embraidery | Entries tagged with dear creator letters

Hello potential creator!

I’m embraidery on ao3 and dreamwidth.

I really just want to read something you loved to write, but if you’d like some pointers:

For what I request, I use / in a very flexible way. As long as at least one person involved had sexual and/or romantic feelings during the fic or before the fic was set, I am happy! Pre-relationship, getting together, established, during or post-breakup; casual sex or FWB or romo relationship; ambiguous feelings, unrequited love, unresolved sexual tension, banging because they both have feelings for the same third party, whatever. Someone wrote me a fic where A had feelings for B, who knew about it but didn’t return the feelings. B offered to let A jerk him off. The fic was the bomb dot com!
If I request multiple pairings for one fandom, you can absolutely combine them in the same fic. You can also include canon pairings. Whether that’s as a former relationship (mentioning Thomas/Flint in a Flint/Gates fic), current feelings for (or a relationship with) someone else (like if Hickey still has feelings for Gibson in a Hickey/Silver fic), or combining ships that have a character in common into a polycule, I love people having complicated feelings and relationships. I am a big fan of a fic focusing on their current relationship feeling like it fits into their story as a whole.
(All that said, these are all rare pairs and I will also be delighted with a fic where they are together romantically and sexually and none of their other relationships are mentioned! Just letting you know that I am open to a wide variety of situations.)
I adore AUs! Could be genderswap (please don’t swap F/F or M/M to M/F, but otherwise have fun, including with genderqueer characters), creature AUs like selkie/vampire/ghost (I love human/nonhuman relationships and nonhuman genitalia), setting AUs… For modern and mundane I prefer if the setting has some kind of stakes, like spies or politicians, but otherwise the world is your oyster. Historical, different location, magic or no magic, in space, on a submarine… Also feel free to write a story inspired by another one, whether a folk tale or myth, or the plot of another canon.
Format: First person POV if the canon is in first person; I love second person (as long as the person being addressed is a character, not a reader insert), non-linear narrative, interactive fiction, epistolary and in-universe documents…
Some beloved tropes: caretaking (especially wound care and anything related to hair), something forcing characters together physically or emotionally (only one bed, in a jail cell together, truth potion…), conflicted feelings (whether inward, like guilt or internalised homophobia, or towards the other person, like love and resentment), sparring, cooking together…but seriously, there are so many things I could put here. If you really want more info, you can look at my other letters on my dreamwidth (embraidery) or at my other signups on the app.
I love horror and darkfic! Don’t hesitate to include (if it feels appropriate for the canon or au) minor character death (major character death I’ll specify per fandom), violence and injuries and amputations, body horror, imprisonment and abduction…or a gently spooky ghost story!

Hello, potential Yule creator!

I am @embraidery on both Dreamwidth and AO3.

I am open to treats! As well as to 2nd person POV, minor character death (and major character death as detailed below!), and interactive fiction (except The Court Magician).

The Eyes Are the Best Part - Monika Kim

Ji-Won, Alexis

(You may write about just Ji-Won, if you like!) I barely know where to start with this request. I loved Ji-Won’s anger and hunger and quest for revenge and getting what she so desired. I also loved her obvious crush on Alexis and the fun they had together. So, indulging in either (or a combination of both!) really appeals to me. More murder and cannibalism? Perhaps her father, as she planned to do? (Is it harder to take her revenge on him than she thought?) I think it could be fun (and heartwrenching) to have Alexis catch her, or for Ji-Won to decide to bring Alexis in on her secret. Is there a way Alexis could sympathise with her? Even join in? (Alexis joining in on the murder/cannibalism could be in a dream of Ji-Won’s, too. I loved the ambiguity of dream and waking life; anything in a dream would be fantastic!)

Alternately, something fluffy with Ji-Won and Alexis? Doesn’t have to be shippy on Alexis’ end if you don’t want, but I’d rather Ji-Won keep up the admiring, affectionate energy she has for Alexis in the book. If you do go shippy — how does Ji-Won confront her feelings? Is that something she has thought about before? (In a story without much focus on Ji-Won’s murderous activities, you’re welcome to include her sister as well!)

Everything that happens in the book is fine to include (eye trauma, murder, cannibalism, racism, stalking/harrassment). It’s also okay to mention the way George looked at and talked about Ji-Won and her sister, but I’d rather no more than the level of canon.

