![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Dear Yuletide Writer 2022
Dear Yuletide writer,
Thank you for writing for me! I'm a generally omnivorous reader and excited to read anything that you come up with – everything in this letter is optional. Have fun!
AO3: karanguni
tl;dr: I happily opt into gen, porn, unusual media types, and crossovers with fandoms I have read/written/requested before; ignore or take as many parts of this wall of text as you want! My AO3 account has gifts enabled for treats.
- Likes/DNWs
- 平家物語 | Heike monogatari | The Tale of the Heike (Shigemori)
- The Left Hand of Darkness (Therem Harth rem ir Estraven)
- The Culture - Iain M. Banks (Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints)
- Edo Era Intellectuals RPF (Any)
General Likes
I genuinely mean that I'm an omnivorous reader: if you have something that you want to write, I'm happy to read it. Please don't sweat stuff like first/second person POV, archive-warning content, &c. That said, if you want some jumping-off ideas:
- 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!
- Porn likes will go here once I sign up for Yuleporn :)
- Some additional crossover thoughts are in my 2 For 1 comment
Dislikes/DNWs:
I have no hard DNWs. In terms of general dislikes, for porn I would prefer not to read long, detailed descriptions of daddy kink or scat, but am fine with mentions of it.
平家物語 | Heike monogatari | The Tale of the Heike
Taira no Shigemori (Tale of Heike)
Oh Shigemori, cinnamon roll of the Heike, too good for this world. I am absolutely open to any adventures you might take him on, and I mean that in the truest sense: whether canon fill-in or grand Legends of the Galactic Heroes space opera AU or a tumble through Japanese mythology/Noh plays/???, I am down for anything you can come up with. He's just so... good. For what little time we get him, Shigemori is a force of nobility and dignity and old-time Taira awesome, the last of the Good Ones, a mirrored bookend on the other side of the tale from, say, Atsumori.
I adore Shigemori's competence, his ability to stand up to his father, his presence in the story despite how little time he has. The bittersweet tragedy of him not living long enough to become a villain (come on, who really gets out of the Genpei drama without some egg on their face?) is like candy to me.
Some ideas:
- What happens if he lives and Kiyomori doesn't?
- I am 100% – nay, 1000% – here for something a little magical realist or mythological: there are so many SIGNS! and SYMBOLS! in Heike. Was there something about the whirlwind before Shigemori's death that was significant? Does he come back as a ghost? Do you want him to haunt Kiyomori until Kiyomori
stops being an assholesees skulls and dogs baying? Or maybe he comes back as a hidden bodhisattva? - I will read anything competence porn related for Shigemori. You could write about him sitting at a desk thinking about trade deals, urban planning, the logistics of keeping a household fed, what to wear next season, or wood drying and I would love it. Maybe a bit of his journal? Some of his letters?
- External point of view of his retainers or [choose your own major character]?
- I hereby opt-in for wish fulfilment semi-crack. Shigemori in a modern corporate AU, where he could maybe have not fallen ill and chosen Another Way for the Taira
clanzaibatsu? Or something IN SPACE! You really can't go wrong with IN SPACE! - Going wildly in another direction, if you feel so inclined as to invent a Shigemori Noh play... I'd love even a sketched out version or liner notes of what that might look line.
- Random in-universe (?) crossovers (?): I have absolutely no justification for wanting Shigemori to chill with/school Yoshitsune, but I do. Or, what would have happened if Soujoubou randomly adopted Shigemori?
- I very much love the general fatalistic mood of the canon, and how rocks-fall-everybody-dies doesn't matter because the candleflames of people's lives still burn bright for a while. I happily opt-in to character death and sadness &c. &c., as well as you pairing Shigemori up with anyone if you want to go that way.
Regarding canon and related canons: I am thoroughly unfussed about canon sources. My English copy is the Royall Tyler and I own it in annotated classical Japanese as well – but romanise however you want! My Heike knowledge is broad but also really piecemeal, as is my general knowledge of Japanese literature as a whole; I will happily suck up any links to source material/footnotes if you feel inclined to go Heike-wild. It would make my year to receive some random reference to anything Genji/Genpei/Hogen/Heiji/random Noh or kabuki or movie or anime/poetry/woodblock carvings/weirdly obscure facts about Kyoto. If, for some reason, you stick some Japanese references in, I will happily go look them up. But I also honestly don't care if you wallpaper all of that in favour of just going with... Shigemori vibes, for a lack of a better term: I'm not fussed with historical accuracy if you're not aiming for historical accuracy.
P.S. If you're reading this section of my letter and comprehending anything I'm writing to begin with, believe me when I say I'm already just gleeful that someone out there wants to read or write some Heike too.
The Left Hand of Darkness - Ursula K. Le Guin
Therem Harth rem ir Estraven
Estraven was probably what kicked my love for understated, highly competent, and slightly (okay, a lot) tragic characters into overdrive. His quiet, steady, unrelenting pursuit of the greater good is so compelling, especially because it builds so slowly.
While I'm happy if you want to write about Estraven/&Genly or events during the main canon, I'd particularly like something focused on Estraven the individual, whether that's pre-canon or in some alternate universe. What was being raised a heir like? What was his relationship with Ashe like? What were his first 10, 100, 1000 days in the capital like? I'd happily read anything about him navigating Gethen's complexities, because he's such a smart person but also such an internal one.
