Yuletide 2018 Letter
It’s that time again, the time when I come out of yearly hibernation to participate in Yuletide… thank you, reader, for being interested in writing for one of these fandoms! I’ve fallen out of fandom presence lately, but always look forward to this exchange and am looking forward to whatever you end up making, whether you run with one of these prompts or surprise me with something I didn’t consider for one of the fandoms I’ve requested below.
In general I enjoy psychological stories with an emotional center, implied symbolism or lampshading metaphor, atmospheric details, and stories about interpersonal relationships. This time, I’m opting in to receive works in any tense, from any POV, and for my album request I’d be super into receiving a work that contains lyrics or original poetry or that has an interactive component.
Shinreigari GHOST HOUND
eng sub on 9anime | eng dub on youtube
Ghost Hound is a 22 episode anime based on an original concept by Shirow Masamune (of Ghost in the Shell), animated at Production IG in 2007 with character designs by Oka Mariko (of Hell Girl), helmed by the director/screenwriter team that made Serial Experiments Lain. It’s a story about teenagers with trauma in their pasts who experience dissociative episodes, wrestle with spirits during astral-projection, and try to understand reality as they experience it in their rural mountain town. I’ve requested the stubborn, narcoleptic heir to the town sake brewery and a member of his extended family on the occult side, the guitar-playing local bad boy who has a problem with authority.
Requested Characters : Komori Tarou, Oogami Makoto
I'd love to get into interpersonal relationship drama here. These traumatized cousins are openly struggling to be friends despite the difficulty between the branches of their family-- show me more of that, or them trying to be actual family to one another, or ways they’re more than friends but not quite comfortable with that, if you're inclined to explore the ways they are broken-but-together. I love the way they wrestle with their senses of self and the ways in which they are or are not aware of their effect on each other, or on people outside of their world of astral projection and spiritual horrors. I would be interested to see the future where they both try to fulfill their places in the family businesses- Makoto as the fortune teller and Taro making truly mind-altering sake, or having traded family trades and dealing with family politics and spiritual afflictions. Is their alliance purely practical, or have they built something secretive and terrifying between them?
In a timeframe closer to the canon, it would be wonderful to see Taro help Makoto try to turn their hauntings into a song, or getting together with Makoto to make and use gadgets to catch supernatural sounds for sampling in Makoto's music and unraveling the mysteries of the universe or the self.
I'm excited for gen fic as well as ship fic for these traumatized cousins; anything about their difficult progress together will make me happy. I love them as awkward friends or distant relatives as much as I love them as bonded or brotherly, irritated with each other but full of platonic affection or falling for each other and desperately fighting against that impulse. I am also a huge sucker for anything resembling a bully-to-protector relationship arc. I love how much tension and distance there is between Taro and Makoto at the beginning of the show, and the underlying current of affection and concern that they have for each other - a mutual desire to protect the other from harm (including the potential harm of dealing with each other, early on). I should probably note that when I say "bully to protector", I don't mean to imply that either of them is necessarily always the bully or the protector in any of these situations, and I'd love a fic that plays with their ability to take both roles with one another, whether on purpose or not. I'd love something that wrestles with Makoto's feelings (including those of resentment) with regards to Taro and their connections or shared experiences, or ways in which Taro’s stubbornness and self-absorption sometimes lead him to be unintentionally cruel, for example.
I love the unsettling quality of dreams and dreamspace in the canon, and the sense of disorientation (as with the transitional space between waking and dreaming) it seems to emphasize the characters are living in. Hallucinations, physical transformations, uncontrollable emotional-bleed and memory loops are all excellent things to highlight. Sensory details that seem wrong, unreality, and fear of both knowing and not knowing are great to explore. Grief and helplessness are also rich foundations for the kind of existential horror I love about the series. Nightmares, or being trapped together, or some outside force pushing them to work together through their feelings of connectedness and forced separation- the scarier and more vulnerable for them, the better! Another kidnap and rescue, if you like high drama, would be awesome.
Perhaps the guys will encounter more unknowable things, or experience the horror of knowing something that they Should Not Know - whether it's about ghostly beasts in the woods, serial child murderers, suicide, or their own feelings for one another. The canon felt very exposed to me, vulnerable and distressing but also clinical. Before we can be loved, we must submit to the terrible ordeal of being known, as it were. I love the atmosphere, and how quickly the show transitions from mundane to surreal and back. Don’t be afraid to go into elaborate detail with your scary hallucinations or flashbacks -- fresh gore and other terrors are welcome, but please avoid vivid descriptions of decomposition (especially worms or maggots).
