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I'm also Quillori on AO3.
All fandoms are definitely equally wanted - some of my older requests have longer prompts, because I work them over every year, adding a bit here and a bit there, but that doesn't mean I'm not equally keen on the more recent ones.
Requested fandoms (links go directly to the relevant portion of the letter):
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Northwest Smith - C. L. Moore
Tang Dynasty Poets RPF
Tea in the Tempest - Omar Rayyan
Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng
Likes and DNWs
Ancient Egyptian Religion Imhotep, Set
(Just one of the requested characters is fine for this request.) Something dealing with Imhotep's role as god of science and magic, or with his position as a god who was once a man. Or perhaps one of the less well known stories about Set? Or something about his relationship with his worshippers. Or a hymn, or a story made up from fragments, ... whatever you like.
I've written for this fandom myself with anything from a cult hymn to a philosophical text to a modern story tinged with horror, so you can see I like a very wide range of approaches, and you should feel free to write anything you please. I've put some suggestions and prompts below, because that's what I like to get as a writer, but if you already have an idea, you should go ahead and write that. Just because I didn't think to ask for it doesn't mean I don't want to read it!
Imhotep
Pharaohs became gods automatically, but not important gods with lasting and individual characters. Than you have Imhotep, who was not a pharaoh, not supposedly already semi-divine, who nonetheless becomes a god, retaining the interests and character he had as a man. What is it like to become such a god? How did it happen? Was it something to do with how intensely he lived, or his curiosity, or his determination, or what he achieved? (Obviously, I'm not asking for a socio-political explanation of how he really came to worshipped!) Admittedly, there are later versions in which he was half divine after all, whether on his mother or his father's side, which could also have potential - someone semi-divine but not in the usual and expected role of king.
In a way, Imhotep is a god concerned with right order, and the world working correctly: science and religion are the study of the underpinnings of the world, of the way it functions and can be made to keep functioning correctly. Even medicine is, when you think about it, the study of how things can malfunction, and how to make them right again. (It's also an interesting field for a god who was once human: how does he feel about the suffering and death of people who will not, as he did, have a glorious and powerful afterlife awaiting them?)
Set
Set has a number of aspects I find fascinating. He's god of the desert and the margins, of boundaries and liminal places, and not only physical boundaries but theological ones also: a god associated with chaos and disorder, he is nonetheless the adversary of true chaos (as symbolised by Apophis/Apep); a god closely associated with death, he is also noted for his long life and indestructiblity, putting him at the boundary of the transitory and the everlasting; his very threats to good order are in some sense necessary, for complete unity would be a return to the primordial nothingness, and it is only with the advent of duality and potential conflict that anything could exist at all. (I have always liked that he is not only the god of the desert, but also of the desert oases.) Then, too, for all he is Egyptian, he is god of foreigners (and his worship increased markedly as Egypt became more cosmopolitan, with extensive trade links and successful foreign conquests) - one notes that despite being the god of foreigners (and frequently portrayed as the adversary of good), Set was held to support Egyptians in battle.
Then there is the imagery potentially associated with him: the red of the desert, the savage storms that sink ships at sea or whip up the desert sands, the enduring grey iron ('the bones of Set').
If you want more specific prompts: you could flesh out the fragmentary Astarte Papyrus, or give me anything at all about Set and Astarte (and Anat, if you like), or Set battling Yamm (or Apophis/Apep). Or expand on that bit in the Pyramid Texts I mention above.
Thuthmose III called himself at times 'Beloved of Set'. What sort of relationship might a mortal man have had with Set? Or, given that Set is in at least some versions portrayed as cunning and intelligent, and is associated both with skilled labour (e.g. ironwork) and with magic, and is also a god set apart from the rest, associated with foreignness and with things out of the normal order: how might he relate to Imhotep?
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Tang Dynasty Poets RPF - Li Ho | Li He
I'm fascinated by the imagery of Li He's poems, and what I would really love is a story where that imagery is real - where Li He's life follows much the course it did in reality, but he truly saw a world of ghosts and demons and almost unutterably strange things.
the blue raccoon weeps blood, and the cold fox dies
A Piece for Magic Strings Li Ho, trans A.C. Graham
I certainly don't mean this prompt to detract from Li He's genius and originality - I'm envisioning him recounting what he sees with the same striking poetic skill. Just. He really is seeing things others can't see. Not, I imagine, that makes his story turn out any better.
Please do not be put of writing this by thinking you aren't a scholar of the period, and can't write it with perfect accuracy! Entirely normal levels of yuletide research/canon review are perfectly fine! Anything with Li He and the wonderful imagery and metaphors of his poetry will be wonderful. And, to assist anyone who might be tempted by this prompt, I am linking a few helpful resources: the introduction to Li Ho's section in Graham's Poems of the Late T'ang, selections from the preface and introduction to Frodsham's Collected Poems of Li He, and some poems in translation.
