Dear Yuletide Writer (2023)

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Optional details are optional! Please feel free to write anything about these fandoms/characters, this is just to provide some suggestions if you're interested. I have treats enabled on my Ao3 account.

 

I'm also primeideal on Ao3 (and Tumblr), and Ember Nickel on FFN. I have many previous dear author letters from which much of this is copied, pasted, and endlessly rewritten. I've written/blogged more heavily about several of these fandoms than others at times, but I would be equally delighted with fic for any one of them.

 

For the fandoms where it's relevant (Debrief, Steerswoman), I'm checking the box for "one or more chosen tags," ie, if you want to focus on one character/worldbuilding tag and not include the others, that is very welcome! (That's also the case for "Worst Journey.")

General Likes:

-canon-divergence AUs

-five things

-worldbuilding

-dialogue

-wit and wordplay

-nonstandard formats (documentation, epistolary, etc.)

-interactive fiction--I prefer formats like Twine to open-ended parsers.

-happy endings

-sad endings (character death, melodrama, heartbreak!)

 

General DNWs: (see fandom-specific notes for further details)

-explicit on-screen sex (fade-to-black or innuendo is fine)

-underage characters having sex

-rape/noncon

-moralizing/didactic stories (characters Learning An Important Lesson about the value of tolerance, etc.)

-non-canonical allegories of current events and/or contemporary politics (Alderidge has hot takes about Winston Churchhill, fine; Alderidge has hot takes about a Rishi Sunak stand-in, no thanks.)

-character bashing

 

Children of the Star

 

Noren

 

What I love about it: the complicated themes of science and faith, and how there's more to "heresy" than just wanting to burn the system down; the twisty reveals, especially in the first book; the way Stefred functions as a compelling antagonist.

 

-An expansion of any of the scenes fast-forwarded through in the last few chapters (The Archpriest, being an outcast even among the Scholars, new ceremonies like drinking groundwater and how they change in future generations.)

-Interacting with the First Scholar via memories/computers

-Helping Lianne or another recruit through the visions

-Post-canon shippiness with Lianne

-Outside POV on him from a Futurity settler

-His childhood friendship with Kern, nurturing each other's heretical ideas

-How would his research have been different (or the same) if Talyra had lived?

-Noren and Stefred get an opportunity to collaborate freely without Stefred having to pretend to be against him

-In the event you happen to also be familiar with "Steerswoman": Rowan and Noren meet by some handwavium and compare notes about their "sufficiently advanced technology" experiences? ;-)

 

Debrief

 

George Russell, Robert Alderidge, Worldbuilding

 

So on the one hand, RPGs can be kind of difficult to prompt for, in that everyone's playthroughs are different and will result in slightly different characterizations; on the other hand, I have so many feelings about these guys and would absolutely love any version. A retelling of your playthrough, what happened next, more backstory, fix-it, "fix-it" that makes it worse...

 

-I love the dramatic irony of seeing the same incidents from different POVs in the character sheets, and then trying to talk about it just makes it worse. (The Catholic Underground in Spain, Courtenay's investigation.) Anything expanding on those or another memory that they technically share but actually remember differently.

-From Alderidge's sheet: "Bykov has the distinction of being the only human on Earth, apart from George Russell, who has ever known you in any meaningful sense." What's going on with these two? How much does Bykov know about the OUC? Is there hatesex?

-Does any of this ever get declassified? How much do Dora or Jean, or the kids, ever figure out, correctly or incorrectly?

-Worldbuilding! What kind of research is the OUC (or the Soviets) doing into ghost technology? What are spirit mediums doing in other parts of the world? At rates of ~one in ten thousand, it's unlikely you'd ever run across another unless there was some effort--but there are also more people who acknowledge ghosts and auras even if they can't directly witness them.

 

For me, the disruptor was an important focal point of the playthrough--my version of Russell is increasingly horrified at the thought of using it on Alderidge, meanwhile, Alderidge is insisting that it's this great tool of mercy and it's not clear whether he's talking about himself. Then once my Russell admits to himself that getting Alderidge to cross over and get closure is more important to him than anything else, he gets his act together in kind of a ruthless Pascal's Wager-y way. The sense they both have of "okay well here's when I draw the line, it's different when it's you at risk" is part of what I love about this dynamic, so anything touching on that (or the disruptor in general) would be great, but obviously everyone's characterization will be different!

 

Feel free to lean into the shippy aspects, or not, as you prefer; I don't really want anything too anachronistic or setting-changey, but Alderidge's level of candor (or Russell's level of having-a-clue) can be anywhere on the scale, it's all good.

 

Note: some of the DNWs I've listed for other exchanges do not apply to this request. For instance, I think the use of second-person POV works very well in the character sheets, so I enthusiastically opt in to second-person POV fic here! (As well as first or third.) Also, go as dark as you want in terms of "possible outcomes include ghosts being destroyed forever with the disruptor, or haunting the world until they decay and lose all coherence."

 

Steerswoman

 

Rowan, Bel

 

I love all the complexities of Outskirter society, and the differences among the various tribes. More about Bel's approach to life as a warrior and a bard--in her own tribe? With Kammeryn's people? How do Outskirters who only know her through her poetry imagine her? How did she learn to appreciate the "once upon a time" structure when adapting to the Inner Lands?

 

Rowan's time in the Archives as a student? Learning to draw and take measurements? A situation in which the Steerswomen's vow of honesty gets her in trouble? Something post-canon-so-far where she is able to communicate more with the "demons" or actually make some progress in learning about what's going on with the world?

 

There are lots of great tropey moments with Bel and Rowan that can be either shippy or gen: huddling for warmth, teaching each other swordplay, taking care of each other when they get dysentery! If you're so inclined, I'd be interested to see a shippy expansion on any of these, or something else along these lines. Another misunderstanding with the courtship gifts outside the tent?

 

In the event you happen to also be familiar with "Children of the Star," maybe Rowan and Noren meet by some handwavium and compare notes about their "sufficiently advanced technology" experiences? ;-)

 

The Worst Journey In The World

 

Apsley Cherry-Garrard, Henry Robertson "Birdie" Bowers ("any" with only these characters nominated)

 

What I like about it: the contrast between the different "character voices"--not just narrator!Cherry writing a decade after the fact, but also diary!Cherry in the moment and epistolary!Bowers being very proud of his cute green hat. Here is a tl;dr Google Doc I put together with some of my favorite quotes/over-the-top moments/tropes.

 

I enjoy both shipfic and gen for these two! Please no poly-shipping.

 

-Another incident with different POVs on the same event, whether it be future!Cherry interweaving his voice with present!Cherry or just the contrast between Bowers and Cherry's voices.

-Bowers writes a candid letter to his mom and overshares some details about the crew's personal life

-Testing the idea of a two- or three-man sleeping bag (as proposed by Fridtjof Nansen). Huddling for warmth...and for science.

-The Winter Journey ends in tragedy. (Does this change the approach to the Pole and wind up saving lives in the long run?)

-AU where Atkinson leads the group to search for Campbell's party in late 1912 and they don't find out for years how close Scott et. al got.

-Cherry mentions that he had a conversation with Bowers about potentially "doing himself in with a pickaxe if necessity arose." What was that talk like?

-I love how polar exploration fandom runs with weird fantastical tropes (time loop, body swap, ghost shenanigans) because it's Antarctica and the aurora did it. Anything along these lines is great.

 

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Again, this is all optional, feel free to use as much or as little as is helpful. I look forward to reading your story!