raspberryhunter (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raspberryhunter) wrote2023-10-20 09:18 pm
raspberryhunter) wrote2023-10-20 09:18 pm
Entry tags:
Dear Yuletide 2023
Dear Yuletide Writer,
Please feel absolutely 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. :D
I am happy to receive treats!
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, text messages/tweets, poetry, DW-thread-comments, what-have-you, yes please!! Crossovers would also be more than fine between these fandoms. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for at least some of these fandoms (though please tag and check the fandom-specific DNWs). I absolutely love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. For setting-changed AUs, I would adore them for Turandot and Frederician RPF, but not for the others. I'm good with most things as long as you tag for it so I know what I'm getting into!
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 noncanon poly; graphic gratuitous violence/gore; infidelity involving characters whose fidelity is an important part of their character (e.g. Brother Thomas) or involving characters who plausibly or canonically have faithful romantic relationships (like Jeff/Dicey). (I have no problems with infidelity that plausibly occurs in canon.) For tragic/dark endings: Please check the canon-specific DNWs, as for some of my requested fandoms/characters I don't want them to hvae an unhappy ending, or an ending with no hope. But if I don't have a canon-specific DNW about it, then tragedy/death/whatever is fine -- and encouraged! -- if tagged. Please no references to current politics/current events.
I am blown away by how amazing these books are in terms of depth of character, thematic development of love and friendship and growing up and holding on and letting go and community and how we give to each other… I would love anything for these books. Any character. What you want to write, what interests you, that's what I want to hear about! I requested some I love, and I have a couple of prompts I'm super interested in, but really any character at all would be wonderful, and in the spirit of how Voigt is always thinking about the humanity of all the characters. What does Jeff's college roommate think of the events of Seventeen? What is Mr. Lingerle's perspective? Can Johnny Tillerman, whom we never saw but who from Bullet's memory rather looked like he was going to follow in his father's toxic footsteps, figure himself out and have healthier relationships? Other minor characters? Toby? Brother Thomas? I have gotten some amaaaaazing fic for this fandom, and I am greedy so I want more :D
I nominated Brother Thomas specifically because although I already loved Brother Thomas because of his cheerful snarkiness, the last time I reread A Solitary Blue he broke my heart with his crisis of faith -- the part where he keeps on his habit because he's not sure he would put it on again if he took it off? Oh, Thomas <3 Horace Greene seems to think it's an issue of living in love, which clearly harks back to his own experiences; is he being perceptive or is he projecting? I would just love to read more about this. I totally see Brother Thomas, Horace Greene, and Jeff Greene as a family; whether you want to write Thomas/Horace as a ship or not is up to you (and certainly it is complicated by Thomas' vows), write this in whatever way is true to your conception of the characters and I will love it -- I'd just request that Thomas not break his vows, so if there were a sexual relationship it would have to be after giving up his vocation. I only care very much that all three of them are bonded by love. (And the different kinds of families bonded by love, of course, is a major theme of the Tillerman books.) I think that there is some textual evidence that he remains a monk -- at the end of Come a Stranger, years later, he's referred to as Brother Thomas -- but I'm happy to read about it either way and I think either way could be super interesting; I would like you to tag if he doesn't remain a monk :)
And Mina Smiths! I just madly adore Come a Stranger and its moving depiction of her family and community, and how they are a whole entity. <3 What happens to Mina? How does she find law school? I imagine it will be interesting for her trying to juggle her career ambitions and romance; how might this play out? I kinda ship her and Tamer's son Samuel in a "if they met again as grownups they might really understand each other well" kind of way -- what would it be like if they met again as grownups? How does her friendship with Dicey progress? Does it change as they pursue their careers and their lives with their families and communities (however that looks)?
Maybeth never got a book! If she had gotten a book, what would it look like? Gram thinks she needs an older man to take care of her -- okay, I must admit that I have a veeeeery low opinion of Gram's romantic picker in the books, and I would LOVE for her to be proven wrong about this. Does Maybeth even need a romantic relationship at all? Does she stay at the farm as a beloved unmarried matriarch at the center of a ton of siblings and friends and nieces and nephews (and chickens?? hee) who are always making life interesting? In general, how does she strike a balance between listening to her more-intellectually-capable family and making her own heart-capable decisions? Given that her upbringing had so much more support than her mother's, can she avoid her mother's fate? (Yes. The answer here should be yes. :P :) ) (I got TWO amazing Maybeth fics, but what I'm saying here is that there is no such thing as too much Maybeth, y/y??)
