Dear Silent Night Creator
Oct. 18th, 2016 12:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
minutia_rDear Silent Night creator:
Hi! Unlike most of the time when I sign up for exchanges, odds are pretty good that we know each other already, at least in passing. So you may already know that I am ridiculously easy to please when it comes to people writing or drawing me things. Seriously, just make me something based on any of my requests and I’m sure I’ll love it. So--aside from the Do Not Wants--please feel free to ignore the rest of this letter. It’s really only here to give you inspiration if you don’t know what to write or draw, but if you have your own ideas already, please go wild with them. One of the fun parts about somebody making things for my prompts is when they come up with things I would never have thought of myself!
So, about those Do Not Wants:
-Since I’m basically doing worldbuilding requests, this should go without saying, but: AUs, crossovers, and fusions other than the requested ones
-Uh, that’s about it, I’m waiving most of my usual Do Not Wants for this exchange, EXCEPT--
I’ve requested all ratings for fic, because I’m open to all ratings, but really based on my requests I’m expecting Teen and Up at the most. So I wouldn’t think that my smut DNWs would be terribly relevant. HOWEVER, if you do write me a story that examines the implications of Iceland reopening its borders via a steamy sex scene between Ensi Hotakainen and the author of the trolls, beasts and giants info pages (and please do! I am really interested to see how you’re going to pull that one off) then bear in mind that I do not want:
-Sounding
-Infantilization
-That thing where one or more of the people involved doesn’t know what sex is or realize they’re having it
-Religion kink--like, naughty nuns and priests and what have you
Okay, that’s out of the way, now on to stuff that I do want!
General likes: I really like all kinds of fic, from silly fluff, action and adventures and worldbuilding to smut and hurt/comfort. Feel free to take it darker, too: violence, character death, betrayal, consent issues sexual and otherwise, bad things happening to characters I like AND characters I like doing bad things. I’m open to different POVs and tenses, and unusual fic formats like poetry and epistolary/documentary fic. For art, the kind of character portrait where a lot of thought has gone into details of clothing, hairstyle, etc even if nothing in particular is happening, loose sketchy comick-y things that illustrate a character moment or interaction, or, for a lot of these requests, landscape or architectural pictures would be cool as well. I also like things that incorporate text and images in various ways, like calligraphy, comics, maps and diagrams. In-world documents in the style of the info pages would be amazing.
A brief and really not exhaustive list of story elements I especially like: Comfort after a nightmare, self-sacrifice, loyalty and trust issues, elections, platonic bed-sharing, hugs, language geekery, communication issues, breakups (either the kind where the original relationship is eventually patched up, or where the people involved manage to forge a different but still mutually satisfactory type of relationship afterward, or where nothing is okay again and everything hurts), ethical dilemmas, food porn and food preparation, parenting/childcare, exploration of canon-appropriate religious themes. For art, in addition to any of these things, I’m really fond of watercolors and Art Nouveau-inspired stylings.
A note on pre-existing original characters and settings: If you have any OCs, Ssssonas, or original settings that you’ve already created, developed, written about, drawn, or whatever, and you see a way to use them to fill these requests--please do! I’d love to read about them or see them, and links to anywhere you might have written/arted them before would be welcome, too. My only request is if you do this, please make sure that whatever you make for me for this exchange stands on its own, okay?
Okay, and now for the prompts:
Worldbuilding: Iceland reopening its borders
This is my one fic-only request, because I can’t really think of how the things that interest me would be explored using art. Anyway, this must have been such a world-changing event, second only to the collapse of the Old World itself, and unlike the collapse of the Old World, we haven’t seen it in canon at all aside from passing mentions. I’m especially interested in things from the non-Icelandic side, although if you have an idea for a story told from the Icelandic side, I’d love to read that instead. What was it like for people who still had memories of the Old World, to suddenly have access to technology, culture, and material wealth that they thought was lost forever? How about people who grew up in the New World and had thought things like that were old stories at best? On the other hand, there must have been a lot of resentment towards the Icelanders for hiding themselves away for the rest of the world for so long, not to mention their previous policy of killing anyone who got too close. How did we get from there to a world where everyone is seemingly one big happy Nordic family, and Icelandic is the Lingua Franca? Were there illicit contacts between Iceland and the outside before the borders officially opened, possibly between Icelandic and Norwegian mages meeting in the Dreamworld?
