2017 Yuletide letter

[snowynight]

Dear writer,

Thank you so much for creating a fanwork for me! I'm sure I will love it anyways, but here are some details about what I like/dislike, in case you like to do your research.

First off, I would rather receive a work that the creator was enthusiastic about than one that fulfilled every detail of my request. These are guidelines meant to help you, not to cage you.

For this exchange I have requested

• Choice of Robots


• The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel


• Hunter: the Reckoning


• Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles - Kim Newman


• The Reward (2013)


• The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - Various Authors,

 

General Like

I like stories with: amnesia, action/adventure, alternative universes, banter, capture and rescue, competence, crossover, dominance and submission, the edge between civilization and the unknown, formation of friendship, history affecting the present, humour, hurt/comfort, longing, love or friendship expressed in atypical ways, moral ambiguity, attraction between opposites, outsider POV, people telling stories, people who have each other's backs, people who flat out like each other's company, people suffering stoically, power exchange, people being resolute, secret identity (or lack of it), strong and competent characters, sense memory, time travel, traveling, slow burn, missing scenes, friends to lovers, fixing failed relationships, changing fate, things going wrong and navigating the outcomes

Though it seems unlikely, if you have not yet given up on my rambling and want to research me more, I've told more about what I like here.

Seriously, if you go the AU route-- or just in general-- please don't worry too much about making everything fit exactly into canon. I am *not* going to be super-picky about what happened when, or which characters were doing what during whatever event.

Horror/Supernatural/Dark fic specific

I'd welcome horror/darkfic in: The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel, Hunter: the Reckoning and The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - Various Authors

I love psychological horror, isolation, paranoia, emotional manipulation, stockholm syndrome, mind control, bodyswapping, possession, supernatural creatures (I'm fond of vampires, but also love ghosts and zombies and werewolves and pretty much all of the weirder supernatural creatures), magic, moral ambiguity, suffocating and unsettling atmosphere, despair and desperation, characters forced to confront their darker nature/past/nightmares. It's fine if you kill off the bad guys or the secondary characters, but please no gore/vore and detailed torture please.

Note: I don't mind major character death or characters with a fate worse than death in Hunter: the Reckoning, but I will prefer no detailed description of their death or their dead bodies.

Kinks:

Admittedly, I have a bit of harder time coming up with kink-related prompts than gen ones. But don't let that stop you, because I would love to read anything more smut based as well. Here's some ideas:

Bondage and restraint, sensory deprivation e.g. blindfolds

Teasing, edging, orgasm denial/control

biting/marking, leaving small reminders that someone is theirs

Characters wearing luxury jewellery, with or without clothing.

cuddling, first times, focus on the senses, body worship, praise kink

slow but sweet sex, awkwardness, partners constantly checking on each other

Non-penetrative sex: intergluteal / intercrural sex, frottage, etc (I love penetrative sex too, but I also like variety in my smut)

fake dating, going undercover as couple, arranged marriage

Do Not Wants

I don't particularly like: unrequested pairings, infidelity, preferred pairings broken up within the fic, pregnancy/mpreg/kidfic, soul-bonding or "destiny" in terms of romance, excessive possessiveness and/or jealousy portrayed as healthy or romantic, "we're not gay we just love each other," first person narration, graphic violence, torture, heavy illness (e.g. cancer or AIDS), rape/noncon, unrelenting angst, scat/watersports, vore, body fluids besides blood or sexual, bestiality, 24/7 BDSM lifestyle, self-harm, incest or faux-incest, religion bashing, major public embarrassment, inclusion of real life tragedy/social issues, and/or female-character-bashing-- including dialogues like "Don't be such a girl," and so on, major character death (exception: Hunter: the Reckoning).

Choice of Robots

• Requested character: Robot Creation (Choice of Robots)


• Possible ship: Robot Creation/Female Player Character, Robot Creation & or / Robot Companion

What I like about the fandom: Do you like robots and AI? Do you like a deeply moving piece of interactive fiction that really hinges on your choices? Do you like exploration of technology, AI, and their relation to humanity? Do you like canon bisexual romance option and games that you can build the future skynet or romance a robot? Choice of Robots is a text adventure that has everything from above with an impressive length (300k) and very good writing. Choice of Robots is available on Android, IOS and Steam. You can play the first two chapters free: https://www.choiceofgames.com/robots/

Prompts

Robot Creation

-Anything metatextual about the game aspect: Robot Creation realizing that it is a game character, Robot Creation playing and relating to games (either its canon favourite: The Braid, Dragon Age, Civilization or other games you can think of, online tabletop rpg/MMORPG are fine too, or even a game based on itself in its world), Robot Creation meeting different version of itself.