I love Jeff Greene very much, and would love to read anything you would like to write about him. What was Jeff thinking during the events of Seventeen Against the Dealer — how does he deal with being at college, having a new separate group of friends, seeing Dicey drift away from him, what is he thinking when she suddenly says she wants to marry him? He's so empathic, he probably knows something of what's going on with her — but how much? And clearly his past family relationships affect the way he thinks about all of this… does he ever talk to the Professor about what's going on with him and Dicey? Or Brother Thomas? What do they think of it? (In general, I'm super curious about both of them as well and the surprising depths that are revealed in them. What happens to them?) Does he ever talk to the other Tillermans about Dicey? We know that he talks to them about other things, and I'd love to see those conversations too, the way he keeps up his relationships with them even while it seems his relationship with Dicey is imploding.
I have a whole lot more words about these books (with a lot more prompts) in the series of posts here.
Canon-specific DNWs: My no-infidelity DNW also includes infidelity of Thomas with respect to God (though of course it's not infidelity if he breaks up with God, so to speak). I really, really want a Tillerman story to have a good ending, by which I don't mean an unalloyed happy ending — what I guess I mean here is I need a fic where the characters grow and learn, and where they're able to keep their family together, and I'm assured they're going to be OK together, even if bad things happen in the meantime. Gram dies and the adult kids come together to figure it out as they've always figured it out? Great! Alternate-universe fic where Verricker meets James and Sammy and absolutely crushes them but Maybeth sees right through him and puts her brothers straight in the end? Bring it on! Alternate-universe fic where the kids never make it to Gram in Homecoming and get separated into orphanages forever? Or fic where Johnny propagates his father's ways without changing? Please no. Thank you!
I adore this opera and at the same time it totally hurts my head. There is the repeated, moving theme of sacrifice (but only for ROMANTIC LOVE!); the whole lovely idea of vulnerability, of putting your life in someone else's hands (this would have worked much better IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THE PART WHERE SHE JUST TORTURED AND KILLED HIS FRIEND); the concept of the ice maiden thawing, growing up and gaining the emotions of remorse and regret (IF ONLY IT HADN'T BEEN AS A RESPONSE TO SEXUAL HARASSMENT KISS); the feminist sensibilities of Turandot (if only they hadn't manifested in her KILLING PEOPLE, also in being completely betrayed in the last act); the incredibly sweet Timur-Liu filial relationship (terribly shortchanged by the revelation she's only taking care of him because Calaf smiled at her WHAT).
Write me a story where Turandot and Liu have a relationship that doesn't depend on Calaf! Friendship, loyalty-liege, rivalry, mentoring, romantic, frenemy, professional partners, whatever, I'm up for it. What about a story where there's some sort of loyalty and/or friendship between Turandot and Liu, either retconning the opera or having it develop somehow within the course of the opera, either would be wonderful. (I have got a story like this and it was absolutely gorgeous, and I am greedy and want more!) Or! What if Turandot and Liu were actually rival powers playing a dark game here (with Calaf a pawn?), for reasons you will tell me in the fic? Or! write me a total AU! I would adore academia-Turandot (Professor Turandot, grad-student Liu, Calaf as a... oh, I don't know, project manager in industry? Administrator? Admin assistant?), lawyer draaaaama, SPAAAAACE, cyberpunk, opera singers (would that not be beautifully meta??), random-fantasy-land, whatever!
I have no problems with Calaf being a major character (and would in fact rather he appear than not, although honestly feel free to change his character so he's less of a total jerk); however, if the story is going to be a happy ending (not dark) for both Turandot and Liu, I'd like him not to be killed by Turandot. (In general, character death is fine for this fandom. I am totally fine with her killing him in a less happy or darker story, or if he dies for some other reason. But come on Turandot, you can't just go around killing people because you feel like it and expect a happy ending, even if they are tenors!) I definitely do NOT want Liu to die specifically for Calaf (although again if she dies for any other reason that's fine!)
