Yuletide 2016!
Sep. 28th, 2016 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tailcoatDear Yuletide author,
This is the letter for Labocat on AO3 and before we begin, I'd just like to say thank you! I've had a fantastic time doing exchanges this year and it was all thanks to doing Yuletide for the first time last year, so this exchange holds a dear place in my heart. I hope we matched on something you're excited about, because this should ideally be fun for us both! Along those lines, I do want to say that if nothing below sparks you, please feel free to use any ideas you already have! I'm really easy to please and all of these fandoms are here because I just want to see more writing in them in general, so anything at all is a gift!
In general: I meant what I said when I said I was really easy to please: I love all ratings, from general to explicit, and as long as it involves my requested characters, I love all genres and topics!
Some tropes I adore that are relevant (non-comprehensive):
- hurt/comfort and whump
- alternate PoVs of scenes
- pre-canon backstory
- curtainfic/established relationship
- casefic
- fake relationship/arranged marriage/accidentally married/accidental confessions
- found family
- enemies/rivals to lovers (also friends to lovers)
- secret relationships/friendships
- reincarnation/fated/soulbonds
- trapped somewhere together
- loyalty
- magically bonded together (either physically or telepathically)
- redemption and corruption (obv doesn't have to be in the same story, but I am good with either route!)
My DNWs are very few and are unlikely to come up in these canons, but just in case: pregnancy/kids, non-canonical pronouns, and suicidal thoughts/actions from characters further than canon would go.
Really Optional Details That Are Entirely Optional (okay let’s just call them kinks): If you wanted to go a M/E route, and are comfortable writing any of the following, I really enjoy size difference, blindfolds, orgasm denial, messy/sloppy sex, intercrual, oral, semi-public sex (like in a closet or alley), sensory deprivation, breathplay, toys, marking/possessiveness, body worship, slow, drawn-out sex that can really tie in with the aforementioned body worship. I also like a lot of things that generally have to be requested and that most people aren’t comfortable with so they are Extra Optional: dubcon, vore/gore, tentacles and xenophilia, a/b/o, bloodplay, threesomes/moresomes, double penetration, and collars.
Shades of Magic
Requested Characters: Any
How to Consume: Amazon
I love the worldbuilding potential of this book - there’s so much to be explored in both the magic and the politics the occur from both inter and intra-world dynamics! I love how each character (and each London) has been shaped by their distance from the magic center and what London they occupy and the sort of shifts we get to see when they’re faced with new elements. Each of the Londons has a different relationship with magic due to their distance from the center, but what could have happened if any of the characters were from a different London, or the Londons were in a different order radiating outward? What if Kell and Holland were Antari of other Londons? Have they ever been trapped in a different London during their early days learning their Antari powers? The Antari are a dying breed and Kell was brought quickly to the court - did the royals have people out searching for Antari to bind them to the crown even before they started dying out? Were they in the monasteries instead? Under a guise of "education"? What does magic look like in some of the cities other than London? From what we see in Red London, the Antari aren't well understood by any of the other countries, so do they have different magical systems? There's so much to explore!
Character-wise is a little similar - I think everyone is fascinating and lend so much to the plot and other characters: the fact that everyone’s decisions affect every other character in some form has a lot of appealing potential for character interaction and introspection. For example: how did the Danes rise to power? What was the situation in White London like and was their control over Holland immediate or did he start a coup shortly after? How do the events that lead up to that affect him when ruling White London in Shadows or dealing with Osaron? What if Lila had been on her own in White London for longer? Part of the reason I'm lukewarm on her is that she gets away with everything, even when she shouldn't; the only time she didn't was with Astrid, and that was fascinating to me, to have her have to adapt and work her mind around a situation where she's in over her head and find a way out. Either something where Astrid had a hold on her for longer - Lila only got a taste of the desperation in White London for a bit, what would it be like to have to be there or under Astrid's control for longer? - or where she's the one who has to face heavy consequences for her actions for once and the others (which characters are entirely up to you!) help her through it and she learns to lean on other people a little more and open up to them more. The cliffhanger at the end of Shadows or the threatened war in Red London would be good opportunities!
What might have happened if any of the other characters had been the one dealing with Osaron? What are Kell and Holland’s respective thoughts on being the last of the Antari and basically two sides of a coin with each other? What would have been going through their heads when they thought the other dead? Lila is being heavily hinted to be Grey London's Antari or at least a sprouting of magic where they thought there was none - what could this mean for Grey London or magic there in general? Or for Kell and Holland, who consider themselves the last Antari?
