Extreme Timed Challenge Multifandom Gift Exchange 2025 Letter

[shannnon_foraker]

 Hello, Awesome Speedwriter!

 

Thanks for writing for me. You are also welcome to look at my other letters on my DW for additional details and prompts, there’s a bunch of stuff there.

 

You may, if you’d like, ignore my medium opt-ins for treats/extra gifts. For example, I didn’t opt in to fanart - however, if it’s a treat, go for it and make the fanart your heart desires!

 

General Notes:

See my the rest of my dreamwidth (it’s mostly letters) and my ao3 if you want more examples for Original Work (I’ve written for some of the tags) and Honor Harrington fics
 

Tropes I Like:

• Unexpected mercy
• Prisoner of war
• Characters being competent
• Hurt/comfort
• Fluff
• Happy endings
• Worldbuilding
• Everyone Lives Nobody Dies
• Crack, particularly crack treated seriously

Other Things I Like:

• In-Universe Documents/Social Media/Chatfics
• Snarky characters
• Sci-fi
• engineering porn (i mean this in a “detailed engineering”, not in a nsfw way)
• f/f relationships (and lgbtq relationships and characters in general)
• Detailed science (I want to know how the science works)
• Military science fiction
  • fleet vs fleet space battles instead of single ship actions
  • Attempts at not going/justifying for a “war crimes first” strategy, or at least not everyone being gung-ho about targeting civilians
     

Original Work 

Admiral Commanding Space Battleships & Their Naval Academy Classmate and Fellow Admiral in R&D (OW)

 

I tend to headcannon the latter character at least as female, because of reading the Honorverse, with the two brilliant female flag officers that end up leading R&D for their respective sides. This was inspired by the Honorverse.

 

Maybe notes about a fictionalized version of “the class the stars fell upon” in reference to how many people made flag rank? They were friends then and stayed friends. Maybe R&D Admiral wishes personally (not officially admitting it), that they were able to command battleships (okay, that prompt is from a very specific milscifi fandom).

Space Battleship Admiral's feedback is directly helping Naval R&D Admiral with their work, but also making the latter wishing she could be back with a combat fleet. 

 

 

Female Imperial Officer/Female Space Pirate Captain (OW)

 

Oh, I love my scifi. Especially things like David Weber (but not David Weber’s politics) or Andy Weir. I’m also a sucker for f/f relationships (you can tell from my Ao3, right?). If you read Weber, I liked both the Mutineer’s Moon series and the Honorverse.

 

Maybe stick to a bit of hardish milscifi? The Imperial officer is just trying to do her job, but then ends up in a Les Miz situation of owing her life to the Space Pirate Captain, then they fall in love?
 

Gifted Junior Space Navy Officer & Their Senior Officer Who's Mentoring Them (OW)

Their senior officer notices their talent, and helps them hone it? Senior officer enjoys finding talent? This is also based off a certain milscifi fandom that I requested this year. (If you haven't guesed it, it's the Honorverse)
 

Gifted Kid About To Burn Out/Gifted Kid Who Already Has (F/F) (OW)

 

I’ve seen the aftermath of burnout. I know what it’s like to be twice exceptional. And giftedness often comes with mental health issues.

Ideas: 

• Two girls, both pushed to their limits, fall into love as a rescue from the messed up world. They may be pushed to their limits, but that's not enough to stop them from wanting at least something nice while their world burns around them.
• Kids could very well be HS or college age (do i see a stem academia idea, yes.)

Special DNWs for this prompt: Self-harm and extreme depression

 

Losing Side Science Professor Turned Forced Lab Assistant & Winning Side Grad Student Supervisor (OW)

 

I’ve been thinking about this idea for weeks now.

As for settings, maybe modern academia (could be interesting), or maybe scifi?

