morbane | Entries tagged with yuletide

Welcome and thank you for your interest in my prompts! I'm

Morbane at AO3, and this year I have requested Emelan - Tamora Pierce, Jane of Lantern Hill - L. M. Montgomery, Scholomance - Naomi Novik, Westworld (TV), The Chain - Fleetwood Mac (Song), and Love & Legends (Visual Novel).

My letter-writing skills are rusty and I've reviewed some of these canons more recently than others. I really would like a fic in any of them regardless of the length of prompts. Reading this letter is of course optional; I hope my sign-up/app details are useful on their own, and of course those prompts are optional to follow too.

General likes/dislikes

Do Not Wants:
-Dementia & similar cognitive impairment; amnesia (whether tropey or realistic)
-Drug/similar abuse & dependency & poor decision-making due to chemical influences
-Harm to hands
-Infidelity
-Sexual violence
Please see individual requests for exceptions to these DNWs and how I'd prefer canon instances to be handled.

Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes.

I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, dragons, and Fae courts and changelings. I like getting a strong sense of time or place, whether it's ours or historical or fantastical. Clothing and transport and etiquette details are wonderful.

For porn, I love telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I opt in to break-ups and bitter arguments.

I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense. I'm enthusiastic about second and first person as well as third. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome. I am also opting in to poetry.

Crossover and fusion suggestions: I enjoy crossovers and fusions! Here's a short and very arbitrary list of other canons that might be fun to mix with my requests: Martha Wells' Murderbot Diaries; Pokémon (Gens I to III especially, or Pokémon Go); Black Jewels; The Good Place; Sucker Punch (2011); The Neverending Story - Michael Ende (book NOT movie); Wodehouse's Psmith; Dragonriders of Pern; Puella Magi Madoka Magica; Labyrinth (1986); Swan Lake ballet.

Emelan - Tamora Pierce

Trisana Chandler (Gift must contain this character)

From my sign-up: I have an unoriginal but very sincere desire for Tris at Lightsbridge. Academic magic was a path her family explored and ruled out for her (painfully!) early on, and she got the training and support she needed in a very different way... And yet, now that she's so skilled in her most natural power, academic magic could actually be an unorthodox path to finding a good place in the world, and I love that.

I'd love every detail you can make up or give me about Lightsbridge education. Make it feel different to modern higher education and I'll be enthralled. Obviously to start with there's a quasi-medieval setting, but also, how does Lightsbridge usually handle scholars who have a purely theoretical interest vs. those who are expecting to learn to wield power? I have to assume that there are careers and utilities based around knowing how magic works even if you can't wield it yourself. People employing mages, writing laws about mages, defending their realms from and with mages - all need knowledge of how academic magic works.

There are some angles on this I really don't want, even though I've found them satisfying to read at other times. I do not want a story in which people are outrageously prejudiced and wrong about ambient magic (they can be a little wrong! that's fine), and Tris helps take them down a peg. I do not want a story in which Tris has to expose her awesome powers after having initially planned not to, even in the context of being a hero. I just want Tris to get to explore more a more mundane life, one that doesn't inevitably end with being asked to join a war or with people scared of her for her capacity for spying and destruction.

That's not to say you can't explore darker magic themes! What are the ethics around the practice of academic magic? I'm happy with a story about people crossing the boundaries.

I would love to see Tris learn, and take joy in learning and books.

And that's a theme I'd love for you to explore in general if you'd prefer not to write Tris at Lightsbridge. If that's not speaking to you, I'd really like a relationship study of Tris with any one of her siblings or any one of the mentors. I feel like fandom and the rest of canon satisfies my current urge for Circle ensemble fic, but if you want to write a story about Tris and Niko, or Tris and Daja, or Tris and Sandry, or even Tris and Frostpine (etc) I could go for that too.

More thoughts: My favourites of these books, reading in adolescence, were Tris' Book and Daja's Book, and then after that, Will of the Empress is probably my favourite for balancing worldbuilding with a thoughtful look at the four's developing needs and wants in life. I felt dismayed along with Daja at the idea that the four could not go back to Winding Circle to live together, but am content now at the idea that they may live apart or pursue different careers but their bond may remain. So I'd enjoy seeing Tris continue to pursue what will make her personally happy, even if that doesn't take her back to Cheeseman Street any time soon, even if she's always welcome and comfortable there.

I enjoy Tris getting to use her magic in unexpected ways, and having her world expanded through learning about other people's unexpected magic use. As part of the Lightsbridge plot - as it's been alluded to so far - I would enjoy the mild drama of her taking on another identity. One particular way that might be fun is if you write her from the outsider perspective of an OC. But again I'd really prefer this doesn't lead to a dramatic reveal of her full powers.

Shipping Tris is welcome but not at all required.

Jane of Lantern Hill - L. M. Montgomery

Robin Stuart (Gift must contain this character)

From my sign-up: This book was a childhood favourite and I enjoyed Jane's adventures so much. I loved her learning to cook and I loved her friendships and her cats. When I moved out of home, every time I had to hunt for new accommodation, I called upon Jane's joy and enthusiasm for house-hunting to bolster me.

However, on my most recent read, I was completely ambushed by feelings about Robin. First, Jane adores her mother, and Jane is very persuasive. But also, Jane's story has a romance novel lurking in its background and it's kind of fascinating to see things from that perspective.

I want to see Robin as the heroine of her own story: she is the spoiled, favourite child, with plenty of learned helplessness and a flexible spine - and yet she is not witless, and her capacity to love and seek joy is not quenched. She doesn't contradict Grandmother's plans for Jane - but she raises Jane in love, and leaves a door open for Jane to learn to love her father.

As part of Jane's journey, she comes to realize that both of her parents have flaws. Maybe her father should have stood up for Robin against Aunt Irene's meddling. Maybe her mother should be braver. But, thinking on that, I'd like to see the reverse: choices her mother made, or small ways she was brave or true to herself, that Jane would never have seen or might not have understood if she could have seen them.

I'm really fascinated by Robin's world! On a very basic level: in the early part of canon, what did she DO all day? What were her entertainments and the circles she moved in? Her (Grandmother-approved) friendships? Absolutely dive into her relationship with her half-siblings. I know very little about this place and time and I'd love historical detail. If that's your thing, you could basically give me a Robin Stuart née Kennedy fashion show, with the loosest of narrative binding it together, and I'd eat it up.

Robin's fear of "losing" Jane, because of Jane's developing bond with Andrew, was really poignant. I'd love a further exploration of that from her perspective.

And another prompt: I loved the promise of the Toronto lake house in their future, and how Jane will love it. I'd love to see them settle there, Robin figuring out her own feelings about how well Jane takes to domestic management, Jane surprised and delighted to learn any preferences her mother expresses.

Regarding Andrew - I'm okay with a critical view of him, but please don't go all in. Whatever you write, I'd like to finish reading it still feeling positive about canon's ending and the idea of them getting back together (even if that requires some character development for him). Please give me an Andrew that Robin can love, such that I don't feel grim about Robin's future with him!

More thoughts: If you want to try a crossover for this one, I'd prefer it stay mundane - but maybe Voigt's Callender Papers, or Wodehouse's Psmith? Or, a stealth crossover with something I don't know would be fine, as long as it's in service of giving Robin some friends or acquaintances or even merely interesting encounters at a party. I really would love to see Robin's social circle.

The social fiction that Robin is a widow is interestingly tense. Does Grandmother go around telling everyone that? Does Robin have close girlfriends who know the truth? How do they manage the fallout when Robin and Andrew reconcile? (Bonus points if the answer to that allows you to showcase Andrew exhibiting grace, or Robin exhibiting courage or grace.)

We reach a point in canon where Robin admits she hates living in her mother's household. When did she realise that? When she initially eloped with Andrew, was it a movement mainly towards something she wanted, or was there something about her mother's household even then she specifically wanted to gain distance from? When she came back with Jane Victoria, did she ever think it was for the best? Or not? When Jane and Grandmother clashed, was part of her glad?

Scholomance - Naomi Novik

El Higgins, The Scholomance, Worldbuilding (Gift must contain El and Worldbuilding)

From my sign-up: I'd particularly love a story about El in her first couple of years at the Scholomance. She arrived wary and well-prepared, but I can't imagine it's an easy adjustment for anyone (Orion doesn't count). Tell me about the ways her mother's stories and the handbook and so on did NOT match the (un)reality of the school.

Speaking of the school: we see the Scholomance delivering very pointed hints and directions, which often seem cruel (even if cruel to be kind, prioritising survival). And at the point in canon where we first meet El, she's furiously cynical. But we also learn the Scholomance cares in its way, and there's more humanity in El's fellow students than she thinks. So I'd be interested either in the harsh lessons she had to learn... or in missed moments, where two people who could have been friends misread each other, or couldn't yet risk trust, but were capable of it. Give me horror and trauma but sow the seeds of hope.

Dark humour, OCs, and minor character deaths welcome! End any scenario with "and it all went horribly wrong", because this is the Scholomance, so of course it did. Maybe someone tried to keep an actual pet mal.

If you were really hoping to write post-canon, I am also interested in El's cover story life, and what she has to pretend to be doing and the negotiations she has to engage in that make it look like she's NOT suspiciously busy pursuing her actual goals. I'm fond of pretty much any other character, but any of Aadhya, Yi Liu, and Chloe would make me particularly happy, and I'd also love more Gwen. [This is where my exception comes into play - you don't need to include the Scholomance as a character if writing postcanon, and I'm also happy with the Scholomance as barely a suggestion of a character if writing early Scholomance years.]

More thoughts: Before the release of A Deadly Education, I read an excerpt and bounced very hard off it. But when I actually read the full work, I had such a good time with El's prickly, competent, non-stop exposition. The style of explaining the world reminds me favorably of McKinley's Sunshine. The monsters are fun! The rules are fun! The spells are fun! The different affinities and course tracks are fun! And I enjoyed the way El's thoughts are often trying to justify taking the easy way out - all while her feet are marching her inexorably into danger. She gives herself less of a choice even than she pretends that she does.