-Character study of the Robot Creation: How does it think about itself, its creator, its fellow robots, humans or the world? What does it think of wars, protest for robots’ right and other events in the world and its part in it? What is its typical day as an all-knowing cloud/robot overlord of Alaska, cult leader/etc look like? What adventures does it have in the game future?

Robot Creation / or & Female Player Character

-What happens the time they cruise around the world

-Robot Creation’s quest for independence, and how this clashes with the Player Creator

-How does PC shape the Creation, and what does it think about her? How does it deal with her legacy?

-A quiet night together

-Hurt/comfort when PC is discovered to have a fatal condition

- A typical day after PC joining the singularity / has a robot core installed/has a robot body

For romance option: while non-canonical, I am curious about how relationship with one's own creation will work. Dark and creepy is ok as well as a saccharide tale with unsettling hints, but I’d prefer the PC be genuinely caring towards her creation.

Robot Creation & or / Robot Companion

-Rivalry for the PC’s attention leads to competitive sex

-Finding comfort in each other as they’re both in love/committed to the PC

-Moving on after PC’s death

-Enjoying food and wine together

-Stargazing

- Exploration of the Robot Companion possibly with a copy of the Creation’s mind (clone-cest!)

Note: considering the lifespan of robots, I don't mind PC’s death be included or referenced in the story, though I’d prefer her death to be off screen, and she’s not killed by anyone.

The Gramadevi's Lament - Sunil Patel

Requested character: Pooja's female descendant (The Gramadevi's Lament)

Possible ship: Pooja's female descendant/Tuldaramma

What I like about the fandom: Incorporating Indian mythology, a heartbroken guardian spirit of an abandoned village tells her story of her love - Pooja, a mortal girl unfazed by her, and how she destroys her village in grief upon Pooja marrying into other villages (thus forever lost to her) to Pooja's female descendent, who has (unknowingly?) just become hers. It's beautifully written, touching and creepy.

Where to find: The story is collected in the once free Event Horizon 2017 anthology ed. Jake Kerr (https://www.shirtsleevepress.com/single-post/2017/03/23/Event-Horizon-Now-Available-in-Paperback), and Genius Loci: https://www.amazon.com/Genius-Loci-Tales-Spirit-Place/dp/1941987613

• Pooja (The Gramadevi's Lament)


• Pooja's female descendant (The Gramadevi's Lament)


• Tuldaramma (The Gramadevi's Lament)

Prompts

Pooja's female descendant (The Gramadevi's Lament)

• Why does she return to her ancestor’s home village? Does she come out of curiosity, a desire to find her family’s root or something else? What does she know about Pooja and Tuldaramma before the story and how does her feeling changes throughout and after hearing Tuldaramma’s account? What’s her response to now belonging to Tuldaramma? What happens after that? Does she willingly stay or does she try to free herself? Does Tuldaramma convince her to stay in various dubious way or free her at the end? Is she also missed by the gramadevi of her own place?

Pooja's female descendant (The Gramadevi's Lament) & or /Tuldaramma (The Gramadevi's Lament)

General:

I ship them together and I love both first time and established relationship. I love porn, stories with both porn and plot, and stories without sex. However, if you want to write a gen story of them interacting with each other, it’s all right too.

• I love the potential for darkness in their relationship: give me all the power difference, manipulation, mental control, supernatural horror, stockholm syndrome, classical conditioning, mind games and otherworldliness of Tuldaramma. Emphasis on Tuldaramma’s power and how unsettling and dangerous she can be will be a great bonus. It’ll be awesome if Pooja's female descendant is awed by Tuldaramma and indulged in her affection yet aware that at she’s way over her head and anytime Tuldaramma can destroy her.

