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K ([personal profile] karanguni) wrote2020-10-18 07:22 pm
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Dear Yuletide Writer 2020

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you for writing for me! I hope you have fun this Yuletide – everything in this letter is optional, and I am an omnivorous reader, so I'm looking forward to whatever you come up with! 2020 has been a year and a half, so don't let anything in this letter stress you out. Happy Yuletide!

AO3: karanguni
tl;dr: Gen is great, porn is great, unusual media types and crossovers with fandoms I know are great, you are great; ignore or take as many parts of this wall of text as you want.

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Likes

  • Old friendships and relationships: people who were close but who then drifted or were driven apart, and how they come together again. The internal struggle of renegotiating new/old territory; unrequited/unresolved tension. Pining is great, and I don't mind not having a happy (or any) resolution.
  • People who know each other very well, and who translate that knowledge into a variety of things - whether that's intimacy, sex, codependency, codeswitching or otherwise - that aren't easily read or understood by third parties. Ingroup/outgroup dynamics!
  • Service/loyalty/contractual obligations.
  • High-pressure situations - whether immediate or over a long time span - and how people respond to them.
  • Competence porn: people who have worked very hard to become highly proficient in their skillsets, whether that's being an assassin or meticulous scholarship.
  • Private versus public conflicts, and how a character balances the two. Winning one only to lose the other; difficult compromises.
  • Cross-class interactions; the bigger the divide, the better. Double points if it's not just a case of "I've got X and you've not", but rather how two people challenge each other across said divides.
  • Worldbuilding, especially economic, in-group, and political worldbuilding.
  • AUs, crossovers, non-traditional media (IF, art, whatever!) are all fine with me. Anything I've written for or in my AO3 bookmarks is fair game, but I do bookmark things that I do not have canon knowledge of, so please hit me up via a mod inquiry if you're worried!
If you're interested in writing for Yuleporn or Crueltide:
  • Powerplays and mindfucking, whether in bed or out of it. Cavalier but not careless use of power.
  • Dom/sub dynamics, but not as a lifestyle (To whit - a commander/subordinate relationship with lots of sir-ing? Delicious. Slave or A/B/O AU where the setting encourages the dynamic? Yes, please! Bringing a BDSM master/slave relationship in a vanilla society out of the bedroom without a supporting non-bedroom context? Nah. :)) I give a carte blanche for any kink exploration.
  • Age gaps, and gaps in general - of experience, of personal wealth, of language, of social class.
  • Breathplay, dirty talk, spanking/impact play, voyeurism/exhibitionism, clothing or uniform porn or mostly-dressed sex, age gap, restraints.
  • And some additional Yuleporn prompts

Here are links to my minichallenge signups if you want 'em: Yulebuilding, Crueltide, Wrapping Paper, 2 for 1, Cheftide, and I also carte blanche for Yuleporn. Phew!

Dislikes/DNWs:

Again, I'm omnivorous! I have no hard DNWs; if there is something I would like you to avoid, it will be in the fandom-specific section. I'd only request avoiding solely fluff- or introspection-based gen pieces - I don't mind it as a scene, but I'd rather not it be the whole fic.



Edo Era Japanese Go Players RPF

Characters: Honinbou Shuusaku, Oota Yuuzou

Go in real life, I've come to discover, is as strange or stranger than - say - Hikrau no Go, and that's what makes it amazing. (I mean, even the modern players have weird fairytale careers.) I listed competence porn as one of my likes above, and boy oh boy do Go players hit that spot. There are some tremendous stories about them and their exploits. This request does not actually need all that much digging into: GLORIOUS AGE-DIFFERENCE RIVALRY is all you really need to know about the Honinbou Shuusaku/Oota Yuuzou relationship. To quote this website:

[...] Yuzo was Shusaku's top rival and Shusaku played more games with Yuzo than with anyone else. [...] He was also said to be one of the most handsome professional Go players of the time. He did not participate in the Castle games because he would have had to shave his head.

WHAT MORE NEED I SAY? Here we have two people with incredibly specific competencies at a slow board game set during a fin de siècle period when old feudal Japan was on the teetering brink of change. Write me anything about them going at their craft and I will love it! I know functionally zero about Go, so don't feel obliged to go into technical details, though if you do I will thoroughly enjoy reading about it. While I'd love this to be shippy, I'd be just as happy with gen.

