Yuletide 2019 Letter

[duckwhatduck]

Hi! I'm duckwhatduck, here and on AO3. Thank you for writing for me!

General requests:

DNW:
- PWP; smut as main focus of fic.
- Non-canonical pet names
- Major setting-change AUs: canon-divergence is fine, but for pretty much all these fandoms the setting is a big part of what I'm invested in.
- Soulmates and similar (I know I already mentioned AUs generally, but this is a specific squick)
- Crossovers
- Non-con
- Mpreg

Likes:
- Gen
- Casefic
- Hurt/comfort and whump
- Complex relationships; characters having Intense Feelings about each other without being explicitly in a romantic/sexual relationship; dancing along the platonic/romantic borderline.
- Worldbuilding, especially political/social.

Fandom-specific notes:

Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir
(Characters: Gideon Nav, Harrowhark Nonagesimus)

I would particularly love to see backstory fic and more of Gideon and Harrow growing up in the Ninth - there's a lot that's hinted at and sketched quickly but vividly in the book, and it evokes a fascinating grim claustrophobic atmosphere which I'd love to see expanded on and explored more thoroughly.

If you'd rather go canon-era (or post-canon) that's fine too! What I'm largely after is something that fits into the spaces left by the canon, and while there are more of those in backstory, there's plenty of space for missing scenes in the main canon timeline (and if you do choose to do Canaan House fic, this fandom would be my one exception to the general smut DNW above), or for an exploration of the wider setting post-canon.

The Goblin Emperor - Katherine Addison
(Characters: Cala Athmaza, Deret Beshelar, Csethiro Ceredin, Maia Drazhar)

The thing I love most about Goblin Emperor is the way it sets up the social dynamics and requirements of court politics, establishes the hierarchies and expectations of a very stratified society, and then plays with the tension of that rigid set of expectations against the personal feelings and needs of the individual characters. They're pushed into proximity to each other by their official positions, and when they come to care about each other, it's therefore both because of, and inherently restrained in its expression by, the requirements of those roles.

"Serenity, we cannot be your friend."

What they are instead, how does it show between the lines of their official relationships, the ways in which they can demonstrate their concern for each other and the ways in which they can't - how personal feelings exist within that framework, without contravening the boundaries of what's acceptable within their official relationships. The way care for each other exists and is visible without being explicitly named, the subtle signalling.

The symbolism and layers of meaning in language use and formality levels, in clothing and actions and etiquette - it is all so my jam.

Trope-wise: as mentioned in my general likes section, I am always a h/c fan. If you do want to hurt someone, my preference would be for Cala or Beshelar - that opens up some really interesting possibilities with, again, the tension between official responsibilities and personal feelings by putting the 'protectors' in the position of needing to be cared for. Also, it makes space for Csethiro to be a day-saving badass...

镇魂 | Guardian (TV)
(Characters: Chu Shuzhi, Guo Changcheng, Zhu Hong)
I've picked those characters not because I don't want to see more of the rest of the team, just that these are the ones I'm most invested in seeing more focussed exploration of - other characters very welcome. General SID casefic would be a delight.

Specific character-based requests:

Let's cut to the chase: Episode 19 hit me like a tonne of bricks and left me with an insatiable desire for Lao-Chu/Xiao Guo h/c. I am a simple man with simple needs: break them for me and I'll be happy.

If that's not your bag, spotlighting Zhu Hong instead - I'd really like to see exploration of her as a character and her relationship to her duties to both the SID and the Snake Tribe. The show has quite a bit of focus on her feelings about Zhao Yunlan, and to be honest I'd both like to see an exploration of her moving through/beyond that, and her relationship to everyone else (and to her own roles) outside of her Zhao Yunlan feelings.


Hornblower - C. S. Forester
(Characters: William Bush, Horatio Hornblower)

Baby's first OTP and an eternal hunger for just...more of their friendship. The differences between them and the way they both admire each other and supply each other's inadequacies, and...the whole of Flying Colours, and...

Yeah.

N.B. The other two characters nominated being Barbara and Maria, I didn't request them because I would like the focus to be on the relationship between Bush and Hornblower, but if you want to write about either/both of them as a counterpoint to that that would be cool!

The Instrumentality of Mankind - Cordwainer Smith
(Characters: Any)

This setting! There's so much worldbuilding that could do with a deeper dive, especially around the Underpeople and their class relations with the hominids; and the impact of figures like D'Joan, C'Mell, and E'Telikeli and Jestocost as inspirations and folk heroes - the way their stories in canon often end with a long-view legacy and a view of their achievements that are both worthwhile but plausibly finite and part of a wider context of slow social progress, as well as the way they're remembered and romanticised, is really interesting and something I'd be happy to see explored more, either with canon characters or OCs. It's very "who lives, who dies, who tells your story" and I'm all about that, as much as about a more direct exploration of the setting and characters as they exist rather than as they're remembered, if that's more your thing.

Having sung the praises of the Underpeople sections of the timeline, I'm now going to spin off in a totally different direction: Scanners Live In Vain fic would also be amazing, that's a setting with some fascinating horror themes if you want to explore those.


Machineries of Empire Series - Yoon Ha Lee
(Characters: Any)

The worldbuilding in this series! I want to roll around in it forever! Any of the canon characters or none of them - give me explorations of Hex[/Hept]archate social norms and traditions, generalised or within specific factions (Kel in particular - there are a lot of bits of Kel customs that we see and which it would be cool to see more expansions of the implications of), interfaction interactions, servitor/human interactions, servitor culture, moths, calendrical wizardry, the experience of battles using exotic effects, daily Hexarchate life...

Just. This world! It's so good!