Dear Yuletide Writer
Oct. 5th, 2018 08:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysavvryl Hello, fellow writer, I hope you have fun with this exchange! I picked several fandoms that I completely adore this year, mostly video games and one stray kid's book. I mostly find inspiration for stories on asking questions, so this is basically a bunch of questions and ramblings that I hope you can find inspiration from.
My main Do Not Want this year is E-rated stories. I generally prefer reading lower rated stories, but I will consider M-rated occasionally (and depending on canon ratings). An E-rated mark is something I will always avoid. A story with a lot of gore is also something I avoid because I'm rather squeamish (even with stuff I write, but I find it worse to read).
I also prefer gen stories to romance based ones. I'm not interested in sexual content. But then, there's some romantic ships that are adorable or fascinating to me. When it comes to that, I don't have a preference for orientation, just that the characters are fun to read about together. I even have one request that is a ship, so romance is fine.
As for stuff I love to read, that would be fluff, character studies, character development, world-building, humor, fantasy, geeky/nerdy stuff, friendship fics, AUs in the canon setting, adventures, cooking, surprise hobbies, and happy moments for characters who usually have terrible things happen to them. Actually, happy moments for any of my nominated characters would be good.
As for the specific requests...
Misty Morgan by Stephen Cosgrove - The Princess
I love this Serendipity book so much that I took it to college just so I had it around. It's a children's moral story, so it probably shouldn't be taken too literally. But then, it's just so weird that people either love it or hate it. It's got a good moral about making time for friends, yes, but it's told in a space whale Aesop way and brings up all kinds of weird things only to never explain them. Like, why is a princess taking care of a castle full of clocks, to the point of running coal to something up the stairs? The only people in the illustrations are the princess and Morgan the unicorn, and he stays outside most of the time. Is she alone there? Did everyone else disappear in the Misty Meadows? Is the princess literally a slave to Time? Does she even have a name? It is an island of dreams they live on, so it might just be dream weirdness too.
I still love the book, maybe in part because wondering about all those questions is fun.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Magic Tome, Spectral Sword
So earlier this year, I took part in the Chocolate Box exchange and decided to nominate something silly, because why not? My crackship nomination was this pair, the monsters Magic Tome and Spectral Sword, chosen mostly because I like them. But the more I thought it over, the more it seemed like, yeah, these two could actually work well together. You have the reclusive dark old book about weaponry that stays in its little alcove of the library, and then you have a shining sword that wields a great variety of other weapons and seems to travel through the castle as well, growing stronger as it does. They're great opposites who share a love of weaponry, whether its sharp, blunt, spiked, stabby, or magical. So they could be rivals bickering over what weapon is best, or friends doing the same. Or maybe one has a crush on the other and is trying to impress them, or maybe they're secret lovers in whatever way that animated objects would show affection for each other. There is wonderful potential here, in my opinion.
Final Fantasy I - Any (Garland, White Mage, Black Belt, Lufaine Warrior)
There's not a lot of story here, but that just means that there's a lot of room for stories, right? I started my love of RPGs with this one on the NES and I still replay it every so often. For the latter three characters, I don't have a preference for names or genders, other than I think they should have their own names. The Light Warriors do look masculine for the most part, yes, but it's still reasonable that they could be women. And if you wanted to do a genderfip on Garland too, well why not? That could be an interesting take on things.
Also, bats. That may be silly to bring up, but I think the bats in this game are cute and talk to them every so often just to see them go 'Kee!' Of course, that's until they stop right in those one-tile wide hallways and block my progress... anyhow, I find them distinctive to the game. But why would the Light Warriors leave the bats alone? Bats become enemy monsters in later Final Fantasies, but not here. Maybe it's because the Lufaine warriors got turned into bats, although you wouldn't know that until the end of the game. What's it like for them, living as bats for a few centuries? Do they get turned back into humans so they can go back home, even though the great northern civilization that their home was destroyed? Also, where did the Light Warriors come from? They just show up with the crystals outside of Coneria. Well, that has nothing to do with bats (unless it does!), but it's another angle that could be explored.
And if you want something really silly, this is a tactic with extremely low odds to the point of being only TAS-viable, but you can use the white magic spell Fear against the final boss until his morale goes low enough that he runs away. That counts as winning the game. That could make for an interesting fanfic too.
