Deepdarkwaters (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
deep_dark_waters) wrote2017-01-31 09:34 pm
deep_dark_waters) wrote2017-01-31 09:34 pm
Worldbuilding exchange letter
Hello! I'm Deepdarkwaters on Ao3 and Tumblr and ambrotypes on Twitter for any recip-stalking needs.
Short version: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include the couple of DNWs mentioned below. If you've got something in mind already then do it your way! These are just suggestions - I will honestly love anything about these people and settings.
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but just so you've got an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description (especially of hair, hands, and clothing); competence; petty arguments; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; intense physical fight scenes; huge scale destruction; ridiculous things played completely straight for comedy purposes; kissing; when penetrative sex isn't the only type considered 'real' sex.
Please no: noncon, anything to do with judicial execution, hanging of any kind.
These are all fic prompts only because I have no idea how to prompt for meta, but if you've got a better idea of some kind of meta you'd like to write then PLEASE DO and I will happily inhale it! I love these settings and details and I'm hungry for more about all of them, so just go with whatever you feel most enthusiastic about writing even if it doesn't really match what I've put below.
Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Characters: Jadis, Jadis' sister, original, none
Worldbuilding: Charn society
I was always fascinated by the little we saw of Charn in The Magician's Nephew. I like the almost sci-fi feeling of the setting with all the stuff about the cold dying sun, but really it's all the tantalising hints at a huge magical society that I'm desperate to know more about. Flying carpets! The gradual degeneration in the Hall of Images from the wise/benevolent people to cruelty and evil - what happened?! What was the city or the wider world like back in kinder times? When did it all start to change? Was magic an everyday thing or only for the elite? Were there universities and newspapers and novels?
Specific to Jadis and her sister: I have a real thing for the aesthetics of huge scale destruction in fiction. Not really sure why, but there it is. If you want to write about the civil war and what happened leading up to (and after) the Deplorable Word, go as brutal as you like and nothing will be too much. My only content DNW is noncon sex, and I have a massive problem with judicial execution, especially hanging, but all other violence and death and destruction is very very welcome.
Characters: King Frank, Queen Helen, original, none
Worldbuilding: Frank and Helen's reign
Obviously it's a massive change for them to go from London working class to the monarchs of a vast new magical country. How do they get on? They seem very sensible and like they're not overly taken aback by suddenly being faced with talking animals and everything, but how different is it when they're actually having to make and enforce tough decisions? Are there any customs they bring from our world into Narnia (Christmas, for example)? A million more questions! I'm just interested in how this brand new society begins to settle.
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: Bism society
There's even less about Bism than there is about Charn, it's infuriating! I love the idea of this blazing bright strange world six thousand feet below the surface. The detail of the gemstones we know up here being the dead remains of living things rather like plants is one of my very favourite images from these books - I'd love to know anything more about stuff like that. Dragons and salamanders! Everyday life for the gnomes. What do they do for fun? How about things like volcanoes or earthquakes in Narnia and the surrounding countries, are they a thing? How do they affect the world below?
Characters: any, original, none
Worldbuilding: literature
We know there are books in Narnia, but what are they like? Fairytales, bedtime stories, racy romance novels, cookbooks, academic texts, travel books, memoirs, poetry, newspapers, folk tales, urban legends, almanacs? Show me a writer, a reader, a Narnian library, anything! Or maybe a chapter from one of Tumnus' books in LWW. "Nymphs and their Ways" sounds a bit top shelf...
