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lemniskathLittle Black Dress letter
Unconventional Fanworks letter
Signing up for two at the same time so I guess the post gets to be for both letters...
General Likes:
I love world building and dialogue and character development and all that. Don't worry that you're giving me too much exposition and not getting to the tropes or the sex, I'm fine with slow build or general interest material taking up large parts of fics.
Any level of romantic or sexual connection, from flirting or noticing attraction through to explicit sex, is fine. It can be vanilla or as kinky as you like, or not go far enough for anyone to tell which it would end up being. Even one-sided attraction is okay if that is what works for your story. Happy or sad endings, or in-between are also fine.
General likes that may or may not fit any particular request:
Human characters of all ages, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations - I'm especially happy if human characters of middle age or older are included where appropriate, also bi or pansexual characters are great
Aliens (both very human-like from other planets, completely different lifeforms, and everything in between)
Supernatural elements, especially vampires, werewolves, psychics, fae, and drow or dark elves
Computers, artificial intelligences, robots, technology in general
Unconventional storytelling styles and narration quirks are fine, great even, do whatever you like with that sort of thing.
I'm equally happy to receive all these canons. I love them so much, and the characters in them.
For the LBD Exchange, my main interest in signing up is seeing other people's takes on these characters and what sort of relationships they'd be in. I'm not set on any particular sort of ship; I've enjoyed pining, sweet romance, snarky romance, angsty romance, one-sided romance, violent and strife-ful romance, noncon and dubcon, problematic relationships, relationships that break up or have cheating in them. I tried to choose characters for this that I'd enjoy in any situation outside my DNWs, and I mean that sincerely.
DNWS: Incest, underage sex, focus on underage romantic or sexual relationships, underage characters having flirtation or romance with adult characters or being seduced by them in any way.
See my Id Pro Quo letter for romance likes, iddy likes, and smut likes in case that will help! Checking is optional but you may find it will be handy for tailoring to my interests.
See ship suggestions only if you're looking for ideas - don't look if you have your own ideas already!
I love Rebecca because she's so intelligent and competent and yet a complete disaster who sabotages herself constantly. So relatable! But her romantic options are many and most of them are also terrible. That's part of the charm. Feel free to give her a happy ending, but also feel free to give her canon levels of catastrophic relationship-fails.
Heather on the other hand is very chill. She's persistent and reflective. I love her for who she is, her dry sense of humor and her consistent surprise at her own growth and adulthood. She had a happy enough childhood that she's surprised she even wanted to grow up, I think, but that also makes her quite good at being an adult, even though she isn't sure about that till she compares herself to those around her. You can break up her canon relationship(s) any way you want, whether amicably or not-so, before or during the story you write. I'd also be fine with the canon ship(s) never happening.
The planet or alien intelligence known as Solaris is so mysterious. It finds humans pretty mysterious too, though it's probably telepathic and senses human thoughts, even then those thoughts are so alien to Solaris that all it can do is try to take a form from them and learn by relating.
Solaris might have been intelligent before humans arrived, but was it conscious?I suspect not, because it'd never encountered consciousness. I think Solaris learned consciousness from humans. That's probably why it has the potential to love a human...or hate one... such a double-edged gift, consciousness is.
Solaris specific DNW: Setting change AU that makes Solaris anything but the planet-sized mysterious probably alien intelligence it is in the canon(s) that creates avatars to interact with humans who visit based on those humans' memories. For this request, incest, underage sexual activity, necrophilia, any kink I might normally DNW are all *fine* just remember I don't kink on them, so ideally I'd prefer to have them more as horror elements than kink elements.
Sybel is amazing, her powers are not detailed but she is a very strong magic user, I think, though not defensive. She has power over the minds of others, and her struggle on when to use this and the morals of it are delineated so well in the book. I'm fascinated with the possibilities for her character. Feel free to diverge the canon wherever you want in order to make the story you want to tell. You can make it lighter or darker or stick with canon levels of any aspect. Having grown up alone, yet discovering she's not as solitary as she once thought, what does your chosen person bring out in her? I want to see that.
I had some prompts for this character in Yuletide, so also you could check out my Yuletide letter.
