hidden_variable

Dear Yuletide writer,

Thank you so much for writing for me! This will be my fourth Yuletide, and I’m excited to be back. I’m hidden_variable on AO3 as I am here. My account is set to accept gifts, and I’d be very happy to receive treats.

General likes (in no particular order, and not an exhaustive list): humor (especially nerdy science or math puns); witty banter; teamwork; parent-child relationships; sibling relationships; friendships between characters of disparate backgrounds; slow-burn romance; magical or supernatural phenomena approached in a “scientific” way (experimenting to figure out the rules); characters being highly competent in their own areas of expertise (and also being tested in areas where they aren’t so competent); casefic/mysteries; solving problems/defeating evil based on intelligence and research (as opposed to physical prowess).

General DNWs: E-rated sex or violence, a focus on torture or child abuse, dark/hopeless endings (but see canon-specific notes for Face in the Frost), death of requested characters (deaths of OCs, or mentioning deaths that occur in canon, are fine), unrequested ships for requested characters. No Harry Potter crossovers (but many other crossovers are great!)

If you already have an idea you want to write about for one of these canons, go for it! I’d rather receive something you’re excited to write than something that exactly fits one of my prompts. Having said that, below are some of my thoughts and ideas for each of the canons I’m requesting, in case you find them helpful.

The Face in the Frost - John Bellairs
Requested character: Prospero


Currently there is zero fic for this book on AO3, so I will almost certainly be thrilled with anything at all you might come up with (as long as it respects my DNWs). But here are a few thoughts:

This book is extremely fertile ground for crossovers. Its world clearly has a very porous connection with our own. The very first sentence of Chapter 1 reads “Several centuries (or so) ago, in a country whose name doesn’t matter, there was a tall, skinny, straggly-bearded wizard named Prospero, and not the one you are thinking of, either.” Which begs the question: so what about the one we are thinking of? Did this Prospero ever interact with/influence Shakespeare’s Prospero, or Shakespeare himself? And there is no such disclaimer attached to Prospero’s friend Roger Bacon: should we conclude that he is the Roger Bacon we’re thinking of? I’d love to hear more about any such connections.

If the boundary with our world is porous, it’s not hard to imagine that the boundaries with other worlds might be the same way. Bellairs considered The Face in the Frost his attempt to write something along the lines of The Lord of the Rings, with Prospero as his answer to Gandalf. (See this review for more background.) So, what if Prospero crosses paths with the actual Gandalf, or possibly a party of hobbits/dwarves/elves/whatever his world’s equivalent may be? On another note, I can absolutely see Prospero and Roger Bacon hanging out with some of Bellairs’ other characters: Roderick Childermass, Florence Zimmermann, Jonathan Barnavelt… That group could have an amazing tea-and-cake party/poker game. Or, what if Howl or Chrestomanci pops in through a portal, Dorothy takes a wrong turn on her way to Oz, or Alice’s looking glass sends her through Prospero’s magic mirror? What if Harold Postmartin discovers some of Prospero’s writings in a dusty library somewhere? Did Prospero need to fight a snake in order to defend his thesis be certified as a wizard? I mean, you can go nuts here. Any canon mentioned in my journal, included on my list of 100 books, or included in my AO3 bookmarks is fair game, or feel free to ask via the mods whether I’m familiar with a different fandom that sparks an idea for you.

There are also plenty of things to explore within The Face in the Frost itself. For example, how and when did Prospero come by any of his many bizarre household items, particularly the magic mirror that may at any given moment be singing, making sarcastic remarks, or broadcasting a 1943 Cubs game? What if Prospero and Roger Bacon take a trip together just for fun, rather than to defeat a dark wizard: where would they go and what would they see? What if a local farmer or aristocrat requests some magical help? Is there a minor mystery he can solve, possibly through raising the ghosts of chrysanthemums or some other ridiculous spell? Or just show me Prospero using magic for his own mundane purposes: cooking, cleaning, gardening, home repairs…

On a somewhat darker note: we know from canon that Prospero has some history with the dark wizard Melichus, but we find out very little about Melichus’s background or motivations. How did Prospero and Melichus come to study magic together? What were their lessons like? Was Melichus always interested in evil magic, or did something happen to turn him in that direction? Clarification about DNWs: I’ve listed “dark/hopeless endings” as a general DNW. I recognize that if you go with the idea of digging into Melichus’s background, there are almost certainly unpleasant things to be found. While I’m not interested in, say, an AU where Melichus takes over the world, or something that’s just unremitting angst and horror with no lighter moments, I’m fine with exploring some darker themes here, and with an ending that leaves Melichus as the terrible person he canonically is.



The Incandescent - Emily Tesh
Request: Worldbuilding

As I said in my post about it, this book, as a magic-school story with a focus on teaching and pedagogy, feels laser-targeted to my interests. I’m asking for worldbuilding because I just want to spend more time in this world and explore it. The canon characters are great, and I’d be happy for any of them to be included, but OCs and in-universe meta are great as well. I’d be interested in any worldbuilding ideas you may have, but here are a few ideas:
If you want to give me any sort of quotidian slice-of-life Chetwood campus scenes, I’d eat that up with a spoon: classes, faculty meetings, lesson planning, conferences, hiring committees, student orientation, dealing with minor demon infestations in technology, etc. (Can software be infested by demons? How does AI fit into this?) Also, one of the things I really enjoyed in the novel was that magic is taught alongside regular academic subjects. Tell me how magic interacts with and influences another field you know well! I’d love to see an excerpt from a textbook, journal article, syllabus, assignment, etc.

