Dear Chocolatier Letter

[eglantiere]

Dear Chocolatier, thank you very much for choosing my fandoms! I can't wait to see what kind of fancy chocolate you'll whip up.

I like iddy, all-out stuff - and if you look at my prompts and our ids don't quite match, definitely go with yours! I'm really looking forward to seeing what story you'll enjoy writing; I love those fandoms, I'm excited to find out new things to love about them, it's all good. As long as you meet my DNW, feel free to mix and match and ODAO as much as your heart desires.

Links:

• My exchange tag (letters, recs et cetera)
• AO3 (fics and bookmarks)
• Tumblr

Likes:

• Hurt/comfort! When in doubt, go with h/c: physical, emotional, captivity scenarios, caretaking, whipping, dungeons, bullet wounds, wilderness survival, whatever. I love hurt/comfort within a relationship context (ships or gen: family ties, friendship, comradeship, all is good), as an opening for one character to be hurt and for the other(s) to be outraged/terrified/comforting on their behalf. I am particular about who gets whumped, and will usually indicate so in prompts.
• 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:

• Hurt no comfort.
• Partner betrayal of any kind or infidelity.
• Unhappy endings and permanent character death ("presumed dead" and "died but got better" are fine).
• A/B/O, hurtcomfortverse, any other 'verses with built-in biology-based inequality.
• Hanahaki AUs and variations thereof.
• Mundane AUs.
• Non-con.

天官赐福 - 墨香铜臭 | Tiān Guān Cì Fú - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

• Hua Cheng/Xie Lian
• Fēng Xìn & Mù Qíng & Xiè Lián

Having binged TGCF in a week and written a honest-to-God manifesto about those people, I'm still not done with my feelings over them! I love them; I love all the fifty shades of identity porn, I love the overwhelming loyalty, I love Xie Lian's entire personality, I love the lovely and serious questions of the nature of good and evil in people intermingled with dirty sword inhuendo, I love the pining, I love hurt/comfort… Basically, everything. Everything.

(I like everybody in the supporting cast - even Qi Rong kinda grew on me, the way a fungus does, - so feel free to include anybody or use them as POV characters.)

Some examples of everything:

Hua Cheng/Xie Lian

• In some liminal time between Xie Lian knowing Hua Cheng as Hua Cheng, but not knowing of his previous identity yet, Hua Cheng extravagantly and blithely spoiling Xie Lian with all he has, and Xie Lian being utterly confused and trying to demur.
• Any kind of canon divergence where Hua Cheng finds Xie Lian earlier (ideally rescuing him from some harrowing part of his wanderings) and gives him the world in advance.
• In terms of emotional payoff, just… Xie Lian earnestly and humbly trying not to cause Hua Cheng any trouble, because why would he? And Hua Cheng slowly and patiently trying to get him to see himself the way Hua Cheng sees him.
• Hua Cheng's POV! Xie Lian might buy into his put together, cool persona, but we all know that inside Hua Cheng is all flail, awkwardness, pining, and Dying Because His Highness Touched His Hair. So just… anything in this vein.
• The two of them run into some trouble that they can't handle, and Hua Cheng is forced to watch Xie Lian being hurt (or, worse, Xie Lian choosing to be hurt to protect him). He looses his entire shit.
• Post-canon, Extremely Married adventures. Possibly they should adopt a fox or a cat. Or a ferret.
• If Xie Lian would've somehow found out about Hua Cheng's origins earlier - perhaps if Hua Cheng came clean to him almost immediately - how much would it have changed things?

Fēng Xìn & Mù Qíng & Xiè Lián

• Re: the Xianle trio: I'm firmly of opinion that none of them were egregiously in the wrong in The Breakup, aside from being young, unprepared, stressed out and traumatized. If there wasn't a bad actor mucking things up for Xie Lian, they probably would've adapted to their new circumstances… So, canon divergence point! Xie Lian, Feng Xin and Mu Qing learning to be a team again in the original timeline, after the fall of Xianle (building the resistance movement? Achieving some quiet domesticity once they see the new king is not too bad? working towards ascension?)

• After their reconciliation on the bridge the three of them declare they want to be friends again, and I'd love to read about how they actually put it into practice. Perhaps a dangerous case they have to solve together (while Xian Lie is waiting for Hua Cheng to wait back)?

