raspberryhunter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raspberryhunter) wrote2019-10-28 09:24 pm
raspberryhunter) wrote2019-10-28 09:24 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide 2019
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Yet again I have written Way Too Many Words. Feel free to ignore these ideas and use your own — I love seeing how other people think about my favorite fandoms, and I love seeing interpretations that are different from mine (some of my favorite fics are the ones that made me look at things in a new way). Also, please don't read anything into the amount of stuff I have written for each fandom; I would be extremely pleased to receive anything for any of these, otherwise I would not have requested them. I have gotten some wonderful stories for some of these canons, and I want mooooore :D
General: I am open to most things! I am a fan of gen, but I'm totally open to het/slash/femslash. I very much welcome alternative ways of telling stories -- IF, epistolary fic, poetry, what-have-you, I'm up for it! Crossovers would also be more than fine between these fandoms. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for all these fandoms (see DNW note about tragic endings). I love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. For setting-changed AUs, I would adore them for Frederician RPF or Charles Williams, but not for the others.
Things I love: (I don't expect all of these by any means, this is just a sampling of Things That Make Me Happy): I love worldbuilding fic and plotty fic. I love character-driven fic that thinks hard about the ramifications of characters' choices. I love most of all for there to be some sort of character arc, or characters (and/or the reader) coming to a greater understanding of something or someone during a fic. I love and adore deep friendship/partnerships, especially platonic ones, of all gender-variety. I love loyalty and duty bonds (and I have a special place in my heart for physical expressions of fealty bonds, like kneeling or ritualized oath-swearing). I love it when all the characters are understandable rather than straight-out villainous or malicious, or where expectations of malice are subverted. I love when something or some implication is clear to the reader that is not clear to the characters, or some subset of the characters, because we have knowledge (about the actual canon, for example) that they don't have.
DNW: PWP; unrequested poly; graphic gratuitous violence/gore; infidelity involving characters whose fidelity is an important part of their character (e.g. Maria Theresia) or involving characters who plausibly or canonically have functional romantic relationships (like Valancy/Jemmy). (I have no problems with infidelity that plausibly occurs in canon, like Pelleas, though see the note for that canon.) Tragic/dark endings are fine (though please tag) except for Zenna Henderson, where I want happy endings only, and Cordwainer Smith, where I don't want anything darker than canon (which can be pretty dark and even tragic but always has a lot of hope at the end). Please no references to current politics.
Pelléas et Mélisande - Debussy/Maeterlinck (Golaud, Pelléas, Mélisande)
OK, I love Pelleas et Melisande, I love the lovely ripply music and the mystery of it and how everything seems to exist in this sort of odd shadowy world where things lurk beneath the surface of what we actually see.
...And I realize this makes me a Philistine, but I found myself all through it wanting the actual magical-fantasy-fairy-tale story that keeps being hinted at instead of the highly-symbolic-characterizing-inner-emotions opera that it actually is. Please write this for me! Let the magic wood Golaud is lost in at the beginning be an actual magic wood! The ring Melisande lost -- in a well! -- that Golaud is so concerned about is a magic ring, right? That concerns the health of the kingdom? And what's going on with the cave? And all the water -- is Melisande a water-fairy? Or a nixie who doesn't understand humans? Or is this somehow a Grail story? If you want to put lots of character-specific symbolic stuff in, that's fine and I will be very pleased with it, but I do really want external plot/worldbuilding here if possible :) (If not, I totally understand! Perhaps a fork-in-the-road AU? What would happen if a small change was made -- could this lead to something better for the characters? Is there anything that could have stopped Golaud from his path at the end?)
Not necessary, but I will squee all over it if you redo the conflict between Pelleas and Golaud so either it doesn't exist (or exists in some much lighter form, like Pelleas and Golaud faking conflict for some reason) or is about something else other than a GIRL -- there are so many other possibilities; maybe they disagree as to how the kingdom should be run, or have an argument over how best to save the king or kingdom? Or perhaps Golaud is under a magical compulsion where he can't reveal the exact nature of the magic ring? And as for Melisande herself -- the production I saw had her wafting away in a boat in the end instead of dying, and I would love it if she didn't die, though it's fine if she does; it's canon, after all.
