Fic In The Box 2021 Letter
Aug. 14th, 2021 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitsunerei88Dear Creator,
Thank you so much for creating for me! This letter is large and intimidating, and I hope you can find your way through it. I added a table of contents below, and I hope the anchor links work to guide you. For other mediums, I have some prompts for them within the specific fandom requests, but left general comments on other mediums (particularly, art likes and music preferences) to the end.
If you have any further questions, contact a mod to ask me—I usually get back pretty quick to questions!
Table of Contents
General
General Likes:
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. In this case, there are some HP requests where I am perfectly comfortable with graphic violence and torture, non-con and dubcon; a good rule of thumb is both “what is realistic?” (I will always be open to graphic violence if there’s war involved) and “what was the canon level of violence?” (I generally like to keep violence levels close to what they were in canon).
Skip Beat!
For any of the friendships, I’d love a slice of life—just any scene where Moko and Kyoko or Ren and Yashiro are being friends. Maybe they’re on set, or just coming off set, or maybe they’re at a big cast party or release party or something? I love formal events, so a major gala would be great. I don’t know, I’d just love to see them all hanging out and being relaxed.
For Kyoko and Ren, I’d love basically anything from domestic fluff to wedding fluff to first-time smut to every accidental pregnancy trope ever. Or a “fake-dating” take where they’re cast as the romantic leads of a Japanese Pride and Prejudice adaptation! Honestly, I love these two, make them kiss (and more).
For Ren alone, I’d love greater exploration of his backstory—growing up in the limelight with famous parents, running off to Japan, anything. Obviously, given everything with Rick, this can be as angst-filled as necessary! I do like his relationship with his parents, too.
In terms of other media, I’d be happy with a lot of things! This canon screams for tabloid articles and screenplays, or I’d love fanart of Ren and Kyoko together.
Harry Potter
I have a few favourite tropes and kinds of fics for this, which come up all the time:
Onto the pairings!
1. Andromeda Black Tonks, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks
I’m curious about Andromeda’s story, and how she fell away from her family. Was she always the rebellious one? Or was it something that came after she met Ted? Why did she leave her family—was it love, or was it more? What about her relationship with her sisters and with Sirius? Was she, like most of the Blacks, a Slytherin, or did she Sort elsewhere?
I’d also love a story about how Andromeda got with Ted and their story! I’ve read pretty much no fic of this pairing yet, so I’m happy to see scenes at Hogwarts, first love, dramatic showdowns with the Blacks, getting together fic, established relationship fic… go wild. I love it when couples overcome adversity, and this is the perfect couple for that.
2. Cho Chang Requests: Cho Chang, Cho Chang/Cedric Diggory, Cho Chang/Viktor Krum
Cho Chang holds a special place in my heart because when I was a kid in 1996, she was like the only character I saw in literature that looked like me. Was she a particularly good example of diversity? Not really—but that’s something that calls out to be fixed.
Make Cho Chang Asian. Make her Korean or Chinese by heritage, and let it show in her character. I’d love to see how her cultural background influences her character and her relationships. For pairings, I picked Cedric and Viktor because they’re both in Quidditch and so is Cho, so it’s a common basis for a relationship—but as any Asian knows, sports-ing is not necessarily supported by family. There’s potential for conflict there, especially if Cho decides to go professional in Quidditch as opposed to, say, becoming a Healer.
I’m a fluffy person and a fluff fan, so I definitely would prefer if we just… pretend like Cedric didn’t die if you write Cho/Cedric, because I don’t think I could handle it unless it was far, far in the past for Cho and she had moved on. I like her and while Cedric’s death is no doubt a huge part of her past (hey, maybe it’s why she goes and becomes a Quidditch star, because it’s where she felt like she could get away from her grief?), I would be sad to read about her pining for a dead boyfriend in the present.
3. Percy Weasley Requests: Percy Weasley, Percy Weasley & Weasley Family, Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood, Pansy Parkinson/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:
4. 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 I love. Some prompts:
5. Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
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.
6. The Other Slytherins: Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott
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. What about the other Slytherins—were they all believers in pureblood supremacy, or were there some that didn’t follow it and got tarred with the same brush?
For those that did, do they change their beliefs after the war? How? What are the other Slytherins’ reactions to the end of the war?
Some more specific prompts:
7. Tom Riddle | Voldemort
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).
8. Dudley Dursley
Hey, have I mentioned yet the way that JKR uses “ugliness” and “fat” to signal “bad”? Let’s turn this to the Dursleys, who let’s be fair, are pretty awful despite being ugly. But let’s turn this to Dudley himself, who was probably only abusive to Harry because his parents are abusive to Harry, and at the beginning of DH, we start seeing that change when he starts leaving tea at Harry’s door.
I’d like to know more about this change—how does Dudley change to realize that his parents’ treatment of Harry is not okay? How does he decide to start treating Harry differently, and as clumsy as his attempts might be, what is he thinking when he leaves tea at Harry’s door? What about after the war—how does he grow and change in adulthood?
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!
9. 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? Does Draco feel guilty about it, and how does he handle that—and how does Luna’s own personality help Draco move on from what he went through?
10. Solo: Ron Weasley
I definitely think that Ron deserves better than he generally gets in canon or fandom—it’s like he was given skills to shine and then just… is completely eclipsed by Harry. All the time. And as Hermione says, he’s actually very good about it most of the time, except for one time in GoF. I’d really love a Ron-centric fic that shows off all of his best qualities! I’m especially partial to something that uses his chess ability—fuse this with The Queen’s Gambit and put him on the professional Wizarding Chess circuit or something!
Revolutionary Arc
I would basically love anything you wrote for me here. Some ideas are below, but really you could do pretty much anything and I’d probably love you for it.
1. Friendship groups: Aldon Rosier & Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic & Neal Queenscove, Arcturus Rigel Black & Hermione Granger & John Kowalski & Francesca Lam
I generally love the dynamics of both of these groups. For Aldon, Alex and Neal, they all play off each other so well—Aldon is a bit the odd man out, but after coming through the war, I think they become good friends. I’d love to see some of their post-war interactions. Some ideas:
As for Archie, Hermione, John and Francesca, I really spend most of rev arc not focusing on their relationships, so I’d really like to see them just having fun—whether it’s at AIM or post-war, doesn’t matter.
Or: Rev Arc is turned into a Hamilton-style, deeply inaccurate musical. Archie is in it (potentially not as himself), Francesca wrote it (and wrote herself out), John is amused by it, and Hermione hates it. This is wild grounds for most other media, from playbills to music to theatre scripts to public reviews to in-universe text messages!