Feel free to include other members of the cast if you are comfortable doing so! I love the needling Masayuki provides, but how different his friendship is toward each of the others is my favorite thing about him. I love how Masa's abrasiveness seems to soften over time, and Michio's confidence (and trust in the others) blossoms under the encouragement of the group. I think of Miyako as the strongest and most mature of the protagonists, and would not mind at all seeing her willingness to spring to action come into play in this gift, if you’re interested in including her.
I think of Ghost Hound as primarily about trauma, but if you’re interested in writing the comfort payoff to all that hurt, bring it on! I could really get behind some familial comforts-of-togetherness or friends-in-solidarity bonding time, and yeah, since I ship these two I am also interested in awkward hurt/comfort dealing with nightmares or dissociation, with regression, triggers, and the taboo of romantic or sexual feelings they might be feeling.
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves, domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects
DNW: character or ship bashing, Christmas celebrations, vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetiphilia, references to mommy kink or diapers, forced feminization, lyrics or poetry making up the majority of a fill for this request though including some poetry or lyrics as a smaller component is fine
機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ | Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
available subbed or dubbed on crunchyroll
This Gundam show has series composition by Okada Mari and an excellent soundtrack, set in a unique timeline. It works very hard to make you love all the members of its large cast of child soldiers before forcing you to mourn their inevitable suffering as the fodder of war. Prepare to love them, prepare to cry over your robot model kits. It’s so good.
Requested Characters : Dante Mogro, Derma Altland, Nadi Yukinojo Kassapa, Yamagi Gilmerton
Not all my faves made it to the end of this show, but of my faves who did make it there, these four all to me wanted a little more, I’m hungry for more time with these guys and their development. I’d love something focused on Derma -- I’m imagining Yukinojo and Dante seeing that he needs direction and something to help him feel empowered and useful after losing his arm and direction after the end of the war, and that Yamagi’s engineering smarts need a direction so he can power through his grief, and they set the pair of them to working on designing a prosthetic for Derma that meets his needs and is sensitive enough to help him do work of his choosing, whether that’s labor in a mobile worker, helping Dante raise war orphans, or something else entirely.
Alternately, it’s nice to think about Yamagi reaching out on his own, doing his best to anchor the people who are left as much as possible, or encourage folks to get their feelings out into the air so they don’t regret what wasn’t or couldn’t be said. Derma being overwhelmed with attention or care would also be wonderful, especially considering how much he’s wrestling with self-worth at the end despite being thanked for coming back alive, and exploring how his feelings as “Human Debris” influence his feelings about losing an arm and surviving with a disability -- a positive arc that allows him to recognize that his presence is valuable even if he can’t do valued labor would be deeply appreciated. I think Yamagi and Derma could develop a powerful friendship over the course of a story about surviving and different modes of grieving.
Yukinojo’s attitude toward the boys who are left, sliding from the role of uncle into one of parenthood would also be great, seeing how he relates to the other three and how they influence how he cares for the kids he has with Merribit could make for a heartwarming character piece. How he sees each of them and tries to raise them up with the expectation of sending them out into battle, versus how he feels about caring for them during peacetime could be rewarding, if you’re interested in wrestling with his feelings of responsibility and connections to laborers like Yamagi and Human Debris like Dante and Derma (who is terrified the loss of his arm will render him valueless because of his place in society or isn’t sure what to do with himself for physical reasons) and how they are adjusting to not being Human Debris anymore.
If you’re interested in including ships, the backdrop of the story can be a bit of a free-for-all -- I don’t have any NOTPs for this canon. In the foreground, I’d really like the focus to be on Derma, and I feel like he’s most shippable with Dante or maybe Takaki, but I’m down to be surprised -- the plot I suggested above between him and Yamagi could surely lead to something other than friendship if you feel like taking it there. Of course, Akihiro also made a huge impact on Derma’s life, if you’d like to have him struggling with feelings similar to Yamagi’s for Shino. I like the idea of Yamagi getting over Shino though that’s difficult and is probably something he’ll need to earn over time, maybe with help from characters I’m not requesting, like Chad and Eugene or with advice from Merribit’s wisdom. I'm pretty much up for any ship for Yamagi in the future. Yukinojo and Merribit really won me over, so I’d prefer them not be shipped with anyone else -- but mentioning or addressing Chad’s crush on Merribit is totally fine! No matter what though, I'd like Derma to be the heart of this story.
