Dear Rarewomen Author
Hello, dear author. I’m sorry I didn’t put my letter earlier. I apologize deeply for the trouble I caused you. Thank you for sticking with me.
I organized my letter in alphabetical order to show I have no preference on which request is filled: I’m very excited about all of them.
Preliminary notes: I like disasters. All the characters in this letter are here because they have at least an aspect of that - because they did something, because they failed to do something, because they're rushing toward tragedy, because their life sucks, because they're dooooooomed, because they're glorious. Shooting stars. Conversely, I babble a lot about disasters and tragedies, but that doesn't mean you need to write something sad. The doom is what attracted me in the canon; in the fanon, you're free to focus on the glory, the flamboyance, the persistence - and yeah, the flaws - of all of them. See: hopeful endings are one of my favourite things.
I like: hopeful/the adventure goes on endings, bittersweet endings, strong friendships, a sense of setting and atmosphere, worldbuilding and riffing on worldbuilding, character details, conflicting loyalties (love vs duty vs ideals etc), tragic heroines, pathetic heroines, anti-heroines, self-destructive characters, beautiful and tragic trainwrecks, magical girls, history, stories about stories, the power of love/friendship/fuck you, theatrics, being a hero in a canon far more cynical, betrayal and deeply personal costs, deception and self-deception, character studies that are also about how the character interacts with the world, linear or twisty storytelling, alternate perspective on canon scenes, 5-things, lots of feels. I also like fusion AUs (what would the characters of X be like in the world of Madoka Magica/Homestuck/Evangelion). And more.
I dislike: fluff, holidays fic, wedding/marriage fic, rape as drama (it seems to hit my “how original” button these days), I have no interest in smut for this ficathon, modern-world AUs that ignore the ~terrible tragedies~ of canon, bleakness (as opposed to drama), routine, crossovers, any kind of slave- or alpha/beta/omega AU.
1. Baten Kaitos
characters: Xelha, Melodia
Xelha is my favourite character in the game. I love that she’s the optimistic, idealistic, heroic leader… and also secretive and duty-bound. She spends the entire game hiding stuff from her friends; she’s heavily hinted to have known Kalas was the traitor before it was revealed to everyone; she’s the one who’s lucid and ego-less enough to voice that “everyone lives with contradictions of some sort or another… The desire to be sincere and loyal to others and the urge to drop everything, lie back and care about nothing… We want to be free, but also want to stay secure… We want to protect someone dear to us, but at the same time, we simply want to abandon them… We want to live on, but also want to give up and die…” Every character recognizes part of themselves in it. What does that mean for her, who’s been the impetus leading the fight against Malpercio, who also has her duty as the Last Queen of Wazn awaiting for her, who has fallen in love with the one who has betrayed them? She is always a hero, but she’s aware of the price. I would like to see something exploring the different aspects of her life, maybe a scene from the game period where she has to lead the party, and she loves these people, but where she also has a lot going on in her mind about her country. She didn’t apologize very much about hiding who she was from them; why is that? Or maybe a scene in Wazn after she told the party who she is, or with the other monarchs. Or even something after the game entirely, when she no longer has the weight of the Ocean on her shoulders. Basically anything about Xelha focusing on what I feel are the three main aspects of her character would delight me: her being a hero and a leader, her constant lying, and her duty.
As for Melodia, I’m intrigued by the possibilities the canon hints at. I’d like something from her backstory: how did she meet Kalas and how did she sell him on the plan? How did she become a close friend to the Emperor? What were the political consequences of that friendship for the Duke and for Mira? I’d also be interested to see where the post-game is taking her. How does she get better? How does she live? (if you want to write the scenario where Trill decides to be the better person for Kalas’ sake/the Duke still wants his grand-daughter to be happy and thus provides her with pastries, and a fragile relationship is formed and they fall in love, I would not be displeased. Queer!Trill is my headcanon.) Or a story set during the game - specifically during or after the time Kalas is working openly for her. What does she feel? What does she think?