DNWs: sexual content (fine for Ji-Won and Alexis to kiss, and for more to be implied), genital trauma, Ji-Won being arrested, Ji-Won or Alexis dying in reality (fine for it to be a dream), non-con or dub-con, gender swaps, setting change AUs.

Beneath the World, A Sea - Chris Beckett

Worldbuilding

It’s also hard to organise my thoughts on this one! I love the worldbuilding, the Zona, the Delta, the odd creatures in the forest, the white spiralling structures the duendes create, the psychological effects of the forest and its creatures and the way it protects itself against intruders in planes. The musings on identity and memory and continuity of being. Worldbuilding must be the focus, of course, but there’s such a variety of interesting topics! How does the Delta exert its influence on people in the outside world so they forget it exists, even while they’re talking about it? Are the duendes and the birds and the harts and the rays all part of the same creature? If the Delta crashes planes that come into it, why not boats?

The other nominated characters are the Duendes, Ben, and Hyacinth, and I think you can do a worldbuilding focus while including any of them. What draws Duendes to humans? Are they really communicating with Rio? I loved the moment when Ben lowered himself below the floating root mass of the forest and sat in the water and thought about the forest; something like that with him and/or Hyacinth would be great. How does Hyacinth relate to the forest? What would happen if she let herself merge with it more as opposed to holding herself separate? What if Ben really let himself go and got absorbed into the forest like Rio? In writing about them, you can absolutely go a Ben/Hyacinth direction, whether that’s one-sided or ambiguous or them being together (temporarily or not). What if Ben had had duende-influenced sex with Hyacinth instead of Justine?

DNWs: E-rated sexual content, genital trauma, Ben or Hyacinth dying, violent non-con (fine for Duendes’ influence to draw people together), setting change AUs, outside forces succeeding in developing the Delta (fine for people to attempt it, but the forest should successfully defend itself), gender swaps.

The Court Magician - Sarah Pinsker

no characters selected - nominated characters: The Narrator, The Court Magician, The Regent

You can read The Court Magician here.

I love the world in this one: the juxtaposition of fake magic against real magic and the implication that magic is a limited resource that many don’t know of—or is it unlimited, just kept very hush-hush for the people lowest on the ladder? I love what magic takes from them and the trick that after the Magician convinced himself he loved the pillow, it didn’t end up fooling the magic because he actually did love the pillow. It’s very interesting that the Narrator says that the magic won’t take his ability to hear the Regent’s requests, or his teeth or his tongue, so that he can keep saying the Word — but the Narrator is just a voice, and can still talk, so I suppose that’s more metaphorical than literal. Does the Regent know about what’s happening? The Magician “instinctively” didn’t tell the Regent the cost of the magic, but it could be that the Regent knows and doesn’t care. What did the Magician do after he left the palace? Why did the Narrator keep using the magic until they had nothing left to give?

Any solo character or combos of characters, platonic or shippy, ambiguous, one-sided, whatever — though I’d rather the story be character-focused than ship-focused. Also, MCD is totally fine for this one. (If the Narrator found a way to end their existence even without a body to kill, would they use it? Would the Magician ever try to kill the Regent?)

DNWs: on-page sexual content (can be implied), giving the Magician, the Regent, or the Narrator names, setting change AUs.

Merge Mansion “What’s Grandma Hiding?” Ads

Grandma Ursula

I used this compilation of the ads, both live-action and animated, when I made this request. The whole thing is about 12 minutes long. Highlights: Pedro Pascal as the detective trying to figure out what’s going on with Grandma Ursula, Kathy Bates as Grandma, Grandma disappearing from the garden and immediately reappearing in the house, Grandma lowering herself into a well, Grandma picking poisonous mushrooms, the vault of piles of cash money and suits of armour underneath Grandma’s house, etc etc. You’re free to go as light-hearted as you like or to pile on the horror (I think someone said something about Grandma possibly making a human pie)? Also up to you: is there something supernatural going on? I’m less interested in finding out what’s actually happening there and more about playing with the mystery and the suspense — maybe her granddaughter (Maddie, I think, not Maggie) and/or Tim Rockford trying and failing to find the truth. Interactive fiction would be so much fun for this one!

Totally optional crossovers: Grandma Ursula is a member of the Addams family (whether this just inspires the direction you take and you maybe toss in a reference to another Addams, or whether you include other Addamses, is up to you!), or she is friends with Granny from Hoodwinked! I love the idea of them going on grandma adventures while keeping them secret from their grandkids; maybe Red and Maddie team up to try to figure them out.

