Elizabeth Culmer (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
edenfalling) wrote2016-02-15 05:32 pm
edenfalling) wrote2016-02-15 05:32 pm
Entry tags:
Palestuck exchange letter
Note, 2/19/16: I might add a few more clarifications and details if and when they occur to me, but this post is now functionally complete.
-----
Note: I am repurposing my stock Yuletide letter here, which is why some of the sections may seem slightly off-topic for a tightly-focused single fandom exchange.
Hi, and thank you in advance for creating a story or artwork for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get something in response to one of my prompts. Optional details are optional, after all! *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere, but I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. What this means in the context of Palestuck is that you can do almost whatever you want with background pairings and I will be fine with your choices. (I will tell you my handful of NoTPs later in this post.)
2. I enjoy all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet and a little complicated. (For this particular exchange, I would prefer prompts #3 and #4 to lean toward the happy end of the scale, and for prompt #2 to end hopefully after much angst, but prompt #1 can have a downbeat/tragic/ominous-foreshadowy ending if you want.)
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story or in the background details of a picture will be received with great joy.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to relationships than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: authorial hatred for characters seeping into the narrative; sex or romantic love with no in-story justification; gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will. (I admit that that last dislike is tricky since Homestuck is practically built on predestination paradoxes, but if you include any, please let the characters be annoyed at the constriction of their choices.)
6. If you want more information on what I think about Homestuck, here is all my Homestuck fic, and here is my homestuck tag on this journal.
7. I do NOT want any of my requested pale relationships to be sexualized. I am, however, a huge sucker for nonsexual gestures of physical intimacy, like hugs and hair-brushing and fingernail-painting and whatever else you can think of along those lines. :)
8. Three of my prompts are for a no-Sgrub AU, but if you want to include the beta and alpha kids in those scenarios (either as trolls, or as aliens in contact with the Alternian/Beforan empire), please feel free. If you also want to somehow include the Dancestors and/or Calliope, that is cool too.
9. And now a short list of background ships NOT to use! I do not want Vriska/Tavros in any quadrant. I do not want Eridan/Feferi either pale or flushed (though pitch and ashen are fine). I do not want Vriska/Kanaya in any quadrant. If you have an idea that involves the alpha kids, I do not want Dirk in a sexual relationship with any female character, though he can be as conciliatory as he wants with anyone; for similar reasons, I do not want Kanaya in a sexual relationship with any male character. I do not want to see Caliborn shipped with anyone, and in fact would appreciate him not appearing at all. The same goes for Cronus. Hmm. And if you're writing the Dave<>Kanaya prompt, please do not ship Dave with Tavros. Everything else is fine.
Okay. On to specific prompts!
---------------
1. Feferi, Karkat, and politics
In a no-Sgrub AU, Karkat and Feferi get to know each other via political and ethical arguments, and wind up pale and making plans to reform the empire once she inherits. This could focus either on the slow getting-together part (and the attendant complications of Feferi's unstable moirallegiance with Eridan, and Karkat's tendency to grumpily pale-crush on the entire universe) or on the way their relationship functions once established and they face some big stressful event, like the impending stress of Conscription and Feferi's battle with the Condesce or the political fallout thereafter. (If you want to take this in a tragic direction, you might try setting the action on Beforus and toss in some foreshadowing for how Feferi's good intentions go to hell after Karkat dies.)
Basically I want to see these two make each other better through ruthlessly honest conversations. Karkat could use some of Feferi's optimism while she could use some of his cynicism. I also think that in some ways she has a clearer view of why the Alternian system needs to change (whereas Karkat has absorbed a bunch of its ideology even though that ideology has no place for him), but Karkat could explain how and why her current plans wouldn't work in practice. Convincing each other could be very good for them.
Also I just want to see them cuddle a lot, and Feferi tease Karkat about public displays of affection.
I'm not sure how this prompt would work if you're doing non-sequential art. You probably can't go wrong with a pile, though -- perhaps a semi-aquatic one? Or Feferi teaching Karkat to swim? Or leaning over his shoulder and teasing while he hands out relationship advice to everyone in their social circle? Or him helping her learn non-standard fighting techniques with her 2x3dent? Anyway, I am sure I will love whatever you come up with.
