i may be a bird in a cage but at least it's your cage

What I've recently finished reading:

Europe at Midnight and Europe in Winter, the second and third of the Fractured Europe Sequence by Dave Hutchinson. The first was a reread (and again, I was surprised at how much I'd forgotten in the 10 years since I read it the first time), but I really enjoyed the SF aspect of

spoiler for the cool reveal at the end of the first book, which is explored in the second book

the Community existing as a private England overlaying Europe in another dimension; the idea of the map (somehow) becoming the territory is just fascinating!

The third book went into more detail about Rudi's family background, and about how the actual mechanism of [spoiler] is basically the biggest and most important secret in the world, and about the Coureurs and their function.

I actually requested this for Yuletide, and one of my prompts was "worldbuilding - what's happening in the US?" and...one character meets with someone who has a Texas passport, so, there's a whole lot hinted at by that tiny detail right there!

What I'm currently reading:

Europe at Dawn, the finale of the series. This one feels more like various vignettes set in this universe, though I expect everything will come together eventually. I do like how the Situations that the Coureurs handle are all matter-of-fact cloak-and-dagger: a woman walks up to our POV character and says something fairly banal, and he responds with a similar sentence; when she's gone, he finds a slip of paper in his pocket with the name of a hotel in another city; he goes there and checks in, and there's another slip of paper in the bedside Bible; he finds the car with the number plate on that paper and he gets in and drives across the border and leaves it in the parking lot of a certain cafe, then he takes the train home. It's all very mysterious! and fun! (and leaves me wondering why go to all that trouble to hide things in places in so many steps, but...)

(B is reading the Fourth Wing series and enjoying it. I'm kind of gobsmacked.)

What I started watching and abandoned:

The Fall of the House of Usher, which, okay I liked the transposition to a very modern gothic story about the Sackler pharmaceutical empire a family which developed and heavily marketed an extremely addictive opioid, but I am not a fan of horror and gore and shows in which everybody is a horrible person. We lasted 3 episodes.

What I'm watching now:

Season 3 of The Diplomat, which got off to a magnificent and twisty-turny start!

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

Thank you for writing a story for me! I am Isis on AO3. As long as you generally stick with things I like and avoid things I dislike, I will enjoy your story even if it doesn't take on any of my vague prompts, which are really just suggestions. All my prompts are at least mildly spoilery so you may want to take care expanding those sections.

If you're not feeling inspired about your assignment and want to try something else, the British Airways "May We Haveth One's Attention" Safety Video is literally a 5-minute fandom (okay, 5:22), Il Gattopardo | The Leopard (2025) is 6 1-hour episodes, and you can write my request for the Fractured Europe Sequence based only on the first 2 books (out of 4). For my Shardlake request, you need only the fifth book, but my request is highly spoilery and ideally you should read the book before looking at my request, which seems like a big ask!

Treats are enabled and welcome! I've included general art likes in the "nattering" section for artists interested in making Wrapping Paper treats (and if you draw me a treat I'll try to write you the story that goes with it!).

Likes: I like historical (if appropriate) and worldbuildy detail, scenery porn, what-if AUs, original characters (along with, not instead of, any requested ones, unless otherwise specified), pastiche of canon style, time travel, bodyswap, bodysharing, ghost/afterlife stories, mythological and supernatural elements, and magical realism. (These fantasy elements are welcome in canons that don’t have them, unless specified.) As you can probably tell from my specific fandom details, the setting and worldbuilding are as important to me as the characters, so I'm not a fan of AU that completely changes the setting, but if you have a brilliant idea, go for it; I would prefer "interesting" to "mundane" AUs, e.g., in SPAAAACE yes, coffeeshop no. (Coffeeshop in SPAAAACE, okay!). I would like happy endings and no major character death, though feel free to kill off original or minor characters as your story requires.

DNW: I do not want fic focusing on pregnancy or children (mentions of either are fine), A/B/O or BSDM dynamics, mundane modern AUs, or major character death (other than canon deaths). I do not want anything that contradicts the characters being cisgender as presented in canon, unless they are canonically not cisgender. I do not want fic that uses neopronouns (e.g. 'xie') – please use 'they' for nonbinary or agender characters, or whatever these characters use in canon. I do not want nonstandard capitalization or punctuation other than in the title. I very strongly prefer past tense; if you feel your story really needs to be in present tense for stylistic reasons that's fine, but I want it to be a conscious choice, not a default.

