Dear Author: Fandom 5K 2019

[burglebezzlemen]

I’m so excited to be signing up for Fandom 5K again, and I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

My theme this year seems to be stories where I adore the settings, because everything about the worldbuilding in these canons is my jam. I tend to have a lot of plotty prompts, just because that’s how my mind works, but please know I’d also totally be here for a 5K exploration of the universe’s worldbuilding or slice-of-life, as long as it gives me a chance to hang out with the characters I love. ♥

The number of prompts I came up with for each canon/each character or ship is in no way correlated with my enthusiasm. I am super-into all of these requests and I’d be thrilled by any one of them. Also, while I tried to include a lot of prompts, please feel free to go with a general like or something instead. Some of my favorite gifts have been the ones that took my general likes in directions I never would have thought to prompt.

GENERAL LIKES | GENERAL DISLIKES AND DNWs | GIANT DAYS | HIDDEN LEGACY | HIVE MIND | LOCK IN | THE ORVILLE

General Likes

• Slice of life


• Domestic scenes


• Cooking and food


• General shenanigans and hijinkery


• Outdoor activities and the great outdoors


• Characters solving problems


• Established relationships


• Get-togethers


• Epistolary fic


• Outsider POV


• Small towns, whether heartwarming or creepy


• Ghost stories


• Cryptids


• Cursed objects


• Thrift score/eBay purchase gone wrong


• Someone gets turned into an unusual animal


• The Hangover and/or Waking Up In Vegas plotlines


• Someone is accidentally drugged; someone else takes care of them


• Gothic themes, whether subverted or played straight


• Exploring new places together


• Vacations gone awry


• Groundhog Day/time loop


• Cross-time communication, where something like a journal/letterbox/website/whatever is able to let characters communicate across time


• Alternate universe body swap, where characters from the canon universe we know are swapped or transferred to an alternate universe and have to find their way back


• Stuck in the bathroom/elevator/wherever


• Characters coming up with MacGyver-style solutions to problems


• Trapped/stranded by the weather


• Abandoned houses, whether exploring or fixing them up


• Five Times fic


• State-Mandated Ghost Hunting AU


• Undercover as a couple


• Casefic, including unusual cases


• Who’s sending poison pen letters/emails?


• Finding someone’s favorite [thing] after it’s been lost


• Someone experienced or saw something impossible; someone else tries to explain it


• Art forgery and theft


• That fic where the characters have to go to a remote island or resort, possibly while pretending to be a couple, in order to investigate a haunting/why everyone has been invited and someone’s killing them off one-by-one/other mystery here

General dislikes and DNWs

I tend to prefer canon-typical levels of sexual content, which for these canons would mean nothing explicit. That being said, if you need to include a scene that’s a step above fade-to-black for reasons of the plot, I totally get it! I’m just not interested in smut/porn as the main focus of the fic.

My DNWs for these canons:

• Dubcon, noncon, underage, or fic focusing on explicit porn/kink content


• Major character death (although temporary MCD or minor character death in service of a casefic are fine)


• Unrequested poly, open relationships, or incest


• Serious or terminal illness


• Cannibalism


• Animal harm/cruelty


• Ghost cats


• Use of "it" or neopronouns to refer to Chris Shane (Lock In)

Giant Days: Daisy, Esther, Susan

Giant Days! I love this comic and everyone in it. :D 

I’m keeping up with this one in the floppies, and I’ve read all the Christmas specials, the Boom Box! shorts, and the original three issues that just got reissued, so no worries on spoilers. Also, if you’ve only read part of the canon so far, that’s totally fine — I’m interested in stuff set anywhere in the story.

McGraw/Susan is my OTP in this canon. I’m enjoying Ed/Nina a lot in canon, so I’m probably not as into Ed/Esther at this point? I’m totally open to Daisy/OFC and Esther/OC. But really, my biggest ship in this canon is their friendship! Gen fic about canon-typical shenanigans would be amazing.

