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hekaterasFFFX 2024 letter
(Completed 26. August '24)
Dear creator, thank you for checking out my letter! The first part is just copypasted from the sign-up to have it all in one place, then below it I have extra stuff specific to the letter, including prompts.
Day view of post for easy navigation of the readmores
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPT-IN: Crossover/fusion with any fandom I previously requested
OPT-IN: Setting change AUs
General likes
Character studies, understated whump and hurt/comfort, bloodied & injured characters, competence porn, hidden depths, "what if" explorations of canon-divergent AUs, unexpected friendships, casual low-stakes moments, missionfic/casefic, snippet series, non-explicit but sensual and emotional non-graphic sex scenes, UST-ridden scenes that are only metaphorically sex, wireplay, fluff with a touch of bittersweetness or grimness, cyberpunk settings, cat-and-mouse, cloak-and-dagger, the Eroticism of the Machine(TM), wild nature, the aesthetic of ruin and tangled industrial locales, animals of all kind including spiders, bugs and creepy-crawlies, rats
General DNWs
Explicit rating (whether sex or violence), noncon, kidfic, noncanonical incest or underage, pregnancy of POV characters, focus on needles or surgery (especially cutting and IVs), focus on IRL modern era geopolitics, eye horror/trauma
NSFW likes
I am less interested in specific kinks and more interested in whatever makes for a scene that is sensual, emotional, and/or full of vulnerability for the given set of characters! I also really enjoy it when characters are conflicted about what they're doing or who they're doing it with! :) :) I also love it when scenes are interrupted or characters change their minds before things can get really explicit.
NSFW DNWs
While I DNW explicit smut, these should help pick a good direction to take a less explicit shippy work!
Omegaverse, scat, watersports, bloodplay, rimming, fisting, stuffing, noncon (dubcon A-okay!), most kinks that would fall under degradation or humiliation
DNW clarifications
- Kidfic: Flashbacks are fine, characters thinking about their time as kids is fine, characters thinking about being or having children is fine. What I don't want is the fairly specific fic type where adult characters are turned into kids (transformation or "what if all the blorbos were toddlers"-type AUs), or fics that are about acquiring a child and taking care of them. Baby goats are fine and absolutely encouraged within the bounds of plot-appropriateness. (/Battleship joke)
- Focus on surgery and needles: Needles or surgery appearing in the story are fine (and often hard to avoid given I sometimes request doctors, etc.!) Mentions of people getting shots or being dosed with something are fine. Someone being threatened with a needle or surgery is fine. I just don't want detailed descriptions of *shudder* needles sliding into skin, plungers depressing, skin being cut open, tattoos being applied, things like that. It may be helpful to think of this as DNW Detailed Descriptions of Invasive Things Happening to Skin On-Page.
- Focus on IRL modern era geopolitics: Having it be in the backdrop or part of the setting is fine. What I don't want is having it be a driving force of the plot.
This section contains stuff I forgot to put in the sign-up.
More likes
- Non-sexual intimacy (holding each other close when you think you're about to die, huddling for warmth, "oh thank god we're still alive" hugs, platonic cuddling or casual body contact)
- Intimacy that is sexual but not smutty (pillow talk, lazy mornings after, waking up together, etc.)
- Slow-burn-like vibes and romantic/sexual relationships growing from strong bonds
- Relationships forged in fire, bonding over trauma, codependency, friendships and romantic/sexual relationships that are hard to categorise in terms of whether they're a good thing/helpful or not.
- Ill-advised relationships as coping mechanisms
- Competency, characters leaning into their very different strengths
- I welcome side characters and side plots. For all of these requests, I'm happy for the requested characters or ships to share focus with others if it makes for a good story
- ROBOTS AND CYBORGS AND CHARACTERS WITH MACHINE PARTS
- The Eroticism of the Machine
Art likes
I'm not very picky, but I will say I really like organic and sketchy styles, I slightly prefer them to cleaner or vector-based styles. But this is not a hard preference. I'm super into "messy" styles, inking with the sketch still showing, and that kind of thing. I prefer colours over b&w. My favourite art styles are those on the realistic side of the spectrum in terms of proportions, but still very clearly stylised (including anime, etc.).
