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Sep. 27th, 2016 09:31 pmHello, Dear Writer <3
I’m very excited to read what you’re going to write for me - the fact that we share at least one fandom means we’ve already got something super cool in common, and I’m sure I’ll love whatever you produce.
This letter is a general guideline to my likes and dislikes. It’s here to help you, not to hinder you, so don’t take the prompts as anything more than guidelines, and if you have a burning desire to write a particular fic with the characters listed, go for it.
My AO3 name is Amazing_E_ko, you can find me here: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazing_E_ko
Likes/DNWs/General guidelines
* I like all kinds of stories - comedies, tragedies, plot heavy stories, character moments. All stories big and small are welcome. I am also open to any kind of experimentation. If you want to write poem fic, or IF, or a meta-story, or anything else outside the box, I welcome it. If you prefer to write more traditional stories, that’s fine too. I like gen and shipfic. I love my ships, but I also love all of these characters on their own, and I love the worlds they live in. I firmly believe that your fic should be the length you need it to be, whether that's 1000 words or 100,000. I will read and comment no matter what (and my Christmas is likely to be very chill this year, so I'll definitely have time for long comments, though maybe not until the evening).
*I like sex, and if you want to make it part of the story that’s cool, but please include it with plot or character development - as part of a story and not the whole. PWP does very little for me in any of the fandoms I’ve nominated.
* If you do decide to include sex, my strong DNWs are watersports, scat, rimming, torture and mutilation as sexual acts, and non-con between the characters I ship.
* Mutilation in general is a DNW, especially eyes and fingernails being removed, and especially self-mutilation. Obviously for some canons, like The Witcher, this is an in-universe thing that happens, and it’s fine for characters to mention it or have it as backstory, I’d just rather it wasn’t vividly described or focused on.
*AUs aren't exactly a DNW - I love canon-divergent AUs, so those are always welcome. I am not really a fan of mundane, modern AUs for Yuletide; the canons I request have so little fic that I'm always looking for something closer to the source material. And please, no A/B/O. It's just not my thing.
* It’s fine to include setting-appropriate mentions of homophobia/racism/misogyny/ect, if that’s part of the story you want to write. Most of the characters I have chosen don’t share those attitudes, so it might not even come up, but I won’t be offended if it does. I’d probably prefer if the entire story wasn’t “x character overcomes racist/homophobic attitudes towards character y”, but only because that’s a story I’ve read one too many times before.
(Note: I know my fandom length varies a bit in this, but rest assured, I love them all equally. The Witcher and Bokura no Kiseki both have four nominated characters, compared to Mansfield Park's two or The Eternal Sky's three, and then The Witcher has branching choices, and talking about those made it even longer. But I really do love every single one of these canons, and fic for any of them would make me happy.)
(Note 2: I’ve given prompts in each section for each character individually, and then for combinations of characters. I want you to have lots of choice! Please rest assured that you don’t have to include all my requested characters. As long as at least one is there, I will be perfectly happy :D)
The Witcher (Video Games):
Geralt of Rivia,
Yennefer of Vengeburg,
Ciri,
Vivienne de Tabris
I played The Witcher 3 this year, and I confess, I fell instantly in love. The world was so real, full of monsters and magic but also shit and beer and people complaining about their jobs. It reminded me a little of the Discworld series, in that all the locations felt like real places where real people lived, and also in that it never took itself too seriously. I loved the way the game twisted fairy tale stories, turning them upside down and inside out, and I loved its use of Polish and Eastern-European mythology. More than anything though, I loved the characters and their relationships.
(Note: I’m reading the books at the moment, and if you want to include details from them, that’s fine, but I specifically requested the game, so if you haven’t read the books no pressure. These prompts are all based on The Witcher 3 (plus expansions).)
Geralt is such an interesting main character, a man who pretends he doesn’t have emotions not because he doesn’t care, but because, as far as I can tell, he usually cares too much. I confess to playing Geralt as ‘nice’ as possible, but it rang very true to me. Whatever he was like as a younger man, Geralt is someone who has very much settled into his own skin. I think it’s interesting that this is a story where he allows himself to become more vulnerable, opening up his relationships with Yen, with Ciri, and with the other people he meets over the course of the story. Wherever possible, I chose non-violent story resolutions, and I tend to think of Geralt as a fighter who knows that fighting is always the last and worst choice, someone who tries for other solutions first.
* Geralt solves a mystery! I left Geralt very happily living on his vineyard in Toussaint, but I don’t think that’s the end of his witchering career, so a story about him solving a mystery or discovering a monster would be great. If Yen and/or Ciri want to come along, that’s great too. I particularly like the stories where Geralt is really able to help people, especially supernatural beings fallen on hard times. The quest that involved Sarah the Godling was one of my favourites, and another was the Blood and Wine quest where you free the wight who becomes Marlene.
* I would love a story about Geralt and Yen where she finds out about what happened in Hearts of Stone. I’m so curious as to her reaction to his encounter with Gaunter O’Dimm (Geralt saved Olgierd and won the mirror game but pissed of O’Dimm in my playthrough). Yen can be quite protective of Geralt - she definitely worries about him, and I’m so interested in what she thinks of O’Dimm. Whether or not O’Dimm actually turns up in the story is up to you.
* Geralt being Ciri’s dad always makes me happy. A story where she comes to him for help, and they work together in some way, would be fantastic. Whether her problem is a monster, or a mystery, or even romance, I think Geralt would try to help, though depending on the problem, his help might get her in even more trouble.
Yen’s romance won me over a million times. Yen is an incredible character: clever, ambitious, cunning, ruthless, loyal to the people she loves and incredibly brave. She’s not always a nice person, but she is a good person, and she’s willing to make some very hard choices to do what she thinks is right. She can be savagely cutting and callous, but also immensely kind.
* I’m very curious about what Yen does with her life after the ending of Blood and Wine (where she comes to live with Geralt). I can understand her not wanting to be involved in politics any more, but I can’t imagine her spending the rest of her life sitting around quietly, either. I like to think she really leaves her mark on history, but I’m not sure how, so a story about that would be amazing. I could see her discovering a totally new form of magic, or developing some new tool or technology.