• Alternatively, if you want to interpret their relationship in a more fluffy way, what about Pooja's female descendant trying to rebuild the village with Tuldaramma’s help? Pooja's female descendant and Tuldaramma finding comfort and love in each other? A quiet night they spend together? Tuldaramma and her sharing more stories? Tuldaramma starting to love Pooja's female descendant for herself and reassuring her?

Pooja's female descendant (The Gramadevi's Lament) & Pooja (The Gramadevi's Lament)

• What does Pooja's female descendant think and know about her ancestor? While Pooja is dead when the story is being told, it’s still possible for them to interact with each other: maybe she appears in her descendant’s dream. Maybe she reincarnated into her descendant and still retains some of her memory. Does she play any part in her descendant coming to her home village or alternatively she tries to prevent it? A time travel story that they actually meet will be nice too.

Hunter: the Reckoning

• Requested Characters: none


• Possible ship: none

Why I love this fandom: I love the game’s deconstruction of "monster hunters with a higher calling." The grey and grey morality, the clash of views on what to do with the supernatural creatures and the potential for psychological and body horror. I love how the characters are all ordinary people thrust into a dangerous supernatural world out to get them, and while they’re determined to do something, no one can agree on what it is and there’s nothing they can trust. They are way over their heads in this world, and it’s easier said than done to destroy monsters - what about a werewolf grandma at the the corner or the vampire dumpster child hooker? The moral dilemma, the clashes of perspective and the realistic danger of monster hunting (psychological, legal, social, physical) are so fascinating

Where to find it: Hunter the Reckoning is a tabletop rpg published by White Wolf set in the old World of Darkness. You can purchase it on Drivethrurpg: http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/639/Hunter-The-Reckoning?cPath=1_10&it=1

Prompt:

• Monster Hunting: How do the characters deal with the stress of monster hunting and what motivates them to continue? What kind of price they need to pay, what kind of horror/adventure they encounter and what obstacles they have to overcome? I like all factions in the core book equally and a story that people with different ideals having to work together is great. or a story that they interact (maybe over the Internet).


• I find the concept of Hunter.net interesting. What kind of rumours spread over the forum? What kind of wank/famous events happen across the years? What kind of (mis) information is spread across there? Does any supernatural creature try to infiltrate the hunter.net and what’s happened afterwards? Who are the regulars and what do they think of each other?


• Horror: It'll be great if you explore the psychological horror the characters face: isolation, moral ambiguities, no win scenarios, secrets, lies and shames, psychological messes and a glimpse into the void. I also love when characters are transformed psychologically or physically against their will, characters who can't figure out what's real or not. However, I prefer the stories to end with a hint of hope rather than complete despair. If you want more prompts:
  - Characters are now fugitives/on the run, having to survive in a hostile environment when those they love and trust don't trust them anymore
  - Characters have nightmares that begin to bleed into the waking world. Are they caused by the supernatural enemies, their unstable mentality or the Messenger?
  - Characters discover that someone unexpected is supernatural

Note: I don't mind major character death in this fandom, but I will prefer no graphic description of their death.

Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles - Kim Newman

• Requested character: Irene Adler (The Hound of the D'Urbervilles)


• Possible ship: none

What I like about the fandom: I love Sherlock Holmes series, so this distorted twist of the ACD canon from Professor Moriarty's eyes is an easy sell to me. I love how brilliantly plotted, clever and full of twists the stories are, with crosses and double-crosses, mysteries to be solved and incredible howdunits, how Newman blends Victorian fictional and actual history together, and its sense of humour. I love Irene Adler most because she’s clever and plays even Professor Moriarty' around for her benefit, uses her charm effectively and ruthlessly as a weapon and distraction and I would like to read more about her.

Where to find: Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D'Urbervilles - Kim Newman is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Professor-Moriarty-Hound-DUrbervilles-Novels/dp/0857682830 and Irene features in chapter 2: A Shamble in Belgravia and chapter 7: The Problem of the Final Adventure.

Prompts

• More adventures featuring Irene Adler. Coming up with more plans for profit, possibly working together with Madame Sara or other characters, crossing and double crossing people with benefit, infiltration into social events… I just want more Irene being smart and plotting for her benefit.