Kingsman (only signed up for original or no characters, but use any canon characters you want if that works better because I love them all)
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: training handbook
I'm kind of into the idea of the agent training period being like a sort of weird boarding school. As well as all the being thown out of planes stuff we see there's a written exam as well - what's this on? Do the recruits have to learn anything like the history and context of espionage, or is that irrevelant and they're only taught the practical skills they need? What about all the silly spy gadgets like the Rainmaker or the watch that shoots stun darts, do these come with manuals? Is there some kind of Kingsman Handbook for newbies?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: HQ internship
We see what the agents have to go through to get their job, but how about the HQ staff? There's a tendency in this fandom to write the behind the scenes stuff in Kingsman as just another office like any other office in the country, which I love. I like the mismatch of these wild gadgets and adventures vs fighting red tape for funding and gossiping about who disgraced themselves the most at the Christmas party. Show me someone's first day or week on the job - what do they learn, how do they get on? Are they recruited or poached from another intelligence agency, or are they someone's sister or nephew or whatever and got in through connections, or something else? Do they get the same bodybag threat as the Lancelot recruits, or is the office slightly less melodramatic about stuff?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: creating the organisation
"Since 1849, Kingsman Tailors have clothed the world's most powerful individuals. In 1919, a great number of them had lost their heirs to World War I. That meant a lot of money going uninherited, and a lot of powerful men with the desire to preserve peace and protect life. Our founders realised that they could channel that wealth and influence for the greater good, and so began our adventure: an independent international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, without the politics and bureaucracy that undermine the intelligence of government-run spy organisations. A suit is the modern gentleman's armour, and the Kingsman agents are the new knights."
Discuss! Who are these "powerful men" who started the organisation? Who were the first agents, and what was their very first mission?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: the world after V-Day
There's a lot of comedy in the film, it's easy to overlook just how brutal V-Day really was. Like we see all these crowds beating each other up and Michelle trying to kill her baby etc, but the signal ends before they can do too much damage. There must be people who did real harm - what's the fallout like when everyone's back in control and realises what's happened? Does it prompt any long-term changes in people's reliance on phones and the internet? What about all these world leaders dying en masse? Who takes over? Valentine can't have got to every single greedy elitist in the world, there must be loads fighting to grab power while everything's in a mess. How does the world pick itself back up?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: life as an evil henchman
Valentine is great as a cult leader: super charismatic and the wild shit he believes in is actually rooted in some kind of sense, even though obviously he's pushed it way too far. It's not surprising that he's got plenty of people on his side. But are they really with him ideologically, or do they just need the money and feel like one evil overlord is the same as any other without really caring about his plans? What's daily life like for Valentine and Gazelle's henchmen? Or their scientists and engineers? Their cleaner? Does anyone survive the head explosions somehow? Who invented Gazelle's prosthetic leg swords and taught her to use them?!
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
Characters: Narrator, Martians, original, none
Worldbuilding: after the invasion
Worldbuilding: what happens outside England
Science fiction set centuries in the future is brilliant - all that shiny technology, swoon - but picture this instead: You've never seen a moving picture. The countryside you live in doesn't have pylons and motorways. The most exciting technological innovation you've ever seen is the newfangled brake on your bicycle. Then BOOM! CHAOS! SPACESHIPS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY! ALIENS WANDERING ROUND ENGLAND IN HUGE SPINDLY THREE-LEGGED MACHINES! MASS DESTRUCTION! How do you run for your life when you're wearing a corset and can't breathe and have never seen any Spielberg films? When you're sitting there crushed under a stampede of strangers in your top hat and watch chain you probably die too quickly to wonder whether imperial Britain being invaded and wrecked by strangers from far away is a sort of poetic justice. I don't have any solid prompts in mind, but anything about how the world goes on after the attacks would be especially awesome - does the Martian war fuck us up for good? Or does it bring about a huge change in people's feelings about colonisation etc? In the book we only head about England, but what's happening in the rest of the world during the attack? Are they even aware there's something truly awful going on?
Bonus: I mentioned in the Narnia section earlier how much I'm into mass destruction aesthetics in fiction, which fits this story SO WELL. Anything along the lines of wrecked cities, smashed buildings, collapsed Martian tripods lying in rubble, etc, would be amazing.
Characters: Martians, original, none
Worldbuilding: Martian society
I've always kind of been interested in how the Martians might interact and behave on their own planet, but my brain isn't letting me pin anything down. I have no idea what kind of form a Mars-set story would take so this is really open - if you've got any thoughts at all I would LOVE to see what you come up with, because I can't quite fit my mind around it but there's so much potential for exploring that world and people. They're clearly a technologically advanced society to have been able to reach Earth and then devastate everything they touched. What's home like for them? Why did they want Earth? Do the ones left on Mars have plans to try again after the first invasion fails?
Short version: I'm easy to please and happy to be completely surprised, as long as you don't include the couple of DNWs mentioned below. If you've got something in mind already then do it your way! These are just suggestions - I will honestly love anything about these people and settings.
