FIAB 2023 Letter

[kitsunerei88]

Dear FIAB Creator,

Thank you for creating for me! I have… a lot in this letter, but the only parts relevant to you are probably the general section, the specific fandom section, and the medium section. Organization of FIAB letters is always so hard because of the mediums, but I’ve tried to include details with each fandom for your convenience, other than the general medium notes at the end.

I should note as always that prompts are just prompts! I’m going to be equally excited to see or read whatever you want to create for me than a prompt, especially a prompt that just doesn’t work for you!

Finally, I do go on in some fandoms more than others or for some prompts more than others. This means absolutely nothing. Usually I’ve just got more thoughts about one over another, or I’ve requested it a lot in other exchanges and therefore have written more to copy and paste, or sometimes my feelings about a character really do boil down to “I just think they’re neat, pls more.” If you match on something I’ve got like one sentence on in this letter, don’t worry about it and go full steam ahead!


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! I also especially love minor characters, particularly BIPOC characters.

++Fics as challenge, whether it be a challenge on canon, on fanon, on fandom, or a comment on our own reality. Basically, I like literary shit, don’t be afraid to go literary and write reflective shit that talks about politics.

++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’m all about trauma? Like, PTSD, unhealthy coping mechanisms, guilt, men crying on the floor for things that are their fault… etc. I also really, really love redemption and atonement narratives, and by that I really mean “I fucked up and have something I need to redeem myself for”.

++All flavours of AU. Canon-divergence, Modern AUs, Mundane AUs, crossovers, etc, especially if it interacts with one of the above. I especially like Rule 63 AUs because of the potential for exploring gender and how it impacts and socializes characters.

++Worldbuilding, 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).

++Alongside the worldbuilding, I really like accuracy and real-life details. My favourite fics have included discussions of 9/11, I’ve written fic where R2P is a big deal, I suspect I’m known for my legal shit, and so—if you have specialized knowledge of something, I love seeing it! Don’t worry about hitting political issues with me, I love political issues.

++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). In general, I prefer M/F pairings, but I don’t mind M/M or F/F pairings and prefer them if canon.

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

I am always open to treats!

General Dislikes:

In general, unless specifically requested, I don't tend to enjoy crack fic, soapbox fic/issuefic, amnesia fic, body swaps, cringe comedy, and plots based on miscommunication or jealousy. If there is hurt, I usually 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, I have liked fics with all these, and I have sometimes requested these things. If you have an idea that you’re worried might come close to one of these, don’t worry and go for it.

Hard DNWs:

Please note that these are my general hard DNWs. In some cases, there may be sections where some (or all!) of them won't apply, and in that case follow what was in the sign up.

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

++Harm or death to pregnant women, children or small animals (background mentions or past references is fine, as are things like statistics—I just don’t want to be dragged through it in detail, like please don’t make this a central point of the fic).

++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 years)

++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, I DNW A/B/O, age play, humiliation, bloodplay, cannibalism or vore, watersports, scat, mpreg, snuff, or underage (<15). I’d note here that I’m still figuring out what smut works with me and not, so you may want to look at my definitive likes for more guidance!


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 who are openly feminine (see: treatment of Cho Chang and 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, there is a lot about the war in the books that just… isn’t realistic or doesn’t make sense. I would love if you took a perspective that made the war more realistic for me.

++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. In order words, please, give me some realistic war trauma for some characters to work through.

++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 example, 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…?

++In general, I will say here that I prefer worldbuilding that emphasizes that even with magic, witches and wizards are still human and are still eminently fallible. I tend to prefer worldbuilding that brings the wizarding world closer to the non-magical world, whether the people who are in it realize it or not--my headcanon is that until the Statute of Secrecy, wizards occupied the same world as we do, and that even afterwards, given a small population and continuing influx of Muggleborns and halfbloods, wizarding culture isn't far off from non-magical culture. I like stories that are about our shared humanity, and stories about how powerful and wonderful magic is tends to make me feel very depressed because, well, we're not magical.

Fandom-specific DNW: I have a fandom-specific DNW of “narrative justification of pureblood supremacy or blood discrimination (i.e. if it appears it must be shown as being wrong)”. To clarify, I’ve seen some fics or fanon where pureblood supremacy is justified as being “we have to protect ourselves from Muggles or they’d kill us”, or “we’re just misunderstood, when we say “blood” we just mean “magic””. These are the sort of headcanons and fanons I’m DNWing here. So, for example, if you’re writing about Draco, I don’t want the narrative to be about how purebloods are Just Misunderstood And Not Actually Racist, but rather about how he comes to terms with having learned a set of ideals that are objectively harmful and wrong.

