#shuos zehun

[syeniites]

Shuos Zehun: I will never name a cat after the Immolation Fox

[one book later]

Shuos Zehun: everyone meet my newest kitten Jedao :))

[redsixwing]

a character to break down: shuos mikodez

For the character meme!

How I feel about this character

*skids sideways into room* LET ME YELL ABOUT MIKODEZ.

He's the one faction leader who thinks he's much worse than he is. He's plenty bad, but the bar he thinks he's failing to reach is in Hell. He could be Kel Command, for fox' sake! (He could be Nirai.)

His integrity shows in the funniest ways - he knows how awful the system he helps to run is, but he tries to soften the blows where he can, and only wrings his hands a little about the ones he can't. He has all the drive of a fox kit chasing a butterfly, and unfortunately, all the same level of focus. If Zehun wasn't around, I don't know what he'd do with himself.

(Probably, he'd use more stimulants, lose track of more things, and get assassinated sooner than otherwise, so I don't care much to look at that.)

He runs a spy academy and spying faction with a deft hand. He skirts the boundaries of what's permissible to uphold those very same boundaries. He occasionally uses his houseplant to season his soup. What's not to like?

Mikodez is right up there in my favorites for his series. Manipulative, tricky, genuinely trying to help - but don't mistake that for 'on your side.' His identity shenanigans and body-doubling are not just expected from him, but also necessary; his mourning for his double(s) is as necessary, but never takes the limelight.

One gets left wondering where the Shuos Hexarch ends and Vauhan Mikodez begins.

I like him so very much.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

...I don't think I have any of those, to be quite honest.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Istradez, for a very specific flavor of headfuck.

Jedao, for a different, but equally specific, flavor of headfuck.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I'm pretty sure liking Miko at all is an unpopular opinion? IDK.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

MORE OF HIM. More of him getting Bothered by things.

I honestly really liked that Mikodez didn't see the servitors' actions coming. Even he, whose job is to see thins like that coming, missed it. The more eyes the better, but if they're all looking the wrong place, you'll still miss the cue.

I know it's not the focus of the story at all, and he's a side character, but I really want to bite into that, you know?

Thank goodness for fanfic.

[transgenderswagcompetitions]

Okay! So I don't have an official bracket yet, but I finally got every character written down and determined who will be automatically going on to Round 1 and who will have to compete in preliminaries. Everyone automatically moving on to Round 1 had more than 1 submission, while everyone in the preliminaries only had 1 submission.

I will put together an official bracket tomorrow, but here's the list of competitors!

The characters automatically going on to Round 1 are:

Alex Fierro from Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard (4 submissions)

Shi Qingxuan from Heaven Official's Blessing (2 submissions)

Cheery Littlebottom from Discworld (2 submissions)

Nimona from Nimona (2 submissions)

Elle Argent from Heartstopper (2 submissions)

Eolo from The Raven Tower (2 submissions)

Anthony J. Crowley from Good Omens (2 submissions)

Kade West from Wayward Children (2 submissions)

Kel Brezon from Machineries of Empire (2 submissions)

The characters that will be competing in the Preliminaries are:

Rafe from Viscera

Rafe from The House of Whispers

Ash from DIE

Ash from Girl Haven

Jerico Soberanis from The Toll

Nadir from The Thirty Names of Night

Holly from The Mellification

Petrichor from Saga

Kazuhito "Kirito" Kirigaya from Sword Art Online

Aster Vanissen from Witch Boy

Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock Holmes

Vess from Invisible Kingdom

Tonkee Innovator Dibars from The Broken Earth Trilogy

Ben Van Brunt from Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow

Shuos Zehun from Machineries of Empire

Villy from Basil and Oregano

Valentine Weis from World Running Down

Howl Pendragon from Howl's Moving Castle

Hero from Something's Not Right

Dominic Seneschal from Terra Ignota

Firestar from Warriors

Enjolras from Les Miserables

Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni

Axolotl from Wings of Fire

Isa from Transmuted

Inspector Javert from Les Miserables

Addy from Basil and Oregano

June Egbert from Homestuck

Alto from Your Mind is a Terrible Thing

David from Dark Currents

Monique from The Worm and His Kings

Viola Carroll from A Lady for a Duke

Will Avery from Names for the Dawn

Qven-and-Reet from Translation State

Syd from The Heartbreak Bakery

Claire/Claude from Baker Thief

Cersei Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire

Will Treaty from Ranger's Apprentice

Starflight from Wings of Fire

Yadriel from Cemetery Boys

Zila from Aurora Cycle

Kaladin Stormblessed from The Stormlight Archive

AR/Lil Hal from Homestuck

Zoe from Sleepless Domain

Sera from Angela: Queen of Hel

Max Owen from Magical Boy

Jonathan Harker from Dracula

Diana Wrayburn from The Shadowhunter Chronicles

Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula

Never from Skulduggery Pleasant

Benji/Benjamin from Hell Followed With Us

Brick from Warriors

Sidra from Wayfarers

Sascha Vykos from Vampire: The Masquerade

Penfield from Future Feeling

Sallot Leon from Mask of Shadows

Ieshwi from The Stormlight Archive

Vriska Serket from Homestuck

Orlando from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

Spencer Harris from The Passing Playbook

Jane Crocker from Homestuck

Lupe from Four Leaf

Trina Goldberg-Oneka from The Seep

Cassandra Igarashi from The Wicked + The Divine

Aya Burnstein from Dancing in the Devils Auditorium

Lucus from High Class Homos

Merlin from The Left Handed Booksellers of London

Nightheart from Warriors

Sol from Dead Collections

Max from Magical Boy

Artemis Fowl from Artemis Fowl

Teo from The Sunbearer Duology

Wanda from The Sandman

Tal Smithson from Time to Orbit: Unknown

Petey the Cat from Dog Man

Captain Artemisia Blastside from Piratica

Rosa from Threads That Bind

Alter Boi from House of Whispers

Wegg from Be Kind, My Neighbor

Loki from Loki: Agent of Asgard

Scorn from Emergent Properties

Alanna of Trebond from The Song of the Lionness

Marcia Overstrand from Septimus Heap

Sage from Strawberry Seafoam

Jules from The Chromatic Fantasy

Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man

Razia Khan from Stealing Thunder

Dipper Pines from the Gravity Falls comics

Mel from Something's Not Right

Hero Shackleby from American Hippo

Kino from Kino's Journey

The Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere

River Runson from The Melting Queen

Jonathan Morgan from All the White Spaces

Leigh Hunter from Grey Dawn

Xada from LoveBot

Ienaga Kano from Golden Kamuy

Viola/Cesario from Twelfth Night

Silas Bell from The Spirit Bares Its Teeth

Let me know if I accidentally have a character on this list twice! Also let me know if you see anything misspelled or under the wrong book or series. Basically, let me know if I've screwed up lol

Thank you all for your continued patience!

[ruinconstellation]

Zehun and Mikodez: talking politics, the fate of the hexarchate empire, potential death of millions

Also Mikodez, at the same time: building a cookie fort

[tangentmoth]

The Heretic Hexarch’s Guide to Troubled Birds: Part 1

Kel Cheris: 

Kel Nerevor:

Kel Brezan:

Andan Tseya:

Shuos Mikodez: 

Shuos Zehun:

Nirai Kujen:

Shuos Jedao:

[incorrecthexarchatequotes]

cheris: not even trying to be a fox anymore, but still very foxy

[redsixwing]

NYANBINARY

fellas

whats a gender neutral term that still carries the weight of “catboy”

[gostaks]

i choose to believe that my tourettes is caused by a flock of cats hanging around inside my brain and occasionally jumping up on the control panel

[ximen]

Random Machineries of Empire thought:

People in the Hexarchate put a lot of weight on their signifiers—Cheris is slightly disappointed that hers is Ashhawk Sheathed Wings, Zehun is sent to possibly kill Mikodez because his first signifier is the same as Jedao's, etc. But there's no indication that signifiers actually mean anything, and we're shown multiple examples of them being contradicted by the signified person's actual behavior.