General fic loves: (probably not applicable to every fandom requested, but just so you've got an overview of some of the things I enjoy reading in whatever combination) worldbuilding/exploration of the canon world; dialogue; description (especially of hair, hands, and clothing); competence; petty arguments; unreliable narrators; misunderstandings; found families; really old comfy friendships; really old comfy friendships that accidentally/unexpectedly become more; clumsy inappropriate humour; backstories; melancholy; loonngg dragged out UST that feels like it'll never end and then ENDS GLORIOUSLY; awkward imperfect sex where everyone's still having the best time ever; intense physical fight scenes; huge scale destruction; ridiculous things played completely straight for comedy purposes; kissing; when penetrative sex isn't the only type considered 'real' sex.
Please no: noncon, anything to do with judicial execution, hanging of any kind.
These are all fic prompts only because I have no idea how to prompt for meta, but if you've got a better idea of some kind of meta you'd like to write then PLEASE DO and I will happily inhale it! I love these settings and details and I'm hungry for more about all of them, so just go with whatever you feel most enthusiastic about writing even if it doesn't really match what I've put below.
Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis
Characters: Jadis, Jadis' sister, original, none
Worldbuilding: Charn society
I was always fascinated by the little we saw of Charn in The Magician's Nephew. I like the almost sci-fi feeling of the setting with all the stuff about the cold dying sun, but really it's all the tantalising hints at a huge magical society that I'm desperate to know more about. Flying carpets! The gradual degeneration in the Hall of Images from the wise/benevolent people to cruelty and evil - what happened?! What was the city or the wider world like back in kinder times? When did it all start to change? Was magic an everyday thing or only for the elite? Were there universities and newspapers and novels?
Specific to Jadis and her sister: I have a real thing for the aesthetics of huge scale destruction in fiction. Not really sure why, but there it is. If you want to write about the civil war and what happened leading up to (and after) the Deplorable Word, go as brutal as you like and nothing will be too much. My only content DNW is noncon sex, and I have a massive problem with judicial execution, especially hanging, but all other violence and death and destruction is very very welcome.
Characters: King Frank, Queen Helen, original, none
Worldbuilding: Frank and Helen's reign
Obviously it's a massive change for them to go from London working class to the monarchs of a vast new magical country. How do they get on? They seem very sensible and like they're not overly taken aback by suddenly being faced with talking animals and everything, but how different is it when they're actually having to make and enforce tough decisions? Are there any customs they bring from our world into Narnia (Christmas, for example)? A million more questions! I'm just interested in how this brand new society begins to settle.
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: Bism society
There's even less about Bism than there is about Charn, it's infuriating! I love the idea of this blazing bright strange world six thousand feet below the surface. The detail of the gemstones we know up here being the dead remains of living things rather like plants is one of my very favourite images from these books - I'd love to know anything more about stuff like that. Dragons and salamanders! Everyday life for the gnomes. What do they do for fun? How about things like volcanoes or earthquakes in Narnia and the surrounding countries, are they a thing? How do they affect the world below?
Characters: any, original, none
Worldbuilding: literature
We know there are books in Narnia, but what are they like? Fairytales, bedtime stories, racy romance novels, cookbooks, academic texts, travel books, memoirs, poetry, newspapers, folk tales, urban legends, almanacs? Show me a writer, a reader, a Narnian library, anything! Or maybe a chapter from one of Tumnus' books in LWW. "Nymphs and their Ways" sounds a bit top shelf...