* Yen and Ciri’s relationship is so great, but we always see it in the game from Geralt’s perspective. A story that’s about them on their own would be fantastic. It could be about their history, and how Yen feels about what Ciri did to stop the White Frost (or about how Yen’s relationship with Ciri helped her to survive). It would also be great to see one of them help the other to solve a problem (maybe one they don’t want Geralt to know about.)
* I can’t imagine that living in Toussaint, Yen wouldn’t get to know Anna-Henrietta. (I know Anna’s not a character on my list, but I do love her anyway.) They’re both extremely opinionated and stubborn, and I’d love to see them play off each other.
Ciri is just great. She’s stubborn, tenacious, sometimes a little childish and spoiled, but full of courage and determination to do the right thing. I love that she’s really the protagonist of the Wild Hunt, the chosen hero who saves the world, and that she’s able to do so, by the end, because she knows she has a family who loves and accepts her. She became a witcher in my ending, which I honestly think is the best ending for her, though I’d love a story that was about how she feels about turning away from becoming queen - because she might have done a huge amount of good in that role. I follow the books and one of the game routes in considering Ciri to be a lesbian, and I would prefer if you kept to that interpretation of her character.
* Ciri’s magic lets her travel between worlds! A story about her visiting different places, and how that changes who she is, would be fantastic. She must have a completely unique perspective on the world. And maybe she brings back some technology along the way, incites a mini industrial revolution or sparks a renaissance.
* ((If you want to write crossover fic with any of my nominated fandoms, or with the Discworld books, you could totally cheat and use Ciri’s powers to do that. Ciri is a pretty fun addition to any canon, a little powerhouse of magic and strength, but not exactly subtle or tactful.))
* I would love a story about Ciri bringing a girl home to ‘meet her parents’, so to speak. The scene towards the end of the Wild Hunt when Ciri meets the sorceresses, and Geralt and Yen are listening at the door, hovering and trying not to look like they’re hovering, is one of my favourites. I adore them as mostly-inept, half cool and half embarrassing relatives, and the thought of them trying to be normal as they meet Ciri’s girlfriend is frankly hilarious. Plus, how would Ciri feel about the whole situation?
Vivienne was the centre of my favourite side-quest from Blood and Wine. In my version, Geralt lifted the curse without involving Guillame, which I honestly prefer. I know that he loves her, but she never seemed interested, and involving him goes against every one of her explicitly stated wishes. Plus, I think the tension of her ending - that she gets seven years of free life, but maybe only that, is a great tension. She’s someone who really seems to love life, to love living and exploring and everything that goes with it.
* A story about what Vivienne does with her new life. She was so happy to have her curse broken, and she’s so happy when you see her again in Novigrad. Where does she go? What does she see? I imagine her travelling to all sorts of different places. If you want to write worldbuilding fic, this might be a great way to accomplish that. Or you could focus on Vivienne, and how she grows and changes. If you have favourite canon characters, feel free to include them! I find everyone in this game interesting.
* If you have a desire to write recipe fic, this seems like a great fit. I imagine Vivienne is curious about everything on her travels, and I’m always a sucker for descriptions of food.
The end of the seven years also intrigues me. Does Vivienne die, or was Geralt wrong about that? (He does say he doesn’t know.) Or does she find another way to extend her life? I could see this being a sad story, or a happy one, or even just bittersweet, especially if she found love along the way. Vivienne/OC is totally fine (be they male or female), or you could have her meet a minor canon character, if there’s a dynamic that strikes you as interesting.
* My oddest prompt, but one close to my heart, is for a story where she meets Ciri and they fall in love. I think they’re characters who would actually work really well together, and it would be really interesting to see how Ciri deals with having a partner who’s destined to die pretty soon. Whether she dies, or whether Ciri finds some way to save her: both are great.
Bokura no Kiseki:
Rida Razarasare (Bokura no Kiseki),
Hiroki Yuu,
Maki Yuuna,
Minami Harusumi
I only read Bokura no Kiseki fully recently, after bouncing off the first couple of chapters a while back, but I’m so glad I did. This series may be the perfect combination of everything I like - complex characters, a tangled plot, lots of loyalty kink and tons of femslash text and subtext. The tensions between the characters as they are now and the people they used to be fascinates me. It’s such a ripe dynamic for feelings and romance.
I love what we’ve seen of Rida so far, but at the same time I want so much more. She’s my single favourite character type - the stoic, loyal knight who would follow and protect her mistress to the ends of the earth. She and Veronica have a great dynamic, and nothing will convince me that she wasn’t secretly in love with the princess.
* I’m interested in the whole dynamic of female knights in the canon. There don’t seem to be very many, and Rida’s role is as much about her family name as her innate talents, so if you don’t ship Rida/Veronica and you’d like to write me a story about her, I’d adore it if you delved into her backstory and her relationship to her job and her family line. What does being a knight mean to her? How does she feel about her family, who seem to have a special lineage in relation to the royal family? Which historical or mythical figure inspires her?
* If you do ship Rida/Veronica then pining sounds wonderful to me. Veronica was far too innocent to ever think of Rida as a potential lover, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t love her - I’d like to see the small moments of their relationship, the moments that elated Rida and the moments that made her wish for something more.
* Rida and Haruko have a fascinating dynamic. Of all the reincarnations, Haruka seems most comfortable with her past life, at least so far. She accepted Rida almost immediately, and has little to no conflict with who she used to be. I'd love a fic that was about who Rida is and who Haruko is, and the ways in which they're different and the same. What is her perspective on the reincarnation? I ship Haruko with Harusumi, so feel free to incorporate her relationship with him and Rida's with Veronica into this story, but honestly the part that fascinates me most is the one that has had hardly any page time in the manga, and that's Rida and Haruko.
Hiroki Yuu is such a good character, she made me like Glen (that's mostly a joke, though Glen wouldn't be my favourite character type on his own). She's brave, cunning, tactical, committed to a cause, and wiling to do what it takes to achieve her ends. She's also very kind and gentle, and her history as the only other person to independently remember that she's a reincarnation is fascinating.