Canon DNW: Pairings that are both non-canon and non-requested, Turandot or Liu murdering another character if the story is not meant to otherwise be dark. Liu dying for Calaf.
I feel like Renato and Amelia are possibly the only couple in Verdi, maybe in any of the operas I've ever watched, that had a marriage of long standing that was actually mostly functional.until the opera takes place, I guess At least, I assume this from their son presumably being older than a baby, and that they seem to have gotten along pretty well until Amelia got a crush on Riccardo. (And she is willing to do a pretty scary thing she totally doesn't want to do for her marriage's sake, and she never talks about not loving Renato, and indeed has lots of nice things to say about him when she's trying to fend off Riccardo.)
I have this headcanon that Renato and Amelia, until the events of Ballo, were a power couple where Amelia helped Renato ferret out, say, plots against Riccardo :D I would love to see a story like that set pre-Ballo. I will say that although I find Amelia being awesome totally supported by canon, the power-couple thing isn't maybe quite, so if you'd rather just write a story about Amelia being awesome in the company of Renato, that would be great too! If you do pre-Ballo fic, I would prefer relatively little angst for Amelia regarding Riccardo -- a little is fine, some disquieting attraction is fine, but I'd like this to be set before she develops a full-on crush on him.
Or I would love to see them wrestle post-canon with the events of the opera. I feel like Amelia would stop Renato from doing anything too drastic afterwards, and maybe they'd be able to figure out how to pick up their lives? (I would love a more mature-rated fic where some of this angst and recovery happened in bed, because of course it would have to. Or not! Your choice.)
It occurs to me that hot angsty makeup sex (or hot making out -- I could totally imagine Renato couldn't deal with sex right then) after Act III Scene 1 might be really interesting -- is Renato trying not to be attracted to her because he thinks she has betrayed him, or is he desperate for her affection despite himself? Or both? Is Amelia trying to distract Renato from his vengeance? Renato seems like he's probably usually extremely restrained; is there something in her that is turned on by all the emotions he's having, even though he's angry?
Although I don't mind dark up to the level of canon (yes to all the betrayal and subsequent guilt angst!) please let Renato, Amelia, and Oscar live, I don't care if it's unrealistic :)
I would prefer all three characters; however, I am aware that some of my prompts don't lend themselves to all three showing up in a major way, so I'm happy for one of the three to have a more cameo role. This includes Voltaire showing up only in snarky quotes (real or made-up is fine!), which I am more than happy with :D
I got pulled into this fandom a while back and have been finding myself totally enthralled by the relationships between this set of characters. I am fascinated by Fritz' brother Heinrich, who had an extremely dysfunctional love/hate relationship with his brother (where Fritz treated him in a way that was strongly reminiscent of the way that his father treated him, and Heinrich alternately fought against it and knuckled down to it).
And then there's Voltaire, who is just awesome in the way that he Could Not Let Things Go (which had both good and bad consequences), and his hateship-can't-live-with-him-can't-live-without-him with Fritz is just hilarious :D
Some thoughts/prompts, but don't feel restricted to these:
-Voltaire has to rescue Frederick the Great from being taken captive (by Maria Theresia??) by the power of his pen, which Fritz is NOT happy about! (About being beholden to Voltaire, that is, who is obviously neeeeever going to let Fritz live this down.) Meanwhile, Heinrich is regent...
-This fandom in SPAAAAACE, can you imagine the space battles between Maria Theresia and Fritz, and Heinrich as a SPAAAACE general :D (SPAAACE Abbess Amalie, y/y??) Or really any AU! Time-traveling? Corporate? Magic with dragons? Magic AU European history in Scholomance world?? Yes please!
-Anything with Heinrich and Catherine the Great/Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst being BFFs, I think it is hilarious and awesome that this is canon. Really, anything! I would particularly love the AU where Heinrich has to marry Sophie and this devolves into them double-crossing and back-stabbing each other, as long as they were able to remain friends and enjoying each other's company even while plotting against each other :D
-Fritz Freaky-Friday bodyswitch! Fritz/Heinrich? Fritz/someone else, like Fritz/Mme Pompadour?? Can you imagine how Voltaire would react?!assuming he didn't die of laughter Would it be great for Fritz to have to depend on Émilie Du Châtelet, of all people, to be the architect of figuring out how to get them to switch back, y/y? :D
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? What did Karen find when she went Outside? What was Valancy's life like as an Old One? 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.