Onto specific prompts!

Percy Weasley and Percy Weasley Ships

So, I have a big problem with Percy. Let’s talk about Percy, and why I think his character arc in the books is accurate even if painful, and why I think all the other characters failed Percy and not the other way around.

Let’s go back to the First Wizarding War. Percy is 4 years older than Harry, so he’s roughly 5 or 6 years old when Voldemort falls the first time. He’s got at least 3 younger siblings, likely 4, since Ron is older than Harry. He’s quite likely also the oldest child at home, because while JKR says the Weasley children are 2 years apart, I’m big on “the writer is dead” and she’s pretty much directly contradicted in the first canonical HP book. Charlie isn’t in school at Hogwarts when Harry starts, and he also can’t have graduated the year before because Hagrid says pretty clearly that Gryffindor hasn’t won the Quidditch Cup since Charlie Weasley was Seeker, with the implication that it’s been SOME TIME since Gryffindor has won the Cup. Therefore, Charlie is at minimum 3-4 years older than Percy, and Bill even older, and given they are also pretty established in their careers when Ron is 11… my feeling is that Charlie is 5-6 years older than Percy, leaving Percy as the oldest child at home during the First War.

So, about small children. Small children are loud. Molly Weasley has four children under the age of six in 1981. Does anyone think that she didn’t unreasonably rely on Percy during this time to look after his 2 troublesome twin brothers? And it’s the middle of a war, so Molly and Arthur Weasley themselves are almost certainly teaching Percy to Obey Authority Without Question, And If You Don’t, Bad Things Will Happen. And of course, Percy is only six years old, and this lesson sticks without him thinking too much about it.

(Sidenote: Anyone remember that horrifying MASH episode where Hawkeye has repeated flashbacks about the woman strangling a chicken for making too much noise and it’s Not A Chicken, his brain just revised the memory because the reality was too horrific?)

Percy behaves exactly as he was taught to behave. This is further reinforced by Molly when he succeeds by obeying authority, obeying the rules一he obeys at school, he becomes a prefect. He does well enforcing rules, he becomes Head Boy. His parents are proud, he gets his very own owl. So when he obeys the Ministry of Magic, this is him behaving in a completely natural way that his parents have taught him to do for years. Essentially, when his family goes against him for not leaving the Ministry, the rug is pulled out under him一his entire way of How The World Works is thrown out the window. No one ever taught him to question authority, and that’s Molly and Arthur’s failure, not his.

In any case, I love Percy Weasley and I am a big fan of fics where… something different happens. There are a lot of fics where Percy is a spy for the Order, but (see above) I don’t think that’s the direction he would go considering the Order is a rebel against the Ministry. Some things I’d like to see:

++Is there a fix-it earlier on that would have changed early on? Even one previous experience of trusting authority and having that trust be seriously betrayed would have inoculated Percy against the Ministry一what would that look like? For example, would Percy being female have changed his course?

++What does Percy do in the Ministry during the war? While I don’t think Percy was a spy or otherwise affiliated with the Order, I do think that Percy took actions to save people through other ways. Did he lose paperwork? Did he lose paperwork repeatedly? Did he forge family trees for people? Did he arrange visas or try to warn halfbloods, Muggleborns, and their families? There are so many things he could have done without the Order directing him or anything. As a side note, I’d love to see how regular Ministry employees fought against Voldemort too.

++Post-canon, while I don’t think Percy necessarily needs to redeem himself or atone, that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t feel the need to redeem himself or atone for failing to be part of the Order. What does that look like? I love Pansy/Percy and Cho/Percy as part of these processes, Pansy because she was a seventeen-year-old who suggested giving Harry Potter up to the Dark Lord and getting all of Slytherin booted, and Cho because… well, where was she during the war?

Cho Chang and Cho Chang Ships

There is very little about Cho Chang in the books. We know she’s the Ravenclaw Seeker, that she’s pretty good, that she is pretty and that she cries a lot. Yeah. Also, her name doesn’t actually make any sense and that’s ignoring what JKR says about her which frankly makes even less sense and is mentally going right into the woodchipper. But in 1996, when I was reading these books for the first time, she was also the only Asian character I saw in the books I read, so she will always have a special spot for me.