* The idea of changing genders through reincarnation, and having the memories of being another gender, is really interesting, and I kind of wish the manga dug into it a bit more. In particular, a story about Hiroki's attraction to women would be really interesting. How much of it is Glen, and how much of it is just her? If you wanted to make this a story about her friendship with Harusumi, that would be great too. I don't ship them at all, but I do love their friendship, and not only are they the only two people (so far) to have changed genders upon reincarnation, they also have very different attitudes to this change. I'd love to see a story about the differences in their perspective.
* Hiroki and Maki are wonderful and eminently shippable, and if you wanted to write me a story about their relationship, that would be marvellous. I love that they meet each other on a very equal level. There's none of the back and forth control that Maki and Nanaura keep falling into. Hiroki completely respects Maki and supports her, while also admiring her. In return, Maki clearly sees Hiroki as someone she can rely on and trust. Any kind of story about their burgeoning relationship, whether it's something as simple as going on a date, or something more complex like them trying to recover Hiroki's missing magic. If you want to bring reincarnations into it, I like the idea that Sydney and Glen didn't really know each other, and that Hiroki and Maki's relationship is something new, something not bound to their past.
* It would be impossible to ship Hiroki with only one girl, and I confess I like Hiroki/Momoka as well, especially since we found out that Hiroki is actually Glen, rather than Bart. I love that tangle of feelings, how Lilly loved Bart, and then Momoka fell for Hiroki, and now she still loves Hiroki even though she knows that Bart is gone. The hows and whys of feelings carrying across reincarnations is so fascinating, and fic that digs into that tangle would be wonderful.
Maki is such a great character all on her own. That girl has a spine of steel, and she's so unsentimental, in the best way. Her willingness to exploit Nanaura's feelings really charmed me - it was so ruthless, but in a good way, and Maki is so willing to bury her real feelings to get what she wants.
* I'd love fic about who she was before she remembered Sydney. By the time we first meet Maki, she's already remembered, and so it's not at all clear how much remembering Syndey changed her. And to compound that, we know so little about Sydney herself. I'd love fic about the moment when Maki remembered who she was, or fic where she looks back on how's she's changed over the course of the story. Basically, who do you think she used to be, and why?
Harusumi is honestly such a likeable and interesting protagonist. He's not at all bland - I feel like we get a really clear sense of his motivations, and I love his relationship to Veronica. Unlike everyone else, he's been her for his whole life. He's had time to think about who he is and who Veronica is, and he seems to think of her as a distinct person in a way that a lot of the others don't.
* I'd love a story about how having Veronica's memories influenced Harusumi growing up. We know it left him isolated, but I'm more interested in how it might have affected him internally. After all, even as a small child he would have had memories of being an adult and thinking like one, and I feel like that must have altered his development. How did his memories of Veronica affect his interests and hobbies? How about his outlook on history and politics? How about his impression of sexism and gender roles?
* I really do love his relationship with Haruko, so if you want to write me a shippy story about them it would be great. I love all the tangles in their relationship, and the ways in which they are like and unlike their past selves. In the manga, a lot of the focus is on the ways in which Haruko feels similar to Rida and Harusumi feels similar to Veronica, so a story about a situation where that was reversed would be very interesting.
Eternal Sky Trilogy -
Samarkar
Hrahima
Edene
What a world the Eternal Sky trilogy creates! It's so detailed and vivid, with loads of historical research poured into it. And I love the way that the fantastical elements mingle with the historical elements, each supporting the other. There are some great twists on cultures, too. The series never quite mirrors real world cultures, but uses them as inspiration and then alters them slightly. Like the veiled women of the Caliphate, who are veiled because they're representations of the Scholar-God, and who are encouraged to study science, literature and medicine even though they can't wield power. The series never takes the simple way out, it always pushes things into complexity, and I find that so exciting.
*If you want to ignore the characters and write me worldbuilding fic, I would adore it. The way that the sky changes from culture to culture and religion to religion is so cool, and I long to see other regions and their skies. My secret dream is that someday Elizabeth Bear will make an illustrated Atlas of the world, but in lieu of that I will gladly accept a fic that opens up a little more of this fascinating place. A fic set anywhere in the world could make me happy, though if it also interests you I confess to a certain curiosity around what the fantasy Celts are like. They presumably live in some kind of fantasy Ireland analogue, which means it rains a lot there. Does the heavy cloud cover change their perception of what a sky should be like?
Thew world of these books fascinates me, but I also love the characters. Samarkar, Hrahima and Edene are all wonderful in their own ways. Their personalities are great, but their physical descriptions make it even better. Edene is plump, Samarkar tall and broad, and Hrahima is a tiger person. I really like that none of them is stereotypically attractive, and that the narrative treats them as though they're all beautiful anyway. The physicality of these books in general is great - all the descriptions of the food and the places really built it up for me. A recipe fic or a fic that simply has a lot of loving descriptions of food could work wonderfully here, or a fic that's very sensual (if you want to write me Edene/Samarkar porn that focuses a lot on their bodies and senses I would be so down for that).
Edene is so direct and blunt. She's someone with wonderful self-confidence, and she grows into incredible strength over the course of the story. I always love characters who are willing to make hard choices, but who don't lose themselves in those choices, and I think Edene is a great example of that. Although she can be savage and ruthless, she's gentle and compassionate too. Samarkar is just brilliant - clever, strong, enduring, endlessly curious about the world around her, the kind of person who hears a blood vow and thinks 'yeah I want to see how this ends'. I'd love fic about what they do after the end of the books, either seperately or together.
* If it wasn't obvious already, I ship Samarkar and Edene pretty intensely, and I'd love a fic about their relationship. How does it develop after the novel ends? They have two babies to raise, and the memories and love of Temer that they share. I'd love to see how their relationships with him influences their relationship with each other, and how their relationship becomes its own new thing, seperate from their memories of him.