DNWs: Grandma Ursula, Maddie, Tim dying; totally okay for Grandma to fake her death, though, if we get a hint that it was fake. Sexual content. Setting change AUs.

Hello, dear potential creator!

This is just for my crossover pairings since I don't think my requests will all fit in the box. My general, smut, and horror likes are in my ToT letter here.

Caleb Widogast/Thom of Trebond

I am ready and willing to be surprised by whatever you have in mind, but if you'd like some guidance: I'd prefer at least a little bit of angst to unmitigated fluff, but again, I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever you write!

I'd love to see them fanning the flames of their ambition. Are they rivals? Do they start as rivals but end up working together? One thing that could provide interesting friction is that Caleb was supporting his empire whereas Thom was supporting a mage working to seize the throne. Perhaps in a world where Ikithon and Duke Roger co-exist, Caleb is supposed to take down Duke Roger and any of his supporters, and has to decide what to do about Thom.

Also welcome: rebuilding their lives/deciding who they want to be after their big mistakes.

I'm flexible on the nature of their relationship; it can be one-sided from either side, UST, pre- or post-relationship, etc. Under- or overtones of Thom/Roger are totally fine, as are Caleb/Astrid/Eadwulf.

Opt in: major character death (even Thom and Caleb), setting change AUs (though they should be magical and have similar stakes to canon)

DNW: Mundane AUs, non/dub-con between Caleb and Thom (fine for Thom/Roger to be unbalanced with inherent power differences that make it hard for proper consent to exist, but no violent rape, please)

Beauregard Lionett/Holga Kilgore

I wrote these two for an LBD request and it was a lot of fun! I love their rough edges/the way they aren't super great socially, but they're such fun characters and I think they could be great together. Sparring, one-night stand or FWB or long-term relationship, maybe they meet at the High Sun Games or on the road...

Setting change AUs (not modern and mundane) welcome!

DNW: Holga/Edgin, Edgin/Xenk, modern and mundane AUs

Edmund Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis)/The Darkling (Shadow and Bone TV)

I've been lucky enough to get a few very different takes on these two and I am still fascinated by the possibilities. Which world are they in -- Narnia's, Ravka's, England's, or a world of your creation? AUs very welcome, including modern, as long as there are stakes. (I just watched Challengers and it rewired my brain chemistry, so any sort of competitive athletics AU? Absolutely.) Are they enemies? Working together? Both? Are they genuinely attracted to each other or trying to use each other? Both?

Dubcon is welcome as long as everyone is either into it since they're attracted to each other or willing to use sex as a tool

DNW: underage sex (under 18)

Edmund Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis)/Harry D. S. Goodsir (The Terror TV)

Recently someone suggested putting a former blorbo with a current one and I just. I don't know how or if this would work, but it is compelling! (If they don't work, that's okay, too! I'm into that kind of story.)

If Edmund lived over a century earlier, what would he have done after Narnia? Any chance of crossing paths with a young surgeon? Or any other AU, honestly, especially a historical one. (And if you think you recognise this, yes, it was originally an arranged marriage prompt. I just can't figure out who would have arranged it or why, but if you have an idea, run with it!)

DNW: underage sex (under 18)

Edgin Darvis/Mollymauk Tealeaf(/Fjord)

I put Ed/Molly in the Holga/Beau fic I wrote as a throwaway reference to the night before and honestly. I'm into it. Doesn't have to be a long term thing, though I'm happy for that too! They're both so hot (and so is Fjord) and I think they could have fun.

Setting change AUs welcome!

DNW: Edgin/Xenk

Kat Stratford (10 Things I Hate About You 1999)/Aneesa Qureshi (Never Have I Ever)

These two both play soccer and I think maybe they should kiss about it. Otherwise just have fun with it, I don't have too many specific thoughts!

DNW: underage sex (under 18)

Alexis St Martin (19th C RPF)/Harry D. S. Goodsir (The Terror TV)

Alexis St Martin was a French Canadian fur trapper who, in 1822, was shot at extremely short range with a shotgun. He was not expected to live for more than about half an hour, but with bizarre luck and the dedicated attention of his doctor, he lived! (And healed with a permanent hole into his stomach. Look him up if you want, it's a wild story.) IRL he had a contentious relationship with the doctor who patched him up and paid him to let the doctor dangle bits of food into his stomach to study digestion, and I just think he should have been taken care of by a nicer man who wouldn't have been so hoity-toity about the fact Alexis couldn't read or write.