So, where to begin—what sort of diaspora is Cho Chang? What’s her background? I usually headcanon her as being a 1.5 generation HKer born of parents who left before the coming handover, but you can go Mainlander, other historic diaspora Chinese community, Korean, or anywhere. I just want her to be a full character and one that really reflects that family history and that balance of being a immigrant or child of immigrants. Does she speak her home language? How does she negotiate her identity as British, as a person of colour, as Chinese/Korean/Other? Essentially, I’m all about identity with Cho!

For Cho/Blaise, it is still all about immigrant identity for me. I remember when HP6 came out and (racist) fandom lost their minds because Blaise was (gasp!) described as “dark-skinned”. Like holy shit, y’all, you would not believe the shit people were posting then. Personally, I think this is “dark-skinned by British standards, i.e. southern Italian or something” rather than Black because otherwise I can’t quite see how it makes sense with his canonical backstory, but I definitely love that sense of Other with him and think he and Cho would have a lot to bond over being people of colour (sort of) in otherwise White Hogwarts.

For Cho/Cedric, I’m very much more interested in romantic fluff and shenanigans. I do have a preference for Cedric Lives! AUs here but if you want to write Cho grieving over Cedric and being forever haunted by him, I am down with that too. Play by your strengths! Also, how about Quidditch Romance? I love a good sports rivalry and romance.

Draco Malfoy, Luna Lovegood & Draco Malfoy

For Draco, I also love redemption stories. I have a special soft spot for Healer!Draco stories especially, but I really would like to see where Draco goes from Book 7 and how he redeems himself through his actions. I’m also down with Auror!Draco, or pretty much any Draco that is… out and doing something. Even Draco who went to the Muggle world with much struggle (because he knows nothing about it) and found a living there would be interesting!

Alternatively, I’d also love to see genderbent, always-a-girl Draco, mostly because it’s clear that there are broad differences in how he would have been socialised. While I don’t necessarily think that pureblood culture was Regency-esque arranged marriages etc, it’s clear that there are some socialisation differences, and I’d like to see what they are. Also, how would Voldemort victimise a female Draco as opposed to a male Draco? Please note: I am fine with graphic violence and torture, and noncon/dubcon for this request.

For Luna & Draco, I really would love something processing the fact that Luna was a hostage in Malfoy Manor for months during the war. Did they bond? Does Draco feel the need to make amends for this? Do they support each other during this time, and if so, how? I would love more on this post-war as well!

Neville Longbottom, Neville Longbottom/Luna Lovegood

I’m convinced Neville had an abusive childhood. His grandmother seems to have spent most of her time comparing Neville with his father Frank, who Neville is clearly not very much like, and trying to mold Neville in his image; canonically, Neville even talks about how his family did things like hold him out a window to try to make him Do Magic. Um, what? What? Given his abusive childhood, I find it remarkable how Neville is as kind and empathetic and, frankly, as functional as he is. I’d love to read something exploring Neville coming into his own and getting beyond his background and out of the shadow of his father.

For Neville/Luna, I really see these two outsiders falling together at Hogwarts—Neville’s always been a little outside the popular Gryffindor without, it seems, close friends of his own, while Luna canonically seems to have few friends and be bullied a lot too. I think seventh year would just bring them even closer together. I’d love a really sweet romantic fic with them, overshadowed by war or not, whether it be getting together, or established relationship where they support each other, or anything like that.

Petunia Evans Dursley

I think that Petunia was done wrong by her parents, if not the magical world. She’s the less-pretty, older daughter of a couple whose younger daughter has magic. Her parents obviously adored Lily, at the expense of Petunia, and it probably looked like Lily got everything while she had to scrap for even her parents’ affection. And then, Lily and her parents die, and she gets dumped with a second child and told to raise him to save a world that she can never join, that’s rejected her, and that she doesn’t even like.

So, for Petunia, I'd love a fix-it story where for whatever reason, Petunia doesn’t let her bitterness consume her, and as a result she’s a good parent to Harry. Maybe she also has magic; maybe she makes other choices in life where her lack of magic simply stops mattering to her (I love shoving her into the mold of 1980s-era feminists who fought for equality in the workplace!). Maybe Vernon goes too far with her or with Dudley one day and she wakes up, leaves, and works her arse off as a single mom. Maybe Dudley also has magic, and she has to recalibrate everything from when she realizes at whatever young age that both her kids are magical. I'd love all of these interpretations and would love to see where you take it!