The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith (Any) What I would really, really love to get is essentially a new Cordwainer Smith story, but write me what you would like. If you need prompts — tell me more about the Lords and Ladies of the Instrumentality. How did Santuna become the Lady Alice More, and what does that even mean? The Lords Jestocost one through six, how did they lay the foundation for the seventh of that name? Or tell me about the underpeople: more about the eagle people, and E'Telekeli? What is the mystery and the power of Space3? Or tell me about the exploits of Dita of the Great South House after she became the greatest of the Go-Captains! What happened to the cat-people that Sudzal made? There are hints CS was going to do something with the robots — how do the robots fit in into the Rediscovery of Man?
And then there are all the tantalizing throwaway lines… what was the great cat scandal referenced in "Golden the Ship Was"? If you've read the later "On the [X] Planet" stories (and if you haven't that's fine, I don't like them as well anyway), what did the Robot, the Rat, and the Copt find in Space3, and how does the Old Strong Religion of the God Nailed High relate to CS's mythology? If it's not clear, a story with original characters would be totally wonderful, and so would a story with one of the established characters.
In general: I absolutely adore the far-flung, totally-imaginative, across-the-stars-and-time, so-over-the-top-it-comes-back-around mythology that gathers up humans and underpeople and robots and I-don't-even-know-what in its nets; I love the way these stories evoke this amazing sense of a destiny for all of us that reaches across space and time; I love the way he examines questions of happiness and free will and equality; I love all the allusions and callbacks; I love the way his prose is almost more poetry than it is prose. Anything that can speak to some of that, even the tiniest part of it, would be SO AWESOME.
(I'm not totally in love with Casher O'Neill or with Norstrilia-the-planet (or the novel) in general, or with the pinlighters, and I'd rather not have AU for this one, but hey, if that's where your muse takes you, I will love to see what you come up with!)
I have more thoughts about these books here.
The People - Zenna Henderson (Any) I adore Zenna Henderson's People stories and always have, and just want more! The thing I love most about it, I think, is the effervescent joy, the childlike wonder, that permeates each page. But also... the moving depictions of familial and mentoring relationships; the utter sense of belonging: to a people, to a community, to a family (and which also plays into the teacher-child relationships she depicts); the drive to make things whole; the lovely understated way she's constantly drawing from Biblical imagery and quotations and tropes for the themes and images of the stories.
If you need ideas... I'd love to know what Shadow's story is; she's always been in a secondary role as Bethie-too or Remy's Shadow; how does she step into her own rightful place? Did Dr. Curtis learn anything from Dita? What's up with the Kroginolds' story -- they were always troublemakers; I imagine there's a story in how they grew up? I will say that I tend to be more interested in the Earth stories than in Home or New Home, and I didn't like "Return" as well as some of the others (I guess I just don't like whiny narrators?), but hey, if your muse takes you there, go for it. I have a strong preference for a story that is at least mostly gen, but I'm open to either het or slash as long as canon pairings are respected (e.g., Valancy/Jemmy as a long-standing relationship is canon, and I'd rather Valancy didn't run off with Karen or something).
But really anything with any character. Or none at all! A new story with original characters would be AMAZING. If it has some of that joy and wonder in it, some of that exuberant borrowing and flavoring with Biblical tropes and quotes, it will be totally lovely and I will love it.
Taliessin through Logres - Charles Williams (Any)
I have loved these poems ever since I first read them in college. They are numinous and lovely and highly symbolic and full of interesting thoughts as to what the function of poetry and poets are, what the function and meaning of kingship is, how the building of the kingdom of God can be flawed from the beginning, how salvation occurs even within these flawed contours.
Tell me a story about what grabs you about these poems. Anything! Some potential ideas that you should not feel restricted by: What is the story of Gareth in this world? Kai shows up once, and not in a super flattering light, but I could imagine that if Williams had thought more about him that he would have seen him as a figure of great glory (the arm of the Empire!) --? He wrote one poem about Morgause but nothing about Morgan le Fay; how does she come off in this universe? Merlin and Nimue in Williams' mythology are very different from the way they're usually thought of, Merlin being a young wild wizard of the wood and Nimue being something like a generative goddess of the forest; tell me more about them? Really, none of the poems are from a woman's POV, but only from men looking at them (and Williams was indeed kind of funny about women); what additional insights would the women have if they had a voice? Did Elayne and Guinevere ever talk, and about what? Tell me more about Broceliande? What do the questions of kingship and substitution look like in SPAAAAACE? Or whatever you would like to tell me about!