2. Aldon Rosier/Francesca Lam
Yes, I will take all the romantic fluff I can get. I love romantic fluff, and considering how much awful I put these two through, they deserve all of it. Some ideas:
3. Non-Canon Ships: Aldon Rosier/Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic, Aldon Rosier/Hermione Granger, Faleron King/Francesca Lam
I didn’t write these ships in, but I’d love to see an interpretation where these worked out. Some ideas:
4. Alex Ships: Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Cho Chang, Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Fei Long Lin
I made Alex miserable in there’s a story at the bottom of this bottle (and I’m the pen) on both of these. But I would love some happier scenes with him on both of these pairings! For Cho, how does he get with Cho, both in the Triwizard Tournament and in the war? What about when Cho contacts him with her news from England after the war? As for Fei, I’d love something with Alex and Fei enjoying themselves in Serbia. This request is also ripe for pregnancy and kidfic, so go wild with any of the kiddos too (seen mostly in and tomorrow, the world).
Again, I’d love art for this, or other in-universe documentation, or both of these really cry out for a really emo fanmix.
5. The Past: Christina Blake & Lina Avery, Christina Blake/Evan Rosier, Evan Rosier & Lina Avery
I outlined their agreement and their relationships in ties that bind, but again I’d love to see something less serious and sad involving the three of them—either the Evan/Christie romance in action, or either of the friendships would work! I also love AUs, so I'd love to see what happened if, say, Evan said "screw it" and married Christie?
Any in-universe media would work here too. Evan’s security contract with Lina would be great if you’re up for it, or just plain old epistolary work between any of these characters would be great. There could be love letters between Christie and Evan, or updates on Aldon as he grows up from both Lina and Evan to Christie (and they would say completely opposing things, which would be very funny). Or again: a really emo fanmix.
6. Stormwings: Fei Long Lin, Lina Avery
Two different Stormwings from two different times! For both of them, their pasts are more referenced rather than described, so I’d love to see more about both of them. What were their motivations for becoming warmages? What about their training, and after training? How does Lina make her name, and what does Fei do before she joins the Order on retainer?
For other media, a map of the Eyrie would be great, or both of these are good for fanmixes given my taste in music—lots of rebellion in both of these two, and they’re warmages!
7. Solo: Worldbuilding
Make more worldbuilding! Happy to see pretty much any ideas you have, though I strongly trend “realistic” over anything else. I love Kitzsah’s fics exploring both Wizarding America and Wizarding China, and I’d love more in this vein too—alternatively, the Wizarding Russian Union is wide open for exploration. I love politics, and history, and people dynamics! I’d love a history of some part of the world in the rev arc context (e.g. Ireland?!), exploration of the ICW, or anything else.
His Dark Materials
I mostly want more—how does Lord Asriel tick? Is his ambition as seen in the books an attempt to recapture what was lost? Why does he do what he does? What about his relationship with Lyra? He loves her (so much is clear from his reaction to seeing her at the end of The Golden Compass/Northern Lights), but what about his behaviour towards her? He certainly doesn’t know or understand her. I’d love an in-depth exploration of his character.
Rivers of London
Tortall
1. Yukimi no Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove
If I have an OTP, it may be this pairing. I love Neal as a character because he’s got so much going on behind him—he’s the oldest page in years, and reading between the lines, it’s clear that he entered knight-training because his two elder brothers died and left him as the heir to the duchy. He occupies a position of high privilege, being heir to a duchy, and he isn’t afraid to wield that authority if it suits him. He’s also funny, and he’s self-deprecating—in short, he’s complicated, and I love complicated characters.
And there’s Yuki, and everything we know about Yuki can be summed up in a few sentences. She’s Yamani, one of Princess Shinkokami’s closest friends; she’s from the noh Daiomoru house, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious houses in the Yamani Isles. She’s a mage, because she goes to the Midwinter mages party. She’s “plump and peppery”, and she can wield the shukusen and naginata, and the bow. She joins the Queen’s Riders.
And somewhere in Squire, Neal and Yuki have a whole romance that culminates in their engagement at the end of his Order that we just don’t see. It’s aggravating enough that I have written their romance threeseparate times (in Unwilling, call me a fool, and two swallows) and it’s not enough, damn it.
So please: write me an intense Neal/Yuki romance. Make it full of chivalric courtly love, make it a full medieval-style courtship, give me a dreamy medieval romance where they’re both conscious of their status and there are chaperones and sneaking hand-holding, let alone a kiss, is a big fucking deal. Fill it with wistful, yearning vibes, and all the pining. All the dramatic, angsty pining, especially when Neal goes off to war.
Or: blow up the sparks and give me their first night together. Are they shy? Established-relationship fic also works for me—give me Yuki’s first visit to Queenscove! Pregnancy and kidfic are also wonderful, and certainly in Neal and Yuki’s future since he is the heir to the duchy, and I’d love to see them being deeply in love around their first pregnancy and child.
Or: screw the rest of that, Modern AU would also be excellent. Is Neal a rising fencing star struggling to balance his tournament schedule with the demands of medical school? What about his brothers in this case; are they setting the standard for him, having both gone to the Olympics? What about Yuki—is she an international student recruited for her own skill with the blade or other athletic skill? How do they meet, and how do sparks fly? Though, if you do this, while I’m very partial to fencing, that’s because I actually fence, so… unless you also fence, it might be easier if you just picked hockey. Or rugby. Or another sport on the violent end that I know absolutely nothing about, because fencing culture is special.
For other media, art would be great, especially if it’s of any if my Neal/Yuki fics. The Queenscove crest would also be lovely, or a romantic fanmix!
2. Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri
If Neal and Yuki are not my OTP, then it’s probably Numair and Daine. Despite their age difference, I think they work in a way that neither of them could work with anyone else. Numair is one of the most powerful mages in the world, which sets him in a class apart; Daine is half-divine and also one of the most powerful mages in the world. Both of them are slightly terrifying to everyone else around them. They can understand each other in a way that no one else can, and I love that for them. And I also love the fact that their age difference causes conflict.
I’d love more on their romance! Unlike many of the others, theirs plays out more or less within The Immortals, but I want more. Tell me about when Numair realizes his feelings; we know that six months before they end up in the Realms of the Gods, Daine has unicorn fever and is delirious and he swipes a bit of hair for his locket. What was his thought process there? Or, tell me about the immediate aftermath of the Immortals War—outside the desperation there, how do they find their place together? When does Daine move into Numair’s rooms in the Palace, and when does she finally agree to marry him and why? Smut is also fine, though for Tortall in general, I prefer first-times and gentle sex.
Or: Modern AUs for these two are also fun, because they really blow up the age difference issue since, well, a 14-year age gap might not have actually been that startling in the time period of Tortall, but today it certainly is. I love having this set on a university campus too, because it works for these two so well because they are dorks, and I also loved my university years. So set Numair the biology grad student/professor against Daine, the precocious freshman, and all the drama!
