Fic In A Box 2022
Sep. 2nd, 2022 12:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fencesit
Hi! Thanks for creating for me, or for otherwise taking a look at my letter. I’m fencesit on AO3!
You may notice that I have less details or prompts for some fandoms/ships/mediums than others. Please don't take this as an indication that I want those things any less than other things! I very much desperately want everything I've requested, I've just had more time to request some things than others.
And: please don't feel like you need to follow one of my prompts to keep from disappointing me. I've provided all the information below in an attempt to help my creator feel confident in producing a gift for me, but if prompts and extra details don't work for you then feel free to ignore them.
ALSO I know that this letter is really long. Please just skip sections that don't interest you!
I'm up for recursive fic of my own fic or recursive of gifts I've received in the past (assuming you have the author's permission).
Also I opt into logic puzzles!
DNW:
- unrequested AUs
- canon divergence is okay
- I would like ninja to still be ninja and cultivators to still be cultivators
- Something like "Airplane-bro made a cultivation otome game instead of writing a cultivation stallion novel" or "Konoha was never founded" in Naruto — I consider those technically canon divergence rather than straight AUs.
- including spit as lube, but oral is fine
- specifically I would like to avoid car crashes and anything that resembles them.
- other forms of transit disaster are fine (eg, airplane crash or shipwreck)
- if I'm requesting a canon set in space, spaceship crashes are fine as long as the ships are more like airplanes or cruise ships (long term, chartered, lots of people) than they're like cars (daily commute, 1-4 people, etc).
- feel free to fudge timelines or just not mention ages specifically, though
- derealization — An alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems unreal.
- depersonalization — The persistent feeling of observing oneself from outside one’s body or having a sense that one’s surroundings/body aren't real.
- Typically dissociation shows up as reaction to stress or trauma where the character experiencing it feels disconnected in some way from their emotions, their body, reality, etc; sometimes the character acts on autopilot.
- If you're writing/drawing a character who's literally having an out of body experience (like, because they're a ghost and something else has taken over their body) or dealing with an actual fake world (like, because they're trapped in a magical illusion) then that's okay.
- magically preserved non-rotting undead like vampires or skeletons are fine
- including using characters from other canons as stand-ins for OCs, even if the character or their appearance in the fic is very minor.
- including borrowing worldbuilding/magic systems/artifacts/alien races/etc.
- definitely fine for characters to know about or reference anything you think it's reasonable for them to have consumed as media, e.g. modern mundane characters have probably heard of Star Wars.
Naruto DNWs/clarifications
- Relationships/plot development/worldbuilding from Boruto
SVSSS DNWs/clarifications
- characters finding out that they're fictional
- the rotting undead/zombies clarification: TLJ kind of falls into this category but I love him and he can definitely show up even where I haven't specifically requested him! Please gently skirt around any gross details about his poor sad plant body — mentions of his limbs falling off are fine, but description of why exactly they won't stay attached is best left implied.
Gravity Falls clarifications:
- vehicle accidents: the Stanmobile appears perfectly fine for the entire season and Honeypants is already up to learning about traffic lights in that clip, so I prefer to believe that Honeypants is canonically an extremely safe driver. It's okay if various characters are worried about Honeypants crashing, as long as Honeypants doesn't crash. Swerving around the road, accidentally going off road, etc are also all fine as long as the car and the people in it remain okay.
- crack: I realize several things I'm requesting in Gravity Falls are pretty ridiculous! I don't want anything less serious than canon, and am really into characters and their feelings being taken seriously by the narrative even if the premise is really silly. Crack taken seriously is generally fine.
The Adventure Zone clarifications
- the rotting undead/zombies clarification: All the undead stuff that shows up in canon is totally fine, including Lich King Gordie.
Strange Trails DNWs/clarifications
- the rotting undead/zombies clarification: This album deals a lot with people coming back from the dead and related topics! Please feel free to include that as long as there's no detailed focus on the decomposition of bodies. For art, I'm fine with characters who look dead but would prefer they not have, for example, missing chunks of flesh.
Critical Role clarifications
- the rotting undead/zombies & gore clarification: As much as I appreciate Matthew Mercer's descriptive flair, I would like my gift to be slightly less detailed on this front than canon is. The inclusions of canonical undead/otherwise gross things is fine, though!
Murderbot DNWs/clarifications:
- Romantic or sexual ships with Murderbot
- vehicle accidents clarification: space ships crashing in space is fine; space ships crashing onto planets is fine; I DNW crashes involving vehicles mostly used for on-planet on- or near-ground transport. The line here is really "is the vehicle being used by these characters/described the way we would use a car/truck/bus?" If yes, no crashes please! If the vehicle instead more analogous to a space shuttle, airplane, helicopter, ferry, hot air balloon, etc then accidents are fine.
- dissociation clarification: something successfully overriding Murderbot's control of his body with some sneaky code wouldn't cross this DNW as long as it's clear to the reader that the character isn't literally dissociating.
The Untamed DNWs/clarifications
- DNW plot/characterization drawn from other related canons — I haven't read MDZS yet, am behind on the donghua, etc. I don't mind smaller worldbuilding details or character information being pulled from the novel where it doesn't contradict The Untamed, but I will get confused if you blend the events of the two canons!
- suicide/suicidal ideation clarification:
- the suicides in the show are fine to mention/have happen/include on-screen, but I don't want anything written from the POV of those characters in that moment
- the rotting undead/zombies clarification: Obviously, the show has puppets, not zombies...but okay, they're kind of basically exactly obviously zombies, lmao, and to be honest I do love necromancy as a narrative element despite being squeamish and weak.
- You can stick with show-canon "they were just puppets!"/"Wen Ning was only mostly almost dead!" if you want!
- or you can have them be zombies, but I really do DNW the "rotting" part of this DNW — please let your undead be either freshly killed, magically preserved, or past the point of rotting (eg, skeletons, ghosts!).
- (if you just don't mention decomposition I will happily never consider it even when it should be happening!)
Likes
Art likes
- soft colors, and also specifically moss green and all shades of purple, especially for slice-of-life and domestic scenes
- black and white or greyscale
- lineless art and thick lines and messy lines!
- dramatic lighting, especially if the moment is tense or dangerous
- cartoony styles and realistic styles!
- movement and foreshortening
- crosshatching, stippling, visible brushstrokes, and other techniques that let me see what the artist physically did with their pencil/brush/digital equivalent
- that thing where it's all back and white or greyscale except for one (1) color
- art that explores the minutiae of a character's life, like what exactly is on their bookshelf or in their bag
- hands touching, forehead kisses, focus on hair (blowing in the wind, being braided, being combed, bun/ponytails for characters who usually wear it down and wearing it loose for characters who usually wear it up), carrying (bridal, piggyback, fireman carry, that no-homo superhero side hug), flying, falling, swimming, characters doing action things like kicking and flips and stabbing
Fic likes:
- Canon divergence
- slice of life, canon-compliant fic, missing scenes from canon
- time travel
- especially peggy sue/with a fix-it focus
- time loops
- see my Past Imperfect letter!
- fake/fantasy politics/science and explorations of systems/relationships (eg magic systems, fictional governments or economies, the local gossip network)
- character backstory, noodle incidents, references to past canon or noncanon events, a sense of history between two (or more) characters
- vivid/specific details that relate to things like where a character is, what that location is used for, why, and how the character feels about it
- casefic/missionfic
- investigations/mysteries
- characters with specific goals or problems to solve (finding some treasure, getting a glass of water, murdering their nemesis)
- monster/murder/crime-of-the-week type plots
- the enemy of my enemy is my friend
- making friends under unusual circumstances
- A being uncertain of or surprised by how deep B's loyalty runs
- found family
- friends reconnecting after being out of contact for a long time
- signs of familiarity/intimacy, like knowing each other's habits really well or feeling comfortable touching them/being touched in a society where that's notable
- in terms of physical hurt: sprained ankles, dislocated shoulders, concussions, bruised/broken ribs, broken bones where the bone isn't sticking out, blood loss....pretty much anything non-permanent and not too gorey or with the gore skimmed over. special mention for Naruto-esque eye loss where it's traumatic and bad but the eye can just be put back in if they find a good medic.
- also as implied by my DNWs I'm not a big fan of sickfic but I love huddling for warmth and hypothermia fic!
- poisonings and venom are also good — I like a good spout of dizziness or swooning or confusion!
- in terms of emotional hurt: self esteem issues and unexpected mercy! Special mention for everything below.
- character convinced no one would help even if they asked (but someone does help!)
- character convinced there will be no rescue (but there is a rescue!)
- usually powerful character is helpless due to drugs (and at the mercy of someone they don't trust? :D)
- cynical/pessimistic/distrustful characters being proven wrong by things turning out better than they could have hoped for — for example: "I could never be loved!" -> Is absolutely loved, "We could never have peace." -> Peace is had
- aftermath of captivity, torture, rape, isolation, etc.
- injured character can't complete rescue mission without help from unlikely source
- lying so that the other will accept comfort or help
- hands too shaky to complete task
- forcing exhausted character to get some sleep
- characters who have to work hard to function in the same space and also characters who don't like each other — see my Hate Exchange letter!
- handcuffed together
- sharing a bed because they're safer together than apart
- captured together, working together in enemy territory
- 5+1
- drabble series
- outsider POV
- second person POV, especially if it's thematically relevant
- I'm not really into letters or social media fics, but articles, essays, textbooks, mission/case records, and wikipedia entries are all great.
- I've never received interactive fiction/CYOA before but I'm down to try it!
- I'm open to a mix of text and images and I view works with the creator's skin enabled. I do sometimes download my gifts or read them on mobile, however, so I appreciate when unconventional works use tricks like display:none (explained in this tutorial in the "What do I do if the Creator's Style is hidden?" section) which also makes works with HTML/embedded pictures more accessible!
- curses
- garbage-tier magical items
- extra senses
- worldbuilding around learning/doing magic
Ship likes:
- Anything on my general likes list is excellent in shipfic too of course. Also, I am a pretty big fan of understated shipfic — if you just put the characters together and show that they care about each other then I don't even need kissing or anything, really, which I think can work well for fandoms where characters are frequently in life-or-death situations or need to be professional. Not that kissing isn't welcome! Just, I am extremely easy to please on the "Is this shippy enough?" front.
- Slow burn, friends to lovers, enemies-to-friends-to-lovers — The slower the better. FWB-to-lovers is also great.
- Characters who have history with each other — established relationships are good, but what I really love is feeling like the characters know each other well and think about each other often. In characters who are already friends, that probably looks like, say, knowing what kind of coffee the other person likes. In characters who were enemies, they probably know each other’s weaknesses and faults really well.
- Arguments where each person thinks the conversation is about something subtly different — I mean, misunderstandings in general are great for tension, but I like it when characters are trying to communicate but they’re coming from perspectives so different that they can’t even argue without clarification.
- Casual physical affection — a lot of my ships involve people who have massive or very specific personal bubbles, so seeing the way the characters touch each other when they’re not already in Kissing Mode is really great.
- Pining, especially longstanding they-could-never-want-me pining — the id wants what the id wants and what the id wants is characters with low self-worth. Bonus points if it's tied up in some kind of misunderstanding about their relationship (eg, "They hate me!" or "I'm ugly!") or their differing rank/species/wealth/etc.
- When their hands touch and other very understated moments of romantic or sexual tension — aaaaaaa I don't even have words for how much I love this, if you include it I will wail happily at you about it in my comment, possibly at length.
Smut likes
I don't usually request smut but if you want to include it then I don't mind. I know that that's kind of an extremely bland and unenthusiastic way to start out but it's, uh, really honest, at least? I'm usually after character interaction, plot, or worldbuilding with my requests, but getting a sex scene along with other stuff definitely wouldn't ruin a gift. Overall, I want you to feel free to write sex if you would enjoy doing so/if you think the fic will be better with it! I'm generally just enthused by my creator getting to have fun writing something they're proud of, you know?
There are obviously some things I do like, and I know some folks really enjoy tailoring their fic (i'm one of them!) so:
- Extremely emotionally charged sex — No matter what kind of sex acts they do, I really love when the sex has a lot of feelings involved, especially if it's sad emotions or desperation or part of some hurt/comfort or whump.
- Sex that's very directly relevant to the plot or character arcs — I love sex scenes where I learn more about a character or relationship. Is 'character driven smut' a thing? Because if so, that's my favorite. And also porn with plot.
- anal and pegging, PIV, frottage, intercural, handjobs, all kinds of fingering, strapons, toys
- overstimulation and edging, orgasm delay/denial
- bondage — handcuffs, spreader bars, honor bondage, and honestly pretty much anything in the general category of restricting someone's movement during sex
- praise kink, loyalty kink, hurt/comfort, trust and sex otherwise overloaded with emotion
- magic/super powers being used in fun and inventive ways
- clothing/uniform kink, half-clothed sex, one naked and the other not.