Trope/Vibes as Prompts:

• Institutional cruelty with a side of unexpected mercy
• Hurt/comfort
• lack of trust/suspicion
• hidden secrets
• reveal of competence/skill
• a sense of paranoia
• growing bonds

STEM Field Recs (if you need ideas):

• Physics. After all, there's lots of math, especially on the theoretical side, which could mix with pure math. On the applied side, you could be doing experiments, but that might have some of the same safety issues as chem (see below). 
• Chemistry might be a little too risky to have such a potentially dangerous assistant, at least in the lab. Then again, they could always be stuck cleaning up after the grad student. Theoretical/Computational chem might be a bit safer.

 

If you have special experience working in a sciencey field, this would be an awesome place to let your science skills shine!

 

Likes include realistic style science (you don’t have to do the math), Arxiv. In-universe documents could be cool?

 

 

Princess/Rival Kingdom's Princess (OW)

• Sci-fi, maybe fantasy
• I like a focus on royal duties and what it’s really like over aggressive “must sleep with them”
• I’m also fond of descriptions of fancy jewelry and costumes, if they aren’t entirely at the expense of plot 
   

Prisoner Expecting The Worst & Rescuer Extending Mercy (OW)

I love my mercyfics

Maybe even some Whumper Turned Caretaker? Like “you’re still a prisoner, but you’re gonna be okay.” Maybe a POW camp setting?

 

Space Navy Admiral With Dad Vibes & Traumatized Yet Talented Staff Officer That He Tries To Help (OW)

• This has Honorverse (Honor Harrington series) vibes written all over it. (This prompt was inspired by my Lester Tourville & Shannon Foraker fics)
• Maybe hurt/comfort? Staff Officer is rather traumatized, but trying to hide it, out of career concerns and he’s trying to prevent them from overworking themselves like crazy.
• The Admiral doesn't like seeing his protegee working themselves to the bones to try to punish themselves for the mistake that led to their PTSD.

 

Space Rover Whose Battery is Almost Dead & Rescuer (OW)

• I have read and watched The Martian. Vibes from it are welcome! :)
• I like the engineering porn (i mean this in a “detailed engineering”, not in a nsfw way)
• Or you could always get inspired by NASA mission concepts.
• I like NASA being awesome, especially when it’s shown as more than just the astronauts.
• Maybe do a real Mars rover? Please? *whispers* There’s a few different options to choose from.
• Anthropomorphic Mars Rover? Sign me up!
   

Tag Rec: Space Vehicles (Anthropomorphic)

 

Winning General/Respected Opposing General Who is Their Postwar Arranged Marriage Spouse (OW)

• I love this prompt soo much!
• You are welcome to play in my sandboxes of what I wrote for that tag on my Ao3, if you want, but that is 100% optional.
• You are allowed and encouraged to put a Space Navy spin on original ideas (navies don’t use army ranks, for the most part, long story short).
• Unexpected mercy =  Good
• A focus on the honor and chivalry of military officers could be interesting

• Maybe the winning side just barely won, and the losing side ended up negotiating a surrender (the winning side was desperate enough to negotiate)...

Other Tropes/Vibes as Prompts:

• Institutional cruelty with a side of unexpected mercy
• Hurt/comfort
• lack of trust/suspicion
• hidden secrets
• a sense of paranoia
• growing bonds

 

Project Hail Mary - Andy Weir

 

Solo: Eva Stratt (Project Hail Mary)

• Eva Stratt in prison. She knew she was going to get arrested eventually, because of what she’d done as a dictator. And yet, she took the job anyway.
• Maybe she knows Project Hail Mary was a success, because she’s still alive, and sees the sunshine from the prison yard?
• Does she have a partner/kids? How does her job, and later her prison sentence impact them?
   

Honor Harrington Series - David Weber
Hello to me rambling on my OTP and more.
 