-----
2. Terezi and Vriska fail at moirallegiance
In a no-Sgrub AU, Terezi and Vriska have been vacillating around various quadrants and decide they would work best as moirails. They are mistaken. Their attempted moirallegiance collapses in utter shambles, but they manage to rebuild a new, more open version of their friendship from the wreckage. (Basically, this should be an exploration of how moirallegiance can go wrong, and what differentiates pale romance from best-friendship.)
I have said before and will doubtless say again that I do not ship Terezi and Vriska in any quadrant (except ashen with Aradia, because of reasons), but I think their friendship is one of the absolute best parts of Homestuck. That said, I do see how and why other people ship them red, black, or pale, and I think it would be very easy for Terezi and Vriska themselves to think they should formalize their friendship (which is seemingly not a concept much understood or valued on Alternia) into a romance of some type.
Except the very qualities in their relationship that make those three quadrants all seem possible (support, affection, obsession, rivalry, tendency to idealize each other combined with an equal tendency to see each other's flaws and go straight for the throat, etc.) are ones that would, I think, tend to destroy any single quadrant, unless Vriska and Terezi were willing to cut those aspects out of their relationship. And I don't think they could manage that even if they tried.
So I want to see them try, and fail, and come out of the experience having learned things about themselves and each other.
I have absolutely no idea how this prompt would work as non-sequential art, and I am sorry about that. Um. Maybe a pile-gone-wrong? But really I am at your mercy and I trust your judgment!
-----
3. Aradia, Sollux, and their neighbors
In a no-Sgrub AU, Aradia's neighbors think she's invented her "moirail" who lives in the city, because she doesn't ACT like she's either being pacified or worrying about someone else. Sollux's neighbors have similar assumptions about him and his "moirail" who lives in the middle of nowhere... until something bad happens to one of them, whereupon the other dramatically shows up, kicks ass, and saves the day. Then cue the sweet pale-fluff caretaking scene, which the rescued party not only doesn't object to but actively melts into, to the neighbors' great astonishment. (If you can manage two rescue scenarios, that would be wonderful; if only one, please have Aradia save Sollux.)
This is totally the cheesy soap opera prompt, and I am unashamed. :D The more gossip and ridiculous dramatic incidents you can work in, the better. It would be even better if Sollux and Aradia are aware of their neighbors' disbelief, and take the opportunity to engage in some epic trolling along the way. :DDD
If you are doing non-sequential art, a picture of the dramatic rescue or dramatic conciliation thereafter (with shocked neighbors looking on) would be lovely. :)
-----
4. Dave and Kanaya bond on the meteor
And lastly an actual canon-based AU! What if, during the years on the meteor, Dave and Kanaya had actually talked to each other? And bonded over fashion, worry about Rose, their mutual senses of dislocation and lack of purpose and/or inability to fulfill what the universe seems to think should be their purpose, and other stuff like that. Somewhere along the line, Kanaya realizes she wants this to be an official quadrant. Dave panics, because aliens, what do??? and also he's still feeling kind of burned over Terezi. But they talk it out and are ready to face the future together.
I am just really sad that they apparently spent three years never talking, aside from the minimally polite mouth noises necessary when sharing a public space. I think Kanaya and Dave have a lot to offer each other! I think they could really help each other deal with their respective insecurities, particularly since they are insecure in different enough directions that they would each have some perspective on the other person's issues. And they are both artsy-craftsy kinds of people (in radically different media, and with radically different aesthetics, true, but still) and I think that doing constructive stuff in partnership would be very good for them both.
For non-sequential art, I'd love a picture of Dave and Kanaya chatting in a pile of fabric and terrible selfies, or maybe Dave acting as Kanaya's sewing dummy. (Actually, Kanaya acting as Dave's sewing dummy -- or Dave posing for Kanaya to take photographs -- would be a really cool way of showing them trying out each other's hobbies.)
---------------
And that is that! Once again, thank you in advance and best of luck in your creative endeavors. ♥
-----
Note: I am repurposing my stock Yuletide letter here, which is why some of the sections may seem slightly off-topic for a tightly-focused single fandom exchange.
Hi, and thank you in advance for creating a story or artwork for me! I'm pretty easy to please -- unless you write a context-free sex scene, I'll be thrilled just to get something in response to one of my prompts. Optional details are optional, after all! *grin* But I realize that's not terribly helpful, so here's the (very!) long version. (I am sorry for the tl;dr, but I like to talk about things I love and I figure more details are better than fewer.)