Incidentally, I would not be interested in the story where Xelha “fixes” Melodia, platonically or otherwise, but a story where they’re both unsure as with how to proceed with their post-game life would be much more my thing.
Baten Kaitos is also a gorgeous game with gorgeous graphics, I love that each island has its aesthetics, fashion, etc. It gives the world a very rich, sensual atmosphere, with its own quirks, and if your fic included some of that it would be lovely. I was also very impressed with the idea of "wings of the heart", and basically Baten Kaitos is like worldbuilding catnip to me, so if any place/feel has ever stricken your fancy, go for it!
If you’d like to invite any other character over for the fic, please feel free! (Either Savyna and/or Lyude would entirely have their place on a fic about duty; I’m slightly less keen on Gibari, but it doesn’t mean I dislike him.)
ships and headcanons: Kalas/Xelha, Mizuti/Fee, Gibari/Anna/Reblys, Melodia/Trill. I see Mizuti as genderqueer, which is why I didn’t nominate them for this exchange. I also see Trill as definitely queer (more so than my general “everyone is bi” policy). I have the headcanon that Xelha is mtf, but that's just background stuff for me: I don't see that as an issue for her, I just... don't see her as cis.
AUs: no, thank you. Though if you are familiar with the game and would like to recast any of the other canons within this universe, I would read the hell out of it.
I haven't played Origins yet and would like to remain unspoiled.
2. Darker than BLACK
characters: Suou Pavlichenko, Kashiwagi Mai
Suou is the poster child for “it sucks to be a Magical Girl”. But then she’s also the poster child for “totally a Robin”. I’d be interested in more of her adventures, possibly in the post-series canon AU. If she’s figured out something is missing in her life, she might be looking for what’s missing - cue spandex or magical girl powers. Or astronomy studies, that’d be okay too. I love her because she’s got ideals and life kicks her all over the place and she hits the ground running a lot and she’s got a temper and I love her backstory and her relationship with Hei and her relationship with July and urgh she’s my baby. I’d also love an AU where she (and Hei and/or July?) stick around in the post-apoc world and life kicks her around some more and she kicks back because Suou always kicks back. Maybe with Kirihara? Or something mid-canon - Hei is the worst Batman ever, Mao is not what the brochure says a mascot is like, and the tattered remains of what used to be Suou’s life are flapping in the wind.
I got hung on Mai when I watched her two-parter ep, and I choose to believe she’s alive and she has a future after the debacle with the Syndicate. What is it? (Cameos welcome.) Alternatively, I would also take the friendship(?) of Suou and Mai in the post-series canon AU. Or the AU where Mai was Hei’s Robin before Suou (either because the ending of her two-parter went differently either because they met and fled together during the finale of the first series.) Or the X-Men fusion where Mai gets into the school.
Basically the theme for these requests is “young teenage girls get kicked in the face by unexpected supernatural powers”. If you manage to stick in a mention of the evils of tobacco I’ll love you forever. All cameos welcome. If you resurrect April I’ll love you forever x2. Alternate futures about either/or/both Suou and Mai kicking asses and having issues would also be good.
ships and headcanons: I kind of absolutely ship Suou with Hei in the “not till she’s fifteen” way I tend to adopt for most of my Batman/Robin shipping, but I would absolutely understand if you want nothing to do with it. In which case all I ask is that you please don’t erase or whitewash her attraction to him (i.e. no “she couldn’t imagine how she could ever etc, she’d truly been an immature little girl, now she only saw him as an older brother” narrative) - just don’t say anything and go gen.
Hei turning the heads of everyone he meets is also deeply hilarious to me.
AUs: as my letter shows, yes! Feel free to play with the post-canon high school AU so long as it takes a turn for the weirder. Magical girl, cyberpunk, sci-fi, noir à la Baccano or Evangelion would all be great.
