Dear Chocolate Box Writer!
Jan. 7th, 2019 02:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eglantiereDear chocolatier, thank you so much for writing for me! As always, I'm going to list some general likes and some specific prompts for every fandom, but if none of the specifics work for you, feel free to mix and match or just ODAO and go for whatever tickles your fancy; I'm sure there are things I haven't thought about that would be super exciting, and as long as DNWs are met, everything else is fair game.
Some links:
![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
egelantier
![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
egelantier
My AO3 bookmarks
Previous Dear Author letters, reveals, recs and so on
Things I like:
- Hurt/comfort in all its forms is always a sure bet. All the hurt/comfort, you can't do wrong (or be too hardcore) with it. Physical h/c, emotional h/c, captivity scenarios, caretaking, whipping, dungeons, bullet wounds, wilderness survival, whatever. I love hurt/comfort mostly within the context of a relationship (not necessarily romantic - filial ties, friendship, brothers-in-arms comradeship, whichever fits), as an opening for one character to be hurt and for the other to be outraged/terrified/comforting on their behalf. The only thing I'm particular about is who in a particular gets whumped.
- Found families, tight friendships, us-against-the-world, people finding and keeping each other, providing kindness and warmth against the dark.
- Hope and kindness, Clair universes, stories where the entropy tries its hardest but doesn't win.
- Loyalty in all forms! From ritualized (oaths, kneeling, ring-kissing, knights and bodyguards and henchmen and so on) to more casual ways, like standing up for your friends.
- Self-sacrifice (metaphorical and quite literal) and martyrdom (ditto).
- Tropey AUs - space opera! high fantasy! historical! pirates!
- Outsider POVs.
DNWs:
- Character death.
- Infidelity and partner betrayal of any kind.
- Hurt without comfort.
- A/B/O universes and mpreg.
- Mundane AUs
- PWPs.
- Grimdark stories and unhappy endings.
The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards
Rune Saint John & Brandon Saint John (The Tarot Sequence)
Fanfiction
This book was a bit of unexpected delight I've caught in 2018, and so much fun, on so many different levels - from it's Chronicles of Amber-reminiscent setting to the narrative voice to relationships within. I am especially invested into the idea of the Companion bond, and whatever it entails, and the way Rune and Brand sort this particular thing between themselves: where Brand is Rune's companion, and a bodyguard, and a partner, and a best friend, and a nagging caretaker, and a first and last line of defense, and a deeply treasured loved one, and everything in-between, and the most important relationship there could be.
Some prompts, just to get things rolling!
- The comforting aftermath to The Whipping Incident in Rune and Brand's backstory, with Brand being more or less Rune's literal whipping boy: how did they cope with it, what happened afterwards, how did their standing in the household change after that, what happened?
- And in general, Rune and Brand as traumatized, bereaved children thrust into unfamiliar and dangerous house, turning to each other to cope with their lives.
- Rune and Brand before the beginning of the book, doing their magical mercenary thing: casefics! hijinks! getting into trouble and getting each other out of trouble! Patching each other up after especially hairy cases! Five times Brand Got Hurt Protecting Rune And One Time He Didn't!
- My hands down favorite part of the book is Rune telling Lord Tower he will walk if Lord Tower ever abandons Brand to danger again: I wonder if he'll ever have a case to follow through with his commitment? How would that happen and what the fallout would be?
- There also was this moment where Brand got momentarily mindfucked by Ciaran and Rune had reacted very strongly: had something like this happened before? Or could it happen again?
- Some kind of outsider POV on their relationship, especially in the moment of high danger, would be pretty awesome.
Guardian (TV)
Shen Wei/Zhаo Yunlan
Fanfiction
I adore those two and their deep, unshakable, staggeringly important love for each other. This entire show was an unexpected gift to some deep and unplumbed depths of my id - the loyalty, the longing, the identity porn, the mutual protectiveness, the mutual adoration, people getting tied to the pillars and whipped left and right, self-sacrifice, grand gestures and domestic comforts. I love the mix of ridiculous hijinks and darker themes and full-on grand drama intensity. I love Shen Wei's unapologetic intensity and his rather horrible attempts at subterfuge, I love Zhao Yunlan's frank adoration and ferocious protectiveness, I love their ridiculous team and overall found family vibes, and I just want all the stories. All of them.
