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opalmatrixThank you so much for writing me a Treat (or even a Trick)! Here are a lot of optional details about what I like and don't like in a story, plus my thoughts on the fandoms and some prompts for them.
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 (for more about epithets, see this)
- 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 - link goes to TVTropes). 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 $100 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
- senses of smell and touch and memories attached to them
- warm and oversized bathrobes/dressing gowns or sweaters/jerseys
- someone's profile silhouetted against the light
- being cozy indoors when it's rainy or snowing
- an autumn leaf or item of clothing as the only bit of color in a bleak landscape
- drops of water clinging to hair and/or skin
- leaning comfortably against a friend or lover; feeling them chuckle or speak
- cabinets or cases full of odd curios
- romantic partners who are both competent
- an open-air market or seaside boardwalk or other place filled with joyful bustle and the smell of good things to eat
- whispered admissions of love or forgiveness
- finding in a fight that one's ally feels like a protective wall
- water sounds: rain, a brook, waves
- family-of-choice, nakama, or True Companions
- cynics with secretly soft hearts
- In-jokes among family members or close friends
- the moon seen through wind-blown branches
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).
Fandoms and Prompts
Saiyuki
Even though this is not a "pairing" challenge, you should know that Cho Hakkai/Sha Gojyo (or Gojyo/Hakkai ... 585) is my bulletproof ship, at all ratings.
That said, I've enjoyed stories about all four of the ikkou, from all of their viewpoints. From the spooky point of view, these guys all have darkness and deaths behind them, but in the end, their companions pull them through.
Some ideas and prompts:
- Modern day AU where Hakkai drags them into some sort of school Halloween festival?
- Before the Journey West, Goku wants to participate in some sort of autumn traditional festival?
- Some haunting by Kanan would be all too seasonal ... or Gojyo's stepmom.
- Theme: No one knows you so well: All the ghosts that still haunt you / Or the secrets you won't tell.
- Theme: Don't mind if I fall apart / There's more room in a broken heart
Alliance-Union - C. J. Cherryh
I'm a huge CJC fan, and Alliance-Union is my favorite of her settings.
Hellburner is my single most favorite book of the set. The foursome of Dek, Ben, Meg, and Sal push all my found-family buttons, with the added spice of the physical relationships. They all have death behind them: most obviously, Cory for Dek and Bird for all of them.
Downbelow Station is a sprawling mess of a book, but I love the jumpcarrier Norway, her captain SIgny Mallory, and her two closest companions, her No. 2 Jurgen Graff and Marine command Di Janz. We actually get to know Graff most in Hellburner, where he's the personnel officer of the Hellburner project.
In Cyteen, with Catlin AC-7892 II and Florian AF-9979 II, I'm all over the child soldier and loyalty tropes. I love the way their personalities start to show through: Florian's inherent gentleness (despite the fact that he would blow up Ari II's enemies without a second though) and good nature, Catlin's stone face hiding the occasional odd twist of humor underneath.
Random ideas:
- Meg has recurring nightmares about someone from her past (Bird or some OC), and Dek has to be the strong one for once.
- Ben is trapped in a ship accident of some sort and finds himself becoming unhinged: "Is this how Dekker lost his grip?"
- The Hellburner graduating class gives Graff a surprise party
- In the calm of the near-peace after the last of the Mazianni are gone (they think), Signy becomes obsessed with the troops she ordered killed by their comrades at one point ("Norway has its standards"), and Graff and. Di have to bring her back.
- Ari II gets spooked by a story/has a nightmare about Maman; Florian comforts her and then has to explain to Catlin why Ari was freaked out.
- During a sleepover party in the spooky new apartment, Catlin tells a horrifying story from Green Barracks (this is canon, actually), and all the kids have trouble sleeping afterward.
Natsume Yuujinchou | Natsume's Book of Friends
Madara "Nyanko-sensei" & Natsume Takashi (Natsume Yuujinchou)
Natsume Takashi & None (Natsume Yuujinchou)
Natsume Takashi & Taki Tooru & Tanuma Kaname (Natsume Yuujinchou)
I really can't get shippy about these kids: they're buddies, best friends, etc. Bring on the seasonal celebrations, the school fair, picnics, quiet home celebrations with Natsume's foster-family, and Nyanko-sensei's taste for liquor and pastries. And maybe Natsume has sad memories of past occasions when no one made his special days special with the appropriate treats. I have an especially soft spot for Taki, and I'm growing to like Kaname more and more. And perhaps Reiko makes an unexpected (or even spooky) appearance.