Opt-in elaboration
- Crossover/fusion with AFIRB: Basically, if you have a really interesting crossover idea, go for it! I don't expect the crossed over things to be in the same genre or medium.
- Setting change AUs: Ditto. I enjoy setting change AUs that facilitate a kind of character study, like who would these people be if you changed some of the background elements that shaped them? Or, alternately, how would these characters' passions and priorities manifest in a completely different but still comparable setting? (E.g. a character who fights injustice fighting a different injustice if you plonk them in a different setting, a crafty scrappy character taking advantage of totally different systems than in their home setting, etc...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invisible Inc
Fandom Promo
Requested
Char: Tony Xu (Invisible Inc) Char: Brian Decker (Invisible Inc) Char: Alex "Sharp" McTeague (Invisible Inc) Brian Decker/Tony Xu (Invisible Inc) Alex "Sharp" McTeague/Tony Xu (Invisible Inc)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Pre-canon recruitment stories
- Post-canon: reacting to Incognita's takeover, characters who were captured during the raid being set free and finding out most of the agency is dead, etc.
- Mission!fic and scenes where agents save each other's lives
- Captivity!fic of an agent held in a Detention Center
- Adrenaline-fuelled making out or hook-ups during the post-raid campaign or simply between tense missions
- MedGel (and situations that require MedGel) played for whump, drama, horror, horniness, or all of the above simultaneously
- Agents being at each other's throats in their off hours, only to work together like a well-oiled machine when the situation gets dire
- Bonding over augmentation and its effects - whether it's chronic pain, feeling like corporate property, the limitations or new abilities
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizen Sleeper
Requested
Ethan & Sleeper (Citizen Sleeper) Char: Sleeper (Citizen Sleeper)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- I'm enamoured with the part of the game when you're actively fleeing your old corporate masters, represented by bounty hunters who are not entirely free themselves. The song and dance between the Sleeper and Ethan, the way Ethan drags the capture out, his own clear self-loathing and host of issues? It's great, can we have more of that?
- Canon Divergence: What if Ethan had actually successfully taken Sleeper off the Eye and was journeying back to Essen-Arp with the Sleeper in tow? Without Maywick, and just him and the Sleeper, and maybe struggling to stay dedicated to his plan with even more time spent around Sleeper and coming to see them unavoidably as a person. Or with Maywick, who is far more ruthless towards Sleeper and would be the one calling the shots. What I really want from this character combination is a scenario where Ethan's resolve cracks and he takes Sleeper's side, and he maybe even redeems himself a little (whether Sleeper can ever trust him or forgive him is a very different question).
- Sleeper has no luck with Feng disabling the tracker, or Feng failed, or Ethan finds out about that subquest
- Ethan finally tracks down Sleeper but they have become part of the mushroom sentient loci!
- Magical AU where Ethan is a bit less of a bastard and actually becomes Sleeper's bodyguard
- An AU where things end much differently, for better or worse. Maybe the Hunter gets the Sleeper, or Ankhita talks things out with Ashton after all, or Ethan gets exactly what he wants (and has the chance to regret it)
- Sleeper getting hacked or catching malware while exploring the netspace, and another character helping them deal with it
- Though if the other character is Ethan, what if he's the one who tried to hack Sleeper to get them cooperative?
- Sleeper getting hacked by Castor in canon was terrifying! Let's have more similar moments! :) More of Castor or a similar character using Sleeper's own vulnerabilities to threaten someone they care about!