Canon-specific DNW: Please no unhappy endings for this canon!
Please feel absolutely 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. :D
I am happy to receive treats!
General (including things I love and DNWs)
: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, text messages/tweets, poetry, DW-thread-comments, what-have-you, yes please!! Crossovers would also be more than fine between these fandoms. Darkfic/character death is great and even encouraged for at least some of these fandoms (though please tag and check the fandom-specific DNWs). I absolutely love fork-in-the-road type AUs for any fandom. For setting-changed AUs, I would adore them for Turandot and Frederician RPF, but not for the others. I'm good with most things as long as you tag for it so I know what I'm getting into!
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 noncanon poly; graphic gratuitous violence/gore; infidelity involving characters whose fidelity is an important part of their character (e.g. Brother Thomas) or involving characters who plausibly or canonically have faithful romantic relationships (like Jeff/Dicey). (I have no problems with infidelity that plausibly occurs in canon.) For tragic/dark endings: Please check the canon-specific DNWs, as for some of my requested fandoms/characters I don't want them to hvae an unhappy ending, or an ending with no hope. But if I don't have a canon-specific DNW about it, then tragedy/death/whatever is fine -- and encouraged! -- if tagged. Please no references to current politics/current events.
Tillerman Cycle - Voigt (Any)
I am blown away by how amazing these books are in terms of depth of character, thematic development of love and friendship and growing up and holding on and letting go and community and how we give to each other… I would love anything for these books. Any character. What you want to write, what interests you, that's what I want to hear about! I requested some I love, and I have a couple of prompts I'm super interested in, but really any character at all would be wonderful, and in the spirit of how Voigt is always thinking about the humanity of all the characters. What does Jeff's college roommate think of the events of Seventeen? What is Mr. Lingerle's perspective? Can Johnny Tillerman, whom we never saw but who from Bullet's memory rather looked like he was going to follow in his father's toxic footsteps, figure himself out and have healthier relationships? Other minor characters? Toby? Brother Thomas? I have gotten some amaaaaazing fic for this fandom, and I am greedy so I want more :D
I nominated Brother Thomas specifically because although I already loved Brother Thomas because of his cheerful snarkiness, the last time I reread A Solitary Blue he broke my heart with his crisis of faith -- the part where he keeps on his habit because he's not sure he would put it on again if he took it off? Oh, Thomas <3 Horace Greene seems to think it's an issue of living in love, which clearly harks back to his own experiences; is he being perceptive or is he projecting? I would just love to read more about this. I totally see Brother Thomas, Horace Greene, and Jeff Greene as a family; whether you want to write Thomas/Horace as a ship or not is up to you (and certainly it is complicated by Thomas' vows), write this in whatever way is true to your conception of the characters and I will love it -- I'd just request that Thomas not break his vows, so if there were a sexual relationship it would have to be after giving up his vocation. I only care very much that all three of them are bonded by love. (And the different kinds of families bonded by love, of course, is a major theme of the Tillerman books.) I think that there is some textual evidence that he remains a monk -- at the end of Come a Stranger, years later, he's referred to as Brother Thomas -- but I'm happy to read about it either way and I think either way could be super interesting; I would like you to tag if he doesn't remain a monk :)
And Mina Smiths! I just madly adore Come a Stranger and its moving depiction of her family and community, and how they are a whole entity. <3 What happens to Mina? How does she find law school? I imagine it will be interesting for her trying to juggle her career ambitions and romance; how might this play out? I kinda ship her and Tamer's son Samuel in a "if they met again as grownups they might really understand each other well" kind of way -- what would it be like if they met again as grownups? How does her friendship with Dicey progress? Does it change as they pursue their careers and their lives with their families and communities (however that looks)?
Maybeth never got a book! If she had gotten a book, what would it look like? Gram thinks she needs an older man to take care of her -- okay, I must admit that I have a veeeeery low opinion of Gram's romantic picker in the books, and I would LOVE for her to be proven wrong about this. Does Maybeth even need a romantic relationship at all? Does she stay at the farm as a beloved unmarried matriarch at the center of a ton of siblings and friends and nieces and nephews (and chickens?? hee) who are always making life interesting? In general, how does she strike a balance between listening to her more-intellectually-capable family and making her own heart-capable decisions? Given that her upbringing had so much more support than her mother's, can she avoid her mother's fate? (Yes. The answer here should be yes. :P :) ) (I got TWO amazing Maybeth fics, but what I'm saying here is that there is no such thing as too much Maybeth, y/y??)