So, for example:
- Shen Wei was waiting for his Kunlun for 10,000 years, and so when he meets Zhao Yunlan, the deal is sealed - but Zhao Yunlan falls so quickly and hopelessly despite seeing him for the first time, despite being suspicious of him, and I would literally read anything dealing with that.
- That scene in one of the earlier episodes where SW allows himself to be robbed with stoic dignity so to keep his incognito made me want all the fics where he allows himself to be hurt in some complicated SID-related clusterfuck (a hostage situation?) to protect the others and hide himself. While ZYL watches, of course.
- ZYL having complicated, intense feelings both for the Black Envoy and for Professor Shen in that brief period where SW still miraculously managed to keep his secrets, and trying to deal with his confusion.
- (There's also that timeline bit where ZYL learns the truth, and it's pretty heavily implied that they've began dating and/or living together, but the team doesn't know yet that SW=BE, and so they get concerned that ZYL is not treating Professor Shen right. I will read literally thousands, thousands of words with that premise.)
- "Kunlun" and young SW, having adventures and saving each other and falling in love in the past, with ZYL helplessly smitten and yet missing SW from his own timeline.
- SW's beaming declaration of "It's good I'm used to getting injured" and his uncomplicated delight in being able to protect ZYL at his own cost, and ZYL trying to deal with it and his own deep feeling of inadequacy to such devotion - preferably with many, many practical demonstrations.
- In particular, ZYL cluing in earlier on the implications of SW sharing his energy with him to heal his eyes and beginning to deteriorate - maybe after SW overstretches himself and collapses, or coughs blood up dramatically - and trying frantically to save him.
- SW, for some reason, being forced to become the king of the underworld, for all it implies, and ZYL embarking on a journey to free him.
- Frankly, I would read a comfort tag to just about every episode where they got into trouble - after coming down from that mountain, and after rescuing SW from the pillar, and after the ending -
- Which brings us to ALL THE FIX-IT FICS, all of them, literally all of them. Fix that ending! Or cancel it altogether! Or make it into something different! They spent so many episodes establishing Guo for the Wick candidate, only to change it abruptly at the last moment - go for it! I would also accept a happily ever after and each and every casefic thereof.
On the whole, I also adore the team - both as the bickering found family and as great (and hilarious) outside POV sources, and I similarly love how Professor Shen's students obviously dote on him (and dread the day he'll get stolen by SID in full). And I would love for the fics that, mm, translate the things that we got onscreen due to budget and time limitations etc, like tiny claustrophobic settings and idiot ball decisions, into being actually grand. Like team being actually competent, or the underground being an imposing, creepy and beautiful place, or Ye Zun being actually threatening, ahem.
Final Fantasy XV
Noctis Lucis Caelum/Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Ignis Scientia
Fanfiction
Ignis/Noct/Luna is the tiny treasured OT3 of my heart, and I'm leaping on the chance to request it! I love Ignis and Noct and the intensity of their relationship in all permutations, and I love the potential what-may-have-been in Noct and Luna, and I think those three together would be really - interesting, and grander than each pairing separately. I basically like the idea of Ignis being included in their relationship by the nature of being, well, Ignis, and also Ignis transferring part of his loyalty/fealty to Luna, first for Noct's sake and then for her own, and how they navigate those waters.
Some prompts!
- Canon divergence where Ignis gets to the altar of Tidemother just a bit earlier and saves both Noct and Luna, and fractal changes unfolding from this moment (whether you go with original version or V2). Perhaps Luna's survival is the factor that allows Noct to survive the ending and/or not go into the Crystal timeout?