Edit: So I played back through my Origins copy (I have the NES cart too, just didn't want to plug the old system back in) and spoke to the Crescent Lake sages after beating the Fiends. One of them said something like 'you came from the world that should be', seemingly implying that the Light Warriors came from the game's world outside of the time loop in order to break the time loop. It still begs the questions of how, why, where did the crystals they have come from, and do they realize what's going on before talking to the sages? It's also an interesting layer of disorientation, being in your world except it's not exactly your world.
Pikmin - Louie
I've only played Pikmin 2, but it's one of my most re-played games. And one of my favorite parts is the various Piklopedias. So about Louie's cooking notes, how will he make use of that knowledge after his adventures? Will he find his true calling as a bug chef extraordinaire with a big fancy restaurant? Or maybe the more interesting stories are in the entries about what not to eat...
Also, when it comes to his fateful shipment that bankrupted the company, I find both stories to be suspicious. We never see his ship, so we don't see what kind of damage a giant space rabbit could do to it. Then again, could one person really eat so many pikpik carrots that the shipping company goes that far into the hole? Or maybe because they're golden pikpik carrots, they're like the caviar of vegetables and so losing even a small shipment of them is enough to sink the company. Maybe the truth is in a mix of the two stories.
Star Ocean 2 - Ashton Anchors, Leon Gehste
I wasn't going to request this even though it is another one of my favorites. But then I saw that these two were both nominated, so I couldn't resist. I got their friendship ending the first time I played through the game as they were quick favorites, and even surprised a couple of friends in being able to beat the game with them (mostly Leon). It is an odd friendship, but I did find the ending a little unsatisfying since the friendship doesn't seem to be working too well; Leon still thinks that his ideas are best and tries to help without considering what Ashton and the dragons want, and Ashton still doesn't speak up for himself, following along even though he doesn't want the dragons hurt by a separation or exorcism. It'd be nice if their little adventure there helped them overcome those obstacles and become better friends.
I'm used to the PS1 translation, and prefer it in the case of Gyoro and Ururun. Also, I have a fan theory that Ashton is actually a knight from Eluria who managed to escape. That explains his apparently noble outfit, fighting style, and lack of a hometown. But since it's fanon, that interpretation or your own is fine with me.
My main Do Not Want this year is E-rated stories. I generally prefer reading lower rated stories, but I will consider M-rated occasionally (and depending on canon ratings). An E-rated mark is something I will always avoid. A story with a lot of gore is also something I avoid because I'm rather squeamish (even with stuff I write, but I find it worse to read).
I also prefer gen stories to romance based ones. I'm not interested in sexual content. But then, there's some romantic ships that are adorable or fascinating to me. When it comes to that, I don't have a preference for orientation, just that the characters are fun to read about together. I even have one request that is a ship, so romance is fine.
As for stuff I love to read, that would be fluff, character studies, character development, world-building, humor, fantasy, geeky/nerdy stuff, friendship fics, AUs in the canon setting, adventures, cooking, surprise hobbies, and happy moments for characters who usually have terrible things happen to them. Actually, happy moments for any of my nominated characters would be good.
As for the specific requests...
Misty Morgan by Stephen Cosgrove - The Princess
I love this Serendipity book so much that I took it to college just so I had it around. It's a children's moral story, so it probably shouldn't be taken too literally. But then, it's just so weird that people either love it or hate it. It's got a good moral about making time for friends, yes, but it's told in a space whale Aesop way and brings up all kinds of weird things only to never explain them. Like, why is a princess taking care of a castle full of clocks, to the point of running coal to something up the stairs? The only people in the illustrations are the princess and Morgan the unicorn, and he stays outside most of the time. Is she alone there? Did everyone else disappear in the Misty Meadows? Is the princess literally a slave to Time? Does she even have a name? It is an island of dreams they live on, so it might just be dream weirdness too.
I still love the book, maybe in part because wondering about all those questions is fun.