Which means that when the Shuos kill cadets who have Jedao's Ninefox Crowned with Eyes, they're basically just murdering teenagers because they're the wrong Myers-Briggs type or Enneagram number.

[venndaai]

Some Chocolate Box recs bc I want to get to this while the exchange is still anon for once-

My two other ABSOLUTELY AMAZING gifts, seriously I am so overwhelmed by how lucky I was this year

This is the Way The World Ends- The Expanse, Chrisjen/Bobbie Nemesis Games h/c sex, 3k words, PERFECTION

You Get What You Need- Dragon Age, Dorian/Bull, 2.5k words, a pitch perfect Chargers rescue Dorian fic that gave me everything I wanted

other recs:

(these are faaar from everything I liked, but they’re all quite niche and deserve more eyes!)

産巣日 - The Authority, Jenny Sparks/Shen Li-Min, super niche but very hot comics f/f

small comforts - Dragon Age, Leliana/Cassandra, intimate sweet slice of life with a great Leliana pov

your reward's in the sweet by and by - Dishonored, Billie/Dierdre and Billie/Delilah, so automatically I love it, but also it’s a twisted little Lotus Eater Machine story and <3<3<3

Rush - His Dark Materials, Lee/Iorek - a brave soul has taken the plunge and written explicit man/talking bear sex. Let that be either warning or enticement? The prose is very witty and delightful. 

Exploding Kittens and Other Shuos Shenanigans - Machineries of Empire, Mikodez & Zehun & cats - I really, really love that this fandom continues to produce the quality content I really care about, ie, anything involving Mikodez & Zehun & cats. 

sans peur et sans reproche - The Strange Case of Starship Iris, Arkady/Sana- really good precanon mission mishap/h/c/fake relationship/just... good stuff.

Frayed - SWTOR, Lana & Theron - FRIENDSHIP. warmed my heart. 

[reconditarmonia]

Dear Chocolate Box Author

Hi! Thank you for writing for me! I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3. I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

Dishonored | Fullmetal Alchemist | Machineries of Empire | The Penumbra Podcast | Simoun

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink! Trust, affectionate or loving use of titles, gestures of loyalty, replacing one’s situational or ethical judgment with someone else’s, risking oneself (physically or otherwise) for someone else, not doing so on their orders. Can be commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

Smut Likes: clothing, uniforms, sexual tension, breasts, manual sex, cunnilingus, grinding, informal d/s elements, intensity; stories whose resolution isn’t the sex scene.

A note: if we matched on an / ship, I generally don't require you to include a kiss, sex, or overt romantic language if you feel that you'd have to shoehorn it in. I'll trust that you wrote it with shippy intent.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes; focus on unrequested canon or non-canon ships.

—

Fandom: Dishonored

Ship(s): Delilah Copperspoon/Billie Lurk; Breanna Ashworth & Kirin Jindosh; Emily Kaldwin & Delilah Copperspoon

I find Delilah such a fantastic and fascinating villain, and I'd love to read more about her relationships with Billie or Emily. I’d love to know more about Billie’s time in Delilah’s gang - what does she see in Delilah, or Delilah in her, beyond using each other to get ahead, what do they want from each other? I imagine it might fascinate and please Delilah to have Billie’s submission and maybe even some level of trust - to do what? It'd be neat to read an AU of the end of KoD where Billie stays in Dunwall, whether she's won or lost against Daud - or even of the end of Brigmore Witches, if you want to AU Delilah's plot into something that doesn't put her into a child's body. Something addressing clothing (given the iconic costumes of both the Witches and the Whalers) and/or nudity? Something in the timeskip or DH2 timeframe? With regard to Emily, I'm specifically interested in adult Emily here - what happens if Emily doesn't escape at the beginning of DH2? (Or is captured at some point, I guess.) Delilah seems happy enough to keep her alive - does she make her a witch, want her in court as her niece? How does Emily feel about any of this as she learns about Delilah's past? Or, does Emily maintain a relationship with her aunt after the end of DH2, whether because there's a way to visit or communicate with her or in an AU where she's defeated differently and sticks around? How might Delilah's art fit into any of these scenarios? The differences in how they fight?

