General Letter 2024

[firstroad]

First of all, thank you so much for writing for me! I'm excited for anything you come up with, and very easy to please :D Feel free to mix and match any of the likes, or borrow something from one fandom/pairing for another, or dust off that fic at the bottom of your drawer! Most importantly, I hope you have fun, this letter exists only in case you like more details.

I don't particularly have specific dynamics in mind (or ways I want to see anything portrayed!) and love getting surprised! My general take is that the worst case scenario is that I'll learn something new about my preferences, which is really not a bad scenario at all - if you have an idea, no matter how "safe" or how out-there it is, please go for it


Contents:
Likes | NSFW likes | DNWs | Common dislikes I'm okay with


Likes:
(alphabetically, not in order of preference):

• action & combat
• acts of/attempts at comfort that get lost in translation, or ones that result in disproportionate consequences or roll-on effects
• adapting to new situations (new places, new disabilities, new roles) & the consequences of the new situation
• adrenaline junkies
• adventures
• aged up characters
• ambiguous relationships or themes or ambiguity in general
• ambition (as a good thing or as something leading to downfall)
• amnesia, especially if it's either "used to be close but fell out and the amnesiac person still thinks they're close" or "used to be enemies but grew close and amnesiac character doesn't remember getting close"
• anger & hatred
• angst
• anticipatory grief; grief that's there even when the loss hasn't happened yet
• anything that allows my ships to dissolve the boundary of flesh between them (telepathy, soulbonds that never get resolved, mind melding, literally biting chunks of each other's flesh off, body swap, sharing a body, etc)
• arrogance (whether the character is self-aware about it or not)
• traditional astrology
• AUs:
  • bloodsport-related (death games, gladiators, anything else) (willingly, for fun, coerced into it, whatever!)
  • pop idol ones (the personas! the hating your coworkers but having to be gay4pay to entice the fans! losing who you were in pursuit of an image!) (so, relatedly, any AU that allows those themes)
  • canon-typical plot but in space!
  • ones that look like fantasy but are actually scifi
  • cyberpunk / futuristic-setting ones
  • sports and extreme sports AUs (I am partial to swimming and basketball and high-altitude mountaineering, but honestly into everything that allows characters to give up their long-term health in pursuit of short-term glory and treat their body as a machine. Though I'm also very into characters just loving the sport for the sport's sake!)
  • worldbuilding-y tacked-on-top-of-canon ones (soulmates, regular soulbonds, canon but ft. androids, where the existence of the new element changes society)
• being disposable & aware of it
• benevolent monsters (interpret 'monsters' however you want!)
• betray them (or otherwise hurt them) to save them trope
• biting (playful or mean or feral-adjacent or to eat or anything else)
• bittersweetness
• blackmail
• body swap
• bodies!! Just, the experience of having a body. (it changing with the passage of time, wanted or unwanted medical surgeries, wanted or unwanted cosmetic surgeries, only ever using your higher register to appear cute™, soreness or damage from [repeated action, mundane or not])
• breaking up & making up (actually the making up is optional, I love break-ups on their own too!)
• canon divergence
• canon setting but [big key difference]
• captivity
• (genuinely) caring for and standing by people who you don't trust
• case fic
• catharsis through violence
• characters being liars and frauds
• characters being deliberately mean/petty/cruel to each other (even if they love each other!)
• characters finding happiness in each other/finding joy in small things/"us against the world" narratives (these don't have to be related)
• characters not seeing or being oblivious to their selfishness/glaring flaws
• characters being oblivious to how what they're seeking is bad for them / changing their motive to what they think they want rather than what they actually want
• characters unpreoccupied with getting comfort/reassurance/love (they can get it or they can not, they can deserve it or not, they can want it after getting it or not -- I just love it when they don't seek it out)
• characters' virtues intensifying into flaws
• characters with weird (or otherwise not the best) morals, which nevertheless nobody tries to change (or someone even adopts)
• clashing worldviews
• class issues/imbalance
• codependency
• communication that's about anything but what needs to get talked about
• competence
• competitions (with extremely low or extremely high stakes both)
• complicated relationships
• compromise
• conflict / fighting (both in the verbal and physical sense) (within the ship or in general)