• How does Irene Adler turn into a life of moral dubious plan? What happens to her post-canon? What agreement does she make with other villains before meeting Moran in Switzerland and for what purpose? What does she think of the professor’s death and more importantly, how does she turn it to her benefit? It’ll be interesting if Irene also acts as a criminal consultant for profit.

The Reward (2013)

• Requested character: Vito (The Reward), Wilhelm (The Reward)


• Possible ship: Vito/Wilhelm (The Reward)

What I like about the fandom: The Reward is 9 minutes long, and the authors truthfully describe it as "epic, feel good, bromantic road trip short film". It's BURSTING with awesome fantasy worldbuilding potential. I really like how Vito and Wilhelm grows from rivals to close friends, and the adventure the films hints about

Where to find: The whole film: https://vimeo.com/58179094

Prompts

• More adventure! More exploration! More treasure hunt! More monster encounter! I love thrilling heroics, daring search and rescue, lost artefacts and wonders, and frightening fights with monster so please go wild with it: searching a sunken treasure ship, trapped in a labyrinth haunted by monsters, flying a airship to outrun their rivals… The possibilities are endless.


• Development of relationship: How does Vito and Wilhelm befriends each other? What do they enjoy doing together in quieter time? How do they learn to work together? I like the grudging protectiveness shown in canon and loves more, so shows me times when one character needs to protect/rescue each other (or they rescue each other). Maybe Vito is kidnapped by villains and Wilhelm needs to rescue him. Perhaps Vito has to break a deadly curse on Wilhelm. I just love when loyalty is assumed and rewarded.

Romance option:

I love both first time and established relationship. I love porn, stories with both porn and plot, and stories without sex. I like both humour and angst, as long as the story ends up with them together. If you’d like more prompts:

• I am a big fan of stories with pinning (mutual or not) that ends up in the characters being together, especially when the characters stoically suffer and is resigned to their feeling being unrequited, only to find their feeling requited at the end. Courtship/dating fics are great too.


• I love all the tropey romance: undercover as a couple, public customs and rituals, accidental stimulation, hypothermia and sharing warmth, trapped in close quarter, strange curse and alien device, Healing or comfort sex, fucking buddies to lovers… You name it. I’ll love it.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities - Various Authors

Requested character: Any

Possible ship: none

What I like about the fandom: The illegitimate child of Monty Python and Umberto Eco, this is a beautifully produced anthology with pseudo-scholarly essays and stories about a number of strange artefacts owned by Dr. Lambshead, an eccentric collector of the bizarre and macabre. A lot of the book is playing with the uncanny, things that are almost, but not quite, human; or straddle the line between animate and inanimate. You can find it at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Thackery-T-Lambshead-Cabinet-Curiosities/dp/0062004751

I will be delighted with fic based on any stories, or a new story in the style of the anthology (I will happily read about any strange artefacts discovered or collected by the good doctor and their stories), but if you’re feeling unsure of where to start, I’ve included below a few suggestions of prompts for nominated characters. If you already have some other idea, please go ahead! These are only meant to provide a starting place if you’d like one.

Prompts

• Ambrose Farnington (Ambrose and the Ancient Spirits of East and West by Garth Nix)

• I really love how competent Ambrose Farnington is as an agent with the supernatural and how stoically resigned he is as a pawn in the great game. What kind of adventures and missions does he go through before and after the story? How does he become an agent and what kind of encounter does he have with Lady S. ? Does his encounter with the great spirit in the story brings him inevitable change?

• Sister North (Relic by Jeffrey Ford )

• I find Sister North very intriguing. Where does she come from? Why does she stay to serve Sister Ifritia? What’s the relationship with her and her three sisters like? What does she do when she’s at the church and what does she think about it? What does she go through when she looks for Sister Ifritia’s relic? Why is she so dedicated to its recovery? What will she do now as the whole relic is stolen?

• Thackery T. Lambshead

• How does he discover and collect his strange collection of artefacts? What does he think about his collection? Does he have a favourite and what is it? What’s the most memorable thing to him? What kind of adventure does he have and what does he do when he’s not discovering strange rare diseases or things? Now that I’ve thought about it, a crossover with SCP Project can be nice (The Book of Categories sounds like something SCP will be interested in, for example), but it’s not necessary.