- hair petting, cuddling, lazy mornings in bed, touch starvation
- size difference, size kink, come inflation, large insertions
- pregnancy, including mpreg — impregnation porn and pregnant sex welcome, eggpreg and het mpreg are also fine. And while we're talking about it, narratively speaking I love a fic where being pregnant/mpregnant is upsetting because the character didn't plan for it, thinks their partner doesn't want it, conceived in a nonconsensual or dubiously consensual way, can't afford it, etc, all of which could be comforted away with or without sex. I'm not much for birthing scenes.
- probably other things that I'm forgetting! I'm pretty open to a bunch of things that aren't on the above list or mentioned in my DNWs, and if you're unsure if you should include something please feel free to ask through the mods.
Marriage likes!
(sorry these are mostly Capitalized Like That they're mostly freeforms!
- Misunderstandings and surprises!
- Accidental Marriage due to Misunderstanding the Norms of Another Culture
- Accidental/unexpected soulbond is cultural equivalent of marriage
- Both Spouses Are In Love But Believe The Other Is In The Marriage Out Of Obligation
- Character Thinks Their Spouse is Trying to Kill Them (but they aren't! or not anymore at least lol)
- Deathbed Wedding And Unexpected Survival
- Proposal recipient thought they were just a fling
- Mistakenly Thinking Your Spouse Hates You
- Accidentally Married Someone You Hate
- Arranged marriage to end conflict
- Forced Marriage Leads to Genuine Feelings
- Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close
- Marrying Someone You Don't Like to Save Them From a Worse Fate
- Marriage Arranged by Third Party With Dubious Motives
- Marriage As Clemency At Public Execution
- Suspected or Confirmed Traitor Forced To Marry Spouse Who'll Monitor Them For Further Treachery
- Spouses mutually help each other gain status from the marriage
- Long-Time Betrothed Couple Adds Third To Marriage For Political Reasons And Falls In Love
- Divorced Arranged Marriage Spouse must Marry Back Into The Family
- Second Marriage for Someone whose First Marriage was Abusive
- Character A Not As Over Traumatic First Marriage As They Thought
- Marriage Makes It Impossible to Keep Trauma Secret
- Marriage of Convenience - Divorcing Terrible Spouse Requires Support From Prospective New Spouse
- Character Entering Into M/M Marriage Invents Mpreg In Hopes Of Pleasing Their Spouse With An Heir
- Getting Married to Avoid Otherwise-Likely Marriage to Unbearable Third Party
- Marriage to Satisfy Life-Debt / Life-Debt is Considered Marriage
- Character Agrees To Seemingly Terrible Marriage Believing It's The Only Proposal They'll Ever Get
- Family Won't Pay Bride Price/Dowry So They Have To Find Someone Who Will Marry Them For Free
- If A Fight Ends In A Knock Out The Winner Can Take Your Ring And Marry Your Spouse
- If Character A Can't Have Their Loved One They'll Marry Younger Sibling B (& Fall In Love With B)
Horror Likes!
(sorry these are mostly Capitalized Like That they're mostly freeforms!
- A pervasive yet unidentifiable sense that something is terribly wrong
- Aftermath of Torture
- Being Polite About Eldritch Genitals Which Are Too Much For Human Eyes To Behold
- Belated Realization That Your Jerk "Friends" Tricked You Into This Horrifying Situation
- Betraying Someone to Save Them from a Worse Fate
- Building layout changes sometimes
- character convinced no one would help even if they asked
- character convinced there will be no rescue
- Character(s) are totally done with this ghost bullshit
- Characters are all alone in the middle of nowhere with no one able to help
- Fucking around with the Ouija Board was a bad idea
- Garbage-Tier Magical Item Which Is Regrettably Undeniably Dangerous In Its Mediocrity
- Garbage-Tier Magical Item Which Some Poor Demon Or Ghost Has Possessed
- Mannequins That Move When a Character Looks Away
- People Suddenly Start Mysteriously Disappearing
- Physically impossible spaces/buildings
- Principle of object permanence is violated
- Seemingly Mundane Object Is Surprisingly the Wrong Texture
- Seen only out of the corner of your eye
- Sharing a bed because they're safer together than apart
- The Setting Wants You to Stay; Slowly You Do Too
- Time Loop - Character Keeps Looping The Day of Their Death
- Time Loop - Friends and/or Loved One(s) Die Again and Again
- Time Loop - Looping Character Keeps Dying
- Time Travel - Character(s) Learn Dark Secret They Didn't Know at the Time
- Two Characters Who Don't Like Each Other Grudgingly Hunt A Ghost Together
- Two Characters Who Don't Like Each Other Grudgingly Save Each Other From Horrific Fates
- Two Characters Who Don't Like Each Other Grudgingly Solve Gruesome Murder(s) Together
- Usually Powerful Character is Helpless Due to Drugs and at the Mercy of Someone They Don't Trust
Time travel Likes!
(sorry these are all Capitalized Like That they're mostly freeforms!
- Time Travel Fix-It
- Peggy Sue (Mental Time Travel to Past - Replacing Past Self)
- Altering Canon or Backstory
- Altering Non-Canonical Disaster
- Dimension Hopping to Find a Timeline That's Not Doomed
- fixing one's own mistakes
- Time travel to save a friend or loved one
- Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone
- Character’s Suspicious Actions Get Them In Trouble With The One(s) They’re Trying To Help
- Character Travels Back to When They Were Still a Massive Jackass
- Time Traveling To A Different Time Than The One You Meant To Travel To
- Attempted Time Travel Sends Character To Another World Instead
- Time Travel Fix-It - Time Traveler Fixes Things By Accident
- Time travel inadvertently reveals past secret
- Accidental Time Travel To The Past
- One character likes other character's past self way more than they expected
- Falling in love/making friends with a past version of an enemy
- Enemies Travel Back In Time Together
- Fixing the Timeline Requires Saving An Enemy
- Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy They Will Be Friends/Allies In Future
- Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together
- Unexpectedly Living With The Consequences Of Actions During Final Loop
- Groundhog Peggy Sue
- Strangers Meet During Shared Time Loop
- Enemies Have To Work Together To Solve The Loop
- Looping character trying to save another character's life
- Time loop where character makes things worse before making them better
- Character(s) Remain in Alternate Timeline They Created
- Time Travel To The Past Destroys Original Timeline
- Can't Time Travel To A Time You're Already Alive In
- Adjusting to a Different Era
- Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel
- Outsider POV Of Time Traveler(s)
- Redeemed Villain Travels to Before Their Redemption
- Introducing Advanced Technology/Medicine/Sanitation to the Past
Naruto
AO3 matching tag: Naruto
Fandom note: As a quick reminder, references to Boruto are in my DNWs — I haven't seen it, so that content would be wasted on me. On a related note, the end of Naruto, with Kaguya and stuff, didn't really do much for me, so I'm happy to pretend Madara was the final villain and/or ignore most of the end of the series and just let ninja be ninja.
Requested medium:
- Fanfiction, obviously.
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Art - Fanart
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Ink
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Twine
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Any
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Drawn or CC-Licensed Map + Annotations Or Map Related Notes
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Mission Report
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Gifts In This Fandom (W/ Permission!)
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Works In This Fandom
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Remix - Fic Remix of my Fic
Requested ships:
- Senju Tobirama/Uchiha Madara
- Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Madara
- Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Madara
- Hatake Kakashi/Hoshigaki Kisame
- Hoshigaki Kisame & Uchiha Itachi
- Hoshigaki Kisame/Uchiha Itachi
- Senju Hashirama & Uchiha Izuna
- Senju Tobirama & Uzumaki Mito
- Senju Tobirama/Uzumaki Mito
Senju Tobirama&/Uchiha Madara
This ship has just SUCH good potential for tension, conflict, politics, and iddy, iddy goodness. They're from two warring clans! They're at the center in a crazy shift in ideology and warfare! Listen, I could gush about them forever.
Tobirama and Madara have a really interesting contrast (eg, Tobirama has a strong leaning towards analysis and systems...and meanwhile Madara is like a big huge hot mess of All The Feelings) and the fact that they were probably raised very differently and definitely raised on opposite sides of a longstanding conflict is hella good. Their thoughts on the village, their approaches to problem solving, and even probably their very fundamental belief systems are extremely different and that's the kind of thing that can lead to really interesting tension. What they do have in common (Hashirama, losing brothers, wanting to protect their clans, each at some point in some way genuinely believing in Konoha, probably PTSD from the whole child soldier thing) makes for an interesting foundation to build a relationship.
I'd love something that explores how hard it is for them to trust each other, especially when vulnerable. Any kind of focus on ninja being cautious, dangerous, suspicious, sneaky, and etc.I don't need/want them to be grimdark edgelords who assassinate kids once a week or anything, but just kind of...a general awareness that they've been at war their whole lives against the kind of enemies who use illusions, poison, infiltration, subtle manipulation, and any other means necessary to achieve their goals! I love that shit.
Ship likes:
- either or both whumped
- physical or emotional h/c
- enemies-to-lovers or enemies-to-friends-to-lovers
- either or both of them being socially isolated from their respective clans
- either or both of them having poor marriage prospects despite their status/power
- a slow building of trust and intimacy, especially around being physically vulnerable, sharing potential weaknesses re: their clans, and Tobirama making eye contact with Madara's Sharingan
Timelines: I definitely like things set before the village comes together, in AUs where Izuna lived to see the village come together, or in relatively canon-compliant situations where Tobirama killed Izuna. The world is your oyster. I'm somewhat less interested in anything set after Madara leaves the village, but only because I like happy endings; if you think you can make it work please go for it.
Prompts:
- forced to work together — hired by the same person, imprisoned together by bloodline thieves, trapped in a time loop. stranded far from home in an inhospitable wilderness
- arranged marriage — arranged well before founding to stop the war between their clans (in which case Tobirama is basically a hostage!) or arranged after peace to facilitate the founding of the village (in which case Tobirama is slightly less of a hostage) or arranged after founding in an attempt to unify the village. (Maybe Izuna is dead and it's a really rocky road to getting the ship together. Maybe Izuna is alive and hating every minute of this.)
- Tobirama travels back in time and, knowing that killing Izuna ultimately caused more problems than it solved, decides to try out a different solution.
- Madara travels back in time and figures Tobirama won't kill Izuna if Madara manages to seduce him first.
- Izuna dies in a manner unrelated to the Senju — don't get me wrong, I'm fine with Izuna being alive or with him being dead the way he canonically died, but also Madara's grief is really delicious and I would love a fic that explores it with this ship without having the awkward "and also, Tobirama did the killing" part of things.
- For politics reasons, Madara and Tobirama keep running into each other in places where they can't afford to fight. A third party they both have reason to believe is a significant threat leads them into an enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend relationship that eventually develops into something more.
- Unexpected rescue; unexpected mercy — Tobirama and Madara are enemies, but they both have significant relationships with Hashirama, who wants peace between their clans. What if one of them is given the option to leave the other to die but instead performs a (possibly ill-advised rescue)? What if one of them had the chance to kill or imprison the other, but decided not to?
- I am fucking bananas for city planning details. What if they had to work together to plat Konoha? Or discuss building codes and civilian vs ninja traffic priorities? And then they fell in love????
- Characters team up to investigate something — I would love something spooky or nonspooky where they go on a mission and have to figure out a mystery, find a killer, track down drug traffickers, investigate the recent rise in littering and jaywalking...you know, whatever! As far as paranormal/supernatural things go I would love a ghost but a spirit or demon or whatever would be cool too.
- Madara is injured or poisoned and Tobirama knows that Hashirama would want him to help.
- Tobirama is undercover somewhere for some reason and runs into Madara...who for some reason plays along with Tobirama's ruse.
- Dimension travel — One of them takes a trip to a strange place. A verse where Tobirama died and Izuna lived? A verse where peace never happened? A verse where the Senju formed the village but the Uchiha didn't join?
- Enemies to allies/friends — any of these excellent freeforms: Enemies Forced To Work Together, Enemies to Allies - Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together, Exciting People You Meet In Prison, Former Enemies Stranded Far From Home Become Friends
- learning to trust each other — speaking of after the village is founded! Clans full of child soldiers trying to form a new society of fellow child soldiers with whom they've been in a bloody war as long as anyone can remember is a GREAT way to explore how/if ninja ever really trust each other. I mean, or set it before the village and have them need to trust each other to get through a join mission. Anything along these lines would be so delicious.
Uchiha Madara/Haruno Sakura
What I really like about this ship is a chance to explore the Warring Clans Era (or the village founding era!) in comparison to the future that Sakura comes from. Konoha winds up with a lot of problems, but I think it's also probably an inconceivably improved situation compared to the Warring Clans experience, and I really love the idea of Madara as a worn-down idealist who thinks even peace with the Senju might not be possible meeting — and falling in love with! — Sakura, who not only knows peace is possible but who probably had lots of ideas about how to improve the Konoha of the future!
I also think this ship has a ton of great potential for tension and trust issues, assuming Sakura made it far enough into the events of canon to meet Madara as an enemy. Also, if you want to make Madara sad or hurt, and maybe make Sakura OP or emphasize her crazy good future healing skills, I would be very into that.