Canon-specific DNW: noncon with Sybel as the victim (exception: if aggressor is Mithran or Drede)
DNW relationship for this canon:
- DNW Sybel/Tamlorn
Any adult canon character in the book is fair game for your pairing choice. I also opted in to a few specific poly combinations:
* Three Seagrass/Mahit/any other canon adult character
* Nineteen Adze/Six Direction/Yksander
* Nineteen Adze/Six Direction/Eight Loop
* Mahit/her-original-imago-Yksander/any Lsel person or original Lsel person, if set during Mahit's early phase of merging with the original imago Yksander
And I opt in to original characters in the following cases:
* in fic set in Lsel Station after the story ends, Original Lsel character/ Three Seagrass
* in fic set before the book starts, Nineteen Adze/Original Teixcalaanli character who was fighting wars alongside her
For Unconventional Fanworks, I'm interested in both experimental storytelling style and in-world documents, and in some cases, poetry. I've put prompts in the request for each canon I requested.
You can see my general likes at the top of this letter, and a link to my request for Id Pro Quo which has a lot of my iddy taste in fic spelled out.
Here are the prompts copied from my request for your convenience.
Group: Visitors (Roadside Picnic)
Redrick "Red" Schuhart
Dina Burbridge (Roadside Picnic)
Arthur Burbridge (Roadside Picnic)
In-Universe Social Media and Communication - Travel Blog
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Travel Guide
In-Universe Personal Documents - Diary Entry
In-Universe Personal Documents - Notes to Self
In-Universe Personal Documents - Journal or Notes Taken By Character
In-Universe Personal Documents - Sketches or art journal made by character
In-Universe Personal Documents - Letters
In-Universe Publication - Travel Guide
In-Universe Publication - Travel Writing
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Museum Exhibit Brochure
Style - Unreliable First Person Narrator
Style - Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives
Style - Non-Linear Narrative
From the Vistors' viewpoint: the travel guide, blog, or a published travelogue they wrote about their visit to Earth. What were they really up to? Was it actually a "roadside picnic," or something entirely else and the humans completely got it wrong? Maybe they don't reveal that, but instead are concerned about something entirely else and their brief visit on Earth is but a footnote to a greater event?
From Red: His diary in his early explorations, or notes he took about the explorations, or sketches he made of the places and things he saw, reminders to himself about plans or warnings to himself in case he forgot. Or it could be from during the late book events, his notes or journal or drawings for that final visit.
From Arthur or Dina: Maybe they found a document of one of these types in their father's things? What did they make of it? Did it scare them or intrigue them? Did finding it change any events of the story or is it what made things work out the way they did? Or what if one of them found an object their father hadn't realized was a publication, and it was a scrap of an alien's diary or journal or sketch? What else might it do or what might they learn about the aliens?
Styles - I'm very fond of style experimentation and would love any story in the canon with a nonlinear style, told from the viewpoint of an alien artifact that's somehow perceiving or recording what happens, from multiple points of view seeing different things due to the strangeness of the zone, or from a narrator who is lying or self-deluded, for whatever reason you come up with.
DNW: incest, underage sex (under 16) - even mentions
Group: The Butcher/Rydra Wong (Babel-17)
Group: Mollya Twa/Callie/Ron (Babel-17)
Group: Markus T'Mwarba & Rydra Wong (Babel-17)
Daniel Appleby (Babel-17)
In-Universe Publication - Review of Musical/Theatrical/Dance Performance
In-Universe Personal Documents - Poetry
Poetry - Sonnet
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Workplace Safety/Information Posters
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - College/University Admissions Essay
Fandom - Timeline of In-Universe Events
Poetry - Sestina
In-Universe Social Media and Communication - Advice Column
Style - Unreliable First Person Narrator
Style - Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives
Style - Code/Robot POV
Style - Audio Transcript
Poetry - a poem from the viewpoint of one of the characters nominated (can be in universe, or can be not in-universe and follow one of the listed forms) about their relationship(s) or about some event(s) in the book or about something they observe about the setting of the story
College essay: the college admissions essay written by one of the characters; or a college admissions essay being discussed by a character that was written by a student applying to study with that character, or otherwise interact with that character while studying.