I want to know more about the Phoenix! Was Saffy Walden the first person to bind a demon to their own body in this way, or had others done it before? I’d love to see her thesis defense (and major bonus points if you can somehow connect it to the “Snake Fight” FAQ), or her job interview at Chetwood. What kind of paperwork had to be filed to approve the Phoenix as a research project? Did she publish papers about it? Mention it in her job application? To what extent was its existence known in the magical community? What exactly were Mark Daubery and his shadowy employer up to in relation to the Phoenix? And how do things go post-canon when the Phoenix has attached itself to Chetwood? One of my favorite moments was when the Phoenix asks Walden how to “do that thing you do”--i.e., how to teach. I’d love to see some follow-up on that. Does it teach other demons? Does it interact with any humans? The question of whether a demon is a person was never really resolved in canon; anything digging into that would be great.

I’m curious about the experiences of people with magical talent who don’t have the resources or connections to end up at a school like Chetwood. What happened post-canon with the introduction of magic courses into non-elite schools? That idea was very casually tossed off at the end of the novel, but there would be a daunting array of obstacles to overcome. What was life like for site manager Todd Cartwright growing up with a magical “knack” but no formal education in the field, and how might things be different in the future for his great-nephew who has “a bit of the fizz”?

It might also be fun to follow up with the Invocation Squad students after they leave Chetwood. How does Nikki do at Oxford? Does she go on for a doctorate later? It could be interesting to compare and contrast her thesis research with Walden’s. And what about Aneeta’s biochemistry research–is it influenced by her magic background? I like the dynamic of the students as a group; maybe they could get together for a reunion and share what they’ve been up to since graduation.

Finally, in my post I made the fairly out-there connection that Mark Daubery could be read as a cynical outsider POV on Chrestomanci. If you want to do a Chrestomanci crossover, I’d absolutely be here for that! Maybe some students end up deliberately or accidentally summoning Chrestomanci? Or perhaps he wishes to share his no-doubt strong views on the safe and ethical treatment of demons?


Hexwood - Diana Wynne Jones
Request: Any


I love this book an unreasonable amount. What do I love about it? Like much of DWJ’s other work, it’s light and funny on the surface, but with darker themes lurking just underneath. It’s a wild mixture of elements from different sources: Arthurian legend, The Tempest, Beowulf, space opera with evil alien overlords… I love the puzzle-box quality of the book, the way things are initially chaotic and out of order, and then everything somehow slots together neatly at the end, with almost everyone ending up with a different identity than we’d first assumed.

I finished the book thinking that there’s so much left to be filled in. While I’ve received an excellent gift for this request a couple of years ago, the field is still wide open for more. The Reigner organization and its galactic reach are so lightly sketched that almost any imaginable post-canon story would count as worldbuilding in my view. I selected "any characters" because I wanted to leave options open as much as possible. However, I would love to hear more about the five new Reigners as they begin their term following the canon ending. I adore the Mordion/Vierran relationship, and would be very happy to read about that; I also very much enjoy the interactions and teamwork among all five of them, plus Yam and Siri– I’m especially intrigued by Siri, and would like to see her play a bigger role than she gets in canon. What kinds of problems will they all need to solve as they take over the company? How will the Great Houses react to the change of regime—are they all supportive, or are there some who are trying to undermine them? What about ordinary people on their planet, or other planets—what are their day-to-day lives like, and how do they react to the change? We know that the company has been exploiting Earth for its natural resources without the knowledge of most people who live there; what do the new Reigners do to address that situation? Are there other planets in the same boat? Maybe some subset of the new Reigners need to travel back to Earth, or to one of the other planets that are briefly mentioned, or some entirely different planet that you invent, to solve a mystery, implement a change, reassure the inhabitants that they’re not evil…? On a more personal level, how do they adjust to working together in person after so many years of being voices in one another’s heads? What kinds of mental connections/telepathy are still available to them?

It’s also great if you want to give an outside POV on the world and the changes that will be occurring post-canon. As an example, I’d really like to see any sort of in-universe documents that shed light on what’s happening: interoffice memos, updates to the employee handbook, news articles (serious or tabloid-style), social media posts… I want to know all sorts of things about this universe: what sorts of planetary or galactic governments exist, and how do they interact with the Reigner organization? What kind of education system do they have? How similar are all these different planets to Earth? What kinds of nonhuman life have they encountered—are there any intelligent alien species they’ve interacted with? What’s up with their amazing flint-based wormhole-ish interplanetary transportation system? I’m not expecting any serious explanation of how the transport system works, but it would be fun to dig into its potential implications: what limitations does it have? What kinds of things can go wrong with it, and how can they be fixed? What unexpected side-effects can it cause? If you’ve got a wormhole, or any sort of faster-than-light travel, then you’ve got yourself a time machine, whether you wanted one or not--I’m just saying.