  • How do either of them feel about titles and status? Did Oota care at all? Does he smirk at Shuusaku's accumulated accolades? Is he envious? I adore in-group/out-group dynamics, so if you want to write about how rankings worked and what that meant socially for them, I'd love that
  • Castle Game or the 30 Game Competition shenanigans. Thought: Oota hanging outside any of the million of Castle Games Shuusaku won, smiling rakishly/suggestively...
  • Tell me about Shuusaku growing up and learning from Oota: why didn't they end up in a mentor/student setup? How did Shuusaku, little genius that he was, go about learning about the world beyond the Go board?
  • Drunken Go with other players while the two of them engage in totally inappropriate cross-generational flirting
  • Reincarnation AU? Magical Go board AU?

N.B.: feel free to abandon and choose your own romanisation of the character names; after typing this letter even I'm finding "Oota Yuuzou" ridiculous looking.



17th Century CE Japanese Arts & Sciences RPF

Characters: Any

This RPF fandom could be summarised as "most of the people from the movie Tenchi Meisatsu running around." The movie is hard to find on streaming platforms, but if you manage to get your hands on it, I'm happy for you to use that as your source material with no further references!

I find the concept of time-keeping and calendar making fascinating, and this fandom is all about that. The nominated characters are all in some way or another related to the Jokyo Reform of 1685, which switched Japan away from the borrowed Chinese calendrical system that it had been using for the last 800 years (!) to a new, Japan-centric system created by Shibukawa Shunkai/Santetsu. The other nominated characters were part of Santetsu's story: Honinbo Dosaku was the greatest player of his generation and a Go rival of Santetsu's in a somewhat Hikaru no Go, Akira/Touya like sense. Seki Takakazu was a mathematical genius (seriously, look this dude up) who could see all the numbers but not the astronomy. Tsuchimikado of the Bureau of Divination saw the rightness of Santetsu's calendrical thinking but had to fight against the political leanings of the Kyoto court, which wanted to adopt the Ming Dynasty Daitoreki calendar instead.

This is all incredibly esoteric and a long shot fandom, but I find it fascinating that a calendar system which kept time that was slowly but surely falling out of synchronisation with natural phenomena was left unquestioned for 800 years, only to be overturned by Shibukawa – who had been "nothing but" a Go player for the shogun. His original name, Santetsu, means "mathematical wisdom," and boy did that end up being semi-prophetic.

I'd love for a fic that explores, whether scientifically or psychologically or fantastically or magically, this desire of man to reach for a seemingly impossible understanding of the world. Maybe it's Santetsu and Dosaku sitting at a Go board, playing out in a tengen-opening game the metaphysical arc of Santetsu's calendar work and Dosaku's Go playing. Maybe it's Tsuchimikado navigating the Bureau of Divination and the court's political power to state what time is. Maybe it's Seki Takakazu – who in the Tenchi Meisatsu movie reminded me so much of Donald Glover's portrayal of Rich Purnell from The Martian – up all night in a pile of mathematical calculations grasping at something he can't quite get.

Whether it's mathematics or divination or Go playing or astronomy, there's an innate aspirational desire to reach further and go deeper that I'd love to read about. The spirit, as it were, and not the historical mechanics! I really don't need research into things like variable hour calendars or Santetsu's understanding of the difference in longitudes between Beijing and Kyoto.

Here are some ideas:

  • A fantastical or magical realistic take on this slice of history. Maybe Tsuchimikado in the Bureau of Divinations really can do magic? Maybe Santetsu has some sort of special gift or ability? Maybe Dosaku and Santetsu play a game of Go that changes actual reality? Maybe Seki Takakazu casts spells? Maybe the various creatures of the hours come to life in some way and are either an accepted part of magical reality or a new phenomenon that has to be dealt with.
  • In that same vein, a crossover or AR blend with canons like, say, Mononoke or The Watchmaker of Filigree St. would be amazing.
  • Handwave reality and hand-of-god a total eclipse of the sun – do the characters predict it? Is it a magical moment?
  • What are the consequences of a calendar going out of alignment or a world out of harmony?
  • Worldbuilding about calendars in Edo Japanese, whether real or fantastical, would also be supremely interesting on its own!