- I would prefer this one to have the same overall hopeful tone as the game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neverwinter Nights
Forum format let's play for canon review
Requested
Knight Captain & Safiya (Neverwinter Nights) Knight Captain & Gannayev of Dreams Neverwinter Nights) Char: Safiya (Neverwinter Knights) Char: Knight Captain (Neverwinter Nights) Char: Kaelyn the Dove (Neverwinter Knights) Oth: Worldbuilding (Neverwinter Nights)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Spirit/dream realm shenanigans. Explorations of trauma, memory & identity loss. History repeating itself.
- The game shows the way the Hunger affects the KC, but doesn't seem to go into whether the curse has any other effects on their personality/psyche. I mean, their soul is rotting in a wall somewhere! I'd love to see some version of the KC being subtly (or not-so-subtly) fucked up because of this and not knowing why until they learn the truth of the curse, and even then, will lifting the curse really free them from those feelings? How much of it is just trauma, at this point?
- Whump and h/c welcome. Darkfic welcome. "Bad ending"/monstrous Spirit Eater stuff welcome. Tragic romances that end badly are welcome too. Want to write a heartwrenching tale of the KC eating Okku, being slowly corrupted by One-Of-Many and then eventually devouring the souls of all of their friends? GO FOR IT!
- As point of fact, feel free to go heavy on the monstrous Spirit Eater stuff in general, bad ending or not. It's just good drama!!!!
- Random KC/Gann idea: I've always been tickled by the thought of the KC being attracted to Gann-the-Spirit-Shaman-constantly-hanging-out-with-spirits and not knowing if it's romantic/sexual in nature or the Spirit Eater being hungry
- I like the idea that the KC got badly burned by Bishop and is now a lot more cautious in any new relationship. They sought YOLO-esque comfort in crisis when they thought they wouldn't live to see the next year once before and they regretted it. (That said, I don't have a preference for the gender of the KC in the story or requested ships)
- Some of my favourite things about the story are the way the strings of fate tie it all together. The connection between you and Akachi, Akachi's companions and you. The way you end up retreading his footsteps, only partially by choice.
- For the Worldbuilding nom, what about something that explores the life (and death) of a previous Spirit Eater, before the KC came along? 8) Since the KC canonically still has some access to the memories of previous Spirit Eaters, you could still connect this to the main plot if you wanted, such as tapping into a previous Spirit Eater's memories to overcome a situation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firefly
Requested
Malcolm Reynolds/Simon Tam (Firefly) Malcolm Reynolds & Simon Tam (Firefly) Char: Simon Tam (Firefly)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Give me 5 or 10k of thoughtful Simon-centric nonsense and I'll be happy :)
- I would love something vaguely slow-burn-esque (as far as scope allows) for Simon/Mal
- I love the arc of the Tams and the relationship between them and Mal. Mal/Simon is my big Firefly OTP, but I don't have a preference for how shippy it should be - a lot of my own writing for them is basically tense pre-slash, and I'd looove to get something similar as a gift. But I also love slowburn getting together fic argh A;
- My big pitch for these two is that they are terrifyingly similar in their motivations and worldviews; Simon is a lot like a younger, more idealistic but already very angry version of Mal. I love that both of them are rabid about protecting the person/people they love and that is 95% of the reason they clash. I'm always down for more stories about that transition when they accept that the other person is an ally more than a threat, and the transition to found family or romance. I'm a sucker for stories where Simon risks his life to save Mal (or tries to, bless his lil noncombatant heart) or where Mal shows that Simon and River really are part of the crew. That's the good shit right there.
- Similarly good shit: The fun tension between Simon being a fish out of water and being really goddamn competent. I love fic where he gets to shine, and I love fic where he's understandably out of his depth. I love that he's a collected badass in Ariel when he's in his element and an awkward boob a lot of the rest of the time. (Speaking of which, if you want to throw some ND in there, be my guest!)
