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Dear Boxing Champ (Fic in a Box 2021)
Aug. 14th, 2021 02:18 pm Dear Creator,
Hello! Thank you very much for writing/mapping/documenting/plotting/whatever-ing for me! I'm also primeideal on Ao3.
I would be happy with either more typical fanworks or basically any kind of in-universe documentation for any of these fandoms and characters, so consider these prompts very much a starting point, and feel free to mix and match. If you have an idea that fits with my opt-ins, go wild!
My dear author tag has more examples of tropes and prompts that I'm into, although some of these are characters/ships that I'm prompting for the first time. (This letter is mostly a copy from last year, but I've added a couple new fandoms/ships since then!)
Animorphs
I love the glimpses of all kinds of diverse alien species, crazy timeline shenanigans, and the themes of hope even in the midst of terrible struggle. For this fandom, I'm happy with fix-its as well as "rocks fall, everyone dies," but I'm not interested in cliffhangers or "both sides are equally terrible" posturing.
Worldbuilding
Ax & Elfangor
Aftran & Cassie
Ax & Tobias
Loren & Visser Three
Marco/Rachel
Rachel/Tobias
Opt-ins:
Aftran & Cassie: how would anything post-29 have been different if Aftran had stayed either in Cassie or elsewhere in the human world? How does Aftran decide who to trust in the Peace Movement with the Animorphs' secret? One of the "canon AUs" (the 41 dystopia, time travel stuff) if Aftran had been there?
Ax & Tobias: Ax's misunderstandings about human culture? Tobias visits the Andalite homeworld with Ax post-canon? Some human developments encroach on the scoop and they have to move?
Loren & Visser Three: what if Esplin had infested Loren instead of Chapman on the Taxxon homeworld? (Did she sell Earth out instead, or is he using her to get close to Elfangor and Alloran?) Maybe he follows up on her after the invasion begins, worried that she still remembers? They meet during the Visser's imprisonment?
Marco/Rachel: I'm intrigued by the idea that Marco's feelings for her are more serious than he lets on but he hides them because he's "the funny one" and because she and Tobias are good for each other. One-sided attraction? More from the Megamorphs 4 AU but without the weird timeline-breaking aspects? One day the banter just goes too far?
Rachel/Tobias: outsider POV on "who's that kid Rachel is dancing with, didn't he used to be in our class"? Tobias has to interact with Rachel's dad or sisters and is flustered? AU where Rachel survives but they're both struggling to pick up the pieces?
Worldbuilding: what changes (or doesn't) in the human world after the invasion is revealed? Anything expanding on alien culture and society, main characters or otherwise? More about the canon-AU worlds?
Alternate-medium ideas:
-declassified documents from the Yeerk or Andalite militaries
-language stuff! How does Galard work? What about the Hork-Bajir mishmashes?
-the terms of the Ellimist and Crayak's "games" as if they were a legal document or RPG rulebook
Battle Royale
I enjoy the broad mix of characters and the hopeful themes even in a setting where everyone is trying to kill each other. Feel free to bring in characterization from other continuities, although I'm not as interested in the manga (translation)'s themes of "this is bread and circuses and you should feel bad for spectating, womp womp." Please no sequel-movie, though.
Class 3-B and the Resistance
Noriko
Shuya
Noriko/Shuya
Noriko, Shuya, & the Resistance
Shogo, Noriko, & Shuya
Shinji, Noriko & Shuya
Shinji, Noriko, Shuya, & the Resistance
Shogo/Keiko
Sakura/Kazuhiko
Mizuho
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Noriko and/or Shuya and/or Shinji and/or Shogo and/or the Resistance and/or Class 3-B (there's a lot of potential for overlap here):
-one of the main characters betrays the other(s)
-Shogo seems to lie to Noriko so she doesn't feel responsible for Kazuo's death. Is he being paternalistic or admiring her innocence? Both? Tell me more about their friendship.
-Shinji's bomb works, and he, Shuya, and Noriko meet up with his uncle and go underground
-something goes wrong before the Program even starts (maybe the administrators realized that Shogo could hack the collars?) and some/all of the class is thrust into a war
-Noriko and Shuya reach freedom and try to adapt to their new life. Do they want to use their fame to denounce the dictatorship, or just try to have some semblance of normalcy?
-before the program, Noriko is crushing on Shuya and he's just like "eh, I think Yoshi likes her." Maybe alternate point of views? Shinji's like "man, I'm glad I'm not that silly," Shogo is like "why am I stuck with these literal children..."
Shogo/Keiko: anything about their first program! Feel free to blend any of the continuities--in the book-verse, what was their relationship or lack thereof really like, and how has it changed in Shogo's memories/attempts to manipulate Shuya, Noriko, the adults, others? I'm very intrigued by the movie flashback, and in particular, the implications that Keiko might have been manipulating Shogo into killing her, so something that explores that angle would be great. But I'm interested in anything about the Kobe class/program!