• I know that 'Feng Xin and Mu Qing find out about the temple incident' is a fandom staple, and it's a staple for a reason, and yes, I would love one more fic about that - especially if it doesn't resolve the emotional fallout with one conversation…

• Any permutations of two side of this trio teaming up to get the third out of trouble (whatever your definition of trouble is).

成化十四年 | The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty (TV)

• Sui Zhou/Tang Fan
• Sui Zhou/Tang Fan/Wang Zhi
• Tang Fan & Wang Zhi
• Sui Zhou/Tang Fan & Dong'er

Okay, wow, this show is my new obsession. Having just gorged myself on the excellent fics written for it for Yuletide, I just want more. The killer combination of found family + hilariously sweet domesticity + whump + justice! + truly epic ot3 vibes on this show proved to be my kryptonite. Give me casefics! Give me non-mundane AUs! Give me the happily-ever-afters or, more likely, happily-ever-adventures and dangers! Give me all the pining, on all sides, simultaneously and at once.

(And let's get it out of the way: Tang Fan is my platonic ideal of a woobie: frail, determined, hilarious, will whine over a stubbed toe but keep silent under torture, has a sense of self-preservation a depressed lemming would find too slight, doesn't know how to stop, needs to protect people and find the truth. If you incline to whump at all, he should be whumped in all possible and impossible ways, every day and twice on Sundays. If you don't, carry on!)

Sui Zhou/Tang Fan

• Something about their early days living together, when Tang Fan just barges into Sui Zhou's life and house and kitchen and stays there and by all rights it should make Sui Zhou livid and instead he finds himself inexplicably happy. (This pairing: truly the Blair/Jim of this new era, and it's delightful.)
• Sui Zhou's slow, horrified realization that he likes Tang Fan and feels responsible to him whereas Tang Fan wouldn't know self-protection if it bit him in the face.
• And yet, after working together for a while, the two of them learning to respect and rely on each other's true strengths and weaknesses: Tang Fan knowing to account for Sui Zhou's PTSD, Sui Zhou knowing that Tang Fan is much more resilient than he thinks…
• Sui Zhou's ultra secret love affair with Tang Fan's erotic novels (knowing or unknowing!)
• Five Times Sui Zhou's Lovingly Prepared Dinner Went To Waste And It Was Tang Fan's Fault.
• Wait, Wait, We Are Married And Nobody Told Me?
• Tang Fan and Sui Zhou's nightmares.
• Bathing each other (erotically, for comfort, after a bloody battle, after sickness, for fun - take your pick).

Tang Fan & Wang Zhi and Sui Zhou/Tang Fan/Wang Zhi

• First of all, I'm always here for the hilarity that's Wang Zhi getting overtaken by the Hurricane Tang Fang. One minute he's a terrifying, lonely, ruthless politician holding his own in an actively hostile world, and the other he's entangled in family dinners, solving weird and unrelated cases, covering for Tang Fan and Sui Zhou before the Emperor, making friends with Dong'er…
• Like I see Wang Zhi as a very lonely, very wounded person who sees himself as somebody who rose Above His Vulnerabilities - and then nope, Tang Fan and Sui Zhou and all their messy, hilarious, complicated, sprawling life happen to him, and he's awake and hungry.
• In this vein I would read him as tragically pining (I'm using them and they're using me because that's how it is for me, This Is Fine) unless taught otherwise - but I would also read him as going for what he wants, with decisive determination! Or trying to play matchmaker and not realizing that he's a part of the match, too. Or all three at once.
• Wang Zhi the avid and unrepentant fan of Tang Fan's writing oeuvre. Shenanigans issue.
• A trio undercover mission where any two of them pretend to be retainers or servants of the third one, and all the (identity) (porn) permutations that ensue.
• I would also really like to have something that really lets Tang Fan and Wang Zhi seriously get into the argument re: idealism and politics. Tang Fan likely knows how close he is to losing his head sometimes, and chooses not to care; Wang Zhi does risk his life and standing for the sake of justice sometime, and chooses to pay for it; maybe there's a case that lets them air it all out.
• (A more explicit fallout and reconcilation over that one time Wang Zhi used Dong'er as a bait, maybe? There were so many feelings there, on all sides, and I feel they got swept away for the plot at some point.)

