Yuletide Letter
Oct. 13th, 2018 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nirejsekiHello, Yuletide writer,
Thank you for writing for me! I’m niresjeki (or robininthelabyrinth) on Ao3 and robininthelabyrinth on tumblr; I largely write Flash/Legends of Tomorrow fic, and if you really want an insight into the Things I Like, read just about any of my fics.
General likes: I tend to like plot or emotionally interesting conversations between characters better than character studies (i.e. one character introspecting); unconventional domesticity; unexpected supernatural elements where appropriate; world building; competent characters being good at things; hurt/comfort; characters valuing friends/family above all else.
General dislikes: infidelity/adultery even in the background (past relationships are fine but not overlapping with the present one); noncon (dubcon is fine); major character death; unhappy endings (not even bittersweet); modern AUs of non-modern canons; a character suffering public embarrassment.
Dragaera – Steven Brust – Characters: Morrolan e’Drien, Blackwand
When I first picked up the Dragaera books, I enjoyed Vlad and Loiosh’s relationship and all of that, but I fell head over heels with Walking Disaster of Honorable Bullshit Morrolan e’Drien. The guy with the 200-year party with Rules of Honor so absurdly strict that they are the literal subject of an evil plot, but also a coven of witches and possibly a shrine to a goddess in other parts of the house. The guy who knows both witchcraft and sorcery and even Elder Sorcery because he’s just that curious. The guy who cheerfully keeps trying to almost get himself permanently killed, much to the frustration of his friends. The guy that somehow managed to not know his own species despite aging like 10x slower than humans. The guy who meanders around with a soul-eating sword that he made his familiar.
Like I said, walking disaster. Please don’t shy away from what a disaster he is. I know it and I love it.
Fandom-specific DNW: should they appear, Sethra and Kiera being the same person; personal involvement of the Gods (esp. Verra)
Prompts:
Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers – anime (esp. dub) – Characters: Anubis, Cale, Dais, Sekhmet (English names used throughout for clarity though I’m fine if you prefer to write using the Japanese names)
This series, man, this used to be my series. I loved this series. I watched it repeatedly on Cartoon Network – and I don’t mean I watched multiple episodes, I mean I waited until the episodes to got to the end and they started playing them from the start and watched them AGAIN. It’s been years since I’ve watched it, but I distinctly remember the years of daydreaming I did for it, so now I want fic.
Specifically, I want fic about the Warlords. I love the Warlords so much. I love their weirdo powers (Cale controls darkness/resurrects the dead! Dais has illusions! Sekhmet has snakes and poison! Anubis…is extremely bossy!), I love their titles, I love their association with various seasons, and I love the fact that their “virtues” are the most susceptible to manipulation – Loyalty, Obedience, Serenity/Endurance, Piety. Much easier for an evil warlord to play on than things like justice, wisdom, trust, etc.!
Of all of them, Cale was always my favorite, but I’m deeply fond of the idea of the idea that these four guys have been stuck together for 400 very long years and that they’ve become a very dysfunctional bickering backstabbing family unit that is nevertheless very annoyed when anyone interferes with that (like, say, by turning one of them good guy, what the hell, Anubis, or alternatively Lady Kayura showing up at the last minute and thinking she can just take his place). I’m happy with either a foursome poly relationship or something more akin to brothers/best friends, either works!
Fandom-specific DNW: no mundane AU; Anubis-centric fic; Anubis as the hurt one in a hurt/comfort situation; permanent character death; fic set during good!Anubis period in canon (after is fine); no Lady Kayura as part of the "family" dynamic
Prompts:
Dark is Rising – Black Rider, Will
Okay, so, I love these books. I love these books madly. But I specifically love the original The Dark Is Rising book (#2) the most, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been shipping the Black Rider/Will Stanton since I was…uh…11. I made my first internet friend over this fandom, no lie. And what I want most is more world-building. So much more world-building. We get all these tantalizing hints, but we only see the smallest portion of them – especially when it comes to the Dark and their rituals and people and, well, literally anything about them.
All of my prompts below are meant to be Black Rider/Will, but Black Rider + Will is also fine. I have a strong preference for Very Reluctantly In Love And Grumpy About It over hatesex or no-feelings attachments.
