the playing of the merry organ
Oct. 26th, 2015 04:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lotesseHallo, fellow yuletider! Thank you for writing me a story!
I like emotionally intense reading experiences, family stories, passion, complexity, stories about good problem-solving and communication skills that nevertheless don't save you from life's complications, and stories about people trying. I'll give fandom-specific wants/dnws beneath; I don't have broad squicks to speak of, but some canons work for me in different ways than other ones do. I tend to gravitate to happy-ending stories, but I also enjoy fiction that is elegant, ironic, gothicized, or kinky in its cruelty.
specific fandom/request deets:
request: Hamilton, Hamilton/Washington
I love so many things about this show - i haven't seen it, but have memorized the cast recording, downloaded the 10min b-roll, and started listening to the Chernow bio - but the relationship that's hooked me hardest is the one between Washington and Hamilton.
My fave part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Alexander Hamilton is his awkward and often immature enthusiasm; this often comes up around Washington. And I really like the way that Washington perceives Hamilton's need for mentoring and validation, the incredibly gentle way he handles his subordinate's honor, and the way he lets Alexander whine and rebel without coming down hardcore on him, coz he understands what it is to be driven by something outside of yourself
-basically Hamilton is a whiny-yet-starstruck sub
-the whole thing with the writing, the intimacy of speaking in your commander's voice (see post on "On Last Time" here), pen-and-ink kink, late nights bent together over a document by candlelight ...
Go as kinky as you want to on this prompt; absolute filth would be lovely. Hamilton could become attractively damaged in some way while fighting in the war? Hypothermia porn? Loyalty/obedience kink/play? Dirty talk? Orgasm control?
If you don't want to write slash, intense nonsexual mentor-protegee drama is also super good. Validation is a key word for me in this context.
request: Earthsea, a story about Tenar's life as a young woman on Gont
Tenar goes from a girlhood on Atuan to a life as a free girl, and then as a wife, on Gont. We know how she feels about it in hindsight, but we don't see much of her in the full flower of her young adulthood, when she's learning and enjoying her independence.
I have some dnws/complicated feelings around this request. I'm not sure how I feel about what Tenar tries to do with Flint, the way she sort of sets up a typical heternormative family as a way to hide both her own power and her traumatic backstory from the world. I don't much like Flint; I've always had the impression that he had no idea who he'd married, what kind of a major person his wife Goha really was; because she hid it from him, yes, but if he didn't see behind her mask ... and I don't think he did. I think it's telling that Flint's son, years later, is a sexist disappointment to Tenar. I don't mind Flint being in the story, if you want to work with that period of Tenar's life, but I don't ship it at all. (i do ship ged/tenar in a really major way, all the more because of how many years of unspoken knowing separate them meeting and them finally getting together). Flint/Goha is, imo, an illusion that Tenar set up and played out. She wasn't being Tenar then, and Tenar is the one I'm interested in. But babyfic, with little Apple and Spark, that would be fine with me.
Right after Tombs, what was it like for Tenar, getting used to living as her own mistress, but without the religious power she'd held as a dual-purpose child sacrifice/high priestess?
How do the Gontish mages, Ogion and Ged, impact her adult life? She stays on Gont, Ogion's home and Sparrowhawk's origin place, but she's so distanced from both of them at the same time. Do Gontish people tell her wonder tales about them, the mage who stopped the earthquake and the Archmage away in Roke, does she smile inwardly at how different the men in the stories are from the people she knows? Is there any pain in it? Does she let on how well she knows them? How does she feel about her continued distance from them, or from the political drama of the archipelago?
What kind of impact does her Kargishness have on her life on Gont? Does she hear similar wonder stories about the horrible Eaten Priestess of Atuan, for that matter? What's it like to put aside being a legend in order to be a woman, especially when you're really just a girl?
request: Sleepy Hollow, Ichabbie competence shipping
The chemistry between these two characters is really hot, but both the show and a lot of the fandom write them in a very light-rom-com tone that casts them both in a very ... young? ... or somehow sort of light-weight way, when technically they're both adults who have been through shit, done shit, and come through it still standing. Ichabod's been to war, and made the decision to abandon his upbringing for his principles; Abbie's survived years in foster care and worked her way up to the FBI as a woman of color. He's been married; Abbie isn't inexperienced sexually. My bulletproof ship type is highly competent woman/her competent comrade in struggle, and in theory these two could hit that like a bullseye.