I would prefer that Sakura and Madara be roughly the same age (like, both teenagers) or at least both roughly adults even if one is older.
Worldbuilding I would love to see explored:
- What's Madara's reputation like in the Warring Clans Era? How do clans besides the Senju view the Uchiha?
- How does Sakura's medical knowledge differ from the medical knowledge of the era? How did having access to the knowledge of many clans and village-supported research influence medical knowledge in Konoha?
- How do Sakura's combat techniques differ from the common techniques of the era? How does her knowledge about chakra, strategy, etc match up to what the Uchiha know? Would also love something that touches on Sakura being raised in relative peacetime.
- Sakura grew up in a place where she had close friends in lots of different clans and she was encouraged to make strong bonds of friendship with them. What kind of societal norms (especially in relation to personal space, food sharing, gossiping, technique sharing, shows of trust) did she grow up with that are different from the societal norms of the Warring Clans Era?
Prompts:
- Stuck in the past alone, Sakura needs to make a living while she waits for the village to be founded/start accepting random citizen applications, but taking missions without a clan is a terrible idea...so she works as a healer instead. This somehow brings her in contact with Madara.
- Stuck in the past with a Konoha comrade of your choosing, Sakura is brought into a clan by her teammate! When it becomes clear that an arranged marriage would really smooth the clan's entry into Konoha, Sakura volunteers to be the bride...only to really regret it when the groom turns out to be Madara.
- Madara is captured by bloodline thieves! Sakura rescues him.
- Sakura's goal for coming back to the past was to preemptively murder Uchiha Madara. Unfortunately, she's now met pre-going-crazy Madara and he's hot and sympathetic and wants kids to stop fucking dying unnecessarily and, oops, murder is looking less and less like a good solution...
- The village has been founded! Sakura can finally join! It turns out it's really weird for her to be in Konoha as it's coming together, and extra weird for there to be so many Uchiha around, and double extra weird to keep turning the corner and finding Uchiha Madara standing around talking to people.
- Uchiha Izuna is dying and won't let a Senju heal him...but Sakura conveniently isn't a Senju!
Hoshigaki Kisame/Hatake Kakashi
What I like about this ship is that Kakashi and Kisame have obvious points of tension, but none of it feels particularly insurmountable or personal. I mean, ok, that whole "capturing Naruto" thing is a sticking point, but Kisame never manages it and no one dies (mostly) so them working through it feels interesting rather than impossible. I also think that both of them are people who value loyalty very highly and are, in their own ways, disillusioned with the village system...but obviously have chosen very different paths. Also, Kakashi is a sad dog man and Kisame is a big fighty shark dude and I just love them both?
Also also I guess I will say that I really love ships between dangerous people who have little reason to trust each other, so two extremely strong, suspicious ninja from different villages coming to trust and then even like each other goes straight to my id, and so does any ongoing tension over their loyalties and stuff!
Ship likes:
- I like Kakashi whumped more than Kisame, but either or both is fine
- physical or emotional h/c
- enemies-to-friends-to-lovers or enemies-to-coworkers/teammates-to-lovers
- bottom!Kakashi if you want to write anal (not a deal breaker, just a preference!)
- battle couple
- forced to team up via unusual circumstances
- meeting in captivity
Timelines: In terms of character timelines I'm open to pretty much everything! I really like Kisame as a missing nin and I think his time with the Akatsuki is really interesting, but I also really like Kirigakure worldbuilding and all of the characters associated with it, so something set before Kisame leaves or in a universe where he didn't would be good too! For Kakashi, basically the same thing — I love canon him and I would love canon divergent him — although I'm not very interested in fics where Kakashi is Hokage.
Prompts:
- Enemies forced to work together —
- Konoha sends Kakashi for a mission where he has to work alongside Kisame and Kakashi can't help but eventually get his teamwork feels all over Kisame. Maybe the mission is prolonged or reoccuring?
- Captured by a third party or caught in a seal trap; anything where they're in acute, undeniable danger and must either put everything else aside to work together or die.
- The ninja equivalent of handcuffed together! Like...caught by Orochimaru and experimented on so now they can't be more than [a small amount of distance] from each other? Or something else! I'd just love to see Kakashi and Kisame do some good old fashioned prolonged teamwork. And fall in love. Maybe some kissing. No pressure.
Hoshigaki Kisame&/Uchiha Itachi
Sometimes when I think about Kisame I just get so emotional!!!! Especially when I think about him being sad Itachi was dead as he himself was dying oh my god ;-; he was so loyal and also a big fighty shark person who just wanted to kick ass and have people tell him the truth and I wish he and Itachi could have gotten a happy ending, especially because I am also frequently devastated when thinking about Itachi. I love that they their professional relationship working together for the Akatsuki developed into a real friendship (or....more? :DDD) and gosh I would just like to roll around in some fic for them!!
Also definitely this paragraph from the Kisame/Kakashi section applies to this ship too: I really love ships between dangerous people who have little reason to trust each other, so two extremely strong, suspicious ninja from different villages coming to trust and then even like each other goes straight to my id, and so does any ongoing tension over their loyalties and stuff!
To be clear I am requesting both the / and the & version of the ship because I don't have any preference for how shippy what I get is. Friends/allies/frenemies would all be just as neat! I just like it when they interact.
Ship likes:
- either or both whumped
- physical or emotional h/c
- enemies-to-friends-to-lovers or enemies-to-coworkers/teammates-to-lovers (you might be sensing a pattern at this point in the letter)
- bottom!Itachi if you want to write anal (not a deal breaker, just a preference!)
- battle couple
- Kisame being a lil afraid of Itachi and a lot turned on by it
Timelines: I love Itachi and Kisame working together as missing nin, but I also really like Kirigakure worldbuilding and all of the characters associated with it, so something set before Kisame leaves or in a universe where he didn't would be good too! A no-Uchiha massacre AU (or an AU where it happened but differently!) on top of any of the other AUs I'm requesting would be swell, too. Whenever you set the fic, I definitely don't want any shippy parts when Itachi is still under 18; feel free to age him up or simply set things when Itachi is older.
Prompts
- Met while captured together — Maybe Akatsuki doesn't exist for some reason (something something [handwaves] Orochimaru managed to kill Madara and/or Pein before Itachi could join?) so they're just two missing nin who whoops get captured at the same time and then have to work together!
- timeloop where one or both of them make it worse before making it better — or just a regular timeloop, or just regular time travel, but I am really feeling this kind!
- no village AU — The Uchiha are a powerful, famous clan. Kisame has always wanted to fight an Uchiha, but this meeting isn't going exactly how he'd expected it would.
Senju Hashirama & Uchiha Izuna
Izuna was so against peace and so unwilling to trust Hashirama that he literally died for it so I would LOVE to see him be Like That with Hashirama. Maybe they do a sort of enemies-to-friends thing where Izuna realizes he's wrong...or maybe Izuna remains staunchly certain that Hashirama is his enemy! I would honestly enjoy either. Overall any kind of focus on how terrifying Hashirama is to other ninja/Izuna in particular would be wonderful, as well as any look at the sort of general suspicion and caution required in the warring clans era! Like, is it hard for Hashirama to trust Izuna? Is helping Izuna a difficult choice, despite Hashirama's dream?
I would enjoy anything from Hashirama and Izuna becoming friends despite Izuna's best efforts to Hashirama having to injure or kill Izuna for the sake of the village, so really go where your heart takes you!
Timeline: Pretty much anything would be good, pre- or post-village founding, but I usually like for characters to be 12 or older just because I don't find children very interesting to read about? On the other hand they're off being child soldiers at that age, so maybe it'd be good! I trust you.
Prompts:
- Okay hear me out Hashirama rescuing Izuna from people trying to steal his eyes.
- Or both of them captured and having to escape together.
- Izuna could be injured and Hashirama could heal him whether he likes it or not.
- Hashirama defeating Izuna in a fight or capturing him and izuna being surprised by how well Hashirama treats him/by Hashirama keeping him alive at all.
- Any situation where they have to collaborate.
- Any situation where Izuna is forced to trust/rely on Hashirama or has not worry about Hashirama taking advantage of some weakness.
- ...sorry this is so short! I've basically just requested it for two freeform exchanges so I don't have a good prompts list built up yet. You can read the Gen Freeform Exchange prompts here and the Hurt/Comfort Exchange prompts here.
Senju Tobirama&/Uzumaki Mito
I started thinking about these two as a ship because it was nice to imagine Tobirama getting to be with someone who shares his interest in seals, and it seems like a nice direction to go to explore Mito's character! And the more I thought about it the more I wanted it, especially because of the delicious potential for misunderstandings and drama and tension.
When it comes to dealing with Mito's marriage to Hashirama, I am okay with (but don't kink on) infidelity, or Hashirama could be dead (earlier than in canon or otherwise), or Hashirama could be gay for Madara, or Hashirama and Mito could have an open relationship, or Hashirama and Tobirama could both be married to Mito at the same time. Or whatever! Live your dreams.
Of course, I would also be really into gen fic for them too!! I can't really bare to write a new section for them — it would basically just be an edited version of the above and most of the "Things I'd like to see explored" sections below, which I hope will work for you!
Timelines: Before Mito comes to the Senju, after Mito comes to the Senju, pre-village construction, post-village construction... I have no preferences although it'd be nice if Mito and Tobirama could be 18 or older. Don't be afraid to make them much older, like during Tobirama's tenure as Nidaime!
Things I'd like to see explored about Mito:
- Did/does she want to get married to Hashirama? Did/does she want to get married at all?
- How does she feel about the village before/during/after its construction? Who first told her about it? How much did she help with its construction?
- Does she miss Uzushiogakure? Does she play her part in clan and international politics?
- How hard is it for her to become adjusted to living with the Senju? How hard is it for them to become adjusted to her? Do her expectations line up with reality?
- How does Mito feel about the Uchiha?
Things I'd like to see explored about Tobirama:
- How does Tobirama feel about having another accomplished seal master around? Has he ever had so much opportunity to talk about seals before?
- Do he and Mito use the same kind of sealing (maybe Tobirama was taught by the Uzumaki/from Uzumaki materials?) or do they use different sealing techniques (like maybe Tobirama is self-taught?)?
- Does Tobirama desperately want a relationship but think he can't have one? Does he think he doesn't want one until he meets Mito? What do other people assume he thinks about sex/romance and are they right?
- If Mito isn't a kunoichi (or, hasn't frequently fought/taken missions) how does Tobirama feel about being involved with her? — does he consider her vulnerable despite her sealing abilities?
Other Prompts:
- AU where empathic soul bonds form during moments of extreme empathy — they're not soulmates and they're still ninja, but whoops they feel exactly the same thing at exactly the same time in close proximity to each other and become linked. Grief over Hashirama would work, but connecting over something else would be great too! I'd also be interested in seeing this link grow slowly as they become more in sync instead of snapping into place suddenly — a manifestation of their emotional intimacy that they can't ignore.
- Sex pollen — Tobirama comes back from a mission sex pollened (or drugged-in-a-conveniently-sexy-way, or chakra-sick-in-a-conveniently-sexy-way, whatever) and Mito steps up to help him out.
- Maybe it's conventional for married-in wives to help their brother-in-laws like this, maybe it isn't.
- Maybe Hashirama suggests it or maybe he's off on important business and the decision falls completely to Mito.
- Maybe Tobirama is relieved and grateful, maybe he fears Hashirama's wrath. Maybe it has to be Mito because no one else is willing...or maybe it doesn't have to be Mito but she insists.
- I'd prefer Tobirama to end up really into the sex even if he doesn't start out that way.
- I'm way more interested in guilt on Tobirama's part for fucking his brother's wife than I am for guilt on Mito's part for sleeping with someone other than his husband, but I'll take both or either!
- Femdom absolutely welcome.
- Maybe Tobirama’s mission pay over the years has mostly gone into the fund to get Hashirama a good wife? Maybe the Uzumaki find this out and Mito thinks she gets to pick between Hashirama and Tobirama? Maybe Mito finds out that that's why Tobirama isn't so much as engaged even years later?
- Mito accidentally falls in love with Tobirama during her engagement to Hashirama, something which Tobirama is maybe 100% oblivious about. She has to move carefully to switch her arranged marriage from Hashirama to Tobirama without insulting the Senju.
- Hashirama is busy with something so Tobirama is sent to pick Mito up and escort her to the Senju/the wedding venue. Mito spends the whole trip thinking Tobirama is her husband-to-be.
- Mito and Tobirama are forced to marry and both think it will go terribly, but grow to like each other
- Mito picks Tobirama as the best out of what she thinks are a lot of bad options
- they’re drawn together by shared grief
- one of them has been silently in love with the other, or they’ve both silently been in love with each other, and now they finally have a chance to confess their feelings and be together.
The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System
AO3 matching tag: 人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Fandom note: I'm pretty sure I've read all the available extras, so no worries about spoilers.
Requested mediums:
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Art - Fanart
- Medium Opt In: Art - Remix - Art Remix of my Fic
- Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Bestiary
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Ink
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Twine
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Any
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Drawn or CC-Licensed Map + Annotations Or Map Related Notes
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Gifts In This Fandom (W/ Permission!)
