worldbuilding exchange

[tielan]

Thanks for writing for me! However you do this, have fun with it, go wild, and I hope you enjoy writing the story as much as I'll enjoy reading it!

General notes:
1. I know that it's entirely probable that we matched on a male character, but please at least treat any female characters you include in the fic/meta as individuals and people who have their own minds, mindsets, lives, and interests, and not just there to further the male character's story.
2. Pairings are optional. I've listed my favourites and a couple that I don't mind as background, but if I haven't specified a pairing, or left the option open for any pairing, then please don't include it in the story.
3. Include any side characters from the canon as you please, so long as they remain side characters and the focus is on one of the listed/matched characters and how the worldbuilding aspect that you've chosen affects them.

Marvel Cinematic Universe:
characters: Maria Hill, Akela Amador, Helen Cho, Pepper Potts, Jane Foster
Dealing With the Avengers : Maria, Helen, Pepper, Jane - the trials and tribulations of being 'just a woman' in a world where superheroing has a distinctly masculine flavour.
Unseen and Unexpected Connections: Women behind the scenes, making the world go around. Maria and Pepper's friendship, Maria and Helen's professional relationship. Pepper and Jane dealing with Tony, Bruce, Thor. And Akela Amador, forgotten agent who must surely have been known to Maria Hill if she was protege of Coulson (perhaps they were friends?) - give me their backstories. Helen and Jane talking about Thor?
Intelligence Operations: Maria and Akela in this one, quietly taking names and kicking ass. Women who do the job because the job needs doing, not because they're in it for the heroics.
Stark Industries: Maria and Pepper (and Jane, and possibly Helen) in Stark Industries together. How was Maria hired? How did she and Pepper become friends?

Maria Hill is my favourite (as you may have come to realise). I ship Maria Hill/Steve Rogers, although that's not necessary for the purposes of worldbuilding (but I think that no person - even a woman - should be just the job, the friendships and romantic connections they make are very much a part of living in the world). Other enjoyed pairings are Pepper/Tony, Jane/Thor, and I'm not fussed with Akela and Helen, although I don't mind if you develop a relationship for either of them in your story.


Rogue One:
Cbaracters: Lyra Erso, Jyn Erso, Leia Organa, Cassian Andor, Galen Erso
Jyn's crystal pendant: How did it come to be in Lyra's possession? What connection does she have with the Jedi or with the Whills? Did that contribute to Lyra's insistence that Galen step away from the Empire?
the Whills : Who are they? What's
the Guardians of the Whills: How are they structured? Who are they? What do they believe as compared to the Jedi? (Also: warrior nuns - TOTALLY A THING PLS)
politics of the Rebel Alliance : Leia dealing with people, Bail and Breha's advice in her ears but her own heart (Skywalker and Amidala) telling her how to cut to the chase? How does it all fit together - or fall apart? And who scrapes up the mess after?
intelligence division of the Rebel Alliance: So, Rebel Intelligence seems to train up pretty ruthless operatives. You gotta wonder a bit about the things they've done, and how it weighs on them. I'd love to see something about Cassian in this - perhaps also

If you do Everyone Lives/Someone Lives universes, I like Jyn/Cassian as a pairing, but also adore Bodhi, Chirrut, and Baze (with Chirrut/Baze in the background). They don't even have to be bestest buddies with the New Hope trio of characters - in fact, I'd kind of prefer they weren't...


Dragonriders of Pern:
Characters: Lessa, F'lar | Fallarnon, T'gellan, Mirrim, Manora
Dragonrider Relationships : I always felt more than a little cheated by the Lessa/F'lar relationship - I was hoping for more in Dragonquest but we never got it! Tell me more about navigating the relationship post-Dragonflight - particularly with respect to consensuality. I also felt cheated by T'gellan and Mirrim's relationship, which was presented to us as a fait accompli after Monarth apparently flew the Southern Queen. How did that mating flight work? Were there shenanigans to ensure that T'gellan ends up in Mirrim's bed, or is this one of the things neatly elided over as 'weyrbred sensibilities' (which Mirrim certainly has, although I can't remember if T'gellan is the same). Within the context of the weyr operations would be great (see next prompt).
Domestic Operations in the Weyr: Lessa and Manora would have had to deal with each other quite a bit through the three years before Ramoth rose in flight; how do they get along? I'm particularly curious about the implications of Manora's suggestion that Lessa take F'nor as a lover. It presents a certain amount of closeness, and yet her hesitancy in talking about it suggests they're not that intimate. Or you can write about Manora teaching the adolescent Mirrim about how to manage a weyr, and how that teaching comes in useful later. Perhaps a friendship between the older woman and the younger woman that might lead Mirrim to invite Manora down to Southern (Eastern?) Weyr to warm her old bones.
Female Riders in Weyr society: It would be a tricky thing being a woman in a very male-dominated and chauvinistic society such as the weyr. How did Lessa deal with being the sole female dragonrider in all of Pern? And Mirrim, being the first woman to Impress a green in who knows how long? Were there other female greenriders (or brown or bronzeriders) that were only discovered later? For this one, I'd prefer the context to be taken from the Ninth Pass rather than writing something else in another time.

Pairings-wise, I'm Lessa/F'lar, and Mirrim/T'gellan - pretty much just the canon relationships, please.


Pacific Rim:
Characters: Stacker Pentecost, Mako Mori, Tamsin Sevier, Kaori Jessop, Vanessa Gottlieb
Testing Drift Compatibility: The movie really condensed it all, but I'd love to see more interaction between pilot pairs before they're declared Drift Compatible - chess games, playlists, language differences that cease to become an issue (I'd love this for Kaori/Duc in particular - obviously you can use Stacker|Tamsin for any of these, but I wouldn't mind seeing an elaboration of Mako|Raleigh in Drift Compatibility tests, as well as Kaori|Duc.
Shatterdome Children: I'm interested in the logistics of bringing up a child in the Shatterdome - mostly Mako, but by extension Chuck, and possibly Vanessa Gottlieb's child?
After The End : I'd love your take on what happens to Mako (and Raleigh, and Herc) after the end - how the world copes with it, how the world lionises its heroes.

Mako is my favourite in this fandom, but I adore Stacker and the implied relationship with his co-pilot Tamsin from 'Tales from Year Zero'. I don't mind if Stacker and Tamsin are sexually attracted to each other, although my personal headcanon leans Stacker/Herc and Tamsin Sevier/Luna Pentecost (before Luna died).

I'm a 100% die-hard, I-will-go-down-with-this-ship Mako/Raleigh fan, but if you can't do them romantically/sexually involved, then at the very least they have to be friends and no other pairings in the fic, please.

Note: I'm an Australian, please tread carefully when including "Australianisms" in your fic.

Finally, I asked for fanfiction, because I like the movement and mindset of characters, and in the best stories I've read the worldbuilding gets delicately structured around the characters as you tell whatever story you have in mind.

I hope this letter doesn't stress you out. Write about the part of the world that interests you, and I will read it with great interest and absolute fascination. Other people's worldcanons are always intriguing to me, because it betokens a different way of looking at the world and how everything fits together, and it's almost like getting to enjoy a new aspect of the original canon itself! So go wild!

And thank you very much.