For the most part, I’m thinking heavy on found family and personal affirmations for Derma in particular, and giving him and the others focus and purpose to their lives immediately after the war or during/after the timeskip at the end. I loved the tiny glimpse we got of the future in canon, and would love something that digs into these characters, who they are and how they support each other outside of the context of mobile suit battles.
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves (whether or not that’s good or accurate to their reality), domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects
DNW: character bashing or ship bashing, vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetophilia, references to mommy kink or diapers, forced feminization, song lyrics or poetry for this request.
Love Yourself [Answer] - BTS (Album)
BTS is a Korean idol group of rappers and vocalists whose performances include dynamic choreo and live harmonizing. Answer is the culmination of their Love Yourself concept project and the album released as they kicked off their most recent world tour. You can get the album on itunes or amazon, stream it on spotify, or check out this playlist of lyrics videos on youtubewhich also delineate parts by performer and lyrics in translation available on genius.
Requested Characters : ANY (Narrator, Her | You, They | Them | Versions of Me)
This album can tell so many stories! I chose to ask for any combination of these character concepts. However you’re interested in exploring the relationships between versions of themself and the you addressed in the songs, the narrator could be a specific individual or a concept-of-someone-- whether you want to think of that person as BTS with the members delivering the lyrics as embodying or representing different facets or Versions of the narrator or as a character completely separate from the metastructure of the band releasing the work, I’m really interested in how the Narrator perceives and relates to Her | You and to the Versions of Them. I’d love to know anything about these people -- the lives they’ve shared in the past together, the ones they’ll have in the future, their relation pinned in a constant now. If this is about the reincarnation of two people, are the Versions past and future selves trying to reach nirvana, or the utopia described in the opening track? How is the we/us sung about changed by the inclusion or exclusion of some or all Versions, or by inclusion or exclusion of Her? I’m really interested in the way the narrator compartmentalizes these versions and experiences of identity, and what they’ve shared or done with or for Her | You. I can find a throughline that suggests the narrator is experiencing multiple lives continuously or sometimes simultaneously, whether the experience is linear or in parallel, that they’re aware of the experience, and I feel like this could make a FANTASTIC story about soulmates. How much do they remember from life to life, and how do they experience the draw to one another and to continue the cycle? I could also enjoy something where Her |You is one of Them, another version of the Narrator they are constantly trying to grasp.
In terms of imagery, these songs regularly reference existing in the sky, literally while traveling to perform but also perhaps in the cycle of death and rebirth and always moving in search of one another. There’s also the floral/garden language used, which could be fun to play with in building settings. Liminal space, time loss, redundancy of experience or being united -- how do these impact the experiences they have of knowing and not knowing themself or themselves? The illusory nature of self-love in particular is almost an anchor through the tracks, reminders that self-love is hard to find consistently, that because we change we discard ourselves and how we go about picking up the inner self and finding affirmation or failing to seems to come up again, the way feelings of doubt can.
More than anything, I’m just curious to explore whatever aspects of the people and lives and the worlds found in these songs jump out at you. Because this is such a widely interpretable request, I’ve listed some lyrics from each track that got my attention, which you can run with or not as you please. For this request, I’d be delighted to receive original lyrics or poetry.
Euphoria
You’re the sun that rose again in my life / a reincarnation of my childhood dreams
Trivia 起: Just Dance
A natural conversation, say something / it’s weird, we’re connecting too much
Serendipity
Because destiny keeps getting jealous of us / I’m just as scared as much as you are
DNA
At first sight I would recognize you…
You are the source of my dream
Dimple
I wanna die fallen in you, I wanna die locked in you
Trivia 承: Love
You are the one who will give meaning to my memories...
If this is love, I’ll love you
Her
Substituting myself to be the most me…
I promised to be the man you want / I don’t care if it’s a fake me, if you hold me
...I hope you don’t know this part of me
Singularity
If I shouldn’t have thrown myself away / Tell me, if even this pain isn’t real / What I was supposed to do back then?
Fake Love
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
The Truth Untold
I’m so afraid / that you will leave me again in the end / Once again I put on a mask and go to see you...
