July 14th, 2020

rthstewart: (Default)
Tuesday, July 14th, 2020 11:27 pm

My sign ups tend to be pretty similar year after year for the NFE.  I'm nothing if not predictable. Ignore Last Battle. Just about anything else is OK though I'm not a fan of Jadis or the Telmarine era.

So, first, thanks so much!  Despite the character-centric match up, the fact is, I’m pretty agnostic as to characters for the NFE. (with a couple of new exceptions as explained below).  Anon posting is enabled here so if you have any questions, drop a line.

Truly, whatever we've been matched on, don't worry because I like just about anything and what I don't like has to do with tone and characterization, not particular characters.  

As to the Friends of Narnia, I like them all, so basically any and/or all Pevensies, Eustace, Jill, Digory and/or Polly.  Mr. and Mrs. Pevensie are great too.  I'd like at least one of the Friends in it somewhere but feel free to add others. 

Something I really love about Narnia (and what I assume the Friends bring back to England) is the sense of wild diversity and inclusiveness.  The victory romp in PC is my idea of the very best of Narnia.  I love to see that abundance, acceptance, vibrancy, passion, color, and exuberance in a story.  If you go in this direction, feel free to introduce human and non-human OCs, non-binary characters and characters that are LGBTQA, BIPOC, neuro-atypical, and not human, etc.  if you like, THROW A BIG PARTY.

I generally prefer adults or adults in children's bodies -- in other words, they can be  young in appearance but old in terms of years lived, wisdom and experience.  From my previous prompts, you can glean the following, and I'm surprised at how little they've changed

What I also love:
  • UST; witty banter and snark; Politics, finance or military strategy; World War 2; Worldbuilding; Gap-filling; Culture clash (within Narnia or Narnia vs. Spare Oom); healthy, romantic relationship between exuberantly consenting adults (canon pairing or OC); someone being extraordinarily clever and getting out of a jam; any Narnian (Pevensie or otherwise) observed from a third person point of view; anything sly, wry, and silly; rapid fire dialogue; a delightful sense of the absurd
  • A happy ending, delightful characterization, and to laugh at least once
  • Pagan and/or mythological influences;
  • Adults and old souls in young bodies;
  • A Narnia with creaky wheels, the faint smell of manure, the stronger odor of wet livestock and dogs, grass stains, bare feet, pollen, open windows, and lots of animal hair and feathers
  • I prefer humor over angst and sex over violence.
  • Cross-overs! 
  •  AU and canon divergence is great too.  A Golden Age > 15 years, so, therefore I'd love an AU look with adult Pevensies, OC consorts, and the next gen.  Similarly, I’d love a Spare Oom AU with a happily ever after and no train crash
  • I'd be very happy if you just ignore TLB completely. 
  • I prefer Golden Age and the period around PC and VoDT is great too, so long as there is at least one Friend of Narnia in it. 
  • I have a huge body of Narnia work so if there's something that you want to explore, please go ahead.  I'd love that too. 

 What I definitely don't want in my fic: it's a short list but pretty strongly held:  excessive angst, gore or violence; any dub-con whatsoever; Susan written as "Fallen Away From Narnia because of Lipstick and Nylons"; Lucy sidelined or being protected by her overbearing big brothers and worry-wart sister.  I don't want female characters and especially WOC sidelined in favor of a white m/m pairing (with the exception this year of the Edmund/Faramir request -- more on that below).

As to ratings, for the NFE I prefer gen or T up to M for sexual (not violence) content with fade to black.  In terms of pairings, I generally prefer f/f, f/m and poly - or no pairing at all. 

My crack prompts that are very (and for me uncharacteristically) character-centric:
The Narnia/ASOFAI, with a special request for either Peter/Sansa or Arya + Lucy (or Arya/Lucy).  Last year there was a terrific fic that flirted with Peter/Sansa and then the characters got all duty bound and noble and broke it off, each returning to their respective lands to rule wisely.  Which was completely the right decision but broke my shippy little heart.  I just feel that there's so much potential, with Sansa maybe meeting a true Knight (as Edmund describes Peter in PC).  And personal head canon is that Peter has some pretty significant trust issues himself with regard to potential consorts who are more interested in Narnia than in him.  I think they both would acutely feel the duty to produce heirs and really aren't terribly enthusiastic about it, at first.  This could be politics and arrangements that turns into something more; frienemies or enemies or friends to lovers; UST; and most of all something where each first underestimates and then learns to deeply respect the other. 

As for Arya and Lucy, this is obviously something intended for the high seas.  Maybe Lucy is a pirate queen or maybe she and Arya join forces against pirates.  Maybe they are both at port and just knock back a few in a bar and bitch about their brothers and sisters.  Lucy would be so admiring of Needle and Arya would be so admiring of Lucy's dagger.  High spirits, high jinx, swinging from the rigging.

The Narnia/LOTR is even more cracky and even less formed.  I've just adored these pairings in the three sentence ficathon, but feel free to add any others.  Faramir/Edmund is just so bookish and nerdy and oh gosh, so many big brother and daddy issues -- m/m usually isn't in my NFE requests because I'm all about the female-centric stories but I'm making an exception here.  Maybe Edmund comes to Minas Tirith to see the library.  Maybe Faramir's patrol goes WAY further afield.  Lucy/Aragorn or Lucy+Aragorn is all about darkness, fighting, spirituality, and healing.  Oh Lucy could teach Aragorn so much about faith.  And the others (Susan and ??? Elrond?  Maglor (SO MUCH ANGST) Arwen?) (Peter and Eowyn always delights me -- I always imagine Peter writing Eowyn lots of really bad poetry because he's a teenager still outgrowing his armor and just smitten but then maybe really tries to help her during the dark times leading up to the War.  Also talking Horses).  This is just 1,000 words of pure character bliss.  Could be in Narnia or ME -- maybe Narnia abuts Rohan at a distant Northern border; maybe a diplomatic mission; maybe a plea for military aid or a spy mission gone awry. 

Last, here is a moose, swimming in a very deep, very cold, alpine lake.  How did she get there?  Where is she going?  Why? https://imgur.com/a/VTyaqxv



Thank you!