Safety & information posters: a poster about safety with dangerous linguistic artifacts, or a story about how such a thing became necessary or about writing one or about how one was significant in an event, with an excerpt from its contents or an illustration.
Theatrical performance review: A review of a play, musical, or dance about the events of the book from the in-universe setting; a review of a play, musical or dance based on the book in a modern-day setting; a review of a play, musical, or dance that tells the same story as the book from a historical setting (by Shakespeare? Moliere? Aristophanes? whoever you want). Or a story where a review plays a significant role and excerpts are included.
Advice column: an advice column question written by one of my selected characters and answered by an in-universe original character; an advice column written by one of my selected characters where the questions are from your choice of other canon characters and/or original characters in the canon setting. Or a story where an advice column in the setting plays a significant role and excerpts are included.
Timeline - a timeline of the in-universe events (the freeform is its own prompt)
Style variants - I'd be happy with any story in this canon told with an unusual viewpoint or nonlinear narrative, or where the story needs to be puzzled out from a transcript, code output, or from conflicting narratives or a single unreliable narrator.
DNW: homophobia,incest, underage sex (under 16) - even mentions
Chay Zanlan (Heart of Gold)
Group: Kitrini Candachi/Nolan Adelpho (Heart of Gold)
Group: Pakt & Colt & Melina (Heart of Gold)
Kitrini Candachi (Heart of Gold)
Nolan Adelpho (Heart of Gold)
Fandom - Meta About Something That Disappointed You
Fandom - Platonic Relationship Analysis
Fandom - Ship Manifesto
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Police Interview Transcript
In-Universe Professional Documents - Experiment Result Notes
In-Universe Publication - Trade/Professional Publication
Style - Epistolary
Ship manifesto about any ship involving any of the characters requested -
Platonic relationship analysis about any character requested and any other canon character
does not need to be restricted to requested relationships (though I'd love ones about the requested relationships)
Laws were broken - a Police Interview could be about any of the canon cases or some additional/prior infraction or even witness interview after the bomb from the story?
Experimental results on their research (most of the characters listed are researchers) and/or their publication after the results are in. Or a story that features one of those as part of it.
Epistolary story in this canon would be fantastic! Any of the characters can write or receive the letter(s).
DNW for this set of characters/freeforms: underage sex (under 16), incest. not even mentions, please.
Group: Gay Indigo city men (Heart of Gold)
Group: Gulden migrants (Heart of Gold)
Fandom - Worldbuilding
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Investigative Report
In-Universe Publication - Activist Pamphlet
In-Universe Publication - Anthropological Report
In-Universe Publication - Newspaper Article
In-Universe Publication - Political Pamphlet
In-Universe Publication - Propagandistic Writing
In-Universe Publication - Travel Guide
In-Universe Publication - Travel Writing
Style - 20 Random Facts
Style - First Person Plural Point of View
Just in general, these nominated character groups seem like they could be very interesting for in-universe anthropology or investigative reports or newspaper articles; and also that they'd be prime subjects for activist and political pamphlets and propaganda.
And if you want to do a more meta level of world-building and do a meta fandom essay about the world, and/or set a story among characters of these groups, that's great too! If a story, it could include reactions to propaganda or investigative journalism or something like that.
These groups seem like they'd make excellent plural first person viewpoint narrators.
20 random facts seems self-prompting too.
DNW for this set of characters/freeforms: detailed incest, detailed underage sex (under 16), mentions are okay for this prompt.
Unconventional Fanworks letter
Signing up for two at the same time so I guess the post gets to be for both letters...
General Likes:
I love world building and dialogue and character development and all that. Don't worry that you're giving me too much exposition and not getting to the tropes or the sex, I'm fine with slow build or general interest material taking up large parts of fics.
Any level of romantic or sexual connection, from flirting or noticing attraction through to explicit sex, is fine. It can be vanilla or as kinky as you like, or not go far enough for anyone to tell which it would end up being. Even one-sided attraction is okay if that is what works for your story. Happy or sad endings, or in-between are also fine.