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كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights - جعفر بن یحیی برمکی | Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki
Famous for his power and wealth, and the favour of his Caliph, famed too for his eloquence and liberality, but led suddenly away to death in the midst of all his prosperity by that same Caliph. What sort of man was Ja'far, and did he live always with the knowledge he might fall, or was it an unthinkable betrayal?
Before we get to the character I'm actually asking for, which is Ja'far, I want to talk for a moment about Hârûn al-Rashîd. He appears within the Nights as the exemplary figure of the supreme ruler: his curiosity and love of learning and the arts, his ready friendship and generosity, his sense of justice, the unparalleled luxury of his court ... and also his cruelty. Often he is shadowed not only by Ja'far but by his executioner also, a reminder of the dark side of absolute power. Perhaps in a sense Ja'far and and Masrûr reflect two sides of their sovereign. In another sense, Hârûn reflects Shahriyâr himself, turning with arbitrary violence on those who should be closest to him, leaving Ja'far dead as Shahriyâr leaves his nameless wives. (I've always been inclined to see an accidental real life reflection also, of Suleiman the Magnificent and Ibrahim Pasha.)
So, what is the relationship between Hârûn and Ja'far, and in particular, what sort of man is Ja'far to live with it? Is he a fatalist, who thinks if he is destined to fall, there is no escape from it, so he should make the most of his life while he has it? Does he trust Hârûn not to turn on him? Does he, famed as he is for his kindness and generosity, see Hârûn's dark side and think it his duty to temper it? Does he take pride in his place and his family, and see everything he does, from serving Hârûn to his legendary generosity, as the duties and obligations of his position, duties that don't include worrying about the future?
Which isn't to say I want you to write about Hârûn - you needn't even mention him - I just can't think of a better way to explain what particularly interests me about Ja'far's character except by reference to him. But Hârûn definitely doesn't need to appear in the story: Ja'far being introspective in a courtyard! Ja'far with some other lover, or with his family! Ja'far with some of Hârûn's other companions - the poets and the singers (this would be fascinating). Ja'far helping someone out! (Think of the stories set after his death, where those whom he helped continue to mourn him despite the risk, e.g. Ja'far and the Bean Seller.) Ja'far going about his duties as vizier (it's easy to forget at times he wasn't just a boon companion). Backstory about Ja'far as a young man! I just want to know what sort of person you see Ja'far as being.
If you do want to include Hârûn in your story, I'm inclined to slash him with Ja'far myself, if you want to go that way, but any other close and longstanding relationship would be just as interesting, if you prefer. If you want 'Abbâsa in some sort of triangle with the two of them, that's fine,* if you'd prefer not to, that is also fine - even within the Nights, there are various different accounts of what leads to his death, and envy of his wealth and fame works perfectly well - Hârûn wouldn't be the first or the last ruler turn on his friends for just that reason.
(I do prefer competent characters, so if you want to include the whole three apples story, I'd be happier with a reading that accepts there was no practical way for him to solve the mystery, other than trusting to god, rather than focusing on him failing to do anything useful.)
* Incest isn't a kink of mine, so I'm unlikely to find it hot for its own sake, but it isn't a squick either, so if you want a proper triangle rather than a V, it's a perfectly reasonable reading, and I shan't mind it all. Just, if you mean to make it hot rather than (or as well as) messed up, it's more likely to work for me if you include extra reasons for its hotness other than the mere fact of its incestuousness.
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Tea in the Tempest - Omar Rayyan
Just tell me anything about this painting - how they ended up in this situation, what happens next, who they all are...
Tea in the Tempest
I love all Rayyan's fox paintings - presuming they are the same character, he would appear to be a dashing rogue, and I would be very happy with any story about any of his adventures. But if I had to pick one favourite painting, it would be this one, where he is not merely dashing and adventurous but perfectly imperturbable. What is going one? How did he end up on that boat? Where is it going? Who are the other passengers/crew?
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Northwest Smith - C. L. Moore - Northwest Smith, Yarol
I would love anything at all about Yarol, whether something plotty, or a more introspective character piece, or backstory. As well, or even alternatively, I'd love anything that shares my fascination with exploring the world C.L. Moore created.
To be honest, I'm not that drawn to the Lovecraftian horror aspect of the stories* - the thing I first fell in love with was the sense of wonder. Often the part I like best is the start of the story, the Venusian waterfront or the Martian spaceport before the plot happens. If only we could spend more time there, without rushing on to the monster of the week! I want to spend longer exploring the cobblestoned streets of Righa, or walk for hours through the saltlands around the Martian Pole; I want to know what type of creature provides the ivory of Ganymede; I want to know what the sea smells like at Ednes and the precise colours of the Venusian dawn. I want to wander farther afield, to unmentioned places, to cities carved out of living rock or temporary nomadic villages built up in a day from blocks of ice; I want to watch the sun set over a violet lake and hear the strange song of alien birds; I want to taste the food of a hundred cities and wander through their shops and markets; I want to hear the rhythms of their music and know the outlines of the their religions.