---------------
General Information:
1. I will read anything when it comes to pairings, so long as you put in a bit of character development so the relationships don't seem to come out of nowhere, but I tend to skim sex scenes because the non-sex parts of the story are almost always more interesting to me. What this means in the context of Palestuck is that you can do almost whatever you want with background pairings and I will be fine with your choices. (I will tell you my handful of NoTPs later in this post.)
2. I enjoy all kinds of genres and moods, from schmoopy fluff to angsty deathfic, but my favorite endings are bittersweet and a little complicated. (For this particular exchange, I would prefer prompts #3 and #4 to lean toward the happy end of the scale, and for prompt #2 to end hopefully after much angst, but prompt #1 can have a downbeat/tragic/ominous-foreshadowy ending if you want.)
3. I fall in love with worlds and themes as much as I fall in love with characters, if not more, so any world-building you can sneak in around the edges of a story or in the background details of a picture will be received with great joy.
4. Stuff I really, really like: This can be boiled down to, 'Please treat characters as intelligent people who have understandable motives for their actions, please take the worlds seriously as settings, and please remember that there's more to relationships than sex. Also, ethics, metaphysics, and world-building are dead cool.'
5. Stuff I'm not so keen on: authorial hatred for characters seeping into the narrative; sex or romantic love with no in-story justification; gratuitous angst/torture/rape (i.e., bad stuff that comes out of nowhere and is not necessary to make the plot or character arc work); idiot plots (i.e., problems that could be solved in five minutes if the characters asked one or two obvious questions); and predestination, prophecies, and anything else that denies free will. (I admit that that last dislike is tricky since Homestuck is practically built on predestination paradoxes, but if you include any, please let the characters be annoyed at the constriction of their choices.)
6. If you want more information on what I think about Homestuck, here is all my Homestuck fic, and here is my homestuck tag on this journal.
7. I do NOT want any of my requested pale relationships to be sexualized. I am, however, a huge sucker for nonsexual gestures of physical intimacy, like hugs and hair-brushing and fingernail-painting and whatever else you can think of along those lines. :)
8. Three of my prompts are for a no-Sgrub AU, but if you want to include the beta and alpha kids in those scenarios (either as trolls, or as aliens in contact with the Alternian/Beforan empire), please feel free. If you also want to somehow include the Dancestors and/or Calliope, that is cool too.
9. And now a short list of background ships NOT to use! I do not want Vriska/Tavros in any quadrant. I do not want Eridan/Feferi either pale or flushed (though pitch and ashen are fine). I do not want Vriska/Kanaya in any quadrant. If you have an idea that involves the alpha kids, I do not want Dirk in a sexual relationship with any female character, though he can be as conciliatory as he wants with anyone; for similar reasons, I do not want Kanaya in a sexual relationship with any male character. I do not want to see Caliborn shipped with anyone, and in fact would appreciate him not appearing at all. The same goes for Cronus. Hmm. And if you're writing the Dave<>Kanaya prompt, please do not ship Dave with Tavros. Everything else is fine.
Okay. On to specific prompts!
---------------
1. Feferi, Karkat, and politics
In a no-Sgrub AU, Karkat and Feferi get to know each other via political and ethical arguments, and wind up pale and making plans to reform the empire once she inherits. This could focus either on the slow getting-together part (and the attendant complications of Feferi's unstable moirallegiance with Eridan, and Karkat's tendency to grumpily pale-crush on the entire universe) or on the way their relationship functions once established and they face some big stressful event, like the impending stress of Conscription and Feferi's battle with the Condesce or the political fallout thereafter. (If you want to take this in a tragic direction, you might try setting the action on Beforus and toss in some foreshadowing for how Feferi's good intentions go to hell after Karkat dies.)
Basically I want to see these two make each other better through ruthlessly honest conversations. Karkat could use some of Feferi's optimism while she could use some of his cynicism. I also think that in some ways she has a clearer view of why the Alternian system needs to change (whereas Karkat has absorbed a bunch of its ideology even though that ideology has no place for him), but Karkat could explain how and why her current plans wouldn't work in practice. Convincing each other could be very good for them.
Also I just want to see them cuddle a lot, and Feferi tease Karkat about public displays of affection.