- Or just the aftermath - Noct and Luna ruling together, restoring the world savaged by the Empire and the Scourge, with Ignis by their side. (This might be a good place to note that I'm very partial to Blind!Ignis, even in - especially in the V2 ending - and V2 endings where Ignis actually had to pay a heavy price for Noct's life, and has to live with the aftermath.)
- Or a story where the arranged marriage happens, but the rest of the overarching story doesn't (to whatever limit you prefer), and Ignis goes with Noct, as his Chamberlain, and finds his place in their relationship.
- ...Or, honestly, any flavor of arranged marriage AU, in whatever setting. Ignis as a part of Noct's dowry! Pining on all sides! Wariness to friendship to love! Cultural differences! Ignis trying to nobly step aside and deny his feelings, and Luna having none of it!
- Or Ignis teaming up with Luna, somewhere much earlier in the game (perhaps Ignis went with Noct to Tenebrae after the Marilith attack, and saw her then?), to save Noct and defy the gods. Together they would be a pretty unstoppable team, one has to imagine.
- Alternately, Regis takes Luna with him when he's fleeing Tenebrae, and Luna grows up in Lucis, with Noct and Ignis and the rest of the gang?
Basically, within those setups (or with some others), I would love some permutations of loyalty kink, and some Ignis whump, and some badassery and competence, and unexpected teamups, and three people slowly figuring each other out, and noble, self-denying pining, and possibly some court intrigues, if those strike your fancy; or post-war recovery, and finding solace in each other.
Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
Mike Jackson/Rupert Psmith
Fanfiction
Those books are my perennial favorites; I adore the kind hilarity of them, and the intensity of the relationship (whether it's taken as friendship or romance). Psmith is one of my most favorite characters of all time. I love his surety and his unflappability, his low key but endless loyalty and protectiveness, the way he manages to warp the world around himself but does it with benevolence, the way the narrative pokes fun at him but allows him to stand unhumiliated. And I love that Mike is his foil but never the butt of the narrative joke, that Mike's intrinsic value is never questioned or doubted, by the text or by each other. I love how different they are and how wholeheartedly they embrace each other nevertheless, neither trying to change or undermine each other, how much they just - adore and accept and support each other.
And so!
- "Like canon but more of it": yes good please. Especially if it includes some version of friends-to-lovers, pining and happy endings.
- Futurefic: becoming adults together, growing old together, their lives changing and evolving and still orbiting around each other.
- ...Having said what I did about Psmith self-surety, I would also read a lot about Psmith secretly having doubts about himself and his own worth in relation to Mike and trying to let Mike go for his own good (family, career, etc.), and Mike having none of it.
- And also literally all the stories about Psmith getting into some trouble he can't get himself out of (ideally on Mike's behalf), and trying to hide it or make light of it, and Mike becoming the rescuer and taking care of him. I always thought that Psmith would make an awesome 'pay no attention to my troubles, have a languid anecdote' kind of iron woobie - iron woobie in a velvet glove? Is it a thing? In any case, yes.
- (For example, I could give or take Mike's domestic happiness in later books, but I loved Psmith's descent from rich heirdom to self-supporting poverty and the way he tried to deal with it by himself and without burdening anybody. Take it to the extreme, and I'll be here with bells on.)
- But also something with a more action/adventure bent and injuries, kidnappings, and accident (see: Psmith, Journalist, only sans racism and Mike is actually there).
- Psmith Hides A Supernatural Secret (he's an elf! he's a selkie! he's an alien!) And Why Would Mike Care No Really.
- The super self-indulgent slavefic option: Mike the bewildered owner rescuing a languid, seemingly unconcerned slave!Psmith and slowly discovering the depths of trouble that will bring? Psmith the jaded, high-ranking slave taking a newly enslaved Mike under his wing and getting into all the trouble trying to keep him safe (and, being Psmith, probably engineering a revolution in the process?)
- Also all the setting AUs! Be it high fantasy or space opera or high sea piracy, those two trampling through it would be amazing.