I'm happy for sad or bittersweet stories, but also joyful alternate universes: I just want some Estraven.
Some ideas:
- Growing up in Estre: how did Estraven grow up Estraven, outside of the hard sculpting he got from the consequences of his relationship with his sibling? What was his education like, compared to others'? I'd love a point of view fic of someone like a tutor or his parent watching him develop: all that potential... I'd also love to see a slice of life of him in Estre: we always got him as an alien, in some ways, being out in the capital or with Genly.
- Estraven in the capital: how does he become the politician he becomes? Is there a particular episode where people realise Estraven is going to be someone to keep an eye on? What is Estraven's relationship with the King, or with the entire institution that is the King anyway?
- Estraven in history: do they write a different story of Estraven the Traitor, long after he's gone?
- Estraven in the Fastness: I have no good prompts here, but I would love to read about Estraven's time in the Fastness, or just his general personal practice of the Handdarata
- Estre AU: what if Estraven had become Lord of Estre?
- Ekumen AU: I won't lie, I love a verse where Estraven gets to live. What would he have been like out in the Ekumen? Whether that's as a follow-up to him living directly after canon, or maybe an alternate world where he was a child growing up when Gethen entered the Ekumen and maybe got to be one of its first representatives: I'd love to see a world where Estraven gets to be a bit like Sorve, and look to the stars...
- On the far "out there" end is my strange desire to yank Estraven out of the Ekumen, and stick him in Starfleet. It's actually... possibly... perfect. Maybe he goes to Starfleet Academy, the first Gethen there. Or maybe he's an established starship captain. Or maybe Gethen's first joining the Federation and Genly is there for First Contact in this alternate rendering of the book. GO WILD! I am familiar with TOS, AOS, DS9, Voyager, and Lower Decks. I'll ship him with anyone you can think of, too. (Goodness, Estraven/Spock?)
In terms of canon, I've read all of the Gethen short stories as well, so feel free to incorporate those if you'd like!
The Culture - Iain M. Banks
GOU Falling Outside The Normal Moral Constraints
Acquiring the canon: out of The Culture series, you only need Surface Detail, which can be found anywhere books are sold
I mean come on how could you not.
The good ship Culture is looking a little different in my requests this year: it's time to Fall Outside some of the Normal Moral Constraints! I'd love something about our delightfully badly-behaved-but-within-S.C.-if-not-straightforward-moral-constraints Picket Ship. FOTNMC is a darling because it's such a bucket of contradictions: it's a bad boy, but also clearly not a loose canon. Despite its atrocious behaviour, in all the ways that seem to count FOTNMC is hardly "Mawhrin-Skel" from The Player of Games, exiled from S.C. for being too dangerous: it does its job.
So! What is it like being a "picket" ship in a rather post-war timeline? What is it like consenting (maybe) to be engineered to be exactly what S.C. wants you to be? What is its relationship with being part of the Culture's not!army – I've requested oodles of Zakalwe in the past and been rewarded with just such excellent fic about our human(ish) mercenary man-weapon, and I'd love to see the Mind/ship side of that explored. We get all these whiffs and hints of how S.C. ships and rank and committees work throughout the various books: I'd love to see that fleshed out.
I also would really like an exploration of FOTNMC's actions during the - probably large amounts of - downtime it has. If you, like me, think that it kept up with Led after the events of Surface Detail, I'd love anything you could whip up about it. The epilogue of the book mentions that it hangs around GSVs: tell me more about that, maybe – about ship-class interactions, how the physical bodies that Mind(s) get put in sort of are or are not deterministically linked to the Mind(s) themselves.
Some ideas:
- FOTNMC gets put into a different ship body, for Some Reason
- What are the Normal Moral Constraints anyway? Is there a standard for the panhumans and a standard for Minds? What's Moral in the Culture anyhow?
- Who was FOTNMC's parent ship and/or parent S.C. committee? Does he ever get checked up on?
- Was FOTNMC born into S.C.? Are all Picket Ship Minds? How do other Minds feel about that – especially, perhaps, the older (or oldest) ones from the Idirian War or the formation of the Culture?
- I'm also here for just FOTNMC having a very merry holiday season indeed: FOTNMC gets a dream refit? Or maybe it gets to pick apart equivalent-level tech?
- Does FOTNMC ever... read a book or something? It's got so much spare time, it claims not to be social...
- Does FOTNMC ever go into the happy place that the Minds go, that land of infinite fun space? Or does it find it a load of rubbish?
- FOTNMC's transmissions with Led
- FOTNMC's transmissions with [any named Ship of your choice from the books]
I've read all of The Culture books and am happy for you to reference them, but I'm just as happy happy to disregard anything outside of Surface Detail, since that's the only one needed for this request.
Crossovers: I'd adore a crossover with the Culture, whether complete crack or very serious. My 2F1 comment above has more details, but in the tagset this year and high contenders are Ghost in the Shell and Grand Designs, though I'd happily read anything you come up with.
Edo Era Intellectuals RPF
Characters: Any
Acquiring the canon: 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 feel free to use it as canon if you find it! I also wrote a brief fandom promo post last year.
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! Crossover with Discworld's Thief of Time AU?
Finally, 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!