* If you don't ship them, then I would definitely be happy with fic of them as loyal and loving friends. Maybe Samarkar becomes a kind of ambassador, and travels around to different countries, negotiating trade routes and developing Edene's power? Maybe she could travel with Hrahima, since Hrahima is so well-travelled already.
* A fic about Samarkar's continuing studies of magic would also be great, and if you want to write fic about her and Hrahima being friends, this would be a great way to do it. They have these really intellectual conversations in the books, and I could totally see them as nerd friends, sharing ideas back and forth over the course of their lives.
Hrahima is so good! She was a character I never knew I wanted, but then this big tiger lady who's a non-believer despite knowing that her god exists fell into my lap, and I fell in love instantly. I adore her religious perspective. She knows that there's a god, knows that that god could give her great power and mastery, and still refuses it because she wants free will.
* I would love fic about her past, about the choices that led her to turn away from her religion and her society, or about her future. If you wrote a fic that was just her exploring the world I would read it over and over again forever. She has a very sad past, and we know her family died, but it seems by the end of the last book she has managed to confront and perhaps even let go of some of her grief. Given that Samarkar and Edene are also both grieving, a story about how each of them feels that grief, and how they comfort each other, could be really lovely. (If you want to make me cry, that's the fic to write :p )
There's lots of characters I didn't nominate for this canon, but there's none I don't like. If you want to include any of them, you're more than welcome. Temer, Hsuing, Ummuhan, Tsering, Hong-la, Yangchen... This really is a canon that has no uninteresting characters.
Mansfield Park
Fanny Price
Mary Crawford
I don’t know that I could ever pick a favourite Jane Austen, but Mansfield Park is definitely at times my favourite. Though it’s a very complicated (dare I joke: problematic :p ) fave. I do actually really like Fanny and Edmund’s relationship, but I also often read it thinking of all the other possible directions the story could have gone. I like the intimacy of Mansfield Park - it’s one of the smallest casts, I think, of Austen’s novels, and there’s an almost claustrophobic element to it at points.
* I'll start with the fic that is my secret heart's desire: I’m happy with both the Fanny/Edmund and Fanny/Henry, and if you want to include either in your story, I’ll enjoy them, but I have to confess that I would kill for a Fanny/Mary story that does what so many Fanny/Henry stories do, and breaks away from canon to write a different ending. I’m always a sucker for femslash, and the dynamic between Fanny and Mary is one that fascinates me. It has a lot of the same appeal as Fanny/Henry - that in falling for one of the Crawfords, Fanny truly changes her perspective on someone, and it pushes her away from the traditional Bertrams towards a more modern group of people. I also think it creates interesting tensions in Mary and Henry's relationship, and Fanny and Edmund's. On top of that, I actually really enjoy stories that are about starting relationships against the pressures of society and working out a way to be happy while dealing with repression. As long as they have happy endings. And I would ask, if you write this, that you give them a happy ending. I don't need them to be universally accepted by everyone around them, out and proud, but I would like them to be happy with each other.
If that doesn't suit your tastes, here are other prompts I'd also love to see.
* One thing that would be very interesting is to see Mary and Fanny in a completely different setting: perhaps in Mary’s London circle. I don’t think Fanny would be at all comfortable, that’s what would be so interesting.
Fanny is a great character. She’s extremely insecure, but in an incredibly relatable way, and despite her insecurity she has a will of absolute iron. She’s got a lot of insight into people, but she can also be very blind, especially as it concerns herself. And all of this is bound up in her morality. Fanny is an extremely ethical person, though her standards of ethics and morality don’t totally align with a modern perspective. I think her consistent desire to do what is right, rather than what is easy, is part of what makes her such a great character, but she doesn’t always consider other people’s perspectives, and it would be cool to see a fic that challenge some of her presumptions of the world.
* I’d love a fic where Fanny is, for whatever reason, trapped in a room making conversation with someone she would normally never talk to. Again, that idea of pushing at her boundaries a little, and exploring what her limits are, but also maybe giving her a chance to reconsider an assumption, really appeals to me. The person she’s talking to could be someone like the Admiral, Mary and Henry’s uncle, or one of Mary’s friends, or even one of the Admiral’s mistresses.
Fanny’s refusal of Mr. Crawford is one of my favourite parts of the book, even though I like fic where they do get married. That enduring and tenacious refusal is such a powerful plot point. I’d love to see fic about other times in her life when she had to draw on that stubbornness. (If you wanted to make this a ‘five times’ fic you totally could - I’m always a fan of those, but just one time would be equally interesting.)
Mary fascinates me because of the many ways in which she serves as a foil to Fanny. They’re great mirror images of each other. She’s superficially much more decisive and strong-willed than Fanny, but underneath she’s actually much more reliant on what other people think of her. In an odd way, she’s also very insecure. She really needs to be liked by other people, I think, really wants the approval of those around her. Whereas Fanny, though she feels that she doesn’t really deserve love and affection, is very good at relying on her own inner resources.
* A fic about Mary’s past, and her childhood, would be delightful. It’s only touched on very briefly in the story, but she must have had an extremely challenging childhood, between the deaths of her parents and being raised in a house with an aunt she loved and an uncle she hated. There’s a line in the book where Fanny says that Mary shouldn’t speak ill of her uncle, even though he’s not a good person, and while it’s completely true by the mores of Jane Austen’s time, I kind of love Mary for refusing to bow to those standards and pretend that her uncle is a good person when he pretty clearly isn’t.
* There’s a comparison that’s often made between Austen and Mary Crawford - that although Mary is the antagonist, she’s a lot more similar to Austen than Fanny is. I don’t entirely know how fair that is, but it did give me the idea of Mary becoming a writer like her creator, and I think that could make for a great fic. Maybe, years later, she writes about a fictionalised version of the events of Mansfield Park? It would be really interesting to see how she might revisit that story in later years, and what, if anything, she would change.
This has been such a long letter, but I hope it conveys just how much I love all of these canons, and how much I'd like fic for any one of them. Whatever you write, I'll be delighted. So please, have fun. <3
E-ko
I’m very excited to read what you’re going to write for me - the fact that we share at least one fandom means we’ve already got something super cool in common, and I’m sure I’ll love whatever you produce.
