Yuletide 2023 Letter

Zhu Chongba | Zhu Yuanzhang
Her relationship to her body is so delightful. She doesn't mind its shape, because it's hers, but she knows how other people will see it, and thus takes care with her appearance so people see only what she wants them to see. I love that for her! I also love the way she refuses to believe she'll lose, and how much she wants to reorder the world so that it isn't as patriarchal—so that it has space for more women to think of themselves as powerful, and so that she can be wholly herself without any fear.

General Ouyang
His love and loyalty run so deep and it both creates him, saves him, and breaks him. I adore him. I'm fascinated by his own relationship to his body: he hates what was done to him yet takes pride in what he has accomplished despite his smaller frame and the feminity people see written into his flesh. In HWDTW in particular, I'm obssessed with his use of masochistic kink to retain some degree of sanity, and I wonder what would have happened if he hadn't been killed as soon as the great lie of his creation myth was revealed to him. Could he have lived? Could he ever have found happiness in this life, or is the only happiness he's allowed in waiting for reincarnation to return him and Esen-Temur to each other?

Wang Baoxiang
The most self-hating and repressed biromantic heterosexual man in the world, as far as I can tell. He subsumes his love for Esen-Temur so deeply that it wraps back around to weaponized homosexuality. I'm fascinated by how he wields his queer affectations as a shield to keep people from looking at him more closely. I'm so sad that it's only in bk2, after he's overwhelmed by grief and depression, that he finds a place that he could have been happy. If he'd grown up in Dadu, working in the Ministry of Revenue, would he hurt so much? Even in the course of HWDTW, if he'd been able to set down his furious grief, he could have been happier. As it is, he's too tangled in his own pain to allow himself anything other than the grandest gesture of wanting everyone else to hurt too. It's a pity! The way he stands between cultures and refuses to allow anyone to change him, while also not presenting the whole of himself, is fascinating. I love how much of a scheming bastard he is. I want to know what he chooses to do with his life once he's free from the chains of a fate he never wanted! I'd love for him to find happiness and self-acceptance, but I'd settle for him being satisfied and recognised for how skillfully he can work.

Esen-Temur
The ghost lingering over HWDTW. A fixed point of the world in SWBTS, right up until the people who loved him most destroyed him for the sake of imagined ills. A better man than anyone gives him credit for, I suspect. A warrior coverd in glory. What was the life he imagined? Everyone thinks about being haunted by him, but I don't think he was actually there. What if he was? What would his ghost be like? Who would it stay by? Would that change anything? Or, maybe, just some moments from his youth, before SWBTS began, of better times with his brother and his general/best friend.

Ma Xiuying
The empathetic heart of this story. Not necessarily the only character with emotional intelligence, but one of the only characters willing to extend grace and compassion to literally everyone around her instead of just people she likes already. I'm fascinated by the effect that her open heart and desire to understand and care for the people around her has upon all the broken and traumatized people she shares her life with. It undoes them. It challenges their basic trauma. She's so powerful and it's in such soft and understated ways. And yet, she's the only reason HWDTW can end the way it does. I'd love to see more of what she does while Zhu is off to war, or more about how she views any of the other characters she interacts with, or a glimpse at her future.

Ayushiridara | Third Prince
He's smart, strong, clever, and his only issues are being fairly young (and thus not yet practiced in politics) and gay (and thus filled with internalized homophobia in fear of societal homophobia). Fascinating guy! I love every time Wang Baoxiang is like "fuck, I forgot that he's smart". I wish he'd known how much his mother loved him. I wish he'd been able to embrace himself. I wish he'd been able to live. I understand why the plot required otherwise, but I'd still love more about this young prince and his precarious position in politics. What did he actually want out of life? What were his interactions with his parents and the court like?

Madam Zhang
Such a crafty woman! Also a deeply tragic figure, honestly. She's bottled herself up so tightly that she's dissociated from the whole world because of how painful it is for her to exist fully. Any crack in her facade is immediately patched up. The ways in which she loved General Zhang but couldn't allow herself to admit it are sad. The ways in which she got what she thought she wanted but it never gave her emotional satisfaction are inevitable; she cut herself off from being honest with herself, so nothing was left but intellectual beliefs about what might make her finally feel good. (But it never could, because she couldn't access pleasure through emotions or body after dissociating so hard...) I'd enjoy more about her schemes and relationships with the various men in her life!