I’ll admit that I ship basically any combination in this series with the exception of Lila/Kell, so if you want to write shipfic, the world(s) is(are) your oyster! I love the dedication that Kell and Rhy have for each other, either shippy or platonic, they would (and have!) die for each other. I think Kell and Rhy’s soulbond is extremely interesting, especially since the book keeps bringing up that their pleasures are linked, but Kell seems to be unable to separate out Rhy’s pain while he’s being pleased. I think it’s an interesting element to add into the Rhy/Alucard dynamic as well: the knowledge that no matter what they do, they can’t hide it from Kell anymore, forcing them to be honest with him. That entire story and falling-out has a lot of unexplored depths to it though - it's clear Kell's story isn't the whole one, with how biased he is about Rhy - what could have actually happened? Add that into Alucard and Lila's flirtations (I'll admit that I actually enjoyed them together since their loose moralities played well off of each other) into the melting pot of flirtations that there's a mess of misunderstandings brewing. Kell and Holland have such a good potential for redemption/corruption arcs as well as the only ones who can fully understand the pressures being an Antari brings so there's a connection there even if they don't particularly want it.
I’ll also admit to being really into the bloodplay possibilities of Antari magic - the Danes drinking Holland’s blood in front of Kell was what catapulted me to Twitter to start to recruit friends to read the book. What if Kell had accepted the glass? Or if Athos hadn’t offered him anything else? What if they’d forced Holland to stay and watch while Kell drank it? Does Antari blood have a certain allure/affect on other Antari? The compulsive brand on Holland is also really alluring - how much of his intent in his actions are they aware of? He gave the possession necklace to Rhy on their orders - could they have been possessing him as well at times?
I am absolutely okay with any of the characters getting into serious trouble or getting hurt as a result of that; they're dealing with dangerous magics and in the middle of some coups, there's bound to be a lot of rough situations. Athos doing his best to get a reaction out of Holland, with the line "no one suffers as beautifully as you"? Excellent. Basically, I am so okay with grey morals, dubcon edging to noncon, terrible people doing what they will to retain control, or just awful decisions made with the knowledge that there's no better choice.
Crueltide coda: As I mentioned, I'm extremely interested in the bloodplay or magical compulsion torture potential in the magic system. The Danes fill an easy noncon/dubcon niche here, but I am equally okay with any other character giving or receiving; Osaron would be good for non-con body takeover, for example.
A Charm of Magpies
Requested Characters: Ned, Crispin
How to Consume: Rag and Bone and its prequel A Queer Trade are the most relevant books here, but any other cameos from the Charm of Magpies world are welcome, especially from Jackdaw!
Historical fantasy is such a weakness of mine and I just absolutely fell in love with this spin-off. I love the concept of graphomancy, and I love characters who have a type of magic that falls outside of the standard rules and methods and so have to create their own path, so I was doomed from the start.
I’ll admit, after finishing Rag and Bone, I have been thinking about if Ned and Crispin have to, as part of a case as judiciary, go to Cornwall, with Crispin starting to slipping back into Cornish and childhood habits and alternately more comfortable and more awkward with his magic surrounded by familiar things and trying to prove that he’s succeeded to people who have known him as a child (while having to hide his magic and his job and his boyfriend). Bonus points if at some point along the way they run into Ben and Jonah (because I would put good odds on the part of Cornwall Crispin is from being close to where Ben and Jonah ended up because their lives have already mingled and why not) and they bond over being on slightly the wrong side of the law and finding refuge in Cornwall and in general seeing each other again and realizing how their timelines overlapped.
But that’s my super weirdly specific request! Otherwise I think that Ned and Crispin’s relationship is wonderful and adorable. Nicknames! Each thinking the other is wildly successful and amazing (despite not thinking they themselves are all that)! Ned being grumpy about suddenly being magical! Graphomancy! Being recruited precisely because they’re oddities (which fits so nicely into my love of what a character thinks of as a weakness others see as their strength)! I think it’s really charming that Ned’s talent was one for hearing to begin with when Crispin absolutely lacks it - they complement each other so well and I loved seeing them play off of that to solve problems. I think Ned would still take a lot of time to get used to have more than a flit’s talent, so maybe Crispin helping him deal with it or finding a way to use his hearing in a way that is actually nice and pleasing rather than stressful from all the noise of London. Their first run (or few runs as they fumble through!) as justiciary would be so neat to see as well!
