Pinch Hit #5

[firebatvillain]

Here's another Pinch Hit! Please reply to this post or email sufficiently.advanced.ex@gmail.com to claim. Please include your Ao3 username and the number of the pinch hit you are claiming. This will be due Sun 03 May 2026 10:00PM EDT!

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PH 5 - Alien Clay - Adrian Tchaikovsky, Anathem - Neal Stephenson, Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany, Piranesi - Susanna Clarke, Solaris - Stanisław Lem, Shadow of the Leviathan - Robert Jackson Bennett

Request 1 by Gammarad
Alien Clay - Adrian Tchaikovsky
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• Kiln & Keev's Excursions Team (Alien Clay)
• Ilmus Itrin/Vertegio Keev (Alien Clay)
• Marquaine Ell & Arton Daghdev (Alien Clay)
• Nimell Primatt & Helena Croan (Alien Clay)
• Mox Calwren/Clemmish Berudha (Alien Clay)
• Arton Daghdev/Nimell Primatt (Alien Clay)

Freeforms:

Copied from my request in candy hearts 2026 - For the excursion team: what if Kiln was communicating with Keev for a while, in a way, and that's why it took him longer to succumb - plus what helped keep him going? Or, how his team lost previous members. Or an alternate view of what happened on the long walk back to the camp

For Ilmus/Keev: how did they hook up and what brought them together, from either one's POV? What made them both opposites (first to fall, last to fall; secretive, straightforward) and alike (very private, yet caring; kept going when everyone probably thought they couldn't)

For Marquaine & Arton - an AU where Marquaine survives & is there for the whole story or part of it? Or pre-canon and a dive into your headcanon of what Marquaine was like?

For Primatt & Croan - their relationship as co-heads of the prisoner and staff parts of science? did they have a kind of friendship or was it more tenuous? or how they get along once Kiln has helped them know each other - what realizations do they come to maybe too late (but not really)

For Calwren/Clem - did that ever go anywhere? maybe in your version it did :D or one sided pining on Calwren's side is great for me too, I enjoy it

For Daghdev/Primatt - pwp might be nice for them, to see what they did in that canonical time they had sex. or maybe some way of romantic connection right around the end of the book, when they're working on the plan - leading up to going back to Earth maybe?

DNW: explicit underage, sibling or inter-generation incest, injuries involving exposed bone, deliberate threat or cruelty to a pet (of any species) or a cat (of any status)

link to general likes (some may be relevant): https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/7253.html

Request 2 by Gammarad
Anathem - Neal Stephenson
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• WB: Arbrans on the Daban Urnud (Anathem)
• WB: Polycosmic Manipulation and Hylaean Flow (Anathem)
• WB: Avout Dialogs (Anathem)
• WB: Pre-Contact Mathic Life (Anathem)

Freeforms:

copied from this event in 2024

Anathem is such a strange and intriguing world with a story woven through it. I'd love any kind of worldbuilding for this, the Arbrans and where they're from, how the universe is connected up, the pre-canon and post-canon world, anything about the millenarians. I'd love a straightforward narrative or a twisty meta-ish one or go with an unusual format, I think they might work especially well with this request if that's what you want to create.

link to general likes (some may be relevant): https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/7253.html

copied from fiab 2022:

The weirdness of this book is only outdone by the beauty of the world it is set in, the way they think and also I love the multiple worlds in this one too. Really any space related story for this canon would be fantastic. Feel free to use any canonical or original characters. I liked them all. If it fits your story idea, I'd love to see more about older female avout, there weren't many with featured roles in the novel. I received a story about Jad for a previous exchange and it was marvellous, more about him would be fantastic, or other Millenarians. A theoretical treatise of some kind, or something from the view of the ita or their Reticulum about the requested topics.

My worldbuilding likes are pretty much all the types: I like the long discursive essay about how the sewer system works in the middle of the chase scene through the sewer, and I like the careful insertion of telling detail into the chase scene almost unnoticed until you realize at the end of it that you know exactly why this sewer has bends there and low ceilings here. I also like when the characters stop to argue about why the sewer is like this and get caught.

I think my favorite is when the worldbuilding communicates a strong point of view about the stuff it's showing/telling, and when seemingly separate bits of it turn out to be deeply connected.

and from space swap 2022: Really any space related story for this canon would be fantastic. Feel free to use any canonical or original characters. I liked them all. If it fits your story idea, I'd love to see more about older female avout, there weren't many with featured roles in the novel.

DNWs for this request: explicit underage sex, noncon incest or noncon against victim's explicitly stated orientation, bulging or inflation kink, focus on incest or underage ships, underage sex of any kind, injury involving exposed bone

Request 3 by Gammarad
Babel-17 - Samuel R. Delany
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• Nyles Ver Dorco/Rydra Wong
• Solo: Rydra Wong
• WB: language and linguistics [Babel-17]
• WB: navigator throuples [Babel-17]
• WB: space travel [Babel-17]

Freeforms:

copied from 2024 this event

I like Butcher and Rydra each as characters very much and as a couple. I'm fascinated with language, the way it's used by people, from linguists who really get it to people who struggle to use it, its possibilities and the sff extensions of such. As a couple, they're complementary in many ways yet they also have points of contention that make them interesting - Butcher doesn't care for Rydra's initlal reaction to him, nor the way she kind of takes him on as a project, yet when they connect as people it's on a level neither of them has connected to anyone else before.