As for Yarol, I sort of fell in love with him as a character a few years ago, when I was rereading the stories for my Yuletide assignment. (And then I had to drastically cut his role in what I was writing, because given half a chance he'd have taken over and the whole thing would have been about how wonderful he is.) For a start, Moore has a habit of using him for exposition, or to conveniently recall some necessary fact, which has the effect (I suspect unintentional) of suggesting someone truly interested in the world around them, widely read and curious about everything (and if Northwest is repeatedly compared to a wolf, Yarol canonically gets feline imagery, mostly of the sleek and dangerous sort, but I think the gets into everything and is permanently curious comparison fits too).
And then there is the matter of Yarol's humanity, or lack thereof. You have passages like this:
So, really I'd be happy with Yarol in all his impetuous, practical, dissolute, irreverent, curious, reckless, imperturbable glory; or with anything at all exploring the wider world of the stories (or at least anything exploring it with the same sense of wonder I mentioned); or both, of course - as I said above, I'm greedy, and both together would be perfect - but just one or the other would be absolutely fine too, and if you want to go the with exploring the wider world, you have my permission not to include Yarol if you want to write plain description / a travel guide / anything else where he wouldn't be appropriate.
* I mean, compared to other aspects - it is something I normally like, so if that's the way you really wanted to go, I would much prefer a well written story you were comfortable with than that you try to force yourself to write my request.
One note here about slash - I know Smith/Yarol is a popular reading, if anything can be said to be popular in such a tiny, almost non-existent fandom. And it's not as though I have any objection in theory - Smith does spend an awful lot of time noticing how gorgeous Venusians are in general and Yarol in particular - but I have a hard time reading Smith as anything other than straight, or perhaps not straight exactly - I can imagine him having friendly, casual sex with Yarol on a regular basis - but we spend enough time in his viewpoint that it really does seem to me his type, or what he genuinely believes is his type, is women (women, or possibly eldritch abominations and dark gods - with whom, frankly, he appears to have more success). So I'm not at all going to say no slash with Smith if it's what you signed up wanting to write, but maybe no PWPs, and I'm going to be an easier sell for either casual sex + Yarol being his partner and therefore the most important person in his life without him ever thinking either of these things are relevant to his relationship with women, or to him being messed up enough (see above re dark gods) to see the whole 'lack of humanity' thing as an attractive feature outweighing his normal gender preference. Yarol himself is far more of a blank slate - Yvala appears to him as a woman, but that in itself doesn't establish he's only interested in women, or indeed the Venusians think about orientation in the same terms we do today.
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Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng - Any
I'm interested to see whatever you choose to make of this. Retell one of Pu Songling's stories or tell one of your own. Play around with language and allusions or concentrate on plot or on character. You could do something with the ever present fox spirits - they're viewed in such a range of ways, from meriting death through to the ambivalence of stories such as Cut Sleeve to admirable heroines (e.g. in Lotus Fragrance). Or you could do something with the relation of dreams to reality, or the extent to which stories are a type of dream. If you want to stick to a single story, you could look at Shican and Huang's relationship in Cut Sleeve - there's a lot of emotional ground at the end of that story the remains unexamined. Make your language as densely allusive or as simple as you please, your tone as light or as dramatic as you want. Gen, slash, het; light-hearted, bitingly satirical, restrained or sly or melancholy ... anything that strikes your fancy.
Liaozhai is a collection of short tales of the bizarre, the supernatural and the out-of-place; they're playful, occasionally satirical, boundlessly interested in the world and at times melancholy. It has something for everyone: canon gen, het, slash, poly, gender swap, genderqueer, platonic friendship ... well, alright, it doesn't actually have canon femslash, but there are plenty of relationships you could take in that direction. The original is a masterpiece of classical (as opposed to vernacular) Chinese, both elegant and difficult. English translations generally don't attempt to reproduce the style and are content to be simple and straightforward - which happily licenses you to write in whatever style you prefer.
You can approach many of the tales purely as ghost stories or horror stories, and several modern writers and filmmakers have done so, but that's by no means the only approach you can take. A number of the tales play with the line between dream and reality, sometimes to comment on the nature of fiction itself, other times from a religious perspective from which reality itself is a kind of dream. Some tales are about obsession (by no means always sexual), and thus by extension about what counts as valuable and whether it's worth suffering or dying for. Other tales could readily be made into fascinating character studies. The mood can be melancholy or light-hearted, serious or satirical.
I will be delighted with anything, but if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, I’ve included below a few suggestions of starting places for different things you might want to write. These are only meant to be helpful! If you already have some other idea, that is what I want to read about.
World as Illusion: There are hints of this in many of the tales, but if you want a sampling of ones where it’s a particular theme, try Flowers of Illusion (aka Taoist Miracles) or The Painted Wall; also, at least by implication, Friendship Beyond the Grave and Twenty Years a Dream.
Fox Spirits: These turn up in many of the tales, sometimes as admirable figures, such as in Grace and Pine (aka Miss Chiao-No) and Lotus Fragrance, sometimes more ambiguous and dangerous, as in The Laughing Girl and Cut-Sleeve, sometimes as evil creatures to be killed with impunity, as in Bird, Fox Enchantment and The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son (although only in the last is there no trace of sympathy at all for the foxes).