I would also love fic about Breanna and Jindosh's terrible friendship/working relationship. Is their distaste for everyone else enough to overcome their distaste for each other? Put them at a fancy party (Luca's or otherwise) kvetching about other people. Tell me more about the lead-up to the seance, or mutual projects where Breanna contributed more of the magic and Jindosh more of the science - or vice versa! Breanna's got a very scientific mind and career herself and Jindosh isn't above dabbling in Void shit. Get them drunk together one night. If you can futz with the numbers enough for it to make sense, write me an AU where they're in an arranged marriage and end up as a (secretly? idk) platonic power couple. (If you go with this version I'd prefer that you write Jindosh as gay or asexual.)

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: Please do not touch on Jindosh's nonlethal option in any way whatsoever. With regard to Delilah/Billie, I have dubcon in my general DNWs but with Delilah’s...everything it seems potentially unreasonable to categorically DNW it here. Billie going along with things because she feels like she should or must is fine (although I’d also be very game for fic about her desiring and wanting Delilah/this), but I still don’t want to read anything involving altered or removed ability to consent such as mind-altering magic, sex pollen, drugs, etc. Additionally, Delilah/Breanna is an exception to my unrequested ships DNW - feel free to include it in any of these requests.

—

Fandom: Fullmetal Alchemist

Ship(s): Scar & Original Ishvalan Character(s); Scar & Miles; Olivier Mira Armstrong & Miles & Briggs Soldiers

One of the things that really hit close to home about canon was the Ishval plot; I like that it’s important and not just backstory or setup for other stuff, and that there are multiple characters who are Ishvalan or of Ishvalan descent, rather than a genocide plot being a convenient reason to have one or no Ishvalan perspectives in the story. I’d really be interested in reading anything about, well, what do you do during or in the wake of a genocide: Miles’s seemingly increasing identification with his Ishvalan background; one or both of them in the post-canon rebuilding; what is is to be Amestrian *and* Ishvalan; what Scar (or OCs) are able to keep from their culture and community and what was lost (and what evolves), whether that’s in “Amestrian” cities and towns during or after canon, or in post-canon Ishval; saving the testimonies or the culture. Doesn’t need to be angsty if that’s not what you’re into; indeed, surviving/building a new life/finding joy/celebrating one’s culture and heritage after that kind of thing are meaningful too.

Or, Briggs and its mixture of heartwarming and id-satisfying loyalty kink. (The watch! Buccaneer handing Olivier a clean pair of gloves after she kills Raven! Constant and deeply sincere saluting! And Olivier's lack of patience for anyone's shit.) Either ordinary or extraordinary circumstances - daily life in the fort, a battle with Drachma where they work together seamlessly, surviving a storm or the typical winter cold - would make me happy, but I especially love those shows of loyalty. Entire Briggs Is Gay would also non-ironically be neat, as would other ways of exploring the idea of Briggs being a united wall made up of people with a lot of secrets and/or racial and gender differences.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Please don’t give Scar a name; I personally am fine eliding any narration issues with “how would he refer to himself in his own POV?” in my brain. I would also prefer that Ishvalan culture be worldbuilt rather than borrowed wholesale from a real-life culture.

—

Fandom: Machineries of Empire

Ship(s): Ajewen Cheris & Garach Jedao Shkan; Ajewen Cheris & Original Mwennin Characters; Ajewen Cheris/Neshte Khiruev; Moroish Nija/Shuos Feiyed; Vauhan Mikodez & Zehun

I've just recently gotten into this fandom, and I love the loyalty kink and the worldbuilding so much - I just want more! I'm partway through Revenant Gun now, so my prompts are somewhat unspecific, but I expect to be done with Glass Cannon by the time of reveals, so don't worry about spoilers.

Anyway, as I said, I love loyalty kink, including platonic loyalty kink - trust, gestures of loyalty, the times that trust or willingness to follow/lead is put under severe situational strain and holds, or the places where these things get thorny instead of straightforward because one character has to betray or hurt the other for the larger goal that they both believe in and work towards, or to keep the other safe. Some of the things I like in canon along these lines are Mikodez's showing Zehun the contingency plans in Raven Stratagem, and everything with "I'm your gun" (which I'm vaguely aware that I'm going to love even more by the time I'm caught up). Any story for Cheris & Jedao, Cheris/Khiruev, or Mikodez & Zehun that involved these tropes would be wonderful.