• contradictions within a single character -- someone being very selfless but ultimately managing to hurt many people around them with their behaviour, or someone being primarily driven by anger and still managing to be kind without ever losing that anger, etc.
• corruption
• crack treated seriously
• crew as crew - more complicated than friends or family
• crossdressing (especially if treated as something casual/non-sexual) / anything clothes-related
• crying (sad or happy or from frustration or from pain or from cutting onions)
• culture clash
• dancing (argentinian tango? ballet? ballroom? street dance? anything!)
• dark fluff
• darkfic in general
• denial
• details that "nobody" else might care for but the author does (if you know a lot of details about, idk, hornets, I would love to learn as well!)
• developing relationships
• disillusionment
• (otherwise cute) domestic acts as self-harm (being there for someone each time they call, bedsharing, fixing up their apartment, etc.)
• domesticity but where the characters are Freaking Out about said domesticity, for whatever reason
• doom being actually inevitable; characters finding happiness anyway. quiet moments happening anyway
• dynamics based on pragmatism - choosing to be with someone because they're the best available choice (whether that grows to become love or mutual infidelity or whatever else)
• dysfunctional relationships (or ones that are objectively dysfunctional but look, they WORK for the people involved in them, okay!)
• earnest attempts at affection being perceived as smothering
• eerie tenderness & tenderness you can't trust
• emotional repression
• enemies/rivals to friends (to lovers) (and the reverse!)
• enemies to still enemies who now have complicated feelings
• enemies and lovers
• enemies/friends with benefits to lovers
• the eroticism of parasitic relationships
• the eroticism of a mutualistic relationship that turns parasitic
• established relationships
• estrangement
• experiments! whether that means the characters trying new things or lab experiments or medical experiments or having any of those done to them (you can interpret this either very happily or very darkly)
• extreme sports
• falling for the "wrong" person
• falling in love with the target trope
• fantasy politics
• faustian bargains
• fighting equals flirting
• fix-it's that end up breaking something else (or straight up make-it-worse's)
• fluff that's fluff for the characters involved but would probably be horrifying to an outsider
• forced intimacy; fake/pretend relationships not born out of 100% willing eager choice
• the opposite of found family; people who you find and who find you and who you love but you'll never mesh well with
• gender expression-adjacent things with absolutely zero gender introspection
• gestures of love (whether normal ones like 'I saw this keychain in your favourite colour so I got it for you!' or extreme ones like 'this person bothered you, so I killed them')
• god complexes
• otherwise good people with sadistic streaks
• grief
• successfully hiding things from loved ones (whether it's for a good reason or not) (whether that harms them in the long run or not!)
• "history repeats itself, first as a tragedy, second as a farce"
• horror (body horror, medical horror, cosmic horror... everything!)
• horses (and birds! and pegasus! or other horse-bird creatures!)
• hurt/comfort (especially physical), hurt without comfort (physical or emotional) (deliberate or accidental)
• "I'm not doing this for you"
• identity porn / mistaken identity
• “if you can’t beat them, join them”
• ignoring naysayers leading to ignoring valid concerns
• the illusion of choice
• impulse decisions leading to getting stuck in multi-year [whatever]
• in-universe documents
• internalised homophobia
• jerks who have a heart of gold deep down who are even bigger jerks deeper down
• lack of guilt, even in a situation in which it's the expected emotion (unless it's incest, in which case 'ALL the guilt' is loved)
• lost causes
• lotus eater machines (the trope, but also literal ones if you can get them to work)
• love turning people more brutal instead of mellowing them out (whatever 'brutal' means to you - in words, in actions, in resolve, anything)
• loving [objectively terrible situation or thing or setting or action] (and the realisation that you might be the only one who feels that way)
• loyalty without fealty
• m/m to f/f genderswap (whether of the 'always a different sex' variety or of the 'touched/drank something and now whoopsie is all changed' variety or dimension travel to a place where they're like that or whatever else)
• man VS. monster narratives where the monster wins - and that's not a bad thing (internally or literally or what)
• manhandling, whether in the sexy way or very much not that
• manipulation / deceit
• masks (both in the literal and persona-related sense) / masquerades / carnival
• mind games
• mind meld
• mirrorverse / alternate dimensions where events of canon went differently
• misaligned love languages