And by the time we meet her, she's done a lot of surviving and she does basically know the ropes - but I'm so fascinated to see the path along the way. Especially, for every confident pronouncement about the rules of the Scholomance, I am reminded that they were discovered by a particularly fraught process of trial and error, so I'd love for her to be mistaken about some of it: maybe the Scholomance does a thing to try to achieve a particular result in behavior, and it is interpreted a certain way that isn't what the Scholomance intended, and the Scholomance has to do the sentient school version of a shrug and work with that assumption. I'd love to see the school's tactics changing from year to year. When El was in her first year of the school, I bet the senior students' dynamics were quite different from, say, the senior students' dynamics when it was Clarita about to graduate.

The Scholomance doesn't just have to teach wizard children to survive magical horrors, it has to take them through adolescence, so allusions to that in all its dark humor would be fun. No sexual violence please (whether you want to achieve that by worldbuilding or handwaving).

For crossovers, I'm especially tempted by the idea of the Murderbot Diaries. I feel that Murderbot and El have a lot in common, whether they want to or not. For this and other crossovers, maybe the Scholomance has a fun horrible thing called field trips where the void surrounding the school is temporarily a portal to elseworlds?

Westworld (TV)

Emily Grace (Gift must contain this character)

From my sign-up: First confession: I haven't seen the fourth season. I hope that isn't a bother; I'm very happy to be spoiled for its events, or you're welcome to ignore it.

I was fascinated to meet Emily, but disappointed by what happened to her character. She's really interesting to me both as a character and as a vehicle for worldbuilding. Tell me about her relationship to the park! She's hardly a normal guest: she grew up with so many preconceptions about it. In a way I feel as though she and her family never quite get to leave Westworld, even those like Juliet who rarely or never visit.

And yes, wow, the family dynamics. What do the rest of Emily's family look like through her eyes? The Man in Black has a way of taking over a narrative (on multiple levels) so if you write about him please still make it Emily's story as much as you can.

I'd be interested in a story set entirely outside Westworld (physically anyway) or one of Emily's earlier visits. Or a fix-it! The hosts are generally fascinating, and as a small bonus, it might be nice to see Charlotte Hale - partly because I find her interesting and partly because Tessa Thompson is just so beautiful.

More thoughts:I was really enthralled by the first season of Westworld, and enthralled by its beauty - just as a guest would be, I suppose! But I didn't enjoy the Man in Black, so joke's on me, I guess, that I am now very interested in his daughter. And I am interested both in her conflict and resistance to him, and in ways she may have followed his lead in exploring Westworld. She doesn't seem to see Westworld as a playground, but instead connects her sojourns there with some other kind of purpose.

I've seen Season 3 once, and I found it a mixed bag. But I did enjoy all the worldbuilding implications about the integration of AI technologies into ordinary people's lives, and I'd love more of that!

I am very okay with dark themes. If you explore Juliet's suicide, I'd like to learn more about her as a character rather than just as a cause of others' grief and anger and guilt. But mentions are otherwise fine!

For my amnesia and dementia DNWs: it's okay to explore Emily's grandfather's issues and obsessions regarding decay and immortality. It's okay for hosts to be wiped or wiped imperfectly and to feel distress about that.

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac (Song)

No characters nominated

From my sign-up: This song gives me so many FEELINGS, and you can't go wrong with that no matter how you interpret it. Maybe the stakes are world-shattering, maybe they're quiet and personal, but this is about something that matters.

I love the atmosphere of this song. I love the way the wind and shadows and sunrise both ground the speaker in a particular place and moment, and somehow also manage to give it grandeur. I love the drama of the ultimatum, how simple and how open to interpretation it is.

I'd welcome a completely mundane expansion of the story of the speaker and the person they're addressing, fleshing out the characters. I'd also love something fantastical, perhaps springing off either 'running in the shadows' or 'you will never break the chain'. What lies have been told (on either side)? Why is this the moment? Flawed characters are welcome but I'd love the sense of big, complicated feelings to come through

More thoughts: I love this song unreasonably. My Dad loves Fleetwood Mac and I grew up with their music. He and I were able to attend a live performance in September 2019, and when they opened with 'The Chain' I was grinning ear to ear; I wanted to shout, I was so happy.

I say this not because you as a writer have a Lot To Live Up To, but because I am already bringing so much investment and enthusiasm to anything you write. I'm going to listen to this on repeat anyway; I would enjoy a new narrative as an option to think about while I do!

On the lyrics side, I think it's truly genius how raw and absolute and vulnerable this song is about feelings: If you don't love me now, you will never love me again establishes such intense stakes. And at the same time, the imagery about the light and the wind and a precise moment makes it so grounded. It's both of those things together that make it so compelling to me. Whatever is happening, it matters, and also it's occurring to a person who is placed precisely in an environment that exists beyond them and will continue on without them.

So: I would love something where at least one of the characters involved cares a lot about what's happening, and when specific descriptions of the context help ground the story.

I would first love to read the story that occurs to you on listening to the song. But if you're stumped for specific plot ideas, here are some of the original works tags I've thrown into exchanges recently, in case they help? "Girl whose sibling was stolen by fairies & changeling left in sibling's place" ... "Low-ranking Demoness/Fae Tithed to Hell" ... "Previous Magical Chosen One Who Rebelled/New Magical Prodigy Training as Chosen One" ... "Mage Sacrificing Herself to Save World/Ruthless Mentor Manipulating Her Into It".

Sexual violence and infidelity are OK for this canon. Please no crossovers or fusions just for this canon; I'd really like the story you make for the song to have a chance to stand on its own.

Love & Legends (Visual Novel)

Helena Klein, Main Character (Gift must include both characters OR you can leave one out if also featuring the Witch Queen)

From my sign-up: Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.

I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.

Canon divergence AU would be particularly fun here! Give me a different meeting; throw the MC into Helena's world at a different point; maybe send Helena to the MC's world at a different point. Setting AU also welcome as long as the general shape of Helena's backstory and powers stays similar.

My "exception" here is that I'd also welcome a story that focuses just on Helena/the Witch Queen, or a story in which the MC and the Witch Queen face off, in which case the other character I requested doesn't have to appear. A twisted Helena/MC/Witch Queen story or a sweeter Helena/MC/Alain story would also be great.

More thoughts: I'd never ever played a visual novel, and then someone in a chat I was in made a pitch for Helena's route in all its dark potential, and I had to try it. I loved it! I loved the warm, earnest, supportive parts, and I loved the psychosexual mess available to explore. I loved the tension of what it meant for Helena & MC to come to trust each other and how rewarding it was as they did.

It's a bulletproof trope for me when a sympathetic character is trying very hard and in a tense situation and surrounded by people who may not be sympathetic to them - and then a supposedly hostile or evil character, or one with good reasons to be aloof, is a secret ally, or wants to be an ally. So this developing relationship was catnip for me.

I really would love Helena & MC's relationship played earnestly "straight", with an emphasis on their supportive bond. But I am also a dubcon and noncon fan, and one of the easiest ways to do that is if the Witch Queen sticks around or reappears and makes things difficult for our heroes. Sexual violence is OK for this canon but please not with Alain, the MC, or Helena as the aggressor (unless forced by the Witch Queen). Other things I'd be interested in: angsty complicated Helena/Witch Queen; super twisted MC/Witch Queen; make-it-fucking-fluffy harem-ish fic with MC/Helena/Alain where both Helena and Alain get to focus on the MC as the better version of the person they tried to love first.

I have no affection for any of the Witch Queen's other generals. I have also played a little of Reiner's and Altea's routes. Altea is charming but I think Solaire is the hero character I'm most fond of.

I'd also enjoy seeing more of the realm! If you want to cross over with other Lovestruck canons, I'm most familiar with Sweet Enchantments; otherwise, I think it could be really cute if the MC's "normal" world was a world with Pokémon?

Welcome and thank you! I promise I'm much faster at reading and commenting than I am at writing letters. I'm

Morbane at AO3, and this year I have requested Black Jewels, the Blending Series, Graceling Realm, Love & Legends, the Neverending Story, and The Seer and the Sword.

General likes/dislikes

Do Not Wants: amnesia, drug abuse & dependency, harm to hands
Canonical forms/instances of amnesia are okay, though I'd prefer they weren't the focus of a story.

Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes.

I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place.

For porn, I love telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers.

I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome. I am not opting in to interactive fiction or to a work mostly in poetic forms.

Black Jewels - Anne Bishop

Worldbuilding

From my sign-up: I am delighted to be able to request Worldbuilding for this canon. You're welcome to focus on major canon characters, minor canon characters, or OCs.

Black Jewels has so many rules about protocol and tradition. And in every canon like that, I have thoughts like - okay but what if things didn't go right? What then? Or: how did this rule get developed? Or: how could that rule get challenged and replaced, because people and their needs are always evolving? WHAT IF? What actually happens?

I am fascinated by the castes; by relations between realms; by life in Terreille before Dorothea and after her; by previous witches who were called Witch; by Landen-Blood relations; by the lives of the lighter blood; by mundane uses for and limitations on magic.

More thoughts:
I know this is one canon where if you poke at certain aspects of the worldbuilding, it may collapse like a sad soufflé (example: how can there be no language drift besides the Old Tongue, and no language barriers anywhere??). So you are welcome to cheerfully handwave some of the more ridiculous aspects in order to explore the ones that interest you more. But even if you handwaved madly, there'd still be a lot to dig around in. I'd enjoy some really indulgent stories about Blood rituals and Virgin Nights and magical animals; l'd also be happy with complicated or mundane or bittersweet, where the idealised rules meet with the (dragon-)human.