Xu Da
Zhu's steadfast brother, who died for him three times before sacrificing himself for Zhu's victory. Strong and brave and kind. The tenderness they express for each other delights me endlessly (caring for each other's hair, holding each other in sorrow, etc.), as does Xu Da's intelligence and sense of humour. Anything that gives me his POV on the events of these books would be super fun!

Zhu + Ouyang
Mirrors. Soulmates. Rivals. I am obsessed with their kink relationship in HWDTW; anything exploring or expanding on that would thrill me. I am also obssessed with the ways in which they bring each other into sharp relief: their bodies, their desires, their engagement with their fates. They drive each other forward. They are not kind to each other. They do not love each other. They cannot escape each other. The image of Zhu wielding Ouyang's ghost sword in her ghost hand is incredible. The idea that if Zhu had brought Ouyang into her confidence and shared the secret of her body earlier, Ouyang might not have thought himself betrayed by Jiao Yu's revelations fascinates me. The ways in which they hurt each other but grow towards their best selves through that pain intrigues me. Honestly, I'll enjoy anything that shows them interacting, prickly and devoted and furious and unable to avoid returning to each other again and again no matter the cost.

Ma + Baoxiang
I think he loved her, as much as he could allow himself to love anyone. She broke through the cracks in his depressed shell and asked him to be a person again. The way in which he was so unsettled by her acceptance of his queerness is so interesting to me. The way in which she genuinely cared for him delights me. How does she feel about carrying his child? What is their relationship like post-canon? What did they talk about during her time in his harem? How sex-mediated was their relationship, really?

Baoxiang + Third Prince
This relationship was really good for both of them, even if Baoxiang was self-destructing about it and got Third Prince killed. Baoxiang might have been drawing out Third Prince's own homosexuality, but I think Third Prince had the right of it when he asked about Baoxiang's feelings for Esen-Temur and that this also brought out whatever Baoxiang's own queer desires were. The scenes where Baoxiang woke up next to Third Prince feeling well-rested for once and guilty about that struck me so deeply. I wish they'd been able to talk about literature and poetry and laugh together and have sex that wasn't actually about Baoxiang creating protective leverage for himself. In another world, they could have been friends and partners, but that isn't the world of the book. If you want to show me a glimpse of that world, though, I'd enjoy it!

Ouyang, Baoxiang, and Esen-Temur
Truly I just want to see them (in any combination!) have emotions about each other. What if Ouyang and/or Baoxiang managed to admit their love for Esen-Temur? What if Esen-Temur brought up feelings of his own? What if all three of them got involved with each other somehow? It'd be nice for them to have happiness, or at least pleasure, even if it was temporary...

Zhu + Ma
I love their dynamic. In modern parlance I think of them as a butch/femme power couple. I love the joy Zhu takes in fucking Ma, and how Ma doesn't mind that Zhu doesn't want reciprocation. I love Ma's intelligence and how it provides a scaffolding for Zhu's drive. I love how they support each other and care for each other. They're possibly the only happy relationship in this story, and it's because they trust each other, don't really keep secrets, and allow themselves to have emotions for and with each other. It's great. Would love more about them making plans, deploying plans, figuring out what it's like to be emperor and empress, or just having great sex together.

Heritrixes

I think Heritrix culture is fascinating, and the deals they make with people are especially so! How do they find people willing to make these deals? How do their cities work? How do they (both!) adapt to the bond? Is it different for lineage heritrixes? How do they talk to each other internally? Anything along those lines!

Cleavers

I'd love to see more about Cleavers in general! Anything about them is delightful! How does one become a Cleaver? Is it a choice actively made or something that just kinda starts happening? What's it like to transcend? We don't see many Cleavers in the show, but the ones we do see are fascianting. The power and otherworldliness is super cool! I am extremely here for emphasizing the stranger elements of their way of interacting with the world.

Shape Knights

How does one become a Shape Knight? How is their organization structured? How did that one big train hunt go? We're shown a fair number of weird Shape Knights over the course of Sangfielle (Calen [that pathetic worm], The Last Knight [met during Six Travellers: Marn], Alekest [and his obsession with Zevunzolia], Pickman herself [and her summoning of trains]); how representative are they are Shape Knights in general? What are all the ways that Shape Knights relate to trains and also the world at large? How

The Sleeping City

The idea of a jazz-age city ruled by bugs is so cool. How do people predict when it will rise? How do people live within the Sleeping City? How do people (like Duvall!) get infected by the Sleeping City? How is the Sleeping City spreading its influence through the Heartlands? Does it have a greater plan? Anything exploring the Sleeping City would be neat! Maybe expedition notes/journals from someone who went there? That'd be fun!