- Enthusiastic opt-in: explorations of setting-typical homophobia and internalised homophobia as long as it's not too heavy. I don't want heavy drama about bigotry and violence, but I'd love for these themes to be explored a bit. My own headcanon of Simon (and his interactions with Kaylee) is a heavily closeted gay man who on some level has probably known since early childhood that his romantic choices would be heavily scrutinised for being Respectable(TM) enough, just like everything else about him. He broke away from that when it was the only way to save River, but now he's free from those obligations and on the run, it would be interesting to see him process that change. At the same time, I think it's feasible to assume that the heavily rural and apparently quite conservative Christian culture of some of the Rim worlds (and by extension the culture of Mal, Zoe, Kaylee, etc.) isn't very progressivity, so it's not like the Firefly is some bastion of acceptance. (Mal's views on sex work certainly speak loudly there.) In short, I'd be down to see Simon and/or Mal struggling with the homophobia of the setting and the dangers of outing themselves as A) fugitive in precarious situation who's already highly dependent on the goodwill of people around him, B) backwater ship captain whose safety, not to mention that of his crew, demands on him commanding respect. However, the 'Verse is a big place of many cultures and views, so there's lots of room for characters' views to be challenged.
- Simon struggling between his loyalty to Mal and his loyalty to River will always be good, happy to read thousands of words of that anytime :3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fall
Fandom promo
Requested
Char: ARID Mark-7 (The Fall)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- I don't have many prompts for this but I remembered the game and just had to request it
- ARID interacting more with the Domesticon System Administrator post reformatting/wipe. Maybe she tries to jog his memory, and/or if that fails, attempts to reawaken his sentience/help him achieve sentience again? And maybe it goes wrong, because the kind of sentience he once achieved for himself cannot really be induced externally like that
- Alternately, anything ARID-centric, especially set pre-canon! Seeing more of her relationship with Josephs, and maybe more of the kind of behaviour that made him believe he could get her to become sentient
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Work
Requested
Fairy Prince/Noir Detective (M/M) (OW) Living Weapon Cyborg/Long-Suffering Mechanic (M/M) (OW) Rogue Android/Roguish Mechanic (M/M) (OW)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Fairy Prince/Noir Detective: I would really love to see an urban fantasy style story or comic for this! The grittiness of the noir and PI genre feels like it would be a fun combo with something fairy tale and otherworldly. I'd be happy to read something about a PI or detective encountering the supernatural world and having to navigate it to keep doing his job, and getting more than he bargained for. Maybe it's a noir world where mundanity intersects with magic and creatures and people from the fae realm have been making business chaotic and difficult as of late, and maybe the fae folk are using their powers (charm, glamour, etc.) to get unfair advantages and cheating underground criminals in cards or committing heists. In case it helps with scope, I'm very happy for / relationships to stay on the pre-slash side in a / fic; prickly UST and not-quite-flirting when characters still aren't quite sure what they mean to each other is something I love a lot.
- The Cyborg or Android and Mechanic stuff... perhaps in a cyberpunk setting, or IN SPACE? I enjoy heists and characters who are part of a criminal gang just trying to survive, settings where the ultimate antagonist is some large, structural, ruthless power (cyberpunk corporate monopolies, The Alliance a-la Firefly, etc.) and the gang are just reasonably small fry trying to make a living in that shadow. I love cyberpunk themes of technology and human augmentation and the double-edged sword of hypercompetency at the cost of technological dependency and sometimes fatal vulnerabilities. I love the idea of strong and powerful characters still being vulnerable, and the way this is exemplified by the relationship trope of a cyborg or android and someone he goes to for tech support, repairs, maintenance, etc.
- I also like the idea of a genre blend for this request. If you can think of a cool way to feature both Fairy Prince/Noir Detective as well as Cyborg-or-Android/Mechanic in this story, or if you want the fairy tale noir thing to also be set IN SPACE, or on a different planet, or in the future rather than the noir past, go for it!!! Above all I would love to read something interesting and brain-tickling and meaty for this!