For other Giant Days characters, I love Ed and McGraw. I also enjoyed Cathy (the one who Daisy set up with Ed). I love what the antagonists bring out, too, with Susan vs. Karen Shaw and Esther vs. Dean Thompson.

If you’re familiar with the Greater Tackleford Universe, I’ve read Bobbins (original flavor, Bobbins.horse, and New Bobbins), Bad Machinery, and Destroying History. I haven’t read Scary Go Round. If you want to pull someone in from the larger universe, I especially love Shelley, Amy, and Charlotte. 

• Paranormal fic! I love paranormal investigations in otherwise mundane canons (well, Greater Tackleford isn’t really mundane, but Giant Days mostly has been). Some possibilities:
  
  
  • The flat is haunted. Esther is delighted at first, but it turns out the ghost has more in common… with DAISY??
  
  
  
  • Esther buys something at a boot sale, only to discover it’s cursed. At first she hopes it’s good cursed, but events suggest otherwise.
  
  
  
  • The gang investigates a cryptid/campus legend.
  
  
  
  • The gang takes the wrong bus again and ends up somewhere mysterious, forcing them to find their way back.
  
  
  
  • Susan and McGraw buy their first flat. Too bad it’s haunted by the ghost of a very bad handyman… or maybe just by the ghost of all of the former owner’s terrible DIY projects.



• Futurefic in which Daisy is marrying an OFC. Maybe Esther accidentally invites Ingrid — or maybe Esther’s concerned that Daisy’s making a mistake by marrying someone dull and boring, and “accidentally” invites Ingrid. Or maybe the wedding venue is damaged by a natural disaster, and it’s Daisy’s Brownie skills and McGraw’s construction skills to the rescue!



• Time travel. Someone travels to their future(s), realizes the three friends are no longer close, and comes back to the present to Fix Things. Or time travel for some other reason!



• I feel like this comic is right on my wavelength with the accidental drugging plotlines (Daisy and the Poundland cold medicine, Susan at the music festival, etc.). If that's something you’re into, keep it coming.



• For McGraw/Susan and/or McGraw & Daisy and/or Esther, Five Times McGraw’s Construction Skills Saved The Day (and one time it didn’t matter)



• Susan’s (canonical) work experience as a PI fascinates me, and I’ve loved every single time it’s come up in the comic. What else could happen to make her use those skills? Maybe Daisy or Esther don’t know they need her help… but they do. Or another noir story from Susan’s perspective could be amazing!



• McGraw, possibly with assistance, comes up with a series of increasingly ridiculous plots to try to steal and clean Susan’s laptop.



• Esther, looking to make more money than the comics shop allows, starts a business selling glitter-stuffed envelopes for revenge delivery, and does surprisingly well. Then someone starts placing orders to be sent to Susan.



• I love Daisy’s pool skills. Seeing McGraw and Daisy bonding over that is great. :D Or maybe Susan needs pool lessons for an underworld detective thing, and asks Daisy to help her? 



• I feel like this would be an amazing canon for a State-Mandated Ghost Hunters AU! For a gen take, maybe Daisy and Susan end up as the ghost speaker and ghost fighter, and Esther is just, like, so offended not to be included. Or maybe it’s an AU where Susan and McGraw haven’t yet reconciled, and they get called to serve together. Awkward! But I bet McGraw could make a mean scythe.

 

Hidden Legacy: Arabella & Catalina, Arabella & Catalina & Nevada

This world fascinates me, and I love the sisters together. :D I’d really enjoy something canon-typical here, where one of the three runs into trouble (or trouble finds her) and the other(s) work with her to solve the problem. I’ve read the canon through Diamond Fire, and I’m really looking forward to seeing Catalina take center stage in the next set of books!

I’m requesting gen here, because I love the sisters together. But I’m also happy if you want to include a ship or ships! I’m good with Nevada/Rogan as a background ship. If you want to work in a love interest for Catalina and/or Arabella, that’s also great! Catalina/Alessando is fine and I’d be good with Arabella/Augustine as long as Arabella’s a bit older when they get together, like maybe early-mid 20s? I’d also be interested in seeing more of Catalina and Runa together, whether it’s romantic or just as good friends. OC love interests for either Catalina or Arabella would also be fine.