I haven't talked a lot about the nominated cast. I love everyone... but I'm working through the choices Bishop made the characters make in Queen's Bargain and Queen's Weapons. Lucivar can stay. DAEMON WHAT ARE YOU DOING. So if you want to write a fic set in that era, I'd appreciate a little extra compassion for Jaenelle Saetien and a little extra questioning of Surreal and Daemon's choices.

More prompts:

The Landen perspective! Bleak awareness of a dystopia is fine, but I'd also be interested in more hopeful stories, or anything in between. And sure, I'd love a Beauty and the Beast style story of a successful friendship or romance between Landen and Blood.

I am also really fascinated by more stories about people who are caught between the cultures of Landen and Blood! The haunted house plot of Tangled Webs didn't grab me (sorry!), but that's a pity, because otherwise I would have been so into the villain's story. People unexpectedly born Blood in a Landen family. People in a Blood family who are so low-powered that they tentatively reach out to the other community. Yes please.

I am deeply interested in the post-Witch Storm period in Terreille when people were picking up the pieces and choosing who to be beyond Dorothea. What were the models they drew on? How did they begin again?

We also know that the Black Widow caste was heavily suppressed during Dorothea's reign. How did they maintain their covens? Tell me about established Black Widows taking risks to secure their legacy, or new Black Widows trying to figure out who they could trust.

Similarly, I'm interested in the full duties of the Priest and Priestess caste, and the Prince caste. We meet very few Princes who are not also Warrior Princes, and I'm interested in the distinction.

Another period I'm interested in is early in Dorothea's reign. You're welcome to make her compelling in her ambition. I would love to see her early manouevrings.

Because of Jaenelle's circle, we get hints about a lot of Territories within Kaeleer. I'd love to see a story set in any of those we don't know much about!

I really, really want to know about Cassandra's Court. I want to know about any other embodiments of Witch. It seems like all Witches before Jaenelle were extraordinary, but she was truly on another level. I want to know what "the coming of Witch" meant before Jaenelle came.

What about relations between races, with particular attention to differences in lifespans?

What about new technologies? What suppresses them and what drives them?

What does it mean to have 'basic Craft', since that's separate from jewel levels?

The Blending Series - Sharon Green

Any (Tamrissa, Jovvi, Worldbuilding)

From my sign-up: Any of Jovvi, Tamrissa, and Worldbuilding would be excellent. I'm very fond of both Jovvi - with her combination of caution, poise, and care - and Tamrissa - generous, unquenchable - and I ship them, but would also enjoy seeing them written as platonic allies. And of course just one of them is fine! Background Lorand/Jovvi is fine; however I'd prefer minimal Tamrissa/Vallant. Rion and Naran are welcome.

And so are OCs! I would especially adore original Blending competitors, just to take advantage of the dialled-up-to-the-max tropes: I'd love to see a new group go through the process of forming their relationships and discovering that sex is the key to Blending. But there are so many other things that would be fun! Show me the life of a Middle or High adept who's figured out how most safely to stay within the lines, or who hasn't; give me the real movers and shakers of the empire (how is a Blending's transition supposed to work normally? Has it EVER gone normally?); and of course I am always keen on an exploration on mundane life as shaped by the mere existence of magic.

If you're writing Jovvi and/or Tamrissa, complete canon divergence would be fun (what if their Blending never recovers the throne and they operate as rogues?) or practical problems during their rule, or snapshots of them at various times? (Comfortably aged Jovvi and/or Tamrissa would be lovely.)

More thoughts:
So this is an eight-book series set in a fantasy world where having magical affinity for Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, or Fire is common, and where our main setting of Gandistra is traditionally ruled by a matched - or perhaps match-made - set of masters of these elements, because according to prophesy, that's how Gandistra must be ruled or a terrible calamity will result. Also, every twenty-five years, a new set of adepts has to be selected through competitions.

Hopefully we are on the same page about how this set-up is elaborate to the point of absurdity: that is part of its appeal to me, because of course it's become corrupted and of course the practical details are frantically handwaved and of course it's wonderfully ripe for a set of righteous underdogs to come along, overcome their personal hang-ups, and overcome the competition to be The! Best! And! Most! Enlightened! Rulers! Who also have to be a sort-of polycule! Because sex makes their combined magic stronger!

Part of me is laughing in delight at how ridiculous the implications (and sometimes, the plots) get; part of me is really earnestly along for the ride. I love the descriptions of the use of magic at heightened occasions and for mundane tasks; I love the way the series protagonists becomes a tightly-knit team alongside the development of romantic/sexual attractions, not just because of them; I love what's hinted at regarding practical worldbuilding, especially as it relates to governance, and I love the gaps that are left in practical worldbuilding and what scope one has in filling them. What a sandbox!

An original set of characters thrown together in some other competition year would be A+. Another noble group who are meant to play second fiddle to the "correct" group? A selected noble group who actually have consciences? A different underdog group? And such a group negotiating what the sex angle means for them would be fascinating. I do mean negotiating - blissful sex would be welcome, but so would other more complicated reactions that allow for dignity/agency.

But! I enjoyed the canon characters too. I liked Jovvi's deep ingrained distrust of authority, how she approached the ongoing problem of exercising consensual/ethical control over others, and her evolving sense of what it meant to her to be the authority. I liked Tamrissa's aggressive power that increasingly came from a position of strength rather than fear, and I liked watching her learn to trust others around her. I found Rion's earnestness appealing, found Naran's different introduction to her powers interesting, don't mind Lorand, and was a bit frustrated with some of Vallant's arcs and hang-ups. So if you want to write about canon characters, go for it, please, and I hope I am giving you enough to work with! (Regarding canon ships, I'd prefer minimal Vallant/Tamrissa. Other ships are fine. Jovvi/Tamrissa is also welcome, as are other relationships within the Blending.)

I have only skimmed the last three books, sorry, as Green's prose style has worn on me a little since I first read the initial pentalogy. Although I enjoy the six working in harmony, I like more focus on them being individuals achieving close cooperation than turning into one mind with six parts.

I also enjoy the potential for very dramatic, twisted scenarios, including with sexual coercion, but felt this was a bit heavy-handed in the books, with evil spirit magic users skipping straight to all-out puppetry. More subtle manipulations would be welcome!

More prompts:

Show me what it's like in the normal day-to-day life of a ruling Blending.

How do adepts train each other in normal circumstances?

Power swap among the protagonist Blending

The protagonist Blending is prevented much more effectively from winning the competitions - and they turn into rebel leaders

Tamrissa escapes her husband much earlier than in canon; this changes the protagonist dynamic

A "normal", lawful-good ruling Blending prepares to hand over power and retire

Power plays among the nobles to set up the competing noble Blendings

Another competing Blending group, at another time, comes together and learns to trust each other

One "different successful Blending" idea: maybe a noble Blending has passed through the competitions and been enthroned. But they're quite weak. So, just in case, to prop them up, a rival common blending was allowed to survive, under Puredan control, and is deployed whenever serious magical power needs to be displayed. But maybe feelings develop between a member of the noble, enthroned Blending, and one of their back-up crew? Or being able to blend allows the actually powerful Blending to throw off Puredan control?

Tell me about the nobles who try to manipulate the candidates

Tamrissa and Jovvi get put in an entirely different group for the Competitions

Tamrissa or Jovvi having their own friendships and collegial relationships outside their own Blending - give them a future that's a little less emotionally claustrophobic

I don't normally suggest time travel, but Tamrissa, Jovvi, and maybe Naran time-travelling to alter the course of events would be really fun, especially if they don't have the full power of their Blending or have to decide to instigate a temporary Blending with strangers

Naran's life before joining the blending is really interesting to me. She's very gifted in her aspect, but in book 6 she started to realise that some things had been kept from her. How did her training go? Or explore her relationships with other practitioners of her aspect, or her expectations about meeting Rion?

Or, as another somewhat cracky original-characters-in-this-world prompt, someone gets invited to an orgy, finds out they're actually being recruited into a Blending? As sinister or as absurd as you like

Outsider perspective on Tamrissa, Jovvi, or any other adepts.

Graceling Realm Series - Kristin Cashore

Adventure Fox

From my sign-up: This is very spoilery for Winterkeep!

I was very fond of the previous books, and then Winterkeep came along and was an absolute gift to me. I'm asking for Adventure Fox because he's delightful and would be great on his own, but this way I can also suggest either Bitterblue/Giddon or Lovisa too.

So, what if Ad does go to Monsea to figure out a new path for foxkind? Does he take other foxes with him, or is he a special envoy? What does he think of Monsea? How do he and Bitterblue negotiate the ethics of his telepathy and his duties to the rest of foxkind? Does he discover previously unknown telepathic species? I'd love his perspective on Monsea getting used to their queen a) alive again b) being engaged c) maybe/maybe not dismantling the monarchy.

I'd also love to see him visit the Dells and meet Fire. (What if his species evolved from a variant of Dellian monster? How do monsters work on him?) I just love Fire a lot and would love to see her again.

And Lovisa. When we learned that Ad's choice to bond with Ferla was driven by a desire to help Lovisa, my heart broke into pieces. Please feel free to break my heart all over again by showing me a scene of Ad trying to help and being misinterpreted, or maybe even accidentally making things worse. Or maybe they interact in future years - for example if Ad goes to Monsea and then comes back at some point as part of a delegation. Please don't give them a fluffy, perfect reconciliation - I am okay with some sort of reconciliation, but I find all the jagged edges in their relationship really meaningful.

More thoughts:
This is the only one of my canons this year I haven't requested before - I hope there's enough to work with even so. After I bought Winterkeep, it sat in the paper bag from the bookstore for a couple of months because I wanted to save it as a special-occasion treat, and I when I finally got around to reading it, I wasn't disappointed. I love how Cashore combines some very fun, indulgent, fantastical things (benevolent telepathic manatees and loyal companion telepathic foxes! in previous books, cool special abilities and literally irresistible beauty!) with a lot of thoughtful character work.

