ricardienne | Yuletide 2017 Letter (Reply)

Hello, Friend,

Thanks for checking out my Yuletide Letter (I'm ricardienne here, but sigaloenta on ao3) and, if you are writing for me, thank you in advance!

I'm requesting 3 fandoms this year: Vermilion - Molly Tanzer, Campaign Podcast, and Imperial Radch

I've been involved with these canons for different lengths of time, and that's affected how much I've written about them below, how specific my requests are, and how my prompts are structured. None of those variations is intended as a tacit hint to what I really want. I will love a story that you write in any of these fandoms.

I apologize in advance for how long my letter is. I just like to babble on about the canons that I like! Hopefully something that I say will trigger something that you want to write. I also apologize if my prompts appear to specific: you don't have to take them as guidelines for what to write; you can simply read them as me explaining what I think about when I think about these canons. I am sure I will enjoy whatever you write.

Here are the kinds of things that I really like in general:

Loyalty, whether it underlies friendship, romance, family affection, the bond between student and teacher, the duty of a inferior toward a superior, or really, anything else.
- I love stories about characters who are devoted to each-other in non-romantic ways (or in a variety of ways in addition to romantically), especially when those genuine loyalty/devotion/obligation feelings involve people with unequal amounts of power or/and status whom social hierarchies dictate *ought to* display obligation/obedience/loyalty to each other whether they feel it or not.
Small-scale plots that primarily affect individuals and their lives rather than plots with universe- or even country-altering implications.
World-building about culture and references by characters to in-universe music, literature, poetry, popular history and legend, theology, pop-culture, religious festivals and rituals, differences between cultural practices etc.
- Done seriously, or as a joke! Both are great!
Ditto references to in-universe food, decorative arts, and clothing!
Linguistic games and code-switching, puns, allusions to other works of literature, whether in-universe or extra-universe.
Unreliable narrators and sympathetic characters who misread and misinterpret what’s going on or who believe things that aren’t true,
When having to make difficult decisions about whether to do what is right or what is expedient/conducive to survival, having to compromise your principles, and finding ways to live with the consequences. That last part is important!
Comedies of manners and workplace comedy: basically: lighthearted looks at the absurdity of social rules and systems and the difficulties that they create for people who have to live within them.
Comedies of politics (court or otherwise), social maneuvering, and political machinations.
- I.e. elaborate plots and intricate intrigues that will never work (and don't).
Hard looks at colonialism, imperialism, militarism, feudalism, or any other -ism, whether historical, contemporary, or fantastical.
- But also gallows humour about same.
- And the universe not being treated as grimdark by the people who live in it even if it is kind of grimdark.

Here are some hard DNWS:

No graphic descriptions of body horror or gore or extreme violence
No on-screen non-con or torture. (References and background are fine, but I'd really prefer that they not be at the center of the story, even off-screen).
No nuclear war, genocide, apocalyptic destruction, or death on a massive scale. (References to canon events are fine)
Please do not blow up planets

I do realize that a number of these things (almost all of them) are background canon for one or more of the works I’ve requested, so I can’t say “please don’t under any circumstances include any of them at all.” Everything I’ve requested has a canonical dark side where coercion, dubiously-free consent, and abuse of power in various ways are things that happen, not to mention things blowing up, torture, genocide, imperialism, racial, sexual, and gender oppression, judicial murder, worker exploitation, slavery, massive institutionalized injustice, and lots of other awful things. If dark is where the spirit leads you, I don’t mind, and it certainly doesn't have to be kittens and light even in a non-dark fic. But I want to read about how people live (including with themselves), not so much how horribly they can die or be hurt.

I don’t mind unhappy endings, but I do like satisfying ones. That said, please no main-character death beyond what's in canon.

The Shipping Statement
This year, I'm requesting with pretty clear preferences for particular ships or gen-fic in individual fandoms. Those preferences -- and how far I care about them in each case -- are under the specifics. Otherwise, I don't especially care for PWP or smut/erotica, but on-screen sex is fine-- especially if complicated feelings, power dynamics, and social expectations are involved. I don't have very strong shipping preferences. But if you are really not inspired by my requests and have to go in a completely different direction, perhaps it is useful to know that all other things being equal, I prefer gen-fic. I'll always be happy with a story that focuses on the obligations, loyalties, affection (or conversely: antagonism, grudging cooperation) that two characters have for each other, whether or not that goes along with a romantic or sexual relationship.