Dudley Dursley

I think Dudley has a lot of promise. He was raised in a certain way, to believe that it was okay to abuse Harry, and towards the end we see him starting to change his views by leaving tea at Harry’s door. Dudley and Harry could have been siblings, and they weren’t—or, maybe, they still were because families do sometimes play favourites like this (abusive families, yeah, but they exist). Some prompts:

++What happened with Dudley? What brought about the change—was there anything? I’d love to see something prompt Dudley into seeing the abuse around him. What does he do from there?

++ What happens after the war? The Dursleys go into hiding for the war—that had to have left an impact on Dudley. Where does he go from there, does he reconnect with Harry afterwards? What’s their relationship like after that?

I’d really love to see Dudley’s growth and change, 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!

Solo Slytherins: Blaise Zabini and Pansy Parkinson

Blaise and Pansy are both Slytherins who may or may not have been anything at all during the war. The only canonical thing that Pansy does in favour of the Death Eaters is speak up to try to volunteer Harry to Voldemort, but she’s seventeen and terrified and I don’t think this means she was in support of Voldemort. With Blaise, we really have no idea. And yet, post-war, I think both would be tarred by the same brush as the Death Eaters by association. How do they process this? How do they cope with this and move on?

I’m also happy to see something with their backstories! Blaise has all those stepfathers—how does he feel about that rotating door of male father figures and their inevitable deaths? What about Pansy—what is it like, culturally, to be a pureblooded woman? There’s a lot of fanon where pureblood society is very conservative or almost Regency, but I don’t see much canonical support for that—I’d love someone to explore this.

(If anything, historically, given a Statute split off date of 1692 and factoring “the witch trials” as the reason therefore, I’d like to see a clear line of women’s roles in the medieval era extended to present date and note that medieval women had far more power than post-Renaissance women for Reasons. I point to Dhuoda of Uzes, a highly educated late Carolingian woman who wrote one of the best examples of a mirror for princes for her son to help him navigate the Carolingian court during a time of war, or St Catherine of Siena, noted Italian author and religious figure who was also often sent by the Pope to negotiate peace. Women’s roles in the medieval era were very different and there was a role, but it was not necessarily motherhood and childbearing; if anything, greater respect was accorded to the highly educated women who devoted themselves to the Church. Also, women in this era inherited property and managed estates while their husbands went to war. A lot.)


Tortall

Tortall is one of my oldest fandoms, but I will say that I think my likes tend to put me more niche than most people who are in this fandom. I love Kel and the other protags, but I tend to also like to poke at things. Actually, that’s my entire fandom persona, let’s poke the fandom with a stick and see if it holds up.

Yukimi no Daiomoru/Nealan of Queenscove

This is my OTP for the Torall series (shortly followed by Daine/Numair). 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 three separate 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.

Numair Salmalín/Veralidaine Sarrasri

My second-favourite ship in Tortall is Daine/Numair. 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!

Domitan of Masbolle/Keladry of Mindelan

For Dom/Kel, I’d love pretty much anything. Getting together fic would be fantastic—what makes Dom see Kel differently? How do they shift between being comrade-in-arms to being lovers?

If you prefer established relationship fic, 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?

Dovasary Balitang, Taybur Sibigat, and Aly (in any combination)

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 Aly’s and 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!

Solo: Thom of Trebond

As for Thom, tell me more about how he ticks. Thom is not a particularly likeable character—we get the sense of this from the way that other characters, like George, react to him. Alanna has the most positive view of him, but it’s clear even from her narrative that Thom is… problematic (e.g. see the scene where she defends his lavish lifestyle by saying “he’s the Lord of Trebond, he’s allowed”). But I’d love more on Thom: his relationship with Alanna, his relationship with Trebond, exactly the flaws that made it so easy for Delia to taunt him into bringing Roger back.

I’d be very down for fix-it fic. Thom makes a mistake of hubris in bringing Duke Roger back, and I’d love a story that directly confronted this.

Kora Ingensra/Ersken Westover

For these two, I'm interested in how they make it work given that she's with the Rogue and he's a Dog. Any romantic fic here would be great for me, from getting together to them negotiating the boundaries of their relationships, or anything else. What do they choose not to talk about? What does their life look like? What happens when they see each other on the opposite side of anything? Is there any point where this goes wrong?

Saraiyu Balitang/Zaimid Hetnim

What’s fascinating about this pairing is that it suggests that Sarai is actually pretty smart一she slipped everything past Aly, didn’t she? Heck, she had a whole relationship with Zaimid without anyone knowing, managed to plan an elopement, and … how? Or, alternatively, what does that suggest about Carthaki or Copper Isles courtships?

