skyeventide (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
skyeventide) wrote2019-07-24 05:30 pm
skyeventide) wrote2019-07-24 05:30 pm
Darkest Night 2019
Hello, writer! Thanks for writing for me.
I'll explain down here what I like to read and the like, specific fandoms may have specific do-not-wants, so make sure to check them out. I'll also explain what I mean with the various tags and kinks and give you general directions. If some idea strikes your fancy, though, and it's not among my do-not-wants, you're free to run with it!
General stuff
I'm happiest when stories get into some in-depth character exploration. The plot of your story may be minimal, it may be slice of life, small missing moments, I tend to not care as much as long as characterisation and interactions between people offer emotional depth. If you plan to write smut (which is totally fine, and you'll find some specific do-not-wants in the list for that), the same thing applies: hot action is good, but I like it better when there's something that happens, in an emotional sense, to the characters involved. In short, depth.
I like banters between characters, historical attention to details, politics, clashing point of views, complicated relationships, UST, bittersweet endings where not all things are solved neatly, hope for the future, moral ambiguity, explored dysfunctionality, love shown through subtlety, love that is not confessed, regret, hard-won redemptions and the distrust that comes with it, power dynamics, characters that won't ever relent.
Due to the specific nature of this exchange, focus on the darker aspects is fine, however I'd rather you didn't go full depressing, at least in the ending. I like pain in fiction, but I prefer the final note to be, at least, ambiguous instead of completely bleak, unless the characters joyfully revel in the darkness of it or unless requested otherwise. Unhappy endings that still bring closure in some way are fun.
Do Not Want
Some specifics for this fandom. When it comes to LaCE, I'd rather you didn't treat it as a biological imperative. For example, if you imply Maedhros/Fingon or any other ship, don't write it as them now being married and soulbound. Treat the text as something with dubious authorship (I'll direct you to this essay if you don't know what I mean) and as a collection of what the title says: laws and customs, valid among the Eldar and the Noldor primarily, but not rules on how their bodies literally work.
For the Silm, my statement of "contrasting opinions are ok but character bashing isn't" is doubly valid. No bashing. I have primarily Feanorian sympathies, so if you must let yours seep into your work, keep that in mind.
All of my prompts here don't include romantic relationships, though you're welcome to imply or reference any canon ship. I'd really like to read about family relationships and to explore their dysfunctionality. You're free and encouraged to let politics into your work, and to not forget where characters' loyalties would lie.
For the prompts about the sons of Feanor (Celegorm&Curufin, Maedhros&Maglor, or any of their solo nominations), it's important to me that no matter how fucked up things get, there's still fundamental love between them (I empathically do not want to read incest between any of them). You could pick a moment of their life when they're at their lowest, when they're bound to snap at each other, to get angry or frustrated, make them argue, then solve it or not. But they still need to love each other. I am okay with exploration of their deaths, of their life in war. Something I do not care to read is Maedhros being tortured, and on a related note, please treat his trauma respectfully and don't make a sad whimp out of him. You are also free to write about any of them refusing the call of Mandos and lingering as a spirit, trapped between life and death.
For Feanor&Fingolfin, you can either pick any canon moment between them or go for a verse where Feanor survives and makes everything worse. I would in fact be really interested in reading something about them reembodied in modern days, entirely alone in the world except for one another and forced to work out their issues.
Feel free to include any Original Noldor Character(s), or even make up something entirely about these OCs. General rules for what I like apply. Especially politics.
So with my tags for this I essentially suggest two routes.
The first includes: addiction to dark magic, becoming the thing you most hate/fear, every choice is a terrible one, descent into madness. For this route, the blood mages involved are more evidently plagued by what they're doing and what pushed them to do it (fear, persecution, stress). They spiral down the path of their choices and angst over it, maybe they'd be decent people in other circumstances, maybe they're plagued by demons. Essentially, they don't find happiness in what they're doing. This may end very tragically, with possession or death by templar, deals with demons, or whatever else.
The other route: character only cares about themself/and one other, corruption, terrible people in love. This is for blood mages who are more ruthless, who have set aside morality so that they can survive, who have more willingly explored deals with demons or killed innocents, justifying it in whatever way they want. A more selfish set of characters with more selfish intentions.
These two routes and tags can be mixed and matched however you prefer (one more ruthless blood mage, another more concerned and pained by what they're doing? You name it).
I'll explain down here what I like to read and the like, specific fandoms may have specific do-not-wants, so make sure to check them out. I'll also explain what I mean with the various tags and kinks and give you general directions. If some idea strikes your fancy, though, and it's not among my do-not-wants, you're free to run with it!