I'm also interested in the Mwennin subplot. I would love to know more about Cheris, Mwennin culture, and other Mwennin at any point before, during, or after canon. I also like the idea of Nija and Feiyed staying in touch after Feiyed rescues/recruits Nija, and Feiyed gradually learning about Mwennin culture as they start/continue a relationship - we know it can be adoptive, so does she even at any point start to consider herself part of it? (Or have them work together on a covert mission, no reason we shouldn't get loyalty kink in here too.)

Fandom-Specific DNW: I have dubcon in my general DNWs and would like to reiterate that I don't want to read formation instinct playing a part in a Cheris/Khiruev relationship.

—

Fandom: The Penumbra Podcast

Ship(s): Miasma/The Proctor

What can I say? Criminal older female academics would be a GREAT ship. I'd love to see their first meeting at some conference or academic event (or criminal thing), or their first date, or the two of them working together on some scheme - does Miasma "consult" the Proctor, or does the Proctor want to create an exam based on Miasma's field of expertise, or are they both going for the same goal? What do they like about each other, or find frustrating about each other? (If you need to fudge the timelines to make it work, that's fine, but I'm definitely interested in the characters as middle-aged or older. Also fine by me if you want to somehow AU their fates to get them together in the "present" timeline.)

—

Fandom: Simoun

Ship(s): Any (Aaeru & Neviril & Paraietta & Rodoreamon & Floef & Vyuraf; Aaeru/Neviril; Mamiina & Neviril; Mamiina/Neviril; Neviril/Aaeru & Neviril/Paraietta; Paraietta & Neviril; Paraietta/Rodoreamon)

This is a perennial request for me and anything (other than, I guess, the slice-of-lifeiest slice-of-life) would make me very happy, but I'm particularly interested in the military side of the canon - how the war changes all the characters and their relationships with one another, how Everything is Beautiful and Then Shit Gets Real but amidst the war-is-hell there’s still the creation of bonds of trust and loyalty and chances to do what’s right (the bits with the Plumbish priestesses, for instance). Every character gets a chance to develop and make choices that are all brave in different ways. I'd love loyalty kink here, but I'm also up for Magic, for an exploration of the characters' adult lives on the other end of the series's coming-of-age, or nearly anything.

Some ideas - what happens post-canon if Neviril and Aeru make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but Neviril has no one from the old cohort to lead because they can’t fly anymore? What does she do, or see her role as being - a leader for peace, for war? How do she and Aaeru interact with Paraietta, Rodoreamon, Floef, and Vyuraf?

What happens if due to magic or time weirdness, Mamiina is brought back? What happens between her and Neviril late in canon or post-canon? How do they see or value each other as fighters and leaders?

What's Paraietta and Rodoreamon's post-canon relationship like? They're building a life together and finding purpose in helping the war orphans, but they're also both veterans and neither of them is the other's lost love. Or I'd also love to see a during- or post-canon look at a situation where Neviril has relationships with both Paraietta and Aaeru, how she maybe needs different things from them, and how they also work together differently on the battlefield - or just a story about the relationship of Neviril and her long-loyal second-in-command Paraietta.

[redsixwing]

Six Characters meme, including prompts from several folks here!

Clockwise from top: Shuos Mikodez, Kubo, Kel Khiruev*, Kylo Ren, Janus bet Vhalnich**, Shuos Zehun (and their obligatory cats).

*Clearly I need more practice rendering dark skin tones, particularly in ink.

**Janus did not come out looking like I imagine him, much to my frustration. I'll have to draw him more. Which may involve rereading the Shadow Campaigns...

Thanks for the prompts, folks. I really enjoyed this.

@gostaks @dreamsatdusk @ceruleanvulpine

[transgenderswagcompetitions]

The Preliminaries start Wednesday, June 5!