For other media, I’d love a peek at Numair’s workbook—does he try to sketch Daine around his technical spell notes? Again, romantic fanmix also works here!
3. Kaddar Iliniat/Kalasin of Conté, Roald II of Conté/Shinokami of Conté
I’ve put these two pairings together for prompting purposes just because they really are quite similar. Both of these are arranged marriages; both of these are royals. I’d love to see more of either pairing, particularly how they adapt to their circumstances and grow to love their spouses!
For Kalasin and Kaddar, I’d love to see Kalasin going to Carthak for the first time, the country where she’ll be an empress. I’d love to see how Kaddar treats her, and how they fall in love in the middle of the pomp and circumstance of the Carthaki Empire.
For Roald and Shinko, I’d love to see more from Roald’s perspective! In the books, we see more of Shinko because she’s close to Kel, but how does Roald see his match? Does he see Shinko and is it love at first sight? Or is it something that grows over time through care and effort?
I’d like to think that they all end up happy, and that they all do end up loving each other and the families they have together. Again, in this fandom, I’m all about first times, gentle sex, and I am certainly fine with all of the pregnancy and kidfic if that’s where your mind takes you!
For other media, I’d love to see epistolary, or anything else that might peek into the characters’ developing feelings for each other! Or a romantic fanmix, or… really, something soft and romantic and pretty would do it for me.
4. Domitan of Masbolle/Keladry of Mindelan, Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover, Saraiyu Balitang/Zaimid Hetnim
I put these three together because they mostly have the same sort of feel to me. These are (or would be) pure love matches, where they fall in love and get together, and any conflict would largely be external. I’d love getting together fic for any of these!
For Dom and Kel, how does Dom handle being in a relationship with a Lady Knight? Most of his circle would of course be entirely supportive, but there would be comments from Kel’s enemies. Does he laugh it off entirely? What about his relationship with Toby?
Kora and Ersken come from such different worlds—Kora is a mage in the Court of the Rogue, while Ersken comes from a respectable family and serves as one of the Provost’s Dogs. Where do they draw the line between home and work? How does Ersken’s family react to Kora if he ever takes her home?
Finally, for Sarai and Zaimid, I’d really just love more. We know that Sarai is beautiful and passionate and loving (and really not political enough to be queen), and Zaimid is kind and a Healer—how do they get together? How do they manage to plan an elopement right under the noses of everyone, including Aly? What is their life in Carthak like? I’d love to see their in-universe documents planning their elopement!
5. Alexander of Tirragen, Alexander of Tirragen/Delia of Eldorne, Thom of Trebond
If the last requests have all been about the romance, the next prompt is mostly about war. I’d really love more on Alexander of Tirragen—why does he join up with Duke Roger? How does Duke Roger persuade him that he would be a better king than Jonathan, Alex’s childhood friend? Is there something that Alex wants, or are there serious and deep-seated problems in King Roald’s Tortall that he doesn’t feel Jonathan will address that he believes Duke Roger will address? Tell me more about him.
Or, I’d be very down for fix-it fic for both Alex and Thom. Thom makes a mistake of hubris in bringing Duke Roger back, and Alex is on the wrong side, and I’d love a story where they both successfully turned to the side of the Crown and lived.
If Alex is with Delia, I should note that for these two, I’d love to read an absolute disaster of a relationship that defined Unhealthy—or, maybe Alex is with her but is also spying on her and turning her into the Crown? Rough sex is fine for this, references to or implied abuse is fine for this, so long as it isn’t glorified.
For other media, documents showing Duke Roger’s plot would be good, or any other in-universe media.
6. Dovasary Balitang, Dovasary Balitang & Taybur Sibigat, Taybur Sibigat
This one is very similar to the last request, but I’m very interested in the immediate post-war Copper Isles! Dove is only about fourteen when she is crowned, and as any review of history will tell you, a young ruler usually spells trouble, even without a recent revolution. Hell, revolutions themselves are not usually successful—Max Boot’s Invisible Armies argued that only 1 in 3 were successful, but that included the whack of decolonization movements in the 50s/60s and is artificially high. Realistically, revolutions rarely succeed.
So, tell me about the early years of Dove’s reign—tell me about the continuing pockets of luarin resistance throughout the Isles and their plots to take the throne from her. Tell me about assassination plots against her, about Taybur’s efforts to keep her safe, and about the friendship and trust that develops between them.
For Taybur alone, I’m curious about his backstory since we know so little. Who is he—a luarin noble, or commoner, or foreigner, or part raka, or …? How does he feel about the revolution as it’s happening? Give me his private thoughts about Imajane and Rubinyan!
Any in-universe media would also be great—perhaps the crest of the Queen’s Guard?
7. Worldbuilding, Skysong/Kitten, Thom of Pirate’s Swoop, Original Characters
Build me more world! A couple ideas:
Numb3rs
I especially love Colby—I love his self-reflective lines (“Colby, go down the elevator shaft. Colby, jump in the bay. Hey, Colby, climb the Sixth Street Bridge”), and his general personality. I want more of Colby! I’d love more on his past, such as his relationship with his family (3 generations of military service, plus he has a sister), his service in Afghanistan, how he finds himself at the FBI, or his reflections on Charlie’s unorthodox math solutions. I’d love to see him on the CalSci campus (presumably he went to college himself on the GI bill, since I expect FBI requires a degree), or his moving towards the future. Basically I love Colby, give me more. I’m open to ships for him, but I’m not really picky about them and would rather they were not the focus.
Veronica Mars
As for the rest of the grouping, I just enjoy friendship and character interactions. I love Keith, Logan, and Mac, so anything friendly with them and Veronica would be lovely!
Original Works
For the Conqueror King and the Heiress, there is the fallout of a presumed conquest, so there will be issues of power consolidation and probably existing rebel factions still aiming to get the heiress on the throne. She could probably join any of them and act as a rallying point to take back the nation—so does she, even amidst Feelings? Or does she not, and why not? What about the new King? Marrying the former heiress is an easy way to completely vitiate the rallying point issue, but does he catch Feelings? How does she use soft power to influence the political situation?
For the Queen and Rival Nation General, this is an interesting pre-war situation—she sees the danger of war, and makes the executive decision to marry the general to prevent war. Why? What’s the political situation behind this that makes this necessary? Moreover, is it likely to succeed? Sometimes Bigger Country Just Wants To Eat You, and there’s not much you can do about it—what’s the risk-benefit analysis for her? More importantly, what about Feelings?
Medium Request Notes
Art
For art likes, I admit I don’t have a ton of guidance to give. Historically, I’ve generally liked a clean anime or manga style artwork. Otherwise for style, I don’t have much to say as I generally like it all. Colours are great! Black and white is great!