General likes that may or may not fit any particular request:
Human characters of all ages, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations - I'm especially happy if human characters of middle age or older are included where appropriate, also bi or pansexual characters are great
Aliens (both very human-like from other planets, completely different lifeforms, and everything in between)
Supernatural elements, especially vampires, werewolves, psychics, fae, and drow or dark elves
Computers, artificial intelligences, robots, technology in general
Unconventional storytelling styles and narration quirks are fine, great even, do whatever you like with that sort of thing.
Little Black Dress
I'm equally happy to receive all these canons. I love them so much, and the characters in them.
For the LBD Exchange, my main interest in signing up is seeing other people's takes on these characters and what sort of relationships they'd be in. I'm not set on any particular sort of ship; I've enjoyed pining, sweet romance, snarky romance, angsty romance, one-sided romance, violent and strife-ful romance, noncon and dubcon, problematic relationships, relationships that break up or have cheating in them. I tried to choose characters for this that I'd enjoy in any situation outside my DNWs, and I mean that sincerely.
DNWS: Incest, underage sex, focus on underage romantic or sexual relationships, underage characters having flirtation or romance with adult characters or being seduced by them in any way.
See my Id Pro Quo letter for romance likes, iddy likes, and smut likes in case that will help! Checking is optional but you may find it will be handy for tailoring to my interests.
See ship suggestions only if you're looking for ideas - don't look if you have your own ideas already!
Crazy Ex-Girlfriend
I love Rebecca because she's so intelligent and competent and yet a complete disaster who sabotages herself constantly. So relatable! But her romantic options are many and most of them are also terrible. That's part of the charm. Feel free to give her a happy ending, but also feel free to give her canon levels of catastrophic relationship-fails.
Heather on the other hand is very chill. She's persistent and reflective. I love her for who she is, her dry sense of humor and her consistent surprise at her own growth and adulthood. She had a happy enough childhood that she's surprised she even wanted to grow up, I think, but that also makes her quite good at being an adult, even though she isn't sure about that till she compares herself to those around her. You can break up her canon relationship(s) any way you want, whether amicably or not-so, before or during the story you write. I'd also be fine with the canon ship(s) never happening.
Solaris
The planet or alien intelligence known as Solaris is so mysterious. It finds humans pretty mysterious too, though it's probably telepathic and senses human thoughts, even then those thoughts are so alien to Solaris that all it can do is try to take a form from them and learn by relating.
Solaris might have been intelligent before humans arrived, but was it conscious?I suspect not, because it'd never encountered consciousness. I think Solaris learned consciousness from humans. That's probably why it has the potential to love a human...or hate one... such a double-edged gift, consciousness is.
Solaris specific DNW: Setting change AU that makes Solaris anything but the planet-sized mysterious probably alien intelligence it is in the canon(s) that creates avatars to interact with humans who visit based on those humans' memories. For this request, incest, underage sexual activity, necrophilia, any kink I might normally DNW are all *fine* just remember I don't kink on them, so ideally I'd prefer to have them more as horror elements than kink elements.
Forgotten Beasts of Eld
Sybel is amazing, her powers are not detailed but she is a very strong magic user, I think, though not defensive. She has power over the minds of others, and her struggle on when to use this and the morals of it are delineated so well in the book. I'm fascinated with the possibilities for her character. Feel free to diverge the canon wherever you want in order to make the story you want to tell. You can make it lighter or darker or stick with canon levels of any aspect. Having grown up alone, yet discovering she's not as solitary as she once thought, what does your chosen person bring out in her? I want to see that.
I had some prompts for this character in Yuletide, so also you could check out my Yuletide letter.