I do not want unrequested noncanon ships involving canon characters even in the background, other than those I've specifically mentioned I'm okay with. Canon ships, mentioned past relationships with OCs, and implicitly canon ships (such as people’s parents) are fine, as are OC/OC relationships. Please don't break up any specified relationships or put my requested characters in relationships other than the ones I've mentioned I like.

Other general nattering about my tastes - characters, crossovers, style, sex likes, art likes

Characters: The characters I've chosen are the ones I want the focus on, but the choice of what kind of story to write and who to include in it lies with you. Feel free to take things in whatever direction you like and/or include characters I haven't mentioned, including original characters, though please keep the focus on my requested characters (except as noted). For worldbuilding requests, feel free to use canon characters or original characters as you choose.

Crossovers: I love crossovers, but if you choose to write one, please make sure (either through checking my fic, tags [reading will find books, viewing will find movies and TV shows, games will find games, and some fandoms have tags as well; also you can check my Goodreads 'read' shelf for books, though I haven’t updated it in a while], asking my friends, or asking one of the other mods to ask me) that I know the other source. I have a particular soft spot for crossovers with real historical characters in historical-fiction fandoms.

Style: I generally prefer plot (as in, things happening; doesn't have to be elaborate or long – as contrasted with character studies), past tense, and lots of dialogue. But these are preferences, not hard DNWs, and if you have a brilliant idea that requires present tense and no dialogue, go ahead. My only hard preferences are for conventional pronouns (he/she/they as appropriate), capitalization, and punctuation. I'm happy with epistolary fic, journal entries, and other nonconventional formats, and if you want to create interactive fiction (second person is fine for this, or otherwise as you prefer), go for it! I have no preference on story length - make it as long (or as short) as it needs to be.

Sex and relationships: Explicit sex okay, non-explicit sex is okay, no sex is okay, but any sex should be in believable language for that era or fandom. UST, gen, het, slash, femslash, whatever. It's all good. I don't care for PWP, as I need at least a little context that establishes the world and those characters. I also prefer sex scenes that focus on emotions and perceptions rather than on the mechanics of what goes where: think M-rating rather than E-rating, and I'm totally fine with fade-to-black. I am rather vanilla in my preferences where kink is concerned: mouths, hands, genitals, toys, all are fine, but I am not interested in BSDM, bloodplay, watersports, spanking, or fetish play. I like kissing, touching, oral sex, penetrative sex, frottage, pegging, mutual masturbation, outdoor sex, indoor sex, and pretty much any position two bodies can contort themselves into. I am not interested in threesomes, moresomes, or poly fic in these fandoms. I am absolutely fine with a gen work in any of these fandoms.

Wrapping paper challenge art treats: I would love art for any of these fandoms! I like both serious portraits and funny little cartoons. I have a soft spot for art in which one character is doing something typical-but-alarming, and the other is rolling his or her eyes, or reacting with horror, or getting ready to douse them with a bucket of water, or whatever. Stylistically, I love interesting and experimental compositions, unusual perspectives, emphasis on textures such as hair and clothing, and scenery porn (Mountains! Trees! Cliffs with water crashing on them! Brooding ruins of an ancient castle!) and I like line drawings as well as full color. I really like stylized artwork that depends on a limited color scheme (my favorite colors are blues and greens; I also like black-and-white and grayscale), and not-too-detailed sketches that feel dynamic. I like art-pastiche such as playing cards and tarot cards, posters, and so on. If I receive any art treats, I will do my best to write a ficlet for the artist based on the art!

And now, on to the prompts!

British Airways "May We Haveth One's Attention" Safety Video: Any (Georgian Queen, Anne, George, Scots on Horseback, Worldbuilding)

I watched this homage to British costume drama (and airline safety video!) and was instantly charmed. Feel free to take it anywhere along the crack continuum that you like: is this a strange alternate world in which airplanes were invented much, much earlier? Did the historical characters time-travel forward, or the flight attendants time-travel in reverse? Did a real queen isekai into the filming of an airline safety video and just deal with it with royal aplomb? Why are Anne and George sitting in airline seats in the parlor? (Do they invite the flight attendants to their wedding?) And, the most provoking question of all: how did the Scots get seatbelts on their horses?

Additional DNW for this fandom: don't break up Anne and George! However, any other relationships here are fair game, and I'd be intrigued by something like Scot/flight attendant or Queen/pilot.