Here are your match-ups (links under the cut):

Alter Boi from The House of Whispers vs. Rafe from The House of Whispers

June Egbert from Homestuck vs. AR/Lil Hal from Homestuck

Vriska Serket from Homestuck vs. Jane Crocker from Homestuck

Firestar from Warrior Cats vs. Brick from Warrior Cats

Nightheart from Warrior Cats vs. Rowanstar from Warrior Cats

Loki from Loki: Agent of Asgard vs. Sera from Angela: Queen of Hel

Peter Parker from The Amazing Spider-Man vs. Rafe from Viscera

Hero from Something's Not Right vs. Mel from Something's Not Right

Villy from Basil and Oregano vs. Addy from Basil and Oregano

Enjolras from Les Miserables vs. Inspector Javert from Les Miserables

Axolotl from Wings of Fire vs. Starflight from Wings of Fire

---

Kaladin Stormblessed from The Stormlight Archive vs. Ieshwi from The Stormlight Archive

Jonathan Harker from Dracula vs. Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula

The Marquis de Carabas from Neverwhere vs. River Runson from The Melting Queen

Jonathan Morgan from All the White Spaces vs. Leigh Hunter from Grey Dawn

Xada from LoveBot vs. Ienaga Kano from Golden Kamuy

Shuos Zehun from Machineries of Empire vs. Viola/Cesario from Twelfth Night

Silas Bell from The Spirit Bares Its Teeth vs. Ash from DIE

Ash from Girl Haven vs. Jerico Soberanis from The Toll

Nadir from The Thirty Names of Night vs. Holly from The Mellification

Petrichor from Saga vs. Kazuhito "Kirito" Kirigaya from Sword Art Online

Aster Vanissen from Witch Boy vs. Sherlock Holmes from Sherlock Holmes

---

Vess from Invisible Kingdom vs. Tonkee Innovator Dibars from The Broken Earth Trilogy

Ben Van Brunt from Horseman: A Tale of Sleepy Hollow vs. Valentine Weis from World Running Down

Howl Pendragon from Howl's Moving Castle vs. Dominic Seneschal from Terra Ignota

Beatrice from Umineko no Naku Koro Ni vs. Isa from Transmuted

Alto from Your Mind is a Terrible Thing vs. David from Dark Currents

Monique from The Worm and his Kings vs. Viola Carroll from A Lady for a Duke

Will Avery from Names for the Dawn vs. Qven-and-Reet from Translation State

Syd from The Heartbreak Bakery vs. Claire/Claude from Baker Thief

Cersei Lannister from A Song of Ice and Fire vs. Will Treaty from Ranger’s Apprentice

Yadriel from Cemetery Boys vs. Zila from Aurora Cycle

Zoe from Sleepless Domain vs. Diana Wrayburn from The Shadowhunter Chronicles

---

Never from Skulduggery Pleasant vs. Benji/Benjamin from Hell Followed With Us

Sidra from Wayfarers vs. Sascha Vykos from Vampire: The Masquerade novel series

Orlando from The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen vs. Spencer Harris from The Passing Playbook

Lupe from Four Leaf vs. Trina Goldberg-Oneka from The Seep

Cassandra Igarashi from The Wicked + the Divine vs. Aya Burnstein from Dancing In The Devils Auditorium

Lucus from High Class Homos vs. Merlin from The Left Handed Booksellers of London

Sol from Dead Collections vs. Artemis Fowl from Artemis Fowl

Teo from The Sunbearer Duology vs. Wanda from The Sandman

Tal Smithson from Time to Orbit: Unknown vs. Petey the Cat from Dog Man

Captain Artemisia Blastside from Piratica vs. Rosa from Threads That Bind

Wegg from Be Kind, My Neighbor vs. Scorn from Emergent Properties

[neuxue]

Dear Yuletide Author

Thanks for writing for me! I’ve probably written too much here, so...when in doubt, write the story you want to write, and I'm sure I'll enjoy it! The below are more guidelines than actual rules.

GENERAL

Likes:

Fictional characters in pain (physical, mental, other).

Complicated dynamics between characters (friends, enemies, strangers, all of the above, other). Bonus points for enemies-to-friends/friends-to-enemies/enemies-to-lovers/any movement on the friendship-ally-enmity axis, really.