3. RG Veda
characters: Kendappa, Soma
Kendappa is flawless. I love how she manages to… maybe compartmentalize isn’t the best word. I love that her feelings are true: she doesn’t deny that she’s deeply in love with Soma, or that Karura is her best friend. She will do what she can to help them, which is “nothing to hinder their goal”. But she’s also decided that her feelings do not matter as much to her as strength, and she devotes her life that ideal. I love that she seems to not second-guess herself even a little on that subject: she’s thought about it, she’s made her choice, she’s sticking to it.
tl;dr: she’s a disaster so of course my reaction is “oh no she’s perfect”.
Soma is flawless in the not-actually-a-disaster sense of the word. (though if you’re of the opinion that Soma is kind of a slight disaster herself, please show me!)
Stories I would be interested to read would be the courtship of Soma and Kendappa, Kendappa slowly coming to realize that yeah, one day she’ll kill her lover, Soma on the road with the other Stars thinking back of Kendappa… Something I’d really like would be a view on Kendappa and Taishaku-ten’s friendship; I imagine a lot of quietly painful bonding over their doomed love affairs, and the parallels and differences in their respective stories. Other stories of Kendappa at Taishaku-ten’s court would also be lovely. Or a story about Kendappa and Soma’s reincarnations in an AU of your choice would be great.
I know nothing about music, but again the atmosphere of the manga stuck with me, so worldbuilding as well as evocation of the senses (CLAMP's attention to fashion and hair drives me to wordlessness) and/or symbolism, even as hints in the narrative, would be great.
ships and headcanons: Kendappa/Soma OTP. Doomed tragic lesbians with deception and betrayal and love. This is basically everything I ever wanted in an OTP. Please don’t give them a happy ending, unless you’re writing about a reincarnation AU where they come this close to absolute disaster before it turns out that Soma threw herself to the side/Kendappa couldn’t go through with it again etc, so it ends hopefully, but they’re still the ship of sudden yet inevitable betrayal. I see Kendappa+Taishaku-ten as platonic.
AUs: Yes. I don’t care for TRC, but other genre settings might be fun (I still like Evangelion, cyberpunk, magical girls, Baccano)
4. Tokyo Babylon
characters: any (Sumeragi Hokuto, Lady Sumeragi)
Hokuto is flawless with none of the “what are you on” angle of the previous request. Hokuto is Best Person. Hokuto dates gaijin girls after saving them from the cops who were asking for their ID. Hokuto is afraid of nothing and is stylish as hell and makes an angry, heroic last stand into a victory condition for her little brother’s life and happiness. (Not her fault Seishirou is even more terrible on recognizing it than she’d planned on.) Hokuto cares about politeness, not so much about traditions.
Lady Sumeragi is the head of the Sumeragi family and anything about how she relates to either or both of her grand-children would be great. A Day In The Life of Lady Sumeragi would be interesting, I think, especially if it includes a reflection on how society has changed since she was a young onmyonji and how it hasn’t, what she expects from each of her grand-children versus what they think she expects, handling the household and the contacts with the government, not to mention her own contacts with spirits and/or research on the Sakurazukamori…
Story seeds: the atmosphere of Tokyo Babylon was a big plus when I read it, so social issues, a sense of place, and Japanese (urban) myths are always good themes. I admit to being a complete Hokuto fangirl and more than a little in love with the possibility of an AU that doesn’t kill her. (Did Seishirou kill Subaru instead so now she’s the Sumeragi despite only mediocre gifts? A friend once pitched me a story about how Seishirou had kidnapped one of the twins back then to make them into his successor - that sounds cool to me too.) If these make you wrinkle your nose, another Day In the Life of Sumeragi Hokuto = still all of the win. Something about both Hokuto and Lady Sumeragi would also be great. Not to mention the obligatory Hokuto-is-a-Magical-Girl AU (or the one where Subaru is an actual Magical Boy - because let’s face it, his life sucks enough for it). General Hokuto+Seishirou(+Subaru) is never a bad thing. Post-Hokuto’s death would be very cool (argh my heart).
ships and headcanons: Hokuto/unnamed gaijin girl. I… don’t like Hokuto/Kakyo.