- A completely optional bonus cracky option: if you like crossovers, Mike and Psmith in literally any canon I've ever requested would be incredible, be it a pastiche fusion or them just dropping into whatever it is, solving some particular thorny issue in their inimitable style, and dropping out.
Some links:
My AO3 bookmarks
Previous Dear Author letters, reveals, recs and so on
Things I like:
- Hurt/comfort in all its forms is always a sure bet. All the hurt/comfort, you can't do wrong (or be too hardcore) with it. Physical h/c, emotional h/c, captivity scenarios, caretaking, whipping, dungeons, bullet wounds, wilderness survival, whatever. I love hurt/comfort mostly within the context of a relationship (not necessarily romantic - filial ties, friendship, brothers-in-arms comradeship, whichever fits), as an opening for one character to be hurt and for the other to be outraged/terrified/comforting on their behalf. The only thing I'm particular about is who in a particular gets whumped.
- Found families, tight friendships, us-against-the-world, people finding and keeping each other, providing kindness and warmth against the dark.
- Hope and kindness, Clair universes, stories where the entropy tries its hardest but doesn't win.
- Loyalty in all forms! From ritualized (oaths, kneeling, ring-kissing, knights and bodyguards and henchmen and so on) to more casual ways, like standing up for your friends.
- Self-sacrifice (metaphorical and quite literal) and martyrdom (ditto).
- Tropey AUs - space opera! high fantasy! historical! pirates!
- Outsider POVs.
DNWs:
- Character death.
- Infidelity and partner betrayal of any kind.
- Hurt without comfort.
- A/B/O universes and mpreg.
- Mundane AUs
- PWPs.
- Grimdark stories and unhappy endings.
The Tarot Sequence - K.D. Edwards
Rune Saint John & Brandon Saint John (The Tarot Sequence)
Fanfiction
This book was a bit of unexpected delight I've caught in 2018, and so much fun, on so many different levels - from it's Chronicles of Amber-reminiscent setting to the narrative voice to relationships within. I am especially invested into the idea of the Companion bond, and whatever it entails, and the way Rune and Brand sort this particular thing between themselves: where Brand is Rune's companion, and a bodyguard, and a partner, and a best friend, and a nagging caretaker, and a first and last line of defense, and a deeply treasured loved one, and everything in-between, and the most important relationship there could be.
Some prompts, just to get things rolling!
- The comforting aftermath to The Whipping Incident in Rune and Brand's backstory, with Brand being more or less Rune's literal whipping boy: how did they cope with it, what happened afterwards, how did their standing in the household change after that, what happened?
- And in general, Rune and Brand as traumatized, bereaved children thrust into unfamiliar and dangerous house, turning to each other to cope with their lives.
- Rune and Brand before the beginning of the book, doing their magical mercenary thing: casefics! hijinks! getting into trouble and getting each other out of trouble! Patching each other up after especially hairy cases! Five times Brand Got Hurt Protecting Rune And One Time He Didn't!
- My hands down favorite part of the book is Rune telling Lord Tower he will walk if Lord Tower ever abandons Brand to danger again: I wonder if he'll ever have a case to follow through with his commitment? How would that happen and what the fallout would be?
- There also was this moment where Brand got momentarily mindfucked by Ciaran and Rune had reacted very strongly: had something like this happened before? Or could it happen again?
- Some kind of outsider POV on their relationship, especially in the moment of high danger, would be pretty awesome.
Guardian (TV)
Shen Wei/Zhаo Yunlan
Fanfiction
I adore those two and their deep, unshakable, staggeringly important love for each other. This entire show was an unexpected gift to some deep and unplumbed depths of my id - the loyalty, the longing, the identity porn, the mutual protectiveness, the mutual adoration, people getting tied to the pillars and whipped left and right, self-sacrifice, grand gestures and domestic comforts. I love the mix of ridiculous hijinks and darker themes and full-on grand drama intensity. I love Shen Wei's unapologetic intensity and his rather horrible attempts at subterfuge, I love Zhao Yunlan's frank adoration and ferocious protectiveness, I love their ridiculous team and overall found family vibes, and I just want all the stories. All of them.