This letter is a general guideline to my likes and dislikes. It’s here to help you, not to hinder you, so don’t take the prompts as anything more than guidelines, and if you have a burning desire to write a particular fic with the characters listed, go for it.
My AO3 name is Amazing_E_ko, you can find me here: http://archiveofourown.org/users/Amazing_E_ko
Likes/DNWs/General guidelines
* I like all kinds of stories - comedies, tragedies, plot heavy stories, character moments. All stories big and small are welcome. I am also open to any kind of experimentation. If you want to write poem fic, or IF, or a meta-story, or anything else outside the box, I welcome it. If you prefer to write more traditional stories, that’s fine too. I like gen and shipfic. I love my ships, but I also love all of these characters on their own, and I love the worlds they live in. I firmly believe that your fic should be the length you need it to be, whether that's 1000 words or 100,000. I will read and comment no matter what (and my Christmas is likely to be very chill this year, so I'll definitely have time for long comments, though maybe not until the evening).
*I like sex, and if you want to make it part of the story that’s cool, but please include it with plot or character development - as part of a story and not the whole. PWP does very little for me in any of the fandoms I’ve nominated.
* If you do decide to include sex, my strong DNWs are watersports, scat, rimming, torture and mutilation as sexual acts, and non-con between the characters I ship.
* Mutilation in general is a DNW, especially eyes and fingernails being removed, and especially self-mutilation. Obviously for some canons, like The Witcher, this is an in-universe thing that happens, and it’s fine for characters to mention it or have it as backstory, I’d just rather it wasn’t vividly described or focused on.
*AUs aren't exactly a DNW - I love canon-divergent AUs, so those are always welcome. I am not really a fan of mundane, modern AUs for Yuletide; the canons I request have so little fic that I'm always looking for something closer to the source material. And please, no A/B/O. It's just not my thing.
* It’s fine to include setting-appropriate mentions of homophobia/racism/misogyny/ect, if that’s part of the story you want to write. Most of the characters I have chosen don’t share those attitudes, so it might not even come up, but I won’t be offended if it does. I’d probably prefer if the entire story wasn’t “x character overcomes racist/homophobic attitudes towards character y”, but only because that’s a story I’ve read one too many times before.
(Note: I know my fandom length varies a bit in this, but rest assured, I love them all equally. The Witcher and Bokura no Kiseki both have four nominated characters, compared to Mansfield Park's two or The Eternal Sky's three, and then The Witcher has branching choices, and talking about those made it even longer. But I really do love every single one of these canons, and fic for any of them would make me happy.)
(Note 2: I’ve given prompts in each section for each character individually, and then for combinations of characters. I want you to have lots of choice! Please rest assured that you don’t have to include all my requested characters. As long as at least one is there, I will be perfectly happy :D)
The Witcher (Video Games):
Geralt of Rivia,
Yennefer of Vengeburg,
Ciri,
Vivienne de Tabris
I played The Witcher 3 this year, and I confess, I fell instantly in love. The world was so real, full of monsters and magic but also shit and beer and people complaining about their jobs. It reminded me a little of the Discworld series, in that all the locations felt like real places where real people lived, and also in that it never took itself too seriously. I loved the way the game twisted fairy tale stories, turning them upside down and inside out, and I loved its use of Polish and Eastern-European mythology. More than anything though, I loved the characters and their relationships.
(Note: I’m reading the books at the moment, and if you want to include details from them, that’s fine, but I specifically requested the game, so if you haven’t read the books no pressure. These prompts are all based on The Witcher 3 (plus expansions).)
Geralt is such an interesting main character, a man who pretends he doesn’t have emotions not because he doesn’t care, but because, as far as I can tell, he usually cares too much. I confess to playing Geralt as ‘nice’ as possible, but it rang very true to me. Whatever he was like as a younger man, Geralt is someone who has very much settled into his own skin. I think it’s interesting that this is a story where he allows himself to become more vulnerable, opening up his relationships with Yen, with Ciri, and with the other people he meets over the course of the story. Wherever possible, I chose non-violent story resolutions, and I tend to think of Geralt as a fighter who knows that fighting is always the last and worst choice, someone who tries for other solutions first.
* Geralt solves a mystery! I left Geralt very happily living on his vineyard in Toussaint, but I don’t think that’s the end of his witchering career, so a story about him solving a mystery or discovering a monster would be great. If Yen and/or Ciri want to come along, that’s great too. I particularly like the stories where Geralt is really able to help people, especially supernatural beings fallen on hard times. The quest that involved Sarah the Godling was one of my favourites, and another was the Blood and Wine quest where you free the wight who becomes Marlene.
* I would love a story about Geralt and Yen where she finds out about what happened in Hearts of Stone. I’m so curious as to her reaction to his encounter with Gaunter O’Dimm (Geralt saved Olgierd and won the mirror game but pissed of O’Dimm in my playthrough). Yen can be quite protective of Geralt - she definitely worries about him, and I’m so interested in what she thinks of O’Dimm. Whether or not O’Dimm actually turns up in the story is up to you.
* Geralt being Ciri’s dad always makes me happy. A story where she comes to him for help, and they work together in some way, would be fantastic. Whether her problem is a monster, or a mystery, or even romance, I think Geralt would try to help, though depending on the problem, his help might get her in even more trouble.
Yen’s romance won me over a million times. Yen is an incredible character: clever, ambitious, cunning, ruthless, loyal to the people she loves and incredibly brave. She’s not always a nice person, but she is a good person, and she’s willing to make some very hard choices to do what she thinks is right. She can be savagely cutting and callous, but also immensely kind.
* I’m very curious about what Yen does with her life after the ending of Blood and Wine (where she comes to live with Geralt). I can understand her not wanting to be involved in politics any more, but I can’t imagine her spending the rest of her life sitting around quietly, either. I like to think she really leaves her mark on history, but I’m not sure how, so a story about that would be amazing. I could see her discovering a totally new form of magic, or developing some new tool or technology.
