Yuletide 2023

[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 in all this 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




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 off each other, 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 high-altitude mountaineering, but honestly into everything that allows characters to give up their long-term health in pursuit of short-term glory and treating the body as a machine, but also just loving the sport)
  • 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)
• 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/being oblivious to their selfishness/glaring flaws/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 with weird/not-the-best morals that nobody tries to change (or 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/unsexual) / 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 it, 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 (interpret this 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
• 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 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!
• mourning your past self
• murder games
• nature!
• natural disasters
• "nobody knows you like I do"
• non-linear narratives / unusual narrative styles
• 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
• 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
• (in-universe) 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)
• secrets & secret reveals
• 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
• 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 / 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
• 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:
- 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
- sex being used for character/relationship study purposes
- bad sex, bad idea sex, genuinely unsatisfactory sex, dysfunctional communication during sex, desire asymmetry
- sex as self harm
- 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 not-sexual (which they take out on their sex life anyway) or for another person etc.), rather than, like, the mechanics of smut
- things that are objectively not sex being, in fact, a sex scene

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

- violence & gore (elaborated below)

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

Crueltide comment here!


DNWs:
- any terminal illness or non-canonical pregnancy or m on f noncon, including mentions
- on-page pregnancy in general
- detailed descriptions of cooked food or the process of cooking
- any gender changes other than "always a woman" AUs (if I'm requesting more than one male character, please swap both)
- requested characters in het
- permanent death of requested characters



Common dislikes I'm okay with:
- addiction
- bigotry
- body horror, horror in general
- extremely graphic violence / gore / torture
- cheating/adultery (my ships cheating on each other or with each other both)
- 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)
- any level of consent for M/M and F/F
- unhappy endings

Dare Me (TV 2019)

Characters: Beth Cassidy, Addy Hanlon

Let me preface this by saying I've read the book as well and love both canons equally - if you prefer book canon over show canon, feel free to go down that route! I ship Beth and Addy but I also love them as purely platonic friends (with their weird definition of friendship), and as something completely different -- perhaps the in-between? Which is to say, please interpret them as you see fit! I will love it.

• Cheer camp! I'd love to see them there.


• Slice of life of their days pre-Colette. Or post-Colette. What changes post-canon?


• Horror tied to cheerleading -- body horror, good old slasher horror, hauntings.


• Something where their lack of communication somehow lands them in a happier spot anyway, platonically or romantically.


• The reverse: how their relationship just keeps falling apart. Is anyone collateral?


• Addy's unreliability catching up to her.


• Honestly, you'd have to put in effort to make something I dislike - have fun!

Darker than Black

Characters: Hei

Fandom-specific DNWs: Gemini of the meteor as the main setting/plot/focus (taking elements from it is fine)

I ship him with November 11 and Nick Hillman, but you absolutely don't have to include that! I would also love Hei & Bai exploration.

Another fandom that I adore :D I love how it's kind of impossible to explain it until after you've got several episodes deep into it, and therefore I have trouble fully fleshing out my thoughts.

• Any mission fic!


• Delving deeper into the physiology of contractors. Or their psychology. Or both!


• Any Gate weirdness, honestly. Both with regards to what happened in the past and the current one.


• Good old character study!!


• What if the Saturn Ring hadn't been reversed?


• Frankly literally anything pre-, during, or post-canon would be amazing.


• If you have a divergent/totally AU idea that you want to write, go for it!

If that's where your interests lie, feel free to go as dark as you want! Hei was quite cruel to Havoc, I doubt that's an one off occurrence (either by him, or to him).

Psycho-Pass

Characters: Kougami Shinya, Makishima Shougo

Permanent character death of requested characters waived for this fandom. I do ship them, but I'm a huge gen fan as well -- go where your heart takes you.

I love the obsession most of all! I would love more of it, whether the person they're obsessing over is dead or alive. Just give me everything with them, because this kind of dynamic is the kind I always eat up :D Being similar, understanding each other deeply, and still being on opposite sides.

• Proper meeting while Kougami was still an inspector?


• Or even earlier, before Makishima had fully settled on his goal. Would this change anything?


• AU where Makishima survives - are those hallucinations during the movies actually hallucinations?


• More of those hallucinations -- lean into the horror of it all, if you wish!


• A common threat -- would that be enough to force them to work together?


• Moments of thinking of the other; replaying scenes; dedicating pretentious literature to the other


• I think bodyswap would be hilarious here - would it include hue swap?


• Anything else!

W.I.T.C.H. (Comics)
Characters: Irma lair

I love Irma! I love how stubborn she is, but how she still holds self-respect and won't keep on pressing a matter obviously lost, and how INCREDIBLY attached she is to the fact that they have powers. I love issue #57 (I think it was 57, haha) because you can SEE the moment her priorities and the way she views some things change.

In general I do prefer the tone of the first two issues to the rest of the series, so something disregarding everything else and going based on those is also something I'd love.

As far as ships go, I ship her romantically with any of the other members of W.I.T.C.H. and Orube! Platonically I enjoy her relationship with quite honestly every single character in canon.

• Post-canon, post-graduation guardian-ing? Do the girls specifically choose to stay nearby? Do they scatter for work/university? Does that pose any problem?
• Loss of powers, temporarily or permanently. She ties so much of her self-identity to them, she feels so special because of them… how would that go?
• A little bit related to the above, there is contrast in the way Cornelia is actually burdened by their powers and quite happy to get rid of them. An exploration of that and if/how it’d impact their relationship would be nice!
• Despite them currently having an amazing relationship, we don’t see much of Irma and her stepmom. I’d love anything with them! How do they spend time together? If something less overly-fluffy, was the relationship always rosy? Did they have to overcome anything to get where they are?
• Not in line with the tone of the canon, but I do love horror! I think it can work especially well in a de-powered AU where she'll be unable to do anything about it, but also in canon setting with her powers intact where they're just unhelpful in the situation anyway
• Anything else as well!