General stuff
I'm happiest when stories get into some in-depth character exploration. The plot of your story may be minimal, it may be slice of life, small missing moments, I tend to not care as much as long as characterisation and interactions between people offer emotional depth. If you plan to write smut (which is totally fine, and you'll find some specific do-not-wants in the list for that), the same thing applies: hot action is good, but I like it better when there's something that happens, in an emotional sense, to the characters involved. In short, depth.
I like banters between characters, historical attention to details, politics, clashing point of views, complicated relationships, UST, bittersweet endings where not all things are solved neatly, hope for the future, moral ambiguity, explored dysfunctionality, love shown through subtlety, love that is not confessed, regret, hard-won redemptions and the distrust that comes with it, power dynamics, characters that won't ever relent.
Due to the specific nature of this exchange, focus on the darker aspects is fine, however I'd rather you didn't go full depressing, at least in the ending. I like pain in fiction, but I prefer the final note to be, at least, ambiguous instead of completely bleak, unless the characters joyfully revel in the darkness of it or unless requested otherwise. Unhappy endings that still bring closure in some way are fun.
Do Not Want
- AUs unless requested, as I'd rather read about the original fandoms.
- I'm iffy on canon divergencies, but I'm generally fine with What-Ifs. That is, I am happy with the exploration of an "if" scenario (especially if a character is dead in canon but you want to save them in some manner so that they can participate to some future event in the story), but I'd rather not see a canon aspect wholly changed for no reason other than you have a different headcanon that contradicts it. In other words, explain the why something is different from canon and explore the consequences.
- Crack fic.
- Focus on pregnancy or childbirth.
- Focus on, or headcanons, on gender dysphoria.
- Character bashing. I am happy with characters disagreeing passionately and having negative opinions on other characters, but if it becomes obvious to me that you're using the characters as mouthpieces for your opinions, then the fun is sucked away from the story.
- Focus on scat, piss, vomit. I'm fine with mentions of unsanitary things, but no focus on it; as in, nothing that is deliberately trying to squick the reader out or is kinking on these fluids. (Blood is perfectly fine.)
- Second person pov. (Present and past tense, first or third person are all okay.)
- Issuefic. With this I mean that I'm not looking for a work that takes problems in canon and focuses its attention on explaining and educating me on why all that is morally wrong and we should do better. If canon presents unresolved issues, I'm happy with reading about their consequences and effects on characters, about how you make sense of them. The point is, no "educational fiction".
- Specular to the above, no writing out of canon-compliant various -isms or phobias. If a world or time period is homophobic, I don't want the struggles of characters that have to live with it written away by washing out all social problems. However, if such things are not present in a given world, don't add them in for the sake of it.
- A/B/O, genderswap, alien genitalia, m!preg.
- Maggots, terminal illnesses, feederism and eating disorders, soulmates.
- Daddy/mommy kink, de-aging of characters, ageplay and infantilisation, diapers, pet play, enemas and urethral plays, insistence on how large a penis or breasts are, objectification.
- Medical play or assorted medical kinks and situations, consensual or not.
- Underage and non-con (dub-con is fine). No incest unless requested.
- Any variation of the word "come" spelled as "cum". Just use "come".
The Silmarillion
Celegorm&Curufin , Celegorm , Original Noldor Character(s) , Maglor&Maedhros , Maedhros , Maglor, Feanor&Fingolfin
Some specifics for this fandom. When it comes to LaCE, I'd rather you didn't treat it as a biological imperative. For example, if you imply Maedhros/Fingon or any other ship, don't write it as them now being married and soulbound. Treat the text as something with dubious authorship (I'll direct you to this essay if you don't know what I mean) and as a collection of what the title says: laws and customs, valid among the Eldar and the Noldor primarily, but not rules on how their bodies literally work.
For the Silm, my statement of "contrasting opinions are ok but character bashing isn't" is doubly valid. No bashing. I have primarily Feanorian sympathies, so if you must let yours seep into your work, keep that in mind.
All of my prompts here don't include romantic relationships, though you're welcome to imply or reference any canon ship. I'd really like to read about family relationships and to explore their dysfunctionality. You're free and encouraged to let politics into your work, and to not forget where characters' loyalties would lie.
For the prompts about the sons of Feanor (Celegorm&Curufin, Maedhros&Maglor, or any of their solo nominations), it's important to me that no matter how fucked up things get, there's still fundamental love between them (I empathically do not want to read incest between any of them). You could pick a moment of their life when they're at their lowest, when they're bound to snap at each other, to get angry or frustrated, make them argue, then solve it or not. But they still need to love each other. I am okay with exploration of their deaths, of their life in war. Something I do not care to read is Maedhros being tortured, and on a related note, please treat his trauma respectfully and don't make a sad whimp out of him. You are also free to write about any of them refusing the call of Mandos and lingering as a spirit, trapped between life and death.