Betrayals, pseudo-betrayals, etc (see above about complicated dynamics). Bonus points for betrayals made out of necessity. Double bonus points if the betrayed doesn’t know it’s necessary.

Villain-by-necessity or antagonist-by-necessity.

Exploration of power (individual, interpersonal, or both. Again, can be as dark as you want, if you are so inclined.)

Ambiguity, in pretty much all its forms.  

Dark fic. You don't have to, but you absolutely 100% can. This is a blank cheque on content warnings, up to and including the major archive warnings.

Plot! You absolutely do not have to write a complex plot, but if that's your thing...go wild. Political machinations or detailed worldbuilding or some absurdly complicated scheme or that sequel you wish were written.

Fic formats I am very happy with, if they’re your thing: fic-as-character-study, theme-and-variation (so 5 times fics are 100% cool with me), or unconventional fic formats of any kind! But more conventional or linear formats are also A+. This is another ‘blanket permission to do whatever you want’

Dislikes/DNW:

Explicit sex, unless it’s absolutely essential to the story (if it IS absolutely essential: fade-to-black is fine, lightly explicit but not quite porn is usually fine. If I’m going to read sex I’d actually prefer it to be a bit darker in some way - definitely doesn’t have to be related to consent, though it certainly can, but I’d prefer there to be some tension/pain/angst/tragedy/betrayal/darkness/power dynamics to it.y)

Romance as the central focus of the story (partial exceptions include enemies-to-lovers or ‘complicated character dynamics’).

Children (child characters or characters having children).

Alternate setting AUs (like Hogwarts AU or Modern AU or A/B/O, etc. AU that alters canon events - eg ‘X doesn’t die’ or ‘Y happens differently’ is completely fine).

Fluff (humour is fine; sweetness is fine in moderation).

FANDOM-SPECIFIC

His Dark Materials - Marisa Coulter, Lord Asriel

HDM was very much a Formative Fantasy Series for me, and these two were defintely my uh...Formative Fucked-Up Pairing. Enemies, lovers, partners in damnation: they have it all, and they move fluidly between all of those. Individually, they’re some of my favourite characters in the genre: forces to be reckoned with, powerful and capable and driven, terrifying, and somehow still human.

Together, their dynamic is…everything I want in a story. It’s a mess, but it’s a devastatingly beautiful and functionally destructive mess that has the capacity to take down heaven and earth.I love their complexity, both individually and together, and I just want more of it.

“I wanted you to come with me, and I thought you would prefer a lie” has always been my favourite line for these two, if that helps. But really anything about their fucked-up contradictory mess of a series of betrayals and antagonistic workings that somehow form a relationship.

Feel free to include any other characters (nominated or otherwise) you see fit, but I would prefer the focus to be on these two (though if you think an outsider viewpoint, for instance, is the best way to do that, I have no complaints).

As a point of clarification, because romance is loosely on my DNW list: There’s definitely an aspect of Marisa/Asriel that could be called romance, and I have no objections to you exploring that in the context of the rest of their clusterfuck of a dynamic (but it’s the clusterfuck I love the most).

The Baru Cormorant / Masquerade Series - Svirakir

I have this bad habit of loving minor characters, but was rather delighted to see Apparitor not only get some screen time but even get a name in the second book. So I just want...more about him. He was hardly in the first book but was very present on the sidelines, once you know what to look for: what was he up to? What does that look like from his side of things? What did he think of Baru then? What’s his origin story, from his perspective, beyond the brief pieces of it we hear? What other tasks has he carried out in his role as Apparitor? Where has he travelled? Where does he want to go? What’s his great secret, his true aim? What was his first mission, or what would his version of a book-one-esque beginning look like? 

Any of the above, none of the above...I’m being frustratingly nonspecific here, but I really will be happy with mostly anything. He’s a good candidate for fic-as-character-study, if that’s your thing. Or if you’re a plotty sort and want to write him and the others carrying out some absurd heist, I’d be 100% here for it. Or if, like me, you enjoy some good old-fashioned whump and just want to rough him up a bit...yeah, he’s the sort whom suffering looks good on.

