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Past Imperfect 2020
Hi! Thanks for creating for me, or for otherwise taking a look at my letter. I’m fencesit on AO3! I'm requesting all fic for this exchange.
DNW:
- unrequested AUs
- canon divergence is okay
- obviously the crossovers and non-canon divergent AUs I'm requesting may involve some adjustment of the world the characters live in, which is fine! I would like ninja to still be ninja and cultivators to still be cultivators and so on, though.
- it's fine for a time looping character to kill themself to start a new loop, if that's a mechanic you want to include, as long as they're doing it to deliberately reset the loop rather than in hopes of dying for good.
- please see specific clarifications for The Untamed in that section.
- Implied/referenced is fine!
- feel free to fudge timelines or just not mention ages specifically, though
- This DNW does not apply to Story Break or The Untamed.
- 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
- please see SVSSS and The Untamed sections for clarification notes.
- 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! 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.
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!
- DNW more than one character looping
- DNW looping character to be permanently dead at the end of the fic — otherwise I will leave it up to you what making things "better" via the timeloop means to each character, as I don't need an everyone lives/nobody dies AU and each character will surely have different priorities.
- 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!)
Story Break (Jar Jar Binks) DNWs/clarifications:
- character death exception: any character death is fine for this fandom, up to and included Jar Jar Binks himself!
- unrequested crossovers clarification: inclusion of characters/worldbuilding from actual Star Wars media is definitely fine and doesn't cross this DNW.
- vehicle accidents clarification: space ships crashing in space is fine; space ships crashing onto planets is fine; DNW crashes involving vehicles mostly used for on-planet transport, even if those vehicles fly.
Likes
Time travel Likes!
For me, a lot of the appeal is rooted in seeing how a time traveler's understanding of everything can shift — how a day that was happy the first time around is sad or scary the second time around, how they recontextualize the actions of those around them based on what they know everyone will do in the future, how their values and goals and relationships can shift and change.
I love it when time travellers blame people for actions they haven't taken yet. I love it when they grieve people who aren't yet dead. I love how the reader and the time traveller frequently get to share the future knowledge, both tasting the same dramatic irony and basking in the warm glow of fixing something that went to shit the last time around!! And I love especially especially especially the emotional logistical nightmare of it all: trying to keep it a secret even though they've changed so much; not knowing who to trust; not knowing who would believe them; not knowing if anyone would help them; struggling to keep their actions logically consistent with who they're supposed to be in the time that they're in.
Further Likes
(Sorry these are all Capitalized Like That they're mostly freeforms! These are all time travel things I would be very happy to receive in addition to my requested 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
- 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
Fic likes:
- Canon divergence
- slice of life, canon-compliant fic, missing scenes from canon
- dimension travel (eg from the canon timeline to a divergent timeline)
- worldbuilding —
- 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 writer 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)
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 if you want! If you like the addition of Kaguya then don't feel the need to ignore it on my account, though.
Requested ships:
- Group: Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Izuna (Naruto)
- Group: Uchiha Madara/Senju Tobirama (Naruto)
Requested mediums:
- fanfiction
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! They're both hot! Listen, I could gush about them forever.
Tobirama and Madara have a really interesting contrast (eg, Tobirama is logical, keeps his emotions locked down, 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
- bottom!Tobirama if you want to write anal (not a deal breaker, just a preference!)
- Izuna as an antagonist (including Izuna nonconning Tobirama and/or trying to murder him, although he doesn't have to be that antagonistic — I am also into fics where they very grudgingly start to work together by the end!)
- 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
- There are lots of prompts in my Heart Attack letter!
Freeforms:
- Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together
- Falling in Love with Past Version of Enemy
- Time Travel Fix-It - Altering Non-Canonical Disaster
Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Izuna
I love how much these two hate each other and I especially love that Izuna was committed enough to hating the Senju that he literally died over it. Izuna was clearly, I think, a man of conviction and focus, and Tobirama had to match him on the battlefield and with strategy. It seems to me that Izuna and Tobbirama were probably similar in a lot of ways (suspicious, non-idealist younger brothers!) but I'm also interested in the ways they were probably different! Is Izuna a social butterfly where Tobirama is a shut-in? Does Izuna's temper run hot where Tobirama's runs cold? Does Izuna excel at quickly-adjusted tactics where Tobirama is more for long term strategy? There are so many directions for exploring their characters to go and I would love to see what you'll do with them.