Some fandom-specific dnws: I'm not a Christian, though I am an American, and it bothers me that a single faith shares the spotlight so much with the American Revolution in the show's canon backstory - it can feel a little too "this Christian nation" faux!history to me? But I love creepy folklore and people having to interact with ghosts that they thought were only fiction.
I would rather read fic for this fandom that's somewhat distanced from the actual details of the canon episodes; I find the show pretty unwatchable a lot of the time, and have never managed to invest much in the main plot. But I really like the characters and premise setup! Please take them off on a tangent somewhere and let them develop.
Explicit shippy porn would be excellent, but if you don't want to write shipfic I'd also be interested in a story about Ichabod and Abbie working together to solve a problem in a way that utilizes both of their skills and expertise. H/C is a go, but I'd rather nothing too shmoopy for this request - that view of Ichabbie is well-represented in the fandom, and I'm looking for something with a little more teeth. Kink is fine, but I want Abbie Mills worshiped like the goddess she is, mmm?
request: Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Cimorene/Mendanbar reunionating
Talking to Dragons is the Wrede book I find most frustrating - it's got a lot of stuff in it that I'm theoretically into, the discovering-the-past-of-myth sleeping-beauty fairy-tale stuff - but imo Daystar is kind of a weak character and a really irritating narrator. Apparently Wrede wrote it first, as a standalone, and it being earlier work of hers goes a long way to explain the gormlessness of the book. I'm nuts about Cimorene as a character and well-disposed to Cimorene/Mendanbar as a ship, and I don't necessarily mind them having to endure long separation by reason of magic - but I want a better view of their reunion, one that's not dominated by their son's innocent, gormless confusion over everyone and everything. And I want to hear from Cimorene, not "Mother."
If you want to go smutty - I've always thought that Cimorene and Mendanbar must have had fabulous sex. They're both good communicators, polite but direct, and I think they'd be able to openly, rationally, and successfully get up to all kinds of next-level sexing. And they're both pretty pleasure-seeking people - Mendanbar likes to keep things nice and happy, Cimorene will merrily steamroller anyone who tries to prevent her getting what she wants. And they've been separated for more than a decade. I would think the reunion would be - noisy. Explosive.
In a more gen direction, it's also an interesting situation for both of them, coming back into their kingdom after so long. (Although it would be possible for this to become very sad, the overall Enchanted Forest canon is more about resilience, and the way it feels when things start to work out after having been messed up for a while, and that's the vibe I'd ask for. not too much recapping of the bad times that have gone on before, more focus on the first steps back toward a new golden age. The king and queen are back, and there's a crown prince to meet, and everything's waking up.)
(either way, one of my favorite aspects of the EFC books is the way that magic manifestations are connected to personal emotions, desires, and needs. as king and queen of the enchanted forest, Cimorene and Mendanbar are both magically connected to the physical reality of their direct environment, which will react to them expressively. this has the potential to be hot, humorous, or mythically awesome depending on how it's played. like i said, either way, here for it.)
request: Madeleine L'Engle - Kairos Series, Meg and Calvin when their family was young
I'd love a slice-of-life look at Meg and Calvin's life shortly after marriage/children. I treasure the glimpses we get of them as adult workers and parents in books like Arm of the Starfish, but while I can accept that adult Meg and that adult Calvin as outgrowths of the child characters we got to know more intimately, I want the story about how they first stepped into/manifested those adult selves, what that was like for them and the people around them from both of their home/family systems.
I really enjoy the specific domesticity of the Murry household, the way you know what it looks like and what it smells like and what everyone is eating and who composed the music on the radio. Kate and Alex's home vibe is very well-established - so what might Meg and Calvin's be like?
Kything is a part of these books that really gets me where I live, if you want to touch on that. And I think it's pretty cool that M & C are both basically normal human people who have lived through multiple transcendent experiences together - they might not do that sort of thing every day, but it's also no secret that they've done it before. I'm majorly into the juxtaposition of traveling the stars and the microcosms on the one hand and sitting down to dinner with the baby on the other - it reminds me of this great bit from this A.S. Byatt talk I went to one time.