I’d really love a very traditional sort of courtship for these two, where they’ve barely held hands before getting on a boat and running away together. I just think it would be neat. Alternatively, what about that elopement and escape? I’m also very okay with first times kissing and wedding fic in Carthak and first-times sex, too.

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!


Romances of Arquitaine

I am absolutely mad about this series because there is so much potential in it. I have basically been attempting to build this fandom out of nothing, therefore all the fic on AO3 is either by me or written for me.

How do I even begin describing my love of this series? It tickles so my id so hard, from concept to characterization to worldbuilding. To begin, there is Vianne di Rocancheil: hedgewitch, bookworm, and lady-in-waiting to Princesse Lisele d’Arquitaine. She’s also a royal byblow, but that doesn’t matter until it does, because there’s a coup that murders both the King and the Princesse.

Then, there’s Tristan D’Arcenne: the Captain of the King’s Guard, Left Hand of the King, desperately in love with Vianne. Like, obsessive, crazy, probable-stalker levels of in love with Vianne. With the coup, Vianne is now the Queen, if throneless, and yeah, that’s about all I can tell you.

Vianne di Rocancheil/Tristan d’Arcenne

I love the characterization of Vianne, especially in The Hedgewitch Queen. As she said herself, she was specifically raised to be without ambition, and those lessons took. What I love the most about her is that she is exactly what one would expect of a lady-in-waiting to the Princesse—she’s intensely loyal to her Princesse, she has no idea what she’s doing, the whole point of her life thus far was the glittering Court social scene. She has no practical skills, and she’s thrown into the deep end with no skills to survive it. And on the other hand, there’s Tristan. Yeah. There’s Tristan and that says everything, insane obsessive fuck that he is.

So, onto my prompts!

++Canon divergence AU! I would love to see what would have happened if King Henri had realized that the price of Tristan’s loyalty was Vianne and given her to him. A straight-up arranged marriage fic would be great (in fact I got one as a raffle prize and it was wonderful!), but I’m especially interested in seeing what would happen with the coup if Tristan had gotten Vianne. What would Vianne’s life have looked like then?

++Another Canon Divergence idea—what if the coup went off exactly as planned? What if Vianne found herself on a one-way boat trip to Tiberia? I can’t imagine Vianne would have been very happy about this turn of events, but does she try to go back?

++I’d also love a dark fairy tale AU or fusion—I think this canon works really well for that, and tonally it’s very much got the right feeling. Note that the series itself is somewhat dark (there’s a canonical dubcon scene in book 2), so darker takes are welcomed!

Lisele d’Arquitaine

I admit I didn’t think much of Lisele until I got the arranged marriage fic but really: who was Lisele? On one hand, you have Vianne’s perspective, which is that Lisele was airheaded and needed her to look out for her; on the other, you have Lisele’s single action in all of The Hedgewitch Queen, which is to protect the Seal of Arquitaine and then entrust it to Vianne, which seems to act at odds with her described character. So: more about Lisele, please! I’d love an AU where she lived and took Vianne’s role, possibly because Vianne died for her or something (oh man, her problems with Tristan would be immense, but I somehow think she’d be better equipped to do it). Alternatively, if the coup never went off or failed, what is Lisele like as Queen?

Worldbuilding

In terms of general worldbuilding, go wild. I'd love more of the history and the stories that Vianne tells at the beginning of the book, or I'd love to see what life was like in Arquitaine at pretty much any point. I'd love to see something about how Adrien rebuilds the country and rules, or about Tiberia, or Arquitaine religion or pretty much anything else. This would also be great in the form of folktales or legends (expand on any that Vianne talks about in the beginning!) or religious texts. Enjoy!

Note I explicitly opt in to non-con/dubcon, graphic violence and torture, major character death and PWP for this request.


Bridgerton Series – Julia Quinn

So, I’m really into most of the books in this series, and not at all into the Netflix series, which probably narrows down what I really like about the series. I love how light-hearted the series was, how quasi-comical many of the situations were, and I really want that fun, bantering, light-hearted vibe in fics for this request. Shenanigans! I basically want Bridgerton family shenanigans!

I really love Modern AUs for this request, because I think it’s so much fun to translate these characters to a modern setting. I love college AUs, seeing where the characters are working, and modern era shenanigans. Other AUs would also be welcome—Bridgertons in space? Bridgertons and magic? I’m really open to anything, but what I’m looking for is really that same vibe as the books, the light-hearted slightly ridiculous feel.