Crueltide coda: Lighter fare here, but absolutely okay with a job going wrong: we've seen practitioners hungry for power summon all sorts of things that would be a nightmare to deal with or to have go wrong. Bodily possession has also already come up and been a concern, so please feel free to play with that! Also it's canon that flits who get a taste for power are highly susceptible to getting addicted to magic and wanting more and we know that Ned's father was an alcoholic, so there's some open doors for addiction or for Crispin to be concerned about it.
Fate/Grand Order (HAHAHAHAHA)
Requested Characters: Any
How to Consume: Grand Order can be tricky! So many of the translations are piecemeal and scattered across multiple sites, but Chaldeum has a good collection of various things and Cirnopedia has a number as well including links to pastebins and other sites with translations.
Oh my god where do I even start. I love this fandom because it’s just so alternately off-the-wall and emotionally serious (I certainly never expected to have emotions about Hassan, okay) and the usage of events and the core stories is the perfect example of “get you a game that can do both”. The game basically doing as it likes at all times in terms of locale and occurrences plays really well with that dual nature, so I am up for everything from they get teleported to the moon to deep introspection on the nature of the Chaldea system and the servant system or being summoned into Chaldea and needing to be convinced to fight or conflicting goals for if the grail is obtained.
It’s super character driven, so I briefly apologize for asking for any, but the game does such a good job at being distinct and wonderful about its characters and set-ups you’d never expect - if you told me early last year that I’d be thinking seriously about how St. Martha and Sasaki Koujirou would go on a dragon-slaying adventure in France with St. George along as their reluctant babysitter, I’d really wonder what you were smoking (though I’d probably shrug and nod if you told me it was Fate related). But here I am, saying that that would be amazing, and even more amazing if you somehow worked in the fact that Siegfried is a part of it too as a male idol group with Sasaki with a hit song Prince of Slayers and that Siegfried is basically his own kings blade during their performances and that it must drive their tech team NUTS.
Anything to do with this fandom is honestly good with me. I requested any for a reason: every character is wonderful and anything more written for this fandom is a true gift. Some general things: servants' thoughts on being summoned; are they pampered by their master or overlooked? ; rivalries/trying to prove themselves in events; concerns/non-concerns about the world ending; are there others from their time present and if so are they happy to see them? ; mana transfers; slow days in Chaldea.
I’d love to see anything dealing with the CEs - are they true AUs or a temporary dress-up day - and if so, whose idea was it? The White Day CEs are especially good for this, but the summer event CEs are also so wonderful - that fight over the barbeque with Tesla and Edison, with Elena keeping an eye on them?? Beautiful. Everyone on their best behavior and really careful because Nightingale is the lifeguard and they’re likely to end up worse off if they get in trouble? Did anyone get sick from Paracelsus’s shaved ice experiments?
In general, I’d prefer that the protag be female (I am really endeared by the Manga de Wakaru characterization of Gudako and all if you’d like to go a cracky route!), but I’m okay with either the chapter or event assumptions of what servants the protag has (basically, the main chapters assume you only have Mashu and the helper servants are temporary (or the corollary from that, that the protag only has a small number of servants, not everyone), and the events assume that you own EVERYONE and it’s just a giant Chaldea mana transfer orgy) as well as any assumption about memories any characters have about their appearance in other Fate titles (this varies, again, between the chapters and the events).
Along those lines, I am absolutely okay with either gen or shippy - I think it’s incredibly easy to ship the protag with any servant or many of the servants with each other. Manga de wakaru seems to agree, especially in the second series, with how often Gudako puts moves on Mashu and Olga Marie or refers to mana transfers and thinly-veiled innuendo when talking to or interacting with the servants. She ties up da Vinci with a ball gag! The girl definitely has a giant sex toy drawer that someone’s found at some point, closed quickly, and tried to forget. So free reign on that, even though there do seem to be some characters that fall together more naturally. And just a repeat that anything shippy can be cracky or serious and be absolutely amazing here.
Other assorted random things: all of the Cus trying to reconcile their differences, especially with Scathath and Medb and Fergus hanging around; Karna and Arjuna: Karna has appeared in two other Fate titles and this is the first Arjuna has! sibling rivalry and angst and being mad that one wants the other here even if he shouldn't (I do ship them, but I'm equally fine with just sibling angst); Nitocris being responsible for Chaldea being flooded with Medjed and everyone's alternately curious, confused, and concerned as they just keep appearing (meanwhile Ozymandias is just laughing in the background); Nightingale trying to make up that cross-country run on her back in a bag to Rama, and just making everything worse; certain servants fannishly stalking others; anything, really! Also Mashu really deserves a day off - some day where no one gets dragged into alternate dimensions, no experiments pop up and cause havoc, no senpai harassing her, just a nice, relaxing day where everyone listens to her and pays her attention.