* Yen and Ciri’s relationship is so great, but we always see it in the game from Geralt’s perspective. A story that’s about them on their own would be fantastic. It could be about their history, and how Yen feels about what Ciri did to stop the White Frost (or about how Yen’s relationship with Ciri helped her to survive). It would also be great to see one of them help the other to solve a problem (maybe one they don’t want Geralt to know about.)
* I can’t imagine that living in Toussaint, Yen wouldn’t get to know Anna-Henrietta. (I know Anna’s not a character on my list, but I do love her anyway.) They’re both extremely opinionated and stubborn, and I’d love to see them play off each other.
Ciri is just great. She’s stubborn, tenacious, sometimes a little childish and spoiled, but full of courage and determination to do the right thing. I love that she’s really the protagonist of the Wild Hunt, the chosen hero who saves the world, and that she’s able to do so, by the end, because she knows she has a family who loves and accepts her. She became a witcher in my ending, which I honestly think is the best ending for her, though I’d love a story that was about how she feels about turning away from becoming queen - because she might have done a huge amount of good in that role. I follow the books and one of the game routes in considering Ciri to be a lesbian, and I would prefer if you kept to that interpretation of her character.
* Ciri’s magic lets her travel between worlds! A story about her visiting different places, and how that changes who she is, would be fantastic. She must have a completely unique perspective on the world. And maybe she brings back some technology along the way, incites a mini industrial revolution or sparks a renaissance.
* ((If you want to write crossover fic with any of my nominated fandoms, or with the Discworld books, you could totally cheat and use Ciri’s powers to do that. Ciri is a pretty fun addition to any canon, a little powerhouse of magic and strength, but not exactly subtle or tactful.))
* I would love a story about Ciri bringing a girl home to ‘meet her parents’, so to speak. The scene towards the end of the Wild Hunt when Ciri meets the sorceresses, and Geralt and Yen are listening at the door, hovering and trying not to look like they’re hovering, is one of my favourites. I adore them as mostly-inept, half cool and half embarrassing relatives, and the thought of them trying to be normal as they meet Ciri’s girlfriend is frankly hilarious. Plus, how would Ciri feel about the whole situation?
Vivienne was the centre of my favourite side-quest from Blood and Wine. In my version, Geralt lifted the curse without involving Guillame, which I honestly prefer. I know that he loves her, but she never seemed interested, and involving him goes against every one of her explicitly stated wishes. Plus, I think the tension of her ending - that she gets seven years of free life, but maybe only that, is a great tension. She’s someone who really seems to love life, to love living and exploring and everything that goes with it.
* A story about what Vivienne does with her new life. She was so happy to have her curse broken, and she’s so happy when you see her again in Novigrad. Where does she go? What does she see? I imagine her travelling to all sorts of different places. If you want to write worldbuilding fic, this might be a great way to accomplish that. Or you could focus on Vivienne, and how she grows and changes. If you have favourite canon characters, feel free to include them! I find everyone in this game interesting.
* If you have a desire to write recipe fic, this seems like a great fit. I imagine Vivienne is curious about everything on her travels, and I’m always a sucker for descriptions of food.
The end of the seven years also intrigues me. Does Vivienne die, or was Geralt wrong about that? (He does say he doesn’t know.) Or does she find another way to extend her life? I could see this being a sad story, or a happy one, or even just bittersweet, especially if she found love along the way. Vivienne/OC is totally fine (be they male or female), or you could have her meet a minor canon character, if there’s a dynamic that strikes you as interesting.
* My oddest prompt, but one close to my heart, is for a story where she meets Ciri and they fall in love. I think they’re characters who would actually work really well together, and it would be really interesting to see how Ciri deals with having a partner who’s destined to die pretty soon. Whether she dies, or whether Ciri finds some way to save her: both are great.
Bokura no Kiseki:
Rida Razarasare (Bokura no Kiseki),
Hiroki Yuu,
Maki Yuuna,
Minami Harusumi
I only read Bokura no Kiseki fully recently, after bouncing off the first couple of chapters a while back, but I’m so glad I did. This series may be the perfect combination of everything I like - complex characters, a tangled plot, lots of loyalty kink and tons of femslash text and subtext. The tensions between the characters as they are now and the people they used to be fascinates me. It’s such a ripe dynamic for feelings and romance.
I love what we’ve seen of Rida so far, but at the same time I want so much more. She’s my single favourite character type - the stoic, loyal knight who would follow and protect her mistress to the ends of the earth. She and Veronica have a great dynamic, and nothing will convince me that she wasn’t secretly in love with the princess.
* I’m interested in the whole dynamic of female knights in the canon. There don’t seem to be very many, and Rida’s role is as much about her family name as her innate talents, so if you don’t ship Rida/Veronica and you’d like to write me a story about her, I’d adore it if you delved into her backstory and her relationship to her job and her family line. What does being a knight mean to her? How does she feel about her family, who seem to have a special lineage in relation to the royal family? Which historical or mythical figure inspires her?
* If you do ship Rida/Veronica then pining sounds wonderful to me. Veronica was far too innocent to ever think of Rida as a potential lover, but that doesn’t mean she didn’t love her - I’d like to see the small moments of their relationship, the moments that elated Rida and the moments that made her wish for something more.
* Rida and Haruko have a fascinating dynamic. Of all the reincarnations, Haruka seems most comfortable with her past life, at least so far. She accepted Rida almost immediately, and has little to no conflict with who she used to be. I'd love a fic that was about who Rida is and who Haruko is, and the ways in which they're different and the same. What is her perspective on the reincarnation? I ship Haruko with Harusumi, so feel free to incorporate her relationship with him and Rida's with Veronica into this story, but honestly the part that fascinates me most is the one that has had hardly any page time in the manga, and that's Rida and Haruko.
Hiroki Yuu is such a good character, she made me like Glen (that's mostly a joke, though Glen wouldn't be my favourite character type on his own). She's brave, cunning, tactical, committed to a cause, and wiling to do what it takes to achieve her ends. She's also very kind and gentle, and her history as the only other person to independently remember that she's a reincarnation is fascinating.