I read about St Martin's case extensively for Yuletide and I won't be squicked by any medical descriptions of what happened to him. Go for it.

Beatrice (Much Ado - Shakespeare)/Cyrano de Bergerac

WORDPLAY and ANGST. Feel free to have as much of a tangled web of relationships as you want -- any of Beatrice/Benedick/Don Pedro, however requited or not, and any of Cyrano/Roxane/Christian, though Cyrano shouldn't actually be in a relationship with either of them since he's so emotionally constipated. Beatrice and Cyrano don't have to get together, and if they do, they don't have to stay together. Go wild! Setting change AUs welcome, as is anyone except Beatrice dying!

Mercutio (Romeo and Juliet)/Patrick Verona (10 Things I Hate About You 1999)

I was trying to write an R&J au for Kat and Patrick and Mercutio started flirting with Patrick. Very rude of him. But in all honesty I'm just throwing this out there and I'm down for whatever you think is interesting! I don't have a preference for version of Mercutio -- I've read the play, watched the Zeffirelli and Luhrmann movies, and just saw a snippet of the National Theatre one with Josh O'Connor as Romeo, but if you have a fave Mercutio, I'm happy for that one! So obviously setting change AUs are just fine by me! Mercutio can die.

ao3 username: embraidery

Hello!! I am so excited to see what you create and I hope you're excited and inspired by what I have to suggest, but if you aren't, I trust you to come up with something all your own (that doesn't violate any DNWs).

Just a general note, you're more than welcome to combine all 3 fandoms from one request into one work.

I'd love to see characters from both/all canons in the fic you write and as much of a fusion between worlds as you want to do!

General Likes: playing with/cutting hair, platonic intimacy, isolated settings like caves/underground/on a ship (dunno why), there was only one bed, friends to lovers, banter, new crush/relationship energy, f/f relationships, characters playing with gender, mythology and folk tales, fluff, gift-giving, cuddling, doing ordinary things together (studying, grocery shopping), canon-divergent AUs, missing scenes, sensory details that bring the scene to life, winter and autumn, distinct sense of place, chosen/found family, hand kisses

Opt-Ins: gender/sexuality headcanons, epistolary fic (letters/emails etc), 2nd person POV, nonlinear storytelling, minor character death

General DNWs: sexual content beyond implication (totally fine to say people sleep together, making out is also fine), graphic descriptions of violence/injury, non/dub-con, major character death (except for Hunger Games/Scythe)

Request One: Binti Series, Wayfarers Series, Skybreaker

What I love about Binti: interspecies communication and relations, Binti's strong ties to her family and culture, mathematics and magic

What I love about Wayfarer: interspecies communication and relations (!!), feather (found) families (especially the Wayfarer crew), questions around making decisions for someone else, developing a sense of self (Pepper and Sidra), the modding community and their dedication to creating a life that works for them. Hopepunk

What I love about Skybreaker: exploration of a dangerous environment, quick thinking, the tension between different motivations and desires in a crew, risking everything to save your crew members

Note: I haven't read the third Wayfarer book yet, though I probably will by the time Crossworks reveals. If it's as much about people, communication, love, etc as the first two, I'm happy for you to use it as the basis for this work! (Same for the fourth and fifth, though I’m unlikely to have read them by the time works are revealed.)

As you can tell, I am all about communication, especially between species! The moment when the little Aandrisks meet Rosemary and they're trying to be careful but they grab her boobs -- oh, I loved that. Rosemary and Sissix negotiating their relationship. Pepper and Sidra communicating about how best to help Sidra acclimate to having a body.

Equally I'm about communication with yourself in terms of who you are and what you want. I've already talked about Wayfarer, so I'll relate this to Binti: Binti negotiating her cultural values versus her desire to learn, and how she navigates expressing her culture when she's so far from home.

Skybreaker's there for the exploration and thriller elements! I love the idea of exploring a broken-down airship (or spaceship, if you go that direction!) in a dangerous situation with limited resources.

Suggestions

Binti's transferred into an artificial body after the events of her last book, needs to get used to that (Pepper and Sidra crossover?)
Exploring an abandoned airship/spaceship with your choice of crew (possibly a crew drawn from multiple books?)
What if Binti's ship was attacked not by Meduse, but by a species from the Wayfarer trilogy? Or she's on an airship bound for a university somewhere and the airship is attacked by aerozoans? Less of an interspecies thing there and more of a survival thing, I guess! Unless aerozoan language can be translated by Binti's device!! *waggles eyebrows*
After some sort of dangerous money-making venture, Nadira's able to make her own way out in the world -- what does she do? Study at Oomza? Join the fringes of the modder community, or a spaceship crew like the Wayfarer's?