I like emotionally intense reading experiences, family stories, passion, complexity, stories about good problem-solving and communication skills that nevertheless don't save you from life's complications, and stories about people trying. I'll give fandom-specific wants/dnws beneath; I don't have broad squicks to speak of, but some canons work for me in different ways than other ones do. I tend to gravitate to happy-ending stories, but I also enjoy fiction that is elegant, ironic, gothicized, or kinky in its cruelty.
specific fandom/request deets:
request: Hamilton, Hamilton/Washington
I love so many things about this show - i haven't seen it, but have memorized the cast recording, downloaded the 10min b-roll, and started listening to the Chernow bio - but the relationship that's hooked me hardest is the one between Washington and Hamilton.
My fave part of Lin-Manuel Miranda's Alexander Hamilton is his awkward and often immature enthusiasm; this often comes up around Washington. And I really like the way that Washington perceives Hamilton's need for mentoring and validation, the incredibly gentle way he handles his subordinate's honor, and the way he lets Alexander whine and rebel without coming down hardcore on him, coz he understands what it is to be driven by something outside of yourself
-basically Hamilton is a whiny-yet-starstruck sub
-the whole thing with the writing, the intimacy of speaking in your commander's voice (see post on "On Last Time" here), pen-and-ink kink, late nights bent together over a document by candlelight ...
Go as kinky as you want to on this prompt; absolute filth would be lovely. Hamilton could become attractively damaged in some way while fighting in the war? Hypothermia porn? Loyalty/obedience kink/play? Dirty talk? Orgasm control?
If you don't want to write slash, intense nonsexual mentor-protegee drama is also super good. Validation is a key word for me in this context.
request: Earthsea, a story about Tenar's life as a young woman on Gont
Tenar goes from a girlhood on Atuan to a life as a free girl, and then as a wife, on Gont. We know how she feels about it in hindsight, but we don't see much of her in the full flower of her young adulthood, when she's learning and enjoying her independence.
I have some dnws/complicated feelings around this request. I'm not sure how I feel about what Tenar tries to do with Flint, the way she sort of sets up a typical heternormative family as a way to hide both her own power and her traumatic backstory from the world. I don't much like Flint; I've always had the impression that he had no idea who he'd married, what kind of a major person his wife Goha really was; because she hid it from him, yes, but if he didn't see behind her mask ... and I don't think he did. I think it's telling that Flint's son, years later, is a sexist disappointment to Tenar. I don't mind Flint being in the story, if you want to work with that period of Tenar's life, but I don't ship it at all. (i do ship ged/tenar in a really major way, all the more because of how many years of unspoken knowing separate them meeting and them finally getting together). Flint/Goha is, imo, an illusion that Tenar set up and played out. She wasn't being Tenar then, and Tenar is the one I'm interested in. But babyfic, with little Apple and Spark, that would be fine with me.
Right after Tombs, what was it like for Tenar, getting used to living as her own mistress, but without the religious power she'd held as a dual-purpose child sacrifice/high priestess?
How do the Gontish mages, Ogion and Ged, impact her adult life? She stays on Gont, Ogion's home and Sparrowhawk's origin place, but she's so distanced from both of them at the same time. Do Gontish people tell her wonder tales about them, the mage who stopped the earthquake and the Archmage away in Roke, does she smile inwardly at how different the men in the stories are from the people she knows? Is there any pain in it? Does she let on how well she knows them? How does she feel about her continued distance from them, or from the political drama of the archipelago?
What kind of impact does her Kargishness have on her life on Gont? Does she hear similar wonder stories about the horrible Eaten Priestess of Atuan, for that matter? What's it like to put aside being a legend in order to be a woman, especially when you're really just a girl?
request: Sleepy Hollow, Ichabbie competence shipping
The chemistry between these two characters is really hot, but both the show and a lot of the fandom write them in a very light-rom-com tone that casts them both in a very ... young? ... or somehow sort of light-weight way, when technically they're both adults who have been through shit, done shit, and come through it still standing. Ichabod's been to war, and made the decision to abandon his upbringing for his principles; Abbie's survived years in foster care and worked her way up to the FBI as a woman of color. He's been married; Abbie isn't inexperienced sexually. My bulletproof ship type is highly competent woman/her competent comrade in struggle, and in theory these two could hit that like a bullseye.