For Feanor&Fingolfin, you can either pick any canon moment between them or go for a verse where Feanor survives and makes everything worse. I would in fact be really interested in reading something about them reembodied in modern days, entirely alone in the world except for one another and forced to work out their issues.
Feel free to include any Original Noldor Character(s), or even make up something entirely about these OCs. General rules for what I like apply. Especially politics.
The Arcana
Apprentice/The Devil , Valerius&The Hierophant , Valerius/Apprentice , Valerius
Apprentice/The Devil , Valerius&The Hierophant , Valerius/Apprentice , Valerius
For the Apprentice/The Devil, I am mostly looking at the one night the Apprentice spends with him. You can use, for this pairing, dubious consent (I strongly prefer seduction to coercion, but given the circumstances consent is a thorny issue). Maybe sex is part of a bargain to keep someone safe, maybe the Apprentice's inclinations and personality would make them prone to experimenting this. Maybe the Apprentice has a rather dark personality to begin with and is happy with trying with the Devil, consenting enthusiastically. You can make this as plotty or as smutty as you want. For the smutty route, bonus points if the Apprentice feels shame for their sexual desires or arousal, and the Devil points it out or uses the arousal as a point for dirty talk.
You can go wild with the prompts involving Valerius&the Hierophant or Valerius/Apprentice, or Valerius solo. Specifically for the Hierophant, I'm intersted in a dark AU where he takes over (possibly literally vores) the Hierophant's role, becoming himself the Hierophant, or as the other courtiers (alternatively, exploring the betrayal aspect of the good ending where he and the Hierophant are again on good terms). They seemed to have an otherwise friendly relationship before, so feel free to explore the betrayal and guilt aspect. You are free to go full Bad Ending, the world fused with the Arcana world, especially if you come up with a route where the apprentice is romancing Valerius. Bonus points if the ship with the Apprentice takes place in a verse where Valerius becomes the Hierophant.
You can go wild with the prompts involving Valerius&the Hierophant or Valerius/Apprentice, or Valerius solo. Specifically for the Hierophant, I'm intersted in a dark AU where he takes over (possibly literally vores) the Hierophant's role, becoming himself the Hierophant, or as the other courtiers (alternatively, exploring the betrayal aspect of the good ending where he and the Hierophant are again on good terms). They seemed to have an otherwise friendly relationship before, so feel free to explore the betrayal and guilt aspect. You are free to go full Bad Ending, the world fused with the Arcana world, especially if you come up with a route where the apprentice is romancing Valerius. Bonus points if the ship with the Apprentice takes place in a verse where Valerius becomes the Hierophant.
Dragon Age
Blood Mage(s)
Blood Mage(s)
This request implies that you make up some OCs, but if there's some very minor Blood Mage character in the games who has stuck with you (not Jowan, he's not minor, but for example any of the unnamed blood mages you encounter in Broken Circle could qualify), you are free to make this about them.
So with my tags for this I essentially suggest two routes.
The first includes: addiction to dark magic, becoming the thing you most hate/fear, every choice is a terrible one, descent into madness. For this route, the blood mages involved are more evidently plagued by what they're doing and what pushed them to do it (fear, persecution, stress). They spiral down the path of their choices and angst over it, maybe they'd be decent people in other circumstances, maybe they're plagued by demons. Essentially, they don't find happiness in what they're doing. This may end very tragically, with possession or death by templar, deals with demons, or whatever else.
The other route: character only cares about themself/and one other, corruption, terrible people in love. This is for blood mages who are more ruthless, who have set aside morality so that they can survive, who have more willingly explored deals with demons or killed innocents, justifying it in whatever way they want. A more selfish set of characters with more selfish intentions.
These two routes and tags can be mixed and matched however you prefer (one more ruthless blood mage, another more concerned and pained by what they're doing? You name it).
Harry Potter
Godric Gryffindor/Salazar Slytherin
Godric Gryffindor/Salazar Slytherin
Honestly absolutely anything that explores their story and their relationships. I don't care if it's a pure love story, it may be something ambiguous. Just go wild.
Original Works
Morally Grey Mentor/Ambitious Apprentice , Dangerous Politician/Rival Politician , Young and Decadent Hedonist , Male Ruler/Male Assassin in His Employ , Light Mage/Dark Mage , Male Spy/Male Enemy Spy , Vengeful Victim/Mentor in Gaining Vengeance
Morally Grey Mentor/Ambitious Apprentice , Dangerous Politician/Rival Politician , Young and Decadent Hedonist , Male Ruler/Male Assassin in His Employ , Light Mage/Dark Mage , Male Spy/Male Enemy Spy , Vengeful Victim/Mentor in Gaining Vengeance