Please explore these or any other related issues, using whatever prologue characters were still around at the time, or whatever Year 90 characters would have been old enough to be aware of the events as they were happening, or original characters, or any combination thereof.
Worldbuilding: Girl Genius fusion
I blame this one entirely on tanoraqui on tumblr. Okay, maybe also a little bit on notapaladin|lilithqueen. Anyway! Put the crew in the world of Girl Genius! Are the mages Sparks? Or, in a world where supernatural ability manifests as an aptitude for mad science, are Tuuri, Siv, and/or Mikkel Sparks and Lalli and Onni Badass Normals? What adventures do the crew have adventuring through a Europa devastated by revenants and the leftovers of mad science experiments gone wrong rather than a Silent World devastated by the rash illness? Artists: use this as an excuse to steampunkify the cat-tank or put everyone in Victorian-inspired clothing! Tuuri would look amazing in Agatha’s underwear, am I right? (Especially if accessorized with one of Agatha’s death rays …) Also, consider: If Sigrun is Skifandrian, then Emil is her zumil. Which means that HE HAS TO WEAR THE ZUMIL OUTFIT. You’re welcome.
If you feel like including any of the Girl Genius characters, please do! My favorites are Agatha, Gil, Zeetha, Klaus, Theo, and Sleipnir, but I would be happy to see anyone.
Character: Author of the Trolls, Beasts, and Giants Info pages
There are some indications in canon that the info pages about trolls, beasts, and giants are part of an in-universe book or field guide. Show or tell me a little bit about its author! Are they an intrepid explorer-naturalist, bothering and alarming the groups of troll hunters they go out with by poking a little too enthusiastically at troll corpses, nests, etc? Are they a stay-at-home academic, carrying on a wide correspondence with troll hunters, scouts, cleansers, and other fighting-types all over the world? An epistolary fic would be a cool way to get a look at this character, or sketches from a field sketchbook. It would be neat to see them meeting or corresponding with members of the crew, particularly Tuuri, as the expedition’s skald, or Emil, since we’ve seen some of his own field sketches. Or, if the author of the info pages lived and worked in an earlier generation, something where they meet or correspond with Ensi? A scenario (either gen or shippy) where Ensi has to lead a clueless foreigner out into the forests for RESEARCH could be fun.
Just in case it wasn’t clear, no matter what scenario you choose to write, I would be happy with the author of the info pages being male, female, or other; any gender or no gender, or their gender never being mentioned or shown.
Worldbuilding: Surviving Communities Outside the Known World, Mages and Magic in Surviving Communities Outside the Known World
This one is a bit of an open-ended request, sorry, but--just, anything about surviving communities outside the Known World. Where are they? Who are they? What are their magic and religious systems like? How do they defend and provide for their communities? What technology have they preserved from the Old World, what traditions from their pre-industrial past have they revived and repurposed, what new knowledge have they gained? Write me a story about the daily life of a Madagascan mage! Draw me the adventures of a Filipino sea-beast hunter! Sigrun, at least, has expressed interest in finding some of the other survivors and saying hi, and I’d love to see her leading a future expedition with that purpose, possibly with some of the other members of the current crew. I’d also love to see the map of one of these communities, or illustrations of the tools and dress of their mages or fighters.
If for some reason you want to stalk me (and are not already), I am dead easy to stalk; I'm minutia_r (or occasionally minutia-r) all over the internet: the SSSS forum, LJ/DW, AO3, tumblr, deviantart, ff.net, 8tracks, and probably one or two other places I don't recall off-hand.
Thank you! You are awesome, I am really looking forward to seeing what you make for me, and I hope you get a great story and/or art out of this exchange, too!