Cluster-specific DNWs: The Matt/Kate/Nadira love triangle subplot; if they're in your story, whether Matt dates one of them, both of them, none of them, or whatever (I'd even ship Kate/Nadira tbh), please have it be amicable. Also please don't exotify Nadira the way the author does with her always smelling of sandalwood etc. Don't use the g-slur for Romani people.

Request Two: Binti series, Wayfarers Series, Pacific Rim

What I love about Binti: interspecies communication and relations, Binti's strong ties to her family and culture, mathematics and magic

What I love about Pacific Rim: THE DRIFT. The drift the driftthedriftthedriftthedr okay you get it. Raleigh and Mako’s connection and their duel to prove their compatibility. The different relationships all the pairs/triplets have to each other. Hopepunk, saturated colours, alien science.

Note: I’ve only seen the first Pac Rim film!

Suggestions

Characters from Binti and/or Wayfarers in the drift. What is an interspecies drift like, especially with an Aeulon, who communicate with colours?
There are space kaiju and everyone’s gotta suit up to save the world (Wayfarers or Binti fusion)
Raleigh and Mako on board the Wayfarer? Newt as a modder? Hermann is adjacent to the modder community but super against the riskier mods?
Even something sleazy about Hannibal Chau profiting off alien species from Binti or Wayfarers’ worlds would be cool, haha.

Cluster-specific DNWs: Chuck and Herc Hansen, Newt/Hermann

Request Three: Critical Role season 2, Song of the Lioness, Wayfarer Trilogy

What I love about Critical Role: coming together with a diverse group of strangers, growing to trust each other, deciding to become better people. Fjord, Molly, Beau, Yasha, Caleb

What I love about Song of the Lioness: Gender fuckery, secrets, knights (especially lady knights), Alanna working hard to accomplish her dreams, selfish magic users, Shang warriors, stubbornness, conflicting desires and goals, duty. Alanna, Raoul, Jonathan

Suggestions:

Alanna (SoL) &/Beau (CR), whatever form that takes -- friends, dating, friends with benefits, on-and-off as they're both wandering around the country. I love ladies who can fight, your honour!! I especially like Beau as a Shang warrior, or a failed Shang warrior
Caleb studies magic with Thom -- are they friends? Rivals? What's Caleb's relationship to Duke Roger and does he get in on the plan? Alternatively, Thom studies magic with Caleb under Ikithon.
Molly's part of a modder community from Wayfarer. Are tieflings an alien species in that world, or is Molly a different species in this one? What kind of electronic mods does he go for? Alternately, translate his storyline with dying and waking up a new person to him being AI and being rebooted. Either way -- I wanna see him on a journey of self-discovery or in a comfortable place once he's figured out what that is.
Alanna's determined to make it in a very difficult vocation -- what would that vocation be in Wayfarer or Critical Role? What would Thom's be? Alternately, what would Alanna's divine guidance look like in either of those worlds?

Cluster-specific DNWs: Alanna/George

Request Four: Scythe, Hunger Games

What I like about Scythe: Citra and Rowan's journey from being horrified at the idea of being a Scythe to accepting it, the way their Scythe mentors shape their growth as people and as Scythes, philosophy of life and death, them negotiating being pitted against each other, their complicated relationship, the thin line between a utopia and a dystopia. Citra, Rowan, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Curie

Note: I’ve only read Scythe and about half of Thundercloud; haven’t even touched the last book. No spoilers, please!

What I like about Hunger Games: societal impact on individuals, making sacrifices, Katniss and Peeta's evolving relationship (including fake relationship), conflicting ideas about the best way to run a revolution. Katniss, Peeta, Cinna, Finnick, Rue

This one's all about societal impact on kids/teens who have to make tough decisions.