Of the other characters, I especially love Grandma Frida, Augustine, Bug, Bern, and Runa, if you’ve got any ideas that include any of them!

I love the worldbuilding in this canon — everything around the powers, Houses, marriages, etc., but also some of the other stuff, like the magic-warped places where things don’t work the way you’d expect. I also love it when a power that seems straightforward gets used in a way you don’t expect, like Cornelius’s ferret heist.

I’m probably less interested in fic focused on Nevada and Rogan’s wedding/wedding planning, as I feel like that topic has been pretty well covered already in both canon and fic.

• Casefic! I adore canon-typical casefic in this world. There are so many potential problems that Nevada, Catalina, and/or Arabella could be asked to solve.
  
  
  • Something happens that’s not explainable under the currently understood framework of potential powers. House Baylor is asked to investigate.
  
  
  
  • Another artifact!
  
  
  
  • At school, some kids ask Arabella to look into a local legend/ghost story/whatever with them. She didn’t realize what they were getting themselves into.
  
  
  
  • Weird things start happening, and one of the sisters starts wondering if they have another power — one they didn’t know they had.



• With Victoria in her prison, the Baylor sisters have to travel to her house to deal with things. (What would her house even be like? I am so curious.) While packing up the house, they stumble across another aspect of their legacy — one they didn’t expect.



• Or on a related note to the above, maybe Victoria dies, and the Baylor sisters are left something in her will. Something they want? Something they don’t? Something terrifying? Or — given what we already know about the extremes Victoria was willing to go to — could there be another Baylor half-sister out there, who the others don’t know about?



• I love Grandma Frida’s obsession with the social media side of this world, and I especially love the idea of Grandma Frida accidentally becoming House Baylor’s social media expert. Maybe someone from Texas Monthly comes to interview the emerging House Baylor and figures they have an amazing social media consultant, because their social media game is on point… and then finds out the person responsible for that is the 74-year-old grandmother who’s been reading Herald since it’s existed. Epistolary fic or fic in the form of magazine articles or a collection of snippets from social media could be awesome here!



• Catalina comes across someone else who’s immune to her powers. 



• Catalina and/or Arabella get set up on a series of dates with guys with increasingly strange powers.



• What do urban legends or creepypasta look like in this universe? I would imagine Arabella especially could inspire scary stories… or star in one as the unexpected heroine. Outsider POV and/or epistolary totally welcome!



• An artifact unexpectedly lets one sister see how things would have turned out if she hadn’t been born with her power.



• Catalina and Arabella (and maybe Grandma Frida?) surprise Nevada with the bachelorette party she never wanted. Unfortunately, none of them expected that the swanky resort they're celebrating at is hiding a dark secret. Or maybe someone asks them to pose as a bachelorette party to go undercover for a case!



• People on Herald start shipping Catalina (or Arabella) with [OC]. Catalina decides she wants to figure out why. Or (maybe more likely?) Arabella decides they need to figure out why.

Hive Mind - Janet Edwards: Amber/Lucas, Buzz, Claire, Nicole

I love this series. :D I’m always here for special, special telepaths and the people who love and serve them, so this series was an easy hit right on the sweet spot for my id… and then the author threw in some really interesting worldbuilding, too.

I love how the Hive isn’t a dystopia or a utopia, but something in between — some things are obviously better than our world, and some things are obviously worse, and some things are just different. It’s a fascinating balance and I love the unique view Amber gets of that world.

I’m interested in fic focusing on any of these characters — anything from backstory fic for any individual character to a fic with all of them. I didn’t have room to nominate Lucas and Amber on their own, but I’d also be interested in fic about just Lucas or just Amber. I’ll be super-excited to get anything more about these characters and this world!