Fandom-specific DNW: any mention of Bran (he can be part of a mention of “those kids you ran around with” at absolute most); Will/Bran in any way shape or form, even as past/background; anything serious sexual/romantic when Will is physically 11 (OK if for humorous effect); predestination to the exclusion of free will; any mention of magical memory loss; evil!Will Stockholm Syndrome scenario or good!Rider offscreen redemption scenarios
Prompts:
Thank you for writing for me! I’m niresjeki (or robininthelabyrinth) on Ao3 and robininthelabyrinth on tumblr; I largely write Flash/Legends of Tomorrow fic, and if you really want an insight into the Things I Like, read just about any of my fics.
General likes: I tend to like plot or emotionally interesting conversations between characters better than character studies (i.e. one character introspecting); unconventional domesticity; unexpected supernatural elements where appropriate; world building; competent characters being good at things; hurt/comfort; characters valuing friends/family above all else.
General dislikes: infidelity/adultery even in the background (past relationships are fine but not overlapping with the present one); noncon (dubcon is fine); major character death; unhappy endings (not even bittersweet); modern AUs of non-modern canons; a character suffering public embarrassment.
Dragaera – Steven Brust – Characters: Morrolan e’Drien, Blackwand
When I first picked up the Dragaera books, I enjoyed Vlad and Loiosh’s relationship and all of that, but I fell head over heels with Walking Disaster of Honorable Bullshit Morrolan e’Drien. The guy with the 200-year party with Rules of Honor so absurdly strict that they are the literal subject of an evil plot, but also a coven of witches and possibly a shrine to a goddess in other parts of the house. The guy who knows both witchcraft and sorcery and even Elder Sorcery because he’s just that curious. The guy who cheerfully keeps trying to almost get himself permanently killed, much to the frustration of his friends. The guy that somehow managed to not know his own species despite aging like 10x slower than humans. The guy who meanders around with a soul-eating sword that he made his familiar.
Like I said, walking disaster. Please don’t shy away from what a disaster he is. I know it and I love it.
Fandom-specific DNW: should they appear, Sethra and Kiera being the same person; personal involvement of the Gods (esp. Verra)
Prompts:
- Probably the thing I most want to explore is a throwaway line in one of the very first books where it’s mentioned that his Morganti Great Weapon is also his familiar – and an autonomous one at that. I think Vlad once describes her as “an infantry battalion disguised as a sword” and I love that. You know how Loiosh is always snarking away in Vlad’s head? That. I want that. I want weirdly co-dependent witch-familiar stories. I want Morrolan to have weird insight into the Great Weapons that he then has to pretend he read in a book that he now lost because explaining would be weird and he doesn’t want to be weird because he’s not weird, really, just eccentric, he swears. I want Not-Even-Slightly-Human-Also-Eats-Souls!Blackwand snarking away at Probably-Too-Powerful-For-His-Level-of-Naïveté!Morrolan. Preferably while they go on some ridiculous adventure in which Blackwand’s solution to everything is “eat their souls” and Morrolan keeps not agreeing for reasons that entirely escape her. Go crazy with it!
- Next, however, there’s Morrolan’s history in the East. We hear briefly about it, but then…that’s it. It’s as if he was born and raised a perfect Dragonlord when in fact we know he didn’t even realize he wasn’t an Easterner for a very long time (which…friend…no…what you have in common with other Dragaerans is not that you’re both tall...). I want worldbuilding! Who were his foster parents (foster village? was there a whole family line that took care of this small child for decades?)? What sort of environment did he grow up in – was there discrimination against Dragaerans in the same way there is against Easterners? Did he get involved in something that would be Deeply Embarrassing To Admit as a Dragonlord (I’ll take anything from Notable Singer to Joined an Assassins Guild to Temporarily Part Of A Pacifist Cult)? [NOTE: with this prompt, you don’t have to use Blackwand]
Ronin Warriors/Yoroiden Samurai Troopers – anime (esp. dub) – Characters: Anubis, Cale, Dais, Sekhmet (English names used throughout for clarity though I’m fine if you prefer to write using the Japanese names)
This series, man, this used to be my series. I loved this series. I watched it repeatedly on Cartoon Network – and I don’t mean I watched multiple episodes, I mean I waited until the episodes to got to the end and they started playing them from the start and watched them AGAIN. It’s been years since I’ve watched it, but I distinctly remember the years of daydreaming I did for it, so now I want fic.