Other notes: Bird is particularly interesting for its family dynamics, both Bird's relationship with her abusive mother and sister and her subsequent treatment of her son. The son in The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son shows something of the same cruelty, though there it's treated as resourceful and praiseworthy. The most vivid individual characters are probably in Cut-Sleeve and Lotus Fragrance.
Gen: Flowers of Illusion|Taoist Miracles and Friendship Beyond the Grave are themselves gen. The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son, Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No and Bird all have important gen elements.
Het: You could try Fox Enchantment, Lotus FragranceThe Laughing Girl, The Painted Wall or Twenty Years a Dream.
Slash: Cut-Sleeve - canon slash. And definitely an opportunity here to flesh out the characters: this is, after all, a story in which the protagonist has a conversation which could be summed up as 'Dearest cousin-in-law! What fond memories I have of our affair in my past life - the one where you consumed my Yang until I fell sick and died. Which reminds me, there's this official who's bothering me - I was thinking, maybe you could go seduce and kill him. What do you mean, you don't want to?' Both Friendship Beyond the Grave and Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No have subtext. A good bet for femslash subtext would be Lotus Fragrance.
Poly: Lotus Fragrance again, and if you want to read the subtext that way, Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No.
Friendship: Try Friendship Beyond the Grave (m/m friendship), Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No (m/m and m/f friendship) or Lotus Fragrance (f/f friendship).
Penguin Classics has a selected translation by John Minford. A much earlier translation by Herbert Giles is available online, but keep in mind it’s from 1880 and is heavily bowdlerised. There's also the recent six volume complete translation by Sondergard. Judith T. Zeitlin translates a number of tales of particular interest in Historian of the Strange (which I very much recommend).
You may, depending where you are, be able to read a couple of pages on Google books about The Painted Wall, a small selection of stories translated by Arthur Zhu in The Painted Skin, Lotus Fragrance and Grace & Pine. Elsewhere there's a discussion of Twenty Years a Dream, and of Grace and Pine among others in an article about scholar's studios. If you belong to a library with access to Literature Online, I think you may be able to get e versions of a number of tales, possibly in the Minford translation.
(One note: where the ages of various characters are historically appropriate but distressingly young by current standards, I would have no objection at all if you, say, discreetly age up fourteen year olds, or failing that at least treat them as adults within their own cultural context, rather than dwelling on their extreme youth. Physically sixteen or above would be great, and preferably mentally older than that - after all, even young foxes may well be centuries old if they can take human form, and a ghost who died in her teens may have been hanging around being a ghost for some time. Not that you need to make a point of ageing them up, but I'd really prefer it if you didn't make an obvious point of keeping them that young.)
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In General
I really would prefer you to write the best story you can, and one you're happy with, rather than trying unsuccessfully to do something that doesn't suit you to fit what I asked for. I'm most interested in what you, dear writer, make of the source material.
Things I like (provided only as indicative of my taste, not in any way as particular requirements of your story): established relationships, clever and competent characters, witty banter, slash (incl. femslash), political intrigue, moral ambiguity, apparently simple conversations with a great deal going on under the surface, angst if done with restraint, metaphor, clever use of literary allusions, relationships where each party things the other has all the power. Fierce loyalty (the tear the world apart for you variety, not the sit here passively putting up with anything variety), complicated love/hate relationships with lots of backstory, unflappable characters, arrogance if the party concerned has the requisite ability to back it up, committed partnerships between people who see the world at the same angle (even if they aren't always on the same side) ...
IF is always welcome.
Things I’d prefer you avoided: I’m not terribly keen on stories focused on pregnancy or children, humiliation, or stories told in the 2nd person, and I do have something of an embarrassment squick. Oh all right, I also don't tend to like issuefic, but I'm not sure that's something people generally set out to write - one person's issuefic is another's searingly honest portrayal. (Having said that, however: DNW characters explicitly identifying themselves as asexual, aromantic or demisexual, or stories heavily focused on those subjects; trans* headcanons; unrequested genderswaps.)
(Where I've made some vague attempt to balance consistency, AO3's spellings, and what are the most commonly found spellings, do not feel you need to follow my example! Use whatever romanisation seems good to you.)
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All fandoms are definitely equally wanted - some of my older requests have longer prompts, because I work them over every year, adding a bit here and a bit there, but that doesn't mean I'm not equally keen on the more recent ones.
Requested fandoms (links go directly to the relevant portion of the letter):
Ancient Egyptian Religion
Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights
Northwest Smith - C. L. Moore
Tang Dynasty Poets RPF
Tea in the Tempest - Omar Rayyan
Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng
Likes and DNWs
Ancient Egyptian Religion Imhotep, Set
(Just one of the requested characters is fine for this request.) Something dealing with Imhotep's role as god of science and magic, or with his position as a god who was once a man. Or perhaps one of the less well known stories about Set? Or something about his relationship with his worshippers. Or a hymn, or a story made up from fragments, ... whatever you like.