Crueltide coda: As much as it can be a silly canon, Fate also deals with some pretty dark topics, so I'm really open here. Death and violence and torture and grey morals are staples of the canon, and we've literally got an apocalypse as a central point of the game. A lot of the servants weren't good people in life and aren't terribly great people in the game. I would like to ask no torture porn for the sake of torture porn unless it's Medb and Cu - otherwise please some introspection on how what they're doing reflects on their legend or reason for obtaining the grail.
Fate/Apocrypha
Requested Characters: Shirou Kotomine, Semiramis
How to Consume: Again translations can be a little difficult to obtain, but Apocrypha Translations has Volumes 1 and 2 and Canonrap has Volume 3
So a major weakness for me in the Fate world is when Master and Servant pairs just work. I don’t even care if they’re terrible people, but when they work together towards the same goal and actively communicate and offer suggestions and clearly enjoy working together, it’s just such a great, great thing to me.
Shirou and Semiramis are clearly such a pair, with how dedicatedly Shirou was intent on summoning her and the way that he won her over to his plan. She’s basically the only one fully in on it, and they trust and are so comfortable with each other, even when talking about totally fucking over other people. I think both of them are fascinating characters in their own right - Shirou’s morality and situations, Semiramis’ cool observation of situations and her own morality as a poisoner - everything is amazing when it comes to them. I’d love to have them talk about small, low-stakes things to each other, just opening up in each other’s company like they don’t to anyone else. Really anything that has a reflection of how well they complement each other is excellent in my book.
Wynonna Earp
Requested Character: Doc Holliday
How to Consume: Unfortunately, only episodes 1-3 are up for streaming on the SyFy website currently, but the season is available through Amazon Video and iTunes.
I've requested this canon for other exchanges before and those requests are fair game if you need/want more inspiration or thoughts on other characters, but I'll focus on just Doc here.
I'm so, so fascinated by Doc. Between being in a different time than he's used to to having to deal with revenants all over again to having to deal with going from a time where he and Wyatt were talked about in trumped-up rumors to a time where they're basically legends, there's a lot to unpack and a lot of room for introspection and exploration.
There's so much I love about him in season 1: the way he hung back and watched Wynonna and Waverly until he was more sure of them but was still always drawn to them because at heart he's still Wyatt Earp's right-hand-man and that loyalty is hard to shake; the way that he's alternately already comfortable with some aspects of modern culture and others are new to him but picks them up seamlessly; the way he's still not over falling out with Wyatt and how that feeds into his relationship with Wynonna and the Earp curse in general; how he was conscious and aware of time passing all the time down in the well, but unable to do anything about it.
Shipwise, I'm really really good for anything - I think those flashbacks between him and Wyatt were ripe for slashy viewings and pining, requited or mutual or anything angsty would be amazing. They were best friends that never got to reconcile and throwing that on top of everything else is just a glorious pining bonfire. I think whether or not they were shippy, Doc and Wyatt's friendship and how things ended between them feeds a lot into Doc's relationship with Wynonna and I'd love to see that played with - how maybe it started with loyalty and a sense of guilt but then turned to protectiveness for Wynonna herself and how his loyalty shifted from Wyatt to the Earps in general to Wynonna specifically and how maybe he's still lying to himself as to how deep he's in. I do take the view that even if he and Dolls are in competition for Wynonna's affections, it's not antagonistic - Doc backs off and fights alongside Dolls and is just as enthusiastic about going to go rescue Dolls as everyone else - I don't think he'd back down entirely, but he wouldn't slam Dolls (though slamming him up against a wall, hot and bothered, especially after seeing the effects of the mystery injection is not out of the picture). Basically, I'm really open for anything, but I'd love it if you played with the fact that Doc has a lot of depth and secrets he's still keeping close to his chest.
Short prompt things:
- Strip poker!
- Gun-slinging lessons
- No one can drink Doc under the table and he learns a lot about everyone this way
- He can't die and his life is tied to Constance, but can he get sick? Does he get a cough and try to shake off the irrational suspicion it's his TB? Does someone else get sick?
