dye_ann

Dear Worldbuilder (alright this is officially the coolest title),

In this letter you will find my list of General likes (specially trimmed for world-building purposes), my DNW, and some prompts. Just so you know, I nominated most of the things I’m asking for, so feel free to ignore those prompts and go straight for what you had in mind when you offered the WB element in question : most of them are precise enough that they’ll act as prompts, and anything you want to do with them will make me happy. And if you feel like you need to bring this or that character in, be my guest.

Here’s my AO3 account, if you’d like to know me better: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beatrice_Sank/works

Likes

World-building likes: alternative story-telling forms (letters, found manuscripts or records, outsider point of view, montage of various documents…), period-appropriate details, conflicting hypotheses and theories about how things work in universe, nerdiness, minority-related themes (feminist and queer takes and the likes), lush descriptions of things (also known as __!porn, e.g. architectural porn, landscape porn, whatever), literary allusions, elaboration on what the characters like to read/listen to/watch, backstory.

I’m always happy to read something that reflects the author’s field of expertise or culture, so don’t hesitate to do that if you want (some of the prompts specifically invite you to do so).

Other likes: mystery, bittersweet atmospheres, banter, sensory notations, plottiness, experimental writing, conflicting world-views and people having their reasons, competent characters (especially female characters), found families, magical realism.

Ship-wise (not sure it will be relevant for this exchange, but I leave it here from other letters just in case you’re in the mood for shippy world-building): romantic and sexual tension (resolved or unresolved), pinning, slow burn, friends/enemies to lovers, fake/pretend relationships, accidental proximity.

All the Wrong Questions

Stain'd-by-the-Sea and VFD

Anything about the history of relationships between townsfolk and VFD members over time.

- I’m curious to know who else in town might secretly be a member, and how they might have worked behind the scenes for the whole time Lemony was there. Was he secretly assessed, was his supervisor secretly supervised/ assessed? I’m up for ridiculously complex hierarchical structures in true VFD style (or hierarchies that are pretending not to be there).

- Stain’d seems isolated from the world, so I’m also curious what people there might make of VFD and VFD values. How do they intersect or clash with the town’s issues (economical and otherwise)?

- And how do those relationships evolve? Was there a time when the town was more of a VFD base, and a time when things all went south and VFD wasn’t welcomed there anymore? What of the schism? Any character’s point of view on those issues would suit me, as well as conflicted points of views and, of course, fragmentary plots.

- Did members of VFD work in Stain’d at other points in time to solve some of its issues (or make them worse)? I’m thinking about the missing ocean, but it would be anything (Ink Inc, the failing justice system...)

Stain'd-by-the-Sea after canon

- Does it get better, or worse? What about the ecological issues Hangfire was concerned about? What about Cleo’s plans for Ink Inc? And what of Ellington’s role in the future of the town? I imagine her grief and anger will likely have consequences too.

- Does Stain’d develop other sources of income (I’m thinking perhaps something more “modern” that invisible ink, but whatever might work in canon)? Or does the town finally fades away completely? I’m very up for something like “How Stain’d-by-the-Sea disappeared”, and what remained in the end.

Stain'd-by-the-Sea local newspaper

I would love a story revolving around the publishing of an issue of Stain’d newspaper or just the actual issue itself.

- Something from the time Moxie’s mother was still around, and the town was flourishing? How was the local news, then? You can get wild with this one: what about the gossip column, recipes, crosswords or games, reports about what’s going on outside of Stain’d, and so on. I imagine it would be at least a little weird, or at least very much informed by a Stain’dian perspective.

- Same prompt, but with Moxie as the director of publication. Maybe she revives it after canon, and it’s grimmer in tone, or it shows she has changed after Lemony’s departure? I’d like to get a sense of Moxie’s evolution through her editing choices. And who is she working with on this?