So, for example:
- Shen Wei was waiting for his Kunlun for 10,000 years, and so when he meets Zhao Yunlan, the deal is sealed - but Zhao Yunlan falls so quickly and hopelessly despite seeing him for the first time, despite being suspicious of him, and I would literally read anything dealing with that.
- That scene in one of the earlier episodes where SW allows himself to be robbed with stoic dignity so to keep his incognito made me want all the fics where he allows himself to be hurt in some complicated SID-related clusterfuck (a hostage situation?) to protect the others and hide himself. While ZYL watches, of course.
- ZYL having complicated, intense feelings both for the Black Envoy and for Professor Shen in that brief period where SW still miraculously managed to keep his secrets, and trying to deal with his confusion.
- (There's also that timeline bit where ZYL learns the truth, and it's pretty heavily implied that they've began dating and/or living together, but the team doesn't know yet that SW=BE, and so they get concerned that ZYL is not treating Professor Shen right. I will read literally thousands, thousands of words with that premise.)
- "Kunlun" and young SW, having adventures and saving each other and falling in love in the past, with ZYL helplessly smitten and yet missing SW from his own timeline.
- SW's beaming declaration of "It's good I'm used to getting injured" and his uncomplicated delight in being able to protect ZYL at his own cost, and ZYL trying to deal with it and his own deep feeling of inadequacy to such devotion - preferably with many, many practical demonstrations.
- In particular, ZYL cluing in earlier on the implications of SW sharing his energy with him to heal his eyes and beginning to deteriorate - maybe after SW overstretches himself and collapses, or coughs blood up dramatically - and trying frantically to save him.
- SW, for some reason, being forced to become the king of the underworld, for all it implies, and ZYL embarking on a journey to free him.
- Frankly, I would read a comfort tag to just about every episode where they got into trouble - after coming down from that mountain, and after rescuing SW from the pillar, and after the ending -
- Which brings us to ALL THE FIX-IT FICS, all of them, literally all of them. Fix that ending! Or cancel it altogether! Or make it into something different! They spent so many episodes establishing Guo for the Wick candidate, only to change it abruptly at the last moment - go for it! I would also accept a happily ever after and each and every casefic thereof.
On the whole, I also adore the team - both as the bickering found family and as great (and hilarious) outside POV sources, and I similarly love how Professor Shen's students obviously dote on him (and dread the day he'll get stolen by SID in full). And I would love for the fics that, mm, translate the things that we got onscreen due to budget and time limitations etc, like tiny claustrophobic settings and idiot ball decisions, into being actually grand. Like team being actually competent, or the underground being an imposing, creepy and beautiful place, or Ye Zun being actually threatening, ahem.
Final Fantasy XV
Noctis Lucis Caelum/Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Ignis Scientia
Fanfiction
Ignis/Noct/Luna is the tiny treasured OT3 of my heart, and I'm leaping on the chance to request it! I love Ignis and Noct and the intensity of their relationship in all permutations, and I love the potential what-may-have-been in Noct and Luna, and I think those three together would be really - interesting, and grander than each pairing separately. I basically like the idea of Ignis being included in their relationship by the nature of being, well, Ignis, and also Ignis transferring part of his loyalty/fealty to Luna, first for Noct's sake and then for her own, and how they navigate those waters.
Some prompts!
- Canon divergence where Ignis gets to the altar of Tidemother just a bit earlier and saves both Noct and Luna, and fractal changes unfolding from this moment (whether you go with original version or V2). Perhaps Luna's survival is the factor that allows Noct to survive the ending and/or not go into the Crystal timeout?
- Or just the aftermath - Noct and Luna ruling together, restoring the world savaged by the Empire and the Scourge, with Ignis by their side. (This might be a good place to note that I'm very partial to Blind!Ignis, even in - especially in the V2 ending - and V2 endings where Ignis actually had to pay a heavy price for Noct's life, and has to live with the aftermath.)