Concentus and the World Beyond the Heartlands

I'd love to see your ideas about what's happening now that the barrier between the Heartlands and the rest of Aldomina has broken! What's leaking through? How are people reacting?

Or tell me about how Concentus got built in the first place! It's wildly big and must have been such an incredible concerted effort. How did that happen? Whose idea was it? How did everyone work together? What are the walls made of?

I'd also be down to hear more theoretical worldbuilding about the world outside in general. I'm particularly interested in the Free Seas of Kay'va and their revolution, as well as the Unschola Republica and their own departure from the Aldominan Empire.

Zevunzolia

What is it like to live in Zevunzolia? From Pickman's epilogue, it seemed like any other city, and yet it's also a dream of perfection. Plus there's the fact that Pickman could travel to the edge of the city and look down upon Sangfielle, which is fascinating. How many people do that? Do they all see the same things?

Oh my god what happens with the shape train Pickman left there. What chaos and terror does it unleash?

I love that we saw so much of the queer art scene in Pickman's epilogue, and I'd love to see more of it! Pickman went out of her way to try not to care, but I care very much and would love expansions on any and all characters we met during that episode.

Alternately, tell me about the cults that construct Zevunzolia and how their work is manifest in the city itself! Or about how people travel to and from Zevunzolia! Or, really, anything about Zevunzolia that interests you! I'm fascinated by it! Which is, I think, the point.

I'd love to explore her early life. How did Ye Qingzhi end up being captured and enslaved? What was her relationship with Jiang Zhan like? Did she have any other friends? How did she become certain that she was indeed Ye Liuxi? How did she prove that to others?

Or tell me about what it was like for her to wake up after being hanged and have no idea where she was or what she was doing! How did she create her life anew? How did she track down Chang Dong? Is there anything about that life that she misses?

I am so very into the Ye Liuxi/Chang Dong relationship. It's so good, they've wonderful for each other, and I could watch them interact all day. More of their romance! Or their sex! Or anything canon-typical with the two of them, really; they're really cute! From Ye Liuxi's side, what drew her to Chang Dong? She didn't seem to have any interest in sex/romance before him, so why Chang Dong? What changed? Was it just the removal of memories leading to the removal of some trauma-based blocks surrounding relationships? Or is she just extremely demi and Chang Dong was the first person to get her to realise she could feel genuine attraction like that? How does that settle out as they continue being together across time?

That said, I'm also extremely here for some non-canon ships! Ye Liuxi's chemistry with Ding Liu was incredible; I'd adore something focused on their relationship, because Ding Liu absolutely had a crush on her (and Chang Dong; a threesome would also be good, and was absolutely teased). Ye Liuxi's relationship with A-He during the nine-month timeskip would also be fun to make shippy! And, of course, there's also good enemies-to-lovers potential with Long Zhi—Ye Liuxi left her alive, for some reason, and maybe that could go somewhere?

There's so much to explore about his pre-canon life! How did he become a desert guide? How did he become the leader of the Camellia Group? How did he meet Kong Yang, his girlfriend, if she wasn't into the desert the way he was? How did he learn how to make shadow puppets? I'd love something exploring that period of his life, whether by being set back then or by referencing it as context for something set during the period of the show.

I am so very into the Ye Liuxi/Chang Dong relationship. It's so good, they've wonderful for each other, and I could watch them interact all day. More of their romance! Or their sex! Or anything canon-typical with the two of them, really; they're really cute! From Chang Dong's side, what was it like committing to a new relationship after grieving Kong Yang for so long? He says he only does relationships for the long-haul; why did he choose Ye Liuxi after only knowing her for like a month max? What compelled him so fiercely about her? How does that change and grow as they stay together and learn more about each other?