Really, knock yourself out. Include any and all other characters from the series as you see fit, or don’t.

The Dragon Prince - Aaravos, Runaan

I feel like I should maybe apologise for this one, especially because it’s a children’s show and yet my immediate thought on this one is ‘if dark is your thing, go dark here’. If dark isn’t your thing that’s absolutely fine, of course, but if it is...yeah. Have fun. Go wild. 

I’m happy to read either of these characters individually, if featuring both of them doesn’t work with what you come up with, but if you do feel like including both, that would be excellent. Maybe they meet somehow -- do the coins and the mirror lead to the same place, and they’re both trapped and meet as uneasy allies? Or as enemies? Or as friends? Or perhaps they’re both trapped and completely separate and never actually meet but their experiences run either parallel or opposite. How did they each get to where they are? What happens to those who are shut away from the real world? Any or none of the above, really.

I’m just super curious to see what is even happening with either or both of these two. Trapped and powerful and mirrored and mysterious...it’s a whole lot, for me, however you decide to slice it, and the world that’s been built is still an open playing field, so have fun!

If it helps, my favourite moments of these two individually are:

Aaravos - when he responds, in that voice of his, to Viren asking ‘why should I trust you’ with ‘You shouldn’t. Yet.’

Runaan - that first shot we see of him chained to a wall.

I know. I’m sorry. 

Oh, also, I know Season 3 is meant to come out before Yuletide fics are due; include or ignore any content from that as you wish.

Machineries of Empire - Vauhan Mikodez

This whole series is really just designed to ruin me, full as it is of characters who are all My Type in different ways.

So first of all, feel free to include any other characters from the series you see fit. Personal favourite candidates include Kujen, Jedao (either version but mostly the first), Cheris, Istradez, Zehun, any of the other Hexarchs/Heptarchs including Faian, any of Kujen’s anchors...the list continues.

Mikodez is fascinating to me because of the contrast in...not quite how he presents himself versus who he actually is, but in how he fully embodies the persona his role demands -- the murdering, amoral, ruthless, scheming, pragmatic Shuos Hexarch -- and yet also manages to be one of the more morally grounded characters in the series. He just doesn’t let anyone (often including himself) see that. So he ends up perceived as having taken a similar path to, say Kujen in terms of murdering his own conscience, stifling his ability to feel pain or empathy in order to become what he must, but he hasn’t. He just follows that path as far as making it clear, to himself and everyone else, that those feelings are a privilege the Shuos Hexarch cannot afford; but he feels them anyway, as himself, and it’s just a whole Problem for me.

And so the way he interacts with other characters, especially those like Jedao and Kujen, is rather fascinating to me. But so is his relationship with Istradez, because again, based on how he presents himself, you wouldn’t really expect Mikodez to be generous and understanding, but he so very much is. 

Mikodez is another great option for fic-as-character-study if you want to go that route, or just go all-out and throw him in way over his head, or let him watch from the shadows, the longest-serving Shuos Hexarch, as everything else plays out. Apologies for not really giving much in the way of prompts here, but I’m pretty much game for anything, and I’m super curious to see what you might come up with.

Sunshine - Robin McKinley (any - Charlie, Rae, Onyx, Con, Mel, Rae’s grandmother)

Knock yourself out. Go wild. Pick any one of the 189237 loose ends this book left and run with it.

Who the hell even was (is?) Onyx Blaise? Actually, if you feel up to it, anything involving Onyx and his mother (Rae’s grandmother) would be fascinating to me. Or, throw Mel and Con and Rae together in some mess they have to work together to solve. Or just give me Mel’s backstory. Or Con’s. Did Con and Onyx meet, and what was that like? What does Rae’s life look like after the book ends? 

If you have an idea for this world, for any or all of these characters, write that. I will read anything, because there’s just so much there to play with.

[ninefoxdammit]

a smothering attempt at assassination of the Shuos hexarch by Zehun’s cats 

[incorrecthexarchatequotes]

in the face of insomnia i will attempt to assign letter grades to the weird foxes. please stand by and watch this space for weird fox letter grades,, thank you