Suggestions:

I'd like to see some other character as a trainee Scythe: Johanna, Finnick, Katniss, Peeta (oh, Peeta would be fascinating) -- actually, I think in some ways Katniss and Peeta being pitted against each other as trainees would mirror Citra and Rowan's arc, with Peeta more likely to sacrifice himself so Katniss can go on as a Scythe, but I'm here for whatever you think would happen! Feel free to play with who goes where -- Katniss being mentored by Scythe Goddard would be interesting. But how would they be different if their childhoods were different -- like if Katniss didn't have to hunt for food for her family?
Citra and Rowan as the Tributes for their district, oh man. I imagine they'd be in a fairly wealthy district. I bet Goddard would be one of the mentors -- it's harder to imagine adapting Faraday or Curie into someone willing to train Tributes. What would an alliance between Citra and/or Rowan with Katniss and/or Peeta look like?
Mixing up the casts -- what if Citra and Katniss were trainee Scythes or Tributes together?
What if District 1 with all its wealth had gotten to a point where anyone who died could be revived, like the world of Scythe? Would they ever institute such a system? Would they revive Tributes who had died in the arena?

Opting in to major character death for this one, if that’s where the story takes you. I still don’t want to see graphic descriptions of violence/injury, though stating that someone stabs someone else or whatever is fine!

Cluster-specific DNWs: Katniss/Gale, though mentions of past involvement are fine. If any of the major characters die, please don't dwell on the physical act itself. (Emotional ramifications, on the other hand, are encouraged!)

Request Five: Scythe, Six of Crows

What I like about Scythe: Citra and Rowan's journey from being horrified at the idea of being a Scythe to accepting it, the way their Scythe mentors shape their growth as people and as Scythes, philosophy of life and death, them negotiating being pitted against each other, their complicated relationship, the thin line between a utopia and a dystopia. Citra, Rowan, Scythe Faraday, Scythe Curie

Note: I’ve only read Scythe and about half of Thundercloud; haven’t even touched the last book. No spoilers, please!

What I like about Six of Crows: heist! Intricate plots! Leveraging information! Grisha magic, the distinct impact of faux-Dutch merchant culture. Inej, Nina, and Jesper are my favourite Crows; I love Nina/Inej and Jesper pining for Kaz.

This one's all about societal impact on kids/teens who have to make tough decisions.

Suggestions:

I'd like to see some other character as a trainee Scythe: Inej would be fascinating as canonically she hates killing people, but maybe she’d see it as an exception? Or maybe she would still hate it, I don’t know!
Mixing up the casts -- what if Citra and one of the Crows were trainee Scythes together?
What if powerful Grisha magic could bring people back to life so that the Six of Crows universe had revival centres like in Scythe? Perhaps they’d only be for the wealthy? I imagine if they had a society of Scythes it would be pretty corrupt and perhaps only go for poor kids like the Crows…

Cluster-specific DNWs: Kaz/Inej actually dating. If any of the major characters die, please don't dwell on the physical act itself. (Emotional ramifications, on the other hand, are encouraged!)

Request Six: Addams Family (Sonnenfeld), Anne of Green Gables

What I like about Addams Family: the kooky spookiness of it all, how much they all love each other, subverting expectations, did I mention how much they all love each other? GOMEZ, Morticia, Wednesday!

What I like about Anne: ANNE. She’s such a unique character and I love her whimsy, her stubbornness, her fearlessness, her determination to speak up, all her quirks. I like all her little adventures and scrapes and how passionate she gets about things. Also Paul Irving (my tiny gay poet son) and Philippa Gordon!

For remix revival I wrote a fic about Anne and Wednesday becoming friends based on this great fanart by facethestrange of them being adopted sisters and I just love it conceptually. But there are so many ways you can go with it — do they run a haunted house one year and Anne and her friends go through? Or an older Anne dates an Addams cousin and gets invited to a ball there? Anne and Diana get lost and knock at the Addams’ door (instead of Miss Lavendar’s)?

Cluster-specific DNWs: Anne/Gilbert, Wednesday/Joel Glicker

Thank you so much and happy Crosscrafting!

embraidery on ao3 and dreamwidth

The Crossing (Shaun Tan), Le Città Invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino, The Islanders - Christopher Priest

I'm opting into the mini challenges Wrapping Paper (receiving art), YUMADRIN (receiving drabbles), and Yulebuilding (receiving worldbuilding).

Hello!! I’m really excited to see what you create, and I’m sure that if you write about something you love, I will love it too! However, if you want some more guidance, feel free to look below.

General Likes -- some of these won't really apply as I'm mostly prompting for worldbuilding, but just to give you an idea/if you end up going with some of my more character-based prompts!