I've written for this fandom myself with anything from a cult hymn to a philosophical text to a modern story tinged with horror, so you can see I like a very wide range of approaches, and you should feel free to write anything you please. I've put some suggestions and prompts below, because that's what I like to get as a writer, but if you already have an idea, you should go ahead and write that. Just because I didn't think to ask for it doesn't mean I don't want to read it!
Imhotep
Pharaohs became gods automatically, but not important gods with lasting and individual characters. Than you have Imhotep, who was not a pharaoh, not supposedly already semi-divine, who nonetheless becomes a god, retaining the interests and character he had as a man. What is it like to become such a god? How did it happen? Was it something to do with how intensely he lived, or his curiosity, or his determination, or what he achieved? (Obviously, I'm not asking for a socio-political explanation of how he really came to worshipped!) Admittedly, there are later versions in which he was half divine after all, whether on his mother or his father's side, which could also have potential - someone semi-divine but not in the usual and expected role of king.
In a way, Imhotep is a god concerned with right order, and the world working correctly: science and religion are the study of the underpinnings of the world, of the way it functions and can be made to keep functioning correctly. Even medicine is, when you think about it, the study of how things can malfunction, and how to make them right again. (It's also an interesting field for a god who was once human: how does he feel about the suffering and death of people who will not, as he did, have a glorious and powerful afterlife awaiting them?)
Set
Set has a number of aspects I find fascinating. He's god of the desert and the margins, of boundaries and liminal places, and not only physical boundaries but theological ones also: a god associated with chaos and disorder, he is nonetheless the adversary of true chaos (as symbolised by Apophis/Apep); a god closely associated with death, he is also noted for his long life and indestructiblity, putting him at the boundary of the transitory and the everlasting; his very threats to good order are in some sense necessary, for complete unity would be a return to the primordial nothingness, and it is only with the advent of duality and potential conflict that anything could exist at all. (I have always liked that he is not only the god of the desert, but also of the desert oases.) Then, too, for all he is Egyptian, he is god of foreigners (and his worship increased markedly as Egypt became more cosmopolitan, with extensive trade links and successful foreign conquests) - one notes that despite being the god of foreigners (and frequently portrayed as the adversary of good), Set was held to support Egyptians in battle.
Then there is the imagery potentially associated with him: the red of the desert, the savage storms that sink ships at sea or whip up the desert sands, the enduring grey iron ('the bones of Set').
If you want more specific prompts: you could flesh out the fragmentary Astarte Papyrus, or give me anything at all about Set and Astarte (and Anat, if you like), or Set battling Yamm (or Apophis/Apep). Or expand on that bit in the Pyramid Texts I mention above.
Thuthmose III called himself at times 'Beloved of Set'. What sort of relationship might a mortal man have had with Set? Or, given that Set is in at least some versions portrayed as cunning and intelligent, and is associated both with skilled labour (e.g. ironwork) and with magic, and is also a god set apart from the rest, associated with foreignness and with things out of the normal order: how might he relate to Imhotep?
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Tang Dynasty Poets RPF - Li Ho | Li He
I'm fascinated by the imagery of Li He's poems, and what I would really love is a story where that imagery is real - where Li He's life follows much the course it did in reality, but he truly saw a world of ghosts and demons and almost unutterably strange things.
the blue raccoon weeps blood, and the cold fox dies
A Piece for Magic Strings Li Ho, trans A.C. Graham
I certainly don't mean this prompt to detract from Li He's genius and originality - I'm envisioning him recounting what he sees with the same striking poetic skill. Just. He really is seeing things others can't see. Not, I imagine, that makes his story turn out any better.
Please do not be put of writing this by thinking you aren't a scholar of the period, and can't write it with perfect accuracy! Entirely normal levels of yuletide research/canon review are perfectly fine! Anything with Li He and the wonderful imagery and metaphors of his poetry will be wonderful. And, to assist anyone who might be tempted by this prompt, I am linking a few helpful resources: the introduction to Li Ho's section in Graham's Poems of the Late T'ang, selections from the preface and introduction to Frodsham's Collected Poems of Li He, and some poems in translation.
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كتاب ألف ليلة وليلة | Kitaab 'alf layla wa-layla | One Thousand and One Nights - جعفر بن یحیی برمکی | Ja'far ibn Yahya al-Barmaki
Famous for his power and wealth, and the favour of his Caliph, famed too for his eloquence and liberality, but led suddenly away to death in the midst of all his prosperity by that same Caliph. What sort of man was Ja'far, and did he live always with the knowledge he might fall, or was it an unthinkable betrayal?