• misplaced trust
• missing scenes
• mission fic!
• moral dillemas with no right answer
• mourning your past self
• murder games
• nature!
• natural disasters
• "nobody knows you like I do"
• non-linear narratives / unusual narrative styles
• not-quite-high-school-sweethearts trying again in adulthood
• not knowing where character X ends and character Y begins
• obsessive behaviour (mutual; yandere-like; yandere but where the victim develops their own extreme obsession back; all of it!)
• on the run
• pain (emotional or physical)
• physical touch
• political marriages
• post-canon / futurefic
• power struggles / explorations of power dynamics
• pride (as a good thing, as a flaw, as a reason for downfall, as a reason for breakup, as anything)
• the private VS. the public
• psychological horror
• puppets and shadow play/theatre
• recontextualising aspects of characters or worldbuilding that were added to canon because of Rule of Cool/Rule of Funny; how the logical conclusion of those often is something extremely bleak
• regret of the 'SHOULD have done that' rather than of the 'SHOULDN'T have done that' variety
• religious themes & motifs, of any real-world or made up religion, including as just window dressing
• resentment
• rituals
• reunions
• role reversals
• rollerblading
• sacrifice (willing or not, religious, of the character, of things they love, of their past... any kind!) (whether it is portrayed as positive or as a bad decision!) (if self-sacrifice, bonus points if it IS objectively the best course of action)
• sadomasochism where both parties are into both (very much not necessarily in a smutty sense)
• scenery porn; similarly, stories where it feels like the setting is a character as well
• science-y things (whether based on actual science or taking scientific terms and running with bizarre theories)
• second chances, or refusing to give them
• secrets & secret reveals
• secret relationships (not necessarily secret from everyone); relationships which aren't secret in theory, but in practice the characters just happen to never tell anyone about it
• selfcest
• self-identity issues of any and all kinds
• short term sacrifices for the sake of a long-term cause/delayed gratification (whether that gratification comes or not)
• sparring
• sports
• small glimmers of hope in otherwise extremely bleak situations
• staying in a situation/setting/occupation/whatever they don't like because of stubbornness, even if they know exactly what else they'd rather be doing
• (the dynamic of) very strong person/their favourite (possibly also very strong person)
• the sun - as a motif, just descriptions of it, folklore around it (real or made up), in mythology, a character quite literally Being the sun in some fantasy way, as a tarot card, anything!
• superiority complexes
• survival stories & survival horror
• talent vs. hard work narratives from the POV of the talent; favourite / golden child vs. derided child narratives from the POV of the favoured one // anything tying to Being The Favourite One in general (whether they feel like they earned it or they think they deserve it by virtue of [whatever] or they don't even notice/realise)
• technology, in general, but also as a vehicle for horror -- it going so extremely right in being advanced that living beings can no longer understand it
• time loops/any time- or dimension-traveling-related trope
• that line by Ocean Vuong: "I miss you more than I remember you"
• that tweet by arod_twit that went like "characters [..] are too self aware now. every emotional convo is like «I guess I yelled at you earlier because I never processed my dad leaving» no!! no!!! flush someone's blood pressure medication because they called you lazy"
• "there was no other way for this to go"
• being a tool/weapon and being fine with it
• transformations (literal or figurative)
• trope subversions
• seemingly unconnected things being connected
• unconventional happy endings
• any undercover trope ever
• unequal levels of investment; X loves Y but Y likes X (or the complete opposite: they're so invested in each other they miss what's going on in the entire rest of the world)
• unreliable narrators
• validating another's insecurities, in the 'yes, you DO suck at X, you are correct to be insecure about X' sense (including between requested ships) (whether the end goal is to make them feel bad, or to overcome the insecurity -- separately or together -- or to acknowledge it exists and doesn't need to be fixed)
• willing solitude / being lonely out of choice (because of the setting or emotionally or what) (out of perceived obligation or happily or temporarily or whatever else)
• worldbuilding (all sorts - small cultural details, beliefs, fantasy politics - especially for crossovers! - , mundane usages of the magical system, frankly anything, I'm nr.1 worldbuilding fan. it is always okay to disregard all my requests to focus on worldbuilding)
• "you can change what you do, but you can't change what you want"

