spring_gloom | Yuletide 2019 Letter (Reply)

Note: My editing is done!

Hello Yule-person and welcome to my letter! I am pleased that you made it here and I thank you for your hard work.

Please know that I would be equally thrilled to get fic from any of my requested fandoms. My letters are usually just me rambling about stuff I like, so here we go.

General stuff: In each fandom I've requested this year, I ship the two characters I've requested. If you don't want to ship them, I'd still like fic that explores the bond/relationship between them. I also just realised that in every pair of characters I nominated this year, I'm down for some one-way unrequited love. Every request is basically: 'Here are the things that break my heart. Please either fix it or break it further.' I have no upper limit for rating, so get as smutty and/or murderous as you like. I'm equally comfortable with dark tragedy, cute fluff, and silly humour - whatever tone suits your idea.

Likes: adventure, angst, casefic, character-driven plot, episode-related, fake dating (e.g. undercover), first time/getting together, friends to lovers, goofy hijinks, hurt/comfort, missing scenes, pining, sexual tension, slash and femslash (of course), whump. I am a dork and I like sad tenderness.

Dislikes/DNWs: details about pregnancy, mpreg, kidfic, injection details, medical kink, omegaverse (A/B/O), graphic noncon (mentioning non-consensual things is fine if it's relevant, dubcon is fine). I am not particularly keen on the 'only gay for you' trope (things that are 100% fine and that do not count as this trope include: character is bi/gay but has barely explored it, character is hardly ever attracted to anyone at all anyway, character struggles with internalised homophobia). I'd rather not have an AU that involves a completely different setting (e.g. canon diverging is totally fine, coffee shop AU is not for me). Please treat canon female characters fairly.

80 Days: Jean Passepartout, Phileas Fogg

80 Days has kind of been my 'default' game for a a year or so now. When I want to chill and play something absorbing for a few hours, I just take another trip around the world. I really appreciate all the beautiful characters, stories, and locations that I can uncover. It's kind of odd that it is my de-stress game, because the plots can be exciting, and scary, and heartbreaking. (For example: the end of the moon story is so upsetting. Excuse me, I have something in my eye.)

I usually play my Passepartout as open-minded, resourceful, and a good valet. Somewhere along the line, I also started playing him as extremely devoted to Fogg in a not-strictly-platonic way. There are a lot of opportunities to do this in the game and you can bet that I take them all. I'm pretty invested in this being at least a one-sided affection. That said, I have still pursued Passepartout's other romance stories too because there are some really lovely ones (and it's nice for him to have his affections properly returned sometimes). Between the private confession Passepartout can make about his feelings for Fogg and the Vitti Jokinen romance, I feel extremely spoiled for choice on the Arctic voyage. Some of the most tender narration appears in long voyages and dramatic segments like that. Many of my favourite moments involve Passepartout going above and beyond for Fogg in times of trouble or when facing death.

Events during travel and in cities often only give us a snippet of what happened. I'd love some expansion on one of the game's many events or its aftermath. Private moments or missing scenes. It would also be interesting to hear about the lives of Fogg or Passepartout after they return from the trip - successful or not. Does Fogg launch the big adventure that he announces at the end of a completed game? Going back to Fogg's regular London life might leave Passepartout feeling restless and Fogg, despite himself, might have become accustomed to adventure too. What would become of a Fogg and Passepartout who took too much time and spent too much money? Fogg does not seem like a man who would cope well with financial ruin, but he may also be resourceful enough to get out of it. And a specifically shippy question: how would the impassive Fogg return his man's affection?

Animamundi Dark Alchemist: Francis Dashwood, Georik Zaberisk

I didn't nominate Animamundi, which means someone besides me still cares about this game! This game stuck with me because I love the Faustian gothic horror setting that borrows liberally from a variety of sources. The cast (and their seiyuu) are great and it's quite different to that first handful of BL games that were translated into English. (Do you remember those days? I remember those days.) One big reason I'm still invested today is that I loved Dashwood and his relationship with Georik. It may not be the most thematically grand one in the game, but the tragedy of it really hooked me in. I'm into the angst but I'm also very into the idea of fixing it and making everything (relatively) okay. Doesn't he deserver something nice, even if it's only for a little while?

I'm going to go ahead and assume you're down with slash if you're writing for Animamundi. Dashwood's love for Georik is canon, so please keep that. Anyway, he was my favourite character in the game besides Georik and boy does he have An Ending (or more accurately: Endings). Dashwood is introduced to us as a self-interested sleazy underworld type and Georik never really understands that there's more to him until it's too late. I love the moments along the way where Dashwood drops his usual act and lets his concern show. Or when Georik takes a rare moment to ask Dashwood about his injuries. And, on a less tender note, I enjoy that goofy Fake-Out Make-Out bit in the Hellfire Club a lot.

Given how Dashwood's end goes, you may need some sort of magic/Hell-dwelling/canon diverging/timeline shenanigans to make this work as a requited ship, all of which is possible in the game's setting. Or you can keep canon as it is and just fill in some gaps! Dashwood's idea of the relationship he wants with Georik (a new 'Master' to take him away) is not at all healthy but, given his past, that may be the only way he could conceive of it. I wonder if that idea would shift if his affection was reciprocated.

This was a bit of an aimless ramble, so I'll gather some suggestions together: Missing G/D scene, Dashwood's thoughts on canon events, divergence of Dashwood's route where he lives, post-canon fix.