Before we get to the character I'm actually asking for, which is Ja'far, I want to talk for a moment about Hârûn al-Rashîd. He appears within the Nights as the exemplary figure of the supreme ruler: his curiosity and love of learning and the arts, his ready friendship and generosity, his sense of justice, the unparalleled luxury of his court ... and also his cruelty. Often he is shadowed not only by Ja'far but by his executioner also, a reminder of the dark side of absolute power. Perhaps in a sense Ja'far and and Masrûr reflect two sides of their sovereign. In another sense, Hârûn reflects Shahriyâr himself, turning with arbitrary violence on those who should be closest to him, leaving Ja'far dead as Shahriyâr leaves his nameless wives. (I've always been inclined to see an accidental real life reflection also, of Suleiman the Magnificent and Ibrahim Pasha.)
So, what is the relationship between Hârûn and Ja'far, and in particular, what sort of man is Ja'far to live with it? Is he a fatalist, who thinks if he is destined to fall, there is no escape from it, so he should make the most of his life while he has it? Does he trust Hârûn not to turn on him? Does he, famed as he is for his kindness and generosity, see Hârûn's dark side and think it his duty to temper it? Does he take pride in his place and his family, and see everything he does, from serving Hârûn to his legendary generosity, as the duties and obligations of his position, duties that don't include worrying about the future?
Which isn't to say I want you to write about Hârûn - you needn't even mention him - I just can't think of a better way to explain what particularly interests me about Ja'far's character except by reference to him. But Hârûn definitely doesn't need to appear in the story: Ja'far being introspective in a courtyard! Ja'far with some other lover, or with his family! Ja'far with some of Hârûn's other companions - the poets and the singers (this would be fascinating). Ja'far helping someone out! (Think of the stories set after his death, where those whom he helped continue to mourn him despite the risk, e.g. Ja'far and the Bean Seller.) Ja'far going about his duties as vizier (it's easy to forget at times he wasn't just a boon companion). Backstory about Ja'far as a young man! I just want to know what sort of person you see Ja'far as being.
If you do want to include Hârûn in your story, I'm inclined to slash him with Ja'far myself, if you want to go that way, but any other close and longstanding relationship would be just as interesting, if you prefer. If you want 'Abbâsa in some sort of triangle with the two of them, that's fine,* if you'd prefer not to, that is also fine - even within the Nights, there are various different accounts of what leads to his death, and envy of his wealth and fame works perfectly well - Hârûn wouldn't be the first or the last ruler turn on his friends for just that reason.
(I do prefer competent characters, so if you want to include the whole three apples story, I'd be happier with a reading that accepts there was no practical way for him to solve the mystery, other than trusting to god, rather than focusing on him failing to do anything useful.)
* Incest isn't a kink of mine, so I'm unlikely to find it hot for its own sake, but it isn't a squick either, so if you want a proper triangle rather than a V, it's a perfectly reasonable reading, and I shan't mind it all. Just, if you mean to make it hot rather than (or as well as) messed up, it's more likely to work for me if you include extra reasons for its hotness other than the mere fact of its incestuousness.
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Tea in the Tempest - Omar Rayyan
Just tell me anything about this painting - how they ended up in this situation, what happens next, who they all are...
Tea in the Tempest
I love all Rayyan's fox paintings - presuming they are the same character, he would appear to be a dashing rogue, and I would be very happy with any story about any of his adventures. But if I had to pick one favourite painting, it would be this one, where he is not merely dashing and adventurous but perfectly imperturbable. What is going one? How did he end up on that boat? Where is it going? Who are the other passengers/crew?
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Northwest Smith - C. L. Moore - Northwest Smith, Yarol
I would love anything at all about Yarol, whether something plotty, or a more introspective character piece, or backstory. As well, or even alternatively, I'd love anything that shares my fascination with exploring the world C.L. Moore created.
To be honest, I'm not that drawn to the Lovecraftian horror aspect of the stories* - the thing I first fell in love with was the sense of wonder. Often the part I like best is the start of the story, the Venusian waterfront or the Martian spaceport before the plot happens. If only we could spend more time there, without rushing on to the monster of the week! I want to spend longer exploring the cobblestoned streets of Righa, or walk for hours through the saltlands around the Martian Pole; I want to know what type of creature provides the ivory of Ganymede; I want to know what the sea smells like at Ednes and the precise colours of the Venusian dawn. I want to wander farther afield, to unmentioned places, to cities carved out of living rock or temporary nomadic villages built up in a day from blocks of ice; I want to watch the sun set over a violet lake and hear the strange song of alien birds; I want to taste the food of a hundred cities and wander through their shops and markets; I want to hear the rhythms of their music and know the outlines of the their religions.
As for Yarol, I sort of fell in love with him as a character a few years ago, when I was rereading the stories for my Yuletide assignment. (And then I had to drastically cut his role in what I was writing, because given half a chance he'd have taken over and the whole thing would have been about how wonderful he is.) For a start, Moore has a habit of using him for exposition, or to conveniently recall some necessary fact, which has the effect (I suspect unintentional) of suggesting someone truly interested in the world around them, widely read and curious about everything (and if Northwest is repeatedly compared to a wolf, Yarol canonically gets feline imagery, mostly of the sleek and dangerous sort, but I think the gets into everything and is permanently curious comparison fits too).