- Or a story where the arranged marriage happens, but the rest of the overarching story doesn't (to whatever limit you prefer), and Ignis goes with Noct, as his Chamberlain, and finds his place in their relationship.
- ...Or, honestly, any flavor of arranged marriage AU, in whatever setting. Ignis as a part of Noct's dowry! Pining on all sides! Wariness to friendship to love! Cultural differences! Ignis trying to nobly step aside and deny his feelings, and Luna having none of it!
- Or Ignis teaming up with Luna, somewhere much earlier in the game (perhaps Ignis went with Noct to Tenebrae after the Marilith attack, and saw her then?), to save Noct and defy the gods. Together they would be a pretty unstoppable team, one has to imagine.
- Alternately, Regis takes Luna with him when he's fleeing Tenebrae, and Luna grows up in Lucis, with Noct and Ignis and the rest of the gang?
Basically, within those setups (or with some others), I would love some permutations of loyalty kink, and some Ignis whump, and some badassery and competence, and unexpected teamups, and three people slowly figuring each other out, and noble, self-denying pining, and possibly some court intrigues, if those strike your fancy; or post-war recovery, and finding solace in each other.
Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse
Mike Jackson/Rupert Psmith
Fanfiction
Those books are my perennial favorites; I adore the kind hilarity of them, and the intensity of the relationship (whether it's taken as friendship or romance). Psmith is one of my most favorite characters of all time. I love his surety and his unflappability, his low key but endless loyalty and protectiveness, the way he manages to warp the world around himself but does it with benevolence, the way the narrative pokes fun at him but allows him to stand unhumiliated. And I love that Mike is his foil but never the butt of the narrative joke, that Mike's intrinsic value is never questioned or doubted, by the text or by each other. I love how different they are and how wholeheartedly they embrace each other nevertheless, neither trying to change or undermine each other, how much they just - adore and accept and support each other.
And so!
- "Like canon but more of it": yes good please. Especially if it includes some version of friends-to-lovers, pining and happy endings.
- Futurefic: becoming adults together, growing old together, their lives changing and evolving and still orbiting around each other.
- ...Having said what I did about Psmith self-surety, I would also read a lot about Psmith secretly having doubts about himself and his own worth in relation to Mike and trying to let Mike go for his own good (family, career, etc.), and Mike having none of it.
- And also literally all the stories about Psmith getting into some trouble he can't get himself out of (ideally on Mike's behalf), and trying to hide it or make light of it, and Mike becoming the rescuer and taking care of him. I always thought that Psmith would make an awesome 'pay no attention to my troubles, have a languid anecdote' kind of iron woobie - iron woobie in a velvet glove? Is it a thing? In any case, yes.
- (For example, I could give or take Mike's domestic happiness in later books, but I loved Psmith's descent from rich heirdom to self-supporting poverty and the way he tried to deal with it by himself and without burdening anybody. Take it to the extreme, and I'll be here with bells on.)
- But also something with a more action/adventure bent and injuries, kidnappings, and accident (see: Psmith, Journalist, only sans racism and Mike is actually there).
- Psmith Hides A Supernatural Secret (he's an elf! he's a selkie! he's an alien!) And Why Would Mike Care No Really.
- The super self-indulgent slavefic option: Mike the bewildered owner rescuing a languid, seemingly unconcerned slave!Psmith and slowly discovering the depths of trouble that will bring? Psmith the jaded, high-ranking slave taking a newly enslaved Mike under his wing and getting into all the trouble trying to keep him safe (and, being Psmith, probably engineering a revolution in the process?)
- Also all the setting AUs! Be it high fantasy or space opera or high sea piracy, those two trampling through it would be amazing.
- A completely optional bonus cracky option: if you like crossovers, Mike and Psmith in literally any canon I've ever requested would be incredible, be it a pastiche fusion or them just dropping into whatever it is, solving some particular thorny issue in their inimitable style, and dropping out.
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 11:16 pm (UTC)(But boo at book 2 getting pushed out to September...)
no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 11:20 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-06 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 08:59 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-01-07 09:01 am (UTC)