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Recursive Fic of Any of the Recip's Works In This Fandom
Requested relationships:
- Liu Qingge/Shen Jiu | Shen Qingqiu (Scum Villain)
- Shang Qinghua & Shen Jiu (SVSSS)
- Shang Qinghua/Shen Jiu (SVSSS)
- Shang Qinghua & Tianlang-jun (SVSSS)
Shipping: I don't mind references to LBH/SQQ, but I would prefer to avoid having it be a major part of any story because it's easy to find content for. In terms of mixing and matching my requested relationships, please feel free to include multiple gen relationships and/or several gen relationships plus one of my romantic ships. If you are writing a story that would benefit from being able to mention it, I also like YQY/Shen Jiu — especially when it's unresolved or one-sided — and am a big fan of SXY/TLJ.
General SVSSS prompts
There are some things I always want in every SVSSS fic and it seemed easier to list them here than to repeat them in every section!
- Exploration of Airplane's shitty worldbuilding brought to life. What holes has the System filled in surprising ways? How often to characters from later plots show up earlier on account of being real people now? Do the various mcguffins that LBH runs into in PIDW turn up and cause problems? Also, I'm really into background details about how things work, including the sects, An Ding specifically, the demon economy, what it means for MBJ to be the Demon King of the North, etc.
- Exploration of Airplane's shitty wife plots. Dumb, dramatic, unresolved, full of gratuitous fucking, plagued by soap opera levels of drama and overrun with people who don't have two brain cells to rub together...it's a really great way to work in tropes, a really great way to bring up PIDW, and even a wonderful source of conflict!
- Exploration of Airplane's exciting flora and fauna. All of the monsters in SVSSS are SO cool and I would love to see more of them! How are their parts used? Are some of them native and others have wandered over from the demon realm? Are any of them nice, or kept as pets?
- Alternate universe - role swap — the peak lords are demons and the demons are human cultivators.
- Alternate universe - different PIDW — Airplane was developing an indie video game instead of writing a novel. Was it supposed to be a gay dating sim but whoops Airplane could only get funding for terrible het content? A farming/mining/resource management sim but all the NPC relationship drama kept getting in the way? An open world RPG but Airplane didn't have the money to develop any of the story branches besides the marry-lots-of-wives-and-torture-a-dude bad ending that whoops everyone thought was a good ending?
- Canon divergence - different transmigration — Airplane or SY or both transmigrate into different bodies, at different times, etc.
- Canon divergence - fix it — literally any kind of fix it even if it has nothing to do with the requested relationship. Eg, if you want to have LQG and SJ get together in a series of events that happens to swerve into fixing SXY's death, I am so 100% there for that. Bonus if time travel.
- Life-Debt Marriage - To Satisfy Life-Debt— I love the idea of saving someone's life meaning always being connected to them, and I think that this is exactly the kind of convoluted trope Airplane-bro would have written in for wife #450 without necessarily thinking through the consequences. For this canon, a cultural thing or a magic thing would be equally fine with me, because I think it's very interesting when it's cultural (especially if sometimes life debts can be satisfied in other ways but in this particular case it has to be marriage for some reason!) but I also think there's plenty of room in the canon worldbuilding to make it a You're Now Married Because Magic Says So sort of thing.
Liu Qingge/Shen Jiu | Shen Qingqiu
I love that LQG mistakenly thinks SQQ tried to kill him and SQQ knows that LQG thinks that and never apparently tried to clarify it. SQQ is honestly the very definition of getting in his own way and meanwhile LQG doesn't see him clearly at all, so the idea of them having to work that shit out is absolute gold. I'm a big fan of LQG having to reconsider everything he knows about SQQ and of SQQ learning to gradually settle the fuck down and lower just a tiny bit of his guardwalls that keep everyone metaphorically ten feet away at knifepoint even (especially) when they're trying to help. An exploration of their differing life experiences/socio-economic classes before or even after entering the sect would be especially welcome.
Also, I really love SJ h/c if you want to sprinkle that on but I would prefer minimum amounts of focus on the torture SJ goes through in PIDW — references on level with canon are fine, though, and it's great motivation for time travel! I just don't find it narratively very interesting and also am pretty squeamish.
Prompts:
- AU where life debts have to be paid and one way to pay them is marriage.
- Casefic! Solving a murder or tracking down the source of a garbage tier magical item or curse is a great time for bonding.
- LQG is injured/poisoned/trapped/captured on a mission. To his surprise, SQQ doesn't leave him behind.
- Alternate first meeting — LQG and SJ meet before YQY brings SJ to Cang Qiong, or SJ comes to Cang Qiong under different circumstances that either make him less bitter or make it harder for LQG to misunderstand him.
- As a punishment for being unable to get along, LQG and SJ are forced to work together on a research project, co-teaching younger disciples, or a long and boring series of missions that quickly snowballs to something exciting and dangerous.
- LQG time travels into his own younger body and, being more knowledgeable and mature, finds that SJ comes off way different than the blackhearted villain LQG saw the first time around.
Shang Qinghua & Shen Jiu (SVSSS)
I love Shang Qinghua so much and as much as I love Shang Qinghua/Mobei-jun, my favorite part of the Airplane extras was 100% the mission to the haunted well. What a disaster team! I love them! The Cang Qiong Peak Lords are politically powerful and a very formidable force and ride-or-die for each other...but emotionally speaking they're also a MESS and I am so here for it. None of these people understand each other. None of these people like each other, I'm pretty sure. I just want to read more about them being simultaneously the tops of their respective fields and also complete trainwrecks.
For Shen Qingqiu and Shang Qinghua specifically, I'm really interested in how SQH knows way, way more about SQQ than SQQ would ever expect or want him to know, and how for years and years SQH looks at SQQ and things "I know how you die" but doesn't think he can stop it. I really loved that part in the Airplane Extras where SQH tries just a *little* to avert LQG's death by giving SQQ weird advice and I'd love to see him step up his interventions more and more, pushing against the boundaries set by the System, until he actually maybe succeeds. And makes a friend! Maybe.
Prompts:
- SQH accidentally or on purpose switches places with YQY during whatever situation led to YQY and SJ's canonical reunion. SJ still saves his life — or SQH manages to dodge! — and then SQH has to convince SJ to come to Cang Qiong.
- On a joint mission, SQH recognizes that the people who called on them for help are entering into the very beginning of some future horribly tragic wife plot. He insists on getting involved. SQQ is not happy.
- Canon divergence: SQH figures out how to weaponize SQQ's spiteful, vicious nature against the Huan Hua Palace Master early on and accidentally solves the plot by arranging for SQQ and the Palace Master to be enemies. (MBJ is very impressed, probably.)
- SY doesn't transmigrate, things go terribly wrong, and SQH decides to travel back to the past to fix things. Somehow.
- SQQ's terrible reputation ultimately became a really big problem for SQQ and for the sect, so SQH starts fixing it. SQQ notices.
Shang Qinghua/Shen Jiu (SVSSS)
....a separate section for the / ship, yes! This is kind of a ridiculous ship and definitely a disaster waiting to happen BUT ALSO...it makes sense. SQQ is cold, scary, prideful, and beautiful! Meanwhile SQH gave up on having any dignity well before he and SQQ met, doesn't really care if other people are dignified, is surprisingly competent when he's not being an idiot or playing dead like a coward, and knows so many things. This would be the weirdest fuckbuddies and/or romance ever, but I think it would work! At least for awhile! Maybe in secret!
For this ship I'm definitely okay with them not being serious about each other and/or breaking up by the end of the fic, although if you want to try and get them to some kind of happy ending I definitely wouldn't complain.
Prompts:
- Tropey nonsense — handcuffed together, there's only one bed, accidental soulbonds, huddling for warmth, etc!
- SQQ needs a dual cultivation partner for medical reasons or something and picks SQH under the (completely correct) assumption that he'll at least be able to bully SQH around. But then, oh no, he catches...the feelings.
- I would love something that explored Shang Qinghua's public reputation, and especially if he has any kind of reputation for pulling strings and manipulating things (surely someone eventually figures out that he sabotaged the previous An Ding Head Disciple?) or else something where SQQ travels back in time from a PIDW-y verse and finds that SQH is...different from how he remembered.
- All Peak Lords need to symbolically marry another Peak Lord and SQQ picks SQH in a moment of spite and panic when it looks like he might get stuck with YQY.
Shang Qinghua & Tianlang-jun (SVSSS)
I can't stop thinking about a canon divergence where SQH has to face the fact that TLJ exists and is a real, actual dude who doesn't deserve the shit hand the plot dealt to him and then is [hand waves System away] somehow maybe able to intervene! Or not — I'd actually also be interested in a fic exploring how doomed TLJ is and how bad SQH feels about it but how much he can't do anything about it. So you know, dealer's choice! Overall, though, I really love that TLJ is dramatic and into humans and gets seemingly betrayed and SQH like....invented this guy (and all of this guy's problems!) and then set him aside when people wanted smut instead of plot.
Prompts:
- They thought no one was coming; got rescued by unexpected person — I'm imagining SQH rescuing TLJ from that whole being-pinned-under-a-mountain thing, but honestly TLJ rescuing SQH from literally anything would also be choice.
- Would love something where SQH using his meta knowledge to fix things up and specifically treats TLJ kindly/fairly because he knows TLJ is, underneath the scary demon stuff, kind of a fluff ball.
- Injured Character Can't Complete Rescue Mission Without Help From Unlikely Source
- Legendary figure turns out to be a complete dork in person
Gravity Falls
AO3 matching tag: Gravity Falls
Fandom note: I think I've seen/read most of the extra content for Gravity Falls, so if you want to write something that incorporates things from the web shorts or something that's fine! If you end up basing your work on something it turns out I haven't seen, I'm fine with that too.
Requested relationships:
- Hand Witch & Multi-Bear (Gravity Falls)
- Hand Witch & Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)
- Multi-Bear & Dipper Pines (Gravity Falls)
- Honeypants | Bear that Stan Taught to Drive & Dipper Pines & Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)
- Duck-Tective (Gravity Falls)
- Celestabellebethabelle
- Ghost-Eyes
- Gompers
- Shape Shifter | Experiment #210
- Steve the Giant Tree-like Behemoth
- The Gremloblin
- Wendy Corduroy & Stanley Pines
- Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Wendy Corduroy
- Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Stanley Pines
Requested mediums:
- Fanfiction, obviously.
- Medium Opt In: Any - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
- Medium Opt In: Any - Creator's Choice: 3+ Diff In-Universe Mediums/Work That Fit The Canon Setting
- Medium Opt In: Art - Coloring Page
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Art - Fanart
- Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - Excerpts from a Journal/Notebook/Sketchbook
- Medium Opt In: Illustrated Text (Art & Writing) - In-Universe Advertisement
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Emojis
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - In-Universe Infographic
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Infographic
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Ink
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Twine
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Any
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Drawn or CC-Licensed Map + Annotations Or Map Related Notes
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Online Dress-up Game
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Typeset of a Recipient's Fanfiction
Shipping: Mentions of canon ships/crushes and canon-typical levels of romance would be fine. Also, I would love for Hand Witch's romantic life to come up, actually! Maybe things worked out with that hot hiker.
Hand Witch & Multi-Bear
I really love to imagine these two as friends, because they seem to live on the same mountain! They're at least neighbors in a very general sense even if they don't literally live on the same mountain, and they're both noticeably lonely in their episodes. Also Multi-Bear gives off huge "shops for deals at the swap meet" vibes, imo.
Things I'm interested to know about Multi-Bear:
- Was he ever at one time A) a single bear or B) multiple bears but separately in a bunch of different, not-connected bear bodies with a hive mind?
- How did he get into BABBA? Like both on a character backstory/emotional level and also on a logistical level?
- How did his beef with the Manotaurs start?
- What other forest denizens does he know?
Things I'm interested to know about Hand Witch:
- When and why did she start selling watches at the Swap Meet?
- Does she have anything to do with Poolcheck's hook hand?
- Can she only curse hands, or is it just like...a specialization?
- How do things go with that handsome hiker? What have her previous relationships been like?
- Are there other witches around Gravity Falls?
Prompts:
- Their first meeting! Was it several decades ago and Hand Witch was still an old crone but dressed for the era? Was Multi-Bear a cub? Were the Manotaurs giving him a hard time? There are many options and all of them would be delightful. Please feel free to drag in other Gravity Falls denizens.
- Maybe you don't like writing about characters meeting for the first time or establishing a new friendship! (Or, maybe you're an artist who really wants to draw their canon designs!) In that case, I'd love something set mid-friendship. Like an established relationship fic, but for pals! Multibear could help Hand Witch run her swapmeet stall! Hand Witch could get them BABBA tickets! They could trash-talk the Manotaurs together! They could have HOA disagreements with fellow neighbors! In terms of art I would be over the moon with literally any drawing of them in the same place doing anything.