And then there is the matter of Yarol's humanity, or lack thereof. You have passages like this:
And presently from the leafy solitudes of the trees a little mist-wraith came gliding. it was a slinking thing, feline, savage, fearless. He could have sworn that for the briefest instant he saw the outlines of a panther stealing across the moss, misty, low-slung, turning upon him the wise black gaze of Yarol - exactly his friend's black eyes, with no lessening in them of lost humanity. And something in that familiar gaze sent a little chill down his back. Could it be - could it possibly be that in Yarol the veneer of humanity was so thin over his savage cat-nature that even when it had been stripped away the look in his eyes was the same? ... He knew why Yvala in her satiety had not even wakened at the withdrawal of Yarol's humanity - it was so small a thing that the loss of it meant nothing.and yet the one time he asks Smith's word on something, in recompense for saving his life, it's entirely for Smith's own benefit. Whatever Moore (or Smith) means by humanity, it's not the ability to show loyalty, or to care about someone. Which is not to say Yarol is any sort of moral paragon - we're told he's ruthless, and shown he has no particular objection to the slave trade, so long as he's being paid, but the same is true of plenty of the human characters (including Smith himself).
So, really I'd be happy with Yarol in all his impetuous, practical, dissolute, irreverent, curious, reckless, imperturbable glory; or with anything at all exploring the wider world of the stories (or at least anything exploring it with the same sense of wonder I mentioned); or both, of course - as I said above, I'm greedy, and both together would be perfect - but just one or the other would be absolutely fine too, and if you want to go the with exploring the wider world, you have my permission not to include Yarol if you want to write plain description / a travel guide / anything else where he wouldn't be appropriate.
* I mean, compared to other aspects - it is something I normally like, so if that's the way you really wanted to go, I would much prefer a well written story you were comfortable with than that you try to force yourself to write my request.
One note here about slash - I know Smith/Yarol is a popular reading, if anything can be said to be popular in such a tiny, almost non-existent fandom. And it's not as though I have any objection in theory - Smith does spend an awful lot of time noticing how gorgeous Venusians are in general and Yarol in particular - but I have a hard time reading Smith as anything other than straight, or perhaps not straight exactly - I can imagine him having friendly, casual sex with Yarol on a regular basis - but we spend enough time in his viewpoint that it really does seem to me his type, or what he genuinely believes is his type, is women (women, or possibly eldritch abominations and dark gods - with whom, frankly, he appears to have more success). So I'm not at all going to say no slash with Smith if it's what you signed up wanting to write, but maybe no PWPs, and I'm going to be an easier sell for either casual sex + Yarol being his partner and therefore the most important person in his life without him ever thinking either of these things are relevant to his relationship with women, or to him being messed up enough (see above re dark gods) to see the whole 'lack of humanity' thing as an attractive feature outweighing his normal gender preference. Yarol himself is far more of a blank slate - Yvala appears to him as a woman, but that in itself doesn't establish he's only interested in women, or indeed the Venusians think about orientation in the same terms we do today.
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Liáo zhâi zhì yì | Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio - Pú Sônglíng - Any
I'm interested to see whatever you choose to make of this. Retell one of Pu Songling's stories or tell one of your own. Play around with language and allusions or concentrate on plot or on character. You could do something with the ever present fox spirits - they're viewed in such a range of ways, from meriting death through to the ambivalence of stories such as Cut Sleeve to admirable heroines (e.g. in Lotus Fragrance). Or you could do something with the relation of dreams to reality, or the extent to which stories are a type of dream. If you want to stick to a single story, you could look at Shican and Huang's relationship in Cut Sleeve - there's a lot of emotional ground at the end of that story the remains unexamined. Make your language as densely allusive or as simple as you please, your tone as light or as dramatic as you want. Gen, slash, het; light-hearted, bitingly satirical, restrained or sly or melancholy ... anything that strikes your fancy.
Liaozhai is a collection of short tales of the bizarre, the supernatural and the out-of-place; they're playful, occasionally satirical, boundlessly interested in the world and at times melancholy. It has something for everyone: canon gen, het, slash, poly, gender swap, genderqueer, platonic friendship ... well, alright, it doesn't actually have canon femslash, but there are plenty of relationships you could take in that direction. The original is a masterpiece of classical (as opposed to vernacular) Chinese, both elegant and difficult. English translations generally don't attempt to reproduce the style and are content to be simple and straightforward - which happily licenses you to write in whatever style you prefer.
You can approach many of the tales purely as ghost stories or horror stories, and several modern writers and filmmakers have done so, but that's by no means the only approach you can take. A number of the tales play with the line between dream and reality, sometimes to comment on the nature of fiction itself, other times from a religious perspective from which reality itself is a kind of dream. Some tales are about obsession (by no means always sexual), and thus by extension about what counts as valuable and whether it's worth suffering or dying for. Other tales could readily be made into fascinating character studies. The mood can be melancholy or light-hearted, serious or satirical.
I will be delighted with anything, but if you’re feeling a little overwhelmed and unsure of where to start, I’ve included below a few suggestions of starting places for different things you might want to write. These are only meant to be helpful! If you already have some other idea, that is what I want to read about.