It seems very plausible at the end of Winterkeep that Adventure Fox will go to Monsea. I imagine he'd find it a bit of a shock, not just because of culture clash in general but because of the trauma and memory holes he'd encounter in Bitterblue City. If you follow that route, does he make the journey with other foxes, and if so, what are they like, and do their opinions on how foxes should behave on the Royal Continent match up? Or, if it's just Ad, is he travelling as a secret? Or does Ad decide to stay after all, and if so, does he keep an eye on Lovisa, or find another role for himself? Maybe he considers bonding with someone Lovisa knows and it's extremely complicated for Lovisa (like Nev? I'm up for Lovisa/Nev, btw, but mostly Lovisa/stability).

I suggested breaking my heart over Ad's attempts to smooth over trouble in the Cavenda household. I'd also be interested in a time when he was successful and thought (for a time) that things were working out, or just any time he was able to relax. His life has not been a relaxing one.

I'm pretty fond of everyone, though maybe would prefer Saf is not a major character. I ship Bitterblue and Giddon, and Giddon's deepening friendship with Hava is delightful to me. I like Katsa and Po but would probably prefer an outsider perspective on them than a story from their perspective. (Though Po interacting with Ad, given their similar abilities, would be fascinating. Do Po's moral rules for himself provide some guidance for how Ad should behave on the Royal Continent?)

More prompts:

Maybe the (soon to be remedied?) lack of airships in Monsea is very disappointing for Adventure Fox, but he gets to do something else cool like ride a glider or a gondola or a zip-line

So Bitterblue had succession plans in case she died without heirs, and given her involvement with the Council, I got the impression they were fairly radical succession plans involving less monarchy and more democracy. And now she's confirmed alive and planning to marry and have children. What does that mean for the future of Monsea?

Monsea's natural resources are news to the other kingdoms too. How does that change things with the Council?

I suggested Ad going to Monsea, or interactions with Lovisa, as an either-or thing, but it occurs to me that Lovisa could also visit Monsea as a diplomat later in life, and this could lead to a meeting - which would probably be rather startling for both parties

I also wouldn't mind seeing Lovisa get to relax and have fun too. I believe in her capability to improve the world but she should get to lay down her burdens some time.

Maybe Ad decides he wants to change how humans and foxes live together in Winterkeep.

Love & Legends (Visual Novel)

Helena, MC, Witch Queen, Alain

From my sign-up: It's okay with me if you write Helena + two other characters, rather than all four.

Helena just strikes so many notes I love in fictional characters! Powerful, competent, complex, vulnerable, and okay I also enjoy her beauty. I adore the arc of her choosing to trust and throw her support behind the MC, and how that means facing up to her crimes & how terrible her relationship with the Witch Queen really was, all while developing a relationship with someone who wears her tormentor's face. There's so much hope and weight in this very tropey story.

I really enjoy Helena/the MC's romance, and I'd be down for anything in a range from supportive fluff (getting to live a life together! Making each other happy in lovely little ways!) to warning bells (is Helena's rehabilitation really so straightforward? Maybe the MC sees her as more noble than she is, maybe the road to recovery is even rockier). It's okay if the Witch Queen is just a shadow over a story about Helena/the MC rather than appearing in the present.

I would also love something plotty and either triumphant or twisted, involving the Witch Queen - maybe the Witch Queen captures Helena and the MC has to surrender herself to free them both? Or other kinds of mind games? Or play with the idea of the Witch Queen taking partial possession of the MC.

And I was pretty fond of Alain, whose emotional arc is, after all, very similar to Helena's. I loved the bond between Alain and Helena. MC and Helena escape, and rescue Alain later? Or go back to darkness - show me old fucked-up situations between Helena, Alain, and the Witch Queen.

Any sexual threesomes welcome. Even if she's sympathetic, I prefer the Witch Queen remains an antagonist, especially if she's in a sex scene.

More thoughts:
Love and Legends is an isekai visual romance novel where the main character lands in a fantasy world and is mistaken for the recently-vanquished Big Bad, a sorcerous queen. I've only really played one route (Helena's) and a smattering of seasons for the other characters. (If you're curious, it's freemium but very slow to play if you don't spend money on it.)

So Helena is the Witch Queen's former favourite apprentice, and they had an intense and abusive relationship where the Witch Queen gave Helena knowledge, skills, and purpose, convinced Helena that she was nothing without the Witch Queen, added sexual sadism into the mix, and required Helena to do terrible things in her name. The Witch Queen is vanquished and our protagonist turns up; during a period in which the Witch Queen's spirit occasionally invades the MC's mind, Helena gradually falls in love with this newer, kinder version of the woman she hated almost as much as she loved.

Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.

I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.

The Witch Queen is welcome either as an on-stage presence, or just as someone who is never far from Helena and the MC's thoughts. Similarly, a scene between the Witch Queen and Helena in which the MC does not have lines or appear is fine, even if it's pre-canon and the MC hasn't turned up yet - evil sorceresses and their willing or unwilling pupils are a dynamic I love across many canons.

I'd enjoy seeing Alain either as part of a messed-up sexual dynamic involving Alain/Helena/Witch Queen, or during canon, won over to the MC's side, and involved with Helena and the MC either platonically or romantically/sexually.

All kinds of canon divergence would be fun.

Please no readerfic, but other second person styles are fine.

More prompts:

The MC, Helena, and maybe Alain travelling the realm together when peace is achieved

Cooking and potions!

Shenanigans land MC in the fantasy world as if at the start of one of the good side/ retainer routes, but with the memories of several seasons' worth of Helena's route; she schemes to win Helena, Alain, or both of them over to the side of good

More mental influence by the Witch Queen of the MC - or Helena

The MC learns that she can invade the Witch Queen's mind in return; among the ethical issues, this leads her to unpleasant memories

The Witch Queen spies on Helena & the MC and makes plans

The Witch Queen gains the upper hand and takes both Helena/Alain and the MC captive again

Circumstances require the MC to pretend to be the Witch Queen for a mission, with Helena or Alain along for the ride

The MC enlists the help of one of the retainers to make a surprise gift for Helena or Alain

Ritual sex is required for healing magic, either with Helena/MC or Helena/MC/Alain

During the period where the MC is still pretending to be the Witch Queen: Helena, Alain and the Witch Queen work out a complicated plan for defecting to Reiner's side that requires Helena or Alain to get captured by Reiner and for the other two to charge off to "get them back"

Alain sacrifices himself for the MC or Helena, and the MC and Helena time-travel to save him in return.

The Neverending Story - Michael Ende

(no characters nominated)

From my sign-up: It's been an entire year since I last asked for this canon, and I felt incoherent then and have not managed to cohere my thoughts any further - I love this book so much. I want more of its thoughtfulness and absurdity and starry-eyed wonder and humour. I just want to spend more time in this world.

Any of the "stories to be told another time" are a great starting point. I'd truly love exploration of any of them. Or springboard off any other character who appeared (or got a throwaway mention) and tell a continuation of their story. Or: find a way to tell a story that was told in the book as if it was a different story (canon divergence, different perspective) and now is its time.

I admit most of my ideas are for something set in Fantastica, but I'd be interested in BBB's and CCC's future lives as well.

I'm really intrigued by Gaya and Gmork, by lost landscapes, and by different ways to become the hero of your own story.

More thoughts:
Last year I talked a lot about the characters who can move willingly or unwillingly between Fantastica and our world, and these are still ideas that interest me! This time around I've been reflecting how how a visitor to Fantastica is explicitly entering into a story in which they are the hero, and how, when we do this in the real world, we sometimes distort other people into the roles of villains or think of them in terms of their role in our story rather than in terms of their role in their own. (I hope that made sense.) Atreyu, of course, was Bastian's friend as well as a hero in his own right, and those two roles sometimes conflicted. I'd also be interested in a new visitor creating a specific, dark, powerful enemy to defeat, and then either becoming fascinated by that enemy, or becoming reluctant to defeat them and then moving on to the next chapter of their story, or causing havoc in Fantastica through needing that enemy to be The Most Terrible Ever. Some of that happened with Xayide, but a more self-aware take on the rise of an enemy might be interesting.

I love thinking about the idea of following one's heart's desire as a sort of sacred charge, as Grograman discussed with Bastian. I love thinking about Gmork's speech to Atreyu about Fantasticans becoming lies.

I'm also interested in how Fantastica is always changing and always retaining its status quo. I'm interested in taking a closer look at how there are things and patterns in Fantastica that are true for almost all time, and yet Fantastica is entirely reborn and rebuilt in the book - and, it is implied, as been reborn and rebuilt in this way before. Somehow it's possible for the Childlike Empress to assure Atreyu that all the humans who have come to Fantastica and helped it have brought something enriching back to our world, and it's also possible for the City of Old Emperors to exist. Fantastica contains beautiful, ugly, evil, and good things, and I am appreciating anew the ways in which the book allows logical or emotional tension to exist, sitting with it for a spell. I don't know if that's helpful - please ignore if not. On the other hand, I loved so many Fantastican landscapes that could not be appreciated by people other than Bastian, or were destroyed - a way to cheat and preserve them in some way would be welcome.

Stories that play Fantastica "straight" would be welcome - concentrating on a visitor's heroic quest, continuing an unfinished story, or taking literally some other statement of canon fact about how Fantastica and its relation with other world(s) operates. So would something a bit more meta. Maybe someone arrives by portal and is incorporated into a journey (or recruited by Gmork's shadowy masters, or similar)? What about a hero quest gone wrong, where the visitor's desire is not simply to be the hero of their own story, but something darker - a darkness that the Childlike Empress, with her famed neutrality, allows? How would that end?