OK, with all that said, here's what I'm actually requesting.

Vermilion - Molly Tanzer

Characters requested: Lou Merriwether, Coriander Gorey

What it is: an alt-history steampunk/horror novel about set in 1870's San Francisco and Colorado.

I fell in love with the freewheeling joy of this novel and its world: ghosts! Talking sealions! Cable-cars and bandits and fancy pistols! I also fell in love with Lou -- grumpy and prone to making bad decisions! Prickly and closed to a lot of people -- but also way too quick to trust. Shouldering a lot of grief and responsibility that she'd secretly rather not! Completely fed up with racist assholes! Prefers not to think too much about her gender-presentation and wishes others wouldn't bug her about it! Good at talking down ghosts! And Coriander is my favorite kind of jolly-hocky-sticks chum out of a surprisingly-homoerotic-19th-century-school-story: pragmatic and cheerful and enthusiastic, and passionate. They are perfect foils to each other, and although I rarely come out of books shipping hard, I finished Vermilion and just wanted more of them bouncing around together in supernatural alt-19th-century San Francisco.

Basically, I want to know what happens to these two when they go (back) to San Francisco. And, ideally, I want them to get together, or have gotten together. Because this is a canon where plot and ensemble character interaction is paramount, I'd prefer no PWP and in fact what I'd like best is a plotty fic -- even if the plot is about trivial, day-to-day things -- where these characters and their love for each other (I hope) can shine, to whatever degree of explicitness you please. My favorite thing in shippy-fic is seeing the gestures and displays of affection and passion and concern that can happen even in public and within the constraints of a late 19th century setting with hints of what they get up to in private. I'd also prefer not to have a story that uses Lou and Coriander to focus on the hardships facing same-sex and interracial couples in the period (although certainly feel free to acknowledge any and all historical social issues that come up). But this canon, this Yuletide, I'm requesting a story with an unambiguously happy ending. Some genres it might fall into:

(a) RomCom: How does Lou finally clue into the fact that Coriander is into her? Does Coriander have to keep dropping bigger and bigger hints before Lou catches on? Are Ailien and/or Wilhelm and/or Bo subtly or not-so-subtly trying to help out?

(b) Adventure: Lou lost one of her lenses during the novel: how does a psychopomp get a replacement for very expensive, specialized equipment? Can you even get such things in San Francisco? How do she and Coriander go about acquiring a new one? Maybe Coriander takes it on herself to find one as a surprise-- and ends up embroiling herself (and perforce Lou) in some kind of illicit occult-objects smuggling & mobsters intrigue?

(c) Worldbuilding-centric Casefic: Get Lou and Coriander and any other of the characters involved in any cool alt-history-steampunk thing suggested by an 1870’s San Francisco with talking bears and sea lions!

Maybe they tangle with Emperor Norton?
Or get called in to disperse spirits in the military prison on Alcatraz (helping a Native American OC break out POWs from the Indian Wars?)
The Great Diamond Hoax of 1872.
Anything involving sea lions.

Campaign Podcast

Characters Requested: Lyntel'luroon, Fentara Ren, Yarris Gurt, OD-43

What it is: a comedy/actual play RPG podcast ostensibly about Star Wars

What do I like about this work? How over the top it is. The messy and absurdist and yet completely down to earth and realist take on the sprawling Star Wars universe. How silly it portrays the banality of evil to be. The focus on trivialities and feelings and comedy built around absurd mundanity of the universe.

[I’m writing this letter as of episode 90; if we matched on this fandom, I imagine you are basically caught up, too, since I requested characters that were very recently introduced. But if episodes to come introduce new details or backstory points, feel free either to incorporate them, if you want, or to ignore it. You don’t need to worry about spoilers--I’ll be caught up--, but, conversely, I am really not fussed at all about keeping to the letter of Kanan.]

I’ve requested a motley bunch of characters-- I don’t expect you to include them all! Because basically I have two lines of thought on what I want for this fandom-- one is essentially romantic drama/angst and the other comedy-- which may or may not include Romance.