+platonic (or romantic!) intimacy such as playing with/cutting hair, sharing a bed, bathing/washing, taking care of each other, giving gifts, hand kisses

+isolated settings like beaches, caves, on a ship (super duper applies for anything The Islanders!)

+relationship tropes like mutual/unrequited pining, (enemies to) friends to lovers, chosen/found family, exciting new crush/relationship energy, identity shenanigans

+misc: banter, embracing the beauty in everyday things, fluff, sensory details that bring the scene to life, winter and autumn, distinct sense of place, canon-divergent AUs, missing scenes

stylistic: unique forms of story including in-universe documents, epistolary, nonlinear storytelling, more than one timeline woven together, 2nd person POV, mythology and folk tales, unusual sentence/paragraph structure, poetry. One thing I really appreciate about nonlinear storytelling that works just as well in linear storytelling, if you prefer that route, is the way that information is uncovered one piece at a time, with your perspective on the secret/event/person etc changing with every bit of information revealed.

Worldbuilding Likes

+In-universe documents, new places and cultures, elaboration on existing places and cultures

+Especially for The Islanders and Invisible Cities, I'm interested in places/cities that are shrouded in mystery. Do they even really exist? Maybe they exist more at certain times than others?

+Similarities and differences between cities/islands, and most cities/islands are all the same, really.

+Geography having a big impact on culture

+Mythology and folklore

+A sense that the author has built more of a world than is seen on the page/worldbuilding in this story connects to worldbuilding elsewhere in that world

General DNWs

-Setting change AUs (see fandoms for more detailed explanations)

-Sexual content (kissing allowed for characters older than 15!)

-Death of requested characters, major focus on death of any character, terminal illness

-Explicit descriptions of violence/gore, cannibalism

-Heavy religious themes

-Drug use other than alcohol, cigarettes, weed

-Incest

-romantic/sexual relationships between anyone under 18 and anyone over 18, romantic/sexual relationships with anyone under 25 and anyone over 35

-Homophobia, transphobia, sexism, racism, fatphobia directed at an individual or a small group (totally fine on a societal level, but please no more than is canonical)

Crossing - Shaun Tan

Cat, People on the Cat’s Head

(find it here! https://beinart.org/products/shaun-tan-crossing-limited-edition-print-of-300-48-3x33cm-19x13)

There’s also a lot of possibility in this fandom! I’m down for a story about this specific cat and the specific people on its head; I’m also definitely here for a more zoomed-out, worldbuild-y type fic.

+Is the cat really big, or are the people really small? Or are there standard-sized people for whom the cat is small and then there are even smaller, Stuart Little-sized people that can ride on the cat?

+What is the cat swimming away from, or swimming to?

+Who made the decision to take the journey? Maybe the cat kidnapped the people, or the people asked the cat to take them, or it was a mutual journey. Did they know each other before the Crossing?

+Can the cat talk?

+Are there lots of giant cats? How did they come to be? Misfired spell, or intentional spell, or that’s just the way cats are?

+Is “cat taking people across a body of water” a common thing in this world, exceptionally rare, or somewhere in between?

+Did the people have to pay for this service, whether with money, favours, or something weirder?

+How dangerous is the journey? What dangerous monsters lurk under the surface of the water? Will the journey continue past arriving at land?

Le Città Invisibili | Invisible Cities - Italo Calvino

Worldbuilding

(Read for free here: https://booksvooks.com/nonscrolablepdf/invisible-cities-pdf-italo-calvino.html)

My favourite cities are Zaira (city where past events are written into physical objects), Isaura (city of wells), Zoe (city where all activities can be done anywhere so there is nothing to distinguish any building from another), Zenobia (city on stilts), Euphemia (city where stories are traded by traveling merchants), Octavia (city hanging over a void), Ersilia (city where strings between houses symbolise relationships), Baucis (city on stilts; inhabitants observe the earth through telescopes), Melania (city with a dialogue always the same played by different actors), Clarice (city that reuses funerary urns as plant pots etc), Olinda (city that grows a new city from its centre that pushes the old parts of the city outwards), and Perinthia (city built to reflect the heavens; astronomers are wrong or the heavens are monstrous).

Of the conversations between Kublai Khan and Marco Polo, I love the idea that neither of them know whether their conversations are real or only imagined, and that they may not even be in the Khan’s garden at all, but imagining that space between fighting or trading. I also like the ideas that seeing other cities is the only way to learn about your own city; “cities too probable to be real,” and the idea of a city whose desires destroy it vs a city whose desires are destroyed by the city itself.