The only thing I can do / in the garden / in this world / is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you / and to breathe as the me that you know
Trivia 轉: Seesaw
We’re acting like we’re comforting each other / but it’s mixed with thorns…
If we didn’t have feelings for each other / if we didn’t think of each other / would we have dragged it out like this?
...Somebody has to get out of here / though neither of us can
Tear
My heart stained with belated self-loathing…
If someone said they would turn back the time for me / would I have been able to be a bit more honest? / The bare face that only I know, he ugly and pathetic old friends within me / Would you still be able to love me again like before?
Epiphany
Why did I want to hide my precious self like this?
What was I so afraid of?
I’m Fine
Even if some day, I’m not me anymore…
I'll yell it out myself / casting a spell / on this repeating nightmare
I’m feeling just fine, fine, fine / I’ll keep telling myself / even if I fall down again
IDOL
There are hundreds of me’s inside of me…
Even if it takes a while sometimes / it’s okay, I’m in love with my-my myself
Answer: Love Myself
When my heartbeat sounds unfamiliar / I’m looking at you in the mirror…
The standards I made are more strict for myself...
All the scars from your mistakes make up your constellation
Magic Shop
This miracle that isn’t a miracle / did we make it?...
On days when I hate myself for being me and I want to disappear forever / Let's make a door in your heart
Best of Me
I’m breathing in your breath / I’ll be you, you hold me / I’m kissing your sword…
Whether this is a dream or reality, it’s not important…
Because without you, there’s no me
Airplane pt. 2
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to stop
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to take some rest
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to fail
Go Go
There’s no tomorrow / There’s already a mortgage on my future
Anpanman
Sometimes I’m afraid of all this / because I came to have so many things that I love
MIC Drop
I’m so busy / too busy, my one body isn’t enough...
No need to see each other ever again / this is my last goodbye
Nothing more left to say / don’t even apologize
Look closely, look at your pathetic self
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves (whether or not that’s good or accurate to their reality), domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects, recursion or time loops
DNW: vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetophilia, references to mommy kink or diapers.
In general I enjoy psychological stories with an emotional center, implied symbolism or lampshading metaphor, atmospheric details, and stories about interpersonal relationships. This time, I’m opting in to receive works in any tense, from any POV, and for my album request I’d be super into receiving a work that contains lyrics or original poetry or that has an interactive component.
Shinreigari GHOST HOUND
eng sub on 9anime | eng dub on youtube
Ghost Hound is a 22 episode anime based on an original concept by Shirow Masamune (of Ghost in the Shell), animated at Production IG in 2007 with character designs by Oka Mariko (of Hell Girl), helmed by the director/screenwriter team that made Serial Experiments Lain. It’s a story about teenagers with trauma in their pasts who experience dissociative episodes, wrestle with spirits during astral-projection, and try to understand reality as they experience it in their rural mountain town. I’ve requested the stubborn, narcoleptic heir to the town sake brewery and a member of his extended family on the occult side, the guitar-playing local bad boy who has a problem with authority.
Requested Characters : Komori Tarou, Oogami Makoto
I'd love to get into interpersonal relationship drama here. These traumatized cousins are openly struggling to be friends despite the difficulty between the branches of their family-- show me more of that, or them trying to be actual family to one another, or ways they’re more than friends but not quite comfortable with that, if you're inclined to explore the ways they are broken-but-together. I love the way they wrestle with their senses of self and the ways in which they are or are not aware of their effect on each other, or on people outside of their world of astral projection and spiritual horrors. I would be interested to see the future where they both try to fulfill their places in the family businesses- Makoto as the fortune teller and Taro making truly mind-altering sake, or having traded family trades and dealing with family politics and spiritual afflictions. Is their alliance purely practical, or have they built something secretive and terrifying between them?
In a timeframe closer to the canon, it would be wonderful to see Taro help Makoto try to turn their hauntings into a song, or getting together with Makoto to make and use gadgets to catch supernatural sounds for sampling in Makoto's music and unraveling the mysteries of the universe or the self.