- Maybe you don't think they're friends (maybe you'd prefer, I don't know, terse neighbors? Enemies? Only know each other via the local Mountain Owners Association?) and I'd be into that, too. Explore the mountain and the forest around it! Tell me more about Multi-Bear (was he once several single bears?) or about how Hand Witch's powers work (can she only curse hands?) or whatever else comes to mind!
- There's something new and bad in the forest or on the mountain. They have to team up (maybe with other characters, if you want) to figure out what it is and what to do about it.
- One of them travels back in time; they decide the other is the only person in the past that they can trust.
Hand Witch & Mabel
I really really loved that Mabel solved the problem of Stan's Hands being stolen by treating Hand Witch's problems as serious and worthy of empathy! Obviously it is bad that Hand Witch jumps straight to cursing people's hands off — she's definitely got that dangerous fairy tale bad witch energy and I love it! — but she also was lonely and once Mabel used the power of friendship on her she becomes a very relatable and sad person and I'm really into that. Also, I just love that Mabel is always willing to try to understand people and take them seriously even when other people on the show would dismiss them. It's great!
Prompts:
- Every summer, Mabel climbs up the mountain at least once to check in on Hand Witch. They catch up and chat about boys.
- The summer after canon, Mabel starts attending the swap meet either as part of a summer job helping someone else or to sell her own creations.
- Mabel learns magic from Hand Witch. Maybe specifically hand-related magic, maybe all different kinds of magic because Mabel is too young to pick a specialty (and/or, Hand Witch doesn't want younger, cuter competition)
Multi-Bear & Dipper
I deeply love Multi-Bear as a counterexample to the Manotaurs' toxic masculinity and I would LOVE to see more of Multi-Bear being a role model for Dipper. I think it's clear, of course, that Dipper ends the show really looking up to both of his Grunkles...but I think Stan and Ford are never going to be comfortable with emotions and listening to BABBA and deconstructing harmful ideas about masculinity, you know? Plus as great as the episode with Multi-Bear was, I think it left some stuff on the table — I'd like to see Dipper hanging out with someone who doesn't think violence is an adequate solution to conflicts, and I'd like to see an exploration of the fact that the Manotaurs sent a child to murder Multi-Bear. That's a really interesting level of conflict! Dipper was briefly drawn into thinking that that was okay! I realize that this literal actual children's show couldn't stop to look at how fucked up that is, but maybe in fanworks I can live my dreams?
Prompts:
- Every summer, Dipper climbs up the mountain at least once to check in on Multi-Bear. They catch up and chat about BABBA.
- Something following up on Weirdmageddon, because Multi-Bear was one of the refugees in the Mystery Shack. When things started going weird and terrible, did he head straight to Dipper's house? Do people know him as Dipper's Bear Friend? Does he help the Pines stay on the look out for weird stuff that needs dealt with?
- Anything that follows up with the conflict with the Manotaurs. Are things better or worse after Weirdmageddon? If things are worse, does Multi-Bear have to move? How does Dipper help?
Honeypants & Dipper & Mabel
Honeypants is the bear that Stan is teaching to drive in season one episode 14 during that section about the truth-telling teeth. Here is a 55 second refresher:
Transparently, I am requesting Honeypants because I fucking love bears. They're my favorite animal. All shows should have more bears in them. I wish there was a bear in ever fic. This is also why I request Multi-Bear so much. Please indulge my love of bears!!!
...But I am also asking for Honeypants because! Look at what a good driver he or she is! Sure, they swerve around the road a bunch, but do they go off the road? or crash? no! Honeypants is wearing their seatbelt, looking straight ahead, doing their best! Only chewing on the seatbelt after coming to a full and complete stop! This bear is doing so good, probably better than when I was learning to drive as a teenager, and I love and support them.
(Also, it's definitely possible that Honeypants is just a term of endearment from Stan and not the bear's actual name? Feel free to name the bear! And pick pronouns!)
RE: my car crash DNW, the Stanmobile appears perfectly fine for the entire season and Honeypants is already up to learning about traffic lights in that clip, so I prefer to believe that Honeypants is canonically an extremely safe driver. It's okay if various characters are worried about Honeypants crashing, as long as Honeypants doesn't crash.
Prompts:
- Mabel and Dipper need to get somewhere really urgently, but neither of them have been taught to drive a real car! After some debate, they decide that their golf cart adventures are no substitute for real experience, so they get Honeypants to drive them while they take turns in the passenger seat giving directions and reminding Honeypants that red means stop. (Haha, just kidding, bears can't see the color red! That's maybe a problem.)
- It's the first day of Honeypants' life as a sideshow attraction and since Stan is busy leading tours, it's up to Dipper and Mabel to make sure Honeypants' first show goes smoothly.
- Even though Mabel stopped worrying quite so much about Stan's lies in general, in specific she did feel bad about the Seeing Eye Bear lie...so she takes Honeypants to go see Dr. Medicine, MD and get certified as a seeing eye animal companion.
- Dipper has been forced to pretend to be a sideshow attraction before and it sucked. Since Honeypants is smart enough to drive, they're probably smart enough to be unhappy with a life of looking silly to wring money from tourists. Therefore, the only thing to do is....to go ask Multi-Bear for advice? Help Honeypants get hired by the local taxi company?
- Several summers down the line, Mabel and Dipper return to Gravity Falls for the summer and find that Honeypants works as either a driving instructor or a DMV driving evaluator. And, oh, what's that? Yes, this is the summer Mabel and Dipper are supposed to learn to drive.
Solo: Ducktective
I always always laugh when I think about Ducktective and I want SO much stuff with Ducktective! I am into things set in the universe of Ducktective's show, or things where Ducktective comes to life in Gravity Falls.
Prompts set in the Ducktective universe:
- I would love just like...a normal Ducktective episode type deal? Ductective solves a mystery! That terrible police officer is there! It'd be great! (If comics, I would love an in-universe Ducktective comic issue!)
- Ducktective & his partner Steve — they were separated! Then he came back! So much drama! Why was Steve gone? Why did he come back?
- Ducktective & his evil twin — this is the worst possible plot twist and I therefore LOVE IT it's so silly. What happens after his evil twin knocks the police officer out in the hospital room?
- Some Gravity Falls character(s) get sucked into the Ducktective show and have to help Ducktective solve a murder.
Prompts set in the Gravity Falls universe:
- Ducktective comes out of the TV (...or a comic!) and wanders around Gravity Falls, maybe trying to solve crimes. How will they get him back into the show?? Oh no!
- I would especially love Ducktective & Stan, Ducktective & Soos, Ducktective & Ford, Ducktective & Mabel & Dipper, Ducktective & Pacifica, Ducktective & Grenda.
- Ductective takes over the Gravity Falls police department. The Blubs and Durland quickly fall in line and the local PD becomes much more effective.
Minor characters
I love the main cast, obviously, but lately I've been craving some minor characters! I don't mind any of the main cast showing up, but I'd also love to see things set away from the main cast, before canon, during the fall/winter/spring after canon while the Pines are gone... Gravity Falls is an amazing setting with amazing side characters and I just wanna explore them.
Most of these are extremely minor characters, so let's maybe do them nice and quick:
- Celestabellebethabelle — I love this annoying pony. I'd love to see her punking Ford back in the day (I mean, I assume unicorns are unfairly long-lived, too?) or trying to get back at those girls who roughed her up! Or, maybe... I mean, unicorns are valuable, surely? Maybe someone captures her to use for parts and she needs to be rescued! Everyone loves a dramatic rescue. Bonus points if it's also an minor set of characters doing the rescuing like... idk, Wendy's friends?
- Ghost-Eyes — I would love to see Ghost-Eyes use his philosophy degree. Or something set during Weirdmageddon, or post-canon... also, anything about him and Gideon Gleeful's friendship! How'd they meet?
- Gompers — I love this weird goat and I would love anything even weirder about him. Like... I would love someone to discover that Gompers is not just a goat. Or anything from the trivia section on the wiki. Is Gompers cursed into being an immortal goat by some witch? Also, the idea of Stan with a baby goat is really cute.
- Shape Shifter | Experiment #210 — My favorite villain! Very spooky! Got its ass kicked by Wendy! Possibly still gonna unfreeze some day and need its ass kicked again! Please spook me with the past adventures of this creature or the further adventure of this creature, I love him. Also, are there other shapeshifters?
- Steve the Giant Tree-like Behemoth — Steve stole Ford's car and once threw a deer at him. Very rude! Maybe life was rough for Steve in the 80's. Has it improved since? Does he like Stan any better? What about Mabel and Dipper? Wendy almost got send to work at her cousin's logging camp for the summer... do you think the logging camp or Wendy's father have ever run into Steve while lumberjacking, and if so how'd that go?
- The Gremloblin — I love this monster and I would love anything about it. How did Ford encounter it? How did Dipper capture it? Does it ever long to look into another being's eyes without causing them unimaginable terror? Does it every have to get glasses like its father?
Wendy Corduroy & Stanley Pines
Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Wendy Corduroy
Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Stanley Pines
I have a lot of feelings about all of these characters and I would love to see anything with them! Pre-canon, during canon, or post-canon — I feel like they all probably have really different views on Gravity Falls and I think that that'd be really interested to explore, but also I think their interpersonal relationships are great, too. For Stan & Soos obviously the father-son relationship lurking under the surface there is wonderful For the Wendy tags, I'm really interested in something where Wendy's feelings about them are explored. Is Soos kind of like a big brother? Is Stan a super weird mentor? How do their relationships with each other change over the course of canon?
Prompts:
- Talking about the weird supernatural stuff around Gravity Falls without really talking about it.
- Mild horror about people getting their minds wiped.
- Some kind of real supernatural thing makes it into the Mystery Shack's tourist-facing sections and they have to deal with it.
- Missing canon scenes.
- Wendy comes back to see Soos after college, or meets up with Stan (maybe Ford, too)
- The show gives us a lot of great content for Stan being protective of Mabel and Dipper but I'd love to see him being protective of Wendy or Soos instead!
Medium notes:
- For the tags that involve one of my works, I don't really want anything about the Stan/Darlene fic I wrote but I would LOVE something for the fic I wrote about Stan being a ghost.
The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
AO3 matching tag: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Fandom note: I've listened to all of this podcast but not to any of the Maximum Fun bonus content. Also, I'm not interested in stuff that doesn't come from TAZ: Graduation for this exchange.
Requested relationships:
- Gray the Demon Prince/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
Requested mediums:
- Fanfiction, obviously.
- Medium Opt In: Any - Any In-Universe Documents That Fit the Canon Setting
- Medium Opt In: Any - Creator's Choice: 3+ Diff In-Universe Mediums/Work That Fit The Canon Setting
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Art - Fanart
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Ink
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Twine
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Interactive Fiction - Web-based choice-based IF not hosted on AO3
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Any
- Medium Opt In: Unique Rules - Map: Drawn or CC-Licensed Map + Annotations Or Map Related Notes
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Interactive Fiction - AO3 style Choose Your Own Adventure
Gray the Demon Prince/Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt
The shippy vibes of these two in the back end of the show is OFF THE CHARTS. I really love both characters individually (Fitzroy is such a bundle of insecurity and ambition! Gray is so arrogant and mercurial!) but together???? Every conversation they have is gold, I think because they both talk like polite business rivals despite all the attempted murder, threats of war, etc. They're enemies and it's delicious but they're not exactly personally invested in hating each other — they just happen to be on opposite sides! And when they stop being on opposite sides they become "best friends"! Also Fitzroy is 6'4" (after his magical growth spurt!) and Gray is 12' and I am so here for that size difference.
In terms of what I am specifically hoping for out of my gift for these two, I would really enjoy any flavor of these two interacting! I want to know more about Gray's demon culture and his blue-orange morality (war is for "blood, and chaos, and conflict, and victory" apparently!) and I'd love to see more of Fitzroy being kind of a scumbag but not, like, a down with murder scumbag. Graduation's worldbuilding is really fascinating to me, and I'd enjoy getting to see more of the world (or of Gray's hell dimension!) and I'd enjoy something set pre-, during, or post-canon!
I know that via WOG Fitzroy is asexual, and if you want to write him asexual then I'm into that! I'm not really into most asexuality-focused narratives, but I'm definitely fine with a read of this ship where Fitzroy only feels romantic attraction or even where they're in a QPR — a story that focuses on emotional intimacy would really hit the spot for me and I'm honestly such a complete sucker for gen that I'd be pretty satisfied with anything that had Fitzroy and Gray interacting a bunch.
On the other hand, if you don't want to write Fitzroy as asexual then I am 100% on board with that, too. I've left my smut likes section the way I usually leave it because it does apply for everything else I've requested, but for this ship I would actually love for Gray to fuck Fitzroy in a wide variety of situations! I'll opt in to anything from fully consensual to extremely dubious consent — for this ship, the line for me is that I want them both to end whatever sexual encounter they have pleased that it happened and possibly planning to let it happen again, even if they were reluctant or unable to consent at the start. Please note I have specifically DNW'd corrective rape, though.
Below I have some specific prompts, but I'm so crazy invested in this ship that I want to emphasize that basically anything is fine! Please feel free to scrounge through my general likes.
