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jukebox_fest letter! Requesting fanfic for all. Likes, DNWs, and prompts beneath the cut.
Likes
- SCIENCE FICTION :D and in general speculative fiction takes on the songs I'm requesting
- narratives about women and their relationships with each other, whether platonic or romantic (so feel free to make everyone a woman, regardless of singer gender)
- achieving greatness via wanting to do something, then doing it so hard one becomes great in the process
- engineering, especially of the sort that keeps civilization running – sewage, maintenance, transport etc – plus fault analysis and infrastructure design stuff
- same-sex relationships: F/F and M/M
- fucked-up, emotionally intense F/F
- competence porn
- tea
- humor
- snark (if mutual)
- fun
- zaniness
- comedy of errors -type things
- exposition
- loving descriptions of landscapes, space, whatever
- enthusiasm
- Shown Their Work details
- xenobiology
- generic nerdery and science feels
- academia and assorted academic pissing contests and infighting when played for humor
- transhumanism
- happy endings
I tend to prefer fics that are about an (external) thing happening (eg. There is an engineering malfunction!) more than fics that are about a trope (eg. Accidental Baby Acquisition or what-have-you). I appreciate this can be a fuzzy line to tread, but I hope this helps you in your ficcraft.
DNWs
- nonstop grimdarkness and misery
- angst (esp. in a mourning context)
- humiliation, especially public
- embarrassment
- incest
- pregnancy/children/motherhood, infertility
- violence to fingers or eyes
- noncanonical permanent disability or the acquiring of such
- animal harm (especially negative outcomes for horses)
- sexism, homophobia, racism, etc and narratives built solely around them
- religion, especially Christianity
- plots based entirely on miscommunication
- pure introspection/character study/slice of life
On Original Characters
For pretty much everything, I absolutely adore competence, especially in women. Competence, ambition, determination, use of every tool at her disposal. The archetype I uncritically adore is the Scientist: the smart, competent person who is absolutely thrilled to have discovered something, anything new. To have understood one more piece of the universe. Other aspects I appreciate in characters are the ability to enjoy adrenaline thrills, curiosity, knowing WTF they're doing or at least pretending that they do, and women lifting heavy objects. Creativity and creative problem-solving. Knowing the rules and exploiting them. Alternatively, the "I have no idea what I'm doing" type who improvised her way in and will wing her way out, leaving behind a large pile of explosions. (If you know Admiral Miles Naismith ... that.) Characters getting in over their heads and not quitting.
For serious things, gambits, schemes, and pile-ups of the aforementioned are welcome, should you wish to try your hand at it. I prefer no black-and-white morality with generic idealized heroes who do no wrong. Sure, the morality can be dark grey and light grey, but the villains should have some motivation beyond "because we're evil" and the heroes should be human (or alien!) and not be avatars of perfect goodness. Essentially, things about human beings, warts and all, who occasionally struggle to be good but do the right thing anyway.
For light-hearted things, I like the sort of "sane person against the Universe" dynamic found in Connie Willis' "In the Late Cretaceous" and/or this Vorkosigan fic by Ankaret. Life is absurd, and bureaucracy even more so. Red tape and counterproductive regulations are a theme that can have me doubled-over laughing. Light-grey-and-light-grey morality.
Please, no slapstick or anything based on embarrassing people.
Dragons - Stratovarius (Song)
And it feels like you're lighter than airWhat are the dragons? Actual dragons? What's up with the bit about the stone and sky being the same – has there been some cataclysm that only the protagonist has noticed/has changed civilization but not the land? Is the stone the protagonist has to shuck off literal or metaphorical, and why is it there? Is there some sort of transhuman sentiment going on with the whole "you wanna go to heaven but you never want to die" bit? Is the narrator actually lighter than air? Does the narrator have wind powers?
Far Far Away - Battle Beast (Song)
I will solve the mysteryAnd I'll rewrite history
So, what sort of journey does our narrator go on? She's going "where no man has ever gone" – somewhere uninhabited, or a place with only women? What's going on with being the chosen one? Is she a time traveler, or is she rewriting history some other way? What's the "self-made grave" she slept in for too long – something to seal her powers?
Endless Forms Most Beautiful - Nightwish (Song)
Before the grandeur of it all
A time-traveling biologist/palæontologist takes a trip to see one/many/all of the named things? Or the Cambrian Explosion, with its weird, wacky, and wonderful wildlife? Did something get left outside the known fossil record? – Or is it the ancient wildlife that have come to visit the modern era? What accommodations do they need? What crocodile hunter -type wrangler gets assigned to wrangle the animals and plants? Lots of squeeing about biology and its wonders very welcome. Infodumps and nerdery and specialist knowledge, too. If you're into alt-history speculative biology like inland sea whales etc, go for it!
Into the Heart of Danger - Battle Beast (Song)
You get stronger every time you fallSo: what is the heart of danger? What's the darkness that tries to enchain her? Is she some sort of adaptive programming thingy that gets stronger with every failure? What are the heroes that dwell in her soul, and how are they present? Why is she walking into the heart of danger – is facing her fear something she's doing for herself, or does she also need to save the world? What is her fear? (Note: I'd rather have it be something that exists only in speculative fiction – losing her humanity, losing her memories, being merged with the robotic consciousness, etc – than anything "real-world".)
Je danse avec les dieux - Mikelangelo Loconte (Song)
Je suis libre, libre du tempsHow does the narrator design hir universe? What does the narrator have to do to shatter the chains and go dance with the wind? Is the narrator displaced from hir original timeline, or immortal, or what does the "free of time" bit mean? What's the narrator drunk on? Does the narrator have wind powers?
Stardust - Delain (Song)
Bring me to lifeBring me the starlight
What are the lies the narrator's escaping from? What did they do to themselves? How will the sing-ee bring the narrator to life – does it require some sort of starlight thingy? Is the narrator a star spirit? Did she actually leave the Earth to die, and why isn't she crying? Who are her travel companions? What's the stardust that's being spoken of? Why does the narrator have to be brought back to life after leaving the Earth to die? Is this more reanimation or reincarnation?