World as Illusion: There are hints of this in many of the tales, but if you want a sampling of ones where it’s a particular theme, try Flowers of Illusion (aka Taoist Miracles) or The Painted Wall; also, at least by implication, Friendship Beyond the Grave and Twenty Years a Dream.
Fox Spirits: These turn up in many of the tales, sometimes as admirable figures, such as in Grace and Pine (aka Miss Chiao-No) and Lotus Fragrance, sometimes more ambiguous and dangerous, as in The Laughing Girl and Cut-Sleeve, sometimes as evil creatures to be killed with impunity, as in Bird, Fox Enchantment and The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son (although only in the last is there no trace of sympathy at all for the foxes).
Other notes: Bird is particularly interesting for its family dynamics, both Bird's relationship with her abusive mother and sister and her subsequent treatment of her son. The son in The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son shows something of the same cruelty, though there it's treated as resourceful and praiseworthy. The most vivid individual characters are probably in Cut-Sleeve and Lotus Fragrance.
Gen: Flowers of Illusion|Taoist Miracles and Friendship Beyond the Grave are themselves gen. The Merchant's Son|The Trader's Son, Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No and Bird all have important gen elements.
Het: You could try Fox Enchantment, Lotus FragranceThe Laughing Girl, The Painted Wall or Twenty Years a Dream.
Slash: Cut-Sleeve - canon slash. And definitely an opportunity here to flesh out the characters: this is, after all, a story in which the protagonist has a conversation which could be summed up as 'Dearest cousin-in-law! What fond memories I have of our affair in my past life - the one where you consumed my Yang until I fell sick and died. Which reminds me, there's this official who's bothering me - I was thinking, maybe you could go seduce and kill him. What do you mean, you don't want to?' Both Friendship Beyond the Grave and Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No have subtext. A good bet for femslash subtext would be Lotus Fragrance.
Poly: Lotus Fragrance again, and if you want to read the subtext that way, Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No.
Friendship: Try Friendship Beyond the Grave (m/m friendship), Grace and Pine|Miss Chiao-No (m/m and m/f friendship) or Lotus Fragrance (f/f friendship).
Penguin Classics has a selected translation by John Minford. A much earlier translation by Herbert Giles is available online, but keep in mind it’s from 1880 and is heavily bowdlerised. There's also the recent six volume complete translation by Sondergard. Judith T. Zeitlin translates a number of tales of particular interest in Historian of the Strange (which I very much recommend).
You may, depending where you are, be able to read a couple of pages on Google books about The Painted Wall, a small selection of stories translated by Arthur Zhu in The Painted Skin, Lotus Fragrance and Grace & Pine. Elsewhere there's a discussion of Twenty Years a Dream, and of Grace and Pine among others in an article about scholar's studios. If you belong to a library with access to Literature Online, I think you may be able to get e versions of a number of tales, possibly in the Minford translation.
(One note: where the ages of various characters are historically appropriate but distressingly young by current standards, I would have no objection at all if you, say, discreetly age up fourteen year olds, or failing that at least treat them as adults within their own cultural context, rather than dwelling on their extreme youth. Physically sixteen or above would be great, and preferably mentally older than that - after all, even young foxes may well be centuries old if they can take human form, and a ghost who died in her teens may have been hanging around being a ghost for some time. Not that you need to make a point of ageing them up, but I'd really prefer it if you didn't make an obvious point of keeping them that young.)
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In General
I really would prefer you to write the best story you can, and one you're happy with, rather than trying unsuccessfully to do something that doesn't suit you to fit what I asked for. I'm most interested in what you, dear writer, make of the source material.
Things I like (provided only as indicative of my taste, not in any way as particular requirements of your story): established relationships, clever and competent characters, witty banter, slash (incl. femslash), political intrigue, moral ambiguity, apparently simple conversations with a great deal going on under the surface, angst if done with restraint, metaphor, clever use of literary allusions, relationships where each party things the other has all the power. Fierce loyalty (the tear the world apart for you variety, not the sit here passively putting up with anything variety), complicated love/hate relationships with lots of backstory, unflappable characters, arrogance if the party concerned has the requisite ability to back it up, committed partnerships between people who see the world at the same angle (even if they aren't always on the same side) ...
IF is always welcome.
Things I’d prefer you avoided: I’m not terribly keen on stories focused on pregnancy or children, humiliation, or stories told in the 2nd person, and I do have something of an embarrassment squick. Oh all right, I also don't tend to like issuefic, but I'm not sure that's something people generally set out to write - one person's issuefic is another's searingly honest portrayal. (Having said that, however: DNW characters explicitly identifying themselves as asexual, aromantic or demisexual, or stories heavily focused on those subjects; trans* headcanons; unrequested genderswaps.)
(Where I've made some vague attempt to balance consistency, AO3's spellings, and what are the most commonly found spellings, do not feel you need to follow my example! Use whatever romanisation seems good to you.)
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