More prompts:

Continue one of the stories that shall be told another time

Two friends visit Fantastica at once. Or one person from our world follows another there to rescue them

More intricate and wondrous monsters, geographies, peoples, and cultural traditions!

Involve the sphinxes again somehow

"Nothing is lost," she said. "Everything is transformed."

Ways for Fantasticans to make their own stories (by living them rather than telling them?)

Trading something other than memories for wishes

Other Fantasticans' once-in-a-lifetime audience with the Childlike Empress

If something's a lie in Fantastica, what is it in our world?

Use different fantasy tropes - for example, make a Fantastican visitor spend most of their time in a paranormal romance/urban fantasy-based city

I'd also be interested in a subversion of the idea of a foreign visitor arriving in a world to save it through their enlightenment.

Seer and Sword - Victoria Hanley

Landen, Torina, Dahmis

From my sign-up: OT3 plz plz plz plz PLEASE. We already have so many tropes for these three characters. Secret identities! Loyalty kink! Bandit with a heart of gold! Veiled seer! True King! Exiled heirs! Also they all adore each other so much and I just want them to be happy.

The pining is off the charts, and it's already pretty great. So yeah, if you can't quite see a way to make the three-way relationship happen, two of them together while the other is a significant part of the story would also be good! Canon delivered beautifully on pining, loyalty, and heroic deeds and sacrifices. Anything along those lines would be great, whether it involves canon divergence or not.

Maybe Landen and Torina reconnect way, way earlier over the quest to deliver the Sword to Dahmis, and they bond over caring about Dahmis just as much as they reconnect through their past history? Maybe we revisit Landen and Torina several years after the book's end, where, as rulers of Archeld and Bellandra, they are negotiating with Dahmis, but realize they want a lot more than a professional relationship? Anything involving a dramatic peril that one or two characters is in, and the remaining character(s) must save them from, would be so good. Please indulge me in my feelings..

More thoughts:
This is a short middle-grade fantasy novel, part of a trio but effectively standing alone. (I read Healer's Keep a long time ago and have little recollection of it; Light of the Oracle is barely connected.) The plots and characterisation here are not complicated, but I love this book for its absolutely giant helpings of secret identities, pining, and dramatic reveals.

In canon, there's something satisfying about Dahmis' admiration for Torina and how, lacking any indication of reciprocal interest, he doesn't court her. I also like that Torina gets a chance to live and reflect apart from the court, and Landen spends the intervening years honing his skills as a leader. And I love that both Torina and Landen take action to ally themselves with Dahmis - but Torina moves first!

But I'd also love canon divergence, especially if you can include different permutations of the secret identities, foiling of treachery, and dramatic rescues that canon contains. Maybe Landen saves Dahmis' life, or Torina foretells that Vesputo will use the Sword and arranges for Landen to steal it for Dahmis herself. Maybe, at the end of canon events, Landen's name is still not cleared, or something requires Torina to remain in exile for now. Anything that involves bravery or dramatic reveals would be A+.

Dahmis is so charmed by Landen! Landen carries out a dangerous mission for Dahmis and requests only his friendship as a price! Landen wants to literally lean on Dahmis when they're discussing how to hold off an invading army! I can't even. Meanwhile, of course, Dahmis can't think of Torina without admiring her self-possession and her beauty, and Torina and Landen's mutual adoration started from when Landen was given to Torina as a slave and she instantly set him free. Normally I'm not keen on misunderstandings, but here I would be totally keen on "he/she doesn't love me, they love each other,"-type misunderstandings as long as they're resolved. Smut also very welcome, whether it has plot around it or not.

And worldbuilding following on from the end of canon as it stands would also be neat. As I said, I'm very rusty on Healer's Keep, so you're welcome to incorporate that or completely ignore it. Bellandra has been under Archeld's control so long - what's involved in its restoration? How does Torina settle into the role of queen? What other challenges face Dahmis? (I acknowledge a story about Bellandra's restoration may touch on dark/serious decolonisation themes - like Black Jewels, this is another canon where it's a little tricky to poke too hard at the worldbuilding - that's fine as long as there is optimism for the future.)

(Tangent: There's very little information on the political structure of the kingdoms and why High King Dahmis is High King. However, we do know that Dahmis' efforts to unite other kingdoms are an innovation. I wonder if other countries made an agreement with Glavenrell that it would essentially hold off Kareed, since the story begins near the end of a long period of Kareed attempting to expand his rule.)

More prompts:

Torina and Dahmis wrote letters to each other before Vesputo's betrayal; Dahmis has no idea that Vineda is his former correspondent

Dahmis has his own secret identity shenanigans

Dahmis, with Landen on his mind, disguises himself (maybe with a magic disguise?) to seek out anonymous sex; he runs into Landen, who is acting on the same impulse

Established relationship; any two of them in bed together with the third absent but the present two talking about their fantasies for the third

Landen and Torina decide that if Bellandra's independence is to be restored, they cannot marry. While for most of my prompts, I'd prefer happy endings, you can pile on all the angst here

Landen and Torina marry, but cherish the occasions on which all of Torina, Landen, and Dahmis can be in the same place and enjoy each other's company

I'm usually neutral on baby plots, but in this case, something incredibly tropy about Torina carrying either Landen's or Dahmis' child and both of them doting on her would be welcome

Mid-canon: Torina risks herself to carry some warning to Dahmis or Landen, and Vesputo captures her. Landen and Dahmis have to rescue her.

Perhaps, instead of turning from Dahmis when she learns of his alliance with Vesputo, Torina instead plans to drive a wedge between them. What if Bellanes' identity is revealed while Torina's remains obscured?

I would also be up for a Prophecy Makes Them Do It threesome whereby a mysterious (but convincing) omen requires them to fuck, say, for the sake of harmony between nations, and there's angst about unrevealed feelings until they sort out that they all actually do want to be there and the other parties are also okay with it.

I love the idea for these characters of secret trysts where both parties involved are pining after the other and manage to have romantic encounters without being sure of the other's identity. Maybe another magic macguffin can accomplish this!

Previous Black Jewels prompts: Yuletide 2012, Worldbuilding Ex 2017, fffx 2020
Previous Blending Series prompts: fffx 2020, Yuletide 2020
Previous Love & Legends prompts: Chocolate Box 2019, Yuletide 2020
Previous Neverending Story prompts: Worldbuilding 2017, Yuletide 2020
Previous Seer & Sword prompts: Yuletide 2019, fffx 2020, Yuletide 2020

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/216878.html

Welcome and thank you! I'm sorry this took so long. I'm Morbane at AO3, and this year I have requested The Blending Series, The Seer and the Sword, Psmith, Love & Legends, and The Neverending Story.

General likes/dislikes

Do Not Wants: amnesia, drug abuse & addiction, harm to hands, infidelity
-exceptions: infidelity is fine for Blending, Neverending Story; canon-typical amnesia is fine for Neverending Story.

Likes: I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.

The Blending Series - Sharon Green

(no characters nominated)

From my sign-up: This series is my ridiculous-governmental-system, magical-training-montages, team-of-polyamorous-underdogs catnip! I am very fond of it, possibly because of rather than in spite of its flaws. I would love to read about original characters in this verse, and if you'd prefer to write about existing characters, Jovvi and Tamrissa are particular favourites (either as they are in canon or in a canon divergence plot), or perhaps Naran in the years before the challenges.

More thoughts:
So this is an eight-book series set in a fantasy world where having magical affinity for Spirit, Water, Air, Earth, or Fire is common, and where our main setting of Gandistra is traditionally ruled by a matched - or perhaps match-made - set of masters of these elements, because according to prophesy, that's how Gandistra must be ruled or a terrible calamity will result. Also, every twenty-five years, a new set of adepts has to be selected through competitions.

If you think that this is a very elaborate set-up, you are right, and that is part of its appeal to me, because of course it's become corrupted and of course the practical details are frantically handwaved and of course it's wonderfully ripe for a set of righteous underdogs to come along, overcome their personal hang-ups, and overcome the competition to be The! Best! And! Most! Enlightened! Rulers! Who also have to be a sort-of polycule! Because sex makes their combined magic stronger!

Part of me is laughing in delight at how ridiculous the implications (and sometimes, the plots) get; part of me is really earnestly along for the ride. I love the descriptions of the use of magic at heightened occasions and for mundane tasks; I love the way the series protagonists becomes a tightly-knit team alongside the development of romantic/sexual attractions, not just because of them; I love what's hinted at regarding practical worldbuilding, especially as it relates to governance, and I love the gaps that are left in practical worldbuilding and what scope one has in filling them. What a sandbox!

I seized the opportunity to request this with no characters because worldbuilding & original characters are perennial loves of mine. An original set of characters thrown together in some other competition year would be A+. Another noble group who are meant to play second fiddle to the "correct" group? A selected noble group who actually have consciences? A different underdog group? And such a group negotiating what the sex angle means for them would be fascinating. I do mean negotiating - blissful sex would be welcome, but so would other more complicated reactions that allow for dignity/agency.

But! I enjoyed the canon characters too. I liked Jovvi's deep ingrained distrust of authority, how she approached the ongoing problem of exercising consensual/ethical control over others, and her evolving sense of what it meant to her to be the authority. I liked Tamrissa's aggressive power that increasingly came from a position of strength rather than fear, and I liked watching her learn to trust others around her. I found Rion's earnestness appealing, found Lorand pleasant enough, and found Vallant and Naran appealing mostly when they appealed to characters I was more interested in (sorry). So if you want to write about canon characters, go for it, please, and I hope I am giving you enough to work with! (Canon ships are fine, though please fewer misunderstandings between Vallant and Tamrissa. Jovvi/Tamrissa is also welcome, as are other relationships within the Blending.)

More prompts:

Naran's life before joining the blending is really interesting to me. She's very gifted in her aspect, but in book 6 she started to realise that some things had been kept from her. How did her training go? Or explore her relationships with other practitioners of her aspect, or her expectations about meeting Rion?