Sakura/Kazuhiko: what if they had gotten separated--would they have struggled to reunite or given up? Could anything have convinced them to play? Does Kaz admire Sakura's pacifism or resent it?
Mizuho: more from her perspective, seeing the conflict as part of her fantasy? Her relationships with other students before the Program? What if she had teamed up with someone else?
Worldbuilding: other changes in this alternate history now that Japan is an isolationist dystopia? What does the rest of the world think? How did so much change and yet Bruce Springsteen was still in the right place to write "Born to Run"?
Alternate medium prompts:
IF--different students' perspectives? Different ways people could have lived or died? Different ways to get randomly screwed over?
Social media--Shogo and/or Noriko make it to the free world and wind up doing some kind of "I survived Battle Royale, ask me anything"
Documentation--history worldbuilding snippets. I'm not kidding about the Springsteen!
Blade Runner
Worldbuilding
Rick Deckard/Rachael
Roy, Leon, Pris, & Zhora
Freysa, Sapper, & Rachael
Joshi/Luv
K/Luv
K/Mariette
Opt-ins:
I love the worldbuilding of noir Los Angeles and all the hints of the larger universe these characters are in. I love replicants and the ways they struggle to assert their own personhood. I love the respect and admiration among all these weird characters, even (and especially) when they're trying to kill each other.
General fic ideas:
Rick/Rachael: How did they figure out she was different? What if she had lived--would she have tried to reunite with Rick, or go underground with Ana? Her perspective on the events of the original--why does she kill Leon? What makes her trust Rick?
Roy, Leon, Pris, & Zhora: deciding to rebel? What if some or any of them had lived and met the Nexus-8s? Do other replicants view them as heroes or idiots, or some of each?
Freysa, Sapper, & Rachael: their life in hiding? Were there philosophical disagreements, or were they all just as gung-ho about revolution as Freysa? Does not knowing she was a replicant for a while make Rachael approach things differently than the others?
Joshi/Luv: stoic fighting women gritting it out while trying to kill each other...look, I ship it. They clash on opposite sides of some other case? They cross paths and are attracted to each other before they realize each other's identities? They get turned on by violence in a slightly less deadly way? Or equally deadly whatever works.
K/Luv: comparisons and contrasts! K is the LAPD's reliable cop, Luv is Wallace's obedient sidekick, but neither of them are totally satisfied with it. Do they try to recruit each other for clandestine operations? Reluctantly save each other's life (like Luv with the drone attack)? Or find their own path away from the institutions? Like Joshi/Luv, I find the violence/conflict to be part of the allure, so feel free to go dark (but please no non-con).
K/Mariette: what motivates Mariette to join the rebellion--is she an idealist, looking for adventure, bored? Does she find any of that with K? Trying to convince K that she's more interesting than Joi? K isn't used to having someone who cares about him just for himself and is charmed?
Worldbuilding: how does the baseline test work for others, or the Voight-Kampff? What's going on in the colonies? We've seen what Los Angeles looks like both in 2019 and 2049, how are the other parts of the world faring? Tell me about Cityspeak, the creole!
Other medium ideas
-Police records of the wanted replicants. What the LAPD has concluded, what they don't know.
-Technical specs/outlines for how the Tyrell and/or Wallace Corporations create replicants. What parts of the process have changed, what is the same? How does Ana create memories?
-if you want to go meta, in-universe speculation about whether Deckard is a replicant, playing up the differences between the different cuts
Chess
Anatoly/Florence
Anatoly & Florence
Florence & Gregor
The Arbiter
Viigand
Opt-ins:
There are countless variations between productions and plotlines (life imitating art) but I see that as a feature, not a bug--feel free to borrow from any version, or smash them all together. I enjoy chess on its own without the musical context, so any allusions to the board game and/or its weird RL history would be welcomed but not required. Please no Freddie/Florence as a romantic partnership.
General fic ideas:
-Anatoly & or / Florence: their time together between acts (brief or not-so-brief, depending on the production). What if they hadn't been in love, but he still wanted to defect and she was mostly helping him for the political reasons? Do they reconnect after the fall of Communism?
-Florence & Gregor: reuniting after the Cold War (or maybe after the play, again depending on the production?)? Stuff he taught her about chess and/or life growing up? News of the outside world occasionally reaches him, he realizes (or not) Florence's connections and growing importance in the chess world?
-The Arbiter and/or Viigand: I feel like these guys are both like "I'm here for chess because chess is serious business, why is everything on fire." I'm intrigued by the Arbiter's "I don't like women, I don't take dope" line--did the KGB have a plan B or C or Z for bribing him? What does he think of Freddie's "One Night in Bangkok" opinions? How did Viigand and Anatoly meet, and how did Molokov prepare Viigand to face his former colleague/rival? Do they commiserate about "everyone else is crazy," or is the Arbiter too concerned about remaining impartial? Do they run across any of the other characters afterwards?