Crusade: Galen, Matthew Gideon

As we all know, Crusade was cut tragically short. Because of this, Crusade 'official canon' is ridiculous and some of it doesn't even line up with itself so use whatever you'd like/whatever you've experienced when writing. I've read the Techno-Mage Trilogy and the unfilmed scripts, so feel free to reference those if you've read them. If you're interested in a quick summary of official canon, including some stuff that wasn't in the show, the 'G' chapter of the Babylon 5 Encyclopedia is available for free! Both Gideon and Galen included.

Firstly, I will say that I ship these two mutually or unrequited on the part of Galen. Of course, you don't have to write it romantically if that is not your thing. I just really like both characters and whatever it is they have together. They are both very guarded people but extend each other a rare trust (okay, almost-trust), which is extra interesting given that they are keeping big things from each other.

(Part of this impression is informed by the Techno-Mage Trilogy.) Galen isn't great at people and has not been close to very many. Adding to that, almost everyone in that category is dead. After basically a lifetime of suppressing emotions to various degrees, he has only started to be more at ease with them in the last five or so years. He cares about helping humanity and he also cares about the man he rescued all those years ago. Hence the whole "I would consider it... if you should ask. (Please ask.)" routine in 'War Zone'. And "I have a home" in 'The Long Road'. And when he says he came to rely on Gideon (and, uh, everyone else I guess) in 'Memory of War'. There's also the implication in the books that he's occasionally been keeping tabs on Gideon ever since rescuing him, mostly to see how he's doing. The fact that he's the only main character who calls Gideon 'Matthew' (I think?). Anyway, it's my opinion that Galen doesn't get into personal relationships easily at all and it's significant he specifically chose this one.

Gideon is tricky. We see him taking charge in his own particular way in War Zone, but he's really not typical Captain (or military) material with his gambling, risk-taking, distrustfulness, and contempt for authority. I'm not sure how much of his personality was shaped by the dual traumas of being left in space to die and then being interrogated and disbelieved about that event, but I suspect it's probably a lot. Somehow, surprisingly, he still rose from Ensign to Captain within eight years. I can't imagine he agreed with the Earth Alliance under President Clark - partly because his treatment after being rescued made him quite cynical, partly because we know he later admires John Sheridan. There really is a lot we still don't know about Gideon and his inner life. All I know is that he has some amount of hesitant trust for the man who appeared during the most traumatic event of his life.

There are honestly so many questions this show leaves us with. What other other weird planets did they visit before the unfilmed season finale? What the hell is the Apocalypse Box, anyway? How do they cure the Drakh plague? What happens to Gideon after the unfilmed finale? (And like a billion more.) If you are going the non-shipping route with these two, I'd appreciate it if they weren't put into any other non-canon ships. Gideon and Lochley's relationship is fine to mention, but I'd prefer it wasn't a main focus (p.s. I will never ever object to lesbian Lochley). Galen and Isabelle is fine in any capacity - I actually really like book-Isabelle.

I'll just leave this little snippet from the unfilmed 'End of the Line' right here...

GIDEON
Is that why you saved my life ten years ago, Galen? And why you've stayed so close to me ever since? Because you knew that I was a connection to that technology? That sooner or later I'd lead you to it?
(beat)
All this time, Galen... have you just been using me?

Galen looks to him ... and he is wounded by the thought. Saddened more than angered ... just as Gideon is more saddened than angry to ask the question.

GALEN
What does your heart tell you?

GIDEON
Not to trust anyone. Ever again. For any reason.

[...a little more dialogue]

Galen nods, and moves off. We HOLD on Gideon, who feels that he has lost the only friend he had, the only one he could count on.

Hotel Dusk: Brian Bradley, Kyle Hyde

Note: The details below spoil some of the main mystery of the first game, so be warned if you haven't played.

Duos who solve crimes together make up a ridiculous proportion of my favourite ships. Most likely because I like mysteries and making close working partnerships non-platonic. This is a little different because their entire relationship is pre-canon, but this feels like it's in much the same category but with the bonus angst of betrayal. Basically, I'd like something about their relationship to each other (shippy or platonic). I personally headcanon Kyle Hyde as gay and in love with Bradley, reciprocated or not, but you do not have to. Given the characters I picked, I am extremely down for a lot of sad and lonely feels. Don't let that stop you from writing happy stuff if you want to though, because that would be a nice change of pace from canon and entirely welcome too. Also, in case it's ambiguous: Bradley doesn't have to actually appear in the fic - the brief is definitely fulfilled if he's a major theme.

One thing that would be cool is some pre-game 70s cop stuff from back when they were partners in the NYPD, before or during the Nile investigation. There's not a lot to go on, but there's a cute bit in Last Window where Kyle reminisces with Tony about spending time with his 'friend' at the pool hall, and how he used to be quite different (slick.. maybe he could even be mistaken for cool). They were obviously close, so things must've started to change between them when Bradley took the Nile undercover job. Kyle could have noticed him acting weird and convinced himself that it was just job pressure, or maybe he suspected Bradley but couldn't bring himself to do anything about it. Perhaps he just wasn't as observant of people back then and feeling like he didn't notice something so major caused him to step up his game.

1976-79 would have been really rough. What was Kyle going through when he quit the police force and decided to search for Bradley? Given that Kyle spent those three years leading up to Hotel Dusk looking for Bradley and trying to find the truth about his old partner, would he really drop the search forever just because Bradley told him to stop? Even after knowing the full story, I wonder if he could be completely satisfied with that. The man's still looking pretty rough when we see him again in Last Window, although that may just be how he is.

I've played Last Window too, so feel free to reference anything you'd like from that, or incorporate it into your timeline.