The Fractured Europe Sequence - Dave Hutchinson: Worldbuilding

I first read Europe in Autumn and Europe at Midnight nearly 10 years ago, when the "Xian Flu" was a far-fetched SF imagining and the "Global War on Terror" was not nearly so global. I'm re-reading these books now in preparation for reading the rest of the series, and let me just say it's landing rather differently.

The worldbuilding in this series delights and enthralls me! I would love anything about the splinter polities, about the Line, about the Campus or the Community or the Coureurs, on scales small (the discovery of an entrance to the Community) to large (a seemingly-stable country splitting into pieces). Past, present, or future; Europe, or beyond - what happened in Asia? In North America? while all this is happening in Europe? There are intriguing hints that the US has had a civil war, and that Texas has become its own country! The little bits of story with secondary characters hint at lots of things outside the scope of the novels that could be filled in. Or - and I don't know yet if these get answered in the books, but if it doesn't - how does mapping an alternate dimension make it spring into being? What was Mundt's "trick of topology"?

(Please note that as I write this letter, I've only read the first two books and about half of the third, but I will have read the entire series by Yuletime.)

Il Gattopardo | The Leopard (2025): Concetta Corbera di Salina

I enjoyed this costume drama set in the waning days of the Sicilian nobility and the rise of the Kingdom of Italy. I'm specifically looking for a canon-divergence AU here: please give Concetta a happy future. Maybe she runs off with Tancredi to America; maybe she runs off to Paris with Angelica! Maybe she gets married to Bombello after all, and it works out. Or perhaps she finds joy in her stewardship of the Salina estate, somehow, if you want to keep things closer to canon. I'd be intrigued with a crossover with historical RPF of the period, or any appropriate fandom I'm familiar with.

DNW a romantic relationship between Concetta and any of her siblings or parents, or Calogero, but I'm fine with her finding love with an OC, male or female, or a minor character ditto.

Warrior (TV 2019): Any (Ah Toy, Father Jun, Hong, Lai, Nellie Davenport, Wang Chao, Young Jun)

This show gave me vibes of Peaky Blinders set in the late 19th C San Francisco Chinatown Tong Wars, with a generous helping of Game of Thrones. I'd love a story about any of the nominated characters, particularly their backstory or an imagined future after the show (you are welcome to canon-divergence away canon deaths). Some specific things that interest me:
- How Ah Toy and Nellie navigate their romantic relationship (forbidden in multiple ways!)
- Lai's hero-worship of Ah Toy, her silent steadfastness, the way she blossomed at the vineyard
- Hong's ridiculous cheery attitude in the face of a thousand insults and injuries, his matter-of-fact approach to his sexuality
- Wang Chao's careful balancing act at the fulcrum of the warring tongs and the police
- The fraught father-son relationship of Father Jun and Young Jun

Please don't break up canon relationships. General DNW of unrequested noncanon ships involving canon characters applies here except for the following: I vaguely ship Wang Chao with Richard Lee (growing out of their developing understanding during their forced road-trip); Lai might be interesting with Penelope or Mai Ling, if you could figure out how to get them together, or an OC (male or female) or any other non-nominated character; Hong with an OMC or any non-nominated male character, before or after his time with Marcel. However, please feel completely free to write gen!

Matthew Shardlake Series - C. J. Sansom: Hugh Curteys

I read the first few Shardlake books a few years ago, and then read the rest of them in one fell swoop this summer. I feel like they just got better and better! Heartstone, where we meet Hugh Curteys, was possibly my favorite, because it contains one of my favorite tropes, and if you haven't read these books please stop here because MAJOR SPOILERS...

...I am absolutely weak for the "girl disguises herself as boy" plot, especially in historical contexts where women's lives are circumscribed by the prevailing social/religious attitudes. I really love the way Sansom has written Hugh here; he fully inhabits the character he has taken on for himself. Even once Shardlake figures it out, he still refers to Hugh with male pronouns, which implies to me that for Hugh, being male is not just his cover story but the identity he has chosen to live.

I'd really love a story about Hugh's new life in Antwerp working in the cloth trade, and I'm fine with it being set with him back in England talking to Shardlake, or epistolary, or just completely about Hugh with no involvement from Shardlake and the other characters. I'm fine with gen, or with him attempting a romance either with a man or a woman (original character) - it's up to you whether it goes well or disastrously, considering his secret and the setting. But please keep things firmly set within the historical context of these books.

Additional DNW for this fandom: No Hugh/Jack or Hugh/Matthew. I'm cautiously open to Hugh/Nicholas, and although there are not a lot of appropriate female characters in these books, if you can think of one, that's fine. Original characters are of course fine here.

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.