I love all the intertwining with Christian theology and symbolism and mythology, but seriously, if you wanted to take the description here and write an alternate history of non-Christian Byzantium that has almost exactly the same external description as Williams' Byzantium except that Byzantium is now the evil overlord empire I would be so on board with that. Really whatever it is you want to do with it, as long as it engages with some of the many ideas in the poetry :D (I'd prefer no overt/explicit bashing of religion, though.)
I have more words about this in a promo post here.
琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) (Consort Jing)
This show, wow. All the complicated characters and plot twists and identity shenanigans, and deep deep bonds of loyalty and friendship and family, and private vs. public duty, the wonderful ensemble scenes, and awesome female characters and awesome moms of both the good and evil persuasions. And of course the most awesome mom of them all is Consort Jing. She's super nice, super smart, super perceptive, is playing the long game -- but can be ruthless when that's called for. She is just the best.
I basically want anything with her! Some ideas:
-I never got over the throwaway line where she went into the palace to doctor Consort Chen and then she never came out again, gahhhh. Surely she, even years back, was canny and thoughtful enough to get out of having to marry the Emperor, and it doesn't sound like the sort of life she'd choose -- so what happened? Did the Emperor threaten/blackmail her in some way? Was she trying to protect Consort Chen?
-Anything about her navigating the tricky politics of the Inner Court. Her and Consort Chen solving mysteries together? Go for it!!
-The last scene with her and the Emperor is one where she finally shows her true feelings about the Chiyan case and he is angry with her -- and we know he dies a while later -- but what happens in between? (My headcanon is that she nurses him through that -- but what would that have been like? What is their relationship like then? Gosh.)
-Post-canon fic where she takes a break from being Empress Dowager (or whatever her title would be after the Emperor dies) and wanders around as the itinerant doctor she was before she was a concubine, and at some point runs across Fei Liu or perhaps Lin Chen. (And/or, if you wanted to make it a fix-it AU, Lin Shu...)
-...actually, now that I think about it, anything with Consort Jing and Lin Chen together, set at any point during, pre, or post canon, would be hilarious and I am so up for that!
-I don't think Consort Jing gets to talk much to Nihuang or Xia Dong in canon, but wouldn't that be amazing?
18th Century CE Frederician RPF (Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great (Frederician RPF), Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria (Frederician RPF), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) (Frederician RPF))
I got pulled into this fandom a couple of months ago and have been finding myself totally enthralled by the relationships between this set of characters. Friedrich (Fritz) and Wilhelmine, the siblings whose bond was the emotionally closest relationship of both of their lives; Fritz and Maria Theresia (MT), the king and the empress who were complete opposites, warred against each other constantly, insulted each other (well, mostly Fritz, but MT wasn't exactly a shrinking violet), and where Fritz seemed to have rather a grudge against her; Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, who to be honest only met each other once, but that meeting was instrumental in Fritz and Wilhelmine becoming estranged for three years (I know, there were other factors, but still), and Wilhelmine painted a pastel of her.
(Note that I don't ship any of these three with each other in the conventional sense; I am more than happy for MT and Wilhelmine to have a passionate romantic friendship, but not for it to be physically sexual because my OTP for this fandom is MT/Franz Stefan, and both of them are the wrong gender for Fritz anyway :P )
I really want fic that features all these strong relationships! For this fandom, although I want all characters to be a part of the fic, it is totally OK if only two of them are present in body and the third is only present in memory/conversation/thought, as some of my ideas are ones in which one of them may not be present or may even be dead.
Some thoughts, but don't feel restricted to these (most of these ideas are not mine in any case):
-Maria Theresia and Fritz having a Secret Summit, with Wilhelmine or Joseph arranging said summit. (Bonus points: Joseph would be especially hilarious as an organizer of the summit because of his Fritz fanboying attitude -- like, can you imagine MT's face when Joseph brought it up? At that point Wilhelmine would be dead, but as I said before, as long as she shows up in conversation or memory I'm totally happy with that.)
-Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine and Fritz all three in the same room: disaster or BIG disaster? Discuss.
-Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine liking each other so that Fritz decided not to talk to Wilhelmine any more ("your FRIEND the queen of Hungary"): there's GOT to be a fic in this, right?? (I know the most rational explanation is that Fritz is... Fritz, but COME ON, this is what we have fic for)
-What if MT and Wilhelmine struck up an epistolary correspondence friendship? What would that be like?? (Here again it's OK if Fritz is only present as a subject they talk about -- and even if it's only very elliptically.)
-AU where Fritz is married to MT (handwave that Friedrich Wilhelm would never have agreed to it). Ideally -- since it's very hard to imagine them being happy with this -- this would end with an annulment and MT getting married to Franz Stefan after all (see also: OTP) but a depressing take would be interesting too! My one request is that Fritz and MT get to do music together and bond over music, even if everything else goes down in flames. Bonus points for letter from Fritz to Friedrich Wilhelm where he talks about how awesome his life is now :D (I said I didn't ship them, and I don't here either in the sense of them actually being attracted sexually to each other, but they would obviously have to have a sexual relationship in this AU, or at the very least pretend to have one.)
-AU where Friedrich Wilhelm ends up killing Fritz instead of Katte, and Wilhelmine avenges his death by going to the Vienna court and publicly accusing her father of murder in front of the Emperor. (And striking up a friendship with Maria Theresa, who helps her in her quest! and perhaps Katte?)
-even though I'm not requesting Voltaire who doesn't quite fit, bonus points if you make up scathing Voltaire quotes and/or quote actual scathing Voltaire quotes, for any of these scenarios
-For assignment-fic I would prefer the nominated characters, but for treats anything is awesome! If you have a desire to write a treat with any of the nominated characters or even un-nominated characters from this era, go wild. Fritz/Voltaire snarky hatesex? Anything about Maria Theresia's daughter-in-law Isabella of Parma? Historically-based/informed crackfic about Friedrich Wilhelm accidentally conscripting Peter the Great? AU where MT and Fritz are fandom nemeses? Go for it!
Where to find canon / How much canon:
Pelleas: there's a production Pelleas et Melisande here, but the English subtitles disappear after a while. I also have one I could share without subtitles (but with Simon Keenlyside!) that takes place in what looks like a large cistern, which I love but which is kind of a modern-ish production. An English libretto is here (this one looks kinda Google Translate-y) and a probably better one here (PDF link). Probably pretty easy to pick up, and you could even mostly read the libretto.
Cordwainer Smith are short stories, and just a couple of them would probably suffice to get the general idea, but they are certainly quite a bit harder to find. I'd very much recommend We the Underpeople as the best introduction that's easily available in the US and cheap. If you happen to be in the UK, my favorite Smith anthology is The Rediscovery of Man. (I'd recommend "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "Under Old Earth," "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," and "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," or some subset thereof, to get a sense of it.)
The People is a large canon of work, but the stories are a fast read, and you could probably read a couple of them ("Ararat" is probably a must, and perhaps "Shadow on the Moon" to get the second-gen perspective) and get the feel of it pretty quickly -- I don't think Henderson herself worried too much about keeping everything strictly canon-compliant detail-wise.
Taliessin Through Logres is out of copyright in Canada! Link to Taliessin through Logres poetry.. Additionally, The Arthurian Torso is an omnibus containing (a) Charles Williams' description of Arthuriana (honestly, you can skip this if you already know about medieval Arthurian texts) and (b) C.S. Lewis explaining the poetry. Part (b) is probably important to read at least parts of if you want to have any idea what's going on :) In fact it might actually make sense to read this first before reading the poetry.
(My print copy of Arthurian Torso also has Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, but the online version appears to have split it up.)
Nirvana in Fire is (as of now) available here. It's 54 episodes! but they go very quickly :)
I don't know what to tell you about where to find info about Frederician RPF. I guess a good place to start would be at the links here. Also see the discussion about books here.
(Edited 10-29-19 to make more readable, organize better, and add prompts.)
(Edited 10-30-19 to add prompts for Frederician RPF and welcome setting-changed AU for Charles Williams.)
(Edited 11-4-19 to add/clarify prompts for CW, NiF, and F-RPF.)