Crueltide coda: Gunplay, knifeplay, and playing with the fact that Doc is essentially immortal right now are all good here! I'm also okay with internalized homophobia if you go for the Doc/Wyatt angle and sabotaging himself because it's already hopeless.
This is the letter for Labocat on AO3 and before we begin, I'd just like to say thank you! I've had a fantastic time doing exchanges this year and it was all thanks to doing Yuletide for the first time last year, so this exchange holds a dear place in my heart. I hope we matched on something you're excited about, because this should ideally be fun for us both! Along those lines, I do want to say that if nothing below sparks you, please feel free to use any ideas you already have! I'm really easy to please and all of these fandoms are here because I just want to see more writing in them in general, so anything at all is a gift!
In general: I meant what I said when I said I was really easy to please: I love all ratings, from general to explicit, and as long as it involves my requested characters, I love all genres and topics!
Some tropes I adore that are relevant (non-comprehensive):
- hurt/comfort and whump
- alternate PoVs of scenes
- pre-canon backstory
- curtainfic/established relationship
- casefic
- fake relationship/arranged marriage/accidentally married/accidental confessions
- found family
- enemies/rivals to lovers (also friends to lovers)
- secret relationships/friendships
- reincarnation/fated/soulbonds
- trapped somewhere together
- loyalty
- magically bonded together (either physically or telepathically)
- redemption and corruption (obv doesn't have to be in the same story, but I am good with either route!)
My DNWs are very few and are unlikely to come up in these canons, but just in case: pregnancy/kids, non-canonical pronouns, and suicidal thoughts/actions from characters further than canon would go.
Really Optional Details That Are Entirely Optional (okay let’s just call them kinks): If you wanted to go a M/E route, and are comfortable writing any of the following, I really enjoy size difference, blindfolds, orgasm denial, messy/sloppy sex, intercrual, oral, semi-public sex (like in a closet or alley), sensory deprivation, breathplay, toys, marking/possessiveness, body worship, slow, drawn-out sex that can really tie in with the aforementioned body worship. I also like a lot of things that generally have to be requested and that most people aren’t comfortable with so they are Extra Optional: dubcon, vore/gore, tentacles and xenophilia, a/b/o, bloodplay, threesomes/moresomes, double penetration, and collars.
Requested Characters: Any
How to Consume: Amazon
I love the worldbuilding potential of this book - there’s so much to be explored in both the magic and the politics the occur from both inter and intra-world dynamics! I love how each character (and each London) has been shaped by their distance from the magic center and what London they occupy and the sort of shifts we get to see when they’re faced with new elements. Each of the Londons has a different relationship with magic due to their distance from the center, but what could have happened if any of the characters were from a different London, or the Londons were in a different order radiating outward? What if Kell and Holland were Antari of other Londons? Have they ever been trapped in a different London during their early days learning their Antari powers? The Antari are a dying breed and Kell was brought quickly to the court - did the royals have people out searching for Antari to bind them to the crown even before they started dying out? Were they in the monasteries instead? Under a guise of "education"? What does magic look like in some of the cities other than London? From what we see in Red London, the Antari aren't well understood by any of the other countries, so do they have different magical systems? There's so much to explore!
Character-wise is a little similar - I think everyone is fascinating and lend so much to the plot and other characters: the fact that everyone’s decisions affect every other character in some form has a lot of appealing potential for character interaction and introspection. For example: how did the Danes rise to power? What was the situation in White London like and was their control over Holland immediate or did he start a coup shortly after? How do the events that lead up to that affect him when ruling White London in Shadows or dealing with Osaron? What if Lila had been on her own in White London for longer? Part of the reason I'm lukewarm on her is that she gets away with everything, even when she shouldn't; the only time she didn't was with Astrid, and that was fascinating to me, to have her have to adapt and work her mind around a situation where she's in over her head and find a way out. Either something where Astrid had a hold on her for longer - Lila only got a taste of the desperation in White London for a bit, what would it be like to have to be there or under Astrid's control for longer? - or where she's the one who has to face heavy consequences for her actions for once and the others (which characters are entirely up to you!) help her through it and she learns to lean on other people a little more and open up to them more. The cliffhanger at the end of Shadows or the threatened war in Red London would be good opportunities!
What might have happened if any of the other characters had been the one dealing with Osaron? What are Kell and Holland’s respective thoughts on being the last of the Antari and basically two sides of a coin with each other? What would have been going through their heads when they thought the other dead? Lila is being heavily hinted to be Grey London's Antari or at least a sprouting of magic where they thought there was none - what could this mean for Grey London or magic there in general? Or for Kell and Holland, who consider themselves the last Antari?