Hi! Unlike most of the time when I sign up for exchanges, odds are pretty good that we know each other already, at least in passing. So you may already know that I am ridiculously easy to please when it comes to people writing or drawing me things. Seriously, just make me something based on any of my requests and I’m sure I’ll love it. So--aside from the Do Not Wants--please feel free to ignore the rest of this letter. It’s really only here to give you inspiration if you don’t know what to write or draw, but if you have your own ideas already, please go wild with them. One of the fun parts about somebody making things for my prompts is when they come up with things I would never have thought of myself!
So, about those Do Not Wants:
-Since I’m basically doing worldbuilding requests, this should go without saying, but: AUs, crossovers, and fusions other than the requested ones
-Uh, that’s about it, I’m waiving most of my usual Do Not Wants for this exchange, EXCEPT--
I’ve requested all ratings for fic, because I’m open to all ratings, but really based on my requests I’m expecting Teen and Up at the most. So I wouldn’t think that my smut DNWs would be terribly relevant. HOWEVER, if you do write me a story that examines the implications of Iceland reopening its borders via a steamy sex scene between Ensi Hotakainen and the author of the trolls, beasts and giants info pages (and please do! I am really interested to see how you’re going to pull that one off) then bear in mind that I do not want:
-Sounding
-Infantilization
-That thing where one or more of the people involved doesn’t know what sex is or realize they’re having it
-Religion kink--like, naughty nuns and priests and what have you
Okay, that’s out of the way, now on to stuff that I do want!
General likes: I really like all kinds of fic, from silly fluff, action and adventures and worldbuilding to smut and hurt/comfort. Feel free to take it darker, too: violence, character death, betrayal, consent issues sexual and otherwise, bad things happening to characters I like AND characters I like doing bad things. I’m open to different POVs and tenses, and unusual fic formats like poetry and epistolary/documentary fic. For art, the kind of character portrait where a lot of thought has gone into details of clothing, hairstyle, etc even if nothing in particular is happening, loose sketchy comick-y things that illustrate a character moment or interaction, or, for a lot of these requests, landscape or architectural pictures would be cool as well. I also like things that incorporate text and images in various ways, like calligraphy, comics, maps and diagrams. In-world documents in the style of the info pages would be amazing.
A brief and really not exhaustive list of story elements I especially like: Comfort after a nightmare, self-sacrifice, loyalty and trust issues, elections, platonic bed-sharing, hugs, language geekery, communication issues, breakups (either the kind where the original relationship is eventually patched up, or where the people involved manage to forge a different but still mutually satisfactory type of relationship afterward, or where nothing is okay again and everything hurts), ethical dilemmas, food porn and food preparation, parenting/childcare, exploration of canon-appropriate religious themes. For art, in addition to any of these things, I’m really fond of watercolors and Art Nouveau-inspired stylings.
A note on pre-existing original characters and settings: If you have any OCs, Ssssonas, or original settings that you’ve already created, developed, written about, drawn, or whatever, and you see a way to use them to fill these requests--please do! I’d love to read about them or see them, and links to anywhere you might have written/arted them before would be welcome, too. My only request is if you do this, please make sure that whatever you make for me for this exchange stands on its own, okay?
Okay, and now for the prompts:
Worldbuilding: Iceland reopening its borders
This is my one fic-only request, because I can’t really think of how the things that interest me would be explored using art. Anyway, this must have been such a world-changing event, second only to the collapse of the Old World itself, and unlike the collapse of the Old World, we haven’t seen it in canon at all aside from passing mentions. I’m especially interested in things from the non-Icelandic side, although if you have an idea for a story told from the Icelandic side, I’d love to read that instead. What was it like for people who still had memories of the Old World, to suddenly have access to technology, culture, and material wealth that they thought was lost forever? How about people who grew up in the New World and had thought things like that were old stories at best? On the other hand, there must have been a lot of resentment towards the Icelanders for hiding themselves away for the rest of the world for so long, not to mention their previous policy of killing anyone who got too close. How did we get from there to a world where everyone is seemingly one big happy Nordic family, and Icelandic is the Lingua Franca? Were there illicit contacts between Iceland and the outside before the borders officially opened, possibly between Icelandic and Norwegian mages meeting in the Dreamworld?