Fandom-Specific DNW: Content or Canons from the Bridgerton TV show


Dublin Murder Squad Series

Every one of these books is so unique and SO GOOD. They’re all so individual, and they really go in all directions! God, how do I love this series. I love how unreliable each of the narrators are in their own way, I love the dynamics between the detectives, I love how each story packs a punch and they’re quite literary.

In general, all my prompts for any of these characters boils down to three things:

++Character and relationships studies! I love fic where we examine what makes a character tick, or how relationships between two characters work, and I really love complicated relationships. Antoinette, Fleas, and Frank are really interesting to examine here, because there’s tons of space to examine socioeconomic class and class difference. For Frank, there’s a fun aspect of intergenerational trauma as well, and for Antoinette, being a woman in the Murder Squad.

++Case Fic! I’d be up for casefic with just about any of these characters and ships! Include a bunch of tropes here, like undercover at a formal event, which would be really fun.

++Honestly, slice of life things would also be pretty interesting? What if all these characters have to go to someone’s wedding or a formal event—what happens? Tell me about something from their day to day, or like… I don’t know, what happens in the Murder Squad when the coffee machine breaks? Crack is welcome here, please consider this an invitation for crack.


Friends at the Table

Everyone, I am super into Palisade. Obviously. Right now, I’m very !!! about Cori and her possible plans with The Witch in Glass (like no, Cori, NO but like it would be totally out of character if she didn’t) and the whole… everything with the stellar combustors. Anyway. Most of my ideas are more worldbuilding-related than anything else, but I’d love pretty much anything.

++A deep dive on any of the characters would be fun! I’d really like to know more about how The Witch in Glass plans on navigating the current Palisade situation, or the Figure in Bismuth’s struggle for freedom, or more of Gucci Garantine’s backstory (how did she, a prominent Kesh noble, come to rebel?). Or any character listed!

++In Episode 21 of Palisade, it was implied that Millennium Break had tried to interfere with another Stargrave and/or disable another stellar combustor before. Please tell me about that mission, whether it succeeded or failed or partially succeeded or whatever. A description of their hierarchy or other worldbuilding about Millennium Break would also be great.

++I’d love to hear what other operations were happening throughout The Cause, at Violet Cove or Joyous Guard or any of the other rebel cities.


Numb3rs

I just loved this show and it is one of my absolute nostalgic comfort shows. I own the entire boxset and let me tell you… I drag out that DVD player and watch this show when I feel sad. It reminds me of when I was in college studying mathematics, which I was doing when this show was airing. On top of that, the show’s strong family feels really hits me in the right spot. I would love work that emphasised that team aspect.

All Friendships

Like I said above, I loved this show’s strong family and friendship feels. I’d love to see more slice of life: Charlie and Don at home with Alan, Charlie and Amita and Larry at university and being nerds, etc. I’m very open to ivory tower shenanigans! University was a very fond time in my life, and I would love to go back with the characters. Tell me about new school years and teaching, school events or competitions between the math and physics departments (or the rivalry of science vs engineering), grant proposals, etc.

Colby Granger and Colby Ships

I love Colby一he got all the best self-reflective hilarious lines in the show, and it’s so obvious both that he is the muscle of the team and on the show (the way Nick Stokes is for CSI, and Derek Morgan is for Criminal Minds…), but there’s something about the fact that he knows it and comments on it that’s so hilarious to me.

I’d be interested in either Liz or Nikki, both of them being FBI agents as well. I think Nikki had big shoes to fill, since Megan was so integral to the team一but on rewatch, I really enjoyed how badass she is! Honestly… I just think either of these relationships would be interesting.

Amita Ramanujan and Amita Ships

I like Amita because she’s a woman of character and at the time, having her be one of the main characters was really powerful and almost before the times. I also love that she’s allowed to be smart, pretty, and nerdy, and that none of these contradict each other. Seeing how she interacts with Ian would be really interesting to me!

As a point of discomfort (and this is not a DNW), I am somewhat uncomfortable with Charmita because having been in academia, dating your thesis supervisor is just such an incredible no-no that I’m… not that into it. I don’t mind it appearing either in the background or in the past, to be clear, but it’s just a point of real-life vs story that hits me wrong.

Ian Edgerton

What is up with this guy? I would love to see some more of his backstory, exploring him as a character, I don’t know. Seriously, just answer the question: What is up with this guy?