In general, I don’t really care for explicit artwork. Even if I enjoy explicit fic, explicit artwork doesn’t really do it for me.
Music
My musical likes fall in three categories: metal, punk/emo, and musical showtunes. One of these is not like the others.
In terms of metal, I trend to the more symphonic and folk metal end of things, such as Apocalyptica and Eluveitie. I also like the usual assortment of symphonic metal bands, e.g. Nightwish, Epica, Kamelot, etc. On the other hand, I also like some metalcore, and recently fell desperately in love with a Swedish band named Imminence (and I mean desperately in love with their discography… it made my Spotify top songs for 2020 even if I only found them in about November). Other metal bands that showed up on my Spotify top list are Lyriel, Delain, Within Temptation, and End of the Dream.
For punk and emo, I love Rise Against, which probably counts as one of my favourite bands of all time; other bands I love include System of a Down and AFI. Linkin Park is also an old favourite of mine—when Chester Bennington died, I mourned and listened to his Memoriam playlist on Spotify for months. On my 2020 top likes list was also the latest Thrice album, as well as an assortment of songs from e.g. The Offspring. My particular recent favourites includes Go Radio’s Goodnight Moon, Alexisonfire’s This Could Be Anywhere In The World, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ Face Down; my favourite Rise Against songs include Prayer of the Refugee, Architects, Satellite, Wait for Me, Worth Dying For, and From Heads Unworthy.
I will say for punk and emo, I actually enjoy it very differently than I do metal. For metal, I’m usually all about the vibe (Eluveitie strikes the perfect feels for me, especially their albums Helvetios and Ategnatos), but for punk and emo, I’m all about the lyrics and the themes (see all the Rise Against and Face Down). Either works for me in terms of fanmix, especially if we’re dealing with Complicated.
Now onto the odd man out: MUSICAL SHOWTUNES! And not all of it actually comes from musicals, but basically I mean anything that comes with a movie/play attached to it. Things that came up with my sad-angry-desperate metal and political-punk-emo on my 2020 Spotify Playlist included Rewrite the Stars from The Greatest Showman, A Whole New World from Aladdin, and Found/Tonight, which is a Dear Evan Hansen/Hamilton mashup between Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Obviously, my favourite recent musical soundtracks have included Hamilton, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen—though I have a soft spot for Disney and Les Miserables as well. I usually like musicals for their meaning and role in the musical, so not sure that will be of any help in formulating a fanmix though.
Happy creating and I look forward to seeing what you have!
Thank you so much for creating for me! This letter is large and intimidating, and I hope you can find your way through it. I added a table of contents below, and I hope the anchor links work to guide you. For other mediums, I have some prompts for them within the specific fandom requests, but left general comments on other mediums (particularly, art likes and music preferences) to the end.
If you have any further questions, contact a mod to ask me—I usually get back pretty quick to questions!
Table of Contents
- General Likes, Dislikes and DNWs
- Skip Beat!
- Harry Potter
- Revolutionary Arc
- His Dark Materials
- Rivers of London
- Tortall
- Numb3rs
- Veronica Mars
- Original Works
- Extra Medium Request Notes
General
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.
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. In this case, there are some HP requests where I am perfectly comfortable with graphic violence and torture, non-con and dubcon; a good rule of thumb is both “what is realistic?” (I will always be open to graphic violence if there’s war involved) and “what was the canon level of violence?” (I generally like to keep violence levels close to what they were in canon).
- 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 (graphic being “more than what is 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).
Skip Beat!
- Kotonami Kanae & Mogami Kyoko
- Mogami Kyoko/Tsuruga Ren
- Solo: Tsuruga Ren
- Tsuruga Ren & Yashiro Yukihito
For any of the friendships, I’d love a slice of life—just any scene where Moko and Kyoko or Ren and Yashiro are being friends. Maybe they’re on set, or just coming off set, or maybe they’re at a big cast party or release party or something? I love formal events, so a major gala would be great. I don’t know, I’d just love to see them all hanging out and being relaxed.
For Kyoko and Ren, I’d love basically anything from domestic fluff to wedding fluff to first-time smut to every accidental pregnancy trope ever. Or a “fake-dating” take where they’re cast as the romantic leads of a Japanese Pride and Prejudice adaptation! Honestly, I love these two, make them kiss (and more).
For Ren alone, I’d love greater exploration of his backstory—growing up in the limelight with famous parents, running off to Japan, anything. Obviously, given everything with Rick, this can be as angst-filled as necessary! I do like his relationship with his parents, too.
In terms of other media, I’d be happy with a lot of things! This canon screams for tabloid articles and screenplays, or I’d love fanart of Ren and Kyoko together.
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 then there’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…?
Onto the pairings!
1. Andromeda Black Tonks, Andromeda Black Tonks/Ted Tonks
I’m curious about Andromeda’s story, and how she fell away from her family. Was she always the rebellious one? Or was it something that came after she met Ted? Why did she leave her family—was it love, or was it more? What about her relationship with her sisters and with Sirius? Was she, like most of the Blacks, a Slytherin, or did she Sort elsewhere?
I’d also love a story about how Andromeda got with Ted and their story! I’ve read pretty much no fic of this pairing yet, so I’m happy to see scenes at Hogwarts, first love, dramatic showdowns with the Blacks, getting together fic, established relationship fic… go wild. I love it when couples overcome adversity, and this is the perfect couple for that.
2. Cho Chang Requests: Cho Chang, Cho Chang/Cedric Diggory, Cho Chang/Viktor Krum
Cho Chang holds a special place in my heart because when I was a kid in 1996, she was like the only character I saw in literature that looked like me. Was she a particularly good example of diversity? Not really—but that’s something that calls out to be fixed.
Make Cho Chang Asian. Make her Korean or Chinese by heritage, and let it show in her character. I’d love to see how her cultural background influences her character and her relationships. For pairings, I picked Cedric and Viktor because they’re both in Quidditch and so is Cho, so it’s a common basis for a relationship—but as any Asian knows, sports-ing is not necessarily supported by family. There’s potential for conflict there, especially if Cho decides to go professional in Quidditch as opposed to, say, becoming a Healer.
I’m a fluffy person and a fluff fan, so I definitely would prefer if we just… pretend like Cedric didn’t die if you write Cho/Cedric, because I don’t think I could handle it unless it was far, far in the past for Cho and she had moved on. I like her and while Cedric’s death is no doubt a huge part of her past (hey, maybe it’s why she goes and becomes a Quidditch star, because it’s where she felt like she could get away from her grief?), I would be sad to read about her pining for a dead boyfriend in the present.
3. Percy Weasley Requests: Percy Weasley, Percy Weasley & Weasley Family, Percy Weasley/Oliver Wood, Pansy Parkinson/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. Or, for other documents—what about integrating the documents that Percy let disappear?
- 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?