I'm not sure how this prompt would work if you're doing non-sequential art. You probably can't go wrong with a pile, though -- perhaps a semi-aquatic one? Or Feferi teaching Karkat to swim? Or leaning over his shoulder and teasing while he hands out relationship advice to everyone in their social circle? Or him helping her learn non-standard fighting techniques with her 2x3dent? Anyway, I am sure I will love whatever you come up with.
-----
2. Terezi and Vriska fail at moirallegiance
In a no-Sgrub AU, Terezi and Vriska have been vacillating around various quadrants and decide they would work best as moirails. They are mistaken. Their attempted moirallegiance collapses in utter shambles, but they manage to rebuild a new, more open version of their friendship from the wreckage. (Basically, this should be an exploration of how moirallegiance can go wrong, and what differentiates pale romance from best-friendship.)
I have said before and will doubtless say again that I do not ship Terezi and Vriska in any quadrant (except ashen with Aradia, because of reasons), but I think their friendship is one of the absolute best parts of Homestuck. That said, I do see how and why other people ship them red, black, or pale, and I think it would be very easy for Terezi and Vriska themselves to think they should formalize their friendship (which is seemingly not a concept much understood or valued on Alternia) into a romance of some type.
Except the very qualities in their relationship that make those three quadrants all seem possible (support, affection, obsession, rivalry, tendency to idealize each other combined with an equal tendency to see each other's flaws and go straight for the throat, etc.) are ones that would, I think, tend to destroy any single quadrant, unless Vriska and Terezi were willing to cut those aspects out of their relationship. And I don't think they could manage that even if they tried.
So I want to see them try, and fail, and come out of the experience having learned things about themselves and each other.
I have absolutely no idea how this prompt would work as non-sequential art, and I am sorry about that. Um. Maybe a pile-gone-wrong? But really I am at your mercy and I trust your judgment!
-----
3. Aradia, Sollux, and their neighbors
In a no-Sgrub AU, Aradia's neighbors think she's invented her "moirail" who lives in the city, because she doesn't ACT like she's either being pacified or worrying about someone else. Sollux's neighbors have similar assumptions about him and his "moirail" who lives in the middle of nowhere... until something bad happens to one of them, whereupon the other dramatically shows up, kicks ass, and saves the day. Then cue the sweet pale-fluff caretaking scene, which the rescued party not only doesn't object to but actively melts into, to the neighbors' great astonishment. (If you can manage two rescue scenarios, that would be wonderful; if only one, please have Aradia save Sollux.)
This is totally the cheesy soap opera prompt, and I am unashamed. :D The more gossip and ridiculous dramatic incidents you can work in, the better. It would be even better if Sollux and Aradia are aware of their neighbors' disbelief, and take the opportunity to engage in some epic trolling along the way. :DDD
If you are doing non-sequential art, a picture of the dramatic rescue or dramatic conciliation thereafter (with shocked neighbors looking on) would be lovely. :)
-----
4. Dave and Kanaya bond on the meteor
And lastly an actual canon-based AU! What if, during the years on the meteor, Dave and Kanaya had actually talked to each other? And bonded over fashion, worry about Rose, their mutual senses of dislocation and lack of purpose and/or inability to fulfill what the universe seems to think should be their purpose, and other stuff like that. Somewhere along the line, Kanaya realizes she wants this to be an official quadrant. Dave panics, because aliens, what do??? and also he's still feeling kind of burned over Terezi. But they talk it out and are ready to face the future together.
I am just really sad that they apparently spent three years never talking, aside from the minimally polite mouth noises necessary when sharing a public space. I think Kanaya and Dave have a lot to offer each other! I think they could really help each other deal with their respective insecurities, particularly since they are insecure in different enough directions that they would each have some perspective on the other person's issues. And they are both artsy-craftsy kinds of people (in radically different media, and with radically different aesthetics, true, but still) and I think that doing constructive stuff in partnership would be very good for them both.
For non-sequential art, I'd love a picture of Dave and Kanaya chatting in a pile of fabric and terrible selfies, or maybe Dave acting as Kanaya's sewing dummy. (Actually, Kanaya acting as Dave's sewing dummy -- or Dave posing for Kanaya to take photographs -- would be a really cool way of showing them trying out each other's hobbies.)
---------------
And that is that! Once again, thank you in advance and best of luck in your creative endeavors. ♥