Navigator thruples and space travel are also so intriguing, the coordination necessary to work together on a personal level, because of the instinct being harnessed to create the ship drive. I'd love to see world building about this and also any mentioned or original navigational teams/polycules.

link to general likes (some may be relevant): https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/7253.html

DNW: explicitly depicted underage sex, focus on underage sex, injury involving exposed bone

Request 4 by Gammarad
Piranesi - Susanna Clarke
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• Solo: Sixteen | Sarah Raphael
• Piranesi | Matthew Rose Sorensen & Sixteen | Sarah Raphael
• The House (Piranesi) & Sixteen | Sarah Raphael

Freeforms:

copied from fffx 2021, updated for this request

What I am interested in about Piranesi: The characters of Sara, Piranesi, all the minor characters who show up; the birds and why there are birds in the House at all; the statues; how the memory loss works; what life is like for others who start to live there and how it's similar and different to Piranesi's experience. The magic process that gets a person to the House and all the different ways it could work. The mystic group that Matthew was investigating and each person in it.

Please feel free to use any of these prompts, or ignore them and consult my likes list for more options!

- Back story on Sara and how she came to be the sort of person who'd go looking for a missing person in the House (and succeed!)
- Future story about Sara and what her life is like after the discovery, and if you choose that option, her future relationship with Matthew|Piranesi. Does she stay long enough to have her memory affected? Does she take anyone else there? What does the House want with her, if anything? Do Sara and Matthew discover more about the House later on? Does the House try to get them both back?
- Or alternatively for Sara & the House: What is their relationship like with the House if they visit but never stay long? What does it change for them about their view of the regular world?

and copied from Yuletide 2021:

I would really love to know more about the world setting too, but I don't want to make it seem like I need worldbuilding in the story because I'd also be very happy with a story about Sarah in a world indistinguishable from the real world, as she goes about solving a mystery or figuring out the very weird goings on as she did.

I'm happy for the story to include any of the nominated characters other than Ritter in any role. It can even focus on one of them and have Sarah appear in a supporting capacity. Any of the other canon characters who was not nominated is also fine, as well as any original characters needed for the story!

Prompts:
- Sarah investigates
- Sarah explores the House, with or without company of another character

link to general likes (some may be relevant): https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/7253.html

DNW for this request: explicit sex, incest, underage characters involved in romance with adults or in nonconsensual sex, injuries with exposed bone, severe harm to pets or focus on threats to pets or children, death of Sara Raphael (it's okay to kill off original characters, unrequested characters, and even Matthew).

Request 5 by Gammarad
Solaris - Stanisław Lem
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• Any Relationship

Freeforms:

Copied from Fic in a box 2020:

(this is the link to that letter: https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/3818.html )

What I like about Solaris the book, specifically: I like the newer translation and I like the sort of artificially-academic feel of the storytelling. I like the philosophical bleakness of the story as well as the bits of hope scattered here and there. I like the image of the weird shapes the Solaris sea takes and the almost-cartoon-like imagery in the book.

See letter for general likes, general likes about Solaris, and requests. There might even be prompts there, but if not, I'm going to be thrilled just to receive your work in this setting. I'm very interested in what you come up with either about Solaris the planet and its relationships with humans, or about Kris and his relationship with the real person (whose name was translated Harey or Rheya in different translations) or with the copy of her Solaris made to interact with him. He never quite believed, although I got the feeling he wanted to.

DNWs:
sex or romance between a person and their blood relative who is a sibling, parent, (great)grandparent, (great)aunt or (great)uncle, unless all parties are immortal/unaging adults (such as Amberites or deities from for example Greek pantheon). Sex between an adult and an underage person who are at least four years apart in age. Explicit sex with anyone under 17. Any sex acts with individuals under 15 (or equivalent near-maturity for their kind). Harm to cats or cat-like animals (temporary or minor damage is okay if it is clear they will recover). Bulging or inflation kink. Noncon or dubcon where the victim has an exclusive sexual orientation to persons of gender(s) other than the aggressor's.

Request 6 by Gammarad
Shadow of the Leviathan - Robert Jackson Bennett
Mediums: Fanfiction

Relationships:

• Anagosa Dolabra & Her Previous Assistant
• WB: Cultural differences across regions of the Empire [Shadow of the Leviathan]
• WB: Daily life in the Inner Rings of the Empire [Shadow of the Leviathan]
• Anagosa Dolabra & Dinios Kol

Freeforms:

copied from wintertime woes request:

Did the previous assistant meet a horrible end? Did Ana have anything to do with it? Was it deserved, or unjust, or a third option? Was the previous assistant also enhanced and what kind of terrible side effects did theirs have...

copied from fffx2025

I've just read in the last few months both books so far of this series. They were great. I especially liked the two main characters, Kol and Dolabra. I'd love to read a story or comic about both of them together or either of them separately, or one story about each of them if that works better. Beyond the characters, my favorite thing is the world building.

general like link: https://lemniskath.dreamwidth.org/7253.html

DNW for this request: injuries involving exposed bone, explicit smut, non-canon pets or children as significant characters (flashbacks or references to when canon characters were young are fine), crossovers with unrequested fandoms, setting-change AUs (Please keep the setting basically what it is, though feel free to add your worldbuilding ideas on), pre-canon fic (exceptions: pre-canon about Dolabra is fine if you include book 2 information; precanon world-building sections not focused on the requested characters are fine as a portion of the work)

If you've only read the first book, that's fine - I'd be happy with something that diverges from canon after book 1, and also happy with something canon compliant to book 2. The revelations about both characters, and about the world, in book 2 were great, but they already had my heart after book 1.