FFFX Letter 2021-2022

[kitsunerei88]

Hello Creator!

I'm so looking forward to this exchange, and looking forward to what you create for me! Hopefully things are sorted well enough for you to find, and if you have any questions at all, please ask the mods to contact me!


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 worldview!


• 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.


• World-building, especially through in-universe documents (please consider this an opt-in to pretty much whatever in-universe document or weird in-universe storytelling device you can dream up).


• 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).


• Smut-wise, I love first times, gentle sex, rough sex, possessive themes, mild BDSM (e.g. bondage, spanking with a hand), D/s with femsub, impregnation and pregnancy.

I am always open to treats!

General Dislikes:

In general, I don't take well to crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I would like comfort, or I often just can't get through it—same goes for angst (unless explicitly requested, of course!). That said, these are general dislikes--they're not DNWs, and if you have a brilliant plot, I'll probably still love it.

Hard DNWs:

Please note that these are my general hard DNWs--there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply, and in that case follow what was in the sign up or in each section below. In this case, there are some HP requests where I am perfectly comfortable with graphic violence and torture, non-con and dubcon. Similarly, those particular DNWs are completely gone for the Analogue/Analogue Plus requests, and for any Original Work requests.

• 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 (consistent with the violence in canon), non-con or dub-con, PWP or large age differences (>15)


• 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)


• Smut-wise, unless it’s indicated above in my likes, I’m likely not going to appreciate anything kinky. To be more specific, I DNW A/B/O, age play, humiliation, bloodplay, cannibalism or vore, watersports, scat, mpreg, snuff, or underage (<15).

Onto the requests!


Harry Potter

I have a few favourite tropes and kinds of fics for this, which come up all the time:

• Rule 63 is amazing for this fandom, because gender issues are sort of rife throughout the novels. Even in the more progressive areas, we can see that JKR hugely valorises motherhood (see: Molly Weasley), that she disrespects women openly feminine (see: treatment of Cho Chang, Fleur Delacour), and thenthere’s JKR’s comments on trans-persons.... There’s just so much to work with when you mess around with gender in this universe, and I love it.


• War: Look, if you are one of those Massive Nerds Like Me who know a lot about law, terrorism, international relations, insurgency, counter-insurgency, or actual politics (looking at all you lawyers, polisci geeks, international relations grads, ex-military, Georgetown School of Foreign Service alumni, anyone who hangs out on acoup.blog…), you know without me telling you that quite a lot of the actual war and post-war piece doesn’t make sense. I would love if you took a perspective that made the war realistic.


• Post-War and Redemption: Running a bit along the lines of the above, war is messy. Character relationships post-war are going to be equally messy! I love watching characters develop from the people they had to be during a hopefully realistic war and re-adapting to peaceful society—regardless of whether they were on the side of right or wrong.


• Worldbuilding: I’ll take pretty much anything for worldbuilding, because there are So Many Questions and So Many Unsatisfactory Answers. High society pureblood culture is a good option for a lot of the characters below, because while fanon often interprets this as aristocracy-like with arranged marriages and so on, I’m less convinced that is actually the case (or... make a case for it for me). Other options include the inner workings of the Ministry of Magic, international relations, relations with Muggles if any, how does the Statute of Secrecy Work…?

Draco Malfoy

Draco has literally so much promise. He is who he is because he is a product of his upbringing, and the world he thought he knew shifts so completely under him during the course of canon. Tons of material to work with here on multiple fronts, plus all the gender mess that I love. Some prompts:

• Draco was a child when he joined the Death Eaters. I'd love to see him in the immediate post-war. How does his trial go? How do his friends treat him, when he once thought he would be a hero, and now he's possibly a criminal? Is he tried at all? How does he come to terms with what he's done? Yes, I've read a ton of Draco post-war redemption arcs, and I still want more.


• Rule 63! Draco Malfoy is from a conservative, pureblood family, which means that a F!Draco Malfoy was probably raised very, very differently than her canon counterpart. How does that play out? Is she highly feminine and has she ever played Quidditch (there is one mention in PS that the Slytherin Quidditch Team is all boys)? Is she intent on making a good match for her family?