(Completed 26. August '24)
Dear creator, thank you for checking out my letter! The first part is just copypasted from the sign-up to have it all in one place, then below it I have extra stuff specific to the letter, including prompts.
Day view of post for easy navigation of the readmores
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OPT-IN: Crossover/fusion with any fandom I previously requested
OPT-IN: Setting change AUs
General likes
Character studies, understated whump and hurt/comfort, bloodied & injured characters, competence porn, hidden depths, "what if" explorations of canon-divergent AUs, unexpected friendships, casual low-stakes moments, missionfic/casefic, snippet series, non-explicit but sensual and emotional non-graphic sex scenes, UST-ridden scenes that are only metaphorically sex, wireplay, fluff with a touch of bittersweetness or grimness, cyberpunk settings, cat-and-mouse, cloak-and-dagger, the Eroticism of the Machine(TM), wild nature, the aesthetic of ruin and tangled industrial locales, animals of all kind including spiders, bugs and creepy-crawlies, rats
General DNWs
Explicit rating (whether sex or violence), noncon, kidfic, noncanonical incest or underage, pregnancy of POV characters, focus on needles or surgery (especially cutting and IVs), focus on IRL modern era geopolitics, eye horror/trauma
NSFW likes
I am less interested in specific kinks and more interested in whatever makes for a scene that is sensual, emotional, and/or full of vulnerability for the given set of characters! I also really enjoy it when characters are conflicted about what they're doing or who they're doing it with! :) :) I also love it when scenes are interrupted or characters change their minds before things can get really explicit.
NSFW DNWs
While I DNW explicit smut, these should help pick a good direction to take a less explicit shippy work!
Omegaverse, scat, watersports, bloodplay, rimming, fisting, stuffing, noncon (dubcon A-okay!), most kinks that would fall under degradation or humiliation
DNW clarifications
- Kidfic: Flashbacks are fine, characters thinking about their time as kids is fine, characters thinking about being or having children is fine. What I don't want is the fairly specific fic type where adult characters are turned into kids (transformation or "what if all the blorbos were toddlers"-type AUs), or fics that are about acquiring a child and taking care of them. Baby goats are fine and absolutely encouraged within the bounds of plot-appropriateness. (/Battleship joke)
- Focus on surgery and needles: Needles or surgery appearing in the story are fine (and often hard to avoid given I sometimes request doctors, etc.!) Mentions of people getting shots or being dosed with something are fine. Someone being threatened with a needle or surgery is fine. I just don't want detailed descriptions of *shudder* needles sliding into skin, plungers depressing, skin being cut open, tattoos being applied, things like that. It may be helpful to think of this as DNW Detailed Descriptions of Invasive Things Happening to Skin On-Page.
- Focus on IRL modern era geopolitics: Having it be in the backdrop or part of the setting is fine. What I don't want is having it be a driving force of the plot.
This section contains stuff I forgot to put in the sign-up.
More likes
- Non-sexual intimacy (holding each other close when you think you're about to die, huddling for warmth, "oh thank god we're still alive" hugs, platonic cuddling or casual body contact)
- Intimacy that is sexual but not smutty (pillow talk, lazy mornings after, waking up together, etc.)
- Slow-burn-like vibes and romantic/sexual relationships growing from strong bonds
- Relationships forged in fire, bonding over trauma, codependency, friendships and romantic/sexual relationships that are hard to categorise in terms of whether they're a good thing/helpful or not.
- Ill-advised relationships as coping mechanisms
- Competency, characters leaning into their very different strengths
- I welcome side characters and side plots. For all of these requests, I'm happy for the requested characters or ships to share focus with others if it makes for a good story
- ROBOTS AND CYBORGS AND CHARACTERS WITH MACHINE PARTS
- The Eroticism of the Machine
Art likes
I'm not very picky, but I will say I really like organic and sketchy styles, I slightly prefer them to cleaner or vector-based styles. But this is not a hard preference. I'm super into "messy" styles, inking with the sketch still showing, and that kind of thing. I prefer colours over b&w. My favourite art styles are those on the realistic side of the spectrum in terms of proportions, but still very clearly stylised (including anime, etc.).