Prompts:
- If you're going to do art, I'd enjoy any hair/eye/skin color for Fitzroy! What's important to me about his appearance are his canonically tight pants and how tiny he'd look next to Gray.
- Something with the Ring of Truth or the True Sight Lenses! I love all the little magic things that TAZ PCs pick up during campaigns, and always yearn to see them used more. In the case of the Ring of Truth I would particularly like to see it used in a romantic or sexual context to let them really trust each other (...or to highlight how much they don't trust each other!)
- Canon divergence — Fitzroy does end up joining Gray's side the way Gray planned, or he does get all the materials he was supposed to get from Goodcastle, or Chaos' plan doesn't kick off until the Thundermen are out of school and floundering around as young professionals!
- Something set in that possible future where Fitzroy is His Royal Highness, The Thunder King and Lightning Lord, Fitzroy Maplecourt, The Storm Bringer...or something where Fitzroy really does get thrown forward in time and has to cope with that life. Like, what's Gray up to in that universe? Things probably went terribly for him, right?
- Post-canon get together. Gray wants someone to come make his next war campaign interesting, maybe, and has even picked out enemies he thinks Fitzroy wouldn't object to killing! Now he just needs to convince Fitzroy that this is a good idea, isn't a trap, will be fun, won't end with him being fed to Hellhounds, etc.
- The above prompt but also this is a classic, deeply romantic demon courting technique that ends up working weirdly well on Fitzroy.
- I don't require Gray to have exciting genitalia if you're going to write him fucking Fitzroy, but I am open to knots, pinecone dick, and anything else you think demons should definitely have.
- ...come to think of it, please also give Fitzroy whatever kind of genitalia you think would best facilitate him being fucked, if you're writing him being fucked! Again, if you want to stick with normal anal sex then that's fine and I won't be disappointed, but it seems worth it to mention you can live your, uh, genital dreams.
Strange Trails - Lord Huron
AO3 matching tag: Strange Trails - Lord Huron (Album)
Fandom note: I adore this album so much and I just really want whatever sparks for you from the album! You can find the album in a YouTube video here, on Spotify, and probably elsewhere. The lyrics can all be found on Genius. (Also some of the Genius stuff references comics created to go along with the album, but I'm not really interested in those!)
Requested mediums:
- Length Opt-In: 420 Words Exactly
- Length Opt-In: 500 minimum words per fic
- Length Opt-In: 666 words exactly
- Length Opt-In: Double Drabble
- Length Opt-In: Drabble
- Length Opt-In: Drabble Series
- Medium Opt In: Art - Adaptation Concept Art
- Medium Opt In: Art - Coloring Page
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Art - Fanart
- Medium Opt In: Audio - Original Fan Music
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Alliterative Long Line
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Alliterisen
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Ballad
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Cascade Poem
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Free Verse
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Narrative Poem
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Ode
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Pantoum
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Rondeau
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Song Lyrics - Original
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Sonnet
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Villanelle
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Any Type of Essay
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Creepypasta
- Medium Opt In: Writing - In-Universe Religious Text
Requested relationships:
- Solo: Buck Vernon
- The Fool The Narrator Is Addressing In 'The Yawning Grave' & the Narrator
- Solo: H.W. Justine
- Narrator of 'Until the Night Turns'/Narrator's Beautiful Girl
- Remy Fusil/La Belle Fleur Sauvage
- WB: Magic/Curses/Visions/Signs/Omens
- WB: Nature's Shrines
- WB: The Yawning Grave
- WB: Ghosts/Resurection/Death & Undeath
- WB: Folklore/Traditional Songs/Common Superstitions/Local Legends
Shipping note: Whatever ships you want! Anything you think is interesting. I like M/M, M/F, and F/F. Or nonbinary characters? Unknowable eldritch narrator god/your choice of character? Live your dreams!
- For this fandom I would love to see what you think these characters look like, but I'm also SUPER interested in art that captures the mood/atmosphere of the album. I would love nature imagery, landscapes, cityscapes, visuals of omens/signs, paths and trails, scenes of the apocalypse, etc.
- If you listen to the album and have a strong idea for fanart for it but don't know if it fits any of my requested relationships/characters/worldbuilding: please give it to me! I want it! I love this album and the parts of it I didn't request were only left off because this letter section is so dang long already.
- If you're doing a comic, I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of one or more song.
- (Also, small note about stuff related to my DNWs: I would prefer not to receive art that shows the motorcycle crash/the wrecked motorcycle from Dead Man's Hand, but the events leading up to and immediately following it are fine. I also am okay with all the undead characters implied by this album!)
Buck Vernon
Buck Vernon is listed as the narrator for Dead Man’s Hand, Fool For Love, Cursed, and Louisa.
- If you're doing a comic, I would love visuals of: the desert, the road, the sky, "the hinterlands way up north where the tall trees stand", snow, spring, Big Jim and Lily, grave digging, runes on Buck's skin and other magic imagery from "Cursed" and "Louisa".
- Although I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of the song.
- "Fool For Love" was the first song I heard off this album and any visuals from it — Buck Vernon's imagined life with Lily? His fight with Big Jim? — would be amazing.
- Lily's point of view of Fool For Love would be great — what does Buck look like to her?
- Buck's situation in Cursed seems extremely dire! How does he escape it — or is Cursed about Louisa, and Buck doesn't escape so much as eventually get too ensnared to escape? If so, maybe he could eventually be rescued by his friend the dead man?
- Also, finally Lousia! An interpretation of the song where Buck is just being hyperbolic about how much he loves and appreciates Lousia would be good, of course, but if you're up to write about something where Lousia is a literal necromancer who raised Buck from the dead following the events of Fool For Love I'd adore that.
Narrator of 'Until the Night Turns'/Narrator's Beautiful Girl
- If you're doing a comic, I would love visuals of: sunrise, heavens colliding, the visitor from the great beyond, the sign in the midnight sky, the World Ender, scenes set in moonlight during this last night before the end of the world. Also, I've always imagined that the narrator's "helluva view of the end of the world" is both of their beautiful girl and a literal good view of, presumably, the World Ender doing world ending things.
- Although I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of the song.
- I love the imagery in this song (can you tell, lmao?) and I also love the way the narrator's vision is described, so I would love scenes set during that or involving the narrator trying to explain to someone else!
- Overall I love the tone and emotion in this song, the way the narrator is resigned to the end of the world but extremely focused on being in the moment and just enjoying being able to go out on a good note. Other songs on the album focus a lot on characters who are disregarding the likely consequences of their actions (Remy in La Belle Fleur Sauvage, Buck Vernon in Fool For Love, the "fool" in The Yawning Grave, Johnnie in Hurricane (Johnnie's Theme)!) but the Narrator of Until The Night Turns hasn't, as far as I can tell, directly caused the world to end — they've just received a vision that it's going to happen and now they're making the best of it in a pretty sedate way. It's great!
Remy Fusil/La Belle Fleur Sauvage
Remy Fusil is listed as the narrator of La Belle Fleur Sauvage.
- If you're doing a comic, I would love visuals of: the mountain rising up above the cloud, the sacred place on the mountain where the flower grows, mountain nature in general especially meadows, ancient ruins or long-dead flower seekers, floral motifs, the changing of seasons.
- Although I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of the song.
- Remy is on a probably doomed quest for a legendary immortal beauty! What a dumbass.
- I would love to know more about the immortal goddess this song describes and about Remy who thinks he can "pluck" her so that he can "love" her and then have her in his grave with him. I kind of suspect that this immortal lady up on her mountain will not be about that plan at all. Does Remy die? Does he get a darkened heart and phantom pains?
- I also love that this ties into other themes on the album about going to places you shouldn't go, seeing places you shouldn't see, and getting yourself into trouble via love.*
(* or, you know, """"""love"""""")
H.W. Justine
H.W. Justine is listed as the narrator of Frozen Pines. I don't have as many prompts for this song but It's actually my favorite on the album!
- If you're doing a comic, I would love visuals of: the mountain, moonlight as a "guide", the pines and other mountain nature stuff ("nature's shrines"!!!), a cold and pale sunrise on the mountain, "the strange light in the sky"
- Although I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of the song.
- It's just so haunting and lonely and mysterious? The isolation and uncertainty are top-notch and I would love any fic that captured those.
- I wonder who H.W. Justine/the narrator is waiting for, and what happened to them, and why all their friends are maybe dead, etc.
- My brain has been on ghosts a lot recently and this song always makes me think the narrator is maybe a ghost.
- Sometimes I wonder if this mountain is the same mountain Remy is climbing in La Belle Fleur Sauvage.
The Fool The Narrator Is Addressing In 'The Yawning Grave' & the Narrator
This first person address of some person who's apparently SERIOUSLY fucked up has got me SO desperate to know more and I deeply hope you will indulge me in answering questions like:
- If you're doing a comic, I would love visuals of: all the nature stuff in the opening lines but ESPECIALLY birds, the "omens and all kinds of signs", the yawning grave, the evil things that are brought by the darkness.
- Although I would of course be happy to get a standard comic with dialogue and etc, I would also be pleased to receive something where all or the majority of the text is pulled from the lyrics of the song.
- Who is the fool and what rule(s) did they break? Did they know they were breaking the rules? Did they know the consequences?
- Who and what is the narrator???? Omg. A god or spirit? A guardian of some kind? Something else entirely?
- What is the yawning grave, what kind of evil things are in the darkness, and what exactly will the reckoning entail?
- I am IN LOVE with the narrator straight up being like "I am coming for you" and very desperate to know if you think the narrator is one of the evil things being brought or if the narrator wants to stop the evil things or what.
- The narrator seems, you know, very inhuman, so I wonder if the fool simply didn't recognize the warnings and "omens and all kinds of signs"?
Worldbuilding tags
This album is incredibly atmospheric and spooky and full of interesting little details and connections, so I thought I would throw out some worldbuilding tags, too! I don't have any specific prompts for these, as I'd love to just see what people come up with.
The tags:
- WB: Magic/Curses/Visions/Signs/Omens
- WB: Nature's Shrines -
- WB: The Yawning Grave -
- WB: Ghosts/Resurrection/Death & Undeath -
- WB: Folklore/Traditional Songs/Common Superstitions/Local Legends -
Critical Role - Campaign 2
AO3 matching tag: Critical Role - Campaign 2
Fandom note: I finished watching this campaign very recently, like in the middle of sign ups recently. I'm not caught up on Campaign 3 as of writing this letter section, but I likely will be by the time reveals happen. I haven't read any additional CR materials (eg, Explorer's Guide to Wildemount).
I have not watched the Vox Machina campaign yet, but I have seen The Legend of Vox Machina. I don't mind receiving works influenced by/referencing C1, but references to it will likely go over my head and I would prefer not to receive any major spoilers for the Vox Machina campaign.
Requested relationships:
- Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
- Essek Thelyess & Jester Lavorre
- WB: Cobalt Soul
- WB: Public Perception/Rumors/Gossip About The Mighty Nein's Activities/Accomplishments
Requested mediums:
- Fanfiction
Essek Thelyss/Caleb Widogast
I love the restraint of their relationship in canon, the way it's so clear and so deep but neither of them take the step of acting on or even voicing their attraction. I like that it's partially for extremely practical, understandable, objectively reasonable reasons...and partially because Caleb is a sad, sad wizard who hasn't let that part of himself heal yet, who can't trust someone like that and probably doesn't feel he can trust himself with it, either. I am also absolutely obsessed with that scene in Aeor where the Mighty Nein see Essek again and he's so relieved to hear that they trust him but also can't bring himself to look Caleb in the eye! Delicious, the whole thing is delicious.
For ship fic between these two, I would love anything that has them interacting at any point in the canon timeline (and of course I also like canon divergences!) as long as there's an emphasis on how they relate to each other. I don't need a fic where they get together (so, pre-slash is fine!) just one where they're into each other.
I really loved the part of the Campaign 2 wrap up video where Liam compared Caleb's attraction to Essek to the urge to touch a hot stove, and it would be really neat to see something that elaborates on Caleb's complex feelings! I'd also love something where they build or rebuild trust, and especially if you're going in that direction I'd love something that touches not just on Caleb trusting Essek but also something that deals with Essek's trust of Caleb. I think this ship would be a great one for exploring cultural differences, indulging me in my love of fantasy politics, or diving into some cool worldbuilding.
Prompts:
- Literally no amount of enemies-(to-friends-)-to-lovers would be too much for me. The tension! The uncertainly! The careful maneuvering! The ~*~*~seduction~*~*~!!!!
- Forced proximity: handcuffed together, there's-only-one-bed, some kind of enchantment/curse that doesn't let them get a certain distance or get out of eyesight of each other.
- Canon divergence - different first meeting: meeting in captivity and having to escape together, meeting while fighting the same enemy, meeting while Essek is disguised as someone else
- Canon divergence - Essek joins the Nein on an earlier adventure, or comes to rescue them from peril.