Abigail Hearns & Shannon Foraker (Honor Harrington)

• Abigail’s good at tactics with Manticorian hardware, Shannon was (arguably still is) a tac witch with Havenite hardware and might just be convinced to show Abigail a trick or two about getting the most out of your hardware, even if not everything is a podlayer.
• If you aren't into the One More Time AU, maybe there is a cultural difference between GSN Culture and PN/RHN Culture regarding victory parties? Get Shannon out of Bolthole somehow, and maybe Honor sends her Abigail to get Abigail used to working with Havenites?
   

Berjouhi Lafontaine & Shannon Foraker (Honor Harrington) 

• This could be an interesting mentoring relationship. Berjouhi’s a young Ensign in IEH and likely looks at Shannon as if she hung the stars themselves, while Shannon personally, I don’t think she’d want a junior officer to idolize her like that after the disaster that was Honor Among Enemies for her & MacMurtree & Caslet, that they got captured in. Berjouhi also saw what happened regarding Shannon and Tourville and the footage, and I headcanon she was watching when “Oops” happened.
   

Eloise Pritchart/Javier Giscard (Honor Harrington) 

• They’re the best example of a relationship that was cut far too short & a Javier Lives AU could be interesting.
• If he survived Lovat unharmed, he’d have been captured in Tourville’s place, and Tourville would have had to explain to Eloise how he let her husband get captured. I foresee Tom trying to tell him that Javier’s going to be okay & that he did the best he did, Eloise trying to write letters knowing they are going to be analyzed and censored to death (plus their relationship getting leaked to the media), Shannon having PTSD flashbacks to HAE and how things flipped… Sorry about the headcanon ramble.
   

Lester Tourville & Michelle Henke (Honor Harrington) 

• They’re both more reckless than most officers, and senior-level flag officers. Maybe they start to slowly bond over various things, around the time of Mesa? They did both get captured at various points during the second war. Mike did briefly meet Lester after she got captured at Solon.
   

Shannon Foraker & Sonja Hemphill (Honor Harrington) and Shannon Foraker/Sonja Hemphill (Honor Harrington) 

OMG, they are my OTP! Maybe them bonding with each other, Sonja realizing things like that her Havenite counterpart 

• works crazy shifts
• speaks French, English and more like it’s nothing (she’s definitely not lowkey secretly jealous, especially when discovering that most of the documentation for the RHN stuff is in French, with no English translation)
•  is scarily competent (though Sonja knew that after seeing how far Haven came during the ceasefire)

while Shannon realizes that:

•  there are others like her (neither of them are stellar people persons, and they’re both intense nerds & hackers)
•  she can delegate work and it’ll be okay 
• and cultural stuff (Canon says the people with the best educations in the PRH were typically from more outlying and later annexed portions, and I did explore that a decent amount in my One More Time AU, if you want a bit of an idea)

Spoilers ahead for late series Honorverse stuff.

• So I love pro-Havenite content, and especially ship Shannon/Sonja (the two geek girls are perfect for each other as they hack and R&D the Sollies and Mesans into atomic particles). Maybe something on Bolthole? Could be Sonja and Shannon hacking their way to each other's hearts, could be them dancing with enough at a techy party, and the whole station finding out. And of course, being Shannon, she wouldn't be opposed to doing some flashy demos to best ask Sonja to something, that is, once she figures things out.
• If you want, Shannon/Sonja could be awesome (if only Weber was willing to ship it as / instead of &). Just think of the chaos the two tech nerds could create, while falling in love. Meanwhile, some of their fellow GA  Admirals are like "Shannon or Sonja was bad enough, now they are teaming up to hack my social medias as their date night idea"
   

Solo: Berjouhi Lafontaine (Honor Harrington) 

• She was Shannon’s ATO during IEH and has 100% spent enough time around Shannon to have her CO’s lessons rub off. And she knows a lot, and actually told Sinead Terekhov what happened regarding IEH.
   

