Yuletide 2023 Dear Author

[antimony_medusa]

Hello!

I go by Medusa, she/her, antimony_medusa on Ao3 or antimony-medusa on tumblr. I hope you are having an excellent Yuletide, and thank you for taking on this gift. This is a very thrown together letter, as I am being rapidly crushed under a wedding, but I hope to hit the high points! Oh man. Holiday exchange. Getting to see tiny fandoms. I'm excited. Let's do this. 

DNW

Nothing in my DNW is a value judgement, it’s just a list of specific triggers and squicks and preferences within the specific fandoms I’m operating in. If you love cannibalism fic, you go on with your bad self. Just not for me, in this exchange, please. Awesome, thank you.

Within the DNW, if the specifics of a prompt specify something that contradicts the DNW– for example MCD is on my DNW, but some of the prompt include MCD in alternate timelines or backstory–I assume the prompt to take priority.. I have a general DNW here, and have listed some fandom-specific DNWs where appropriate. I assume that if a thing comes up significantly in canon it’s okay to include with the characters who have it as a strong part of their narrative– I’d prefer not grief stories in general but b'Estorr is pretty informed by grief and death in canon– and have specified any exceptions to that in fandoms-specific DNWs

General DNW: Incest | Hand trauma | Romantic/sexual versions of a ship I requested a gen version of | Grief narratives except canon instances referenced in backstory | Cancer/Chemotherapy/Terminal Illness | Childhood Cancer/Child death/Artificially shortened or magically shortened lifespan | Covid | MCD except in canon instances or referenced in backstory | Suicide (self sacrifice okay) | Magical cure of disability or illness (assistive coping techniques or devices okay) | Cannibalism except canon backstory | Infertility/Miscarriage/Abortion | Grooming (the predatory behaviour, hair brushing is fine) | Hate crimes/Homophobia/Transphobia/Aphobia | Death of a parent | Hurt No Comfort (bittersweeet/open endings okay) | Being Eaten Alive | Illness or poison leading to death that involves losing your cognitive function | Pirate AUs | Wild West AUs | anarchists repeating conservative talking points | on-screen Underage | Hard Gore or Body Horror, by that I mean something that requires an e rating | Explicit on-screen noncon

Likes

General Likes

Mostly I just love my guys, and am excited by the prospect of getting fics in these small fandoms. I've offered prompts, but if you have a strong idea, feel free to go for it. And if you see a prompt I offered in a different fandom and want to go for it, fill your boots. These are all silly tropes I like very much. If you’re looking to fill out the details of my "vibes", here are some things I like! 

General Likes: Comedy | Secret Identity/Identity Porn | Worldbuilding | Ride or Die friendships | Translation issues/cultural miscommunications (resolved happily) | Non-linear, epistilatory, or otherwise pieces playing with form | Competence porn | Neurodiverse characters or headcanons, especially autism. Any sort of disability headcanons really. | Kidfic | Aro Characters/Headcanons | QPRs and other relationship anarchy | Relationships Founded On Mutual Respect | Arranged Marriages | Dehumanization and Recovery | Hurt/Comfort | Domesticity as Character Study  

SMPEarth

SMPEarth

Okay I am an AEduo stan first and a human being second. It's bad. It's fine. I don't need other hobbies.

How to explain AEduo— I love the sort of ease of best friendship they have, absolutely trusting each other to watch each other’s back and that the other person is going to be so terrifyingly competent. And in this setting, they’re co-emperors! Everybody is afraid of them! Phil just got nicknamed The Angel Of Death and boy does it seem fitting! Techno has social anxiety and everyone thinks he’s so cool! Phil has a shulker box of Air strikes! They fought a dragon on the moon! So many different types of fantasy empire vibes! Maybe space, you do you! I'm good with aeduo as purely platonic besties, or a more QPR slant, but would like to avoid straighforward romance in this setting, please.

I just selected antarctic empire for ease of matching, but I would also be happy with Worldbuilding being an element, especially around politics or video game mechanics, and I wouldn't be mad to see sophie, wilbur, or tommy show up, as long as AE is still primary focus. I love the extended AE cast, once you include more than just the AEduo focus. They're *friends* and they fight together and they build an empire— and once again I'm drawn to that specific notion of badasses finding home in each other, joking and taking care and being friends. Hm. I would say that when it comes to OGsbi (phil + techno + wilbur), i'm fine with some world in which they're all allies and friends (because they were, at points!) or if you play up that conflict between the empire and newfoundland.