I have less interest in non-canon romantic/sexual ships with Chang Dong. Threesomes/triads/poly arrangements that include Ye Liuxi are great, though, and Chang Dong/Ye Liuxi/Ding Liu would be a particular delight. Something that included both Kong Yang and Ye Liuxi being alive and interested in Chang Dong at the same time would also intrigue me greatly. I think that Chang Dong/Ye Liuxi/Jiang Zhan/Long Zhi would be a terrible poly thing (or sedoretu!) but also interesting because of how bad it could be. I'd be open to something about Chang Dong, Ding Liu, and Fei Tang getting together during the nine month timeskip as a coping mechanism to keep Yumen Pass feeling closer when it's shut for them. Feel free to play with any of those ideas! Or draw out any of his platonic relationships!

His relationship with Long Zhi is fascinating. She had her eye on him since the start, to the point where it kind of feels like half her motivations are about finally having what she wanted since she was like 15. How did she seduce Jiang Zhan? Did she ever mean to catch real feelings for him? What was their relationship, really? And, honestly, how did Jiang Zhan and Long Zhi rebuild Scorpion Eye into a force that was at once not a huge worry for the Feather Guards but still dangerous enough to be a viable threat to use against Ye Liuxi once she returned?

I'd love an AU where the Golden Snake saves and heals Jiang Zhan (by turning him into a human snake hybrid, ignoring the thing where theoretically that means they'd lose their mind) instead of Long Zhi kidnapping him. What would he do at that point? Would he make a new life? Would he work to free all the slaves in the mountain from within? Something else? How long would it take for Long Zhi and Ye Liuxi to realise he's still alive?

Or focus on the kidnapping and imprisonment! We see so little of it. How much time did Long Zhi spend attempting to convince him to talk to her? Did she ever offer him bargains, and, if so, what were they? What did he do for those long months? Did he have any human interaction or entertainment in that cell? Did he ever attempt to escape or kill himself while in the prison?

I also find it frustrating that he just killed himself at the end. He survived almost a year in jail and then killed himself ten minutes away from true freedom? Let him (and everyone else!) suffer through Jiang Zhan being forced to live despite everything that happened. What is his relationship with Ye Liuxi like after they both lost their arms and regained their memories? Did Ye Liuxi ever contemplate trying to free him before the end? What kind of relationship, if any, would Jiang Zhan want with her (or Long Zhi!) after all that? What would he want to do with his life once he could actually do anything he wanted and not just be a rebel leader?

The Creation of Yumen Pass

We're told that it was created to seal away demons and sorcerors. It's also said that Yumen Pass has a spirit of its own. We're told legends about this period of time, and I'd love to see something that takes those legends and turns them into a full-fledged story!

Sorcery

What is sorcery, really? During the time of this show, it seems to have waned; most fantastical things are done with the help of exotic beasts! But Long Zhi does summon a dragon of fire, and it's implied that not just anyone can make dangerous exotic beasts listen to them, so perhaps there's some truth to sorcery. What are the differences between the Long family's sorcerors and the Li family's sorcerers? Obviously there are family secrets, and differences in focus. Were there other sorcerer families, once? How did they fall? What's the connection between sorcery and exotic beasts?

Exotic Beasts

aka, the monsters! Holy shit there are so many and they're all so interesting! They're foundational to a lot of Yumen Pass' society (the glowing snakes, the water eyes, the shadow puppet gnats, the substitute tongues, the dragon-like beasts guarding Black Stone City, Thiefless, etc) and yet they've managed to lock up most of the most dangerous ones in the Demon Museum. So basically, the exotic beasts are the wildlife of Yumen Pass, and humans have domesticated/tamed the ones useful to them? Some of the ones that are annoying but not inherently dangerous are just allowed to wander (geminus, for example)? It's interesting! I'd love to read anything that focuses on the exotic beasts and their relationships with humans! Or about how they managed to make the demon museum to begin with (was that related to the creation of Yumen Pass?).

Golden Animals

I love this trope. Golden Serpent and Golden Scorpion are just giant representatives of their kind, but they're absolutely very special and respected as a result! The idea that there's one of these for every "normal" animal species in Yumen Pass amuses me. Like, what if Valley Guardian and Ocean Guardian met Golden Chicken/Rooster? Or just dig into how Ye Liuxi befriended Golden Scorpion, why Golden Serpent puts up with slavers mining in its lair, and the ways in which the Golden Animals have special powers!