I love Jeff Greene very much, and would love to read anything you would like to write about him. What was Jeff thinking during the events of Seventeen Against the Dealer — how does he deal with being at college, having a new separate group of friends, seeing Dicey drift away from him, what is he thinking when she suddenly says she wants to marry him? He's so empathic, he probably knows something of what's going on with her — but how much? And clearly his past family relationships affect the way he thinks about all of this… does he ever talk to the Professor about what's going on with him and Dicey? Or Brother Thomas? What do they think of it? (In general, I'm super curious about both of them as well and the surprising depths that are revealed in them. What happens to them?) Does he ever talk to the other Tillermans about Dicey? We know that he talks to them about other things, and I'd love to see those conversations too, the way he keeps up his relationships with them even while it seems his relationship with Dicey is imploding.
I have a whole lot more words about these books (with a lot more prompts) in the series of posts here.
Canon-specific DNWs: My no-infidelity DNW also includes infidelity of Thomas with respect to God (though of course it's not infidelity if he breaks up with God, so to speak). I really, really want a Tillerman story to have a good ending, by which I don't mean an unalloyed happy ending — what I guess I mean here is I need a fic where the characters grow and learn, and where they're able to keep their family together, and I'm assured they're going to be OK together, even if bad things happen in the meantime. Gram dies and the adult kids come together to figure it out as they've always figured it out? Great! Alternate-universe fic where Verricker meets James and Sammy and absolutely crushes them but Maybeth sees right through him and puts her brothers straight in the end? Bring it on! Alternate-universe fic where the kids never make it to Gram in Homecoming and get separated into orphanages forever? Or fic where Johnny propagates his father's ways without changing? Please no. Thank you!
Turandot (Turandot, Liu)
I adore this opera and at the same time it totally hurts my head. There is the repeated, moving theme of sacrifice (but only for ROMANTIC LOVE!); the whole lovely idea of vulnerability, of putting your life in someone else's hands (this would have worked much better IF IT HADN'T BEEN FOR THE PART WHERE SHE JUST TORTURED AND KILLED HIS FRIEND); the concept of the ice maiden thawing, growing up and gaining the emotions of remorse and regret (IF ONLY IT HADN'T BEEN AS A RESPONSE TO SEXUAL HARASSMENT KISS); the feminist sensibilities of Turandot (if only they hadn't manifested in her KILLING PEOPLE, also in being completely betrayed in the last act); the incredibly sweet Timur-Liu filial relationship (terribly shortchanged by the revelation she's only taking care of him because Calaf smiled at her WHAT).
Write me a story where Turandot and Liu have a relationship that doesn't depend on Calaf! Friendship, loyalty-liege, rivalry, mentoring, romantic, frenemy, professional partners, whatever, I'm up for it. What about a story where there's some sort of loyalty and/or friendship between Turandot and Liu, either retconning the opera or having it develop somehow within the course of the opera, either would be wonderful. (I have got a story like this and it was absolutely gorgeous, and I am greedy and want more!) Or! What if Turandot and Liu were actually rival powers playing a dark game here (with Calaf a pawn?), for reasons you will tell me in the fic? Or! write me a total AU! I would adore academia-Turandot (Professor Turandot, grad-student Liu, Calaf as a... oh, I don't know, project manager in industry? Administrator? Admin assistant?), lawyer draaaaama, SPAAAAACE, cyberpunk, opera singers (would that not be beautifully meta??), random-fantasy-land, whatever!
I have no problems with Calaf being a major character (and would in fact rather he appear than not, although honestly feel free to change his character so he's less of a total jerk); however, if the story is going to be a happy ending (not dark) for both Turandot and Liu, I'd like him not to be killed by Turandot. (In general, character death is fine for this fandom. I am totally fine with her killing him in a less happy or darker story, or if he dies for some other reason. But come on Turandot, you can't just go around killing people because you feel like it and expect a happy ending, even if they are tenors!) I definitely do NOT want Liu to die specifically for Calaf (although again if she dies for any other reason that's fine!)