The most general idea of my likes is basically anything that includes sensory details and character flaws. The entire gift could be a description of a character perceiving a waterfall and I'd be in love! Also, if I'm not specifying a preference somewhere just assume I genuinely do not have any.





NSFW likes:
- violence & gore (elaborated below)
- if D/s or any dynamic with a power differential exists, I'd like to ask that submission be a conscious internal choice (whether eager or reluctant), as opposed to someone's "default" or how they always are
- stone tops
- focus on chests (this is in this section for all the obvious reasons, but honestly, I love this in a very SFW/non-horny way too. I just find it a very beautiful part of the human or mechanical body!)
- sex being used for character/relationship study purposes
- bad sex, bad idea sex, genuinely unsatisfactory sex, dysfunctional communication during sex, desire asymmetry
- things that are objectively not sex being, in fact, a sex scene
- sex as self harm
- non-penetrative sex
- sex without orgasms; sex where orgasms aren't necessarily the end goal; multi-hour sex for the sake of it
- sex that is not about sex at all but about something else
- honestly I'm more interested in everything surrounding sex and a character's specific desire (for something sexual, or for something non-sexual which they take out on their sex life anyway, or for another person -- whether that person is their current partner or someone else -- etc.), rather than, like, the mechanics of smut
- related to the above: using a third party as a substitute for the other half of the requested ship; using the other half of the requested ship as a substitute for a third party or for non-sexual emotional release (pertaining to anger, violence, sadness, enthusiasm, anything), especially if said other half is aware of it
- relatedly, thinking that the other half is using them as a substitute for a third party or emotional release, when this is not the case, and all the things that might've made them think so

- beyond that, I'm open! I do mean it - I'm neutral on most things and it's hard to squick me out.

If I have specific configuration/dynamic preferences they're going to be in the signup; if I do, top/bottom refer only to insertive and receptive partner respectively and nothing else; if I don't, assume I like every ship as vers (&switch, where relevant) -- if that's not something you like, I'd enjoy whichever dynamic is less popular in the fandom!

Gore likes (toggleable in case you don't want to see these)

• amputation
• bodily fluid A going where bodily fluid B should be
• bone breaking
• both parties going at each other, both enjoying it
• carving words on skin
• character on the receiving end enjoying it, whether reluctantly or happily (but I do also very much like when they don't!)
• complete lack of tools - just someone's hands and teeth and whatever else
• consensual romantic cannibalism (especially if both sides are doing it)
• cutting tendons
• cheerful violence
• dislocations made worse
• eroticised self-harm
• gore done completely lovingly and romantically from both sides
• gore done in passion - out of extreme love or anger or anything
• gore that's treated as no big deal, something that happens on a weekly basis, especially if there are ways to heal. Like oh yes X took my eye out haha we're going out for lunch later.
• gratuitous bleeding (as far as I'm concerned the human body has, like, 16lt of blood in it :P)
• harm done to faces, necks, clavicles, shoulders
• improper use of gardening tools
• killing someone who just won't! stay! dead!
• makeshift medical attention / battlefield surgery / performing stitches or amputations or anything else on oneself or a loved one out of necessity
• mutilation (of others or of the self)
• pain, in general
• partial healing used to prolong the harm, or so it can be done again and again
• purposeful burns
• regeneration ft. gore (whether the character has actual regenerative skills, or it's an illusion, or a hallucination, or just mind games, or minutes-long time travel, or whatever other reason!)
• sex in blood (their own, someone else's, whatever else)
• something somehow tearing
• sutures
• the sexual connotations of surgery
• torture in general
• woundfucking
  • wound fingering
• there are probably so very many things I'm forgetting