Snake People and Other Blended Human/Exotic Beast Shenanigans

(I know the show said that becoming a human snake means Gao Shen would lose his mind eventually but I choose to ignore that because it's way less interesting to me than him just having mutated into a hybrid with angst about being inhuman/monstrous and not being able to leave the pass.) Anyway, this is also about parasitism and symbiosis between humans and exotic beasts! Why are so many exotic beasts so specifically helpful to humans? The substitute tongue is particularly noteworthy, due to its plot relevance, but even the symbiotic replacement hand Ye Liuxi gets is in this realm. The geminus mimicks anything, but sure is human-related, and humans can become shadow puppets while retaining their consciousness. It's wild. Please, anything about the ways humans and exotic beasts can combine and hybridise and be symbotic with eacah other is fascinating! Please explore it!

Soul of Wangdong, Bone of Liuxi

I'm so curious about this Chosen One deal! Stories about the prophecy, the curse/blessing, how it relates to shadow puppets not working, and previous times the Chosen One has led a (failed?) uprising would be awesome!

The Creation of Scorpion Eye

Why did Ye Liuxi (Ye Qingzhi) and Jiang Zhan create this? How did they get followers? Why is it named Scorpion Eye? How inspired were they by the Beast Heads? Honestly, anything exploring that period of history is interesting to me!

Trade/Smuggling Between Yumen Pass and the Mundane World

What does Yumen Pass produce? Is it just gold? Is that why the slave mines are such a big deal? Or are there other products that the Shadow Puppets (or the Chosen One) trade with the mundane world? Also, how was this trade/smuggling line set up? Like, were the trade caravans led by shadow puppets who were once dying people (like Gao Shen) and thus had distinct personhood and agency of their own? But even with that, how did they find people to bargain with who wouldn't run screaming from a shadow puppet or otherwise deny their existence? How did those trade lines change when they were being run by Ye Liuxi on her own? What products are most desirable in Yumen Pass? How do they get fuel for all their cars? Honestly, anything about the economy of Yumen Pass (even the parts not related to the mundane world, though they seem super intertwined) would be interesting!

The Demon Museum

I spent the ENTIRE SHOW expecting that it would get opened. Like, come on, if you need two to open it and the first episode shows Ye Liuxi contemplating her Rams Horn vs the one in the musuem, you've gotta have a heist to steal that one and then open the Demon Museum, right?

More generally, I am fascinated by this place! How did everything get locked up in there? How do things escape? Do they ever escape into the mundane world? Why don't they attack the Chosen One? (Is the Chosen One actually a special kind of exotic beast?) How do all the creatures in there interact? How do people know what's in there, anyway, if they avoid it?

The Nine-Month Time Skip

What happened during that period of time? How did Scorpion Eye gain so much momentum? How did Ye Liuxi cope with cutting off her own hand and regaining her memories? What was it like for A-He and Li Jin'ao to become trusted advisors and rebellion leaders? How did Chang Dong, Ding Liu, and Fei Tang handle being stuck in the mundane world? What did they tell Ding Liu's dad about the whole adventure? What did they do for work? How did Jiang Zhan and Gao Shen deal with being imprisoned? What was Zhao Guanshou up to? What was Long Zhi thinking and doing? It's a fairly long period of time! Explore this lovely little narrative gap!

Their lives have been tangled together since their youth, but Wu Xie has no idea for the longest time that this is true. How many identities has Su Nan worn? Is Su Nan her original name? How does it feel to follow a person for so long and know they're trying to destroy the only family you know? How much does Su Nan care about Wu Xie? How much is he an anchor for her? How much does Wu Xie truly know about her at any given point in time?

In canon, we're shown how extremely competent both of them are. I'd love to read about them being competent together! Whether that's an expansion on any canon tomb delve, missing scenes from their time bonding together in the mountains, or a wholly new encounter you've come up with, I just like these two being badasses and working together (whether they like it or not).

They absolutely believe in each other's competence. They save each other, time and time again. They also don't necessarily like each other, but there's a kind of care and understanding between them regardless.

I'd love explorations of Su Nan living post-canon! What does it actually mean for her to leave her cult of a 'family'? How does she disentangle herself from that? How does Wu Xie support her while also refusing to let himself remain her primary anchor in the world?

Li Cu learns so much from Wu Xie. Not all of it is explicit, and not all of it is stuff Li Cu acknowledges learning from Wu Xie, but I adore the little moments where it shines through. Li Cu parrots Wu Xie's words about the desert to his friends as they begin their own expedition, for instance! And his outfit for that second round resembles Wu Xie's. The mentorship relationship between them might be fraught, but I love every moment of it. I'd love a story focused on mentorship scenes of any sort!