I’ll admit that I ship basically any combination in this series with the exception of Lila/Kell, so if you want to write shipfic, the world(s) is(are) your oyster! I love the dedication that Kell and Rhy have for each other, either shippy or platonic, they would (and have!) die for each other. I think Kell and Rhy’s soulbond is extremely interesting, especially since the book keeps bringing up that their pleasures are linked, but Kell seems to be unable to separate out Rhy’s pain while he’s being pleased. I think it’s an interesting element to add into the Rhy/Alucard dynamic as well: the knowledge that no matter what they do, they can’t hide it from Kell anymore, forcing them to be honest with him. That entire story and falling-out has a lot of unexplored depths to it though - it's clear Kell's story isn't the whole one, with how biased he is about Rhy - what could have actually happened? Add that into Alucard and Lila's flirtations (I'll admit that I actually enjoyed them together since their loose moralities played well off of each other) into the melting pot of flirtations that there's a mess of misunderstandings brewing. Kell and Holland have such a good potential for redemption/corruption arcs as well as the only ones who can fully understand the pressures being an Antari brings so there's a connection there even if they don't particularly want it.
I’ll also admit to being really into the bloodplay possibilities of Antari magic - the Danes drinking Holland’s blood in front of Kell was what catapulted me to Twitter to start to recruit friends to read the book. What if Kell had accepted the glass? Or if Athos hadn’t offered him anything else? What if they’d forced Holland to stay and watch while Kell drank it? Does Antari blood have a certain allure/affect on other Antari? The compulsive brand on Holland is also really alluring - how much of his intent in his actions are they aware of? He gave the possession necklace to Rhy on their orders - could they have been possessing him as well at times?
I am absolutely okay with any of the characters getting into serious trouble or getting hurt as a result of that; they're dealing with dangerous magics and in the middle of some coups, there's bound to be a lot of rough situations. Athos doing his best to get a reaction out of Holland, with the line "no one suffers as beautifully as you"? Excellent. Basically, I am so okay with grey morals, dubcon edging to noncon, terrible people doing what they will to retain control, or just awful decisions made with the knowledge that there's no better choice.
Crueltide coda: As I mentioned, I'm extremely interested in the bloodplay or magical compulsion torture potential in the magic system. The Danes fill an easy noncon/dubcon niche here, but I am equally okay with any other character giving or receiving; Osaron would be good for non-con body takeover, for example.
Requested Characters: Ned, Crispin
How to Consume: Rag and Bone and its prequel A Queer Trade are the most relevant books here, but any other cameos from the Charm of Magpies world are welcome, especially from Jackdaw!
Historical fantasy is such a weakness of mine and I just absolutely fell in love with this spin-off. I love the concept of graphomancy, and I love characters who have a type of magic that falls outside of the standard rules and methods and so have to create their own path, so I was doomed from the start.
I’ll admit, after finishing Rag and Bone, I have been thinking about if Ned and Crispin have to, as part of a case as judiciary, go to Cornwall, with Crispin starting to slipping back into Cornish and childhood habits and alternately more comfortable and more awkward with his magic surrounded by familiar things and trying to prove that he’s succeeded to people who have known him as a child (while having to hide his magic and his job and his boyfriend). Bonus points if at some point along the way they run into Ben and Jonah (because I would put good odds on the part of Cornwall Crispin is from being close to where Ben and Jonah ended up because their lives have already mingled and why not) and they bond over being on slightly the wrong side of the law and finding refuge in Cornwall and in general seeing each other again and realizing how their timelines overlapped.
But that’s my super weirdly specific request! Otherwise I think that Ned and Crispin’s relationship is wonderful and adorable. Nicknames! Each thinking the other is wildly successful and amazing (despite not thinking they themselves are all that)! Ned being grumpy about suddenly being magical! Graphomancy! Being recruited precisely because they’re oddities (which fits so nicely into my love of what a character thinks of as a weakness others see as their strength)! I think it’s really charming that Ned’s talent was one for hearing to begin with when Crispin absolutely lacks it - they complement each other so well and I loved seeing them play off of that to solve problems. I think Ned would still take a lot of time to get used to have more than a flit’s talent, so maybe Crispin helping him deal with it or finding a way to use his hearing in a way that is actually nice and pleasing rather than stressful from all the noise of London. Their first run (or few runs as they fumble through!) as justiciary would be so neat to see as well!