Both our protagonist blending and Kambil's blending deal with the revelation that they are expendable and escape/go underground. What does that mean for Gandistra?

Show me what it's like in the normal day-to-day life of a ruling Blending.

What happens to the middle-plus adepts?

How do adepts train each other in normal circumstances?

Power swap among the protagonist Blending

The protagonist Blending is prevented much more effectively from winning the competitions - and they turn into rebel leaders

Tamrissa escapes her husband much earlier than in canon; this changes the protagonist dynamic

A normal, lawful-good ruling Blending prepares to hand over power and retire

Power plays among the nobles to set up the competing noble Blendings

For an especially dark prompt: dubcon or noncon in play among a competing Blending, maybe with the Spirit member abusing their aspect, or several of the members ganging up on another.

Seer and Sword - Victoria Hanley

Landen, Torina, Dahmis

From my sign-up: A prince enslaved, a princess betrayed, the secret identities they adopt, and the noble king whose ally they become - who seriously has a crush on them both. More please? Especially, more of the OT3? There is so much pining, and there can always be more pining, but I'd also love more adventure, or post-canon choices, or canon divergence, or a happy (or bittersweet) resolution to the OT3 pining.

More thoughts:
So I got a lovely fic for this last year, but I would like more, please. This is a short middle-grade fantasy novel, part of a trio but effectively standing alone. (I read Healer's Keep a long time ago and have little recollection of it; I read Light of the Oracle most recently, but that's extremely different.) The plots and characterisation here are not complicated, but I love this book for its absolutely giant helpings of secret identities, pining, and dramatic reveals.

In canon, there's something satisfying about Dahmis' admiration for Torina and how, lacking any indication of reciprocal interest, he doesn't court her. I also like that Torina gets a chance to live and reflect apart from the court, and Landen spends the intervening years honing his skills as a leader. And I love that both Torina and Landen take action to ally themselves with Dahmis - but Torina moves first!

But I'd also love canon divergence, especially if you can include different permutations of the secret identities, foiling of treachery, and dramatic rescues that canon contains. Maybe Landen saves Dahmis' life, or Torina foretells that Vesputo will use the Sword and arranges for Landen to steal it for Dahmis herself. Maybe, at the end of canon events, Landen's name is still not cleared, or something requires Torina to remain in exile for now. Anything that involves bravery or dramatic reveals would be A+.

I enjoy shipping between any combination of the three characters, and especially, all of them together. Dahmis is so charmed by Landen! Landen carries out a dangerous mission for Dahmis and requests only his friendship as a price! Landen wants to literally lean on Dahmis when Dahmis is asking him if he's sure of his plan against the Sliivites! I can't even. Meanwhile, of course, Dahmis can't think of Torina without admiring her self-possession and her beauty, and Torina and Landen's mutual adoration started from when Landen was given to Torina as a slave and she instantly set him free. Normally I'm not keen on misunderstandings, but here I would be totally keen on "he/she doesn't love me, they love each other,"-type misunderstandings as long as they're resolved. Smut also welcome, whether it has plot around it or not.

And worldbuilding following on from the end of canon as it stands would also be neat. As I said, I'm very rusty on Healer's Keep, so you're welcome to incorporate that or ignore it. Bellandra has been under Archeld's control so long - what's involved in its restoration? How does Torina settle into the role of queen? What other challenges face Dahmis? (I acknowledge a story about Bellandra's restoration may touch on dark/serious decolonisation themes - that's fine as long as there is optimism for the future.)

More prompts:

Torina and Dahmis wrote letters to each other before Vesputo's betrayal; Dahmis has no idea that Vineda is his former correspondent

Dahmis has his own secret identity shenanigans

Dahmis, with Landen on his mind, disguises himself (maybe with a magic disguise?) to seek out anonymous sex; he runs into Landen, who is acting on the same impulse

Established relationship; any two of them in bed together with the third absent but the present two talking about their fantasies for the third

Landen and Torina decide that if Bellandra's independence is to be restored, they cannot marry. While for most of my prompts, I'd prefer happy endings, you can pile on all the angst here

Landen and Torina marry, but cherish the occasions on which all of Torina, Landen, and Dahmis can be in the same place and enjoy each other's company

I'm usually neutral on baby plots, but in this case, something incredibly tropy about Torina carrying either Landen's or Dahmis' child and both of them doting on her would be welcome

Mid-canon: Torina risks herself to carry some warning to Dahmis or Landen, and Vesputo captures her. Landen and Dahmis have to rescue her.

Perhaps, instead of turning from Dahmis when she learns of his alliance with Vesputo, Torina instead plans to drive a wedge between them. What if Bellanes' identity is revealed while Torina's remains obscured?

Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse

Rupert Psmith, Mike Jackson

From my sign-up: I love the deep comfort and delight these two have in each other. I'd love to see them on an era-appropriate adventure, close to home or very far away; involve them in local politics and community again, or devise a minor or domestic issue that especially calls for Psmith's eloquence and Mike's empathy. Or send them to another setting - fantasy or sci-fi welcome - or, whatever else you do, just focus on how much Psmith approves of Mike and how Mike appreciates Psmith and I will be very happy.

More thoughts:
Although all four Psmith books are charming, I'm especially fond of Mike and Psmith and Psmith in the City, because they have the most Mike in them. I enjoy Psmith as an amiable agent of chaos and/or purpose, who is always two steps ahead except when, out of polite curiosity or a sense of fair play, he allows circumstances to catch up with him, but his deep and unstrained friendship with Mike is truly a joy. I love how cheerfully and frequently he showers Mike with compliments, and seems to genuinely regard Mike as a solid cornerstone of an otherwise capricious world, while Mike obviously thinks the world of Psmith and provides both an appreciative audience and a steadying influence for his schemes.

I'd prefer a story that handwaves the canon love interests (they're welcome to show in platonic roles) and either ships Psmith and Mike, or at least focuses on their platonic closeness. I love it when Psmith's stoicism, quick wits, and sense of the absurd get a chance to shine - there's something delightful about how relaxed he is about confounding a social norm or playing a (mild!) prank and then observing events unfold, with a high confidence, always borne out, that nothing can really go too wrong. But I'd prefer that any victims of his whims are not harmed or deeply upset, or are merely receiving their just desserts. I also enjoy a study in the contrast between Psmith's snobbish tendencies and how genuinely interested he is in his fellow man. And I also love it when Mike's best qualities drive the action - his sense of fairness, his willingness to help others, his readiness to meet what comes, his relative equanimity, and his ability to reconsider a previously-formed opinion.

I don't know a lot about the historical setting of the canon, and I enjoy seeing it through Mike and Psmith's eyes; I enjoyed the local politics subplot of City, for example, and the tenements issue in Journalist - another focus like that would be welcome. More international cricketing adventures, different possible careers, different travel around the world? And I also love seeing fantastical worlds though Psmith and Mike's eyes, especially if the different settings allow for displays of loyalty and attempted self-sacrifice from either party.

For shipfic, I'd enjoy many things. One specific thing, because I feel Mike/Psmith is especially suited for it: although I love and welcome pining, I'd really love to see them at that very brief stage of a relationship when they're in love and one of them has figured it out and is secure in the other's affections, but the other person doesn't yet quite know/hasn't quit confessed. Just that blissful feeling when one has recently realised that their feelings are or will be returned and is absolutely basking in how much they adore the other person, how great they are, how likely all their daydreams are to come true - proud and a little possessive and just happy. I think this would be easier to do with Psmith than Mike, because Mike spends less time reflecting on his own emotions, but any way you could swing it would be great. Pair it with some sort of peril and rescue plot, where the person in whose head we are is very keen to get to the declaration of love part but there's this pesky danger in the way? That would be amazing. Again, this is NOT the only kind of shippy fic I want, it's just one that has presently taken hold of my imagination and I can't seem to describe it in more precise terms.

I'd also prefer for a shippy fic to be light on simple endearments from either Mike or Psmith; I would prefer them to be sparing (I see Mike as likely to be embarrassed, most of the time or at least at first, by 'darling', 'beloved', etc, and Psmith likely to prefer more elaborate compliments) and therefore utterly electric when they land.

More prompts:

Plausible careers are welcome but so are implausible ones - maybe Mike's father has had a Whim and dragged Mike and Psmith into it, maybe you just make them musicians or inventors or society hosts or something with as much or as little explanation as you choose

One is sent on a long journey with some danger involved and the other sets off after them. Dream sharing?

First-time sex leads to a misunderstanding that it was casual only, leading to pining, leading to resolution of pining and even better sex

I don't think I'm as enthusiastic for hurt/comfort as the rest of the fandom, sorry, and am not naturally into sickfic or whump. But one of this pair saving the other from peril, or taking on a difficulty (emotional or physical) to save the other, are both A+

Crossovers - Narnia? Oz? MCU? Pern? Anything I've written or received or prompted for is fair game.

Something fantastical or steampunk-y in the otherwise-canon setting? Psmith as diplomatic representative to aliens/beings from another dimension? Psmith very slightly detached from the ordinary course of time? Mike discovers Excalibur?

A setting in which either of them acts at the other's bodyguard - maybe a world in which athletes like Mike have very high status, or where Psmith is a diplomat or politician or some sort of noble?

A much older, happily together Mike and Psmith, perhaps from an outsider perspective or competently mentoring others.

Love & Legends (Visual Novel)

Helena, MC, Witch Queen

From my sign-up: Evil sexy mentors, identity issues/dopplegangers, and magic - yes please! The dark backstory between Helena and her mistress the Witch Queen is fascinating to me, as is Helena's healing from it; I love the supportive relationship between Helena and the MC against the background of that history; and the wary feelings that the MC and the Witch Queen have for each other are also fascinating to me. Basically anything focusing on these character dynamics would be excellent.