For ships, I’m requesting Amber/Lucas — I am rather OTP-ish about them in this canon, so I’d rather not see them break up or go through a love triangle situation. For the single character requests, I’d be interested in either gen or ship! I’m open to Nicole/OC, Nicole/Melisande, Nicole/Buzz, Nicole/Atticus, or Claire/OC. Buzz/Forge is interesting too — I like the fact that neither of them are really certain how things are going, and the way they both have tough emotional stuff in their pasts. I’m really curious to learn more about whatever Buzz isn’t telling Amber about her own emotional damage. Buzz has a lot figured out, but I have a feeling she’s got a blind spot about her own emotions. 

For other characters, I like pretty much everyone in Amber’s unit. For people outside Amber’s unit, I especially like Gold Commander Melisande, Juniper, and Atticus, if you have a story to tell that includes any of them!

For Claire, I’d be delighted by fic focusing on her experiences as a telepath or some challenge faced by her unit while she was alive. I’d also be delighted by a story with scenes with both Claire’s perspective in the past and someone else's perspective in the present. Maybe one case connects the two time periods? Or maybe Amber, Nicole, Buzz, or Lucas finds some message or journal that Claire kept and left for the next telepath to occupy the unit. Or I’d even be here for reincarnation — maybe Gideon is right, and Claire will be returning to the Hive as a true telepath in another 15 years or so!

• Casefic-type stuff would be amazing for this. It’s a great way to show more about their world, and I love the competence all the characters have as well. Maybe it's something that seems trivial, like the ducks, that turns out to have more important implications. Or maybe it's a case that lets us look into some aspect of Hive life, such as another non-conformist group like the Ramblers or some specialist niche profession.



• I’d also love to see more of the milk run operations, where everything goes smoothly! What do more typical runs look like? What kinds of places do they get to go? I’d also love to see a run from Lucas, Nicole, or Buzz's perspective, since we don’t get to see that in canon!



• Backstory fic for any of the requested characters! I think Perilous (the prequel novella with Amber and Forge) may actually be my favorite of the books. I loved seeing Amber respond to an emergency without her Unit backing her up, and I also adored all of the details about daily life in the Hive. It could be really fun to see that sort of backstory for another one of the requested characters. What was their time on Teen Level like? How do their actions on Teen Level show the sorts of people they'll become? Their choices on Freedom Day?
  
  
  • Lucas' corridor group has a mystery -- someone stealing food from the common area? Someone writing poison pen letters to vulnerable members of the group? Lucas must try stepping beyond his group clown role and using tactical reasoning for the first time to get to the bottom of things.
  
  
  
  • Nicole comes across a problem that requires a cover-up — or comes across a cover-up and recognizes it as such.
  
  
  
  • Claire's strong sense of justice leads her to confront someone — or come up with a scheme to solve the problem another way. Or what about the first time she used her love of Shakespeare in her work? Did Claire want to be an actress or poet, the way Melisande wanted to be a musician?
  
  
  
  • Buzz's relationship with her parents. Given some of the comments she made about teachers in Hurricane, it seems like that relationship may be a tense one! Was Buzz a "resilient" child at home, and how did that play out?



• We've seen several urban legends the Hive uses to encourage specific behavior (“Level 99,” the fear of Outside, etc.). What other urban legends does the Hive have, and how might they come into play during a case? Do any of our characters ever have to invent/establish an urban legend while doing their jobs? Is there some Hive equivalent of creepypasta?



• Amber (and Lucas, Buzz, and/or Nicole) is taking one of her reset breaks over at Hive Futura when something goes wrong. Maybe someone’s gotten in from outside and is stalking them. Maybe there’s a serious snowstorm, the aircraft can’t leave to bring them back, and the systems at Hive Futura are breaking down. Or maybe something else!



• Someone discovers a part of Amber’s unit that has been walled off since Claire’s time, and it’s hiding something. How did the area go undiscovered? What’s inside?



• One of the things I adore about this series is the way the Hive system includes people with all different abilities, including sometimes-invisible disabilities like Nicole’s. Did Nicole ever worry that her physical restrictions would prevent her from working a job she loves? How did that affect settling into Amber’s team (if it did)?