(If you are looking at my writing history, please don't feel like you have to write to a high degree of historical accuracy for me! As long as there isn't something anachronistic to the point that no suspension of disbelief is possible (I'm talking Mickey Mouse showing up in Edo Japan level), I'm not nitpicky. I actually know very little about Edo Japan!)



The Watchmaker of Filigree Street - Natasha Pulley

Characters: Mori Keita

(The fandom as nominated is for the first book in the series, but I've read The Lost Future of Pepperharrow. If you've read it and want to write in that space, I'd be delighted. If you don't, that's fine too! I'd request the following, though I don't consider it a hard DNW (SPOILER): if you do write with Pepperharrow canon in mind, please do not write a totally de-powered Keita, though I'm happy to read him struggling through changes in his powers or a recovery.)

Oh, Keita: eldritch horror? Grumpy old man? Magical realist incarnation of the elite of the Meiji Restoration breaking out into a brave new world that has such strangeness in it? I love his complexity and his inner universe and his cavalier attitude towards the very aristocratic background that allows him to do, alongside a little magic, whatever the hell he wants to do.

I am extremely taken by Keita's general attitudes towards Meiji Japan and his title, family, and place in (and out) of Japanese society as a whole, especially in Pepperharrow. I adore his spymastering and manipulation, his language acquisition (and loss) as a tool he uses in his intrigues, his relationship with other lords, the mark he has on him as being something strange and sinister.

I'd love to read more about adult Keita before or after he meets with Thaniel. I want, very badly, to know how he reconciles his public duties with his private impulses; his abilities with his reality. A couple of ideas:

  • Keita in Japan as an adult with his titles: I'd love to know about the ways in which he tries to manipulate the world. Is it really all for Thaniel? Or is Keita less detached from his life outside of his relationship than he might otherwise present?
  • What does Keita see or know that only he (and, presumably, his mother) can see or know? What are his coping mechanisms? Does he see horror? Does he also see joy? If you want to go Lovecraftian, I'm all for some cosmic horror.
  • Keita has a lot of dark in him, the way I read him: how does he manage it? Is his relationship with Thaniel the product of him being a bit of a monomaniac thinking Thaniel is the only one who will ever understand him, or something else - healthy or otherwise? Is the darkness part of a self-fulfilling prophecy?
  • Language/competency/codeswitching porn: the idea that Keita - for all of his oddities - can blend in while standing out like a sore thumb because he can remember a future of being in whatever society he chooses to dump himself into. Tell me about his adventures in Russia or China or Britain, perfectly at home and perfectly alien at the same time! If you want to write porn: dirty talk in all of the languages! Or using the future to mindfuck someone!
  • Tell me more about Keita's watches. How are they special? Has he given them to anyone else? How do they (ah-ha) tick? Where do they stand in relation to the watchmaking and timekeeping tradition of Japan? Some fun potential things: toki no kane as part of the soundscape of Edo Japan or the beautiful but inaccurate pillow clocks. There's a whole JSTOR article on late Edo Western-style timepieces if that floats your boat.
  • Or tell me how Keita moves through time: how long is his lifespan? How much can he actually do?
  • If you've read The Bedlam Stacks: Keita's time in the EIC, wandering around getting nearly blown up and being far too good at what he does. Does he have any solo adventures? Or was he mostly in it to play matchmaker for another unlikely couple? Why did he choose the Company, of all things? After Thaniel, does he ever catch up with Merrick again?
  • As with my 17CE Edo request above, feel free to toss Keita through space and time (and worlds) as you feel appropriate. Maybe he meets Shibukawa Shunkai?

If you've matched with me hoping to write some Keita/Thaniel, I certainly do ship them! I just ask that the core of the story focus on Keita's personality and backstory. Example: if you want to write about the long (long) setup to him meeting Thaniel, that's great as long as it's about Keita and his preparations. Or if you want to write about Thaniel and Keita in Japan, please focus on Keita's navigation of that can of worms – I don't mind if it's from Thaniel's point of view, even.