Crueltide coda: Lighter fare here, but absolutely okay with a job going wrong: we've seen practitioners hungry for power summon all sorts of things that would be a nightmare to deal with or to have go wrong. Bodily possession has also already come up and been a concern, so please feel free to play with that! Also it's canon that flits who get a taste for power are highly susceptible to getting addicted to magic and wanting more and we know that Ned's father was an alcoholic, so there's some open doors for addiction or for Crispin to be concerned about it.
Requested Characters: Any
How to Consume: Grand Order can be tricky! So many of the translations are piecemeal and scattered across multiple sites, but Chaldeum has a good collection of various things and Cirnopedia has a number as well including links to pastebins and other sites with translations.
Oh my god where do I even start. I love this fandom because it’s just so alternately off-the-wall and emotionally serious (I certainly never expected to have emotions about Hassan, okay) and the usage of events and the core stories is the perfect example of “get you a game that can do both”. The game basically doing as it likes at all times in terms of locale and occurrences plays really well with that dual nature, so I am up for everything from they get teleported to the moon to deep introspection on the nature of the Chaldea system and the servant system or being summoned into Chaldea and needing to be convinced to fight or conflicting goals for if the grail is obtained.
It’s super character driven, so I briefly apologize for asking for any, but the game does such a good job at being distinct and wonderful about its characters and set-ups you’d never expect - if you told me early last year that I’d be thinking seriously about how St. Martha and Sasaki Koujirou would go on a dragon-slaying adventure in France with St. George along as their reluctant babysitter, I’d really wonder what you were smoking (though I’d probably shrug and nod if you told me it was Fate related). But here I am, saying that that would be amazing, and even more amazing if you somehow worked in the fact that Siegfried is a part of it too as a male idol group with Sasaki with a hit song Prince of Slayers and that Siegfried is basically his own kings blade during their performances and that it must drive their tech team NUTS.
Anything to do with this fandom is honestly good with me. I requested any for a reason: every character is wonderful and anything more written for this fandom is a true gift. Some general things: servants' thoughts on being summoned; are they pampered by their master or overlooked? ; rivalries/trying to prove themselves in events; concerns/non-concerns about the world ending; are there others from their time present and if so are they happy to see them? ; mana transfers; slow days in Chaldea.
I’d love to see anything dealing with the CEs - are they true AUs or a temporary dress-up day - and if so, whose idea was it? The White Day CEs are especially good for this, but the summer event CEs are also so wonderful - that fight over the barbeque with Tesla and Edison, with Elena keeping an eye on them?? Beautiful. Everyone on their best behavior and really careful because Nightingale is the lifeguard and they’re likely to end up worse off if they get in trouble? Did anyone get sick from Paracelsus’s shaved ice experiments?
In general, I’d prefer that the protag be female (I am really endeared by the Manga de Wakaru characterization of Gudako and all if you’d like to go a cracky route!), but I’m okay with either the chapter or event assumptions of what servants the protag has (basically, the main chapters assume you only have Mashu and the helper servants are temporary (or the corollary from that, that the protag only has a small number of servants, not everyone), and the events assume that you own EVERYONE and it’s just a giant Chaldea mana transfer orgy) as well as any assumption about memories any characters have about their appearance in other Fate titles (this varies, again, between the chapters and the events).
Along those lines, I am absolutely okay with either gen or shippy - I think it’s incredibly easy to ship the protag with any servant or many of the servants with each other. Manga de wakaru seems to agree, especially in the second series, with how often Gudako puts moves on Mashu and Olga Marie or refers to mana transfers and thinly-veiled innuendo when talking to or interacting with the servants. She ties up da Vinci with a ball gag! The girl definitely has a giant sex toy drawer that someone’s found at some point, closed quickly, and tried to forget. So free reign on that, even though there do seem to be some characters that fall together more naturally. And just a repeat that anything shippy can be cracky or serious and be absolutely amazing here.
Other assorted random things: all of the Cus trying to reconcile their differences, especially with Scathath and Medb and Fergus hanging around; Karna and Arjuna: Karna has appeared in two other Fate titles and this is the first Arjuna has! sibling rivalry and angst and being mad that one wants the other here even if he shouldn't (I do ship them, but I'm equally fine with just sibling angst); Nitocris being responsible for Chaldea being flooded with Medjed and everyone's alternately curious, confused, and concerned as they just keep appearing (meanwhile Ozymandias is just laughing in the background); Nightingale trying to make up that cross-country run on her back in a bag to Rama, and just making everything worse; certain servants fannishly stalking others; anything, really! Also Mashu really deserves a day off - some day where no one gets dragged into alternate dimensions, no experiments pop up and cause havoc, no senpai harassing her, just a nice, relaxing day where everyone listens to her and pays her attention.
