Dear FFFX Author (Complete)

[opalmatrix]

Thank you very much for going into an Alternative Universe for me! Here are a lot of optional details about what I like and don't like in a story:

Preferences

I Don't Like:

• Sickly-sweet, coy, cutesy romantic stuff (anything in the "tee-hee-hee, is he looking at me?" category is definitely out)
• Extensive use of epithets, or epithets that don't match the character POV (no one should think of his or her long-time lover as "the green-eyed man," for example): these will throw me right out of a story
• Characters acting out of character, especially if the purpose is to force them into a relationship (doubly bad if that relationship is romantic or sexual)
• By-the-numbers, every-action-described sex (a/k/a Ikea Erotica). Note that actual sex is fine (I love me some sexy stories) — just don't like it when the descriptions turn into a set of exact stage directions.
• Mpreg, rape, forced sex (including sex pollen and fuck-or-die), hatesex. Dubcon is OK, especially the sort when the reluctant partner really wants the other person but is just not quite feeling ready yet or doesn't think se wants it in this particular way but gets off on it anyway.
• Humiliation or betrayal (without a damn good plot reason) of a character by a friend or lover
• A/B/O and related kinks/tropes, incest (unless canon), scat/watersports/emetophilia, tentacles, non-human genitalia.

I Like:

• Strong characterization (including character-appropriate dialog: no earthy, uneducated characters using $50 words)
• Positive emotional payoffs that are well-earned
• Passions that are strong without being mushy/fluffy
• Moments of realization — satori
• Friendships - although I am a romantic person, not every relationship must be romantic (I do like the trope of friends becoming lovers, however)
• Wry and even dark humor in the course of a more serious story
• And I like any of the following "cool bits":
  • hurt-comfort
  • family-of-choice, nakama, or True Companions
  • whispered admissions of love or forgiveness
  • someone's profile silhouetted against the light
  • brushing long hair or riffling fingers through short hair
  • romantic partners who are both competent
  • warm and oversized bathrobes/dressing gowns or sweaters/jerseys
  • licking honey or something similar off fingers
  • caper-type operations: crazy elaborate plans that work out well in the end, especially if parts of them are silly/funny
  • cynics with secretly soft hearts
  • impulsive acts of valor (especially on behalf of the weak or an underdog)
  • shopping or low-tension planning scenes, where people are working together to pick things out
  • finding in a fight that one's ally feels like a protective wall
  • old-fashioned sections of town with narrow streets and alleyways and odd shops
  • someone gradually waking and smiling when they realize their beloved is there
  • discovering that something significant to the plot was "hidden in plain sight"- the characters just didn't realize why and/or how it was important
  • In-jokes among family members or close friends: silly things that make them laugh but that would be senseless to others
  • snark, whether on the part of the narrator or from a character (this should not be *mean*, just apt and funny)
  • places where arts or martial arts are studied or where master crafters are at work
  • water sounds: rain, a brook, waves

I'm quite content with both straight and gay relationships. I do tend to ship the canon relationships, unless it's a character who has had no clear relationships shown in the story. I'm not comfortable with sexual relationships shown in children under the age of, say, 14 or so, and even then it's better in context (teens with other teens or in a societal setting where girls expect to marry by 16-18 anyway).

The Fandoms

Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh

I'm a huge CJC fan, and Alliance-Union is my favorite of her settings. Hellburner is my very favorite book in this setting.

I identify hugely with Graff, mainly in the way he takes responsibility for his people, even when it puts him the hot seat, and stays loyal even when he realizes he can no longer trust his own superiors. CJC has Signy thinking that she spends the night with Graff or Di (or others) when she takes the fancy: this could be actual polyamory, if that's one of your things, rather than an open relationship. I also appreciate his relationship with the Hellburner team: he was there from their beginnings as a ridership crew, and as of the release of the ebook version, Word of God is that they end up on Norway (in CJC's afterword), as Graff does (canon, from Downbelow Station)

Dek and Ben have a very special, dysfunctional relationship. To some extent, Dek is Ben's Morality Pet, and Ben is Dek's (canon) Sanity Anchor. I don't ship them, but if that's your preference, go for it, as long as this doesn't leave Meg and Sal out in the cold or fridged): I love them too, and nominations just didn't work out this year. I love the close found-family relationship these four have, and the unsentimental ways they express it, snark and all.