DNWs: (Please check signup - these are subject to change)

• pregnancy being a major focus (and subsequently miscarriage or abortion or reproductive rights being a major focus)
• M on F noncon (no recovery plot either please)
• first person POV in narration
• explicit underage (under 18) sex (fine if aged up for the purpose of the fic)
• permanent character death of requested characters (character death for timeloops, or to be turned into a vampire or whatever is all OK)
• terminal illness
• unrequested gender or body-altering headcanons (e.g. muscle/fat loss or gain that doesn't return to canonical levels of it, flat-chested characters suddenly being busty, anything that changes the character's appearance, characters being a different height than that which is depicted in canon) (body modifications as part of a sci-fi universe, non-canon long-term disabilities or injuries very welcome)
• De-aging, the requested characters being parents or kids.
• detailed descriptions of cooked food or the process of cooking
• for non-mundane canons, AUs that remove every fantasy/sci-fi/action element (AUs that include completely different SFF elements from canon are OK) (AUs that are set in the real world but which contain action or heavily-physical elements built into the premise such as pro athlete/spy/bodyguard or survival stories like deserted islands are OK)

Not at all a DNW (or even a dislike!), but since this is a common like: focus on X difference (size difference, age difference, difference with regards to how experienced they are about something, height difference...) does nothing for me :') I see it as a mere fact that just kinda exists.



Common dislikes I'm okay with:
- addiction
- canon-typical or setting-typical bigotry (whether expressed by or towards the requested characters)
- body horror, horror in general
- extremely graphic violence / gore / torture
- cheating/adultery (my ships cheating on each other or with each other both)
- OCs as love interests (I do however prefer F/F and M/M to F/M)
- unrequited love/one-sided relationships
- second person POV (1st person also great in any in-universe document)
- fusions (I don't need to know the canon, as long as the fic explains everything relevant or I can wiki it)
- crossovers (between any of the fandoms I've ever requested or with HP, because even if a fandom is very very big the probability that I don't know it is high :') )
- insects
- embarrassment / humiliation / etc
- eating disorders / self-harm / suicide attempts / etc
- bodily fluids that aren't faeces (urine, vomit, stomach acid, etc)
- incest, including cross-generational incest, including AUs where two unrelated characters are now adoptive siblings/step siblings/related somehow/whatever else
- omegaverse (especially if A/A or A/B or B/B etc... anything that's not A/O! especially if there's worldbuilding!)
- asexuality headcanons (although I'd prefer for it to not be articulated as such in the fic, unless it's a canon taking place in the 21st century world with characters who would know and actively use that word)
- any level of consent for M/M and F/F, for background or requested ships both
- relatedly, unexpected characters as the ones inflicting trauma or being capable of doing so (e.g. the hero of the story, the character often seen as the beloved fandom woobie), whether to side characters or to the other half of the requested ship
- kind of relatedly, I have no issues with my faves being portrayed as bad partners, bad friends, "bad people" in general. If you can make up a reason, or take a trait of theirs and make it reach a possible logical conclusion, and have that conclusion be that they aren't all that great, I'll happily roll with it! The only thing I ask is that it doesn't turn into the kind of divide in which one side is fully at fault, and the other completely blameless.
- unhappy endings
- background canon or non-canon ships


If anything I ever say in a signup/letter/etc contradicts a DNW: I just forgot about it. Ignore the DNW.