Yet again I have written Way Too Many Words. Feel free to ignore these ideas and use your own — I love seeing how other people think about my favorite fandoms, and I love seeing interpretations that are different from mine (some of my favorite fics are the ones that made me look at things in a new way). Also, please don't read anything into the amount of stuff I have written for each fandom; I would be extremely pleased to receive anything for any of these, otherwise I would not have requested them. I have gotten some wonderful stories for some of these canons, and I want mooooore :D
General: I am open to most things! I am a fan of gen, but I'm totally open to het/slash/femslash. I very much welcome alternative ways of telling stories -- IF, epistolary fic, poetry, what-have-you, I'm up for it! Crossovers would also be more than fine between these fandoms. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for all these fandoms (see DNW note about tragic endings). I love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. For setting-changed AUs, I would adore them for Frederician RPF or Charles Williams, but not for the others.
Things I love: (I don't expect all of these by any means, this is just a sampling of Things That Make Me Happy): I love worldbuilding fic and plotty fic. I love character-driven fic that thinks hard about the ramifications of characters' choices. I love most of all for there to be some sort of character arc, or characters (and/or the reader) coming to a greater understanding of something or someone during a fic. I love and adore deep friendship/partnerships, especially platonic ones, of all gender-variety. I love loyalty and duty bonds (and I have a special place in my heart for physical expressions of fealty bonds, like kneeling or ritualized oath-swearing). I love it when all the characters are understandable rather than straight-out villainous or malicious, or where expectations of malice are subverted. I love when something or some implication is clear to the reader that is not clear to the characters, or some subset of the characters, because we have knowledge (about the actual canon, for example) that they don't have.
DNW: PWP; unrequested poly; graphic gratuitous violence/gore; infidelity involving characters whose fidelity is an important part of their character (e.g. Maria Theresia) or involving characters who plausibly or canonically have functional romantic relationships (like Valancy/Jemmy). (I have no problems with infidelity that plausibly occurs in canon, like Pelleas, though see the note for that canon.) Tragic/dark endings are fine (though please tag) except for Zenna Henderson, where I want happy endings only, and Cordwainer Smith, where I don't want anything darker than canon (which can be pretty dark and even tragic but always has a lot of hope at the end). Please no references to current politics.
Pelléas et Mélisande - Debussy/Maeterlinck (Golaud, Pelléas, Mélisande)
OK, I love Pelleas et Melisande, I love the lovely ripply music and the mystery of it and how everything seems to exist in this sort of odd shadowy world where things lurk beneath the surface of what we actually see.
...And I realize this makes me a Philistine, but I found myself all through it wanting the actual magical-fantasy-fairy-tale story that keeps being hinted at instead of the highly-symbolic-characterizing-inner-emotions opera that it actually is. Please write this for me! Let the magic wood Golaud is lost in at the beginning be an actual magic wood! The ring Melisande lost -- in a well! -- that Golaud is so concerned about is a magic ring, right? That concerns the health of the kingdom? And what's going on with the cave? And all the water -- is Melisande a water-fairy? Or a nixie who doesn't understand humans? Or is this somehow a Grail story? If you want to put lots of character-specific symbolic stuff in, that's fine and I will be very pleased with it, but I do really want external plot/worldbuilding here if possible :) (If not, I totally understand! Perhaps a fork-in-the-road AU? What would happen if a small change was made -- could this lead to something better for the characters? Is there anything that could have stopped Golaud from his path at the end?)
Not necessary, but I will squee all over it if you redo the conflict between Pelleas and Golaud so either it doesn't exist (or exists in some much lighter form, like Pelleas and Golaud faking conflict for some reason) or is about something else other than a GIRL -- there are so many other possibilities; maybe they disagree as to how the kingdom should be run, or have an argument over how best to save the king or kingdom? Or perhaps Golaud is under a magical compulsion where he can't reveal the exact nature of the magic ring? And as for Melisande herself -- the production I saw had her wafting away in a boat in the end instead of dying, and I would love it if she didn't die, though it's fine if she does; it's canon, after all.
The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith (Any) What I would really, really love to get is essentially a new Cordwainer Smith story, but write me what you would like. If you need prompts — tell me more about the Lords and Ladies of the Instrumentality. How did Santuna become the Lady Alice More, and what does that even mean? The Lords Jestocost one through six, how did they lay the foundation for the seventh of that name? Or tell me about the underpeople: more about the eagle people, and E'Telekeli? What is the mystery and the power of Space3? Or tell me about the exploits of Dita of the Great South House after she became the greatest of the Go-Captains! What happened to the cat-people that Sudzal made? There are hints CS was going to do something with the robots — how do the robots fit in into the Rediscovery of Man?
