UCF 2021 Letter

[kitsunerei88]

Hello Creator,

I love this exchange because there's so much promise in unconventional fanwork formats! A lot of my tags are really ideas or tags that I think are particularly well suited to a particular fandom, but I'm open to other things as well! If you're not sure, you can always ask the mod to email me on your behalf.

General Likes:

• Fics that are character-focused, character-driven, and deal with character exploration or character development. Show me aspects of a character I never considered before, or explorations of how a character's upbringing influences their worldviews!


• Fics as challenge, whether it be a challenge on canon, on fanon, on fandom, or a comment on our own reality!


• A focus on relationships, particularly how a character interacts with the world around them and other characters based on their upbringing and worldview.\


• Thematically, I love when characters are put in a tough spot, moral ambiguity, and themes around honour, duty, and responsibility.


• All flavours of AU. Canon-divergence, Modern AUs, Mundane AUs, crossovers, etc, especially if it interacts with one of the above.


• Worldbuilding


• Romance of all varieties: fluff, happy endings, drunken confessions, friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriages, established relationships, slow-burn, shovel talk, and pining (mutual or otherwise).


• I am also perfectly content with work inspired by current events, so if you feel like some of these prompts might have you drawing on certain current issues, I'm delighted to read it! I love to see how works reflect on current events and have no issues reading about, e.g., the pandemic.

I am always open to treats!

Hard DNWs:

Please note that these are my general hard DNWs--there may be sections where some of them won't apply, and in that case follow what was in the sign up or in each section below. Always go with what's in the sign-up.

• Character bashing. In general, I like to imagine that all characters are like people—they're complex, and they have an array of good points and bad points.


• Except otherwise indicated, non-canonical major character death, graphic violence and torture.


• Adultery or infidelity (specifically, this is mostly about the betrayal--if you have a plot where two people are married for convenience and happen to have other relationships, that wouldn't trigger as long as everyone knows and doesn't care)


• Explicit smut of any kind--normally I like this, but am really looking for worldbuilding here!

On to the requests!

Harry Potter Requests

I pretty much always ask for Harry Potter, so you can sort through any of my other exchange letters for specific ideas if you want (they’re just not particularly well adapted to unconventional fanworks). My Worldbuilding Exchange letter might be the most helpful past letter, if you want to go looking—a few of those might be prime for a fandom meta essay.

Some ideas of things I would really like:

• I’d love propaganda from either the First or Second Wizarding War! Pro-Voldemort recruitment things would be particularly interesting; pamphlets, posters, political screeds or editorials, etc. Alternatively, correspondences or commentary from any characters commenting on such pamphlets or editorials would be awesome, e.g. Black Family letters, Sirius Black’s marginalia on an editorial a family member sent him, etc.


• I’d also love to see what is later written on Magical Wikipedia (“Magipedia?”) on the First and Second Wizarding Wars! This can also be in a textbook form, or someone’s school assignment, or for something a little weirder and fun, an academic article exploring the whole movement (e.g. why was Voldemort able to attract so many followers?) would also be extremely, extremely fun.


• I am deeply entertained by both gossip and text message conversations. What if Hermione and Snape or Hermione and Draco got together later in life, post-War? Who picks up the story, what to they write, what do their respective friends text them?

His Dark Materials Requests

There are really 3 main things I was going for here:

• Worldbuilding! I’d love more about the cultures we see in the story that we really don’t spend a ton of time with, e.g. the panserbjorne or the witches. A folktale from one of these cultures would be fun, or book excerpts on their culture (especially if it’s told from a human lens and is therefore at least 30% unreliable!)


• Something about the past relationship between Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter. Surely their backstory generated salacious news articles! Alternatively, their personal notes could be interesting.


• I would love some sort of religious commentary from the Magisterium about their theology. It’s obviously some strain of Calvinism, but wonky because of Dust and daemons. Explore this!

I’ve only read the original trilogy, but if you want to use something from the newer books, I’m fine with that too.


Newsflesh Requests

I really love the worldbuilding in this series, and it’s modern (or a little future, really), which opens up so many social media and text conversation options! A few ideas:

• Again, more world-building. Something pre-series about the virus, e.g. news efforts, pandemic containment efforts, etc would be fine. Also, take all the inspiration you want from the current news/pandemic on how governments responded and how people responded! Alternatively, a Wikipedia article or educational text on early containment efforts!


• Instant message/chat/text messages from any character commenting on things that happened in the series.


• Shawn and Georgia both need therapy after the events of the books—go wild on therapist notes, etc.

Scholomance Requests

This was probably my favourite book I read last year, and I love the worldbuilding potential. A few ideas:

• More of the Scholomance, please! We have schematics of the actual school in the covers of the book, but honestly I’d love more on its construction and design. Go back in time to its original construction, if you’d like, and there could also be notes on the ideal construction of the school.


• There have to be legends around the school about Things That Happened To Other Students.


• Imagine if they had some sort of text messaging/instant messaging capability! Student commentary on Orion and El would be fantastic.

The Irregulars Requests

I recently watched this and really enjoyed it, ignoring the strange relationship dynamics of Sherlock and John. Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton more to say: more worldbuilding! Research notes, or notes taken by the characters on what’s happening would be great, or general meta would all be great.

I'm sure I'll enjoy whatever it is, and I'm always open to treats in any medium!