Alternate medium ideas:
-something making fun of all the different continuities? I feel like this could be a good basis for an interactive/choose your own adventure type of fanwork.
-frivolous or serious complaints that the Arbiter had to deal with, and his frivolous or serious responses
-paperwork related to passports, immigration, defection, etc. (Embassy Lament!)
Crying Suns
I enjoy the way that the "clone" mechanic makes this a roguelike that's aware of its roguelike-ness. ("We can find this quest in the next sector...if we get that far.") And Ellys' determination to help the common human while still trying (and failing) to extend mercy to his defeated enemies! Anything about the past or present of this galaxy would be excellent.
Ellys Idaho
Rebecca Calvin
Kaliban
Oberon
Okonkwo
Janua 9S
Ellys/Rebecca
Ellys & Rebecca & Okonkwo
Ellys & Kaliban
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Ellys: what made him a great admiral before the Shutdown? How did he meet the other officers? How did he start to doubt Oberon? What other misadventures have the clones had?
Rebecca: we know she was an ace pilot, but not too much else. What did she think about Oberon? About the OMNIs? What if she'd still been awake and free during the Shutdown--would she have stayed loyal to the empire or gone her own way?
Kaliban: What's it like being the only OMNI left? What changes, or doesn't, with the RUBYCON removed? What do the Kalibans back in Gehenna do when the Odysseus is out on another run?
Oberon: his early days as a tech innovator? What made him decide to secede from Earth and found an empire? He does a lot of plotting to keep the different houses in balance; has anything caught him off-guard or thwarted his plans, prior to the Shutdown? How did he build the Master Node?
Okonkwo: What made him go through with destroying Ganyma? How does he feel about Oberon after the Shutdown and after going behind his back? What if Rebecca hadn't been frozen--would he have been more willing to survive and/or reconcile with Ellys, or would he be still determined to "protect" her?
Janua 9S: Who has used her talents as a Face Changer, and how? Where did she learn everything she needed to access the Master Node? How much of what happened did she plan, and how much was accidental? Do any humans remember her, or just the OMNIs?
Ellys/Rebecca; Ellys & Rebecca & Okonkwo: their early years in the academy? Adventures they went on as young officers? Was Rebecca conscious of Okonkwo's jealousy, or did she not realize until much later? (I'm not normally into threesome fic, but any edges of the love triangle here would be interesting, shippy or gen.)
Ellys & Kaliban: How did the Strand A Idahos and Kalibans deal with the memories? How did the Kalibans get the inhibitor to work? How have their feelings towards each other (resentment? trust? some weird kind of friendship?) changed over the course of the many runs?
Worldbuilding: what's the deal with the pirates and their unions, anyway? What kind of technology is still present on Earth, and how much do they know about the rest of the galaxy? What's the deal with House Vicarelli, other than being the butt of everyone's jokes?
Alternate medium ideas:
-Holy texts from the Church of the Singularity.
-Documents that the Survivalists have pieced together about Earth. (Or the censored versions after Oberon has gotten his hands on them.)
-Maps or schematics for how the folders/FTL jumps work.
-Ship manifesto with literal spaceships, for comparing the different layouts of the Odysseus!
Expert Judgment on Markers...
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
This fandom can be pretty much whatever, so feel free to go wild! I'm not super into the animals angle, but if you wanted to do something based on the "shipwrecked space travelers" or "post-apocalyptic Iron Age civilization" tags that were also nominated, feel free. Also, I think this lends itself well to crossovers, so if you feel like writing characters from an existing fandom I've requested here or elsewhere in this kind of a setting, go for it.
General fic ideas:
-more about the expedition from the Sandia Labs story of Cindy, Jo, Linda, and Steve
-an old superstition/cult belief is proven right, people are not happy about it
-maybe radiation is actually good for an alien species, and they're seeking it out without knowing why the humans seem so paranoid?
Alternate medium ideas:
-letters from an explorer, first optimistic and then nervous about what they're finding
-texts from a religion that's grown up around the cursed grounds
-pretentious academic essays speculating about what's going on
The Prestige
I like the vibe of "friends to enemies to increasingly obsessed enemies" with Angier/Borden, and then on Tesla's end, the nonchalance of "I have no idea what's going on but sure, let's see if I can turn this to my advantage." For Angier/Borden, I'm fine with "dubious consent due to identity issues," but please no violent non-con nor incest.
Robert Angier/Alfred Borden
Robert Angier/Nikola Tesla
Opt-ins:
Art--Technical Drawing
Illustrated Text--Excerpts from a Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook
Illustrated Text--In-Universe Scientific Documents
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Non-Linear Narrative
Writing - Screenplay
Writing - Script
Writing - Unreliable Narrator
Angier/Borden: what if they'd gotten together earlier on and disaster was averted? Do the two Bordens take turns with Angier--who likes him more? Do they catch on? What do their assistants/the outside world think of their "rivalry?" Or maybe there's just one Borden but he's obsessed enough to plot his own death as long as it gets Angier killed too. Or there really is a "teleporter" coming to Borden's rescue.
