Night on Fic Mountain '17

Hey there, dear pinch-hitter!

Thanks so much for picking me up! I hope you’ll find this letter useful – it sort of grew, sorry. I’ve gone ahead and listed some prompts/ideas for my requested fandoms, but please don’t think they’re the be-all end-all. If you’ve got something else in mind already or have an idea for something completely different, go right ahead and do that instead! I’m looking forward to reading whatever you come up with :D (Similarly, the lengths of the different sections do not in any way correlate to my enthusiasm for said fandom/characters, just with how well I was able to condense my thoughts.)

Some general likes and my DNWs:

General likes

worldbuilding, missing-scene type fic, character studies, banter, us against the world, found family/family of choice, moral conflicts, loyalty, pragmatic characters, people kicking ass together, unlikely allies, competence, darkfic, horror, cosmic horrors – the more grotesque and inhuman, the better, things getting destroyed in totally over-the-top ways, action scenes and battles, trust and trust issues, power dynamics/power imbalance, dysfunctional/codependent relationships, ambiguous or downright unhappy endings

DNWs

pregnancy/mpreg/kidfic, A/B/O, mundane AUs, overly graphic descriptions of bodily fluids other than blood, issuefic

 

And on to fandom specifics!

Infinite Space
Taranis & Valantin

Infinite Space is a game that would’ve benefited from being about twice as long (and, y’know, having a proper ending) but flaws and all it’s one of my favorite games . . . that nobody else seems to have played, so if we actually matched on this know I’m already over the moon.

Valantin and Taranis I initially took a while to warm up to, but then the reveal that they were an Observer/Tracker pair and had secretly been working together to prepare the universe for the Overlords’ attack happened, and suddenly everything was awesome. I love how they’re both totally okay with making tough decisions for the greater good, including sacrificing themselves so that Yuri can battle on; that they learned the truth about the universe and went, well, better take over everything for when the Overlords come knocking. (Also I just really like their ridiculous huge designs, what can I say.)

My prompts for these two can basically be summed up as “backstory pls”, but honestly here especially I’d be totally down for absolutely anything.

--How did Taranis and Valantin meet? We know they’re an Observer and Tracker pair, so . . .? Did they meet on some planet, by Overlord-orchestrated accident? Were they together from the very beginning? Did Taranis make it to a Void Gate and force the Overlords to go about inserting Valantin into the universe as heavy-handedly as they did for Yuri and Kira?

 

--Finding out the truth about the universe and the Overlords! The two of them met Bogd of Adis and presumably figured things out in more or less the same manner as Yuri and Kira, with the one difference that Valantin did survive – so what happened? And more importantly, what happened after – how did they decide that the best course of action to take down the Overlords was by forming a universe-spanning space empire?

 

--What if Valantin and Taranis (or just one of them) survive the final events of the game? How do things proceed from the literal almost-end of the universe, with Yuri and the other survivors stranded in the Sol System? Do they invade the realm of the Overlords and wage war on them there, or do they try to rebuild what’s left of their own world?

Kill Six Billion Demons
Incubus

Okay. Incubus. He has a blood chamber where he chills when he’s off messing with other people’s dreams, his throne is standing on a huge pile of golden cups, he’s got the whole scarred long-haired swordsman thing down pat -- he’s ridiculous, and I love him for it. More than that, he’s ambitious as can get, what with trying to play Allison and the Demiurges against each other while simultaneously allying up with Jagganoth himself. Sweet! I doubt he’s going to survive to the end, but until then I’m having a lot of fun watching him try to outmaneuver everyone else.

Some possible ideas:

--Backstory! There’s hints that the person Incubus took his key from was Maya, so – how did that go down? Did they fight? How did Maya get away? What was their relationship like before Incubus got hold of her key; was Maya his commanding officer, did they work together often? Did they fight together when they were both still in the army, perhaps? And what’s up with Incubus’ sword?

 

--That rare exception of a Demiurge meeting Incubus actually does attend. Do the rest of them all really keep on getting on his case for taking his key from Maya? What do they talk about when there’s no floating Zaid around? I’d love to see Incubus interacting with the other Demiurges, basically.

 

--Unholy alliances are my jam! So if you’re up to fleshing out how Incubus and Jagganoth formed theirs, I’d be super down for that. Incubus doesn’t seem all that comfortable around him (and to be fair, dude’s scary even for a Demiurge) so who approached who, here? And does Jagganoth just regularly pop into the Pit to be vaguely threatening?