Sui Zhou/Tang Fan & Dong'er

• I really went from "I'm amused and pleased by this show" to "I'm 100% invested" after Dong'er's rescue. The way Tang Fan tries his best to keep his promise, Sui Zhou's steady and quiet help, Dong'er's desperate tears, the faces of Sui Zhou and Tang Fan in this scene, when Tang Fan tears up her contract… I think, in a way, that this is what allowed Tang Fan and Sui Zhou to truly see each other for the first time, and laid the foundation for their entire house. So… that?

• Dong'er growing up, first within her changing and weird and wondrous family, and then without. Growing up and carrying what she learned with her.

• …Yes I would take Dong'er bemused and appalled by the depths of clueless pining going on with both her guardians, and resolving to do something about it.

• Five Dishes Dong'er Learned From Sui Zhou To Cook When Sui Zhou Is Away (and Tang Fan Is Moping And Unbearable)

Final Fantasy XV

• Ignis Scientia/Lunafreya Nox Fleuret/Noctis Lucis Caelum

This is the rare-3 that's very dear to my heart. I adore the idea of Noct bringing Ignis into his marriage as a dowry, and Ignis transferring part of their loyalty to Luna, and the three of them navigating their complicated relationship together (in whatever combination speaks to you; maybe an equilateral triangle, maybe a V thing with Noctis in the middle, or maybe even some combination of sexual and platonic love - as long as they all end up being equally important to each other).

I love all three of them - Ignis with his perfect combination of loyalty, competence, hidden dorkitude and high martyrdom; Noct who's sometimes childish and sometimes petty, but who loves people a whole lot and learns to walk to his destiny so well; and Luna with her healing and her grace and her iron will and marching onward to subdue the gods and sweeps armored soldiers aside with disdain. I basically just want to see them together, being glorious.

Some scenarios! As you might've noticed, I'm a sucker for hurt/comfort, especially for Ignis to be hurt, so if our interests align, feel free to pour it in liberally.

• No-Destiny AUs where the threat from the Empire exists, and the marriage to Luna is still arranged, but there's no Ardyn or gods or mystical threats, and the three of them have to nagivate their relationship and the politics together.
• Any variation of Luna-on-the-roadtrip with Noct and Ignis and the other bros, all of them having badass adventures.
• Ignis makes his way to the altar in Altissia earlier and saves Luna as well as Noct (preferably at the same or higher personal cost), and it changes the course of history.
• Luna and Ignis in WOR, holding the world together for Noct's return with teeth, nails, magic and anger.
• When Niflhelm strikes Tenebrae, Regis has to flee, and Ignis and Noct are both left behind and raised with Luna in captivity.

Psmith - P. G. Wodehouse

• Mike Jackson & Rupert Psmith
• Mike Jackson/Rupert Psmith

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 in context of all of this I really, really like the idea of Psmith's version of being a Stoic Woobie, except he's more of a Languid Woobie, in a sense of trying to misdirect and never admitting to being in trouble and needing help nevertheless.

And so!

• ...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 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.

Fandom-specific DNW caveat: Please no happy heterosexuality for either Mike or Psmith. They can be platonic partners or friends, but I would rather not read about them marrying and parting ways.

Paladin's Grace - T. Kingfisher

• The Paladins of Saint of Steel & The White Rat Clerics

The entire thing with late Saint of Steel's traumatized, bereaved, depressed paladins getting adopted and slowly and sneakily rehabilitated by the no-nonsense lawyers and civil servants clerics of the White Rat is incredibly, unbearably iddy to me. There's so much quiet, understated, practical kindness folded into it it leaves me breathless and happy. I would read literally any details of this whole story - with named characters like Ishtvan or the Bishop or Stephen or Zale, with OCs, with outsider POVs, epistolary, fragmented, found media - whatever you feel like writing, I want it all. For example:

• One of the Rat's people perspective? Maybe the person's who's maintaining the Saint of Steel little altar in the salle, or the quartermasters, or the cooks, et cetera.
• Ishtvan trying to get the paladins thrown out of the Rat temple after Stephen and Gale go berserk at each other in the salle (Beartongue, obviously, not having any of it).
• The early days, the fresh trauma, the suicide watch.
• What if one of the paladins did go berserk and hurt somebody civilian before he or she got stopped? How was it dealt with?
• Little everyday acts of kindness.
• Grateful paladins greedy for any chance to pay the Rat people back; or, how some bad people learned, practically, that the White Rat people now have some serious muscle on their side.