• Better yet, on a Rule 63, I’d love to see how Voldemort victimizes F!Draco as opposed to Draco. Since Bellatrix is essentially Voldemort’s right hand woman, it’s clear that Voldemort doesn’t necessarily treat women differently from men, but at the same time the majority of his followers do tend to be men and Voldemort was raised in a more conservative time himself. Does Voldemort still force F!Draco into trying to kill Dumbledore or does he punish her in the stead of her family in other ways? (note: if you decide to do this, my non-con, dub-con, graphic violence, torture, large age differences, and major character death DNWs are suspended.)


• What if Draco Malfoy was a trans woman? That’s just… the entire plot, actually. Would love to see this realization at Hogwarts in the context of the war, with Pansy as an ally.

Tom Riddle

I’m really not very convinced with the canonical explanation for why Tom Riddle became Voldemort. JKR says that he is incapable of love because he was conceived under a Love Potion and not real love, but this reeks of Too Much Simplicity and Not Enough Realism to me. I’d love an in-depth exploration of how Tom Riddle became Voldemort, and why? (This is another request where my non-con, dub-con, graphic violence, torture, large age differences and major character death DNWs are suspended).

• What was his past like? We know he was in an orphanage, and it was sombre, but I don’t think that’s necessarily enough to turn him into a power-hungry sociopath. Alternatively, how does he work this at Hogwarts, or in his post-schooling quest for power?


• Without his followers, Tom Riddle would have just been a terrorist. How does he draw followers? Power is one aspect, sure—but Tom Riddle didn’t just attract bottom-feeders, he attracted people who were already powerful and with money. So, why are they attracted to him? Why are they risking their power, their wealth, their status in society for him, and in large enough numbers to terrorize a nation? I’d love if you drew on real life elements in post-WW2 Britain or developed widespread political and cultural concerns to really give this life.


• RULE 63: Voldemort was born and raised in an earlier time, probably WW2 or thereabouts. How does a F!Tom Riddle handle the world? How does she deal with Horace Slughorn, how does she gain followers, and what does her path to conquest look like compared to Voldemort’s?

Pansy Parkinson

Pansy is fascinating to me because she’s not very well developed, and she’s a pureblood Slytherin woman who lived through the war. So:

• There are a lot of Draco-focused post-canon stories in which Draco needs to come to terms with a world after the war, but Draco wasn't alone in his pureblood supremacist beliefs, nor is he alone in needing to come to terms with a new world. After the war, how does Pansy come to terms with a new world? She wasn't as prominent as Draco, but she also suggested surrendering Harry at the end; does she change her views, or does she remain a pureblood supremacist? I’d also love a more general exploration of Slytherin House after the war through Pansy; not every Slytherin supported Voldemort, though many of them did, so how does this play out? What about characters like Blaise Zabini, or Theodore Nott? Cameos from other Slytherins would be welcome in this!


• I’m also curious about the experience of pureblooded women, especially pureblooded women from conservative families. There’s classic fanon that arranged marriages, etc, are the norm, but I’ve never really found textual support for this assertion and there’s no reason that this would be the case as opposed to, say, a general cultural expectation that they marry within their circle. What about Pansy’s wartime experience at Hogwarts? What were her parents like, and who were they during the war? What did they tell her?


• By way of ships, I am also partial to Pansy Parkinson/Percy Weasley!

Percy Weasley, Group: Percy Weasley & The Weasleys, Oliver Wood/Percy Weasley

I am one of those people who thinks that Percy gets a bit of a short shrift in canon. His brothers make fun of him because he's dour and stiff and boring, and he's the only one of the Weasleys who is taken in by the Ministry. But if we consider his background, is this really that surprising? Unlike the rest of our characters, Percy is probably the only one who has memories of the First Wizarding War. In 1981, when Harry defeated Voldemort, Percy was about 5 or 6 years old. He was possibly the oldest Weasley child still at home (in order for the timelines in PS to make sense, Charlie has to be at least 3 years older than him, if not more). The twins were 3 or 4, Ron about 2, and Ginny a baby. Molly almost certainly put more responsibility on Percy than he should have had, there were almost certainly extremely strict rules on him at pain of Death Eater attack and the death of his whole family and in the mix of this, Percy is 6! He is exactly what his parents made him be at that age—someone who takes on too much responsibility, who follows authority rigidly because he has been taught to follow orders without questioning, because that is how you keep a 6-year-old from inadvertently getting his family killed. So:

• I am 100% down for a post-fic redemption arc for him. Hell, I am down for an AU where Percy never joins the Ministry, or where Percy is a spy for the Order within the Ministry, or where Percy is actually given the skills he needs earlier on so that he doesn't later fall for the Ministry's words.