AUs: sure!
I organized my letter in alphabetical order to show I have no preference on which request is filled: I’m very excited about all of them.
Preliminary notes: I like disasters. All the characters in this letter are here because they have at least an aspect of that - because they did something, because they failed to do something, because they're rushing toward tragedy, because their life sucks, because they're dooooooomed, because they're glorious. Shooting stars. Conversely, I babble a lot about disasters and tragedies, but that doesn't mean you need to write something sad. The doom is what attracted me in the canon; in the fanon, you're free to focus on the glory, the flamboyance, the persistence - and yeah, the flaws - of all of them. See: hopeful endings are one of my favourite things.
I like: hopeful/the adventure goes on endings, bittersweet endings, strong friendships, a sense of setting and atmosphere, worldbuilding and riffing on worldbuilding, character details, conflicting loyalties (love vs duty vs ideals etc), tragic heroines, pathetic heroines, anti-heroines, self-destructive characters, beautiful and tragic trainwrecks, magical girls, history, stories about stories, the power of love/friendship/fuck you, theatrics, being a hero in a canon far more cynical, betrayal and deeply personal costs, deception and self-deception, character studies that are also about how the character interacts with the world, linear or twisty storytelling, alternate perspective on canon scenes, 5-things, lots of feels. I also like fusion AUs (what would the characters of X be like in the world of Madoka Magica/Homestuck/Evangelion). And more.
I dislike: fluff, holidays fic, wedding/marriage fic, rape as drama (it seems to hit my “how original” button these days), I have no interest in smut for this ficathon, modern-world AUs that ignore the ~terrible tragedies~ of canon, bleakness (as opposed to drama), routine, crossovers, any kind of slave- or alpha/beta/omega AU.
1. Baten Kaitos
characters: Xelha, Melodia
Xelha is my favourite character in the game. I love that she’s the optimistic, idealistic, heroic leader… and also secretive and duty-bound. She spends the entire game hiding stuff from her friends; she’s heavily hinted to have known Kalas was the traitor before it was revealed to everyone; she’s the one who’s lucid and ego-less enough to voice that “everyone lives with contradictions of some sort or another… The desire to be sincere and loyal to others and the urge to drop everything, lie back and care about nothing… We want to be free, but also want to stay secure… We want to protect someone dear to us, but at the same time, we simply want to abandon them… We want to live on, but also want to give up and die…” Every character recognizes part of themselves in it. What does that mean for her, who’s been the impetus leading the fight against Malpercio, who also has her duty as the Last Queen of Wazn awaiting for her, who has fallen in love with the one who has betrayed them? She is always a hero, but she’s aware of the price. I would like to see something exploring the different aspects of her life, maybe a scene from the game period where she has to lead the party, and she loves these people, but where she also has a lot going on in her mind about her country. She didn’t apologize very much about hiding who she was from them; why is that? Or maybe a scene in Wazn after she told the party who she is, or with the other monarchs. Or even something after the game entirely, when she no longer has the weight of the Ocean on her shoulders. Basically anything about Xelha focusing on what I feel are the three main aspects of her character would delight me: her being a hero and a leader, her constant lying, and her duty.
As for Melodia, I’m intrigued by the possibilities the canon hints at. I’d like something from her backstory: how did she meet Kalas and how did she sell him on the plan? How did she become a close friend to the Emperor? What were the political consequences of that friendship for the Duke and for Mira? I’d also be interested to see where the post-game is taking her. How does she get better? How does she live? (if you want to write the scenario where Trill decides to be the better person for Kalas’ sake/the Duke still wants his grand-daughter to be happy and thus provides her with pastries, and a fragile relationship is formed and they fall in love, I would not be displeased. Queer!Trill is my headcanon.) Or a story set during the game - specifically during or after the time Kalas is working openly for her. What does she feel? What does she think?