Canon DNW: Pairings that are both non-canon and non-requested, Turandot or Liu murdering another character if the story is not meant to otherwise be dark. Liu dying for Calaf.
Un Ballo in Maschera (Renato, Amelia)
I feel like Renato and Amelia are possibly the only couple in Verdi, maybe in any of the operas I've ever watched, that had a marriage of long standing that was actually mostly functional.
I have this headcanon that Renato and Amelia, until the events of Ballo, were a power couple where Amelia helped Renato ferret out, say, plots against Riccardo :D I would love to see a story like that set pre-Ballo. I will say that although I find Amelia being awesome totally supported by canon, the power-couple thing isn't maybe quite, so if you'd rather just write a story about Amelia being awesome in the company of Renato, that would be great too! If you do pre-Ballo fic, I would prefer relatively little angst for Amelia regarding Riccardo -- a little is fine, some disquieting attraction is fine, but I'd like this to be set before she develops a full-on crush on him.
Or I would love to see them wrestle post-canon with the events of the opera. I feel like Amelia would stop Renato from doing anything too drastic afterwards, and maybe they'd be able to figure out how to pick up their lives? (I would love a more mature-rated fic where some of this angst and recovery happened in bed, because of course it would have to. Or not! Your choice.)
It occurs to me that hot angsty makeup sex (or hot making out -- I could totally imagine Renato couldn't deal with sex right then) after Act III Scene 1 might be really interesting -- is Renato trying not to be attracted to her because he thinks she has betrayed him, or is he desperate for her affection despite himself? Or both? Is Amelia trying to distract Renato from his vengeance? Renato seems like he's probably usually extremely restrained; is there something in her that is turned on by all the emotions he's having, even though he's angry?
Although I don't mind dark up to the level of canon (yes to all the betrayal and subsequent guilt angst!) please let Renato, Amelia, and Oscar live, I don't care if it's unrealistic :)
18th Century CE Frederician RPF (Fritz, Voltaire, Heinrich)
I would prefer all three characters; however, I am aware that some of my prompts don't lend themselves to all three showing up in a major way, so I'm happy for one of the three to have a more cameo role. This includes Voltaire showing up only in snarky quotes (real or made-up is fine!), which I am more than happy with :D
I got pulled into this fandom a while back and have been finding myself totally enthralled by the relationships between this set of characters. I am fascinated by Fritz' brother Heinrich, who had an extremely dysfunctional love/hate relationship with his brother (where Fritz treated him in a way that was strongly reminiscent of the way that his father treated him, and Heinrich alternately fought against it and knuckled down to it).
And then there's Voltaire, who is just awesome in the way that he Could Not Let Things Go (which had both good and bad consequences), and his hateship-can't-live-with-him-can't-live-without-him with Fritz is just hilarious :D
Some thoughts/prompts, but don't feel restricted to these:
-Voltaire has to rescue Frederick the Great from being taken captive (by Maria Theresia??) by the power of his pen, which Fritz is NOT happy about! (About being beholden to Voltaire, that is, who is obviously neeeeever going to let Fritz live this down.) Meanwhile, Heinrich is regent...
-This fandom in SPAAAAACE, can you imagine the space battles between Maria Theresia and Fritz, and Heinrich as a SPAAAACE general :D (SPAAACE Abbess Amalie, y/y??) Or really any AU! Time-traveling? Corporate? Magic with dragons? Magic AU European history in Scholomance world?? Yes please!
-Anything with Heinrich and Catherine the Great/Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst being BFFs, I think it is hilarious and awesome that this is canon. Really, anything! I would particularly love the AU where Heinrich has to marry Sophie and this devolves into them double-crossing and back-stabbing each other, as long as they were able to remain friends and enjoying each other's company even while plotting against each other :D
-Fritz Freaky-Friday bodyswitch! Fritz/Heinrich? Fritz/someone else, like Fritz/Mme Pompadour?? Can you imagine how Voltaire would react?!
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? What did Karen find when she went Outside? What was Valancy's life like as an Old One? 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.
Canon-specific DNW: Please no unhappy endings for this canon!