Also, I'm not opposed to a fic where they don't hate each other, but I would really really love a sense that it was a hard-earned truce. I love that Warring Clans Era ninja lead dangerous, violent lives and I love that Izuna distrusted the Senju so much he died that horrible death, so I prefer not to see all that suspicion and caution swept away so easily. Even if they've grudgingly begun to work together and even maybe respect each other, I am very very into them each being ready for the other to try and kill them at any point.
Freeforms:
- Time Loop - Enemies Have To Work Together To Solve The Loop — This can be something as straightforward as one of them needing the other's help to end it (eg, Izuna needs sealing help; Tobirama needs Sharingan help) but whoops they need to stop killing each other before getting help will work out....or something as complex as there being an enemy to investigate and kill to end the loop!
- Time Loop - Intentionally Created for Problem Solving — I'm thinking Tobirama is trying to get peace to happen without driving Madara to insane world ending moon plots and of course ends up repeating the same stretch of time over and over again trying to figure out what the fuck to do about Izuna. But on the other hand, it could be Izuna trying to kill Tobirama/prevent peace! Or some other problem! This is just a really neat freeform.
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 relationships:
- Group: Liu Qingge & Original Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS)
- Group: Liu Qingge/Original Shen Qingqiu (SVSSS)
- Original Shěn Qīngqiū (SVSSS)
- Shàng Qīnghuá (SVSSS)
- Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū (SVSSS)
Requested mediums:
- Fanfiction
Shipping note: Ships are fine to include in fills for the single character request! SQH/MBJ, SQH/SY!SQQ, LQG/SY!SQQ, YQY/Orig SQQ all very welcome either in hints or as a focus. Bingqiu only really grabs me when they're in that messy misunderstanding stage of things where SQQ is sure he's going to be tortured and then killed.
Shen Yuan
- Covering any point(s) in canon is cool with me, and I'm down for the control of time travel to be either in addition to or instead of the System. I also definitely don't need any complicated justification for the time travel to be a thing! This being SVSSS I'm perfectly content with even very flimsy "A Wizard Did It" explanation, because that'd be pretty in line with Airplane-bro's worldbuilding lmao.
- Seeing SQQ trying to derail the canon plot in earnest would be great, and I'd definitely be interested in him being able to go farther and farther back with his save scumming, to the point of overwriting the original Shen Qingqiu earlier and earlier, if you're up for that kind of moral conundrum.
- I'd also love to see SQQ try again and again to get things right with LBH/avoid the Immortal Alliance Conference/get out of the mess in Jinlan City!
Original Shen Qingqiu
- If it's a power Shen Qingqiu has from a young age, I'd love to see how he grows and develops it, and how much YQY knows, and if there are any draw backs, and how it affects his understanding of the world and the people around him.
- If it's a power SQQ gets suddenly, possibly even instead of being replaced by Shen Yuan, that'd also be really interesting! Is the day he got the power the earliest day he can go back to? Does he tell anyone? How bad do things get with Binghe before SQQ discovers/uses the power?
Shang Qinghua
- Like with SQQ I don't really care how SQH gets the time travel powers — whatever explanation works for you works for me!
- In terms of gen I would love to see SQH interact more with LBH or LQG.
- I really love weird SVSSS worldbuilding and I would love to see SQH use the save scumming to explore this fully realized version of his trashy novel and especially to investigate the more dangerous but potentially useful bits, like knowing that a problem can be solved by one of several plants but not being able to remember which one/know which scrapped draft that solution might be pulled from.
- If you're going to write moshang I love them misunderstanding each other and Shang Qinghua thinking MBJ might kill him for a long, LONG time after MBJ stops considering it. I'd also really love to see SQH having to legit struggle to figure out how to get on MBJ's good side...and end up going totally over-the-top...and guilty living with the knowledge that he's totally cheating his way into everything by getting to try again over and over.