DNW: Non-con, underage, graphic violence, anything that you might want to rate E, in fact.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

Academic production of VFD members

- A peer-reviewed VFD paper: I’m sure they would give a new meaning to “double-blind reviews”. And what if they only give feedback in code? Any oddities, absurd level of complexity, chaotic structure, power play

- Several volunteers working on a collective paper, but they have conflicted views about the subject at hands.

- Two people fighting via research articles, responding to each other, and it gets very personal pretty soon (I think Kit and Olaf would work well for that, Olaf and Lemony as well: if you want to go further with those relationships, bitter exes or otherwise, I’m open to anything).

- For suggestions of possible research topics that I would be into: literature, the library system, codes in literature and the fine arts, fire (I mean this cursed add is probably from a VFD member anyway), sociology of VFD (a Bourdieu-style inquiry would be nice), History of the Great Failures of VFD, history of codes, philosophical zoology (the Great Unknown), VFD folklore.

History of VFD

- Anything about The Distant Past! I’m sure the organization has existed for a long time, even informally. Any idea about its origins? I’m curious to know how the volunteers operated, say, in Victorian England, or in medieval times, or anything of the sort.

- Any origin tale of the Schism, or versions of what people think happened.

- The books (and the Unauthorized Autobiography) gives the impression that volunteers were often very young, and I would be curious to read something about that, the fact that they recruited children, and what role it played in the organization’s history.

- Traces of VFD in Official History that are only visible to the trained eye (eg: the Great Fire of London was about them from the start, something was up in the Library of Alexandria too, that sort of things).

In-universe interpretations of the sugar bowl

Emphasis on the plural here: it’s totally okay if you want to suggest that one option is the right one, but I’d like to read about debates and questions and doubts over that damned bowl too!

- I can just picture VFD members losing their time arguing about the true nature of the sugar bowl, perhaps in a quasi theological way, rather than trying to fix their problems or actually trying to retrieve the bowl.

- a VFD recipe about the sugar bowl, and it turns sour.

- An academic paper or a conference would be a good way to explore the subject too, especially if you want to write about the future of VFD and people trying to find out what the hell this whole sugar bowl thing was about.

- Speaking of the future, imagine the sugar bowl becomes, I don’t know, a myth, something grand and undecipherable for future VFD generations, a symbol used in poetry, much like the Arthurian Grail...

DNW: Non-con, underage, graphic violence.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell & Related Fandoms

Female magicians outside of Britain

So we know a few things about Brisith female magicians from canon (Catherine of Winchester, Maria Absalom, the Ladies of Grace Adieu), but I’m curious about the situation abroad. For example, they mention at some point Napoleon was looking for a magician of his own but was unable to find one on the continent: but I bet they weren’t looking for a woman…

Here I would be interested on anything you might invent about female magicians at the time of canon anywhere in the world, so feel free to use your own culture or to write about whatever area of the world you know best. For example, I would be cool to look into traditionally female fields of expertise (like lace-making or cooking or midwifing and the likes) and see what magic might be hidden there.

I really enjoyed the idea that female magic would be less noticeable, hidden or ignored because of the historical and social context: is that the case elsewhere in the world? Do we have like, secret society of female magicians in Italy or Poland or Uruguay? Or are they doing magic in the open in some places? What about the colonies? I’m up for anything political there, in the canon’s spirit.

In-universe parodies and lampoons of Gilbert Norrell and Jonathan Strange

(Very optional ship: Jonathan Strange/Mr Norrell)

Okay so this is a weird one, but consider. Norrell and Strange are extremely famous in England, we know there are etching of them, probably portraits circulating too, so I’m thinking there must be caricatures and offensive lampoons circulating too.

- I’m sure English magic doesn’t only have friends: about about its enemies? What scathing critics do they address to Norrell and/or Strange, what is their game. Do they have different views about magic, or do they simply want to abolish it? I’d love to read a lampoon attacking Strange and Norrell’s positions on magic, bonus points if it’s partially bullshit and partially super on point ^^.

- The comedic potential of Strange and/or Norrell (or other characters) seeing themselves caricatured in a text or in a play.