Angier/Tesla: Tesla realizes there's more to Angier's story than he's letting on but is content to roll with it? Tesla follows Angier back to London after Edison's minions sabotage him? Angier is insistent on seeing how the experimentation goes and Tesla has to explain the engineering process? Borden's reaction once things calm down--is he surprised that they got together, or did he plan it all along?
Alternate medium ideas:
-more from Borden's journal? How does the cipher work? What if Angier had been stuck decoding it on his own?
-Tesla's schematics and machine diagrams
-legal documents from the murder trial
Crossovers:
Mike (Pitch)/Rachel (Animorphs)
Opt-ins:
I feel like the Animorphs' hometown is plausibly San Diego, Mike used to be married to a sports journalist named Rachel in San Diego...if you screw with the timelines enough, it could happen. Feel free to weave in any other characters from either fandom. And having them break-up or divorce is fine too, as long as they are or were together for part of the narrative.
General fic ideas:
-They're each used to being the center of attention and it's a nice break when the spotlight is on their partner instead
-People give Mike a hard time when Ginny steals the spotlight and Rachel is just like "it's about time"
-Rachel starts dating Mike as a rebound from Tobias/to get away from the war and is surprised when real feelings develop
In-universe document ideas:
-Fan mail to either or both of them
-Social media speculation about "are they really together??"'
-if you want to have Rachel Patrick be a different character from Animorphs Rachel, a broadcast/news report the former puts on about "oh man my ex Has A Type"
Burr (Hamilton) & Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (Stoppard)
I feel like with Burr's role as "narrator," he would get on either amazingly or terribly with these guys' metafictional nature/fourth wall nonsense. All the theater shenanigans! Again, feel free to bring in any other characters from either fandom.
Opt-Ins:
General fic ideas:
-Burr regrets killing Hamilton and R&G are like "well, we're all on endless loops anyway"
-groundless speculation about the other canon's romantic relationships"
-"Macbeth" is a work of fiction in the "Hamilton" universe so probably "Hamlet" is too, maybe Burr namedrops it and R&G are confused?
Alternate medium ideas:
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern write in iambic pentameter, Burr thinks they sound very old-fashioned...
-...and/or Burr does hip-hop, the others are like "kids these days"
-"Hamilton" does a lot of cool stuff with passing papers around (Reynolds' blackmail letter, Alexander's letters to Eliza, Jefferson's resignation) so maybe something that riffs on that?
Susan Calvin (Robot Series) & Oberon (Crying Suns)
Opt-ins:
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
So given all the Asimov allusions in Crying Suns (positronic chips, non-violent laws, the "Last Question" stuff), I feel as if the fact that the last name "Calvin" shows up can't be a coincidence. What if Susan was a roboticist expert who knew Oberon when he was young, back on Earth before the Empire? While also being Rebecca's great-great-(times a zillion) aunt or cousin or grandma? Feel free to fudge either or both timelines to make this work, I just think it'd be neat if they were colleagues.
General fic ideas:
-Oberon calls Susan in to diagnose a problem with an early machine. Have the OMNIs already been created, or was she involved with their pre-sentient predecessors, too?
-What does Susan think of the RUBYCON programming? Is it a necessary evil? Does she think the OMNIs should be able to communicate more?
-What other technological advancements have they seen? (The FTL/fold net stuff?)
-Oberon claims he's been watching and/or manipulating Ellys' family tree for three hundred years to find the perfect admiral. So is he keeping tabs on the Calvins, too? Do they produce tech geniuses every couple generations?
Alternate medium ideas:
-"patch notes" from an update? Computer technobabble about OMNI problems?
-How, if at all, is Susan remembered by the galaxy? OMNI historical records, and/or human ones? Does Oberon censor any information about her Earth career, or was she "recent" enough that it doesn't affect her?
-Business records of the early triumvirate (Telos, Akibara-Sung, Kosh-Buendia) before their rise to power. Do all of them contract with Susan? What differences do they take in their tech developments?
---
Again, there are so many great mediums and character dynamics that I could go on all day, so please don't feel limited by this. Thanks for creating for me!
Hello! Thank you very much for writing/mapping/documenting/plotting/whatever-ing for me! I'm also primeideal on Ao3.
I would be happy with either more typical fanworks or basically any kind of in-universe documentation for any of these fandoms and characters, so consider these prompts very much a starting point, and feel free to mix and match. If you have an idea that fits with my opt-ins, go wild!
My dear author tag has more examples of tropes and prompts that I'm into, although some of these are characters/ships that I'm prompting for the first time. (This letter is mostly a copy from last year, but I've added a couple new fandoms/ships since then!)