- What if....Shang Qinghua can't control time but he does keep his memories every time Shen Qingqiu save scums.....
Liu Qingge &/ Original 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.
In terms of shippy vs gen, either is fine! I think that these two are really hard to convincingly get together in a short amount of words because they're both individual messes that turn into a flaming dumpster fire when combined, so I like to request the gen version along with the ship version — I'm into them being forced into proximity, forced to reassess what they know about each other, forced to treat each other differently, forced to rely on each other, etc... as long as they're in the same time/place interacting I don't mind whether or not they ever process to tender loving feelings!
Freeforms
- Character Has Control of Mental Time Travel and Uses It to Save Scum — I covered SQQ above for this freeform, so I am just going to talk about LQG having the save scumming abilities! For this freeform I'm particularly interested in what LQG would use save scumming for and how it would eventually impact his relationship with SQQ. What does it take for him to reconsider his opinion of SQQ? Does he eventually turn his save scumming towards trying to save SQQ from Original LBH?
- Stuck In A Time Loop With The Worst Person — I love all the ways they annoy each other and adding in the complication that they're repeating the same day/week/month together on top of that is just perfect. How long does it take them to work together? How long does it take for them to trust each other?
The Untamed
AO3 matching tag: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Fandom note: I have SO many feelings. 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 characters:
- Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín (The Untamed)
- Jin Zixuan (The Untamed)
- Lan Qiren (The Untamed)
- Niè Huáisāng (The Untamed)
- Qin Su (The Untamed)
- Group: Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (The Untamed)
- Group: Jiang Yanli/Nie Huaisang (The Untamed)
Requested medium:
- Fanfiction
Time Loop Where Character Makes Things Worse Before Making Them Better
Oh my god the potential. The POTENTIAL. I want to see characters making things worse because A) they just have character flaws that make it inevitable before they have some character growth and/or B) they don't understand what the fuck is going on with, like, Meng Yao's various plots and/or C) they don't understand the people they're trying to help. I want to see the character start out thinking "Okay, that first time around was bad, but if I just—" and then there's no simple fix because everything is terrible in so many ways, so they have to change their whole approach in order to actually achieve a fixit!
Per my DNW section, please feel free to adjust what you think "making them better" means for each character based on their own POV — I don't need absolutely every character in the fandom to have a happy ending as long as the time looping POV character thinks it's a good ending.
Characters
- Jiang Cheng — I'm especially interested in Jiang Cheng's relationships with JYL, WWX, and WQ...and also maybe his relationship with his parents! I love that he shouts and has a lot of feelings but never talks about them even when he should and I love that he's 100% behind putting him and his first and totally doesn't get why WWX always wants to stick his neck out for other people. Is there a version of events where he can care about just his own people and fuck everyone else? Is he satisfied with that? Is WWX?
- Jin Zixuan — 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. Also, I think he has no fucking clue what's actually going on at any point and then he dies before anything can be unraveled, so watching him try to fix things would be great because oops surprise everything is six layers of garbage deep! I'm interested in his relationship with JYL — whether or not it stays romantic in your fic — and with his mother, Mian Mian, WWX, JGY, and even Jin Zixun.
- Lan Qiren — Lan Qiren is a really wonderful minor antagonist because from his point of view everything he does is totally reasonable and even really responsible, and I would really love to see his point of view get challenge over and over again as he tries to unfuck everything but keeps accidentally finding more fucked up stuff. Like, you know, setting out to do something about Lan Wangi being so into that evil, evil Wei Wuxian and then whoops oh god he's stumbled into thirteen of Jin Guangyao's atrocities. (Also I have more thoughts/prompts about LQR in my TOT letter.)
- 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'd also love to know if you think he'd be able to stop there — given as many do-overs as he'd like, would he stop at just taking out JGY and saving his brother, or would he gain new goals along the way? I'm particularly interested in NHS's relationship with NMJ, GJY, LXC, and WWX. (I also have more thoughts/prompts about NHS in my HA letter.)