Solo: Eloise Pritchart (Honor Harrington)
 

• Her time as a Commissioner, and trying to be "ruthless commissioner" for the sake of her cover, while trying to protect Javier.
• She started off as an Aprilist, then fell in love with the one person she probably wasn’t supposed to fall in love with, then ended up at President, before she got her love tragically ripped away far too soon in a war that she and Honor both knew things were up regarding.
• Her appointment as President, then the election.
• Dealing with the rightfully-angry Navy after Oops, and hoping that she won't be lynched. After all, Oops probably scared her a bit.
   

Solo: Javier Giscard (Honor Harrington) 
 

• I headcanon him as Thomas Theisman's roommate from the Academy, and having to explain to his orphan roommate "that's not supposed to happen", in terms of what he went through. He's also close with Lester Tourville, and would really like Shannon Foraker to stay alive and out of trouble (including not somehow making him drink her *extremely* caffeinated coffee, because when he had *half a cup* he didn't sleep much for weeks, because he got unknowingly-extremely-strong-coffee from the machine with the techy stickers).
• Ended up with his commissioner of all people, and was a competent Admiral in his own right.
• He didn't think he'd fall in love with his Commissioner, though he liked the CoPS's ideas (but not the implementation, especially regarding the Navy) , like getting the rich out of power better than the Harris Administration. 
• Javier Lives AUs can be fun, if you want (like maybe he wasn't at Lovat?).
  
  

Solo: Lester Tourville (Honor Harrington) 
 

He’s awesome. Ideas:

• Getting Shannon from Javier- he couldn't have been prepared for her (from her hacking skills to tac skills to sheer lack of social skills). But he sure is proud of her, by the end. It was a hard road to get to 1915 alive with her, but he knows she deserves all of the goodies she's honored with.
• A few scenes of him as a POW post Battle of Manticore and his reaction to the Grand Alliance
• More details regarding Citizen Admiral Cowboy, potentially including how he kept that “cowboy persona” up over the years.
• Dealing with wrangling Shannon & the sheer amount of chaos as a result of Shannon getting her missile pods → Adler → Press Conference → Cerberus → Zanzibar → Lovat & Oops 
   

Solo: Michelle Henke (Honor Harrington)

 

• Her time as a POW and meeting with President Pritchart (We barely got to see any of it in Storm from the Shadows and At All Costs), and got only like one line about how her being a POW messed with her mind.) Feel free to expand that out. Maybe some paranoia because of Pritchart's past, and what's happened to her family? Maybe an exploration of the "is this a good idea", "will it be worth it" from Pritchart's POV?

Solo: Shannon Foraker (Honor Harrington) 
 

She’s awesome! I single-handedly massively expanded the number of fics with her in them on Ao3. She’s overcome a lot, as well, and somehow managed to be the awesome tac witch & tech nerd that she is, fail social stuff, and get a promotion per book until the crazy offscreen jump in between AoV & WoH (Commander to Vice Admiral).

 

•  I headcanon her to have some PTSD from the events of HAE. She needs a lot of minding by Admiral Tourville (who ends up having a lot of interesting conversations with her), to avoid ending up in more trouble with StateSec. She's also known to drink way too much (very strong) coffee (it calms her down, and helps her function, so separating her from it is bad), as a way of allowing her to work herself until she collapses, so she doesn't have to deal with the nightmares that mess with her. I aggressively headcanon her to overwork herself like crazy, and Tourville has to try to keep a handle on that. She also hacks things for fun, to burn off the stress of dealing with angry!StateSec. It's safe to presume that she's the Chaos Goddess of wherever she is. 
• Shannon's promotion to Commander by Admiral Giscard, and the party that followed. Sure, the Vaubon crew may have just come out of some sketchy disasters, but it's still a big deal for an officer like Shannon to get promoted. 
•  Consider security firewalls merely anywhere from next to nothing to mildly annoying (*maybe* full on annoying, especially if having a coffee withdrawal headache while hacking, on the top tier of government and non-Havenite military firewalls) from her perspective. She is also (IMHO) the Tech Support Lady of where ever she is, at least pre-flag rank, as she gets too busy
• Growing up? What was it like? Tech skills? How'd she become a tech witch? Times people called her a tech or tac witch?
• The brief period of full on confidence between Honor's capture and the press conference. She feels confident again, that she's not just pretending to be a tac witch, and pretending to trust herself. Admiral Tourville and everyone else trust her witchcraft... 
• Conversations with Admiral Tourville about various things, from the events of HAE, to her past, to tactics.
• She didn't jump Commander to Vice Admiral in one shot to Bolthole. Give her something in between, like cleaning up StateSec's mess, or the Civil War. Oh, and adapting to flag rank, and a staff of her own?
• Past Mentors (and their fates). Like before Vaubon.  What happened to them? Many of them were likely shot or disappeared. How did she take things? How did she try to privately remember them?
• Her promotion to Admiral. When does that happen? Who pins on her next star? Is it Tourville, who helped shape her as a staff officer? Is it Admiral Theisman, as CNO?