Some fandom-specific dnws: I'm not a Christian, though I am an American, and it bothers me that a single faith shares the spotlight so much with the American Revolution in the show's canon backstory - it can feel a little too "this Christian nation" faux!history to me? But I love creepy folklore and people having to interact with ghosts that they thought were only fiction.
I would rather read fic for this fandom that's somewhat distanced from the actual details of the canon episodes; I find the show pretty unwatchable a lot of the time, and have never managed to invest much in the main plot. But I really like the characters and premise setup! Please take them off on a tangent somewhere and let them develop.
Explicit shippy porn would be excellent, but if you don't want to write shipfic I'd also be interested in a story about Ichabod and Abbie working together to solve a problem in a way that utilizes both of their skills and expertise. H/C is a go, but I'd rather nothing too shmoopy for this request - that view of Ichabbie is well-represented in the fandom, and I'm looking for something with a little more teeth. Kink is fine, but I want Abbie Mills worshiped like the goddess she is, mmm?
request: Enchanted Forest Chronicles, Cimorene/Mendanbar reunionating
Talking to Dragons is the Wrede book I find most frustrating - it's got a lot of stuff in it that I'm theoretically into, the discovering-the-past-of-myth sleeping-beauty fairy-tale stuff - but imo Daystar is kind of a weak character and a really irritating narrator. Apparently Wrede wrote it first, as a standalone, and it being earlier work of hers goes a long way to explain the gormlessness of the book. I'm nuts about Cimorene as a character and well-disposed to Cimorene/Mendanbar as a ship, and I don't necessarily mind them having to endure long separation by reason of magic - but I want a better view of their reunion, one that's not dominated by their son's innocent, gormless confusion over everyone and everything. And I want to hear from Cimorene, not "Mother."
If you want to go smutty - I've always thought that Cimorene and Mendanbar must have had fabulous sex. They're both good communicators, polite but direct, and I think they'd be able to openly, rationally, and successfully get up to all kinds of next-level sexing. And they're both pretty pleasure-seeking people - Mendanbar likes to keep things nice and happy, Cimorene will merrily steamroller anyone who tries to prevent her getting what she wants. And they've been separated for more than a decade. I would think the reunion would be - noisy. Explosive.
In a more gen direction, it's also an interesting situation for both of them, coming back into their kingdom after so long. (Although it would be possible for this to become very sad, the overall Enchanted Forest canon is more about resilience, and the way it feels when things start to work out after having been messed up for a while, and that's the vibe I'd ask for. not too much recapping of the bad times that have gone on before, more focus on the first steps back toward a new golden age. The king and queen are back, and there's a crown prince to meet, and everything's waking up.)
(either way, one of my favorite aspects of the EFC books is the way that magic manifestations are connected to personal emotions, desires, and needs. as king and queen of the enchanted forest, Cimorene and Mendanbar are both magically connected to the physical reality of their direct environment, which will react to them expressively. this has the potential to be hot, humorous, or mythically awesome depending on how it's played. like i said, either way, here for it.)
request: Madeleine L'Engle - Kairos Series, Meg and Calvin when their family was young
I'd love a slice-of-life look at Meg and Calvin's life shortly after marriage/children. I treasure the glimpses we get of them as adult workers and parents in books like Arm of the Starfish, but while I can accept that adult Meg and that adult Calvin as outgrowths of the child characters we got to know more intimately, I want the story about how they first stepped into/manifested those adult selves, what that was like for them and the people around them from both of their home/family systems.
I really enjoy the specific domesticity of the Murry household, the way you know what it looks like and what it smells like and what everyone is eating and who composed the music on the radio. Kate and Alex's home vibe is very well-established - so what might Meg and Calvin's be like?
Kything is a part of these books that really gets me where I live, if you want to touch on that. And I think it's pretty cool that M & C are both basically normal human people who have lived through multiple transcendent experiences together - they might not do that sort of thing every day, but it's also no secret that they've done it before. I'm majorly into the juxtaposition of traveling the stars and the microcosms on the one hand and sitting down to dinner with the baby on the other - it reminds me of this great bit from this A.S. Byatt talk I went to one time.