Incidentally, I would not be interested in the story where Xelha “fixes” Melodia, platonically or otherwise, but a story where they’re both unsure as with how to proceed with their post-game life would be much more my thing.
Baten Kaitos is also a gorgeous game with gorgeous graphics, I love that each island has its aesthetics, fashion, etc. It gives the world a very rich, sensual atmosphere, with its own quirks, and if your fic included some of that it would be lovely. I was also very impressed with the idea of "wings of the heart", and basically Baten Kaitos is like worldbuilding catnip to me, so if any place/feel has ever stricken your fancy, go for it!
If you’d like to invite any other character over for the fic, please feel free! (Either Savyna and/or Lyude would entirely have their place on a fic about duty; I’m slightly less keen on Gibari, but it doesn’t mean I dislike him.)
ships and headcanons: Kalas/Xelha, Mizuti/Fee, Gibari/Anna/Reblys, Melodia/Trill. I see Mizuti as genderqueer, which is why I didn’t nominate them for this exchange. I also see Trill as definitely queer (more so than my general “everyone is bi” policy). I have the headcanon that Xelha is mtf, but that's just background stuff for me: I don't see that as an issue for her, I just... don't see her as cis.
AUs: no, thank you. Though if you are familiar with the game and would like to recast any of the other canons within this universe, I would read the hell out of it.
I haven't played Origins yet and would like to remain unspoiled.
2. Darker than BLACK
characters: Suou Pavlichenko, Kashiwagi Mai
Suou is the poster child for “it sucks to be a Magical Girl”. But then she’s also the poster child for “totally a Robin”. I’d be interested in more of her adventures, possibly in the post-series canon AU. If she’s figured out something is missing in her life, she might be looking for what’s missing - cue spandex or magical girl powers. Or astronomy studies, that’d be okay too. I love her because she’s got ideals and life kicks her all over the place and she hits the ground running a lot and she’s got a temper and I love her backstory and her relationship with Hei and her relationship with July and urgh she’s my baby. I’d also love an AU where she (and Hei and/or July?) stick around in the post-apoc world and life kicks her around some more and she kicks back because Suou always kicks back. Maybe with Kirihara? Or something mid-canon - Hei is the worst Batman ever, Mao is not what the brochure says a mascot is like, and the tattered remains of what used to be Suou’s life are flapping in the wind.
I got hung on Mai when I watched her two-parter ep, and I choose to believe she’s alive and she has a future after the debacle with the Syndicate. What is it? (Cameos welcome.) Alternatively, I would also take the friendship(?) of Suou and Mai in the post-series canon AU. Or the AU where Mai was Hei’s Robin before Suou (either because the ending of her two-parter went differently either because they met and fled together during the finale of the first series.) Or the X-Men fusion where Mai gets into the school.
Basically the theme for these requests is “young teenage girls get kicked in the face by unexpected supernatural powers”. If you manage to stick in a mention of the evils of tobacco I’ll love you forever. All cameos welcome. If you resurrect April I’ll love you forever x2. Alternate futures about either/or/both Suou and Mai kicking asses and having issues would also be good.
ships and headcanons: I kind of absolutely ship Suou with Hei in the “not till she’s fifteen” way I tend to adopt for most of my Batman/Robin shipping, but I would absolutely understand if you want nothing to do with it. In which case all I ask is that you please don’t erase or whitewash her attraction to him (i.e. no “she couldn’t imagine how she could ever etc, she’d truly been an immature little girl, now she only saw him as an older brother” narrative) - just don’t say anything and go gen.
Hei turning the heads of everyone he meets is also deeply hilarious to me.
AUs: as my letter shows, yes! Feel free to play with the post-canon high school AU so long as it takes a turn for the weirder. Magical girl, cyberpunk, sci-fi, noir à la Baccano or Evangelion would all be great.