- Canon divergence - the Nein fake Essek's death (they probably say it's during the fight against Lucien?) and then help him set up a new identity
- Time travel to the past - one or both of them travels to the past to set something right, undo something, etc. I really liked the part in the last episode where they both decided not to, but it did instantly make me wonder what WOULD make them cross that line. Maybe if the rest of the Mighty Nein died or something! Also, my likes list has a big chonky list of time travel freeforms that I like!
- Arranged marriage - for either international politics reasons, Essek needs to marry Caleb. Or, for Den politics/Den Thelyess drama reasons, Essek needs to marry someone. Also, my likes list has a big chonky list of marriage freeforms that I like!
- Action/Adventure - their post-canon exploits re: Aeor, magic, etc would be wonderful!
- Worldbuilding - I'd love something that explores their cultural differences, but also something that explores Rosohna & its people, or that shows Essek experiencing Empire things! If you would like a very specific prompt for this, I'd go feral over anything that even references Rosohna's building code and light ordinances and what the neighbors think about the Xhorhaus' massive lit up tree.
Essek Thelyess & Jester Lavorre
As wild as I am about Caleb/Essek, something about Essek and Jester's friendship is even MORE compelling. I love that Essek was going to be a villain until the Nein started worming their way into his heart and I think that Jester was a huge, huge part of that. I think her open, friendly, extremely weird vibes made all the difference and I think that Jester was probably the first person to vocally care about Essek in a long, long time.
I would love something exploring their friendship, and their trust for each other, and how their perspective of each other changes over time. I think that Essek has probably never seen Jester being properly ruthless and I'd ESPECIALLY love something that touches on that. I mean, obviously by the end of canon Essek has seen Jester fight (and was her skill at that a surprise to him?) and heard Jester's input in the Nein's plans both in persona and probably via scrying, but I don't think he's seen her when she's doing things like tricking a horrible witch into being susceptible to a memory spell or trying to sneakily kill someone who thinks she's helping them. I love that side of Jester and I think it would surprise a lot of people, including Essek!
Prompts:
- Canon divergence - different first meeting: meeting in captivity and having to escape together, meeting while fighting the same enemy, meeting in some situation where the Mighty Nein save Essek from some terrible fate at Jester's insistance.
- Canon divergence - Essek joins the Nein on an earlier adventure, or comes to rescue them from peril.
- Canon divergence - the Nein fake Essek's death (they probably say it's during the fight against Lucien?) and then help him set up a new identity
- Time travel to the past - One of them travels to the past and has to seek out the other for help. Or, they both travel to the past and either meet up immediately or agree to keep in contact and meet up again eventually. Also, my likes list has a big chonky list of time travel freeforms that I like!
- Action/Adventure - I'd love anything where they're on an adventure together, but I think that something where Isharnai
- Worldbuilding - I'd love something that explores their cultural differences, but also something that explores Rosohna & its people, or that shows Essek experiencing Menagerie Coast things! If you would like a very specific prompt for this, I'd go feral over anything that even references Rosohna's building code and light ordinances and what the neighbors think about the Xhorhaus' massive lit up tree.
WB: Cobalt Soul
I just think they're neat!!! Also I really like libraries. For this WB tag, I'll take any in-universe medium that makes sense with the canon setting.
Prompts:
- Dairon POV of that conversation with Beau in Trostenwald, or of investigating/arresting Zeenoth, or of being in Rosohna, etc
- Yudala Fon POV, maybe of canon events?
- Beau POV of pre-canon or post-canon things
- Cobalt Soul original characters - what does the day-to-day look like? What did the researchers think about the stuff they were looking up for Beau? How is all the information Beau found on her adventures with the Nein collected and what is the general opinion of it?
WB: Public Perception/Rumors/Gossip About The Mighty Nein's Activities/Accomplishments
I love outsider POV and I love stories that work to make it clear that the rest of the world is absolutely happening just off stage of what we saw in canon. For this WB tag, I'll take any in-universe medium that makes sense with the canon setting.
I would extremely prefer that the public perception/rumors/gossip not focus on romantic relationship(s), but instead on the massive changes they've made to international politics, the way they've impacted people's lives, the way they secretly saved the world, etc.
Prompts:
- Literally any outside POV of the Nein, especially from very minor characters or from OCs in interesting positions.
- Any of the Nein interacting with minor characters/OCs in a way that makes it clear what kind of rumors/gossip/etc are going on about them.
The Untamed
AO3 matching tag: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Fandom note: I'm not into the book or the donghua so per my DNW please stick to show canon for plot points, character beats, etc. I don't mind the inclusion of smaller details/worldbuilding from MDZS, though. I've seen Fatal Journey (the Nie bros movie) but I haven't seen the Wen Ning movie yet.
Requested character(s)/relationship(s):
- Solo: Nie Huaisang (The Untamed)
- Wei Wuxian & The Wen Remnants (The Untamed)
- Luo "Mian Mian" Qingyang (The Untamed)
- Lan Qiren
Requested medium:
- Fanfiction
Nie Huaisang
So much sneaking! So much lying and laying low! I love that NHS figured JGY out and then had to very carefully plot to take him down, and I would love to see what he'd do with a headstart to save his brother and oust JGY from his position of power. I'm requesting him alone here because I really just would love to see him interact with literally anyone, including Nie sect OCs.
Prompts:
- I would love to know what he was up to during and immediately after the Sunshot campaign and I am definitely all for canon divergence where he has to stick his nose into things earlier.
- NHS's experiences becoming head of the Nie clan after NMJ died — did the clan struggle to accept it at all?
- What if NMJ had actually died during that final Sunshot Campaign battle?
- NHS has to ask someone for help in his plot against JGY.
- NHS learns demonic cultivation as part of his plot against JGY
Characters/Relationships that you might consider
- Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Nie Huaisang (The Untamed) — That part right after the Cloud Recesses arc where NHS shows up and is like "oh, shit, you guys are on a date...but I'm going to come along!" is one of my faves and really sold me on this ship! I grew to like the idea of it even more as I saw how smart and sneaky NHS is. I'm okay with both a version of this ship where they're all into each other or a version of this ship where LWJ and NHS are both into WWX but not into each other. That being said, I would love to see LWJ and NHS interact!!! I would prefer a happy ending for this ship, although they don't have to get married or anything.
- Nie Huaisang & Wen Qing (The Untamed) — Two great flavors of character that I just think would go well together, bless whoever nominated this. I could also probably ship this romantically if you're into that, but gen has got me all kinds of enthused too of course!!! I think it'd be nice for them to bond over loving their respective brothers and also over both being friends with WWX.
- Wei Wuxian & Nie Huaisang (The Untamed) — I love this friendship so much and I would love any kind of exploration of it. We don't see much of NHS between him fainting during that Wen indoctrination scene and WWX coming back to life, so I'd love to know what he was up to and of course what he was thinking about WWX!
- Wen Ning & Nie Huaisang (The Untamed) — Another wonderful flavor combination! Most of the cast of The Untamed can be pretty intimidating, but WN is a ball of marshmallow fluff (until that whole Ghost General thing anyway) and NHS
Freeforms I requested for AU Ex one time
- MDZS: Wei Wuxian Faked His Death — I would enjoy a version of this where WWX doesn't tell anyone about it, but I also think one or two people knowing could be very interesting! I'm definitely okay with WWX dying in a canon divergent manner to set up the fake death, and I'm also okay with his fakery being uncovered earlier than he came back in canon. For relationships that don't involve WWX, I would love the characters to uncover the truth together or a scene where one of them knows WWX isn't dead while the other doesn't know! I would especially love any tension around not knowing who it's safe to tell because there's no way to know if so-and-so might still want WWX dead.
- Untamed: Someone else faked WWX's death and that's why his body couldn't be found — Maybe this is a case of one of the other requested characters plotting to fake WWX's death and then just kind of springing it on him to save his life...or maybe WWX's death was faked against his will and he's being held captive and needs saving! For relationships that don't involve WWX, I would love the characters to uncover the truth together or a scene where one of them knows WWX isn't dead while the other doesn't know! I would especially love any tension around not knowing who it's safe to tell because there's no way to know if so-and-so might still want WWX dead.
- Untamed: NHS asks WWX for help with Nie saber tomb while WWX is with the Wen remnants — WWX even complains about how close to demonic cultivation the Nie saber thing is so this felt like a natural canon divergence! Also, as mentioned above I have seen "Fatal Journey" if you want to incorporate anything from that. I would love any kind of focus on NHS's moral objections to how the sabers have been suppressed. Oh, and of course, I would go absolutely wild for worldbuilding about magic and ghosts and swords.
- Untamed: NHS tells LWJ & WWX about his plan when he talks to them about the Nie burial sabers — They were all there! In a room together! WWX basically confirms his identity by repeating NHS's own words about the fan! What if NHS had rethought his plan to just lead LWJ and WWX around and told them? How would things go differently?
- Untamed: NHS has to ask someone else for help in order to take JGY down — Obviously I have made some suggestions above but literally anyone would be great (like, would I love the likely suspects? Yes...but would I also love Lan Qiren or something? Also yes) and also feel free to have NHS realize JGY needs to be taken down earlier or be a time traveller if you want to include someone who, you know, beefs it.
- Untamed: NHS learns demonic cultivation as part of his plot against JGY — ...I don't have anything to add to this I just think it'd be great and I want it.
- Untamed: Wen Qing is co-mastermind with Nie Huaisang — Friends! Sneaky friends! Did he help her not be killed by the Jin sect? And then not have time to tell WWX before WWX died? Or is this an AU where she never turned herself in? At what point do they begin plotting together — does he bring her into it because he needs help and she's literally the only person he can be sure won't snitch on him to JGY? I'm so curious!
- All: Character gets another character’s help that they didn’t get in canon — So many of these characters need so much help...I'm obviously particularly interested in WWX getting NHS's help (during the Sunshot campaign? After?) and in NHS getting WN or WQ's help (during the Wen indoctrination, maybe?) but please god just give someone some help at some point.
Wei Wuxian & The Wen Remnants
I am never ever ever EVER going to get over the Wen remnants dying and could read 50,000 fic fixing it but still want more. Also besides fixit aspects I'm hella interested in worldbuilding and politics! I love stories about people rebuilding their lives and reclaiming lands and making a place for themselves. I love Granny Wen and Uncle Four but I would also love to get to know other members of the little group! I love how WWX makes a little family with them and how much they respect him despite at first holding their distance. Any amount of WWX/LWJ is good as long as the Wen Remnants and their whole situation still features prominently.
Prompts:
- Outside POV — what did the Wens think about Wei Wuxian when they first started living together in the Burial Mounds?
- Outside POV — Someone besides LWJ comes to visit the Burial Mounds; they're surprised by what they see.
- Wei Wuxian helps the Wen Remnants earlier — prevents Wen Ning's death or even prevents them from going to that work camp in the first place.
- Jin Zixuan doesn't die and Wei Wuxian manages to establish a new cultivation cult.
- LWJ joins the settlement at the Burial Mounds.
Characters/Relationships that you might consider
- Group: Wei Wuxian & The Wen Remnants (The Untamed) — I love Granny Wen and Uncle Four but I would also love to get to know other members of the little group! I love how WWX makes a little family with them and how much they respect him despite at first holding their distance.
- Wen Ning (The Untamed) — Best boy...he's the most helpful in the show so I'd love to see him helping more people or getting helped in return! Besides desperately wanting him flung at every member of the cast, I'm interested in WN's relationship with WQ, with the Wen Remnants, and with Wei Wuxian.
- Wen Qing (The Untamed) — WQ makes my heart go !!!!! alright. I wanna see people appreciate her and I want her to get to settle her people into a safe and happy situation and most of all I want her to survive. I'm interested in her relationship with the Wen clan in general, with the Wen Remnants, with Wen Ning, with JC, and with WWX. I would also love to see her interact more with the rest of the cast, especially JYL! I'm interested in Wen Qing's sense of duty and the way she protects her people. I'm interested in her ethics!! I'm interested in how the burden of WWX throwing his life away for her people weighs on her.
- Group: Jiang Cheng &/ Wen Qing (The Untamed) — God their almost-romance in the show got me SO GOOD. I love every single interaction they have and I love that it doesn't work out and I would love to see them interact more, with no preference as to whether or not they actually get together and stay together; for this ship I would be equally happy for them to be totally doomed and unable to navigate their personal obligations/various politics OR for them to overcome everything and end up together OR for circumstances to just happen to conspire to make getting together politically advantageous instead of disastrous.
- Jin Zixuan (The Untamed) — This guy!!!! I didn't like him very much and then he talked about Jiang Yanli and Jin Ling while he was dying and oops he's great. If you don't want to write shipfic with him and JYL that's fine with me — it's not an OTP or anything, I'm happy to see him shipped with other people or not shipped at all — but I am interested in his POV of JYL and JYL's relationship with WWX. I would also adore seeing him interact with the Wen remnants/WQ/WN.
Freeforms I requested for AU Ex one time:
- Untamed: Jin Zixuan isn't killed; WWX and the Wen Remnants found a new sect in the Burial Mounds — I'm really really into the nuts and bolts of WWX actually founding a sect (improving their living conditions! teaching people! taking disciples! building relationships with the people of Yiling!) but equally I would love to see this from JZX's point of view. How is his death averted? Does he support WWX's new sect? Do he and JYL and Jin Ling ever visit?