• Emergency response-related fic is my jam, and I’ve really enjoyed the emergency response competency we’ve seen in canon. I’d love to see more of any of these characters responding to emergencies! We’ve already seen a blackout. What other emergencies does the Hive prepare for? Are there ever storms outside large enough that they affect the inside of the Hive?



• Epidemic fic. We know the fear (and reality?) of epidemics was one of the reasons why the Hives were closed to travel. What if an epidemic hits Hive England... and Amber's Unit has to get to the bottom of it? Could it be sabotage from disaffected Hive researchers, or sabotage from another Hive? How would the Hive and its citizens respond? Or what if the illness hit Amber's unit?



• Through her work with Amber, Buzz works out a potential method to make borderline telepaths into true telepaths. Would she try it on herself? Tell others?



• More about the Hive’s festivals! We’ve seen Carnival and Halloween a little, but what are New Year and Valentine like? Are the holidays a busy time for Amber’s unit? Are there other holidays that aren't officially sanctioned, but are still celebrated?

SPOILERS FOR HURRICANE PAST THIS POINT.

• We know Gold Commander Melisande would give the orders to shut the bulkhead doors and abandon a zone of the Hive if she had to. What if that has already happened? Amber’s unit has seen the Hive from the outside, but it’s not like they can easily see where the divisions are. What if there’s an abandoned zone past Burgundy or past Violet? What could happen to force Amber into that area? Could people still be living there? What stories might people in other parts of the Hive tell about it?



• Amber or Claire runs across someone whose mind she can’t read. Given what we know from Hurricane, that certainly suggests they’re hiding being a true telepath. How did they figure out how to hide their talents? Do they have ulterior motives, and can they be convinced to use their gifts for the good of the Hive?

Lock In: Chris Shane

I adore the world of Lock In, and I'd love to get a chance to settle in with a story that explores the world. :D

I've requested Chris Shane for my requested character. I would like to note that I am happy with any amount of Chris. Outsider POV? Fic in the form of a longform narrative investigative journalism article about one of Chris's cases, where Chris shows up briefly? Online message board where people discuss Chris? All good! Or a first-person story from Chris' POV. Also good!

For other characters, I like Leslie, Chris's parents, and Chris's housemates, and I'd be happy to see any of them show up, or even to see a story from one of their perspectives in which Chris is a side character. I'm also open to OCs. I don't ship Chris with anyone in the books currently, but if you do want an old flame OC to show up with a new problem, or in a casefic, that could be interesting!

I like what Scalzi did with keeping Chris' gender undefined, if that's possible. My preference would be keeping things similar to canon, where Chris doesn't have assigned pronouns at all. I get that it's tricky to do that, though! If you do end up needing to give Chris a pronoun, I would prefer they over he or she. I do not want Chris referred to by "it" or neopronouns.

• Casefic!
  
  
  • Chris and Vann look into something that seems impossible, like a Haden whose body disappeared without a trace, but who's still showing up on the Agora or through their threep like nothing happened
  
  
  
  • A scam artist/con artist who preys specifically on Hadens
  
  
  
  • What does the Haden art world look like? Art in the Agora? Does anyone ever attempt a digital heist?
  
  
  
  • Vann disappears; Chris must find her.
  
  
  
  • This wouldn't necessarily have to be casefic, but: Vann and Chris get assigned to the Lock In universe's version of The X-Files! I would imagine Vann does NOT want to believe. :D



• More about threeps, because I find them fascinating!
  
  
  • More tales of Chris destroying threeps! Are there super-heavy-duty threep companies that approach Chris as a test user? How do the tests go wrong?
  
  
  
  • What can people do in threeps in terms of research, emergency response, hazmat disposal, etc.? Are there niche, Haden-dominated industries where not having a human body with you at work is actually a huge advantage?
  
  
  
  • What happens if there's an internet outage in an area with a lot of people in threeps? Do threeps have semi-automatic modes that can navigate home when that happens?
  