I'm excited for gen fic as well as ship fic for these traumatized cousins; anything about their difficult progress together will make me happy. I love them as awkward friends or distant relatives as much as I love them as bonded or brotherly, irritated with each other but full of platonic affection or falling for each other and desperately fighting against that impulse. I am also a huge sucker for anything resembling a bully-to-protector relationship arc. I love how much tension and distance there is between Taro and Makoto at the beginning of the show, and the underlying current of affection and concern that they have for each other - a mutual desire to protect the other from harm (including the potential harm of dealing with each other, early on). I should probably note that when I say "bully to protector", I don't mean to imply that either of them is necessarily always the bully or the protector in any of these situations, and I'd love a fic that plays with their ability to take both roles with one another, whether on purpose or not. I'd love something that wrestles with Makoto's feelings (including those of resentment) with regards to Taro and their connections or shared experiences, or ways in which Taro’s stubbornness and self-absorption sometimes lead him to be unintentionally cruel, for example.
I love the unsettling quality of dreams and dreamspace in the canon, and the sense of disorientation (as with the transitional space between waking and dreaming) it seems to emphasize the characters are living in. Hallucinations, physical transformations, uncontrollable emotional-bleed and memory loops are all excellent things to highlight. Sensory details that seem wrong, unreality, and fear of both knowing and not knowing are great to explore. Grief and helplessness are also rich foundations for the kind of existential horror I love about the series. Nightmares, or being trapped together, or some outside force pushing them to work together through their feelings of connectedness and forced separation- the scarier and more vulnerable for them, the better! Another kidnap and rescue, if you like high drama, would be awesome.
Perhaps the guys will encounter more unknowable things, or experience the horror of knowing something that they Should Not Know - whether it's about ghostly beasts in the woods, serial child murderers, suicide, or their own feelings for one another. The canon felt very exposed to me, vulnerable and distressing but also clinical. Before we can be loved, we must submit to the terrible ordeal of being known, as it were. I love the atmosphere, and how quickly the show transitions from mundane to surreal and back. Don’t be afraid to go into elaborate detail with your scary hallucinations or flashbacks -- fresh gore and other terrors are welcome, but please avoid vivid descriptions of decomposition (especially worms or maggots).
Feel free to include other members of the cast if you are comfortable doing so! I love the needling Masayuki provides, but how different his friendship is toward each of the others is my favorite thing about him. I love how Masa's abrasiveness seems to soften over time, and Michio's confidence (and trust in the others) blossoms under the encouragement of the group. I think of Miyako as the strongest and most mature of the protagonists, and would not mind at all seeing her willingness to spring to action come into play in this gift, if you’re interested in including her.
I think of Ghost Hound as primarily about trauma, but if you’re interested in writing the comfort payoff to all that hurt, bring it on! I could really get behind some familial comforts-of-togetherness or friends-in-solidarity bonding time, and yeah, since I ship these two I am also interested in awkward hurt/comfort dealing with nightmares or dissociation, with regression, triggers, and the taboo of romantic or sexual feelings they might be feeling.
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves, domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects
DNW: character or ship bashing, Christmas celebrations, vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetiphilia, references to mommy kink or diapers, forced feminization, lyrics or poetry making up the majority of a fill for this request though including some poetry or lyrics as a smaller component is fine
機動戦士ガンダム 鉄血のオルフェンズ | Mobile Suit Gundam: Iron-Blooded Orphans
available subbed or dubbed on crunchyroll
This Gundam show has series composition by Okada Mari and an excellent soundtrack, set in a unique timeline. It works very hard to make you love all the members of its large cast of child soldiers before forcing you to mourn their inevitable suffering as the fodder of war. Prepare to love them, prepare to cry over your robot model kits. It’s so good.
Requested Characters : Dante Mogro, Derma Altland, Nadi Yukinojo Kassapa, Yamagi Gilmerton
Not all my faves made it to the end of this show, but of my faves who did make it there, these four all to me wanted a little more, I’m hungry for more time with these guys and their development. I’d love something focused on Derma -- I’m imagining Yukinojo and Dante seeing that he needs direction and something to help him feel empowered and useful after losing his arm and direction after the end of the war, and that Yamagi’s engineering smarts need a direction so he can power through his grief, and they set the pair of them to working on designing a prosthetic for Derma that meets his needs and is sensitive enough to help him do work of his choosing, whether that’s labor in a mobile worker, helping Dante raise war orphans, or something else entirely.
Alternately, it’s nice to think about Yamagi reaching out on his own, doing his best to anchor the people who are left as much as possible, or encourage folks to get their feelings out into the air so they don’t regret what wasn’t or couldn’t be said. Derma being overwhelmed with attention or care would also be wonderful, especially considering how much he’s wrestling with self-worth at the end despite being thanked for coming back alive, and exploring how his feelings as “Human Debris” influence his feelings about losing an arm and surviving with a disability -- a positive arc that allows him to recognize that his presence is valuable even if he can’t do valued labor would be deeply appreciated. I think Yamagi and Derma could develop a powerful friendship over the course of a story about surviving and different modes of grieving.