- Lampoons are often filled with lewd allusions and sexual accusations, so what if Norrell and/or Strange chanced upon something that accuses them of sleeping together? Hilarity and awkwardness could ensue. I’m up for any scenario: they aren’t sleeping together and the thought is appalling to them (but it might be funny to other people, I’m thinking Childermass, but really whoever you want); they aren’t sleeping together, but one of them is pining ; or maybe both of them; or maybe they are sleeping together, but it’s certainly not respectable to see it printed in cheap ink! If you want to add actual porn to this, be my guest.

- Honestly, anything you can come up with that will make me laugh.

Influence of magic on the British literary canon

So, JS&MN as well as some parts of Ladies of Grace Adieu (especially “Mr. Simonelli or the Fairy Widower ») famously read like Jane Austen, but with magic. I would really love to read something like an anthology of British literature after magic is revived in England. The excepts and authors could be invented (maybe new authors entered the canon, it’s alternative history after all). Or maybe the well-known texts got altered because magic was rediscovered. I mean, I’m curious about what Dickens, or Alice in Wonderland, or Jane Eyre, or modernist literature (oh my God, Woolf) might become in a context where magic is part of society.

Alternatively, does Norrell and Strange’s life and fate influence literary history? Do they become the model for something like a new type of Byronic hero? Do famous authors write about them (poems, plays, novels…)?

DNW: non-con, underage.

Piranesi

Academic production of the characters

- I’d like to read other takes on the nature of the House, by other characters than Arne-Sayles. Extracts from papers by both people from his side and people with different views would be very cool, with perhaps even weirder takes (I’m sure Sylvia would have her own way of describing things for example, no matter how influenced she is by Arne-Sayles).

- I’m also curious about Angharad Scott’s work: I’m sure all her work isn’t just biographies. Does she have an unpublished, sulfurous piece about magic or alternate sources of knowledge hidden somewhere in her attic? And what about her biography work?

- Same goes for all the nominated characters: give me Matthew’s account of marginal science, or perhaps his new projects once he’s well enough to go back to research (that is, if he goes back to it: if he doesn’t, maybe a farewell paper?)

- What about the Dead. Some of them must have been scholars. Did some of them write about the House? Do they still murmur theory to each other at night?

Sylvia d'Agostino's artistic works

- Anything elaborating on The Castle, Sylvia’s movie about the House, or other movies she might have shot. Or her poems, or anything she might have produced.

- I’m also interested about pieces alluding at the suffering she experienced at Arne-Sayles’s hands, so it can get dark too.

- What about her missing works, things she could have written after she disappeared, before she died?

The Dead

- Any take on who they are, especially the oldest skeleton. It doesn’t have to be set in stone, it can remains mysterious and hypothetical.

- Honestly I would love to read some grim guide of the various ways to die inside the House. A dark anthology of sorts.

DNW: Non-con, underage.

Mary Poppins

The international society of magical nannies

(Very optional ship: I ship Mary/Winifred, so if that’s your thing and you want to fit them into this, feel free)

I didn’t nominate this but boy, do I love the idea. It evokes vivid images of flying nannies from every country, dressed in various ways, with various educational principles.

- Do they have a yearly convention somewhere? Does Mary Poppins have friends there, and how is it to be friends with magical nannies? I would love if you could keep her in character (a bit stiff, a bit restrained, a bit cold) while at the same time having her interact with her peers, who are probably, if not like her, strange in their own ways. Do magical nannies feel lonely sometimes? I would be up for something melancholic but also for found families and solidarity.

- Is this international society a hierarchical structure? Do they edict rules? Is it democratic, are debates taking place? What is Mary’s place in this? Anything where she gets to be a speaker.

- Alternatively, I would love for Mary to take any of the other characters to a meeting (especially Winifred, because of the parallels with the suffragettes’ meetings, but all the others would be nice too). It could be an adventure of sorts, or a life-changing experience.

DNW: Non-con, underage, graphic depiction of violence.