- Qin Su — Qing Su gets SUCH a raw deal and I really really want to see her get as many attempts at this as she needs to get a happy ending! I'm really interested in her feeling trapped and alone, having no one she can go to for help, and then using the time loops to try and get out of this situation somehow. Does she get Mo Xuanyu's help? Wei Wuxian? Nie Huaisang? Does she successfully murder Jin Guangyao and escape on her own? Does she manage to avert the marriage entirely? So many fun options!
- Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji — I would prefer only one of them be looping and struggling but I don't have a preference as to which one! I'm interested in their relationship and in the extraordinary lengths they'd go to for each other. I find people being OP because of time traveling/time looping really iddy and I am also a sucker for WWX founding a new sect with the Wen Remnants, so I'd been happy to see those worked in but please feel free to take it in a different direction.
- Jiang Yanli/Nie Huaisang — I would prefer only one of them be looping and struggling but I don't have a preference as to which one! I covered NHS above, so in terms of Yanli: I would love to see her user her soft power to manipulate things and leaning via trial and error what she can and can't do. I'm really interested in her opinion of people, including obviously Jin Zixuan and NHS, changing as she pokes and prods events this way and that over the loops. In terms of NHS/JYL specifically, I would love for either A) looping!NHS to arrange their marriage in a desperate big to make SOMETHING go right and then oops he's falling in love or B) looping!JYL discovers how useful and skilled NHS is at arranging events and her attempts to draw him into helping her over the course of several loops eventually lead to romance.
The Adventure Zone
AO3 matching tag: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Fandom note: I haven't listened to any of the bonus content so I would prefer you not draw from that.
Requested medium: fanfiction
Requested ships:
- Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides
Shipping note: Any background pairings, canon or otherwise, that you want to mention are just fine by me.
Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides
The time travel tag is really the whole entire prompt here! I love Magnus and I’m constantly very sad about his wife being dead, so I’d love anything that A) will make me more sad about that and/or B) will act as a fix-it. That is to say, I’d be equally into either of these plots:
- Magnus travels back in time just to relive the wedding.
- He can’t change anything substantially, but he can have a little time with Julia.
- Can you think of anything sadder than Magnus's wedding as narrated by a Magnus who both knows Julia is dead and can't remember who killed her.
- (If you can think of something sadder than that please put that in your fic too, thanks!)
- Everyone loves a time travel fix it, especially me.
- Still sad, but not AS sad, because now things can turn out okay.
- Inherent humor and excitement of Magnus with future knowledge being unable to keep from rushing in.
Obviously this freeform will lose a lot of its oomph if Magnus can't remember like 95% of the events of the Balance arc because of voidfish reasons, so like...please feel free to solve that however you want if you want Magnus to have those memories!
Other notes:
- Maybe Magnus thinks he won't be able to change anything but then discovers that actually when he tries nothing stops him! Surely this won't backfire.
- Magnus could travel far enough back that he also gets to relive/redo planning the wedding and stuff instead of just the wedding day.
- I’m also definitely open to other characters also traveling back as well (eg, Taako, Merle)
- Worldbuilding around Faerun/Raven Roost’s marriage traditions in contrast with what Magnus grew up with would also be excellent, especially if there’s any marriage tradition that Magnus didn’t get to do last time that he gets to do this time because he remembers it.
- A wedding-day time loop would be wonderful as well, because the only thing better/more sad than Magnus traveling back to relive the wedding day once is traveling back to relive it over and over and over again.
Requested freeforms
- Living Spouse Time Travels To Relive Their Wedding Day With Their Spouse Who Has Since Passed Away
Story Break (Podcast): The Jar Jar Binks Movie
AO3 matching tag: Story Break (Podcast) Episode 2: The Jar Jar Binks Movie [SAFETY]
Fandom note:
About Story Break/The Jar Jar Binks Movie: Story Break is a podcast where three guys sit around and come up with pitches for movies they'll never write. The Jar Jar Binks Movie is their second episode; it is one hour long and can be listened to here or wherever you like to get podcasts probably. I've been unable to find a transcript.
About Star Wars: I have technically seen 8 out of 9 of the main Star Wars movies? But I don't really remember them very well.