I'm so fascinated by snake venom and snake visions. We're shown several visions that Li Cu has about Wu Xie while Li Cu is in the Wang family complex. I'd be so interested in seeing more of those, or otherwise exploring what Wu Xie feels about recording those visions (trusting that one day someone will see them and his plan will be worth it) and what Li Cu feels about receiving them (trusting that they will guide him to safety, clinging to this anchor of the world he knows and came from, even though Wu Xie once represented the dangerous unknown). Snake venom visions are one of the cooler worldbuilding aspects of Sha Hai, so feel free to go wild with them!

Wu-nainai asks if Li Cu might be Wu Xie's son. I'm fascinated by the idea of an AU where that's true! We've never shown much of anything about Li Cu's mom, and tbh considering how much of an ass Li Cu's dad is I could believe a one-night stand having Consequences that even Wu Xie didn't realise until Li Cu gets accidentally involved in Tomb Stuff and the Wu blood begins to show. Exploration of Li Cu learning about the Jiumen, bonding with Xiaoman-ge and the other Wu dogs, and otherwise being accepted as Wu Xie's heir (whether either of them likes that or not) would be really neat.

1. The Future

What did Li Cu expect his life was going to be like before Wu Xie turned it upside down? Did he have any plans/goals, or was he already too fucked up by his bad home life to really be thinking of the future? There are ways in which Li Cu's life-changing desert road trip benefited him (he gained a lot of confidence in himself) despite the ways in which it also hurt him (the literal scars in his back, the near-death experiences, etc.). But at the same time, at the end of the day does Li Cu know what he's going to do now that this chapter of his life has closed? He doesn't need to be part of the Jiumen anymore. He can go to university and get a completely unrelated job after. Does he want that? Does he want to stay in touch with Wu Xie? What does the future look like for him?

Relatedly, how much therapy does he need? Does xiao-Hua or someone hook him up with a Jiumen therapist who has context for literally anything he experienced in Gutongjing and with the Wangs? How does he explain the scars on his back? Does he hide them? What about his fighting skills? Just, like, how hard is it for Li Cu to appear to be a normal boy after everything that's happened? How does he re-integrate into the everyday world once more?

I'd be especially excited to see fics talking about Li Cu, Su Wan, and Yang Hao all figuring out how to deal with the "normal world" again post-canon, because I bet they'd all be trying to support each other but also each of them would have a different approach and goal. And they all have various Jiumen mentors who might pop by to disrupt whatever normalcy they're fighting their way towards, which is always interesting for plot!

2. The Trauma

This starts from the point Li Cu is jumped and has scars etched into his back by that weird black substance (which, sidebar: wtf is up with that! would be fascinated by something akin to a Venom fusion, or anything else exploring the substance which made those scars; it seemed possibly alive?), continues through being kidnapped by Wu Xie and through Gutongjing snake hell (1: Wu Xie's 'zombification'), has a bit of a valley when Li Cu returns to the normal world for a bit, gets worse again at Gutongjing snake hell (2: snake venom), peaks at The Wang Facility (aka: kidnapping, round two), and then only maybe stops when the show ends. There's a lot going on!

The Good Times, Relatively Speaking
Li Cu with enigmatic kidnapper/mentor Wu Xie, who is probably doing his best to keep Li Cu from getting too traumatised and attempting to teach him the skills he'll need later. Li Cu suffers, but he's got friends around him. Still, it isn't necessarily a fun time! He manages to take all this knowledge and synthesize it enough to teach it back to his friends when they go out to find Gutongjing with him the second time, which just sets him up for more fucked-up-ness later.

The Wang Complex
When your only allies are the woman impersonating a girl you used to crush on (Shen Qiong) and your mentor teaching you via snorted venom that's slowly going to kill you (Wu Xie), you know your life is bad. Especially since you're in a dystopian fighting school alongside being a science experiment. Li Cu might not be physically alone but this is absolutely one of the roughest times in his life. What was that period of time like for him?

Solo: Yang Wenli

He's so tired and just wants to be left in peace to be a historian (emphasis on peace), but he's too good at his job to be allowed to leave it behind. I'd love something that allows him some time to rest and enjoy himself in the midst of the grind that is this forever war!