General likes
-canon-divergence AUs
-five things
-worldbuilding
-dialogue
-wit and wordplay
-nonstandard formats (documentation, epistolary, etc.)
-time travel
-happy endings
-sad endings (when providing some measure of closure or melodrama; I'm fine with character death)
General dislikes
-explicit sex
-underage sex
-rape/noncon
-issue-fic
-second person POV (in "normal" fic, fine with it in IF or similar!)
-character or religion bashing
-cliffhanger endings
-themes of cynicism or futility, or that the (canon's) main plotlines "are for nothing"
I love the glimpses of all kinds of diverse alien species, crazy timeline shenanigans, and the themes of hope even in the midst of terrible struggle. For this fandom, I'm happy with fix-its as well as "rocks fall, everyone dies," but I'm not interested in cliffhangers or "both sides are equally terrible" posturing.
Worldbuilding
Ax & Elfangor
Aftran & Cassie
Ax & Tobias
Loren & Visser Three
Marco/Rachel
Rachel/Tobias
Opt-ins:
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Grammar Sketch
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Ax & Elfangor: growing up in Elfangor's shadow and resenting it? Coming to terms with Elfangor's legacy (and/or hirac delest?) post-canon? Not understanding weird human habits Elfangor picked up?Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Grammar Sketch
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies),
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
Aftran & Cassie: how would anything post-29 have been different if Aftran had stayed either in Cassie or elsewhere in the human world? How does Aftran decide who to trust in the Peace Movement with the Animorphs' secret? One of the "canon AUs" (the 41 dystopia, time travel stuff) if Aftran had been there?
Ax & Tobias: Ax's misunderstandings about human culture? Tobias visits the Andalite homeworld with Ax post-canon? Some human developments encroach on the scoop and they have to move?
Loren & Visser Three: what if Esplin had infested Loren instead of Chapman on the Taxxon homeworld? (Did she sell Earth out instead, or is he using her to get close to Elfangor and Alloran?) Maybe he follows up on her after the invasion begins, worried that she still remembers? They meet during the Visser's imprisonment?
Marco/Rachel: I'm intrigued by the idea that Marco's feelings for her are more serious than he lets on but he hides them because he's "the funny one" and because she and Tobias are good for each other. One-sided attraction? More from the Megamorphs 4 AU but without the weird timeline-breaking aspects? One day the banter just goes too far?
Rachel/Tobias: outsider POV on "who's that kid Rachel is dancing with, didn't he used to be in our class"? Tobias has to interact with Rachel's dad or sisters and is flustered? AU where Rachel survives but they're both struggling to pick up the pieces?
Worldbuilding: what changes (or doesn't) in the human world after the invasion is revealed? Anything expanding on alien culture and society, main characters or otherwise? More about the canon-AU worlds?
Alternate-medium ideas:
-declassified documents from the Yeerk or Andalite militaries
-language stuff! How does Galard work? What about the Hork-Bajir mishmashes?
-the terms of the Ellimist and Crayak's "games" as if they were a legal document or RPG rulebook
Battle Royale
I enjoy the broad mix of characters and the hopeful themes even in a setting where everyone is trying to kill each other. Feel free to bring in characterization from other continuities, although I'm not as interested in the manga (translation)'s themes of "this is bread and circuses and you should feel bad for spectating, womp womp." Please no sequel-movie, though.
Class 3-B and the Resistance
Noriko
Shuya
Noriko/Shuya
Noriko, Shuya, & the Resistance
Shogo, Noriko, & Shuya
Shinji, Noriko & Shuya
Shinji, Noriko, Shuya, & the Resistance
Shogo/Keiko
Sakura/Kazuhiko
Mizuho
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies),
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
Noriko and/or Shuya and/or Shinji and/or Shogo and/or the Resistance and/or Class 3-B (there's a lot of potential for overlap here):
-one of the main characters betrays the other(s)
-Shogo seems to lie to Noriko so she doesn't feel responsible for Kazuo's death. Is he being paternalistic or admiring her innocence? Both? Tell me more about their friendship.
-Shinji's bomb works, and he, Shuya, and Noriko meet up with his uncle and go underground
-something goes wrong before the Program even starts (maybe the administrators realized that Shogo could hack the collars?) and some/all of the class is thrust into a war
-Noriko and Shuya reach freedom and try to adapt to their new life. Do they want to use their fame to denounce the dictatorship, or just try to have some semblance of normalcy?
-before the program, Noriko is crushing on Shuya and he's just like "eh, I think Yoshi likes her." Maybe alternate point of views? Shinji's like "man, I'm glad I'm not that silly," Shogo is like "why am I stuck with these literal children..."
Shogo/Keiko: anything about their first program! Feel free to blend any of the continuities--in the book-verse, what was their relationship or lack thereof really like, and how has it changed in Shogo's memories/attempts to manipulate Shuya, Noriko, the adults, others? I'm very intrigued by the movie flashback, and in particular, the implications that Keiko might have been manipulating Shogo into killing her, so something that explores that angle would be great. But I'm interested in anything about the Kobe class/program!