* The idea of changing genders through reincarnation, and having the memories of being another gender, is really interesting, and I kind of wish the manga dug into it a bit more. In particular, a story about Hiroki's attraction to women would be really interesting. How much of it is Glen, and how much of it is just her? If you wanted to make this a story about her friendship with Harusumi, that would be great too. I don't ship them at all, but I do love their friendship, and not only are they the only two people (so far) to have changed genders upon reincarnation, they also have very different attitudes to this change. I'd love to see a story about the differences in their perspective.
* Hiroki and Maki are wonderful and eminently shippable, and if you wanted to write me a story about their relationship, that would be marvellous. I love that they meet each other on a very equal level. There's none of the back and forth control that Maki and Nanaura keep falling into. Hiroki completely respects Maki and supports her, while also admiring her. In return, Maki clearly sees Hiroki as someone she can rely on and trust. Any kind of story about their burgeoning relationship, whether it's something as simple as going on a date, or something more complex like them trying to recover Hiroki's missing magic. If you want to bring reincarnations into it, I like the idea that Sydney and Glen didn't really know each other, and that Hiroki and Maki's relationship is something new, something not bound to their past.
* It would be impossible to ship Hiroki with only one girl, and I confess I like Hiroki/Momoka as well, especially since we found out that Hiroki is actually Glen, rather than Bart. I love that tangle of feelings, how Lilly loved Bart, and then Momoka fell for Hiroki, and now she still loves Hiroki even though she knows that Bart is gone. The hows and whys of feelings carrying across reincarnations is so fascinating, and fic that digs into that tangle would be wonderful.
Maki is such a great character all on her own. That girl has a spine of steel, and she's so unsentimental, in the best way. Her willingness to exploit Nanaura's feelings really charmed me - it was so ruthless, but in a good way, and Maki is so willing to bury her real feelings to get what she wants.
* I'd love fic about who she was before she remembered Sydney. By the time we first meet Maki, she's already remembered, and so it's not at all clear how much remembering Syndey changed her. And to compound that, we know so little about Sydney herself. I'd love fic about the moment when Maki remembered who she was, or fic where she looks back on how's she's changed over the course of the story. Basically, who do you think she used to be, and why?
Harusumi is honestly such a likeable and interesting protagonist. He's not at all bland - I feel like we get a really clear sense of his motivations, and I love his relationship to Veronica. Unlike everyone else, he's been her for his whole life. He's had time to think about who he is and who Veronica is, and he seems to think of her as a distinct person in a way that a lot of the others don't.
* I'd love a story about how having Veronica's memories influenced Harusumi growing up. We know it left him isolated, but I'm more interested in how it might have affected him internally. After all, even as a small child he would have had memories of being an adult and thinking like one, and I feel like that must have altered his development. How did his memories of Veronica affect his interests and hobbies? How about his outlook on history and politics? How about his impression of sexism and gender roles?
* I really do love his relationship with Haruko, so if you want to write me a shippy story about them it would be great. I love all the tangles in their relationship, and the ways in which they are like and unlike their past selves. In the manga, a lot of the focus is on the ways in which Haruko feels similar to Rida and Harusumi feels similar to Veronica, so a story about a situation where that was reversed would be very interesting.
Eternal Sky Trilogy -
Samarkar
Hrahima
Edene
What a world the Eternal Sky trilogy creates! It's so detailed and vivid, with loads of historical research poured into it. And I love the way that the fantastical elements mingle with the historical elements, each supporting the other. There are some great twists on cultures, too. The series never quite mirrors real world cultures, but uses them as inspiration and then alters them slightly. Like the veiled women of the Caliphate, who are veiled because they're representations of the Scholar-God, and who are encouraged to study science, literature and medicine even though they can't wield power. The series never takes the simple way out, it always pushes things into complexity, and I find that so exciting.
*If you want to ignore the characters and write me worldbuilding fic, I would adore it. The way that the sky changes from culture to culture and religion to religion is so cool, and I long to see other regions and their skies. My secret dream is that someday Elizabeth Bear will make an illustrated Atlas of the world, but in lieu of that I will gladly accept a fic that opens up a little more of this fascinating place. A fic set anywhere in the world could make me happy, though if it also interests you I confess to a certain curiosity around what the fantasy Celts are like. They presumably live in some kind of fantasy Ireland analogue, which means it rains a lot there. Does the heavy cloud cover change their perception of what a sky should be like?
Thew world of these books fascinates me, but I also love the characters. Samarkar, Hrahima and Edene are all wonderful in their own ways. Their personalities are great, but their physical descriptions make it even better. Edene is plump, Samarkar tall and broad, and Hrahima is a tiger person. I really like that none of them is stereotypically attractive, and that the narrative treats them as though they're all beautiful anyway. The physicality of these books in general is great - all the descriptions of the food and the places really built it up for me. A recipe fic or a fic that simply has a lot of loving descriptions of food could work wonderfully here, or a fic that's very sensual (if you want to write me Edene/Samarkar porn that focuses a lot on their bodies and senses I would be so down for that).
Edene is so direct and blunt. She's someone with wonderful self-confidence, and she grows into incredible strength over the course of the story. I always love characters who are willing to make hard choices, but who don't lose themselves in those choices, and I think Edene is a great example of that. Although she can be savage and ruthless, she's gentle and compassionate too. Samarkar is just brilliant - clever, strong, enduring, endlessly curious about the world around her, the kind of person who hears a blood vow and thinks 'yeah I want to see how this ends'. I'd love fic about what they do after the end of the books, either seperately or together.
* If it wasn't obvious already, I ship Samarkar and Edene pretty intensely, and I'd love a fic about their relationship. How does it develop after the novel ends? They have two babies to raise, and the memories and love of Temer that they share. I'd love to see how their relationships with him influences their relationship with each other, and how their relationship becomes its own new thing, seperate from their memories of him.
