I'd love to see.
Kink-wise, I love "nonstandard" sex (both unusual for that setting/social context or for fanfic sex when there's still a dominating tendency to write "passionate kiss, clothes disappear, one finger, two finger, wait where's the sachet of lube, three fingers, cock" -- I dig partially/mostly-clothed sex, intercrural sex, oral sex that's not just a prelude to Real Penetrative Sex, etc.), informal/non-typical sexual relationships without a ton of drama, characters talking in bed (as in before/after sex or sleep, not necessarily during!), non-sexual intimacy, and (nooot likely in my fandoms, but) caning. I'm also into stuff that sounds and reads as very sexually charged, but isn't 'quite' sex-- like the creepy, mindfucky sexual undertones to the Yellow King's influence in KoSP, for instance. Symbolic sex, I guess.
I won't be disappointed if I don't get a massive kink-fest -- I'm perfectly fine with any of these fandoms being written chastely as the driven snow, or with ace characters, celibate characters, characters whose most important relationships are platonic, characters who are too busy to linger on love much, or UST vibes (from innocent to sizzling)
Tropes I'm not super into: alpha/beta/omega-type alternate universes, magical "woke up a girl"-type genderswap. I'm also not big into restraints, D/s AUs, ageplay, teacher/student sex, or sexual instruction as a kink (whether deflowering or one person "teaching" another how to please a partner).
I would like to request that my giftfic not include child grooming, habitual self-injury, or eating disorders. Stuff like dubcon/noncon, incest, suicide, sporadic incidents of self-harm, etc. seem downright likely for some of my fandoms, and are absolutely fair game, but please tag or CNTW. (There's obviously some touchy territory with ambiguous ages for Satan and Sin in Paradise Lost fandom, but just don't write Sin as a child/young teen-equivalent, and I'm doing fine.) I'm okay with characters forgetting to eat or mentions of fasting for religious purposes, but if something includes penitential fasting or non-ED dietary issues, I'd appreciate a note on that too. Ditto for religious self-mortification or similar. If you're super worried about something, noting it or tagging it is about the best you can do and I won't hold any kind of grudge -- I don't want you to have to trash your 10k fic because you got that deep into it and suddenly realized that something in it looks a bit like child grooming, or that you mention a character fasting kind of a lot, but if you're someone who plans fic out meticulously out in advance, it's just something I'd like to skip.
If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to ask via a Hippo -- sorry for the abundant teal-deer and have a fun, creative Yuletide!
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Date: 2013-10-09 11:00 am (UTC)(Hi! Just a letters-post reader wandering by and happening to notice something that might confuse a recipient. :S)
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Date: 2013-10-09 02:38 pm (UTC)