The Culture - Iain M. Banks

Characters: Cheradenine Zakalwe, Diziet Sma, GOU FOTNMC, Lededje Y'breq
Amazon: Use of Weapons and Surface Detail are the only two you technically need.

I mean come on how could you not.

If you were matched to me on other fandoms, rest assured that I want all of them equally: The Culture has simply been my forever-fandom for a long, long, long while. Forgive its multi-year accumulated length!

ONE DAY MY SHIP WILL COME; I have reached a point where I am perfectly happy any Culture fic at all - spin the wheel on any of the requested characters, write about them in any combination AND or OR, go wild and worldbuild. Want to write whatever that Culture fic is that's been sitting in your head? Fantastic. I can't wait to read it. I've snipped out most of the non-bulleted part of this request that have appeared in previous years' letters, so take anything you want from my 2018/2017/2016 (all practically identical) or 2015/2014 letters.

New this year: Zakalwe's conversion of experience to wisdom over the years of working for SC, and where he remains naive still. I love his conversation with Tsoldrin about The Culture and whether they are as objective as they pretend to be; about how he's lived a long time and doesn't necessarily want to go to war. He's such a complicated bag of competencies and abject failures and I'd love anything about him.

Alternatively:

As always, gosh do I want to see the fallout (or fall-in) of a Culture AI actually going literal meatfucker. FOTNMC + human + sex it actually cares about = ? Especially if that person it cares about is Lededje. Explore their relationship with each other after Surface Detail: I'd love to see them stay in touch, and develop a bond that is unlike what everyone expects them to develop. Does he help her establish herself in the Culture? Or is it the other way around: does Led take to her freedom like a duck to water and end up giving more back to FOTNMC than he – a mere pile of guns stapled together with cutting edge tech – helps her?

SC caperfic would be amazing. Maybe someone has to hunt down FOTNMC. Maybe FOTNMC is hunting someone down. Zakalwe gets into trouble and Sma calls in a favour, perhaps. Or Zakalwe ends up on FOTNMC on assignment and they end up going... rather outside the bounds of their authority, which Sma has to deal with. Or either Sma or Lededje getting in trouble and these two relative strangers finding it in them to go after them.

  • Demeisen going through an upgrade. One hundred pages of him drooling over new inventory? Amen. Him window-shopping for a new body? YES. Or: what GCU does he dock with for his refitting? What GCU would want to take him? Or what GCU would reject him? Demeisen talking it over with Lededje, or Zakalwe...
  • Lededje and Demeisen's penpal relationship.
  • Sma dolls Zakalwe up in an attempt to help the man fucking unwind a moment. Fucking ensues. Unexpected fucking.
  • Sma, Demeisen, and hatefucking over their comparative SC philosophies after having a talk about Contact. Or the exact opposite: Sma and Demeisen having a complete and frightening meeting of SC minds.
  • Zakalwe attempting to learn any amount of Culture technology; is he like a clueless tech-support nightmare with his first touchscreen device? Him getting a crash course in certain bits of tech – point-and-shoot-y or otherwise – from Demeisen. Or a piece contrasting the tech Zakalwe is brilliant at with the other types of Culture tech he's totally useless about.
  • Sma and FOTNMC have a talk about Contact. Philosophical, ah, disagreements ensue.
  • Sma and Lededje have a talk about Contact. Philosophical, ah, disagreements ensue... while FOTNMC listens and incorrigibly encourages Led to take up arms.
  • Crossover ideas: John Wick (and Zakalwe get into a gun fight?)

Additional porn prompts:

  • Lededje/Demeisen as an act of Demeisen demonstrating his affection for her, or Led watching Demeisen wreck some other humans for her sake, not his.
  • Anything involving Zakalwe tied to a chair. (Sma/Demeisen go at it in front of him? Clearly it's, ah, cognitive behavioural therapy, right?)
  • Sma/Zakalwe with Sma topping the hell out of him. Demeisen watching them both for bonus points, triple points if he's pitching in instructions!
  • Demeisen experimenting with xeno in all the ways it could do so.
  • Or Zakalwe learning to bend a little bit the longer he's in the Culture: his heterosexual capabilities have never been in question, but...