The Locked Tomb Trilogy | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir
These books are so Gothic, and there is such a thin line at times between what really happened and various characters' perceptions of what happened, that you could do just about anything.
My actual favorite characters, if that would help, are Gideon (of course), Jeanmary and Isaac, Palamedes and Camilla, Abigail and Magnus, and Harrowhark.
- Young Harrowhark's obsession with The Body is intriguing - for that matter, that whole scene in detail from Harrow's point of view.
- Jeanmary wakes suddenly in the night at Canaan House: she thinks she hears a voice saying "end it now."
- Portents: any of the characters above has a premonition of their fate at Canaan House.
- AU for the win as a Treat: Gideon end up the soldier she always wanted to be and experiences a harvest festival or Halloween-type celebration.
- Theme: Florence and the Machine's My Boy Builds Coffins. (And yes, you can gender-flip that.)
- Theme: Just like a ghost, you've been haunting my dreams
- Or anything else you can think of.
The Eagle of the Ninth - Rosemary Sutcliff
I've requested the Sutcliff book, not the movie, but if you ship Marcus and Esca like whoa, you could write something set during their first months together, when Marcus' leg is such a mess, or during their journey north. A haunting, real or imagined? Either man's parents might be resting uneasy, given the fate of their sons.
Another possible setting would be the early days of the farm on the Downs. Perhaps there's a mysterious tomb nearby, or just the spirits of the dead roaming as autumn approaches Samhain. Or Marcus decides to celebrate one of the traditional Roman autumn festivals, and things don't go quite as expected, with merry or scary consequences, depending on whether you want to write a trick or a treat.
Imperial Radch Series - Ann Leckie
How about a spooky mystery with Ingray and Taucris ... maybe they even have to rescue Danach? Or they celebrate a family festival or take a vacation to go hiking or fruit-picking or something else seasonal, with Ingray trying hard to press on through her lack of athletic ability, and maybe some hurt-comfort afterward? How about a frightening incident that makes Tic and Garal finally address what's developing between them - not sex, necessarily, but acknowledging the growing emotional bond? I also think there's real friendship developing between Ingray and Pahlad, and perhaps all of them could come together for something seasonal.
If you want the other part of the universe, I just like Mercy of Kalr, and think it's a very care-taking and even loving ship. Maybe Breq becomes haunted (literally or figuratively) by Awn Elming, and the Mercy can help. And for Athoek Station, it seems to me that the stations probably enjoy it when their people have a festival and most of them are happy. So if you want to let your imagination run wild and come up with some celebration that might involve costumes/masquerade -- and perhaps confusion or genuine fright -- and set the chracters loose there, that could also be great.
You should know: One of the thing I loved about Ingray was that she was like many of us fangirls: a plump, non-adventurous person with Mommy issues. I love that she gets frightened, she cries, and yet she perseveres. Taucris is one of my regular character likes: the good cop/soldier who is getting pulled out of her groove by circumstances and learns to adapt. Garal has really been put through the mill, and yet he still has kindness to spare for Ingray and interest in her situation. Finally, Tic should be really messed up, but he has prospered, as the Geck ambassador notes (to her surprise). I love the little hints of his developing relationship with Garal, and I am a sucker for "two against the universe."
Finally, although I really like a good explicit story, I think of the ships themselves as asexual.
Opal's Purely Optional Halloween Game
I've sometimes had fun writing treats and other short pieces by using various types of random generators, either found online and or home made.
If you're struggling for an idea and don't fancy anything I've put in the prompts above, try this: Take one or two of the "cool bits" from my general list of likes/don't likes and a Halloween/autumn element from the list below, and combine them into a story! I've even numbered the Halloween bits 1 through 20, so gamer folks can use a D20 (otherwise, use a spreadsheet or other random number generator). Or just pick one that tickles your creativity.
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