(1) Lyntel'luroon and Fentara Ren. Give me the Lyn/Fentara backstory, if you please! My head-kanan is that Fentara one of Lyn’s ‘friends I knew in the military from my time in ExplorCorps who now work for the Empire' and that she's the princess Lyn kissed. But if you want to do something else, that's cool too.

(a) I’d love the adventure where they met and got together, especially if there are hints of the divergent paths they are going to take once the Empire takes over. Maybe Fentara was on the squad providing security for one of Lyn's ExploraCorps missions? Maybe they met at uni on Coruscant?

(b) Or, what about the last mission they were on together, when the horizon was darkening and their political differences started to be irreconcilable. An unhappy, wistful ending or/and bitter angsty breakup fic is fine in this case, the darker the better! I want to read about difficult choices, and the pressures of encroaching space!fascism, and the betrayal of realizing that your lover is willing to join an organization that doesn’t consider you a full person. A concrete, actual betrayal is fine, too.

(c) Future: Lyn and Fentara meet back up while the one is with the Mynock Crew and the other is working for the Empire (it's bound to happen): do they talk? Can they bring themselves to talk? Do they have to team up for one last archaeological adventure while now definitely on opposite sides?

(2) Yaris Gurt, OD-43: I requested these two characters, but what I really want is ensemble fic about the dysfunctional crew of the Imperial Base in the Roche System and the stupid wacky hijinks they get up to. I’m in love with the disaster evil!NPCs of this arc, and I would love fic about day-to-day life on this base just before the Mynock crew arrives: the focus could be on any or all of them (and with or without any and all pairings):

(a) Yarris Gurt’s fanfiction! Maybe she covertly processes her workplace shenanigans by writing ‘Regency-Era’ slash fic? Is there anyone she likes on the Base?

What is Regency Era for Star Wars? Heck, if you wanted to pastiche what her fic might look like, and write the faux!space!heyer tale of true love, dastardly dueling, and last-minute rescue starring self-insert!Yaris and a bunch of people with names on the German Name + Tomato model, I’d love that!

(b) OD-43/Yaris: I’m always here for the unrequited love of an AI for an officer of an Evil Space Empire. Full stop.

(c) An ensemble fic from OD’s exasperated/hostile perspective! Do they hate Captain Drine because of some perceived (or real) slight to the engineer? Is it normal droid protocal to label all the humans they interact with with emoji? Or is that one of OD-43's peculiar quirks?

(d) I didn't request other characters from the ensemble, but feel free to include them in an ensemble cast, e.g.:

The ongoing schemes of Ensign D’Phn to take over control of the mission and implement her own plans?

I like the idea of D'Phn/Yarris, but I don't have any plot bunnies about it. Maybe you do! D'Phn and OD-43 competing for Gurt's affections while she is oblivious or pretending to be oblivious?

Why hasn’t Zoth ever hooked up with Shinro? Is it a comedy of errors where he manages to just miss the point of her flirtation over and over again? Is there a betting pool on when they finally will get together? Are they rivals for the Prettiest And Most Competent Office, or are they secretly allies in a struggle to get the base up to Imperial spec?

Imperial Radch

Characters requested: Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq

What it is: a trilogy of space opera novels. [I have read Provenance and all of the short stories set in this universe, and so am fine with incorporating or alluding to any world-building or other details from any of those works, if you should wish to do so.]

What I like about it. To quote from my letter last year:

To put all of my cards on the table here, I spend a lot of time nattering on tumblr about this fandom, especially with respect to the Radch being space!Rome). I like their trashy entertainments and their obsession with good dishes. Their casual imperialism and their horrifying multi-bodied AI spaceships and their coherent (although quite unpleasant) ethical system, and the way the books treat people like people who are misguided and self-deceiving and who try hard not to look at the dark undergirding of their world. To quote from my last year’s letter:

I will love anything that deals with the people and AIs of this glorious unjust mess of a space-roman empire, especially if it deals with imperialism and colonialism, unequal power dynamics and hierarchies, or/and the lies people and AIs tell themselves to justify not looking too closely at the cost of their "civilization."

(yup, if I keep participating in Yuletide, eventually my letter will look like an old-style tumblr thread.)