3. RG Veda
characters: Kendappa, Soma
Kendappa is flawless. I love how she manages to… maybe compartmentalize isn’t the best word. I love that her feelings are true: she doesn’t deny that she’s deeply in love with Soma, or that Karura is her best friend. She will do what she can to help them, which is “nothing to hinder their goal”. But she’s also decided that her feelings do not matter as much to her as strength, and she devotes her life that ideal. I love that she seems to not second-guess herself even a little on that subject: she’s thought about it, she’s made her choice, she’s sticking to it.
tl;dr: she’s a disaster so of course my reaction is “oh no she’s perfect”.
Soma is flawless in the not-actually-a-disaster sense of the word. (though if you’re of the opinion that Soma is kind of a slight disaster herself, please show me!)
Stories I would be interested to read would be the courtship of Soma and Kendappa, Kendappa slowly coming to realize that yeah, one day she’ll kill her lover, Soma on the road with the other Stars thinking back of Kendappa… Something I’d really like would be a view on Kendappa and Taishaku-ten’s friendship; I imagine a lot of quietly painful bonding over their doomed love affairs, and the parallels and differences in their respective stories. Other stories of Kendappa at Taishaku-ten’s court would also be lovely. Or a story about Kendappa and Soma’s reincarnations in an AU of your choice would be great.
I know nothing about music, but again the atmosphere of the manga stuck with me, so worldbuilding as well as evocation of the senses (CLAMP's attention to fashion and hair drives me to wordlessness) and/or symbolism, even as hints in the narrative, would be great.
ships and headcanons: Kendappa/Soma OTP. Doomed tragic lesbians with deception and betrayal and love. This is basically everything I ever wanted in an OTP. Please don’t give them a happy ending, unless you’re writing about a reincarnation AU where they come this close to absolute disaster before it turns out that Soma threw herself to the side/Kendappa couldn’t go through with it again etc, so it ends hopefully, but they’re still the ship of sudden yet inevitable betrayal. I see Kendappa+Taishaku-ten as platonic.
AUs: Yes. I don’t care for TRC, but other genre settings might be fun (I still like Evangelion, cyberpunk, magical girls, Baccano)
4. Tokyo Babylon
characters: any (Sumeragi Hokuto, Lady Sumeragi)
Hokuto is flawless with none of the “what are you on” angle of the previous request. Hokuto is Best Person. Hokuto dates gaijin girls after saving them from the cops who were asking for their ID. Hokuto is afraid of nothing and is stylish as hell and makes an angry, heroic last stand into a victory condition for her little brother’s life and happiness. (Not her fault Seishirou is even more terrible on recognizing it than she’d planned on.) Hokuto cares about politeness, not so much about traditions.
Lady Sumeragi is the head of the Sumeragi family and anything about how she relates to either or both of her grand-children would be great. A Day In The Life of Lady Sumeragi would be interesting, I think, especially if it includes a reflection on how society has changed since she was a young onmyonji and how it hasn’t, what she expects from each of her grand-children versus what they think she expects, handling the household and the contacts with the government, not to mention her own contacts with spirits and/or research on the Sakurazukamori…
Story seeds: the atmosphere of Tokyo Babylon was a big plus when I read it, so social issues, a sense of place, and Japanese (urban) myths are always good themes. I admit to being a complete Hokuto fangirl and more than a little in love with the possibility of an AU that doesn’t kill her. (Did Seishirou kill Subaru instead so now she’s the Sumeragi despite only mediocre gifts? A friend once pitched me a story about how Seishirou had kidnapped one of the twins back then to make them into his successor - that sounds cool to me too.) If these make you wrinkle your nose, another Day In the Life of Sumeragi Hokuto = still all of the win. Something about both Hokuto and Lady Sumeragi would also be great. Not to mention the obligatory Hokuto-is-a-Magical-Girl AU (or the one where Subaru is an actual Magical Boy - because let’s face it, his life sucks enough for it). General Hokuto+Seishirou(+Subaru) is never a bad thing. Post-Hokuto’s death would be very cool (argh my heart).
ships and headcanons: Hokuto/unnamed gaijin girl. I… don’t like Hokuto/Kakyo.
AUs: sure!