Canon-specific DNW: noncon with Sybel as the victim (exception: if aggressor is Mithran or Drede)
DNW relationship for this canon:
- DNW Sybel/Tamlorn
A Memory Called Empire
Three Seagrass
I love how she's so committed to following her exemplar's example, her tendency to consider everything in poetry format, her friendship with Twelve Azalea, her determination to have instant rapport with Mahit no matter how weird Mahit must seem to her especially at first, her willingness to work with whoever will be her ally at any time. I love political yet emotionally swept away characters like her. I prefer her to be a cis woman, but you can pair her with a partner of any gender you like.Nineteen Adze
She's so wonderful in her loyalty to the Emperor, her immense political acumen, her warlike nature, her pride and edgeshine and I love that she's a compelling older woman. Her apotheosis! I'd love to see how she is when she's in love or lust, whether she's the one pursuing, pursued, or it's a long term established relationship that's rocky because of power issues (there would always, with her, be power issues.) Please feel free to write Nineteen Adze as cis woman or trans woman, whichever you prefer to write for her. Whoever you pair her with can be cis man, cis woman, trans man, trans woman, whatever you think works.Any adult canon character in the book is fair game for your pairing choice. I also opted in to a few specific poly combinations:
* Three Seagrass/Mahit/any other canon adult character
* Nineteen Adze/Six Direction/Yksander
* Nineteen Adze/Six Direction/Eight Loop
* Mahit/her-original-imago-Yksander/any Lsel person or original Lsel person, if set during Mahit's early phase of merging with the original imago Yksander
And I opt in to original characters in the following cases:
* in fic set in Lsel Station after the story ends, Original Lsel character/ Three Seagrass
* in fic set before the book starts, Nineteen Adze/Original Teixcalaanli character who was fighting wars alongside her
Unconventional Fanworks
For Unconventional Fanworks, I'm interested in both experimental storytelling style and in-world documents, and in some cases, poetry. I've put prompts in the request for each canon I requested.
You can see my general likes at the top of this letter, and a link to my request for Id Pro Quo which has a lot of my iddy taste in fic spelled out.
Here are the prompts copied from my request for your convenience.
Roadside Picnic
Group: Visitors (Roadside Picnic)
Redrick "Red" Schuhart
Dina Burbridge (Roadside Picnic)
Arthur Burbridge (Roadside Picnic)
In-Universe Social Media and Communication - Travel Blog
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Travel Guide
In-Universe Personal Documents - Diary Entry
In-Universe Personal Documents - Notes to Self
In-Universe Personal Documents - Journal or Notes Taken By Character
In-Universe Personal Documents - Sketches or art journal made by character
In-Universe Personal Documents - Letters
In-Universe Publication - Travel Guide
In-Universe Publication - Travel Writing
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Museum Exhibit Brochure
Style - Unreliable First Person Narrator
Style - Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives
Style - Non-Linear Narrative
From the Vistors' viewpoint: the travel guide, blog, or a published travelogue they wrote about their visit to Earth. What were they really up to? Was it actually a "roadside picnic," or something entirely else and the humans completely got it wrong? Maybe they don't reveal that, but instead are concerned about something entirely else and their brief visit on Earth is but a footnote to a greater event?
From Red: His diary in his early explorations, or notes he took about the explorations, or sketches he made of the places and things he saw, reminders to himself about plans or warnings to himself in case he forgot. Or it could be from during the late book events, his notes or journal or drawings for that final visit.
From Arthur or Dina: Maybe they found a document of one of these types in their father's things? What did they make of it? Did it scare them or intrigue them? Did finding it change any events of the story or is it what made things work out the way they did? Or what if one of them found an object their father hadn't realized was a publication, and it was a scrap of an alien's diary or journal or sketch? What else might it do or what might they learn about the aliens?
Styles - I'm very fond of style experimentation and would love any story in the canon with a nonlinear style, told from the viewpoint of an alien artifact that's somehow perceiving or recording what happens, from multiple points of view seeing different things due to the strangeness of the zone, or from a narrator who is lying or self-deluded, for whatever reason you come up with.