Opt-in elaboration
- Crossover/fusion with AFIRB: Basically, if you have a really interesting crossover idea, go for it! I don't expect the crossed over things to be in the same genre or medium.
- Setting change AUs: Ditto. I enjoy setting change AUs that facilitate a kind of character study, like who would these people be if you changed some of the background elements that shaped them? Or, alternately, how would these characters' passions and priorities manifest in a completely different but still comparable setting? (E.g. a character who fights injustice fighting a different injustice if you plonk them in a different setting, a crafty scrappy character taking advantage of totally different systems than in their home setting, etc...)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Invisible Inc
Fandom Promo
Requested
Char: Tony Xu (Invisible Inc) Char: Brian Decker (Invisible Inc) Char: Alex "Sharp" McTeague (Invisible Inc) Brian Decker/Tony Xu (Invisible Inc) Alex "Sharp" McTeague/Tony Xu (Invisible Inc)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Pre-canon recruitment stories
- Post-canon: reacting to Incognita's takeover, characters who were captured during the raid being set free and finding out most of the agency is dead, etc.
- Mission!fic and scenes where agents save each other's lives
- Captivity!fic of an agent held in a Detention Center
- Adrenaline-fuelled making out or hook-ups during the post-raid campaign or simply between tense missions
- MedGel (and situations that require MedGel) played for whump, drama, horror, horniness, or all of the above simultaneously
- Agents being at each other's throats in their off hours, only to work together like a well-oiled machine when the situation gets dire
- Bonding over augmentation and its effects - whether it's chronic pain, feeling like corporate property, the limitations or new abilities
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Citizen Sleeper
Requested
Ethan & Sleeper (Citizen Sleeper) Char: Sleeper (Citizen Sleeper)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- I'm enamoured with the part of the game when you're actively fleeing your old corporate masters, represented by bounty hunters who are not entirely free themselves. The song and dance between the Sleeper and Ethan, the way Ethan drags the capture out, his own clear self-loathing and host of issues? It's great, can we have more of that?
- Canon Divergence: What if Ethan had actually successfully taken Sleeper off the Eye and was journeying back to Essen-Arp with the Sleeper in tow? Without Maywick, and just him and the Sleeper, and maybe struggling to stay dedicated to his plan with even more time spent around Sleeper and coming to see them unavoidably as a person. Or with Maywick, who is far more ruthless towards Sleeper and would be the one calling the shots. What I really want from this character combination is a scenario where Ethan's resolve cracks and he takes Sleeper's side, and he maybe even redeems himself a little (whether Sleeper can ever trust him or forgive him is a very different question).
- Sleeper has no luck with Feng disabling the tracker, or Feng failed, or Ethan finds out about that subquest
- Ethan finally tracks down Sleeper but they have become part of the mushroom sentient loci!
- Magical AU where Ethan is a bit less of a bastard and actually becomes Sleeper's bodyguard
- An AU where things end much differently, for better or worse. Maybe the Hunter gets the Sleeper, or Ankhita talks things out with Ashton after all, or Ethan gets exactly what he wants (and has the chance to regret it)
- Sleeper getting hacked or catching malware while exploring the netspace, and another character helping them deal with it
- Though if the other character is Ethan, what if he's the one who tried to hack Sleeper to get them cooperative?
- Sleeper getting hacked by Castor in canon was terrifying! Let's have more similar moments! :) More of Castor or a similar character using Sleeper's own vulnerabilities to threaten someone they care about!