 

 

At Bolthole

• developing the RHN's hardware, while having to deal with everything else that comes with being a flag officer (especially as she got promoted very fast, and if you stick strictly to canon, it'd be from Commander to Vice Admiral in a couple of years max, and she hadn't been actively trying to become a flag officer, according to Weber)
• missing getting to play with her toys (if you do this, maybe set it after the GA, and let her out to go play, and make her deal with temporarily letting Sonja supervise things, but being glad to get out and play with things, and maybe everyone else's reactions to Miss Tac Witch getting out to create chaos.
• Hacking things to have fun

 

 

Solo: Sonja Hemphill (Honor Harrington) 

She’s led Manticore & the galaxy in naval R&D for decades. Ideas:

 

• What was her time as a junior ship commander like? IIRC, this suggestion was from King Roger or Captain Adcock, when she was a Lieutenant Commander or so (check House of Steel to be sure)
• Bolthole and meeting her counterpart.
• Inheriting her Barony between WoH & AAC.
• Her initial reaction to the Grand Alliance & that she + her people were moving out to Bolthole and that she & Shannon were going to work together.
• I know TEiF says Sonja drinks tea to get the needed caffeine level (until Shannon intros her to Havenite coffee, IIRC), but really? Why does she try Havenite coffee? Did she accidentally grab Shannon's?
• She enjoys hacking with Shannon and can keep up with Shannon, unlike many others.
• If you really need something pre Grand Alliance, maybe while Sonja's a fleet commander at Grenselbane in the early war, she wishes she has her new SD(P) designs she's been working on with some of her tech nerds there, and falls asleep late one night, working on the blueprints?

 

Solo: Thomas Theisman (Honor Harrington)
 

• He's definitely risen a lot from when we first meet him to now, as Secretary of War. He’s what kept the Republic together, as he stands with Eloise and the Navy stands behind him.  
• A Honorverse Today podcast interview (2nd interview) says that he & Tourville were on the same ship as snotties, and mentored by Alfredo Yu. Maybe exploring his thoughts on people's defections and his former respect for them?

 

DNW

 

• police/law enforcement brutality being portrayed as good, fantasy police included
• alzheimer’s/dementia
• NSFW
•  Genderflipped
• Graphic Sex
• Snakes
• poisonous mushrooms
• non-con (beyond references)
• pro-police/law enforcement focus (space navies are good, just skip the Landing Police)
• digital piracy
• Real Life Politics (In-Universe stuff is fine, but hammering in RL stuff into the verse, not so much)
• major (non-bad guy) character death.
• Suicide 
• Racism being portrayed as good
• Homophobia being portrayed as good
• Transphobia being portrayed as good
• Bashing requested characters
• Bears 
• Animal Attacks 
• Death of family members (or other loved ones)
• Grief 
• Family related trauma 
• Gorey or painful deaths
• Unrequested crossovers or other media setting AUs (you can do things like Royalty AUs or Canon Divergence AUs, but not a Batman AU, for example)
• Unrequested non-canonical species swaps