Please explore these or any other related issues, using whatever prologue characters were still around at the time, or whatever Year 90 characters would have been old enough to be aware of the events as they were happening, or original characters, or any combination thereof.
Worldbuilding: Girl Genius fusion
I blame this one entirely on tanoraqui on tumblr. Okay, maybe also a little bit on notapaladin|lilithqueen. Anyway! Put the crew in the world of Girl Genius! Are the mages Sparks? Or, in a world where supernatural ability manifests as an aptitude for mad science, are Tuuri, Siv, and/or Mikkel Sparks and Lalli and Onni Badass Normals? What adventures do the crew have adventuring through a Europa devastated by revenants and the leftovers of mad science experiments gone wrong rather than a Silent World devastated by the rash illness? Artists: use this as an excuse to steampunkify the cat-tank or put everyone in Victorian-inspired clothing! Tuuri would look amazing in Agatha’s underwear, am I right? (Especially if accessorized with one of Agatha’s death rays …) Also, consider: If Sigrun is Skifandrian, then Emil is her zumil. Which means that HE HAS TO WEAR THE ZUMIL OUTFIT. You’re welcome.
If you feel like including any of the Girl Genius characters, please do! My favorites are Agatha, Gil, Zeetha, Klaus, Theo, and Sleipnir, but I would be happy to see anyone.
Character: Author of the Trolls, Beasts, and Giants Info pages
There are some indications in canon that the info pages about trolls, beasts, and giants are part of an in-universe book or field guide. Show or tell me a little bit about its author! Are they an intrepid explorer-naturalist, bothering and alarming the groups of troll hunters they go out with by poking a little too enthusiastically at troll corpses, nests, etc? Are they a stay-at-home academic, carrying on a wide correspondence with troll hunters, scouts, cleansers, and other fighting-types all over the world? An epistolary fic would be a cool way to get a look at this character, or sketches from a field sketchbook. It would be neat to see them meeting or corresponding with members of the crew, particularly Tuuri, as the expedition’s skald, or Emil, since we’ve seen some of his own field sketches. Or, if the author of the info pages lived and worked in an earlier generation, something where they meet or correspond with Ensi? A scenario (either gen or shippy) where Ensi has to lead a clueless foreigner out into the forests for RESEARCH could be fun.
Just in case it wasn’t clear, no matter what scenario you choose to write, I would be happy with the author of the info pages being male, female, or other; any gender or no gender, or their gender never being mentioned or shown.
Worldbuilding: Surviving Communities Outside the Known World, Mages and Magic in Surviving Communities Outside the Known World
This one is a bit of an open-ended request, sorry, but--just, anything about surviving communities outside the Known World. Where are they? Who are they? What are their magic and religious systems like? How do they defend and provide for their communities? What technology have they preserved from the Old World, what traditions from their pre-industrial past have they revived and repurposed, what new knowledge have they gained? Write me a story about the daily life of a Madagascan mage! Draw me the adventures of a Filipino sea-beast hunter! Sigrun, at least, has expressed interest in finding some of the other survivors and saying hi, and I’d love to see her leading a future expedition with that purpose, possibly with some of the other members of the current crew. I’d also love to see the map of one of these communities, or illustrations of the tools and dress of their mages or fighters.
If for some reason you want to stalk me (and are not already), I am dead easy to stalk; I'm minutia_r (or occasionally minutia-r) all over the internet: the SSSS forum, LJ/DW, AO3, tumblr, deviantart, ff.net, 8tracks, and probably one or two other places I don't recall off-hand.
Thank you! You are awesome, I am really looking forward to seeing what you make for me, and I hope you get a great story and/or art out of this exchange, too!