Sakura/Kazuhiko: what if they had gotten separated--would they have struggled to reunite or given up? Could anything have convinced them to play? Does Kaz admire Sakura's pacifism or resent it?
Mizuho: more from her perspective, seeing the conflict as part of her fantasy? Her relationships with other students before the Program? What if she had teamed up with someone else?
Worldbuilding: other changes in this alternate history now that Japan is an isolationist dystopia? What does the rest of the world think? How did so much change and yet Bruce Springsteen was still in the right place to write "Born to Run"?
Alternate medium prompts:
IF--different students' perspectives? Different ways people could have lived or died? Different ways to get randomly screwed over?
Social media--Shogo and/or Noriko make it to the free world and wind up doing some kind of "I survived Battle Royale, ask me anything"
Documentation--history worldbuilding snippets. I'm not kidding about the Springsteen!
Blade Runner
Worldbuilding
Rick Deckard/Rachael
Roy, Leon, Pris, & Zhora
Freysa, Sapper, & Rachael
Joshi/Luv
K/Luv
K/Mariette
Opt-ins:
Video - Any Nominated Video Medium
Unique Rules - Map: Any
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Grammar Sketch
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Unique Rules - Map: Any
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Grammar Sketch
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies),
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
I love the worldbuilding of noir Los Angeles and all the hints of the larger universe these characters are in. I love replicants and the ways they struggle to assert their own personhood. I love the respect and admiration among all these weird characters, even (and especially) when they're trying to kill each other.
General fic ideas:
Rick/Rachael: How did they figure out she was different? What if she had lived--would she have tried to reunite with Rick, or go underground with Ana? Her perspective on the events of the original--why does she kill Leon? What makes her trust Rick?
Roy, Leon, Pris, & Zhora: deciding to rebel? What if some or any of them had lived and met the Nexus-8s? Do other replicants view them as heroes or idiots, or some of each?
Freysa, Sapper, & Rachael: their life in hiding? Were there philosophical disagreements, or were they all just as gung-ho about revolution as Freysa? Does not knowing she was a replicant for a while make Rachael approach things differently than the others?
Joshi/Luv: stoic fighting women gritting it out while trying to kill each other...look, I ship it. They clash on opposite sides of some other case? They cross paths and are attracted to each other before they realize each other's identities? They get turned on by violence in a slightly less deadly way? Or equally deadly whatever works.
K/Luv: comparisons and contrasts! K is the LAPD's reliable cop, Luv is Wallace's obedient sidekick, but neither of them are totally satisfied with it. Do they try to recruit each other for clandestine operations? Reluctantly save each other's life (like Luv with the drone attack)? Or find their own path away from the institutions? Like Joshi/Luv, I find the violence/conflict to be part of the allure, so feel free to go dark (but please no non-con).
K/Mariette: what motivates Mariette to join the rebellion--is she an idealist, looking for adventure, bored? Does she find any of that with K? Trying to convince K that she's more interesting than Joi? K isn't used to having someone who cares about him just for himself and is charmed?
Worldbuilding: how does the baseline test work for others, or the Voight-Kampff? What's going on in the colonies? We've seen what Los Angeles looks like both in 2019 and 2049, how are the other parts of the world faring? Tell me about Cityspeak, the creole!
Other medium ideas
-Police records of the wanted replicants. What the LAPD has concluded, what they don't know.
-Technical specs/outlines for how the Tyrell and/or Wallace Corporations create replicants. What parts of the process have changed, what is the same? How does Ana create memories?
-if you want to go meta, in-universe speculation about whether Deckard is a replicant, playing up the differences between the different cuts
Chess
Anatoly/Florence
Anatoly & Florence
Florence & Gregor
The Arbiter
Viigand
Opt-ins:
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies),
There are countless variations between productions and plotlines (life imitating art) but I see that as a feature, not a bug--feel free to borrow from any version, or smash them all together. I enjoy chess on its own without the musical context, so any allusions to the board game and/or its weird RL history would be welcomed but not required. Please no Freddie/Florence as a romantic partnership.
General fic ideas:
-Anatoly & or / Florence: their time together between acts (brief or not-so-brief, depending on the production). What if they hadn't been in love, but he still wanted to defect and she was mostly helping him for the political reasons? Do they reconnect after the fall of Communism?
-Florence & Gregor: reuniting after the Cold War (or maybe after the play, again depending on the production?)? Stuff he taught her about chess and/or life growing up? News of the outside world occasionally reaches him, he realizes (or not) Florence's connections and growing importance in the chess world?