* If you don't ship them, then I would definitely be happy with fic of them as loyal and loving friends. Maybe Samarkar becomes a kind of ambassador, and travels around to different countries, negotiating trade routes and developing Edene's power? Maybe she could travel with Hrahima, since Hrahima is so well-travelled already.
* A fic about Samarkar's continuing studies of magic would also be great, and if you want to write fic about her and Hrahima being friends, this would be a great way to do it. They have these really intellectual conversations in the books, and I could totally see them as nerd friends, sharing ideas back and forth over the course of their lives.
Hrahima is so good! She was a character I never knew I wanted, but then this big tiger lady who's a non-believer despite knowing that her god exists fell into my lap, and I fell in love instantly. I adore her religious perspective. She knows that there's a god, knows that that god could give her great power and mastery, and still refuses it because she wants free will.
* I would love fic about her past, about the choices that led her to turn away from her religion and her society, or about her future. If you wrote a fic that was just her exploring the world I would read it over and over again forever. She has a very sad past, and we know her family died, but it seems by the end of the last book she has managed to confront and perhaps even let go of some of her grief. Given that Samarkar and Edene are also both grieving, a story about how each of them feels that grief, and how they comfort each other, could be really lovely. (If you want to make me cry, that's the fic to write :p )
There's lots of characters I didn't nominate for this canon, but there's none I don't like. If you want to include any of them, you're more than welcome. Temer, Hsuing, Ummuhan, Tsering, Hong-la, Yangchen... This really is a canon that has no uninteresting characters.
Mansfield Park
Fanny Price
Mary Crawford
I don’t know that I could ever pick a favourite Jane Austen, but Mansfield Park is definitely at times my favourite. Though it’s a very complicated (dare I joke: problematic :p ) fave. I do actually really like Fanny and Edmund’s relationship, but I also often read it thinking of all the other possible directions the story could have gone. I like the intimacy of Mansfield Park - it’s one of the smallest casts, I think, of Austen’s novels, and there’s an almost claustrophobic element to it at points.
* I'll start with the fic that is my secret heart's desire: I’m happy with both the Fanny/Edmund and Fanny/Henry, and if you want to include either in your story, I’ll enjoy them, but I have to confess that I would kill for a Fanny/Mary story that does what so many Fanny/Henry stories do, and breaks away from canon to write a different ending. I’m always a sucker for femslash, and the dynamic between Fanny and Mary is one that fascinates me. It has a lot of the same appeal as Fanny/Henry - that in falling for one of the Crawfords, Fanny truly changes her perspective on someone, and it pushes her away from the traditional Bertrams towards a more modern group of people. I also think it creates interesting tensions in Mary and Henry's relationship, and Fanny and Edmund's. On top of that, I actually really enjoy stories that are about starting relationships against the pressures of society and working out a way to be happy while dealing with repression. As long as they have happy endings. And I would ask, if you write this, that you give them a happy ending. I don't need them to be universally accepted by everyone around them, out and proud, but I would like them to be happy with each other.
If that doesn't suit your tastes, here are other prompts I'd also love to see.
* One thing that would be very interesting is to see Mary and Fanny in a completely different setting: perhaps in Mary’s London circle. I don’t think Fanny would be at all comfortable, that’s what would be so interesting.
Fanny is a great character. She’s extremely insecure, but in an incredibly relatable way, and despite her insecurity she has a will of absolute iron. She’s got a lot of insight into people, but she can also be very blind, especially as it concerns herself. And all of this is bound up in her morality. Fanny is an extremely ethical person, though her standards of ethics and morality don’t totally align with a modern perspective. I think her consistent desire to do what is right, rather than what is easy, is part of what makes her such a great character, but she doesn’t always consider other people’s perspectives, and it would be cool to see a fic that challenge some of her presumptions of the world.
* I’d love a fic where Fanny is, for whatever reason, trapped in a room making conversation with someone she would normally never talk to. Again, that idea of pushing at her boundaries a little, and exploring what her limits are, but also maybe giving her a chance to reconsider an assumption, really appeals to me. The person she’s talking to could be someone like the Admiral, Mary and Henry’s uncle, or one of Mary’s friends, or even one of the Admiral’s mistresses.
Fanny’s refusal of Mr. Crawford is one of my favourite parts of the book, even though I like fic where they do get married. That enduring and tenacious refusal is such a powerful plot point. I’d love to see fic about other times in her life when she had to draw on that stubbornness. (If you wanted to make this a ‘five times’ fic you totally could - I’m always a fan of those, but just one time would be equally interesting.)
Mary fascinates me because of the many ways in which she serves as a foil to Fanny. They’re great mirror images of each other. She’s superficially much more decisive and strong-willed than Fanny, but underneath she’s actually much more reliant on what other people think of her. In an odd way, she’s also very insecure. She really needs to be liked by other people, I think, really wants the approval of those around her. Whereas Fanny, though she feels that she doesn’t really deserve love and affection, is very good at relying on her own inner resources.
* A fic about Mary’s past, and her childhood, would be delightful. It’s only touched on very briefly in the story, but she must have had an extremely challenging childhood, between the deaths of her parents and being raised in a house with an aunt she loved and an uncle she hated. There’s a line in the book where Fanny says that Mary shouldn’t speak ill of her uncle, even though he’s not a good person, and while it’s completely true by the mores of Jane Austen’s time, I kind of love Mary for refusing to bow to those standards and pretend that her uncle is a good person when he pretty clearly isn’t.
* There’s a comparison that’s often made between Austen and Mary Crawford - that although Mary is the antagonist, she’s a lot more similar to Austen than Fanny is. I don’t entirely know how fair that is, but it did give me the idea of Mary becoming a writer like her creator, and I think that could make for a great fic. Maybe, years later, she writes about a fictionalised version of the events of Mansfield Park? It would be really interesting to see how she might revisit that story in later years, and what, if anything, she would change.
This has been such a long letter, but I hope it conveys just how much I love all of these canons, and how much I'd like fic for any one of them. Whatever you write, I'll be delighted. So please, have fun. <3
E-ko