- I would prefer this one to have the same overall hopeful tone as the game.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neverwinter Nights
Forum format let's play for canon review
Requested
Knight Captain & Safiya (Neverwinter Nights) Knight Captain & Gannayev of Dreams Neverwinter Nights) Char: Safiya (Neverwinter Knights) Char: Knight Captain (Neverwinter Nights) Char: Kaelyn the Dove (Neverwinter Knights) Oth: Worldbuilding (Neverwinter Nights)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Spirit/dream realm shenanigans. Explorations of trauma, memory & identity loss. History repeating itself.
- The game shows the way the Hunger affects the KC, but doesn't seem to go into whether the curse has any other effects on their personality/psyche. I mean, their soul is rotting in a wall somewhere! I'd love to see some version of the KC being subtly (or not-so-subtly) fucked up because of this and not knowing why until they learn the truth of the curse, and even then, will lifting the curse really free them from those feelings? How much of it is just trauma, at this point?
- Whump and h/c welcome. Darkfic welcome. "Bad ending"/monstrous Spirit Eater stuff welcome. Tragic romances that end badly are welcome too. Want to write a heartwrenching tale of the KC eating Okku, being slowly corrupted by One-Of-Many and then eventually devouring the souls of all of their friends? GO FOR IT!
- As point of fact, feel free to go heavy on the monstrous Spirit Eater stuff in general, bad ending or not. It's just good drama!!!!
- Random KC/Gann idea: I've always been tickled by the thought of the KC being attracted to Gann-the-Spirit-Shaman-constantly-hanging-out-with-spirits and not knowing if it's romantic/sexual in nature or the Spirit Eater being hungry
- I like the idea that the KC got badly burned by Bishop and is now a lot more cautious in any new relationship. They sought YOLO-esque comfort in crisis when they thought they wouldn't live to see the next year once before and they regretted it. (That said, I don't have a preference for the gender of the KC in the story or requested ships)
- Some of my favourite things about the story are the way the strings of fate tie it all together. The connection between you and Akachi, Akachi's companions and you. The way you end up retreading his footsteps, only partially by choice.
- For the Worldbuilding nom, what about something that explores the life (and death) of a previous Spirit Eater, before the KC came along? 8) Since the KC canonically still has some access to the memories of previous Spirit Eaters, you could still connect this to the main plot if you wanted, such as tapping into a previous Spirit Eater's memories to overcome a situation
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firefly
Requested
Malcolm Reynolds/Simon Tam (Firefly) Malcolm Reynolds & Simon Tam (Firefly) Char: Simon Tam (Firefly)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Give me 5 or 10k of thoughtful Simon-centric nonsense and I'll be happy :)
- I would love something vaguely slow-burn-esque (as far as scope allows) for Simon/Mal
- I love the arc of the Tams and the relationship between them and Mal. Mal/Simon is my big Firefly OTP, but I don't have a preference for how shippy it should be - a lot of my own writing for them is basically tense pre-slash, and I'd looove to get something similar as a gift. But I also love slowburn getting together fic argh A;
- My big pitch for these two is that they are terrifyingly similar in their motivations and worldviews; Simon is a lot like a younger, more idealistic but already very angry version of Mal. I love that both of them are rabid about protecting the person/people they love and that is 95% of the reason they clash. I'm always down for more stories about that transition when they accept that the other person is an ally more than a threat, and the transition to found family or romance. I'm a sucker for stories where Simon risks his life to save Mal (or tries to, bless his lil noncombatant heart) or where Mal shows that Simon and River really are part of the crew. That's the good shit right there.
- Similarly good shit: The fun tension between Simon being a fish out of water and being really goddamn competent. I love fic where he gets to shine, and I love fic where he's understandably out of his depth. I love that he's a collected badass in Ariel when he's in his element and an awkward boob a lot of the rest of the time. (Speaking of which, if you want to throw some ND in there, be my guest!)