-The Arbiter and/or Viigand: I feel like these guys are both like "I'm here for chess because chess is serious business, why is everything on fire." I'm intrigued by the Arbiter's "I don't like women, I don't take dope" line--did the KGB have a plan B or C or Z for bribing him? What does he think of Freddie's "One Night in Bangkok" opinions? How did Viigand and Anatoly meet, and how did Molokov prepare Viigand to face his former colleague/rival? Do they commiserate about "everyone else is crazy," or is the Arbiter too concerned about remaining impartial? Do they run across any of the other characters afterwards?
Alternate medium ideas:
-something making fun of all the different continuities? I feel like this could be a good basis for an interactive/choose your own adventure type of fanwork.
-frivolous or serious complaints that the Arbiter had to deal with, and his frivolous or serious responses
-paperwork related to passports, immigration, defection, etc. (Embassy Lament!)
Crying Suns
I enjoy the way that the "clone" mechanic makes this a roguelike that's aware of its roguelike-ness. ("We can find this quest in the next sector...if we get that far.") And Ellys' determination to help the common human while still trying (and failing) to extend mercy to his defeated enemies! Anything about the past or present of this galaxy would be excellent.
Ellys Idaho
Rebecca Calvin
Kaliban
Oberon
Okonkwo
Janua 9S
Ellys/Rebecca
Ellys & Rebecca & Okonkwo
Ellys & Kaliban
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Unique Rules - Map: Any
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Unique Rules - Map: Any
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies),
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
Ellys: what made him a great admiral before the Shutdown? How did he meet the other officers? How did he start to doubt Oberon? What other misadventures have the clones had?
Rebecca: we know she was an ace pilot, but not too much else. What did she think about Oberon? About the OMNIs? What if she'd still been awake and free during the Shutdown--would she have stayed loyal to the empire or gone her own way?
Kaliban: What's it like being the only OMNI left? What changes, or doesn't, with the RUBYCON removed? What do the Kalibans back in Gehenna do when the Odysseus is out on another run?
Oberon: his early days as a tech innovator? What made him decide to secede from Earth and found an empire? He does a lot of plotting to keep the different houses in balance; has anything caught him off-guard or thwarted his plans, prior to the Shutdown? How did he build the Master Node?
Okonkwo: What made him go through with destroying Ganyma? How does he feel about Oberon after the Shutdown and after going behind his back? What if Rebecca hadn't been frozen--would he have been more willing to survive and/or reconcile with Ellys, or would he be still determined to "protect" her?
Janua 9S: Who has used her talents as a Face Changer, and how? Where did she learn everything she needed to access the Master Node? How much of what happened did she plan, and how much was accidental? Do any humans remember her, or just the OMNIs?
Ellys/Rebecca; Ellys & Rebecca & Okonkwo: their early years in the academy? Adventures they went on as young officers? Was Rebecca conscious of Okonkwo's jealousy, or did she not realize until much later? (I'm not normally into threesome fic, but any edges of the love triangle here would be interesting, shippy or gen.)
Ellys & Kaliban: How did the Strand A Idahos and Kalibans deal with the memories? How did the Kalibans get the inhibitor to work? How have their feelings towards each other (resentment? trust? some weird kind of friendship?) changed over the course of the many runs?
Worldbuilding: what's the deal with the pirates and their unions, anyway? What kind of technology is still present on Earth, and how much do they know about the rest of the galaxy? What's the deal with House Vicarelli, other than being the butt of everyone's jokes?
Alternate medium ideas:
-Holy texts from the Church of the Singularity.
-Documents that the Survivalists have pieced together about Earth. (Or the censored versions after Oberon has gotten his hands on them.)
-Maps or schematics for how the folders/FTL jumps work.
-Ship manifesto with literal spaceships, for comparing the different layouts of the Odysseus!
Expert Judgment on Markers...
Worldbuilding
Opt-ins:
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Worldbuilding Headcanon
This fandom can be pretty much whatever, so feel free to go wild! I'm not super into the animals angle, but if you wanted to do something based on the "shipwrecked space travelers" or "post-apocalyptic Iron Age civilization" tags that were also nominated, feel free. Also, I think this lends itself well to crossovers, so if you feel like writing characters from an existing fandom I've requested here or elsewhere in this kind of a setting, go for it.
General fic ideas:
-more about the expedition from the Sandia Labs story of Cindy, Jo, Linda, and Steve
-an old superstition/cult belief is proven right, people are not happy about it
-maybe radiation is actually good for an alien species, and they're seeking it out without knowing why the humans seem so paranoid?
Alternate medium ideas:
-letters from an explorer, first optimistic and then nervous about what they're finding
-texts from a religion that's grown up around the cursed grounds
-pretentious academic essays speculating about what's going on
The Prestige
I like the vibe of "friends to enemies to increasingly obsessed enemies" with Angier/Borden, and then on Tesla's end, the nonchalance of "I have no idea what's going on but sure, let's see if I can turn this to my advantage." For Angier/Borden, I'm fine with "dubious consent due to identity issues," but please no violent non-con nor incest.