I'd appreciate anything from a tense, plotty story during the war years to how they all somehow settle down after the war is over -- or maybe they don't. Maybe some of them encounter something from Compact Space. Or Ben finally gets to set foot on a planet (probably Pell, rather than Earth, thing being as they are).

Chanur Series - C. J. Cherryh

This is my second-favorite Cherryh series. I love Py especially, the practical merchant captain who ends up (to her horror) influencing the fate of the universe. The relationship she develops with Jik (Keia), who is not even of her species, is something very special: "I love you like my sister," she tells him, and "Same," he says.

Jik realizes the importance of their role from the start: he is an experienced hunter captain, empowered to act on his own, far distant from his Personage. Cherryh gives us some of his POV at the start of Chanur's Homecoming, and I loved it and wanted more.

Haral Araun is canny, wise, more than capable, but rough-hewn and will never achieve command. But that's fine with her: she knows what she's worth. It would be great to see events (canon or otherwise) from her viewpoint. We get some flavor of what this would look like when Py is off the ship and Haral is talking things through with Hifly. Haral is far from simple in her understanding of what's going on.

And then there's Khym, who worships the ground Py walks on, who loves science and nature, who basically came back from the dead (from a Hani societal point of view) and became an effective member of the Pride's crew, rarely to set foot on Anuurn again. Seeing inside his head would also be great.

So: a side story, or a future story. A plotty caper would be wonderful, if that's your thing: these guys having to depend on each other, use each other "like we want to be use," to quote Jik when he was plotting with Py. Or a quieter episode, at the end of some adventure, enjoying each other's company. Or Py and Khym together, or Tully and Hilfy in what ends up being their final encounter, or Haral's take on life as they live it.< /p>

Saiyuki

Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo (or Gojyo/Hakkai ... 585) is my bulletproof ship, at all ratings. I identify with both characters: Hakkai's constant obfuscation of his underlying anger by being mannerly and harmless-looking, his constant pursuit of expertise in skills, his passive-aggressive means of getting his way, the way Gojyo is the only person who can predictably make him feel anything; and Gojyo's "wounded at the core" nature, brought on by his relationship with his stepmother, his earthy kindness, his simultaneous vulgarity and chivalry, his persistence and endurance. Some prompts you might use: I never learned nothing from playing it safe -or- Don't mind if I fall apart / There's more room in a broken heart.

Rescues .... why do these two always make me think of rescues? But if one is rescuing the other, then they don't get to interact so much. How about them rescuing someone else, together? Either in canon space or as an AU.

Or ... Saiyuki meets Alliance-Union. There are four Ikkou. There are four key positions in a Hellburner crew.

Or ... you know, just mix them with some of my cool bits above and see where it takes you!

Cyteen - C. J. Cherryh

Quick takes:

• Catlin AC-7892 II & Ariane Emory II & Florian AF-9979 II: I love the weird growing-up years of this trio. Maybe a fork in canon ... Caline and Florian have to get *Ari* out of trouble.
• Justin Warrick/Grant ALX-972: these two are just love. I have heard that, Word of God, Grant regards them as two parts of the same organism. A warm, gentle intimate would be wonderful; so would an opportunity for some minor hurt/comfort. Some prompts: unravel me -or- There's nothing here to hold on to / Could I hold on to you?
• Or .. All five of them end up off Cyteen in some sort of Adventure. The CITs have to hold themselves and each other together, the azi have to rescue them, maybe pretending to be CITs because they aren't in Union space.
• Or anything like that, really!