What I'd especially love is pre-canon backstory for Breq -- whether about Justice of Toren One Esk when it was still part of Justice of Toren or about Breq finding her way in those 19 years before the start of Ancillary Justice.

Some plot-bunnies that have been picking at me:

(a) The lieutenant who first introduced One Esk to music. Why couldn't she get any of her fellow-officers interested in joining her? Was it because she played a 'scandalous' instrument and was shy about asking for partners (or was rebuffed when she did ask)? Was she from a 'very provincial' House and therefore snubbed? It seems like she must have been a 'favorite' -- but was she? Did she just view One Esk as a convenient tool for picking up the other parts, or did she come to treat her Ship differently once it became her musical partner? I would also love details of Radchaai culture and politics from this period nearly 2000 years before Ancillary Justice, although still 1000 years into Anaander Mianaai's rule, when the empire was smaller (whatever that means for an enormous galactic empire), even more socially stratified-- and perhaps closer tied-in to the original dyson sphere? What were the Entertainments like? What musical styles were trendy? What did this lieutenant's tea-set look like?

(b) The epic that Breq sings in Ancillary Sword and mentions was (a) composed 1500 years ago was banned in the Radch but (b) still circulates outside of it. I'm equally intrigued by the possibilities of both of these points.

(a) On the one hand, did Breq only come to learn about this poem after Justice of Toren was destroyed? If yes, I'd love to know the circumstances of her visit to one of those 'places outside the Radch' where dissident Radchaai poetry is circulating. Are there systems that have universities with 'Departments of Radch Studies'? Or were there always Radchaai diaspora communities out there, descended from people who fled Anaander Mianaai's rule for one reason or another? Breq interacting with either of these groups -- or in any other situation you think up where she comes across this revisionist, anti-Anaander epic -- would be fascinating.

If you want to write academia-fic about Breq being That Person at a public lecture who gets into a fight with a prominent specialist in Radchaai Studies or something… I love that idea in principle, but please don't straw-man historical scholarship and academia. For Yuletide, I do not want gotcha-fic about my day job.

(b) On the other hand, Justice of Toren was around when the poem was written. I'd love a story where the poet was one of One Esk's lieutenants, or where one of Justice of Toren's Esk officers somehow got involved in whatever political or literary (or both) upset surrounded the poem. I'm 100% fine with dark-fic for this: One-Esk having to shoot a favorite officer-- even, heck, Justice of Toren being ordered to forget the song (and only coming back to find it later…?

(c) If you are offering Imperial Radch, maybe you also read Provenance? If you did, and you are interested in a cross-over prompt, I've put one in white for spoiler avoidance:

It occurred to me while reading Provenance that while Breq was tracking down any trace of the Garseddai gun, she might have made her way to Hwae to look at the Ethiaki vestiges. Yes, sure, apparently most of the galaxy "knew" they were fake-- but imagine Breq at the beginning of her search, desperately grasping for any possible lead. She might have thought that there might be something there that would help her even so. Anyway, I'd love a story about Breq on Hwae during her search: what does she think of the reverence for Vestiges, and how does she make sense of it with comparable Radchaai practices? Can she successfully pass as a non-Radchaai, or does she completely fail to be able to manage the three genders of Hwaean? Does she cross paths with Ingray and Taucris as children? Heck-- is it partly due to this visitor's interest in the Vestiges that a young Pahlad starts to investigate their authenticity?

(d) If none of this inspires, feel free to do anything set during or post-canon as well! I'd love more about Breq learning to work with the crew and Mercy of Kalr in those days between the end of Justice and the beginning of Sword-- maybe even from the perspective of one of the MoK crew (here I'd be really interested in themes of loyalty and authority). How does Breq manage the first few days captaining a ship where all the familiar command officers -- however oppressive they were -- have suddenly, and mysteriously, been purged, and where no one has any reason to trust her to be different? Is there a particular incident early on that teaches the MoK soldiers to read Breq's moods in whether or not she is singing? NB I am only interested in gen-fic about Breq- the relationships I am interested in seeing her in are ones of loyalty, duty, mutual obligations, alliance, protection (any and all pairings of other characters in the background is fine!)

Yuletide 2017 Letter

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