Crueltide coda: As much as it can be a silly canon, Fate also deals with some pretty dark topics, so I'm really open here. Death and violence and torture and grey morals are staples of the canon, and we've literally got an apocalypse as a central point of the game. A lot of the servants weren't good people in life and aren't terribly great people in the game. I would like to ask no torture porn for the sake of torture porn unless it's Medb and Cu - otherwise please some introspection on how what they're doing reflects on their legend or reason for obtaining the grail.
Requested Characters: Shirou Kotomine, Semiramis
How to Consume: Again translations can be a little difficult to obtain, but Apocrypha Translations has Volumes 1 and 2 and Canonrap has Volume 3
So a major weakness for me in the Fate world is when Master and Servant pairs just work. I don’t even care if they’re terrible people, but when they work together towards the same goal and actively communicate and offer suggestions and clearly enjoy working together, it’s just such a great, great thing to me.
Shirou and Semiramis are clearly such a pair, with how dedicatedly Shirou was intent on summoning her and the way that he won her over to his plan. She’s basically the only one fully in on it, and they trust and are so comfortable with each other, even when talking about totally fucking over other people. I think both of them are fascinating characters in their own right - Shirou’s morality and situations, Semiramis’ cool observation of situations and her own morality as a poisoner - everything is amazing when it comes to them. I’d love to have them talk about small, low-stakes things to each other, just opening up in each other’s company like they don’t to anyone else. Really anything that has a reflection of how well they complement each other is excellent in my book.
Requested Character: Doc Holliday
How to Consume: Unfortunately, only episodes 1-3 are up for streaming on the SyFy website currently, but the season is available through Amazon Video and iTunes.
I've requested this canon for other exchanges before and those requests are fair game if you need/want more inspiration or thoughts on other characters, but I'll focus on just Doc here.
I'm so, so fascinated by Doc. Between being in a different time than he's used to to having to deal with revenants all over again to having to deal with going from a time where he and Wyatt were talked about in trumped-up rumors to a time where they're basically legends, there's a lot to unpack and a lot of room for introspection and exploration.
There's so much I love about him in season 1: the way he hung back and watched Wynonna and Waverly until he was more sure of them but was still always drawn to them because at heart he's still Wyatt Earp's right-hand-man and that loyalty is hard to shake; the way that he's alternately already comfortable with some aspects of modern culture and others are new to him but picks them up seamlessly; the way he's still not over falling out with Wyatt and how that feeds into his relationship with Wynonna and the Earp curse in general; how he was conscious and aware of time passing all the time down in the well, but unable to do anything about it.
Shipwise, I'm really really good for anything - I think those flashbacks between him and Wyatt were ripe for slashy viewings and pining, requited or mutual or anything angsty would be amazing. They were best friends that never got to reconcile and throwing that on top of everything else is just a glorious pining bonfire. I think whether or not they were shippy, Doc and Wyatt's friendship and how things ended between them feeds a lot into Doc's relationship with Wynonna and I'd love to see that played with - how maybe it started with loyalty and a sense of guilt but then turned to protectiveness for Wynonna herself and how his loyalty shifted from Wyatt to the Earps in general to Wynonna specifically and how maybe he's still lying to himself as to how deep he's in. I do take the view that even if he and Dolls are in competition for Wynonna's affections, it's not antagonistic - Doc backs off and fights alongside Dolls and is just as enthusiastic about going to go rescue Dolls as everyone else - I don't think he'd back down entirely, but he wouldn't slam Dolls (though slamming him up against a wall, hot and bothered, especially after seeing the effects of the mystery injection is not out of the picture). Basically, I'm really open for anything, but I'd love it if you played with the fact that Doc has a lot of depth and secrets he's still keeping close to his chest.
Short prompt things:
- Strip poker!
- Gun-slinging lessons
- No one can drink Doc under the table and he learns a lot about everyone this way
- He can't die and his life is tied to Constance, but can he get sick? Does he get a cough and try to shake off the irrational suspicion it's his TB? Does someone else get sick?
Crueltide coda: Gunplay, knifeplay, and playing with the fact that Doc is essentially immortal right now are all good here! I'm also okay with internalized homophobia if you go for the Doc/Wyatt angle and sabotaging himself because it's already hopeless.