• Tell me more about Percy's relationship with the rest of his family. Tell me how out of place he feels caught between his older brothers, who are just a bit too old for him to fit with easily despite the fact that they're the ones who remember the First Wizarding War (Charlie being at least 9 or 10 and Bill even older means that while they remember it, they also had the ability to understand it), and his more rambunctious younger siblings. Tell me how rules-following Percy gets by in a family that clearly doesn't really get him.


• Give me a Percy Weasley romance. I want him to be happy and don’t really care who he’s with for that to happen. Pansy Parkinson creates some interesting character dynamics, as does Oliver Wood; but at the same time, we know nothing about Audrey and I’d love to see something like Percy coping with the end of the war and the mess of his family by escaping into the Muggle world and falling in love with a Muggle.


• Rule 63 Percy. This is an interesting one because gender clearly matters in the Weasley family; Molly Weasley kept having kids until she had a daughter, and it’s clear that Ginny was raised quite differently from her brothers (Ginny broke into the broom shed; the boys didn’t have to). If Percy is a girl, is she the youngest of three? What if she’s a trans girl? How does her family react?

Draco Malfoy/Hermione Granger

A common pairing, I know, but I see so much promise in Draco and Hermione together. There is potential for a rivals-to-lovers or enemies-to-lovers arc, and since Draco is comparatively under-developed other than bigotry, there’s a lot to explore.

• I’d love a Draco/Hermione secret relationship set at school. Do they have an academic rivalry? How do they get together? Is there lots of pining? Do they get discovered, and if so, how does everyone react?


• Double the Rule 63, double the fun! How does a M!Hermione interact with the world, and with a F!Draco? Certainly, he can’t slap her the way he does in Prisoner of Azkaban?


• I’m also partial Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy in the post-war period as well; of the main trio, Hermione is the only one with the emotional intelligence, I think, to know that she’s gone through some shit and needs to heal from it. Again, I’ve read and loved several fics dealing with this, but always want more.

​Dudley Dursley & Harry Potter

• Dudley, at the beginning of DH, starts leaving tea at Harry’s door. I’d really love to see Dudley’s growth and change in this process, and I’d love to see Harry and Dudley coming to terms with their past and with each other—I’d love their previously combative relationship to evolve into one of mutual respect and brotherhood. They did grow up together, and they know each other in a way that pretty much no one else ever will, and they lived Harry’s abuse (and Dudley’s pampering) together. Make them friends!

Luna Lovegood & Draco Malfoy

• There’s so much promise in these two, founded entirely in the events of DH. Luna was kept prisoner in Malfoy Manor, while Draco was in his own way a prisoner even if he wasn’t kept in the cellar behind bars. What happened between them then? What about afterwards—how does this experience change them?

Tortall

I have less to say about Tortall, which isn’t to say that I don’t love this fandom as much, just that… well, it turns out that my prompts are more succinctly expressed here, and it’s not actually that different than the Harry Potter ones anyway. I still love realism, and worldbuilding, and gender nonsense!

In particular, I’m intrigued by worldbuilding in both the Copper Isles and Carthak after the revolutions. We know very well from our own history that the end of revolutions are generally not so pretty; I would love to see what this means in the Tortall context for Dove and Kaddar. Throw in all the insurgency post-revolutionary realism you want, from persistent conflict and terrorist attacks to… pretty much anything and everything.

I also like Rule 63-ing characters in the original SotL series, because we know the Tortall of Roald’s day was very much gendered, and I’m curious about women’s use of soft power during that time. And of course—just because they’re women doesn’t mean they don’t go to war.

Dovasary Balitang

• To expand on the brief above, prophecy or not, Dove is all of about thirteen when she takes the throne of the Copper Isles—maybe fourteen. There have to be remaining pockets of resistance. How does she handle this, and her new responsibilities? How does she manage her advisors, or getting respect, especially because she’s half-raka and half-luarin?


• What about the future? Aly mentions once that it’s best for Dove to marry someone within the Copper Isles to strengthen her hold on the country; does she? How does she deal with people using this avenue to try to wrest power from her?

Kaddar Illiniat

• Kaddar at the time of his ascension is no more than about twenty, still very young for the Carthaki throne, which is mired in rebellions across the country still. Similar to Dove, how does he adapt to his new responsibilities? How does his country react to his rule? If you have a classics background, I’m totally down with all the Roman references, considering that is obviously the inspiration for Carthak.