Robert Angier/Alfred Borden
Robert Angier/Nikola Tesla
Opt-ins:
Art--Technical Drawing
Illustrated Text--Excerpts from a Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook
Illustrated Text--In-Universe Scientific Documents
Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Writing - Non-Linear Narrative
Writing - Screenplay
Writing - Script
Writing - Unreliable Narrator
Angier/Borden: what if they'd gotten together earlier on and disaster was averted? Do the two Bordens take turns with Angier--who likes him more? Do they catch on? What do their assistants/the outside world think of their "rivalry?" Or maybe there's just one Borden but he's obsessed enough to plot his own death as long as it gets Angier killed too. Or there really is a "teleporter" coming to Borden's rescue.
Angier/Tesla: Tesla realizes there's more to Angier's story than he's letting on but is content to roll with it? Tesla follows Angier back to London after Edison's minions sabotage him? Angier is insistent on seeing how the experimentation goes and Tesla has to explain the engineering process? Borden's reaction once things calm down--is he surprised that they got together, or did he plan it all along?
Alternate medium ideas:
-more from Borden's journal? How does the cipher work? What if Angier had been stuck decoding it on his own?
-Tesla's schematics and machine diagrams
-legal documents from the murder trial
Crossovers:
Mike (Pitch)/Rachel (Animorphs)
Opt-ins:
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
Writing - Reddit: In-Universe Reddit Post On Any Subreddit (Post + Replies)
General fic ideas:
-They're each used to being the center of attention and it's a nice break when the spotlight is on their partner instead
-People give Mike a hard time when Ginny steals the spotlight and Rachel is just like "it's about time"
-Rachel starts dating Mike as a rebound from Tobias/to get away from the war and is surprised when real feelings develop
In-universe document ideas:
-Fan mail to either or both of them
-Social media speculation about "are they really together??"'
-if you want to have Rachel Patrick be a different character from Animorphs Rachel, a broadcast/news report the former puts on about "oh man my ex Has A Type"
Burr (Hamilton) & Rosencrantz & Guildenstern (Stoppard)
I feel like with Burr's role as "narrator," he would get on either amazingly or terribly with these guys' metafictional nature/fourth wall nonsense. All the theater shenanigans! Again, feel free to bring in any other characters from either fandom.
Opt-Ins:
Poetry - Ghazal,
Poetry - Sonnet,
Poetry - Theatre Script - Musical,
Poetry - Theatre Script - Shakespearean-style,
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting,
Writing - Script,
Writing - Theatre Script - Play
General fic ideas:
-Burr regrets killing Hamilton and R&G are like "well, we're all on endless loops anyway"
-groundless speculation about the other canon's romantic relationships"
-"Macbeth" is a work of fiction in the "Hamilton" universe so probably "Hamlet" is too, maybe Burr namedrops it and R&G are confused?
Alternate medium ideas:
-Rosencrantz and Guildenstern write in iambic pentameter, Burr thinks they sound very old-fashioned...
-...and/or Burr does hip-hop, the others are like "kids these days"
-"Hamilton" does a lot of cool stuff with passing papers around (Reynolds' blackmail letter, Alexander's letters to Eliza, Jefferson's resignation) so maybe something that riffs on that?
Susan Calvin (Robot Series) & Oberon (Crying Suns)
Opt-ins:
Writing - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
So given all the Asimov allusions in Crying Suns (positronic chips, non-violent laws, the "Last Question" stuff), I feel as if the fact that the last name "Calvin" shows up can't be a coincidence. What if Susan was a roboticist expert who knew Oberon when he was young, back on Earth before the Empire? While also being Rebecca's great-great-(times a zillion) aunt or cousin or grandma? Feel free to fudge either or both timelines to make this work, I just think it'd be neat if they were colleagues.
General fic ideas:
-Oberon calls Susan in to diagnose a problem with an early machine. Have the OMNIs already been created, or was she involved with their pre-sentient predecessors, too?
-What does Susan think of the RUBYCON programming? Is it a necessary evil? Does she think the OMNIs should be able to communicate more?
-What other technological advancements have they seen? (The FTL/fold net stuff?)
-Oberon claims he's been watching and/or manipulating Ellys' family tree for three hundred years to find the perfect admiral. So is he keeping tabs on the Calvins, too? Do they produce tech geniuses every couple generations?
Alternate medium ideas:
-"patch notes" from an update? Computer technobabble about OMNI problems?
-How, if at all, is Susan remembered by the galaxy? OMNI historical records, and/or human ones? Does Oberon censor any information about her Earth career, or was she "recent" enough that it doesn't affect her?
-Business records of the early triumvirate (Telos, Akibara-Sung, Kosh-Buendia) before their rise to power. Do all of them contract with Susan? What differences do they take in their tech developments?
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Again, there are so many great mediums and character dynamics that I could go on all day, so please don't feel limited by this. Thanks for creating for me!