  
  
  • Threep epidemic. Maybe a computer virus or network thing that leads to a lot of threep behavior unreliability, meaning all threeps have to be shut down. How do Hadens cope with managing their needs? How does Chris' household cope? Are there plans for this sort of situation?



• How do Hadens prepare for ordinary emergencies? Like snow storms, blackouts, hurricanes, etc.? I'd imagine they're more vulnerable to power cuts -- is that something Chris and his housemates are prepared for?



• Urban legends! I love urban legends, and I especially love seeing them in worlds where they get wrapped up into the worldbuilding. We got to see someone die IRL when their threep got killed in Head On. What other urban legends might come true and require Chris and Leslie's attention? Or what urban legends might Chris unwittingly or deliberately inspire? What ghost stories do Hadens tell?



• Justin & Justine. I know Scalzi well enough as an author to suspect that he's never going to explain this one. I'd love to see your take on it! What's going on there?



• I also really enjoyed Tayla and Tony, if you want to write something more slice-of-life, about the housemates and what things are like when Chris isn't in the middle of a case that's going to end in destruction.



• The house Chris and his roommates live in is probably not that habitable at the end of Head On. Would Chris consider buying that house to fix (maybe it’s cheaper/faster than waiting for the landlord’s insurance), or buying another house for the roommates to live in together? I could see that being an interesting discussion between the roommates. Would Chris tell them about buying the house? Would they find out later? If they get a new house, is it haunted or does it maybe have a dark past or secret mystery?

The Orville: Alara & Solana

I really enjoy The Orville, and while I’m enjoying Tala a lot, I also miss Alara. The look we got at her relationship with her sister in Home was fascinating, and I’d love to see more!

If you want to include background ships, I do ship Alara/Ed. I’m also open to Alara/OC if you’re setting something on Xeleya after Alara leaves the Orville in Home. We know so little about Solana’s fiance that he may as well be an OC, so feel free to go nuts there, haha. Or maybe Solana leaves her nice, boring Xeleyan fiance for someone completely unsuitable! Given her discussion with Alara about the brains being envious of people who can fight, I could see her having a thing for an officer in the Union….

• Xeleyan worldbuilding! I love the idea of something set post-Home, where we get to see Alara settling into her world again and connecting with her family, including Solana. What seems strange or uncomfortable now?



• Solana’s wedding! What sort of marriage customs do Xeleyans have? What would Alara’s role as maid of honor in the wedding be? Is there Xeleyan wedding drama like there is on Earth?



• Xeleya is very into science and reason. Do they have old legends? Urban legends? Ghosts? Is there a Xeleyan equivalent of Snopes out there?



• Casefic! I love the idea of Alara becoming a cop on Xeleya after leaving the Orville. People will probably underestimate her a lot, which seems like a net benefit for her.
  
  
  • Solana gets accused of something she didn’t do. Maybe someone thinks she’s stolen research, or falsified her records to get where she is. Maybe one of her employees or students disappears. Maybe something else! Alara comes to help untangle the situation.
  
  
  
  • Alara and Solana go on a trip together (relaxing vacation? something for the wedding?) and get embroiled in something they didn’t expect.
  
  
  
  • Or maybe it’s The Hangover in Xeleya’s equivalent of Vegas? Because I am THERE.
  
  
  
  • Alara and Solana look into a family legend, or uncover a family secret. Or maybe a family heirloom goes missing.
  
  
  
  • In the course of one of her investigations, Alara goes missing. Solana must look for her.
  
  
  
  • Impossible things start happening at Solana’s research outpost. Alara goes to investigate.



• Emergency response fic! What do hurricanes, winter storms, earthquakes, etc. look like in higher gravity? What about solar storms? How would Alara and Solana work together if they got into a situation with heavy weather?



• Canon-departure where Alara either decides to stay with the Orville, or the events of Home don’t happen. Maybe the Orville ends up carrying Solana to a conference (a good standard trope from Star Trek!) and things go sideways. How do Alara and Solana reconnect in this AU?