4. 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 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.
5. Hermione Granger/Draco Malfoy
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.
6. The Other Slytherins: Pansy Parkinson, Millicent Bulstrode, Blaise Zabini, Theodore Nott
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. What about the other Slytherins—were they all believers in pureblood supremacy, or were there some that didn’t follow it and got tarred with the same brush?
For those that did, do they change their beliefs after the war? How? What are the other Slytherins’ reactions to the end of the war?
Some more specific prompts:
- Pansy and Millicent are 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 their wartime experiences at Hogwarts? What are their parents like, and who were they during the war? What do they tell them?
- For a feminist, JKR still ends up using conventions of beauty to characterize people as Bad, and Millicent… falls into this (oddly, she also thinks women who are too feminine are incompetent). So tell me about Millicent, and about not being conventionally pretty in a world that clearly values it.
- I have the sense that Blaise may not have been a Voldemort supporter from the get-go—he is a person of colour (who else remembers the epic internet blow-up when HP6 came out and Blaise was dark-skinned?), and while he’s friendly with the other Slytherins, by family background we can guess he’s half Italian/something, and we know his mother has married several men who have died mysteriously and left her everything. She doesn’t appear among the Dark Lord’s followers, and neither does Blaise’s father. Anything in there would be cool—an exploration of race at Hogwarts (Blaise and Dean Thomas are probably the only black kids in their year), or Blaise navigating pureblood supremacy waters in Slytherin without causing ripples even if he disagrees, or anything else.
- For Theo, we know that at least some of his family members were Death Eaters. Tell me about Theo—did he want to join up as well? Was he wildly jealous of Draco for getting such an honour at sixteen, and what was his reaction at the end of the war when he watched his family members being tried? Do his view change as a result?
7. Tom Riddle | Voldemort
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?
8. Dudley Dursley
Hey, have I mentioned yet the way that JKR uses “ugliness” and “fat” to signal “bad”? Let’s turn this to the Dursleys, who let’s be fair, are pretty awful despite being ugly. But let’s turn this to Dudley himself, who was probably only abusive to Harry because his parents are abusive to Harry, and at the beginning of DH, we start seeing that change when he starts leaving tea at Harry’s door.
I’d like to know more about this change—how does Dudley change to realize that his parents’ treatment of Harry is not okay? How does he decide to start treating Harry differently, and as clumsy as his attempts might be, what is he thinking when he leaves tea at Harry’s door? What about after the war—how does he grow and change in adulthood?
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!
9. 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? Does Draco feel guilty about it, and how does he handle that—and how does Luna’s own personality help Draco move on from what he went through?
10. Solo: Ron Weasley
I definitely think that Ron deserves better than he generally gets in canon or fandom—it’s like he was given skills to shine and then just… is completely eclipsed by Harry. All the time. And as Hermione says, he’s actually very good about it most of the time, except for one time in GoF. I’d really love a Ron-centric fic that shows off all of his best qualities! I’m especially partial to something that uses his chess ability—fuse this with The Queen’s Gambit and put him on the professional Wizarding Chess circuit or something!
Revolutionary Arc
I would basically love anything you wrote for me here. Some ideas are below, but really you could do pretty much anything and I’d probably love you for it.
1. Friendship groups: Aldon Rosier & Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic & Neal Queenscove, Arcturus Rigel Black & Hermione Granger & John Kowalski & Francesca Lam
I generally love the dynamics of both of these groups. For Aldon, Alex and Neal, they all play off each other so well—Aldon is a bit the odd man out, but after coming through the war, I think they become good friends. I’d love to see some of their post-war interactions. Some ideas:
- How do or did they handle being at war together? Who does Aldon reach out to after he loses Edmund and Alice? Do they talk about it at all? Who wants/needs to talk about the war, and who refuses? How do they recover—or do they think recovery is even necessary?
- Post-there’s a story at the bottom of this bottle (and I’m the pen): What was Neal’s reaction to the news that Alex brings him? What relationship does Alex now establish with both Aldon and Neal?
As for Archie, Hermione, John and Francesca, I really spend most of rev arc not focusing on their relationships, so I’d really like to see them just having fun—whether it’s at AIM or post-war, doesn’t matter.
Or: Rev Arc is turned into a Hamilton-style, deeply inaccurate musical. Archie is in it (potentially not as himself), Francesca wrote it (and wrote herself out), John is amused by it, and Hermione hates it. This is wild grounds for most other media, from playbills to music to theatre scripts to public reviews to in-universe text messages!
2. Aldon Rosier/Francesca Lam
Yes, I will take all the romantic fluff I can get. I love romantic fluff, and considering how much awful I put these two through, they deserve all of it. Some ideas:
- In VG, it’s referenced that Chess takes him to a university bookstore, dumps heavy math and physics textbooks on him, and they go eat ramen. Expand on this first “date”—with all the awkwardness and pining.
- Post-revolution: Aldon decides he needs to go on a quest to find kraken’s blood so he can give Chess the gift of wand magic. He is singularly unqualified for this quest. What does he do, how does he achieve it, and does Chess even care about wand magic at this point?
- After the end of Five More Proposals and a Shotgun Wedding: Wedding hijinks and fluff! Who is the bridezilla? Who throws tantrums over the dress, the cake, the flowers, or the décor? Who else is involved? Exactly how pregnant is Chess before they manage tie the knot, and is there an actual shotgun involved at any point?
3. Non-Canon Ships: Aldon Rosier/Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic, Aldon Rosier/Hermione Granger, Faleron King/Francesca Lam
I didn’t write these ships in, but I’d love to see an interpretation where these worked out. Some ideas:
- For Aldon/Alex, an interest is implied in LL that disappears because of the events of VG—go ahead and explore this. Do they have a wild fling during Alex’s boot camp?
- About two chapters into VG, I realized that Aldon and Hermione would actually have a crazy enemies-to-lovers sort of romance—he’s from a very different world and is deeply conservative, while she is a modern feminist and activist. They fight like no one’s business, but also respect each other, and I’d love to see things take a different turn.
- What if Chess gave Faleron a chance earlier? Or, what if Faleron decided to chase Chess to England during the revolution? Or—plain old fluff would work here too, I pretty much never say no to fluff.
4. Alex Ships: Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Cho Chang, Aleksandr Willoughby Dragic/Fei Long Lin
I made Alex miserable in there’s a story at the bottom of this bottle (and I’m the pen) on both of these. But I would love some happier scenes with him on both of these pairings! For Cho, how does he get with Cho, both in the Triwizard Tournament and in the war? What about when Cho contacts him with her news from England after the war? As for Fei, I’d love something with Alex and Fei enjoying themselves in Serbia. This request is also ripe for pregnancy and kidfic, so go wild with any of the kiddos too (seen mostly in and tomorrow, the world).