- Untamed: Wen Qing and Wen Ning are appreciated as war heroes in much the same way Meng Yao is — A) I do want a non-deep reading of this where people just like and respect them and good things happen for them but B) I also phrased it this way because I kind of want the "the same way Meng Yao" is to be in focus — i.e., that no matter how respected they are for what they did in the war, people won't forget that they were "the enemy". Either way I would love for WQ and WN to not die and save their people, though!
- Untamed: During Victory Banquet WWX Helps Wen Qing and Remnants when He Sees Them Being Whipped — Please, I need it. I couldn't believe WWX just turned away and I need it fixed!!! I know he did the rocks-fall thing but like, no, cmon, I'm taking a proper rescue, you know? If not right then, then very soon after!
Luo "Mian Mian" Qingyang (The Untamed)
Mian Mian is clever and smooth and good at all the interpersonal things JZX sucks at. She's principled and clear-headed and perfect. I wanted to see so much more of her in the show and so I'd of course love to see her starring in a fic! I'm interested in her relationship with everyone in the Jin sect and also WWX, and also in general how she approaches justice and truth and cultivation politics and stuff.
Characters/Relationships that you might consider
- Luo Qingyang/Wen Qing (The Untamed) — I love them both and just want to smoosh them together, basically, it's not deep, I just think it'd be great! I'd also like to see them interact platonically, of course.
- Wei Wuxian & Luo "Mian Mian" Qingyang & The Wen Remnants (The Untamed) — I'm desperate to know what Mian Mian thinks about the Wen remnants and WWX. I'd love to see her and WWX become friends, and I'd love to see her lend WWX and the Wens some political savvy and insight into how the Jin sect works and stuff.
Freeforms I requested for AU Ex one time:
- All: Character gets another character’s help that they didn’t get in canon — Obviously the two other freeforms on this request have strong suggestions for when and where such help could happen, but I would also love to see Mian Mian help the Wen remnants before WWX...or for one of the Wen remnants to help her...or both!
- Untamed: Mian Mian settles in Yiling after leaving the Lanling Jin sect — I was super charmed by the scene where LWJ goes to see WWX in Yiling and I am always wishing for more scenes like that where WWX runs into people from his old life. And in particular I would love for him to run into Mian Mian — to keep running into Mian MIan — and maybe for that to end up making things go better somehow!
- Untamed: Mianmian joins WWX and the Wen clan at the Burial Mounds — This is basically the above except actually skip any intermediate steps and, I am begging you, send Mian Mian to go hang with WWX and the Wen remnants because they need help. I'd be really into her going to the Burial Mounds after she leaves the Lanling Jin like in canon, but I would also be into her leaving earlier!
Lan Qiren
LQR is a really fascinating character to me because he largely functions as an antagonist and as the voice of the traditional/conventional cultivation that WWX largely rejects. I love that he's frequently in conflict with our protagonists and that he's a very strict and kinda disagreeable person and I would just really enjoy either a canon-compliant character study or some kind of plotty fic where LQR can really shine!
If you're desperate for more of my feelings about The Untamed, please see my AU Ex letter — I didn't request Lan Qiren but it covers my feelings about basically everything else.
Prompts:
- Does LQR ever seriously consider WWX's argument about obstruction vs redirection? If not, what would make him do so?
- What if LQR visited the Burial Mounds while WWX and the Wen Remnants were there?
- LQR and WWX have a talk during the Sunshot Campaign.
- LQR's opinion of Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao
- I don't usually like characters meeting themselves...but what do you think a post-canon LQR would have to say to a LQR from pre- or mid-canon?
- LQR has a problem and only WWX can solve it.
- LQR meets the Ghost General and it's underwhelming because Wen Ning is in the middle of being bullied by children or rabbits or a donkey or something.
- ...LQR reacts to the juniors coming home with a donkey.
Ships you might consider:
- I'm sorry I don't have the brain to explain why but I'd be into NHS/LQR!
Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood
AO3 matching tag: Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Fandom note: I've only seen the anime, not read the manga, but I'm fine with manga-only details!
Requested relationships:
- Ling Yao & Mei Chang (FMAB)
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
Requested mediums:
- fanfiction
Ling Yao & Mei Chang
You know that part after the Promised Day where Mei is crying because she's glad her Amestrian friends didn't die and all but she failed to get the philosopher's stone so now her whole clan is totally fucked? And then Ling promises to help her and protect her clan and your heart grows three sizes? That scene is a DIRECT HIT to my id. It's literally the iddiest scene in FMA for me. Sorry, all those other scenes, but THIS is the best scene. When I watch that episode alone I sometimes rewind to rewatch that scene! Sometimes more than once!
What I'm saying is, I'm really into the idea of Ling Yao being Mei's big brother despite all the obstacles and I really love unexpected kindness/mercy and I also really love that Mei's clan is poor and weak while Ling's clan is rich and powerful. It's excellent! It's so good!
Also, I'm okay with Greed!Ling & Mei if you want — feel free to very vaguely handwave Greed surviving if you're writing post-canon.
Prompts:
- Literally anything about Xing politics before or after the events of canon.
- Character expects to be punished for failure but is shown unexpected concern — Maybe Ling becomes emperor without him and Mei actually managing to have that nice scene after the Promised Day, so Mei gets to be surprised by Ling's kindness later and more dramatically!
- Comforted By An Enemy — Ling realizes how young she is before they're forced to work together, or helps her out of a situation he wouldn't even leave his worse enemy in and then gets attached.
- Lying So That The Other Will Accept Comfort Or Help — Ling hides his identity, maybe! Or lies about why he's in Amestris! Or literally anything.
- Character makes a mistake and expects the worst due to past experiences; is met with gentle kindness — The former emperor was presumably not a forgiving man, so of course it would catch Mei off guard when Ling is different!
- A is too uncertain of their place in B's life to directly ask for direly needed help — Sure, Ling SAID he'd help...and he's emperor now so he totally has the power to do so....but Mei balks at the idea of actually being so arrogant as to believe the emperor of Xing will really help her.
The Murderbot Diaries
AO3 matching tag: The Murderbot Diaries - Martha Wells
Fandom note: The Murderbot Diaries are a series of books about an android in a far-future scifi setting with huge space megacorporations, exploring the android's personhood after it breaks free from the corporation that owns it. You can find more info here. I recommend the ebooks if you aren't die hard about owning physical copies because the ebooks are DRM free!
I've read all of the books and the short stories. If somehow more canon is published before work reveals I'll read that too!
Requested characters:
- Asshole Research Transport & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
- Amena & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
- Dr. Thiago & Murderbot (Murderbot Diaries)
- Amena & Asshole Research Transport (Murderbot Diaries)
- Dr. Thiago & Asshole Research Transport (Murderbot Diaries)
- Dr. Thiago & Amena (Murderbot Diaries)
Requested medium:
- Fanfiction
I have a lot of favorite things about the Murderbot books but the way Network Effect (which is the Murderbot book I most recently reread!) develops the relationships between these characters is definitely at the top of the list. This letter section and my prompts are going to draw a lot from Network Effect for obvious reasons, but please feel free to set your fic earlier or later in canon!
Prompts for all ships:
- Missing scenes from on board ART: what did Amena and ART talk about? Did Thiago and ART have any conversation? How about Thiago and Amena?
- Thiago POV of literally anything.
- Amena and/or Murderbot's adventures aboard ART post-Network Effect
- Thiago decides to take a position as a temporary instructor aboard ART while Amena and Murderbot are aboard.
- Thiago gets kidnapped with Murderbot instead of or in addition to Amena
- ART & crew stop by Preservation before the events of Network Effect
- Murderbot gets kidnapped alone
Amena & Murderbot
Amena's character development — the way she eventually realizes that Murderbot was right to scare off that guy at the festival on Preservation — is so wonderful, and especially the way she and Murderbot grow closer as Murderbot does everything it can to protect her and Amena gets an up-close view of Murderbot having Big Emotions about ART being seemingly dead. That's good shit right there! I love when characters learn more about each other.
Thiago & Murderbot
And speaking of learning more about each other, the conversation between Thiago and Murderbot where they clear things up and we find out Thiago has been seriously misunderstanding Murderbot this whole time? Incredible, A+++. He was already one of my favorite characters before that conversation, too, because I just love when there are characters around who are huge jerks! Interpersonal conflict is one of my favorite fictional things, especially when it's the result of misunderstandings/misinformation.
Murderbot & ART
And speaking of interpersonal conflict! I mean obviously I love Murderbot and ART getting along and working together, don't get me wrong, that stuff is great. But I also love that ART often rubs Murderbot the wrong way (by being an asshole, haha) and portions of Network Effect where Murderbot is pissed that ART got Murderbot kidnapped on purpose are really delicious, particularly because ART 100% can't keep from bothering it, and I really loved seeing Murderbot come around to understanding and accepting what ART had done..
Amena & ART
...this is kind of a weak connection, but speaking of Murderbot and ART making up! I really liked how Amena put herself in the middle of ART and Murderbot's terrible communication problems, and especially liked ART having a huge soft spot for Amena and communicating with her a ton because ART is used to having young people on board and really likes them. I also really liked how Amena immediately and without question picked up on ART's personhood (probably because she first knew ART as "Murderbot's friend who it's grieving") and how her Preservation-raised social intelligence lets her understand what's going on with ART and Murderbot's relationship probably better than they do. I'd love something that explores how ART relates to Amena as A Young Person Under Murderbot's Protection, what kind of stuff Amena and ART talked about while getting to know each other, etc.
Thiago & ART
We don't see much interaction between them in Network Effect, but I'm fascinated by Thiago's potential as a contrast to Amena, by virtue of being older, more suspicious, and spending most of the book not trusting Murderbot. He's the one to initially say that ART can't be who ART is because "bot pilots don't talk like this" and I wonder if he has to really reconsider his worldview after accepting that ART is indeed the bot pilot, among other things!
Thiago & Amena
I love the scene in Network Effect where Murderbot is listening in on Thiago and Amena's conversation after ART comes back and notes that Thiago has already asked Amena if she's alright four times. Obviously everything about the situation since they emerged from the wormhole in Preservation space has been incredibly stressful, but I'm really charmed by Thiago's worry for Amena even as he stumbles on the execution because he's both being overbearing and doing things like being suspicious of Murderbot's drone usage.
(I also love, earlier in the book, when Amena tries to claim that Thiago trusts Murderbot and Murderbot is like, "Haha, no he doesn't." Basically...I feel like Amena's relationship with Murderbot changed a lot after they were kidnapped onto ART and I'm not sure if she really believes this or if it's just wishful thinking, but either way: delicious.)
The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine - Spoon
AO3 matching tag: The Two Sides of Monsieur Valentine - Spoon (Song)
Fandom note: You can listen to this song here or read the lyrics here. The song's narrator sings about a part they really want in a fictional play.
Requested relationships:
- Eddie/The Duke
Requested mediums:
- fanfiction
- Medium Opt In: Art - Comics
- Medium Opt In: Poetry - Theatre Script - Shakespearean-style
- Medium Opt In: Writing - Theatre Script - Play
Eddie/The Duke
This song has really captured my interest since the first time I heard it. I love that Eddie:
- swordfights the duke AND the queen
- makes love to the duke
- kidnaps the queen
- has a dramatic death scene
I also really love the way the narrator uses Eddie as escapism from his situation (being stuck inside with Sydenham's chorea, watching the news) and the way the narrator interprets Eddie as a heroic but probably misunderstood figure in the world of "The Stranger Dance", which seems to have a plot full of twists and turns!
If you're doing a comic, I would like a comic that juxtaposes the song lyrics with visuals just as much as I'd enjoy a traditional narrative-format comic.
Prompts:
- Monsieur Valentine is a separate character: he has a coat, boots, and a "black heart machine", as well as two very distinct sides. Does the black heart machine make Eddie and then the Queen act like villains, which is why there's so much swordfighting/kidnapping going on? What are the "two sides" of Monsieur Valentine?
- Monsieur Valentine is someone else: Maybe Eddie is Eddie Valentine, and part of what makes his dramatic death scene so interesting is that it's when his "two sides" are finally revealed. Or maybe Msr. Valentine is the Duke! Or the Queen!
- Making love to the Duke: I desperately want to believe that the events listed in the song are in roughly chronological order, because I'd love for Eddie/the Duke to be enemies to lovers, on account of how I'm a sucker for enemies to lovers. How do they get there? Is it super complicated? Is it doomed? Whether or not one of them is Msr. Valentine in what you write, I'd love to see something where they're in love/making love but aren't totally honest with each other, don't know each other as well as they think they do, are misunderstanding each other....or even where they have those problems, fix them, and then fall into bed together.
- Narrator transmigrates: Since the song is really about the narrator imagining that they're Eddie, I can't help but think about a fic where the Narrator is Eddie, and gets to "perform" the part they've always wanted most in an incredibly real way.