--For art, I'd love to see Incubus in his kingdom! The ridiculous throne of golden cups is super cool, but is that all the cups he has? Is Lethyx, like, doom and gloom and broken people and their broken dreams and then suddenly a closet full of even more cups? Oh, or how about Incubus meeting some guild dignitaries and they offer him a whole chest full of useless cups! I just really love the cup theme and if you're up to it, it'd be awesome if you could incorporate that somehow. In general I prefer Incubus' realworld form to the one he wears in dreams, as well as a more muted palette of colors, but basically do whatever comes most naturally to you and I'll be happy :D

 

The Malazan Book of the Fallen – Steven Erikson
Any: Surly, Brukhalian & Karnadas & Itkovian

Surly

Surly is one of those characters I didn’t care about all that much initially, but then I reread the series (and ICE’s books) and now she’s one of my favorite characters. I love her pragmatism (“eey Kalam, I know you don’t like me but murder Mallick Rel for me?”), her general competence as an assassin, and mainly of course the fact that when Dancer and Kellanved were off doing their thing in the Azath, she decided that the throne would look a whole lot better with her on it – and then actually went through with it! You go, Laseen \o/

Some possible ideas:

--I would really love something that goes into the early years of her life, before she and Nok and the other Napans showed up on Malaz Island. Surly’s royalty – so what happened to drive her out of her homeland? I’m always game for court intrigue and political drama! Plus, the Napan Isles haven’t really been explored all that much in canon, so if you wanted to do some worldbuilding here you’ve got soooo much room ;D

 

--Or something set during the years Dancer and Kellanved were off exploring the Azath! Did Surly always have ambitions for the throne; how did she go about consolidating her power to the point where she felt confident enough to take the throne for herself? Her interacting with Topper and her Claw and the Talon would be really cool as well.

 

--A somewhat crackpot prompt, but since timeline-wise her death looks like it’d come before Hood being killed by Rake, what if Laseen had shown up as part of the undead force fighting inside Dragnipur? How would the Bridgeburners have reacted to her presence, and vice versa?

 

 

Brukhalian & Karnadas & Itkovian

Talk about doomed characters. I fell hard for Brukhalian, Karnadas, and Itkovian when they were first introduced – something about how polite yet simultaneously super capable of kicking ass they were, as well as the sheer trust they all seemed to have in each other. They had their separate niches/jobs leading the Grey Swords, and they were so competent and worked together so well! I hoped that they would be able to join up with the Malazans and go fight the Pannion Domin together, only then of course Capustan happened and that was the end of that.

I only have one main idea for these three, but please don’t take that as lack of interest on my side (or unwillingness to read anything else). It’s just that no matter how much I tried to come up with something else, I kept on coming back to:

--Backstory! How did they come to form their company in Elingarth, what was it like first meeting the other two? Did the Grey Swords already exist, did the three of them start out as rank and file soldiers? How did they find out that they were Mortal Sword/Destriant/Shield Anvil, initially? What were their first few assignments, who did they fight, what political intrigues were they drawn into because of the god they served? Did they maybe even make it all the way to Perish and meet Krughava and her Grey Helms? What was it like in Capustan before everything went to hell? What are they like/how do they interact with each other when they’re not faced with their company’s looming annihilation?

Shin Megami Tensei IV: Apocalypse
Krishna & Odin

My favorite thing about Apocalypse was that the antagonists weren’t the usual Law or Chaos representatives, but a new polytheistic group! The actual in-game execution I won’t get into, but I like the Divine Powers a lot, especially Odin and Krishna. Like, there’s these completely different demons who each have their own goals but for once they’re teaming up against Law/Chaos/YHVH – that’s super cool! While Krishna seems like the type to completely screw you over the moment he has the chance, Odin comes across as a bit more honorable (he did keep his word and give his spear to Gaston), and I like that sort of moral difference between partners because it makes for a fun dynamic.

Some ideas:

--Anything exploring their relationship, basically. For being the antagonists, the Divine Powers got relatively little screentime in the game, and I’m desperate for any sort of interaction between them. (Hell, Maitreya as well, but I messed up and forgot to nominate him.) So! What are Krishna and Odin like when they’re not actively trying to beat Nanashi and the gang? Does Krishna mind that Odin calls Dagda “lord”, but not him? Why’d Odin decide to throw in his lot with Krishna in the first place; how exactly did that alliance come about? And demon politics! What’s it like, leading the Divine Powers? How do they deal with all the random demons wanting to join up with them?

 

--AU where the Divine Powers actually win! …only to realize that, hey, all of our members have vastly different ideas of what to do with all the human souls. (Why yes, I’m still sad that the infighting plot got cut from the game.) What happens from there? Do Krishna and Odin and maybe Maitreya and whatever other Divine Power deities you feel like throwing in end up duking it out – how does it go, who wins, do they actually fight or do they go for a more sneaky approach? What sort of temporary alliances form, now that the biggest threat to the Divine Powers is themselves?

 

 

And that’s that! I hope it was long but helpful, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what you come up with :D