Yuletide 2020 letter

2020-10-24T20:54:11Z

Hello, and thank you for writing a gift for me!

I’ve been in fandom for a good long while, on various sites, but I’m mainly going to link you to my accounts on ao3 and tumblr: inklesspen and inklesspen. Perusing my bookmarks on ao3 should help you narrow down some of my preferences; I’ve recently curated them for this purpose.

Tropes I like include:

found family
people on oppossing sides (superheroes and supervillains? rival countries in a cold war?) having to work together against a common foe
transgender or nonbinary people being surprised by figuring out they’re not cis (aka, no “I always knew”)
outsider PoV who (gradually or suddenly) becomes an insider
genderfluidity
snakes or spiders as heroes / valued companion animals / etc
character development via time loop (Groundhog Day, etc)
Aral Vorkosigan’s lecture on honor vs reputation
Diving into lacunae — gaps that the worldbuilding or plot skips over — and using that exploration to push into an AU

General DNW (Do Not Want) list:

Any form of Alpha/Beta/Omega or BDSM AU
mpreg
soulmate AUs
mundane modern AUs (i.e. no-powers coffeeshop setting)
any sort of teacher/student, boss/employee, or similar romantic/sexual relationship (exceptions: bodyguard/protectee, or if there’s been a long span of time between when the superior-subordinate situation stops and when the romantic relationship starts)

Arthurian Mythology
Arthur Pendragon, Guinevere, Lancelot du Lac

It’s the OT3! I would like something focusing on these three characters and their relationships. Obviously it needn’t be shippy, but if it is, please depict them as a full triad, not just Arthur and Lancelot sharing Guinevere. There’s dozens of depictions of the mythos; T. H. White’s is one of my favorites, but I also enjoyed Steinbeck’s. And you should feel free to put them in another setting; modern Arthuriana and Arthurian space opera both have a long and glorious tradition.

DNW: Arthur being cuckolded (knowingly or unknowingly) by Guinevere and Lancelot, neopagan reimaginings of the mythology (use of “canon” pagan elements okay), Merlin (or anyone else) using magic to “fix everything”

Prompts:

Pining! Let them pine and think their love is unreturned, until by chance someone accidentally lets them know their feelings are returned after all.
Chivalry and knight-errantry has lots of fussy rules! What if those rules could be deliberately maneuvered to the benefit of our three heroes?

Jeeves & Wooster
Reginald Jeeves, Bertie Wooster

Generally I should like a canon-typical adventure, wherein Bertie stumbles into one or more misunderstandings, from which Jeeves unflappingly extricates him. I do not mind shipping (with the exception noted in my DNW) but I also would have no difficulty seeing Bertie as asexual, if that interests you.

In my mind, Bertie is best when he has one or two moments to show off some extraordinary talent that he does not recognize as being extraordinary. (See this post for an example.) The chap did study at Oxford, after all.

I love the the conversations the two of them have. I love Bertie’s narrative voice, his use of language, and his distinctive viewpoint of what’s noteworthy in the world.

DNW: I do not want any form of romantic or sexual relationship between Jeeves and Wooster.

Prompts:

Due to an unlikely sequence of adventures, Bertie has become recognized as something of an amateur sleuth. (Of course, he’s more the Watson to Jeeves’ Holmes, but convincing other people of that truth is surprisingly difficult.)
A transgender man joins Bertie’s social circle. Because of the norm in this class of society that you accept people as they present themselves, the man’s backstory and identity are never questioned. When someone tries to pull the trans man back into his assigned-gender (perhaps his parents/guardian are trying to make a match for him?), Bertie and the other Drones close ranks to protect their friend.
Keep their characterizations and dynamics, but put them in some other suitable setting. Perhaps Earthman Bertie Wooster is transported to Barsoom, where a Martian whose name sounds awfully like “Jeeves” helps him as he gets into and out of trouble? Perhaps a cyberpunk AU where Jeeves is quite literally a sophisticated algorithm running on Bertie’s implanted cyberware? Or even a space opera setting? (Genderswaps quite welcome but by no means required for this prompt.)

Zenda Novels - Anthony Hope
Flavia, Rudolf Rassendyll

Okay, I’m gonna be super honest here and say I’m really only familiar with The Prisoner of Zenda. Like (I assume) many readers, I thought Rudolf made a better king than the true claimant and I should be happy to see something in which he is obliged to keep up the masquerade.

DNW: If Rudolf is required to keep up his role as the king, I do not want Flavia to be kept in the dark much longer than she was in canon. Additionally, please no “whump” or other focus on injury/recovery; canon Rudolf takes an injury and makes light of it and carries on.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
Miles Morales, Olivia Octavius

Other characters from the film okay also! I love the idea of Olivia and May having a (past? future?) relationship, but I don’t want an Olivia/May shipfic. Fandom’s run with the idea of Olivia mentoring Miles and I think that’s just great.

DNW: any scenes focusing on Jefferson Davis’s job as a police officer

Prompts:

Miles has to go into one of the other Spiders’ universe to help deal with some crisis.
Olivia as a mentor for Miles: maybe in academics, but what if Olivia decides Miles needs a superhero mentor? (or even what if Miles goes to Olivia for relationship advice, if Aaron is out of the picture?)

Blaseball (Video Game)
Jaylen Hotdogfingers, Mike Townsend

So I’m obsessed with the necromancy, obviously, and I love the Mike Townsend song trilogy. But I’d love to see something about what happened when Jaylen came back (and then when Mike came out of the shadows for a brief time). We know so much more about the immaterial plane now, what with the PODS and the Hall Monitor and all. So please show us something about the aftermath of all that.

DNW: Nothing shippy or smutty for this one, please. Friendships yes, boinking no.

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Colonialism in the Potterverse

2019-02-17T07:08:33Z

I was writing some Harry Potter fanfics, as one does, and I found myself wondering what the Patil sisters’ home life would be like. We can assume, based on their names, that Rowling intended for them to maintain some aspects of Indian¹ culture. Rowling has told us nothing about Indian wixen² culture, not even having bothered to give the world’s most populous democracy its own magical school. Since the Patil sisters are not first-generation wixen³, as shown by their presence at Hogwarts in their 7^th year, we should assume they know at least something about Indian wixen culture. I started by asking how Indian wixen might have been affected by the British Raj, but unfortunately Harry Potter worldbuilding is so messed up that each question just brings up more questions.

( Read more... )

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OMAKE: Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World

2018-12-06T02:39:58Z

HOTSWAP is a Worm SI fanfic that's an AU of another Worm SI fanfic; the gimmick is that every character is the opposite gender from in canon (including the SI character).

I wrote an omake focusing on the everyday life of "Micah Biron", aka Panorama. I'm crossposting it here for posterity's sake.

( Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World )

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Land of Wires and Books

Yuletide 2020 letter

Colonialism in the Potterverse

OMAKE: Wake Up, Go to School, Save the World