And then there are all the tantalizing throwaway lines… what was the great cat scandal referenced in "Golden the Ship Was"? If you've read the later "On the [X] Planet" stories (and if you haven't that's fine, I don't like them as well anyway), what did the Robot, the Rat, and the Copt find in Space3, and how does the Old Strong Religion of the God Nailed High relate to CS's mythology? If it's not clear, a story with original characters would be totally wonderful, and so would a story with one of the established characters.
In general: I absolutely adore the far-flung, totally-imaginative, across-the-stars-and-time, so-over-the-top-it-comes-back-around mythology that gathers up humans and underpeople and robots and I-don't-even-know-what in its nets; I love the way these stories evoke this amazing sense of a destiny for all of us that reaches across space and time; I love the way he examines questions of happiness and free will and equality; I love all the allusions and callbacks; I love the way his prose is almost more poetry than it is prose. Anything that can speak to some of that, even the tiniest part of it, would be SO AWESOME.
(I'm not totally in love with Casher O'Neill or with Norstrilia-the-planet (or the novel) in general, or with the pinlighters, and I'd rather not have AU for this one, but hey, if that's where your muse takes you, I will love to see what you come up with!)
I have more thoughts about these books here.
The People - Zenna Henderson (Any) I adore Zenna Henderson's People stories and always have, and just want more! The thing I love most about it, I think, is the effervescent joy, the childlike wonder, that permeates each page. But also... the moving depictions of familial and mentoring relationships; the utter sense of belonging: to a people, to a community, to a family (and which also plays into the teacher-child relationships she depicts); the drive to make things whole; the lovely understated way she's constantly drawing from Biblical imagery and quotations and tropes for the themes and images of the stories.
If you need ideas... I'd love to know what Shadow's story is; she's always been in a secondary role as Bethie-too or Remy's Shadow; how does she step into her own rightful place? Did Dr. Curtis learn anything from Dita? What's up with the Kroginolds' story -- they were always troublemakers; I imagine there's a story in how they grew up? I will say that I tend to be more interested in the Earth stories than in Home or New Home, and I didn't like "Return" as well as some of the others (I guess I just don't like whiny narrators?), but hey, if your muse takes you there, go for it. I have a strong preference for a story that is at least mostly gen, but I'm open to either het or slash as long as canon pairings are respected (e.g., Valancy/Jemmy as a long-standing relationship is canon, and I'd rather Valancy didn't run off with Karen or something).
But really anything with any character. Or none at all! A new story with original characters would be AMAZING. If it has some of that joy and wonder in it, some of that exuberant borrowing and flavoring with Biblical tropes and quotes, it will be totally lovely and I will love it.
Taliessin through Logres - Charles Williams (Any)
I have loved these poems ever since I first read them in college. They are numinous and lovely and highly symbolic and full of interesting thoughts as to what the function of poetry and poets are, what the function and meaning of kingship is, how the building of the kingdom of God can be flawed from the beginning, how salvation occurs even within these flawed contours.
Tell me a story about what grabs you about these poems. Anything! Some potential ideas that you should not feel restricted by: What is the story of Gareth in this world? Kai shows up once, and not in a super flattering light, but I could imagine that if Williams had thought more about him that he would have seen him as a figure of great glory (the arm of the Empire!) --? He wrote one poem about Morgause but nothing about Morgan le Fay; how does she come off in this universe? Merlin and Nimue in Williams' mythology are very different from the way they're usually thought of, Merlin being a young wild wizard of the wood and Nimue being something like a generative goddess of the forest; tell me more about them? Really, none of the poems are from a woman's POV, but only from men looking at them (and Williams was indeed kind of funny about women); what additional insights would the women have if they had a voice? Did Elayne and Guinevere ever talk, and about what? Tell me more about Broceliande? What do the questions of kingship and substitution look like in SPAAAAACE? Or whatever you would like to tell me about!
I love all the intertwining with Christian theology and symbolism and mythology, but seriously, if you wanted to take the description here and write an alternate history of non-Christian Byzantium that has almost exactly the same external description as Williams' Byzantium except that Byzantium is now the evil overlord empire I would be so on board with that. Really whatever it is you want to do with it, as long as it engages with some of the many ideas in the poetry :D (I'd prefer no overt/explicit bashing of religion, though.)
I have more words about this in a promo post here.