Yukinojo’s attitude toward the boys who are left, sliding from the role of uncle into one of parenthood would also be great, seeing how he relates to the other three and how they influence how he cares for the kids he has with Merribit could make for a heartwarming character piece. How he sees each of them and tries to raise them up with the expectation of sending them out into battle, versus how he feels about caring for them during peacetime could be rewarding, if you’re interested in wrestling with his feelings of responsibility and connections to laborers like Yamagi and Human Debris like Dante and Derma (who is terrified the loss of his arm will render him valueless because of his place in society or isn’t sure what to do with himself for physical reasons) and how they are adjusting to not being Human Debris anymore.
If you’re interested in including ships, the backdrop of the story can be a bit of a free-for-all -- I don’t have any NOTPs for this canon. In the foreground, I’d really like the focus to be on Derma, and I feel like he’s most shippable with Dante or maybe Takaki, but I’m down to be surprised -- the plot I suggested above between him and Yamagi could surely lead to something other than friendship if you feel like taking it there. Of course, Akihiro also made a huge impact on Derma’s life, if you’d like to have him struggling with feelings similar to Yamagi’s for Shino. I like the idea of Yamagi getting over Shino though that’s difficult and is probably something he’ll need to earn over time, maybe with help from characters I’m not requesting, like Chad and Eugene or with advice from Merribit’s wisdom. I'm pretty much up for any ship for Yamagi in the future. Yukinojo and Merribit really won me over, so I’d prefer them not be shipped with anyone else -- but mentioning or addressing Chad’s crush on Merribit is totally fine! No matter what though, I'd like Derma to be the heart of this story.
For the most part, I’m thinking heavy on found family and personal affirmations for Derma in particular, and giving him and the others focus and purpose to their lives immediately after the war or during/after the timeskip at the end. I loved the tiny glimpse we got of the future in canon, and would love something that digs into these characters, who they are and how they support each other outside of the context of mobile suit battles.
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves (whether or not that’s good or accurate to their reality), domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects
DNW: character bashing or ship bashing, vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetophilia, references to mommy kink or diapers, forced feminization, song lyrics or poetry for this request.
Love Yourself [Answer] - BTS (Album)
BTS is a Korean idol group of rappers and vocalists whose performances include dynamic choreo and live harmonizing. Answer is the culmination of their Love Yourself concept project and the album released as they kicked off their most recent world tour. You can get the album on itunes or amazon, stream it on spotify, or check out this playlist of lyrics videos on youtubewhich also delineate parts by performer and lyrics in translation available on genius.
Requested Characters : ANY (Narrator, Her | You, They | Them | Versions of Me)
This album can tell so many stories! I chose to ask for any combination of these character concepts. However you’re interested in exploring the relationships between versions of themself and the you addressed in the songs, the narrator could be a specific individual or a concept-of-someone-- whether you want to think of that person as BTS with the members delivering the lyrics as embodying or representing different facets or Versions of the narrator or as a character completely separate from the metastructure of the band releasing the work, I’m really interested in how the Narrator perceives and relates to Her | You and to the Versions of Them. I’d love to know anything about these people -- the lives they’ve shared in the past together, the ones they’ll have in the future, their relation pinned in a constant now. If this is about the reincarnation of two people, are the Versions past and future selves trying to reach nirvana, or the utopia described in the opening track? How is the we/us sung about changed by the inclusion or exclusion of some or all Versions, or by inclusion or exclusion of Her? I’m really interested in the way the narrator compartmentalizes these versions and experiences of identity, and what they’ve shared or done with or for Her | You. I can find a throughline that suggests the narrator is experiencing multiple lives continuously or sometimes simultaneously, whether the experience is linear or in parallel, that they’re aware of the experience, and I feel like this could make a FANTASTIC story about soulmates. How much do they remember from life to life, and how do they experience the draw to one another and to continue the cycle? I could also enjoy something where Her |You is one of Them, another version of the Narrator they are constantly trying to grasp.