More thoughts:
Love and Legends is an isekai visual romance novel where the main character lands in a fantasy world and is mistaken for the recently-vanquished Big Bad, a sorcerous queen. I'm afraid I've only really played one route (Helena's) and am still in season 6 of 9 released, but what I lack in canon completion I promise I make up for in enthusiasm. (If you're curious, it's freemium but very slow to play if you don't spend money on it.)

So Helena is the Witch Queen's former favourite apprentice, and they had an intense and abusive relationship where the Witch Queen gave Helena knowledge, skills, and purpose, convinced Helena that she was nothing without the Witch Queen, added sexual sadism into the mix, and required Helena to do terrible things in her name. The Witch Queen is vanquished and our protagonist turns up; during a period in which the Witch Queen's spirit occasionally invades the MC's mind, Helena gradually falls in love with this newer, kinder version of the woman she hated almost as much as she loved.

Helena and the MC are adorable together; I love Helena's wonder at finding a happy relationship after she'd convinced herself she never could, and finding someone worthy of protection who feels just as fiercely loyal towards her. Emotional hurt/comfort that echoes canon tone would be welcome, and I also would love to see scenes of Helena exploring new aspects of her magic, with the MC helping - I love magic worldbuilding, and magic used for mundane purposes! For smut, honour bondage would be particularly nice, and also sexual or non-sexual affection and care such as bathing each other, hair brushing, massages etc.

I also love the twisty aspects! Canon takes a fairly straightforward and sanitised route with Helena's redemption arc, but you're welcome to complicate that, with an MC who maybe sees Helena as more intrinsically good (because she needs to) than Helena is, or a Helena whose troubled past makes her unpredictable, withdrawn, or otherwise difficult at times. Dig into just how messed up it could be for Helena to be in love with the person whose face haunts her worst memories.

The Witch Queen is welcome either as an on-stage presence, or just as someone who is never far from Helena and the MC's thoughts. Similarly, a scene between the Witch Queen and Helena in which the MC does not have lines or appear is fine, even if it's pre-canon and the MC hasn't turned up yet - evil sorceresses and their willing or unwilling pupils are a dynamic I love across many canons.

I didn't request him specifically, but I'd also enjoy seeing Alain, either as part of a messed-up sexual dynamic involving Alain/Helena/Witch Queen, or during canon, won over to the MC's side, and involved with Helena and the MC either platonically or romantically/sexually.

No name preference for MC. Please no readerfic, but other second person styles are fine.

More prompts:

The MC and Helena travelling the realm together when peace is achieved

Cooking and potions!

Shenanigans land MC in the fantasy world as if at the start of one of the good side/ retainer routes, but with the memories of several seasons' worth of Helena's route; she schemes to win Helena (and Alain?) over to the side of good

More mental influence by the Witch Queen of the MC - or Helena

The MC learns that she can invade the Witch Queen's mind in return; among the ethical issues, this leads her to unpleasant memories

The Witch Queen spies on Helena & the MC and makes plans

The Witch Queen gains the upper hand and takes both Helena and the MC captive again

Circumstances require the MC to pretend to be the Witch Queen for a mission, with Helena along for the ride

The MC enlists the help of one of the retainers to make a surprise gift for Helena

Ritual sex is required for healing magic, either with Helena/MC or Helena/MC/Alain.

The Neverending Story - Michael Ende

(no characters nominated)

From my sign-up: This is one of my favourite books in the world. I love the scope of Fantastica and its myriad array of creatures, and I love that there can be conflict between those creatures, and consequences to the stories our hero so easily spins. Some things to explore: new visitors to Fantastica; records of Fantasticas that existed in another visitor's time; intertwined adventures, post-Bastian, for the characters Bastian met; lies escaping Fantastica; ways for Fantasticans to create their own stories by living them rather than telling them.

More thoughts:
It's hard to describe how much I love this book, since I read it before my teens and it has delighted me every time I've come back to it. I love Xayide and Uyulala and Gaya, the Dark Princess, and the sphinxes. I love thinking about the idea of following one's heart's desire as a sort of sacred charge, as Grograman discussed with Bastian, I love thinking about Gmork's speech to Atreyu about Fantasticans becoming lies, and I love thinking about the different ways hinted at to travel in and out of Fantastica.

I often re-read The Neverending Story and want answers to particular puzzles, but on this particular re-read, what has struck me most is appreciation for paradoxes and things that shouldn't exist together and do. How there are things and patterns in Fantastica that are true for almost all time, and yet Fantastica is entirely reborn and rebuilt in the book - and, it is implied, as been reborn and rebuilt in this way before. Somehow it's possible for the Childlike Empress to assure Atreyu that all the humans who have come to Fantastica and helped it have brought something enriching back to our world, and it's also possible for the City of Old Emperors to exist. Fantastica contains beautiful, ugly, evil, and good things, and I am appreciating anew the ways in which the book allows logical or emotional tension to exist, sitting with it for a spell. I don't know if that's helpful - please ignore if not. On the other hand, I loved so many Fantastican landscapes that could not be appreciated by people other than Bastian, or were destroyed - a way to cheat and preserve them in some way would be welcome.

Stories that play Fantastica "straight" would be welcome - concentrating on a visitor's heroic quest, continuing an unfinished story, or taking literally some other statement of canon fact about how Fantastica and its relation with other world(s) operates. So would something a bit more meta. Maybe someone arrives by portal and is incorporated into a journey (or recruited by Gmork's shadowy masters, or similar)? What about a hero quest gone wrong, where the visitor's desire is not simply to be the hero of their own story, but something darker - a darkness that the Childlike Empress, with her famed neutrality, allows? How would that end?

More prompts:

Continue one of the stories that shall be told another time

Two friends visit Fantastica at once. Or one person from our world follows another there to rescue them

I want to know the story of a lie that crosses over into our world! Is there a path to redemption/healing?

How does Gmork cross between worlds, and what other creatures can do this in the same way he does?

More intricate and wondrous monsters, geographies, peoples, and cultural traditions!

Involve the sphinxes again somehow

"Nothing is lost," she said. "Everything is transformed."

Ways for Fantasticans to make their own stories

Trading something other than memories for wishes.

Previous Blending Series prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Love & Legends prompts: Chocolate Box 2019
Previous Neverending Story prompts: Worldbuilding 2017
Previous Psmith prompts: fffx 2020
Previous Seer & Sword prompts: Yuletide 2019, fffx 2020

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/216790.html

It is never too late to talk about awesome things, right? People were very generous to me this recent Yuletide and I have much to celebrate there.

I received two stories for the fairy tale The Lute Player - one an intricate, unsettling, seamless meld with Sir Orfeo, and one a more irreverent, but equally heartfelt story breathing life into the heroine especially. I love how the two stories expand the tale along such different axes. I also received:

- an incredibly indulgent threesome story for The Seer and the Sword, a slight but fun YA fantasy that has given me very shippy feelings since I read it half my life ago;

-a rich, strange, and fascinating story from Odile's perspective for the ballet Swan Lake;

-and a fun and intense worldbuilding snippet for Hive Mind, based on the very latest canon that had come out just weeks before Yuletide reveals (allowing me to devour it).

Details below the cut!

( Riches of Yuletide 2019 )

I also have a second reason for mentioning fairy tales: sign-ups are open for Once Upon a Fic, the fairy tales / legends / ballads / urban legends / myths / rhymes exchange I help

crantz run. They close on the 19th. I'm extremely excited for this exchange - I tend to struggle each year with writing and then come out with something I'm really proud of. And people's interpretations are so creative!

This year I'm asking for the following stories:
-The Cat Who Became a Queen - summary: His wife? A CAT. Deceptions and shenanigans and goodheartedness.
-Childe Rowland - a classic eerie fairyland quest! I want to explore it
-Lokasenna - look I just want to roll around in angry mythology!Loki feelings and the tragedy of it all
-East of the Sun, West of the Moon - It has bears AND fantastical locations AND personified elements AND a strange courtship and redemption! what's not to love
-The Green Knight - meet-cutes and dream technology! and more goodheartedness (though some spite as well) (Danish fairy tale, not Gawain's encounter)

Come write one of those for me! :P Or come write other things for other people. I'm not picky. Just come play -

once_upon_fic.

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/216244.html

Hello! I'm Morbane on AO3. Thank you for reading!

This year's fandoms:
-Hive Mind (Amber, Claire - either)
-Sucker Punch (Rocket, Sweet Pea)
-The Chain - Fleetwood Mac
-The Lute Player - Fairy Tale (Queen)
-Swan Lake - ballet (Odile, Odette)
-Healer and Seer Series - Hanley (Torina, Dahmis, Landen)

Do-Not-Wants: harm to hands, addiction and substance abuse, amnesia*.
Additional DNW, for Lute Player: narrative support for religious conversion as a justification for war.
Additional DNW, for Healer and Seer: infidelity.
*Amnesia is OK generally for Healer and Seer, and is OK to be mentioned for Hive Mind if part of a background plot involving personality resets.

I would prefer not to receive interactive fiction. My ideal gift length for this challenge is between 200 and 20,000 words. (Drabbles can be hit-or-miss for me, so someone else might appreciate your effort more; if your story needs to be longer then 20,000 then go forth intrepid writer and follow your muse, but all else being equal, l like reading a lot of different things on the first day the collection opens.)

General likes

I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.

( Hive Mind Series - Janet Edwards )

( Sucker Punch (2011) )

( The Chain - Fleetwood Mac (Song) )

( The Lute Player (Fairy Tale) )

( Лебединое озеро - Чайковски | Swan Lake - Tchaikovsky )

( Healer and Seer Series - Victoria Hanley )

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/215354.html

Hi, and thanks for your interest in my letter, whether you're considering writing for me or just curious about my prompts!