琅琊榜 | Nirvana in Fire (TV) (Consort Jing)
This show, wow. All the complicated characters and plot twists and identity shenanigans, and deep deep bonds of loyalty and friendship and family, and private vs. public duty, the wonderful ensemble scenes, and awesome female characters and awesome moms of both the good and evil persuasions. And of course the most awesome mom of them all is Consort Jing. She's super nice, super smart, super perceptive, is playing the long game -- but can be ruthless when that's called for. She is just the best.
I basically want anything with her! Some ideas:
-I never got over the throwaway line where she went into the palace to doctor Consort Chen and then she never came out again, gahhhh. Surely she, even years back, was canny and thoughtful enough to get out of having to marry the Emperor, and it doesn't sound like the sort of life she'd choose -- so what happened? Did the Emperor threaten/blackmail her in some way? Was she trying to protect Consort Chen?
-Anything about her navigating the tricky politics of the Inner Court. Her and Consort Chen solving mysteries together? Go for it!!
-The last scene with her and the Emperor is one where she finally shows her true feelings about the Chiyan case and he is angry with her -- and we know he dies a while later -- but what happens in between? (My headcanon is that she nurses him through that -- but what would that have been like? What is their relationship like then? Gosh.)
-Post-canon fic where she takes a break from being Empress Dowager (or whatever her title would be after the Emperor dies) and wanders around as the itinerant doctor she was before she was a concubine, and at some point runs across Fei Liu or perhaps Lin Chen. (And/or, if you wanted to make it a fix-it AU, Lin Shu...)
-...actually, now that I think about it, anything with Consort Jing and Lin Chen together, set at any point during, pre, or post canon, would be hilarious and I am so up for that!
-I don't think Consort Jing gets to talk much to Nihuang or Xia Dong in canon, but wouldn't that be amazing?
18th Century CE Frederician RPF (Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great (Frederician RPF), Maria Theresia | Maria Theresa of Austria (Frederician RPF), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) (Frederician RPF))
I got pulled into this fandom a couple of months ago and have been finding myself totally enthralled by the relationships between this set of characters. Friedrich (Fritz) and Wilhelmine, the siblings whose bond was the emotionally closest relationship of both of their lives; Fritz and Maria Theresia (MT), the king and the empress who were complete opposites, warred against each other constantly, insulted each other (well, mostly Fritz, but MT wasn't exactly a shrinking violet), and where Fritz seemed to have rather a grudge against her; Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine, who to be honest only met each other once, but that meeting was instrumental in Fritz and Wilhelmine becoming estranged for three years (I know, there were other factors, but still), and Wilhelmine painted a pastel of her.
(Note that I don't ship any of these three with each other in the conventional sense; I am more than happy for MT and Wilhelmine to have a passionate romantic friendship, but not for it to be physically sexual because my OTP for this fandom is MT/Franz Stefan, and both of them are the wrong gender for Fritz anyway :P )
I really want fic that features all these strong relationships! For this fandom, although I want all characters to be a part of the fic, it is totally OK if only two of them are present in body and the third is only present in memory/conversation/thought, as some of my ideas are ones in which one of them may not be present or may even be dead.
Some thoughts, but don't feel restricted to these (most of these ideas are not mine in any case):
-Maria Theresia and Fritz having a Secret Summit, with Wilhelmine or Joseph arranging said summit. (Bonus points: Joseph would be especially hilarious as an organizer of the summit because of his Fritz fanboying attitude -- like, can you imagine MT's face when Joseph brought it up? At that point Wilhelmine would be dead, but as I said before, as long as she shows up in conversation or memory I'm totally happy with that.)
-Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine and Fritz all three in the same room: disaster or BIG disaster? Discuss.
-Maria Theresia and Wilhelmine liking each other so that Fritz decided not to talk to Wilhelmine any more ("your FRIEND the queen of Hungary"): there's GOT to be a fic in this, right?? (I know the most rational explanation is that Fritz is... Fritz, but COME ON, this is what we have fic for)
-What if MT and Wilhelmine struck up an epistolary correspondence friendship? What would that be like?? (Here again it's OK if Fritz is only present as a subject they talk about -- and even if it's only very elliptically.)