In terms of imagery, these songs regularly reference existing in the sky, literally while traveling to perform but also perhaps in the cycle of death and rebirth and always moving in search of one another. There’s also the floral/garden language used, which could be fun to play with in building settings. Liminal space, time loss, redundancy of experience or being united -- how do these impact the experiences they have of knowing and not knowing themself or themselves? The illusory nature of self-love in particular is almost an anchor through the tracks, reminders that self-love is hard to find consistently, that because we change we discard ourselves and how we go about picking up the inner self and finding affirmation or failing to seems to come up again, the way feelings of doubt can.
More than anything, I’m just curious to explore whatever aspects of the people and lives and the worlds found in these songs jump out at you. Because this is such a widely interpretable request, I’ve listed some lyrics from each track that got my attention, which you can run with or not as you please. For this request, I’d be delighted to receive original lyrics or poetry.
Euphoria
You’re the sun that rose again in my life / a reincarnation of my childhood dreams
Trivia 起: Just Dance
A natural conversation, say something / it’s weird, we’re connecting too much
Serendipity
Because destiny keeps getting jealous of us / I’m just as scared as much as you are
DNA
At first sight I would recognize you…
You are the source of my dream
Dimple
I wanna die fallen in you, I wanna die locked in you
Trivia 承: Love
You are the one who will give meaning to my memories...
If this is love, I’ll love you
Her
Substituting myself to be the most me…
I promised to be the man you want / I don’t care if it’s a fake me, if you hold me
...I hope you don’t know this part of me
Singularity
If I shouldn’t have thrown myself away / Tell me, if even this pain isn’t real / What I was supposed to do back then?
Fake Love
Try to erase myself and make me your doll
The Truth Untold
I’m so afraid / that you will leave me again in the end / Once again I put on a mask and go to see you...
The only thing I can do / in the garden / in this world / is to bloom a pretty flower that resembles you / and to breathe as the me that you know
Trivia 轉: Seesaw
We’re acting like we’re comforting each other / but it’s mixed with thorns…
If we didn’t have feelings for each other / if we didn’t think of each other / would we have dragged it out like this?
...Somebody has to get out of here / though neither of us can
Tear
My heart stained with belated self-loathing…
If someone said they would turn back the time for me / would I have been able to be a bit more honest? / The bare face that only I know, he ugly and pathetic old friends within me / Would you still be able to love me again like before?
Epiphany
Why did I want to hide my precious self like this?
What was I so afraid of?
I’m Fine
Even if some day, I’m not me anymore…
I'll yell it out myself / casting a spell / on this repeating nightmare
I’m feeling just fine, fine, fine / I’ll keep telling myself / even if I fall down again
IDOL
There are hundreds of me’s inside of me…
Even if it takes a while sometimes / it’s okay, I’m in love with my-my myself
Answer: Love Myself
When my heartbeat sounds unfamiliar / I’m looking at you in the mirror…
The standards I made are more strict for myself...
All the scars from your mistakes make up your constellation
Magic Shop
This miracle that isn’t a miracle / did we make it?...
On days when I hate myself for being me and I want to disappear forever / Let's make a door in your heart
Best of Me
I’m breathing in your breath / I’ll be you, you hold me / I’m kissing your sword…
Whether this is a dream or reality, it’s not important…
Because without you, there’s no me
Airplane pt. 2
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to stop
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to take some rest
I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know / Yeah how to fail
Go Go
There’s no tomorrow / There’s already a mortgage on my future
Anpanman
Sometimes I’m afraid of all this / because I came to have so many things that I love
MIC Drop
I’m so busy / too busy, my one body isn’t enough...
No need to see each other ever again / this is my last goodbye
Nothing more left to say / don’t even apologize
Look closely, look at your pathetic self
I especially enjoy: body horror, darkfic, established or developing relationships, angst, trauma and dissociation, mutual pining, noncon or dubcon, hallucinations, characters struggling with the threat of physical and/or sexual violence (from an external source, or from within themselves), hauntings and curses, death and rebirth or reincarnation plots, permanent injury, nightmares and waking dreams, hopeful endings, phantom limbs, magical realist influences, survivor’s guilt, and characters discovering personal affirmations within themselves (whether or not that’s good or accurate to their reality), domestic moments, tactile embellishments or descriptions, character exploration and first experiences, hope lost and found again, in media res action, surrealism and unreality, artifacts as macguffin objects, recursion or time loops
DNW: vivid descriptions of maggots, scat, emetophilia, references to mommy kink or diapers.