Again, I’d love art for this, or other in-universe documentation, or both of these really cry out for a really emo fanmix.
5. The Past: Christina Blake & Lina Avery, Christina Blake/Evan Rosier, Evan Rosier & Lina Avery
I outlined their agreement and their relationships in ties that bind, but again I’d love to see something less serious and sad involving the three of them—either the Evan/Christie romance in action, or either of the friendships would work! I also love AUs, so I'd love to see what happened if, say, Evan said "screw it" and married Christie?
Any in-universe media would work here too. Evan’s security contract with Lina would be great if you’re up for it, or just plain old epistolary work between any of these characters would be great. There could be love letters between Christie and Evan, or updates on Aldon as he grows up from both Lina and Evan to Christie (and they would say completely opposing things, which would be very funny). Or again: a really emo fanmix.
6. Stormwings: Fei Long Lin, Lina Avery
Two different Stormwings from two different times! For both of them, their pasts are more referenced rather than described, so I’d love to see more about both of them. What were their motivations for becoming warmages? What about their training, and after training? How does Lina make her name, and what does Fei do before she joins the Order on retainer?
For other media, a map of the Eyrie would be great, or both of these are good for fanmixes given my taste in music—lots of rebellion in both of these two, and they’re warmages!
7. Solo: Worldbuilding
Make more worldbuilding! Happy to see pretty much any ideas you have, though I strongly trend “realistic” over anything else. I love Kitzsah’s fics exploring both Wizarding America and Wizarding China, and I’d love more in this vein too—alternatively, the Wizarding Russian Union is wide open for exploration. I love politics, and history, and people dynamics! I’d love a history of some part of the world in the rev arc context (e.g. Ireland?!), exploration of the ICW, or anything else.
His Dark Materials
- Solo: Lord Asriel (His Dark Materials - Pullman)
I mostly want more—how does Lord Asriel tick? Is his ambition as seen in the books an attempt to recapture what was lost? Why does he do what he does? What about his relationship with Lyra? He loves her (so much is clear from his reaction to seeing her at the end of The Golden Compass/Northern Lights), but what about his behaviour towards her? He certainly doesn’t know or understand her. I’d love an in-depth exploration of his character.
- Solo: Worldbuilding (His Dark Materials - Pullman)
- The Magisterium! They’re apparently very powerful—I’d love to see a chart of their organizational structure, or religious texts, or policy outlines or something. Tell me something about the interplay of religious faith and political power here!
- Panserbjorne society and their politics! I love the panserbjorne because they are so alien, and I love the environment they are made to live in. Something showing off panserbjorne culture would be brilliant!
- Witch society and their politics! I’ve always liked Serafina Pekkala, and would love something highlighting Witch culture.
- What about the rest of the world? International human politics, or non-religious human politics, or what about religious strife in, e.g., the Middle East? The Magisterium cannot be all-powerful!
Rivers of London
- Solo: Thomas Nightingale (Rivers of London - Aaronovitch)
- Thomas has seen so, so much--if he was born around the turn of the century, he saw the Great War, World War 2, the Sexual Revolution, everything. How does he feel about all of this? What about how he is adapting to the present day? Or, worldbuilding--tell me about Thomas' own training days, and how it was different then to how he trains Peter!
- Tell me about the War, and Ettersberg. Tell me about the effects that being one of the few left of his kind has left on him.
- Rule 63! Make Thomas a woman, and completely rewrite her story. Where and how does she learn magic? Is she involved in the War? How does she handle living in present day, and with what balls and guts did she make the Met accept her?
Tortall
1. Yukimi no Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove
If I have an OTP, it may be this pairing. I love Neal as a character because he’s got so much going on behind him—he’s the oldest page in years, and reading between the lines, it’s clear that he entered knight-training because his two elder brothers died and left him as the heir to the duchy. He occupies a position of high privilege, being heir to a duchy, and he isn’t afraid to wield that authority if it suits him. He’s also funny, and he’s self-deprecating—in short, he’s complicated, and I love complicated characters.
And there’s Yuki, and everything we know about Yuki can be summed up in a few sentences. She’s Yamani, one of Princess Shinkokami’s closest friends; she’s from the noh Daiomoru house, which is one of the oldest and most prestigious houses in the Yamani Isles. She’s a mage, because she goes to the Midwinter mages party. She’s “plump and peppery”, and she can wield the shukusen and naginata, and the bow. She joins the Queen’s Riders.
And somewhere in Squire, Neal and Yuki have a whole romance that culminates in their engagement at the end of his Order that we just don’t see. It’s aggravating enough that I have written their romance threeseparate times (in Unwilling, call me a fool, and two swallows) and it’s not enough, damn it.
So please: write me an intense Neal/Yuki romance. Make it full of chivalric courtly love, make it a full medieval-style courtship, give me a dreamy medieval romance where they’re both conscious of their status and there are chaperones and sneaking hand-holding, let alone a kiss, is a big fucking deal. Fill it with wistful, yearning vibes, and all the pining. All the dramatic, angsty pining, especially when Neal goes off to war.
Or: blow up the sparks and give me their first night together. Are they shy? Established-relationship fic also works for me—give me Yuki’s first visit to Queenscove! Pregnancy and kidfic are also wonderful, and certainly in Neal and Yuki’s future since he is the heir to the duchy, and I’d love to see them being deeply in love around their first pregnancy and child.
Or: screw the rest of that, Modern AU would also be excellent. Is Neal a rising fencing star struggling to balance his tournament schedule with the demands of medical school? What about his brothers in this case; are they setting the standard for him, having both gone to the Olympics? What about Yuki—is she an international student recruited for her own skill with the blade or other athletic skill? How do they meet, and how do sparks fly? Though, if you do this, while I’m very partial to fencing, that’s because I actually fence, so… unless you also fence, it might be easier if you just picked hockey. Or rugby. Or another sport on the violent end that I know absolutely nothing about, because fencing culture is special.
For other media, art would be great, especially if it’s of any if my Neal/Yuki fics. The Queenscove crest would also be lovely, or a romantic fanmix!
2. Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri
If Neal and Yuki are not my OTP, then it’s probably Numair and Daine. Despite their age difference, I think they work in a way that neither of them could work with anyone else. Numair is one of the most powerful mages in the world, which sets him in a class apart; Daine is half-divine and also one of the most powerful mages in the world. Both of them are slightly terrifying to everyone else around them. They can understand each other in a way that no one else can, and I love that for them. And I also love the fact that their age difference causes conflict.