-AU where Fritz is married to MT (handwave that Friedrich Wilhelm would never have agreed to it). Ideally -- since it's very hard to imagine them being happy with this -- this would end with an annulment and MT getting married to Franz Stefan after all (see also: OTP) but a depressing take would be interesting too! My one request is that Fritz and MT get to do music together and bond over music, even if everything else goes down in flames. Bonus points for letter from Fritz to Friedrich Wilhelm where he talks about how awesome his life is now :D (I said I didn't ship them, and I don't here either in the sense of them actually being attracted sexually to each other, but they would obviously have to have a sexual relationship in this AU, or at the very least pretend to have one.)
-AU where Friedrich Wilhelm ends up killing Fritz instead of Katte, and Wilhelmine avenges his death by going to the Vienna court and publicly accusing her father of murder in front of the Emperor. (And striking up a friendship with Maria Theresa, who helps her in her quest! and perhaps Katte?)
-even though I'm not requesting Voltaire who doesn't quite fit, bonus points if you make up scathing Voltaire quotes and/or quote actual scathing Voltaire quotes, for any of these scenarios
-For assignment-fic I would prefer the nominated characters, but for treats anything is awesome! If you have a desire to write a treat with any of the nominated characters or even un-nominated characters from this era, go wild. Fritz/Voltaire snarky hatesex? Anything about Maria Theresia's daughter-in-law Isabella of Parma? Historically-based/informed crackfic about Friedrich Wilhelm accidentally conscripting Peter the Great? AU where MT and Fritz are fandom nemeses? Go for it!
Where to find canon / How much canon:
Pelleas: there's a production Pelleas et Melisande here, but the English subtitles disappear after a while. I also have one I could share without subtitles (but with Simon Keenlyside!) that takes place in what looks like a large cistern, which I love but which is kind of a modern-ish production. An English libretto is here (this one looks kinda Google Translate-y) and a probably better one here (PDF link). Probably pretty easy to pick up, and you could even mostly read the libretto.
Cordwainer Smith are short stories, and just a couple of them would probably suffice to get the general idea, but they are certainly quite a bit harder to find. I'd very much recommend We the Underpeople as the best introduction that's easily available in the US and cheap. If you happen to be in the UK, my favorite Smith anthology is The Rediscovery of Man. (I'd recommend "The Dead Lady of Clown Town," "Under Old Earth," "Alpha Ralpha Boulevard," and "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell," or some subset thereof, to get a sense of it.)
The People is a large canon of work, but the stories are a fast read, and you could probably read a couple of them ("Ararat" is probably a must, and perhaps "Shadow on the Moon" to get the second-gen perspective) and get the feel of it pretty quickly -- I don't think Henderson herself worried too much about keeping everything strictly canon-compliant detail-wise.
Taliessin Through Logres is out of copyright in Canada! Link to Taliessin through Logres poetry.. Additionally, The Arthurian Torso is an omnibus containing (a) Charles Williams' description of Arthuriana (honestly, you can skip this if you already know about medieval Arthurian texts) and (b) C.S. Lewis explaining the poetry. Part (b) is probably important to read at least parts of if you want to have any idea what's going on :) In fact it might actually make sense to read this first before reading the poetry.
(My print copy of Arthurian Torso also has Taliessin through Logres and The Region of the Summer Stars, but the online version appears to have split it up.)
Nirvana in Fire is (as of now) available here. It's 54 episodes! but they go very quickly :)
I don't know what to tell you about where to find info about Frederician RPF. I guess a good place to start would be at the links here. Also see the discussion about books here.
(Edited 10-29-19 to make more readable, organize better, and add prompts.)
(Edited 10-30-19 to add prompts for Frederician RPF and welcome setting-changed AU for Charles Williams.)
(Edited 11-4-19 to add/clarify prompts for CW, NiF, and F-RPF.)
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Here via
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I must confess that several years ago I actually did get a lovely and amazing story. It feels a little greedy to ask again, but someone else Not Me nominated it this year, so how could I resist! :D
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Hello! My high school yearbook quote was the rhyme from "The Ballad of Lost C'Mell." It confused everybody. [edit] I should probably clarify that that was literally twenty years ago; I'm just still proud of it.
I must confess that several years ago I actually did get a lovely and amazing story.
NICE.
I still hope you get another.
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(My high school yearbook quote -- twenty-five years ago -- was from Earthsea ("And though I came to forget or regret all I had ever done..."), which also still holds up well, thank you high-school self :) )
I hope I get another one too :D