Specifically, I want fic about the Warlords. I love the Warlords so much. I love their weirdo powers (Cale controls darkness/resurrects the dead! Dais has illusions! Sekhmet has snakes and poison! Anubis…is extremely bossy!), I love their titles, I love their association with various seasons, and I love the fact that their “virtues” are the most susceptible to manipulation – Loyalty, Obedience, Serenity/Endurance, Piety. Much easier for an evil warlord to play on than things like justice, wisdom, trust, etc.!
Of all of them, Cale was always my favorite, but I’m deeply fond of the idea of the idea that these four guys have been stuck together for 400 very long years and that they’ve become a very dysfunctional bickering backstabbing family unit that is nevertheless very annoyed when anyone interferes with that (like, say, by turning one of them good guy, what the hell, Anubis, or alternatively Lady Kayura showing up at the last minute and thinking she can just take his place). I’m happy with either a foursome poly relationship or something more akin to brothers/best friends, either works!
Fandom-specific DNW: no mundane AU; Anubis-centric fic; Anubis as the hurt one in a hurt/comfort situation; permanent character death; fic set during good!Anubis period in canon (after is fine); no Lady Kayura as part of the "family" dynamic
Prompts:
- Honestly, anything with them as a foursome while they were all Warlords. Plot would be wonderful, but even just interacting. Unconventional domesticity! World-building about what the Netherworld is like! Weird detail-oriented stuff about the mechanics of running a spirit army! Anything in which they have a weirdly strong bond with each other that they’re secretly possessive of while also bickering like hell.
- Backstory would be cool, too. We know some about Anubis, but basically nothing about the others – how the hell did someone like Sekhmeht or Dais happen? How did Talpa get them? What about those POWERS, jeez, discovering those must have been a trip!
- Hurt/comfort! These guys are literally slaves to Talpa, who is abusing their ‘virtues’ to do so – and he doesn’t seem like a kind master. Someone complains a bit too loudly and gets beaten down, someone gets sent on a bad mission, something. NOT Anubis as the one who is hurt, though I would love it if oh-so-arrogant Anubis was helping with the comfort.
- If you want to write something about good!Anubis, then please maintain the same requested dynamic between them. No fics about them mourning him (either for going good or for being dead). Post-resurrection fics are fine.
Dark is Rising – Black Rider, Will
Okay, so, I love these books. I love these books madly. But I specifically love the original The Dark Is Rising book (#2) the most, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been shipping the Black Rider/Will Stanton since I was…uh…11. I made my first internet friend over this fandom, no lie. And what I want most is more world-building. So much more world-building. We get all these tantalizing hints, but we only see the smallest portion of them – especially when it comes to the Dark and their rituals and people and, well, literally anything about them.
All of my prompts below are meant to be Black Rider/Will, but Black Rider + Will is also fine. I have a strong preference for Very Reluctantly In Love And Grumpy About It over hatesex or no-feelings attachments.
Fandom-specific DNW: any mention of Bran (he can be part of a mention of “those kids you ran around with” at absolute most); Will/Bran in any way shape or form, even as past/background; anything serious sexual/romantic when Will is physically 11 (OK if for humorous effect); predestination to the exclusion of free will; any mention of magical memory loss; evil!Will Stockholm Syndrome scenario or good!Rider offscreen redemption scenarios
Prompts:
- Something where they’re stuck together – either as the last ones left behind, or some other scenario. Even better if they’re stuck together sometime in the past so they get to interact with all the other characters in the stories, but forced teamwork and eventual bonding…yes, I want you to write me a Dark Is Rising buddy cop Dark-Light adventure, I admit it. Extra points for lots of world-building about what being a member of the Dark is like (as opposed to being an Old One on the side of the Light). Extra extra points if at some point the Black Rider has to smuggle Will through a Dark-only area and everything is awkward.
- Age swap. It’d be really cool to play with the time travel aspects and have Will go back in time to when the Black Rider was first being recruited into the Dark and what that was like, or to explore them meeting in opposite situations.
- Accidental mind-link. Ideally while the Light and the Dark are still fighting. Extra points for both of them having to deal with both real life and magical life and being amused at what they discover about each other (i.e. Will’s in college, the Black Rider has a job as a hedge fund manager because he enjoys causing pain, Will still uses the Doors to get everywhere, the Black Rider secretly enjoys Tolkien, etc.)
- Something dealing with Wild Magic or High Magic as it impacts them both in different ways would be interesting.