Canon-specific note on DNW's: Orm Pender|Reigner One is in the tagset; it's fine for him to appear early in the story or in flashbacks, and okay to mention his mistreatment of Mordion and others. However, please don't dwell on scenes of child abuse or torture. My DNW for dark/hopeless endings means that I don't want the story to end with Mordion still under the control of the Reigners.


Scholomance - Naomi Novik
Requested character: Scholomance (i.e., the school itself, as a sentient building/magical AI)


The Scholomance itself is my favorite character in the series. It’s an amazing moment when the Scholomance reveals that it’s fully committed to saving “all the wise-gifted children of the world” if it can. It’s one of many trope inversions in the series—in this case, the trope of “AI turns on its creators and becomes evil” (or does something evil in order to carry out its well-intentioned mission). Instead, we have the AI taking its noble-sounding mission statement more seriously than its creators ever did. I’d be very interested in anything you want to write about either its past or its post-canon future. You can read more of my thoughts about it in my Scholomance writeup, some of which I’m copying and pasting here.

The Scholomance has got to be an incredibly sophisticated magical AI. It got some initial “programming” from the wizards who first set it up, and perhaps it gets an update from time to time, but essentially it’s on its own to decide how best to teach and train several thousand magical teenagers. How did the founders decide on what topics it should teach? Are its teaching methods programmed in, or did the Scholomance itself develop them through trial and error? (I’d particularly like to see how it teaches math, if you’re into that sort of thing.) Was there tension between subjects that major donors or political bigwigs insisted on including, versus what the Scholomance thought was central to its mission? Later on, were there periodic updates to the programming to reflect advances in magical knowledge? If so, how was that accomplished?

Post-canon, there are clearly huge changes coming for the school; I would love to see more about how all that plays out. Now that there’s less need for tight security against mals, will there be regular communication between the students and their families outside? Will there be parent volunteers and PTA meetings? Will the Scholomance want to broaden its mission so that the curriculum is not so narrowly focused on surviving mal attacks, or will it be resistant to such changes? In The Last Graduate El made a throwaway comment about how someone with am affinity like water-weaving, which would be incredibly useful in the wider world but doesn’t have many anti-mal applications, would never survive graduation. Will they now have courses designed to help take advantage of that type of talent? Will they now consider bringing in actual human teachers—and how does the Scholomance itself feel about that? Also, are they perhaps going to start doing a teensy bit of outreach for incoming students from non-magical families, so that they’re not just suddenly zapped through a portal with no warning?

There are many possibilities for formats I’d enjoy here. Something like minutes of the Scholomance Curriculum Committee meetings, or excerpts from a discussion group for parents, could work very well, but I’d also be happy with a more straightforward narrative format. I’d be happy to see interactions with canon characters, particularly some of the current enclave leadership—Li Shanfeng? Ophelia? Alfie’s dad? If you want to introduce OCs, either in addition to or instead of canon characters, that’s great too. I just want the Scholomance itself to be the major focus.


FAQ: The “Snake Fight” Portion of Your Thesis Defense - Luke Burns



Note: The original canon for this is very short and freely available; I highly recommend it if you’re not yet familiar with it.

Look, if you already have a specific idea in mind for this, go for it! I love all the many different takes I’ve seen on this, and I’m sure I’ll love whatever new snaky goodness may hatch out this year. But the reason I decided to request this is because I want fantasy crossovers. I’d love to see any kind of riff on the Snake Fight concept set in a universe that has magic. It can be a narrative, another FAQ document, or any other piece of in-universe meta that occurs to you. Feel free to involve canon characters from whatever source you choose, and/or OCs. Here are some specific ideas:

I’ve mentioned The Face in the Frost and The Incandescent in my requests here.

Almost any Diana Wynne Jones canon would probably be good, but I think the idea fits especially well into the Derkholm, Howl, or Magids series. (Maybe Howl created a portal to Ingary as a way to avoid his snake fight in Wales? What kind of “snake “ does Maree or Nick need to defeat in order to qualify as a Magid? Derkholm… well, the applications are obvious.)

The Enchanted Forest Chronicles: was there a snake fight involved in Morwen’s or Telemain’s magical training? Is there an equivalent for dragons?

Does Casterbrook, or another magic school in the Rivers of London universe, include a snake fight in its graduation requirements?

The snake fight seems like the sort of absurdity that would be right at home in Wonderland or on the other side of the Looking Glass, perhaps in relation to Carrol’s| Dodgson’s career as a mathematician.

Canonically, the Scholomance graduation is already a sort of full-class snake fight writ large, but how does this change in the post-canon era? Is there a more formal/ritualized map-defeating tradition that survives?

These are just a few examples; if you have other ideas, the sky’s the limit! Any canon that appears on my list of 100 books, or included in my AO3 bookmarks is fair game, or feel free to ask via the mods whether I’m familiar with a different fandom that sparks an idea for you. (But no Harry Potter, please.)