Kingsman (only signed up for original or no characters, but use any canon characters you want if that works better because I love them all)
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: training handbook
I'm kind of into the idea of the agent training period being like a sort of weird boarding school. As well as all the being thown out of planes stuff we see there's a written exam as well - what's this on? Do the recruits have to learn anything like the history and context of espionage, or is that irrevelant and they're only taught the practical skills they need? What about all the silly spy gadgets like the Rainmaker or the watch that shoots stun darts, do these come with manuals? Is there some kind of Kingsman Handbook for newbies?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: HQ internship
We see what the agents have to go through to get their job, but how about the HQ staff? There's a tendency in this fandom to write the behind the scenes stuff in Kingsman as just another office like any other office in the country, which I love. I like the mismatch of these wild gadgets and adventures vs fighting red tape for funding and gossiping about who disgraced themselves the most at the Christmas party. Show me someone's first day or week on the job - what do they learn, how do they get on? Are they recruited or poached from another intelligence agency, or are they someone's sister or nephew or whatever and got in through connections, or something else? Do they get the same bodybag threat as the Lancelot recruits, or is the office slightly less melodramatic about stuff?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: creating the organisation
"Since 1849, Kingsman Tailors have clothed the world's most powerful individuals. In 1919, a great number of them had lost their heirs to World War I. That meant a lot of money going uninherited, and a lot of powerful men with the desire to preserve peace and protect life. Our founders realised that they could channel that wealth and influence for the greater good, and so began our adventure: an independent international intelligence agency operating at the highest level of discretion, without the politics and bureaucracy that undermine the intelligence of government-run spy organisations. A suit is the modern gentleman's armour, and the Kingsman agents are the new knights."
Discuss! Who are these "powerful men" who started the organisation? Who were the first agents, and what was their very first mission?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: the world after V-Day
There's a lot of comedy in the film, it's easy to overlook just how brutal V-Day really was. Like we see all these crowds beating each other up and Michelle trying to kill her baby etc, but the signal ends before they can do too much damage. There must be people who did real harm - what's the fallout like when everyone's back in control and realises what's happened? Does it prompt any long-term changes in people's reliance on phones and the internet? What about all these world leaders dying en masse? Who takes over? Valentine can't have got to every single greedy elitist in the world, there must be loads fighting to grab power while everything's in a mess. How does the world pick itself back up?
Characters: original, none
Worldbuilding: life as an evil henchman
Valentine is great as a cult leader: super charismatic and the wild shit he believes in is actually rooted in some kind of sense, even though obviously he's pushed it way too far. It's not surprising that he's got plenty of people on his side. But are they really with him ideologically, or do they just need the money and feel like one evil overlord is the same as any other without really caring about his plans? What's daily life like for Valentine and Gazelle's henchmen? Or their scientists and engineers? Their cleaner? Does anyone survive the head explosions somehow? Who invented Gazelle's prosthetic leg swords and taught her to use them?!
The War of the Worlds - H. G. Wells
Characters: Narrator, Martians, original, none
Worldbuilding: after the invasion
Worldbuilding: what happens outside England
Science fiction set centuries in the future is brilliant - all that shiny technology, swoon - but picture this instead: You've never seen a moving picture. The countryside you live in doesn't have pylons and motorways. The most exciting technological innovation you've ever seen is the newfangled brake on your bicycle. Then BOOM! CHAOS! SPACESHIPS FALLING OUT OF THE SKY! ALIENS WANDERING ROUND ENGLAND IN HUGE SPINDLY THREE-LEGGED MACHINES! MASS DESTRUCTION! How do you run for your life when you're wearing a corset and can't breathe and have never seen any Spielberg films? When you're sitting there crushed under a stampede of strangers in your top hat and watch chain you probably die too quickly to wonder whether imperial Britain being invaded and wrecked by strangers from far away is a sort of poetic justice. I don't have any solid prompts in mind, but anything about how the world goes on after the attacks would be especially awesome - does the Martian war fuck us up for good? Or does it bring about a huge change in people's feelings about colonisation etc? In the book we only head about England, but what's happening in the rest of the world during the attack? Are they even aware there's something truly awful going on?
Bonus: I mentioned in the Narnia section earlier how much I'm into mass destruction aesthetics in fiction, which fits this story SO WELL. Anything along the lines of wrecked cities, smashed buildings, collapsed Martian tripods lying in rubble, etc, would be amazing.
Characters: Martians, original, none
Worldbuilding: Martian society
I've always kind of been interested in how the Martians might interact and behave on their own planet, but my brain isn't letting me pin anything down. I have no idea what kind of form a Mars-set story would take so this is really open - if you've got any thoughts at all I would LOVE to see what you come up with, because I can't quite fit my mind around it but there's so much potential for exploring that world and people. They're clearly a technologically advanced society to have been able to reach Earth and then devastate everything they touched. What's home like for them? Why did they want Earth? Do the ones left on Mars have plans to try again after the first invasion fails?