Dear History Zombie

[dhampyresa]

Thank you for writing for me! I'm sure whatever you write me will be wonderful.

Feel free to poke around this journal or my Ao3 account (username: sevenofspade) if you want to. My letters tag is here.

I have three Do Not Wants: incest, rape and child abuse. When these are canon, please don't focus on them. I'd also prefer is you didn't dwell on any suicidal ideation or prolonged descriptions of grief. I would also prefer not to have to deal with people losing things important to them and toxic living arrangements, be that family or roomates. Thank you.

On the other hand, there are a lot of things I do want. Here’s a partial list. (I obviously don’t expect you to stick all of these in one story, that would be impossible.)


• Plot. I prefer it to both introspection and porn, but it doesn’t have to be a massive epic.

• Hopeful and/or bittersweet endings, just not the unrelenting grim darkness of the far future

• FRIENDSHIP FIC. You can never go wrong with friendship fic as far as I’m concerned.

• Femslash, gen, het, poly and slash! I'm honestly not difficult. Most of my prompts are gen, but if you want to take them in a shippy direction, go right ahead! I've pointed out ships I ship, but if you ship something else, I'll gladly read it. I tend to ship ALL THE SHIPS.

• Dinosaurs.

• IN SPAAAAAAAAACE AUs

• Historical AUs. If you're looking for something more specific, I'm always a sucker for the Second Punic War.

• Fandom AUs! Or better yet, fandom not!AUs, in which the canon is exactly the same, except everyone's in fandom!

• (Consider "They do yuletide [fandom exchange of your choice]" as your get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to plot.)

• Crack taken seriously.

• People on opposite side who care about each other! Whether it's enemies-turned-(grudging)-friends or friends-turned-(grudging)-enemies or any other variation on this theme, I love this trope very dearly.

• Complicated relationships and conflicted loyalties in general, really.

• Superpowers!

• Canon-divergent AUs! Allllllll the “WHAT IF” fics. ALL OF THEM.

• Identity porn! When someone (or several people) have secret identities (fannish, superheroic, all of the above, etc) and their interactions change depending on who's presenting as what at any given time.

• People being smart/competent!

• Timetravel! I love all the kinds of timetravel. The ones that create paradoxes and the ones that don't; the ones that are stable and the ones that aren't; the ones with alternate pasts/presents/futures and all the rest. Just. All the timetravel, yeah?

• Worldbuilding! Fuck yeah, worldbuilding. Tell me everything about a tiny (or not so tiny) canon detail. Show the parts of the world the canon never goes to. TELL ME ABOUT THE STORIES THEY TELL IN THAT UNIVERSE. (Seriously. Rewrite canon as a legend from that universe, that would be amazing.)

• Folktales/fairytales/etc.

• If all else fails, you can always stick any random combination of characters on a roadtrip/force them to work together and have them become friends and I will eat it up with a spoon.

I have a history tag, btw. I like history a lot.

Hannibal Barca + Scipio Africanus
An AU in which they're somehow on the same side (whichever). The Pun-ic War (I LIKE PUNS OK). IN SPAAAAAAAAAACE AU. Hannibal wins AU. He's a Carthaginian general sworn never to be a friend to Rome, he's a Roman general trying to avenge his father's death by Carthaginians, TOGETHER THEY FIGHT CRIME.

I ship them, but you can totally go gen or with other ships instead, idc. Hannibal/Maharbal? Yes. Aemilia/Scipio? Also there. Ditto Aemilia/Scipio/Hannibal.


Dido + Augustus
Sometimes I do that thing where I mention a crackship* and accidentally talk myself into being invested in it. Case in point. That said, I think they would have fascinating discussions about empire-building, making your way to the top and basically, statescraft in general. Is there tension because of the Aeneas and Carthage burning things? Are they bros in the afterlife?

* Where ship = any kind of relationship, not necessarily romantic.


Joan of Arc
Jeanne d'Arc is FASCINATING and I'm not just saying that because I'm French. Tell me about the voices and the visions -- how do they manifest? Are they real? (I'm okay any way you want to spin this, from delusion to God to some other sort of spirit -- I'm agnostic myself, but the framing of Joan as prophet is fascinating to me.)

I'd love an AU in which she never dies and by never I don't just mean 'survives teh pyre', I mean 'never'. Immortal Joan! Possibly ruling France!


Cornelia Africana
I am SO THERE for Cornelia being a badass and laying a political smackdown on whoever the fuck. But I am also here for something between her and her relatives, be that her daughter or her sons (the Gracchi -- I love them too, btw) or her sisters or her father (Scipio Africanus).

I'm really curious about how she felt about having a statue in the Field of Mars -- especially since she was probably the first woman in this position!


Hatshepsut
THE LAST KING OF EGYPT! I basically want to know everything about her and her rule and her super-complicated relationship with Tutmoses. Tell me about her being nine years old and suddenly having her father become king, out of nowhere! Tell me about her father raising her as his heir. Tell me about her spreading the tale of her divine birth.

Tell me about the women in her life, the other queens and princesses she had to deal with, be they dowager queens or secondary wives of her husband, or even her mother, sister and daughter.


Thank you so much for writing for me!

(Comments welcome.)

Comments

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

This looks like such a fun exchange! :D I hope you get a great story.