If you're familiar with Star Wars, please pick and choose from whatever Star Wars stuff you want (the movies, video games, novels, whatever!) but just so you know you might confuse me if you namedrop characters or events that aren't covered in the podcast without providing any context. Also, I think the podcast directly throws out the Jar Jar Binks stuff from that Clone Wars cartoon, but if you want to cherry pick from it anyway that's fine — I won't notice!
On the other hand, maybe you're sitting there like "wow, fence has seen most of the movies? I've literally never seen any of them!" but damn do you love hasty summaries of political thrillers...in which case I absolutely support you. This request is not a sneaky request for prequel trilogy fic and if you want to just wiki your heart out or go on your best guess, that's terrifying and brave. Live your dreams!
Basically, feel free to be scrupulously in-character and canon compliant OR throw caution to the wind and delve into alternate character interpretations that you think will provide an interesting story about the hypothetical Jar Jar Binks we all would have hypothetically gone wild over if the Jar Jar Binks movie existed.
Requested character:
- Group: Jar Jar Binks & Anakin Skywalker (Story Break)
Requested mediums:
- Fanfiction
Shipping: I'm okay with Jar Jar being in a romantic relationship, with mentions of canon relationships, with you slipping a reference to your rarepair into the background, with OCs being married, and/or whatever other ship-related thing you can think of as long as the story is still focused on Jar Jar Binks!
About the fandom/Jar Jar Binks in general
It's very silly that THIS is the Star Wars thing I finally latch onto and want fanfiction of but I really can't help it because every single part of this podcast really smacked me right in the id. SAD TRAGIC POLITICAL THRILLER? Sign me the fuck up. I love Jar Jar Binks starting out like "Well, fuck, the guy I owed a life debt to beefed it" and everyone thinking he's useless and annoying, I love him being manipulated by Palpatine, I love him being a Secret Rebel that No One Knows About, and I love him fucking dying tragically and everyone still hates him. Every SINGLE part of it is SO delicious and if this were a real movie that really existed I would join the Star Wars fandom with bells on.
...but instead it's a weird summary by three dudes, so we're here instead!
I am interested in both anything that explores this interpretation of Jar Jar Binks' characterization and/or gets into the nitty gritty worldbuilding details and/or gives me all the feels. I don't require a happy ending, although I would enjoy one. I think about tragic still-kind-of-a-loser politician Jar Jar Binks who has no friends and dies hated by the very people he sacrificed himself for a lot and if you listen to the podcast and also have many Thoughts I am sure I'll enjoy whatever you write even if it's not specifically anything prompted below!
Jar Jar Binks & Anakin Skywalker
These two are the worst buddy cops in the history of the galaxy, and therefore I love them. What an odd couple. What a terrible situation for Jar Jar Binks to be in, even without knowing who Darth Vader is!
Time Loop - Enemies Have To Work Together To Solve The Loop
- I'm down for either something that's "canon compliant" (a fic that takes place during the span of the proposed movie plot that wouldn't disrupt the tragic ending) or "canon divergent" (a fic that derails the plot of the proposed movie) but either way I'm thinking this is after Vadar and Jar Jar Binks have to start working together and Jar Jar is a super secret rebel spy and Vadar is super secretly Anakin.
- Since I'm all about that alternate character interpretation and the freeform kind of implies it, I'd love for Jar Jar to get a chance to be extremely useful! I get the impression that this is very much not what anyone would expect of him, but I think he wouldn't have become a war hero and then been manipulated into a place of power if he wasn't competent some of the time.
- I'm okay with a bad end where Jar Jar just dies for being a traitor, but given that they're stuck in a time loop I'd love for that secret to be busted open at the beginning, only for Darth Vader to realize that oops he needs to not keep killing Jar Jar Binks at the start of each loop if he wants this to ever, ever end.
- I'm also super interested in Jar Jar Binks' reaction to learning that Darth Vadar is Anakin!
Time Traveler Can't Stand To Repeat Murder They Committed Easily Last Time Around
- Anakin travels back in time and it would make his life a whole lot easier if he just cut Jar Jar Binks down again like he did last time but...he can't do it. So what does he do instead? What happens afterwards?
- Alternatively, Jar Jar Binks travels back in time and he can't stand by while the Gungan rebels are killed again. What happens next goes badly for him, I imagine!