Criminal Minds

Spencer Reid and Spencer Friendships

So my Criminal Minds request is all about Spencer, everyone’s favourite whump cushion. There was the drug addiction early on, and that I felt like the series handled well, and then there was the prison arc. And I don’t feel like canon appropriately handled the aftermath of Spencer’s stay in prison, or the shit he did while in prison, other than the fact that afterwards his character is a little more… unhinged? Steely? Messed up? He's not the same, there's an edge of innocence that his character loses and he ends up doing things that previously he'd never even have considered.

Essentially, I'd really love a fic that dug into those changes with him. He has changed after the prison arc, but what are those changes? There has to be some PTSD, but what about the way the system betrayed him, and how he ultimately got off because Emily lied? Does he lose faith in the justice system? Does he relapse into drug addiction?

Another interesting angle: what if the betrayal of the system ends up turning Spencer into a criminal? Not necessarily a serial killer (I don’t think he’d dirty his hands), but I could absolutely see him turning into a Moriarty-type criminal mastermind. In which case, I would be totally down with a crossover with any Sherlock Holmes franchise (Elementary is probably best just because it’s in New York) where Reid is the person that Sherlock is seeking.

Note I opt into graphic violence and torture, referenced non-con/dubcon (i.e. rape recovery), and major character death for this request!

For Spencer’s friendships, I’d basically love casefic or something during a case—comfort as a side to hurt comes to mind, but happy to see whatever you come up with! With Diana, I’d also love more of Spencer’s backstory—obviously his mother was ill for much of his life, but I’d love to see the good parts where Spencer clearly became closely bonded and attached to her. Baby Spencer on the floor of his mom’s study at the university surrounded by books is an ADORABLE image to me, or Diana defending her precocious son within the school system, or anything like that would be amazing!

David Rossi

What do I even say about Rossi? I like him—I’m interested in more about him, anything from his years in the army to the early years of the BAU, his academic background if anything, his failed marriages, anything like that. A character analysis would also be fantastic.

Penelope Garcia

I love Penelope! She’s so quirky, and she’s brilliant, and she was a baby Goth who turned professional and never really lost that sense and I love that for her. I would love anything more for Penelope—slice of life, character analysis, more about her backstory and her family, anything.


9-1-1

Like Numb3rs, this show has such hard family feels, which draws me like a moth to a flame. I love characters being supportive of each other and taking care of each other, and nowhere is that more evident in the groups I’ve picked here.

Most of these pairings or groups, I’d really love more slice of life, family feels, etc. I’d love everyday events, like a holiday party at the station, or a firefighters formal event or something like that. Yeah, I have no thousand words on this, just “I like the family aspect, more please."

With Buck and Maddie, I really love how longstanding their support has been for each other—Maddie practically raised Buck, so more backstory of this would be great. For another idea, I was really intrigued with the AU presented in S6E18, where Buck grew up with a living Daniel—I’d love more exploration of this concept, if that floats your boat, with all the long-reaching consequences (which could be what was in the episode, but could also be something totally different if you prefer it otherwise).

For the Han brothers, I’d really love an in-depth look at their family. Both Albert and Howard were affected so much by their father, either by their father’s distance or his presence. Tell me more about these two! I’d love something that compared their histories with their father, and that found a way past that history for both of them. That said, for Albert, I also just want to know more about him. What drove him to run away from Korea? What does he even do in LA before he becomes a firefighter, and what does he do afterwards in Korea?

I’m also fully familiar with 9-1-1 Lone Star, so if you want to do some cameos, that would be welcome too!


Revolutionary Arc

Did I write this series? Yes. (Did I nom it to this exchange? This year, yes, but in previous years, no). If you’re finding yourself writing this for me, I will love you forever because the main series is like 1.1M words and just… thank you. So much. I loved writing this series, I love the people who want more and/or write fic of it themselves, and thank you. So that said, onto my prompts for this:

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?

Both Aldon and Neal also have heraldic crests described in FAWL/VG/CC, which I’d be delighted to see! Neal’s crest is described as a ship with a crown above it, while Aldon’s is three black birds on a white field. I’d generally love art for these three too.

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.

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.

I would also love more on international politics post-revolution! How is Wizarding Britain taken at the ICW? What about their relations with newly independent Wizarding Ireland and Wizarding Scotland? What about those Welsh revitalization efforts?

Finally, completely open to more Friends at the Table & Rev Arc fusion fic here, especially with the Divine Cycle but also open to a Sangfielle fusion too because that would just be weird and wonderful. A Palisade fusion would be absolutely wonderful!