+Write some sort of essay about cities and/or communication and/or storytelling? Or write something that makes it unclear whether Polo and/or Khan are “really” in the garden or not.

+Write about one of the cities! My favourites are above, but I’m willing to be swayed by your interest in a different city. In general I found some of the more conceptual/cerebral cities a little confusing to understand (the ones that made some sweeping statement about human nature), so you might have to simplify it a little for me :P

I’m here for zoomed-out type writing (I’m addicted to this phrase apparently, sorry) about the city in general or what the neighbouring cities think of it, but also here for stories about one or more inhabitants/visitors and what their daily life is like. Series of vignettes is totally fine.

Also totally cool to invent one or more original cities. Write a travel guide to them, or write about them in the style of the novel, or write about their inhabitants! Go wild! I’d be particularly interested in a city located underwater, underground, or in space (the International Space Station except it’s a city?!).

Note on the setting change DNW—I’m happy for you to invent new cities etc, but don’t change the setting by adding the supernatural beyond what’s hinted at, or soulmate tattoos, or moving the entire thing to space.

The Islanders — Christopher Priest

(no characters nominated)

(Read for free here: https://booksvooks.com/fullbook/the-islanders-pdf-christopher-priest.html?page=1)

I’m so fascinated by the world of The Islanders, and there are so many great places you could take it. This would be a great canon for in-universe documents, if you’re so inclined!

+create a new island and/or famous person and write documents about them!

+winds on the island of Aay -- how did they get their names? Write me the myths! (Some of the wind names are The Combiner, The Poisoner, The Mantrap, The Gargler, and The Abyss.)

+Life on Mesterline -- the spell of the island’s water; people revelling in the rain showers; life in a house built against a sheer cliff; the joy and anger of the people tearing down/exploding the water bottling plant.

+Jordenn Yo -- I’m super interested in her art, both in an abstract, zoomed-out kind of way (talking about its effect on the islands, or what people think about it), but also in a closer, more personal way -- I love the chapter where she’s involved with Oy and how singing along with the mountain relieves her deep-seated anger. Bonus: Has life grown in the tunnels of Manlayl or any other island with Yo tunnels -- plants, animals, birds?

+Speaking of which, Oy -- I quite like him! I think his art is interesting. Love the fake sand dune, the upside-down staircase, filling the cottages with concrete...write an in-universe thinkpiece on his art, or invent another art piece for him to make?

+I would love an in-universe example of the “theoretical, analytical, and academic papers attempting to unravel the enigmas perceived in the paintings” of Dryd Bathurst. Go nuts!

+If you’re familiar with Invisible Cities | Le Citta Invisibili, I’d love a take on the islands that incorporates the philosophy of Invisible Cities! See the chapter about Piqay or Siff especially for the passages that inspired this request, or the foreword about how you can’t trust maps and you can only experience or imagine reality.

+Something about Caurer and Chaster -- their few days together, or she sees his ghost in his room at the funeral and they actually get to reunite (and he doesn’t cough blood on her, lmao)

+I’d enjoy something about Dant Willer and Caurer -- their friendship (or maybe romance?) and their quiet life in their secluded school.

+I’m curious about the creepy fear towers! What’s going on with them? I’m less interested in Alvasund’s story and more in the history of the towers—how and by whom were they built? What are the snaky things? What was it like when people tried (successfully or unsuccessfully) to pull them down? I am totally down for an exploration of the tower changing Torm’s psyche and what it’s like when Alvasund comes back and finds that he’s rebuilt it. I don’t really want anyone permanently injured or killed by the towers, though it’s fine for people to be scared and see scary visions. It’s also totally fine to discuss legends of people being permanently injured or killed in the past—I just don’t want to be an eyewitness to it, if that makes sense!

Fandom-specific DNWs: suicide/murder/execution (even if canonical). Please avoid stories about Kerith Sington, Commis, and Chaster’s involvement in that storyline, and the tragic end of Kal Kapes and his wife. In general I don’t want stories about Dryd Bathurst’s sexcapades, though it’s fine to talk in generalities about his reputation if you’re writing a paper about one of his paintings. Also, I DNW stories about the military presences on the island and the characters involved, like Lorna, Tomak, or the story of Winho.

Note re: setting change AUs—happy for you to invent new islands etc, but don’t change the setting by adding the supernatural beyond what’s hinted at (spooky towers anyone?) or soulmate tattoos or moving the entire thing to space.