- Enthusiastic opt-in: explorations of setting-typical homophobia and internalised homophobia as long as it's not too heavy. I don't want heavy drama about bigotry and violence, but I'd love for these themes to be explored a bit. My own headcanon of Simon (and his interactions with Kaylee) is a heavily closeted gay man who on some level has probably known since early childhood that his romantic choices would be heavily scrutinised for being Respectable(TM) enough, just like everything else about him. He broke away from that when it was the only way to save River, but now he's free from those obligations and on the run, it would be interesting to see him process that change. At the same time, I think it's feasible to assume that the heavily rural and apparently quite conservative Christian culture of some of the Rim worlds (and by extension the culture of Mal, Zoe, Kaylee, etc.) isn't very progressivity, so it's not like the Firefly is some bastion of acceptance. (Mal's views on sex work certainly speak loudly there.) In short, I'd be down to see Simon and/or Mal struggling with the homophobia of the setting and the dangers of outing themselves as A) fugitive in precarious situation who's already highly dependent on the goodwill of people around him, B) backwater ship captain whose safety, not to mention that of his crew, demands on him commanding respect. However, the 'Verse is a big place of many cultures and views, so there's lots of room for characters' views to be challenged.
- Simon struggling between his loyalty to Mal and his loyalty to River will always be good, happy to read thousands of words of that anytime :3
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Fall
Fandom promo
Requested
Char: ARID Mark-7 (The Fall)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- I don't have many prompts for this but I remembered the game and just had to request it
- ARID interacting more with the Domesticon System Administrator post reformatting/wipe. Maybe she tries to jog his memory, and/or if that fails, attempts to reawaken his sentience/help him achieve sentience again? And maybe it goes wrong, because the kind of sentience he once achieved for himself cannot really be induced externally like that
- Alternately, anything ARID-centric, especially set pre-canon! Seeing more of her relationship with Josephs, and maybe more of the kind of behaviour that made him believe he could get her to become sentient
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Original Work
Requested
Fairy Prince/Noir Detective (M/M) (OW) Living Weapon Cyborg/Long-Suffering Mechanic (M/M) (OW) Rogue Android/Roguish Mechanic (M/M) (OW)
Mediums
All
Prompts
- Fairy Prince/Noir Detective: I would really love to see an urban fantasy style story or comic for this! The grittiness of the noir and PI genre feels like it would be a fun combo with something fairy tale and otherworldly. I'd be happy to read something about a PI or detective encountering the supernatural world and having to navigate it to keep doing his job, and getting more than he bargained for. Maybe it's a noir world where mundanity intersects with magic and creatures and people from the fae realm have been making business chaotic and difficult as of late, and maybe the fae folk are using their powers (charm, glamour, etc.) to get unfair advantages and cheating underground criminals in cards or committing heists. In case it helps with scope, I'm very happy for / relationships to stay on the pre-slash side in a / fic; prickly UST and not-quite-flirting when characters still aren't quite sure what they mean to each other is something I love a lot.
- The Cyborg or Android and Mechanic stuff... perhaps in a cyberpunk setting, or IN SPACE? I enjoy heists and characters who are part of a criminal gang just trying to survive, settings where the ultimate antagonist is some large, structural, ruthless power (cyberpunk corporate monopolies, The Alliance a-la Firefly, etc.) and the gang are just reasonably small fry trying to make a living in that shadow. I love cyberpunk themes of technology and human augmentation and the double-edged sword of hypercompetency at the cost of technological dependency and sometimes fatal vulnerabilities. I love the idea of strong and powerful characters still being vulnerable, and the way this is exemplified by the relationship trope of a cyborg or android and someone he goes to for tech support, repairs, maintenance, etc.
- I also like the idea of a genre blend for this request. If you can think of a cool way to feature both Fairy Prince/Noir Detective as well as Cyborg-or-Android/Mechanic in this story, or if you want the fairy tale noir thing to also be set IN SPACE, or on a different planet, or in the future rather than the noir past, go for it!!! Above all I would love to read something interesting and brain-tickling and meaty for this!