Fandom-Specific DNW

Please note I do have some fandom-specific DNWs for this, which are very similar to the general HP one, so this is copied from above, more or less. I DNW narrative justification of pureblood supremacy/blood discrimination. Obviously, purebloods supremacy/fantasy racism is a big part of HP, but JKR always portrayed it as a bad thing, and I'm happy to receive fic that does the same. It can be in the fic. What I don't want is narrative justification that it's okay-I don't want pureblood supremacy to be OK because "Muggles threaten the wizarding world", or "We need to protect traditional pureblood society" or whatever fucked up reason, unless it's clearly portrayed as being in the wrong (i.e. appropriate characters can go ahead and say these things, but narratively it should not be like "oh, okay, I suppose that's all right then.").

For rev arc, this is expanded to include a focus on Harry and any post-TAA content, because unfortunately rbc does trip this DNW rather strongly. Despite on the surface being the opposite, the narrative repeatedly celebrates bigoted characters and says they aren’t that bad. Harry repeatedly talks about how she doesn’t deserve her (bigoted) friends, about how “purebloods do nothing without a reason”, about how purebloods are just so human.

So, to be clear, I don’t want these sorts of comments in text to go unchallenged. If writing about, say, the Malfoys, I’d like a reminder in text that they are in fact pureblood supremacists and this is bad thing, no matter what else they are, i.e. I don't want to hear about how "they're not really pureblood supremacists, it's all about power." It really doesn't matter to me whether a character really believes in the pureblood supremacist system, because they still enforce it. Again, it's okay for characters to say things like "Draco wasn't that bad, you know" if it's in character for the character to say, or to say any of these things, but it must be directly challenged in the narrative as being wrong (e.g., "Was he, or was he not that bad to you?", "Does what he really believed matter when he acted the way he did?").


Mediums Requested

In general, I’ve requested any in-universe documents that fit in the canon setting—this can really be any written, artistic, or audio medium, and I’ve thrown in specific things for stuff I think would work really well. I love using other formats to tell stories, I think it’s really unique and creative, so have fun! I fully opt into things like chatfic, or social media fic of all types, or really anything. Propaganda posters, excerpts of sketchbooks, blog posts, newspaper articles, in-universe textbooks, really… whatever you can think would occur in-universe, have fun.

For art, I like a lot of things! Anime-style art has a soft spot for me since I started in anime fandom, but I also really like more realistic digital art and landscapes. I like both ink/black and white and colour, and I’m really excited about the new tileable patterns in the art section—as a bookbinder, I can’t help but think a tileable pattern would make some really great endpapers.

Speaking of bookbinding, I have also requested typesets! My typesetting tends to be the most basic and plain, so I'd love something more... fancy. Pretty typographic design or art or whatever! I generally print on letter-size paper, and I'm happy for colour on title pages/chapter pages/etc but mostly prefer black and white.

I love podfics—I love hearing people perform a fic, and I always find that someone’s reading adds so much to a fic! Even (or especially) when I’ve written the fic, I still find that when someone reads it, it tends so much emotion, or it provides a dimension to a character I never expected. I like everything from a plain podfic and recording to a fully soundscaped podfic, I’m happy with intro and outro music, anything you think would add to your performance. The only thing I like is a clear break between scenes, which when I record tends to be a 4-5 second break between scenes.

For fanmixes, my musical tastes generally lean heavy, which works for… a significant number of my fandoms. These days, I’m deep into metalcore—some of my favourite bands these days are Imminence, Wage War, and Atreyu (especially the latest two albums). That said, I’m also really into punk—I love Rise Against especially, but the recent Anti-Flag albums are great too. Historically, I’ve also been really into symphonic metal and folk metal, e.g. Nightwish, Kamelot, Epica, Apocalyptica, Eluveitie (all of whom I have seen in concert multiple times). However, on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, I love Broadway showtunes. And Disney. These two things often come together.

Bluntly, music for me goes deeper than just the music—I need a story, or something more than the banalities of life. I’m not really into music about clubbing, or drinking, or breakups. Most of the heavier stuff I like tends to have either an element of politics to it (look at the entire latest Anti-Flag album for a clear example), or strong storytelling (see Nightwish, Kamelot, Eluveitie). I’m unequivocally NOT a Swiftie, because I think she’s super exploitative of her fanbase (see: when she releases a special edition of a song only in one city at one concert, or when she makes 8 copies of the same album and you have to buy all 8 copies to make a artistic clock…) and I don’t like a lot of country music because it taps into racist white conservative resentment for its success (see “Try That In A Small Town”, with all its thinly veiled references to lynching).