I adore his strategic acumen and tactical mind. I love the way he thinks with his heart as much as anything else; the empathy he feels for all the people effected by his battles, and the way he truly wishes to spill the least amount of blood possible is lovely.

Yang builds so many strong relationships with other people because he's genuine and trustworthy. He's incredibly skilled without being overbearing or arrogant. He knows what battles are worth fighting and how to respect a chain of command. He has a sense of moral integrity and believes that others are worth trusting as well. He is also incapable of sitting in a chair normally given literally excuse to do otherwise. I love all of this about him.

Yang Wenli & Julian Mintz

I love the combination of parent/child and mentor/mentee relationships that they have. (Even if I sigh and wish Julian weren't quite so much of Yang's executive functioning when he's at home; he's a teen who's parentified himself without Yang ever asking, but it's not like Yang stopped him.) How did they navigate this relationship's beginning? How did they settle into this dynamic? What's it like for Julian when Yang is on deployment? How do the stresses of deployment change when Julian enters the military and is now deployed alongside Yang? How does Yang balance being a commander and being a guardian?

Jessica Edwards/Jean-Robert Lappe/Yang Wenli

Their history and how it shapes the beginning of this story makes me cry every time Jean-Robert dies. I'd love more about their time at the academy and how they made space for each other alongside their studies! How did they court each other? How did they realise that they could be together as a triad instead of a pair and a third wheel?

I'd also love explorations about how them being a triad changes things like Julian becoming Yang's ward. What's it like for Julian to have three adults taking care of him? (And two adults helping take care of Yang?) What's the aftermath of Jean-Robert's death like? (Or do you want to avert it somehow?) Anything like that sounds interesting!

Siegfried Kircheis/Yang Wenli

"If only we could be friends, there would be nothing better than that."

This is my little twig of a rarepair and I love them dearly. They met once on Iserlohn, during the POW exchanges, in a very formal context. I would love to see them interact more, and in less formal contexts! Maybe that's just a one-night stand or having drinks together; maybe it's something more long-term.

A lot of this for me is my fascination with the idea of Kircheis falling for someone other than Reinhard. With Yang, Kircheis would get a truly good man to pledge himself to. In turn, Yang would get a second-in-command who's every bit as intelligent as he is. They would be such a powerful force together! Plus there's the whole star-crossed romance aspect, which is always fun.

I'd love any canon divergence that results in them having more time together. Swap Dusty and Kircheis's initial positions? Have an arranged marriage as part of a peace treaty? A one-night stand on Iserlohn leads to continued feelings? Kircheis defects instead of dying, and Yang is the only person who believes that he's defected and isn't a traitor? Yang is captured (during El Facil?) and Kircheis offers him a deal? Something else entirely? Anything about these two would delight me endlessly!

(Side note: I would also find Kircheis/Julian to be fascinating, if probably even harder to engineer. I don't want both Kircheis/Yang and Kircheis/Julian in the same fic, but... either would be neat! Kircheis and Julian have a lot of parallels to play around with, but their character arcs are completely different.)

Walter von Schönkopf/Yang Wenli

I love these two and how quickly and thoroughly they trust each other from the start. Anything involving that aspect of their relationship will appeal to me! Has Schönkopf ever had someone trust him like Yang does before? That baseline unending faith and necessity? How often has Yang been so profoundly rewarded for his faith and had it returned to him in kind?

“We may not get many accolades, but we’ll survive”: Yang’s humanitarian practicality and Schönkopf’s desire to live until old age mesh really well. Yang is a person who always has the hardest time dreaming of the future because he’d rather just stay with his books and think about the past, whereas Schönkopf is a soldier, inevitably and by choice. Yang dreams of peace, and never would’ve gone to war without being forced to it. There’s something there, I think.

Contrast Yang, a theorist-historian and impeccable tactician who doesn’t like (and has no talent for) hand-to-hand/ground combat, with Schönkopf: a man who leads one of the best ground forces in the Free Planets Alliance, and knows ery clearly the cost of lives/blood (that can seem invisible when looking at projections on a map, or ships without remembering the people in them). Contrast Yang, a trader’s son who worked his way up on skill (but never wanted this military rank), with Schönkopf, a nobleman who left all that behind to be equal (if still a leader) to the rest of his men.

These are pretty much all thematic prompts rather than any particular scenarios! I trust you'll find something fun to play with out of all these words, though!