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night - Magic Tome, Spectral Sword
So earlier this year, I took part in the Chocolate Box exchange and decided to nominate something silly, because why not? My crackship nomination was this pair, the monsters Magic Tome and Spectral Sword, chosen mostly because I like them. But the more I thought it over, the more it seemed like, yeah, these two could actually work well together. You have the reclusive dark old book about weaponry that stays in its little alcove of the library, and then you have a shining sword that wields a great variety of other weapons and seems to travel through the castle as well, growing stronger as it does. They're great opposites who share a love of weaponry, whether its sharp, blunt, spiked, stabby, or magical. So they could be rivals bickering over what weapon is best, or friends doing the same. Or maybe one has a crush on the other and is trying to impress them, or maybe they're secret lovers in whatever way that animated objects would show affection for each other. There is wonderful potential here, in my opinion.
Final Fantasy I - Any (Garland, White Mage, Black Belt, Lufaine Warrior)
There's not a lot of story here, but that just means that there's a lot of room for stories, right? I started my love of RPGs with this one on the NES and I still replay it every so often. For the latter three characters, I don't have a preference for names or genders, other than I think they should have their own names. The Light Warriors do look masculine for the most part, yes, but it's still reasonable that they could be women. And if you wanted to do a genderfip on Garland too, well why not? That could be an interesting take on things.
Also, bats. That may be silly to bring up, but I think the bats in this game are cute and talk to them every so often just to see them go 'Kee!' Of course, that's until they stop right in those one-tile wide hallways and block my progress... anyhow, I find them distinctive to the game. But why would the Light Warriors leave the bats alone? Bats become enemy monsters in later Final Fantasies, but not here. Maybe it's because the Lufaine warriors got turned into bats, although you wouldn't know that until the end of the game. What's it like for them, living as bats for a few centuries? Do they get turned back into humans so they can go back home, even though the great northern civilization that their home was destroyed? Also, where did the Light Warriors come from? They just show up with the crystals outside of Coneria. Well, that has nothing to do with bats (unless it does!), but it's another angle that could be explored.
And if you want something really silly, this is a tactic with extremely low odds to the point of being only TAS-viable, but you can use the white magic spell Fear against the final boss until his morale goes low enough that he runs away. That counts as winning the game. That could make for an interesting fanfic too.
Edit: So I played back through my Origins copy (I have the NES cart too, just didn't want to plug the old system back in) and spoke to the Crescent Lake sages after beating the Fiends. One of them said something like 'you came from the world that should be', seemingly implying that the Light Warriors came from the game's world outside of the time loop in order to break the time loop. It still begs the questions of how, why, where did the crystals they have come from, and do they realize what's going on before talking to the sages? It's also an interesting layer of disorientation, being in your world except it's not exactly your world.
Pikmin - Louie
I've only played Pikmin 2, but it's one of my most re-played games. And one of my favorite parts is the various Piklopedias. So about Louie's cooking notes, how will he make use of that knowledge after his adventures? Will he find his true calling as a bug chef extraordinaire with a big fancy restaurant? Or maybe the more interesting stories are in the entries about what not to eat...
Also, when it comes to his fateful shipment that bankrupted the company, I find both stories to be suspicious. We never see his ship, so we don't see what kind of damage a giant space rabbit could do to it. Then again, could one person really eat so many pikpik carrots that the shipping company goes that far into the hole? Or maybe because they're golden pikpik carrots, they're like the caviar of vegetables and so losing even a small shipment of them is enough to sink the company. Maybe the truth is in a mix of the two stories.
Star Ocean 2 - Ashton Anchors, Leon Gehste
I wasn't going to request this even though it is another one of my favorites. But then I saw that these two were both nominated, so I couldn't resist. I got their friendship ending the first time I played through the game as they were quick favorites, and even surprised a couple of friends in being able to beat the game with them (mostly Leon). It is an odd friendship, but I did find the ending a little unsatisfying since the friendship doesn't seem to be working too well; Leon still thinks that his ideas are best and tries to help without considering what Ashton and the dragons want, and Ashton still doesn't speak up for himself, following along even though he doesn't want the dragons hurt by a separation or exorcism. It'd be nice if their little adventure there helped them overcome those obstacles and become better friends.
I'm used to the PS1 translation, and prefer it in the case of Gyoro and Ururun. Also, I have a fan theory that Ashton is actually a knight from Eluria who managed to escape. That explains his apparently noble outfit, fighting style, and lack of a hometown. But since it's fanon, that interpretation or your own is fine with me.