I’d love more on their romance! Unlike many of the others, theirs plays out more or less within The Immortals, but I want more. Tell me about when Numair realizes his feelings; we know that six months before they end up in the Realms of the Gods, Daine has unicorn fever and is delirious and he swipes a bit of hair for his locket. What was his thought process there? Or, tell me about the immediate aftermath of the Immortals War—outside the desperation there, how do they find their place together? When does Daine move into Numair’s rooms in the Palace, and when does she finally agree to marry him and why? Smut is also fine, though for Tortall in general, I prefer first-times and gentle sex.
Or: Modern AUs for these two are also fun, because they really blow up the age difference issue since, well, a 14-year age gap might not have actually been that startling in the time period of Tortall, but today it certainly is. I love having this set on a university campus too, because it works for these two so well because they are dorks, and I also loved my university years. So set Numair the biology grad student/professor against Daine, the precocious freshman, and all the drama!
For other media, I’d love a peek at Numair’s workbook—does he try to sketch Daine around his technical spell notes? Again, romantic fanmix also works here!
3. Kaddar Iliniat/Kalasin of Conté, Roald II of Conté/Shinokami of Conté
I’ve put these two pairings together for prompting purposes just because they really are quite similar. Both of these are arranged marriages; both of these are royals. I’d love to see more of either pairing, particularly how they adapt to their circumstances and grow to love their spouses!
For Kalasin and Kaddar, I’d love to see Kalasin going to Carthak for the first time, the country where she’ll be an empress. I’d love to see how Kaddar treats her, and how they fall in love in the middle of the pomp and circumstance of the Carthaki Empire.
For Roald and Shinko, I’d love to see more from Roald’s perspective! In the books, we see more of Shinko because she’s close to Kel, but how does Roald see his match? Does he see Shinko and is it love at first sight? Or is it something that grows over time through care and effort?
I’d like to think that they all end up happy, and that they all do end up loving each other and the families they have together. Again, in this fandom, I’m all about first times, gentle sex, and I am certainly fine with all of the pregnancy and kidfic if that’s where your mind takes you!
For other media, I’d love to see epistolary, or anything else that might peek into the characters’ developing feelings for each other! Or a romantic fanmix, or… really, something soft and romantic and pretty would do it for me.
4. Domitan of Masbolle/Keladry of Mindelan, Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover, Saraiyu Balitang/Zaimid Hetnim
I put these three together because they mostly have the same sort of feel to me. These are (or would be) pure love matches, where they fall in love and get together, and any conflict would largely be external. I’d love getting together fic for any of these!
For Dom and Kel, how does Dom handle being in a relationship with a Lady Knight? Most of his circle would of course be entirely supportive, but there would be comments from Kel’s enemies. Does he laugh it off entirely? What about his relationship with Toby?
Kora and Ersken come from such different worlds—Kora is a mage in the Court of the Rogue, while Ersken comes from a respectable family and serves as one of the Provost’s Dogs. Where do they draw the line between home and work? How does Ersken’s family react to Kora if he ever takes her home?
Finally, for Sarai and Zaimid, I’d really just love more. We know that Sarai is beautiful and passionate and loving (and really not political enough to be queen), and Zaimid is kind and a Healer—how do they get together? How do they manage to plan an elopement right under the noses of everyone, including Aly? What is their life in Carthak like? I’d love to see their in-universe documents planning their elopement!
5. Alexander of Tirragen, Alexander of Tirragen/Delia of Eldorne, Thom of Trebond
If the last requests have all been about the romance, the next prompt is mostly about war. I’d really love more on Alexander of Tirragen—why does he join up with Duke Roger? How does Duke Roger persuade him that he would be a better king than Jonathan, Alex’s childhood friend? Is there something that Alex wants, or are there serious and deep-seated problems in King Roald’s Tortall that he doesn’t feel Jonathan will address that he believes Duke Roger will address? Tell me more about him.
Or, I’d be very down for fix-it fic for both Alex and Thom. Thom makes a mistake of hubris in bringing Duke Roger back, and Alex is on the wrong side, and I’d love a story where they both successfully turned to the side of the Crown and lived.
If Alex is with Delia, I should note that for these two, I’d love to read an absolute disaster of a relationship that defined Unhealthy—or, maybe Alex is with her but is also spying on her and turning her into the Crown? Rough sex is fine for this, references to or implied abuse is fine for this, so long as it isn’t glorified.
For other media, documents showing Duke Roger’s plot would be good, or any other in-universe media.
6. Dovasary Balitang, Dovasary Balitang & Taybur Sibigat, Taybur Sibigat
This one is very similar to the last request, but I’m very interested in the immediate post-war Copper Isles! Dove is only about fourteen when she is crowned, and as any review of history will tell you, a young ruler usually spells trouble, even without a recent revolution. Hell, revolutions themselves are not usually successful—Max Boot’s Invisible Armies argued that only 1 in 3 were successful, but that included the whack of decolonization movements in the 50s/60s and is artificially high. Realistically, revolutions rarely succeed.
So, tell me about the early years of Dove’s reign—tell me about the continuing pockets of luarin resistance throughout the Isles and their plots to take the throne from her. Tell me about assassination plots against her, about Taybur’s efforts to keep her safe, and about the friendship and trust that develops between them.
For Taybur alone, I’m curious about his backstory since we know so little. Who is he—a luarin noble, or commoner, or foreigner, or part raka, or …? How does he feel about the revolution as it’s happening? Give me his private thoughts about Imajane and Rubinyan!
Any in-universe media would also be great—perhaps the crest of the Queen’s Guard?
7. Worldbuilding, Skysong/Kitten, Thom of Pirate’s Swoop, Original Characters
Build me more world! A couple ideas:
- The Royal University! This would be perfect with Kitten and Thom of Pirate’s Swoop—how is the university organized? What are the main faculties, what classes are there? What about campus life? This would also be so perfect for some other media, like a map of the university, or an in-universe guidebook!
- What about some of the countries we don’t really see? Tell me about the cultures of Galla, Tusaine, Tyra, Maren, or even Scanra or Sarain. I’d love a travel guide, or a political analysis or something from the Tortallan perspective for the Crown, or really anything!
- What about Kitten? How often do her grandparents visit her, and does she ever visit her own extended cousins in the Dragonlands? How do they treat her? I love Kawit making it so that Kitten can mind-speak to everyone in the short story A Dragon’s Tale, so anything from that short story would also be welcome!
Numb3rs
- Solo: Colby Granger (Numb3rs)
I especially love Colby—I love his self-reflective lines (“Colby, go down the elevator shaft. Colby, jump in the bay. Hey, Colby, climb the Sixth Street Bridge”), and his general personality. I want more of Colby! I’d love more on his past, such as his relationship with his family (3 generations of military service, plus he has a sister), his service in Afghanistan, how he finds himself at the FBI, or his reflections on Charlie’s unorthodox math solutions. I’d love to see him on the CalSci campus (presumably he went to college himself on the GI bill, since I expect FBI requires a degree), or his moving towards the future. Basically I love Colby, give me more. I’m open to ships for him, but I’m not really picky about them and would rather they were not the focus.