• We know Kaddar eventually marries Kalasin to establish peace with Tortall. How does that go? I’m fine with a romance here, though I would generally prefer that it turn to genuine respect and love.

Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover

• Honestly, this is a straight up getting together/romance request. I’d love fic about them getting together, or in an established relationship. We know than Kora is part of the Court of the Rogue, and Ersken is one of the Provost's Dogs—how does it start, and how do they make it work? What about Ersken's upstanding family--how do they feel about Kora?

Jonathan of Conte

• This is a very interesting one for a potential Rule 63! Would a female Jonathan have still inherited the throne as a matter of right? he likely wouldn’t have been in knight-training, so where would she be instead? Is King Roald arranging a marriage for her—possibly against her wishes, or to Duke Roger, or are there hungry people looking to take her kingdom from her? Or—if she doesn’t inherit the throne as a matter of right, what then? If she sees that Duke Roger would be bad for the country, how does she lead the coup?


• Outside of a Rule 63, I also wouldn’t mind a setting change for Jonathan—what would this prince have been like in a modern AU without the monarchy or magic? Not sure you could pull 10K out of it, but you’re welcome to try!

Roger of Conte

• Duke Roger wants the throne of Tortall, fine. But why, and how does he obtain followers? Specifically, how does he turn Alex of Tirragen, who has close ties to Jonathan as prince? Sure, being power-hungry is an answer for some of them, but are there wide-ranging social and political issues causing divides that Duke Roger can use? Is Roald actually a pretty awful king?


• This is yet another interesting one to Rule 63 because, if female, how does she go about her plans of taking the throne differently? How does she go about attracting followers?

Analogue: A Hate Story / Analogue Plus

Forget my usual DNWs on this one. I basically just want a deeper exploration of Hyun-ae and Mute in their respective storylines. This is a request where my DNWs are stripped down because I think they both have dark storylines as it is and I love leaning in as opposed to leaning out. For this request am completely okay with darkfic, and particularly would love non-con/dub-con, graphic violence and torture, PWP, etc.

Kim Hyun-ae | The Pale Bride

• Please, tell me about Hyun-ae’s forced marriage in all its gory details. Noncon/dubcon here is welcome, I enjoy D/s with femsub dynamics and impregnation fic (maybe this is what drives Hyun-ae at the end?).


• Alternatively, just a deeper exploration of her waking up in a Very Different Century Than Expected would be fascinating. She’s essentially a modern girl that’s been transported back to a time that she doesn’t understand, and she’s rebellious. I like that.

Mute

• This is grounds for a serious AF war story. Tell me about Mute trying to manage a revolution on her ship and failing! What is the combat like, what strategies are people using, etc.


• You could also go for a fix-it option and have her root it all out before they can wipe/reprogram her!

Original Work

1. Group: Conquering Warlike Ruler/Ambitious Prince(ss) of Conquered Country Offered As A Hostage (OW)


2. Group: Lowborn Rebellion Leader/Rich Noble Who Believes in Their Cause (OW)


3. Group: M!Conquering General/F!Spoils of War (OW)


4. Group: Queen in a Court Full of Intrigue/Loyal and Vicious Spymaster (F/Any) (OW)

In general, for all of these pairings, my preference is for het pairings—not that I don’t read slash or femslash, more that as bland straight person myself, I appreciate them quite differently. For these, I am OK with PWP, including all the power dynamic issues and dubcon, as well as graphic violence and torture.

For Lowborn Rebellion Leader/Rich Noble Who Believes in Their Cause, I was immediately struck by the People’s Will terrorist strikes in Russia in the late 1800s, particularly with the relationship between Andrei Zhelyabov and Sophia Perovskaya. Andrei Zhelyabov was lowborn and allegedly radicalized after the sexual assault of one of his family members by a Russian overseer; Sophia Perovskaya was born in the highest ranks of the Russian nobility and yet joined the People’s Will. They were both hanged in 1881 for assassinating various Russian officials. I’d love that sort of desperate feel and romance among radicals!

Finally, for Queen in a Court Full of Intrigue/Loyal and Vicious Spymaster, this screams of obsessive devotion and loyalty kink and I’m into that. I’d love the spymaster to be extremely vicious (for clarity, him torturing someone in the name of his Queen is totally okay), then whether or not he tries to hide that to his Queen, and her reaction, is up to you!

I hope this gives you something to go on, and happy to answer any questions sent through a mod!