Fandom-specific DNW:  Any reference to CC!techno’s death | Any reference to a death for C!Techno | bad dad phil or abusive family dynamics | techno as phil's son | NSFW/Anything with an E rating. | Tommy-centric

Prompts:
Okay so one of the things I love about SMPEarth is the change to go crazy with aus. A Space au with any of this cast, a fantasy au, something historical-- delve into worldbuilding and politics with any of these casts of characters and I'll be delighted.

On the more specific prompt/trope side, some fun ones I always like:

• PREQUEL where they were NOT allies and they have to work together? Or lean into Newfoundland/AE conflict?
• Character taken prisoner; expects torture/humiliation; gets kind & honorable treatment: Another one where what IF they were enemies and THEN? Or play with the Newfoundland/AE conflict! 
• Time Travel - Meeting younger version of loved one and finding them in a bad state: You KNOW these boys come with traumatic backstory.  
• king's health linked to kingdom's: Oh? LIke you could do SO MUCH with worldbuilding with this one.
• Married for Tax Benefits/So You Can't Testify Against Someone in Court: I just think this could be very funny. What is SMPEarth if not a comedy series?
• Characters involuntarily soulbonded by authorities use soulbond to rebel against the authority? Eh? Eh? If you want a crazy AU? 
• Okay this one takes a little more to explain, but specifically one of the characters (I'm thinking techno) stuck in a time loop where he keeps seeing massive military losses, loosing all his people he's responsible for and also his co-emperor dies. It seems like the only way out of the time loop is "accepting the loss" but he refuses to do that, because surely if he does this enough times he can figure out a way to save people? And this is one that you could either lean into bittersweet ending OR make a triumph, because you could either like, stay in the time loop because it lets him see his friends again at least, even if he looses them, or somehow, finally break the time loop SOMEHOW. If you do go with something like breaking the time loop involves a sacrifice play, I'd prefer if the other people were able to say 'fuck that" and rescue them anyways, no MCD for our POV guys even if you walk the line where he THINKS that's how it's gonna go, just because I am fragile. 

And when it comes to worldbuilding, if you want to, just go stupid go crazy. I love an inhabited world for SMPEarth, make up some OC's, or I love diving into the wiki and doing thing with nations with names like "Bean Empire" and "kpop". 

Astreiant Series

Astreiant Series

I hope I did the character selection part well here. What I intended to indicate was that any constellation of characters in the tag set would delight me. I would literally be happy with anything in this world, I'm subscribed to the author's patreon for extra snippets. I love the main characters, I love the worldbuilding, and I love Istre b'Estorr (loyal survivalist necromancer of my heart). Go crazy.

This is a situation where I don't have a lot of words to say because I am just failing madly at you about this world and these guys. Friendship! Romance! Murder! Tea! Astrology! It's all here! Anything you can do would please me!

If you would like prompts, some things that would be fun me would be:

• A backstory piece— maybe b'Estorr's time in court, or Rathe as a tiny runner or just starting out with the Points.
• Something soft and slice of life, maybe around sharing a meal or escaping from weather, just highlighting trust and friendship.
• Casefic (would I be a fan of this series if I didn't mention casefic, but that one's a big ask so don't feel compelled)
• Ghosts And Peril????????????

The Goblin Emperor

The Goblin Emperor

Goblin Emperor my absolute beloved. I mentioned the four core household, but I'd also be happy with things featuring worldbuilding, as that's a big draw of the series for me. I'm also very fond of Csethiro Ceredin, but she's an optional inclusion, hence not being listed above. I love the strong platonic bonds in the series, and the continual choosing of friendship and kindness despite it all, and the hope, and the formal grammar (with incredibly important breaks into informality), and did I mention the friendship?

This series is so close to my heart even though I do NOT have the voice control to write in the world. I just want to spend time in the world, with the loyalties and friendships and trusting in the goodness of people despite it all. Anything you do will be good. :D

Fandom-specific DNW:  Noncon | Dubcon | Smut/NSFW | Death of a parent (backstory fine, just like, during this narrative please) | I would like to specify that I know that underage is strongly implied as part of canon backstory for some characters, so I don't feel like DNWing it is fair, but I'd prefer if any narrative not dwell on it if possible.

Some prompts— none of these are required, feel free to come up with something else, but if you want something to jump off of.

>A road trip, perhaps for the emperor's court to visit the bridge, or the steppes?
>A side scene from the original book, perhaps around Maia's visits to the chapel?
 >Or, if you want some more AUs type situations, perhaps Time Travel - Meeting younger version of loved one and finding them in a bad state: delving into traumatic backstory but we can make it BETTER.
 >or king's health linked to kingdom's: Like you could do SO MUCH with worldbuilding with this one.