DNW: incest, underage sex (under 16) - even mentions
Babel-17
Group: The Butcher/Rydra Wong (Babel-17)
Group: Mollya Twa/Callie/Ron (Babel-17)
Group: Markus T'Mwarba & Rydra Wong (Babel-17)
Daniel Appleby (Babel-17)
In-Universe Publication - Review of Musical/Theatrical/Dance Performance
In-Universe Personal Documents - Poetry
Poetry - Sonnet
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Workplace Safety/Information Posters
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - College/University Admissions Essay
Fandom - Timeline of In-Universe Events
Poetry - Sestina
In-Universe Social Media and Communication - Advice Column
Style - Unreliable First Person Narrator
Style - Rashomon (1950)-style Conflicting Narratives
Style - Code/Robot POV
Style - Audio Transcript
Poetry - a poem from the viewpoint of one of the characters nominated (can be in universe, or can be not in-universe and follow one of the listed forms) about their relationship(s) or about some event(s) in the book or about something they observe about the setting of the story
College essay: the college admissions essay written by one of the characters; or a college admissions essay being discussed by a character that was written by a student applying to study with that character, or otherwise interact with that character while studying.
Safety & information posters: a poster about safety with dangerous linguistic artifacts, or a story about how such a thing became necessary or about writing one or about how one was significant in an event, with an excerpt from its contents or an illustration.
Theatrical performance review: A review of a play, musical, or dance about the events of the book from the in-universe setting; a review of a play, musical or dance based on the book in a modern-day setting; a review of a play, musical, or dance that tells the same story as the book from a historical setting (by Shakespeare? Moliere? Aristophanes? whoever you want). Or a story where a review plays a significant role and excerpts are included.
Advice column: an advice column question written by one of my selected characters and answered by an in-universe original character; an advice column written by one of my selected characters where the questions are from your choice of other canon characters and/or original characters in the canon setting. Or a story where an advice column in the setting plays a significant role and excerpts are included.
Timeline - a timeline of the in-universe events (the freeform is its own prompt)
Style variants - I'd be happy with any story in this canon told with an unusual viewpoint or nonlinear narrative, or where the story needs to be puzzled out from a transcript, code output, or from conflicting narratives or a single unreliable narrator.
DNW: homophobia,incest, underage sex (under 16) - even mentions
Heart of Gold
Chay Zanlan (Heart of Gold)
Group: Kitrini Candachi/Nolan Adelpho (Heart of Gold)
Group: Pakt & Colt & Melina (Heart of Gold)
Kitrini Candachi (Heart of Gold)
Nolan Adelpho (Heart of Gold)
Fandom - Meta About Something That Disappointed You
Fandom - Platonic Relationship Analysis
Fandom - Ship Manifesto
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Police Interview Transcript
In-Universe Professional Documents - Experiment Result Notes
In-Universe Publication - Trade/Professional Publication
Style - Epistolary
Ship manifesto about any ship involving any of the characters requested -
Platonic relationship analysis about any character requested and any other canon character
does not need to be restricted to requested relationships (though I'd love ones about the requested relationships)
Laws were broken - a Police Interview could be about any of the canon cases or some additional/prior infraction or even witness interview after the bomb from the story?
Experimental results on their research (most of the characters listed are researchers) and/or their publication after the results are in. Or a story that features one of those as part of it.
Epistolary story in this canon would be fantastic! Any of the characters can write or receive the letter(s).
DNW for this set of characters/freeforms: underage sex (under 16), incest. not even mentions, please.
Group: Gay Indigo city men (Heart of Gold)
Group: Gulden migrants (Heart of Gold)
Fandom - Worldbuilding
In-Universe Professional and Academic Documents - Investigative Report
In-Universe Publication - Activist Pamphlet
In-Universe Publication - Anthropological Report
In-Universe Publication - Newspaper Article
In-Universe Publication - Political Pamphlet
In-Universe Publication - Propagandistic Writing
In-Universe Publication - Travel Guide
In-Universe Publication - Travel Writing
Style - 20 Random Facts
Style - First Person Plural Point of View
Just in general, these nominated character groups seem like they could be very interesting for in-universe anthropology or investigative reports or newspaper articles; and also that they'd be prime subjects for activist and political pamphlets and propaganda.
And if you want to do a more meta level of world-building and do a meta fandom essay about the world, and/or set a story among characters of these groups, that's great too! If a story, it could include reactions to propaganda or investigative journalism or something like that.
These groups seem like they'd make excellent plural first person viewpoint narrators.
20 random facts seems self-prompting too.
DNW for this set of characters/freeforms: detailed incest, detailed underage sex (under 16), mentions are okay for this prompt.