This year for Yuletide, I've asked for:

Drive Angry, a supernatural/action B-movie

The Shadow, a superhero movie based on a radio drama + pulp novels (I only know the movie)

Simoun, a 26-episode fantasy/war anime

Solitaire, a light sci-fi novel by Kelley Eskridge

Soon I Will Be Invincible, a light sci-fi/superhero novel by Austin Grossman

Sucker Punch, a fantasy/action movie

Crossovers or fusions between these fandoms, or between one of these fandoms and another rare fandom I know, are welcome.

On AO3 my username is Morbane.

Do-Not-Wants: harm to hands, addiction and substance abuse, amnesia.

I would prefer not to receive interactive fiction. My ideal gift length is between 200 and 20,000 words; if you're thinking of writing a drabble for me, then the thought is appreciated, but someone else might enjoy your effort more - drabbles are hit-or-miss for me.

General likes

I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love xeno, voyeurism, dubcon, noncon, telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have enthusiasm or specialized knowledge, however mundane or weird that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.

( Drive Angry (2011) )

( The Shadow (1994) )

( Simoun (Anime) )

( Solitaire - Kelley Eskridge )

( Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman )

( Sucker Punch (2011) )

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/212178.html

Hi, and thanks for your interest in my letter, whether you're considering writing for me or just curious about my prompts!

This year for Yuletide, I've asked for:

Drive Angry, a 2011 standalone supernatural/action B-movie;

Pegasus, a YA fantasy novel that is the first book, but probably the only book, in an incomplete trilogy by Robin McKinley;

The Shadow, a 1994 superhero movie based on a radio drama + pulp novels (I only know the movie);

Simoun, a 26-episode fantasy/war anime from 2006;

Soon I Will Be Invincible, a standalone light sci-fi/superhero novel by Austin Grossman;

and Sucker Punch, a 2011 standalone fantasy(?)/action movie.

General likes

I love original characters, outsider character perspectives, and worldbuilding. I love competence and loyalty. I like uplifting and hopeful messages, and protagonists who champion them. I also like genuinely terrible characters and tragic arcs, and villains with strong motivations and critiques of the protagonists' goals. Characters are welcome in any shade of grey. I like seeing characters screw up and then learn (or not) from their mistakes. I love magical realism, dramatic weather, trains, telepathy, and dragons. I like getting a strong sense of time or place. For porn, I love xeno, voyeurism, dubcon, noncon, telepathy, praise kink, and awkward-but-not-emotionally-disastrous sex; intense oh-god-I-can't-believe-it's-so-good sex; gentle and loving sex. I love emotional intimacy whether or not it comes with physical intimacy. I love mentors and protegé(e) relationships, and relationships between characters who are juggling multiple identities. I love seeing the relationship between two characters at one point in time, and then seeing it again when the relationship is very different. I'm just as interested in break-ups as get-togethers. I like Big Damn Hero moments, and also days in the life, or stories about people who are just trying to make it by in a weird world. I love it when authors incorporate something about which they have specialized knowledge, however mundane that thing is.

You're welcome to write in past or present tense, and in first, second, or third person. Epistolary and found-media formats are welcome.

( Drive Angry (2011) )

( Pegasus - Robin McKinley )

( The Shadow (1994) )

( Simoun (Anime) )

( Soon I Will Be Invincible - Austin Grossman )

( Sucker Punch (2011) )

Crossposts: https://morbane.livejournal.com/210513.html

I have been remiss in posting about recent fanfiction gifts. I received a superlatively generous range, in quantity and quality both, across Crossovering, Coronation Ceremony, and Yuletide.

Fandoms: Pokémon Go, Jorinde and Joringel (Fairy Tale), The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison, Beauty and the Beast (Fairy Tale), Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis, Labyrinth (1986).

Yuletide, a large exchange for "rare" fandoms (under a certain threshold of fic quantity), has been a bright point in the last quarter of my last seven years. I received:

Fraxinella (3481 words) by ForsythiaRising
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Jorinde and Joringel (Fairy Tale), Fairy Tales & Related Fandoms, Der Wacholderbaum | The Juniper Tree (Fairy Tale)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Jorinde/Joringel
Characters: Jorinde, Joringel, sorceress - Character
Additional Tags: Fairy Tale Retellings, I would not say the violence is graphic but it is definitely there, honestly this is darker than planned, The Juniper Tree is barely referenced for like 20 seconds, really obscure fairy tales for 600, Flowers, Fire, do not read if fire freaks you out
Summary: The sorceress keeps her magic on the hearth, under a big, iron cauldron where its red glow can mix in with the always-dying embers.
---
Days of a nightingale & dreams of her lover

Jorinde and Joringel is a story that is both tidy and weird, satisfying and confusing. A maiden is captured by a sorceress and her lover must free her. ForsythiaRising chose to blur the lines between maiden, mother, and crone; the initial sorceress is not sympathetic, yet she is relatable. There are utterly gorgeous turns of phrase in this story, especially if you like gardens.

Candy (6344 words) by winter hill
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pokemon GO
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blanche & Candela & Spark (Pokemon), Spark & Eevee
Characters: Blanche (Pokemon), Candela (Pokemon), Spark (Pokemon), Professor Willow (Pokemon), Eievui | Eevee, Eeveelutions
Additional Tags:
Pokemon candy, Journey, Comfort, buddy pokemon, Yuletide Treat
Summary: When Eevee is transferred to the Professor, she is certain that she’s about to be chopped up for candy. Instead, she might just have found her forever home.

Pokémon Go, the mobile platform game launched in July 2016, was everything I dreamed of - except for the game mechanic that implied players traded sentient creatures for parts. Directly. I was really not okay with that. winterhill wrote me a charming story, dense with hope and trust, that made it all okay and, as per my request, focused on the vast scope of the Pokémon world. winterhill was not even signed up to Yuletide, so I feel especially honoured to have been the benefactor of their treating efforts.

Like a House on Fire (4022 words) by Masu_Trout
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Pokemon GO
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Blanche & Candela & Spark (Pokemon), Candela & Dr. Willow | Professor Willow
Characters: Candela (Pokemon), Blanche (Pokemon), Spark (Pokemon), Professor Willow (Pokemon), Hitokage | Charmander
Additional Tags: Government Experimentation, Pokémon in the Real World
Summary: Apparently, pokémon are real. Candela knows this because one of them just burned her house down.

I also asked for a story about Pokémon Go suddenly colliding with the real world, and Masu_Trout delivered with a great action-adventure story about Candela - student-turned-Pokémon trainer. This is a funny, fast-paced, clever work. Masu_Trout was also not signed up to Yuletide and treated only. Again, I'm honoured.

Crossovering is an exchange I have taken part with great enthusiasm in since it started; this most recent round was its 3rd year. I received:

Beauty and the Incubator (4517 words) by VampirePaladin
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Mahou Shoujo Madoka Magika | Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Beauty and the Beast - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Original Female Character/Original Incubator Character
Characters: Original Female Character(s), Original Incubator Character
Additional Tags: Fairy Tale Elements, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, Alien/Human Relationships, Pre-Canon
Summary: How Beauty and the Beast may have happened in the Madoka Magica world.

I watched Madoka over the last year and it stunned me. Wishes and all their consequences. Hope and heart and courage and darkness. This was a lovely story - it used a fairy tale structure very cleverly to offer up a happy ending that builds slowly and surely. I was a pinch hit in this exchange and my friend VampirePaladin took on my assignment very late - thank you. ♥

the stars move for no one (1066 words) by templemarker
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Labyrinth (1986), Chronicles of Narnia - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Jadis | The White Witch, Jareth (Labyrinth)

I also asked for Narnia & the Labyrinth, and this extrapolates from the breathtaking ruin of Charn to create the Labyrinth out of someone who didn't quite die. I am particularly happy that my writer zeroed in on Jadis & Charn because I find that very evocative. And I really like this origin for Jareth that is half-humble, half archetype.

(Nor was this the only story in the collection that crossed over Narnia and Labyrinth.)

Coronation Ceremony was an exchange run by

extrapenguin for the fantasy novel The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. ExtraPenguin experimented with matching options and I had a blast with their results. I received:

Appropriation Bills, Compulsory Purchases, and Hope (1663 words) by bigsunglasses
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Csethiro Ceredin/Maia Drazhar
Characters: Maia Drazhar, Csethiro Ceredin
Additional Tags: The Wisdom Bridge, Worldbuilding, Post-Canon
Summary: Bridging the Istandaärtha was not merely a marvel of engineering and a feat of politics. It was a financial nightmare.

My author graciously combined two requests I made separately - fic involving the Wisdom Bridge, and fic involving Maia and Csethiro supporting each other. Maia's doubts are so poignant and plausible and I love, love, love seeing the details of bureaucracy in my fantasy. Also, a few weeks later at work I had to proofread an appropriations bill and having this fic in mind made me smile a lot while doing so.

Csoru character design (0 words) by Anonymous
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Csoru Drazharan
Additional Tags: Fanart, Digital Art, character design
Summary: Color design sheet--full figure and a couple of faces.

Csoru is not remotely a protagonist in The Goblin Emperor, but she is definitely a character, and the artist captured her emotional range gloriously - including some really wonderful, lush costume designs. Again, a treat from someone who wasn't signed up. Thank you!

Letters and Flight (640 words) by shadow_lover
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Csoru Drazharan, Csethiro Ceredin (Off-Screen), Varenechibel IV (Off-Screen), Maia Drazhar (Off-Screen)
Additional Tags: Character Study, Letters, Pre-Canon
Summary: She likes to imagine her words flying like birds of prey through the heart of the Untheileneise Court.

And here was another really satisfying angle on Csoru, making her sympathetic if not praiseworthy and showing how she finds satisfactions - sometimes petty, sometimes small, and sometimes all that it is possible for a person in her situation to reach for. My friend shadow_lover was quietly writing this for me at the same time as we were discussing our actual assignments for the exchange. Sneaky and delightful.

♥