Veronica Mars
- Keith Mars & Veronica Mars
- Logan Echolls & Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie
- Logan Echolls & Keith Mars
- Logan Echolls/Veronica Mars
- Veronica Mars & Cindy "Mac" Mackenzie
As for the rest of the grouping, I just enjoy friendship and character interactions. I love Keith, Logan, and Mac, so anything friendly with them and Veronica would be lovely!
Original Works
- Arranged Marriage Widow/Childhood Friend She Once Thought She'd Marry Instead (F/M)
- Conquerer King/Former Heiress Apparent to the Throne, Queen/Male General of Rival Nation She Marries to Prevent War
For the Conqueror King and the Heiress, there is the fallout of a presumed conquest, so there will be issues of power consolidation and probably existing rebel factions still aiming to get the heiress on the throne. She could probably join any of them and act as a rallying point to take back the nation—so does she, even amidst Feelings? Or does she not, and why not? What about the new King? Marrying the former heiress is an easy way to completely vitiate the rallying point issue, but does he catch Feelings? How does she use soft power to influence the political situation?
For the Queen and Rival Nation General, this is an interesting pre-war situation—she sees the danger of war, and makes the executive decision to marry the general to prevent war. Why? What’s the political situation behind this that makes this necessary? Moreover, is it likely to succeed? Sometimes Bigger Country Just Wants To Eat You, and there’s not much you can do about it—what’s the risk-benefit analysis for her? More importantly, what about Feelings?
Medium Request Notes
Art
For art likes, I admit I don’t have a ton of guidance to give. Historically, I’ve generally liked a clean anime or manga style artwork. Otherwise for style, I don’t have much to say as I generally like it all. Colours are great! Black and white is great!
In general, I don’t really care for explicit artwork. Even if I enjoy explicit fic, explicit artwork doesn’t really do it for me.
Music
My musical likes fall in three categories: metal, punk/emo, and musical showtunes. One of these is not like the others.
In terms of metal, I trend to the more symphonic and folk metal end of things, such as Apocalyptica and Eluveitie. I also like the usual assortment of symphonic metal bands, e.g. Nightwish, Epica, Kamelot, etc. On the other hand, I also like some metalcore, and recently fell desperately in love with a Swedish band named Imminence (and I mean desperately in love with their discography… it made my Spotify top songs for 2020 even if I only found them in about November). Other metal bands that showed up on my Spotify top list are Lyriel, Delain, Within Temptation, and End of the Dream.
For punk and emo, I love Rise Against, which probably counts as one of my favourite bands of all time; other bands I love include System of a Down and AFI. Linkin Park is also an old favourite of mine—when Chester Bennington died, I mourned and listened to his Memoriam playlist on Spotify for months. On my 2020 top likes list was also the latest Thrice album, as well as an assortment of songs from e.g. The Offspring. My particular recent favourites includes Go Radio’s Goodnight Moon, Alexisonfire’s This Could Be Anywhere In The World, and The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus’ Face Down; my favourite Rise Against songs include Prayer of the Refugee, Architects, Satellite, Wait for Me, Worth Dying For, and From Heads Unworthy.
I will say for punk and emo, I actually enjoy it very differently than I do metal. For metal, I’m usually all about the vibe (Eluveitie strikes the perfect feels for me, especially their albums Helvetios and Ategnatos), but for punk and emo, I’m all about the lyrics and the themes (see all the Rise Against and Face Down). Either works for me in terms of fanmix, especially if we’re dealing with Complicated.
Now onto the odd man out: MUSICAL SHOWTUNES! And not all of it actually comes from musicals, but basically I mean anything that comes with a movie/play attached to it. Things that came up with my sad-angry-desperate metal and political-punk-emo on my 2020 Spotify Playlist included Rewrite the Stars from The Greatest Showman, A Whole New World from Aladdin, and Found/Tonight, which is a Dear Evan Hansen/Hamilton mashup between Ben Platt and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Obviously, my favourite recent musical soundtracks have included Hamilton, The Greatest Showman, and Dear Evan Hansen—though I have a soft spot for Disney and Les Miserables as well. I usually like musicals for their meaning and role in the musical, so not sure that will be of any help in formulating a fanmix though.
Happy creating and I look forward to seeing what you have!
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Date: 2021-08-21 06:44 am (UTC)- Tammy / swingandswirl @ Dreamwidth
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Date: 2021-08-21 02:43 pm (UTC)So essentially, Rev Arc is a fic of the popular HP fic The Pureblood Pretense, which I went off and wrote a canon divergence of in about 2016/2017 after the original writer went on hiatus for something like a year (don't worry--that author has blanket permission for fic of her work). I went overboard and wrote a whole AU because once I started, I couldn't stop until it was done. The whole thing can be found on my AO3 in a series!
It got moderately popular, by which I mean it appears regularly in exchanges (both in the exchange for the main fic, called the Rigel Black Chronicles on AO3, as well as Recursive Exchange and multifandom exchanges), that people write fic of it outside of exchanges, there is a discord for it, etc. Believe it or not, while I encourage all of these things, I am usually not the driver of it? I ask for it because it's in the tagset, but I've never nominated it myself or solely by myself, the discord was not my doing (though I adopted it later), etc. But I ask for it because it's there and I'd really like to see people playing with my characters :pleadinglook:
If you wanted to read it, I've heard mixed things on whether you need to read The Pureblood Pretense and its sequels first, or the order to read them. I'd say you could probably read it with a summary of the premise of The Pureblood Pretense (i.e. In a world where Voldemort became a politician and managed to ban halfbloods from attending Hogwarts, halfblooded Harriett Potter and her cousin Arcturus Rigel Black switch places to allow her to go to Hogwarts while he attends school in America), especially if you start with From America With Love. You don't need to read Breaking the Lines at all, while Liar Liar is important for the development of the other main character of Rev Arc as a whole, being Aldon Rosier (but you could go back to it, or skip it for Vanguard and go back later if you're interested).
It's a big investment of time (Liar Liar clocks in at 175K; From America With Love at 310K. Vanguard at 325K and Cataclysm at 360K), but the big reasons people seem to like it are characterization and realism. IRL, I'm a lawyer, so throw me at anything law-related and I sort of go wild (Vanguard includes a trial complete with openings. closings, exam and cross-exam, plus decision; Cataclysm walks you into the law of armed conflict as it relates to prisoners of war as well as responsibility to protect doctrine), plus I do rather a lot of reading on things like radicalization, terrorism, and warfare, so there's quite a lot of realism there in terms of tactics and so on. I don't really expect to match on it for FIAB (though there are at least 3 people signed up who have enough knowledge there to offer it) but I can dream!