Yuletide 2018!
[General]
To start with, if you're writing fic for me, I love you. I'm going to be happy just to be able to share my fandom love with someone.
You'll notice I throw a lot of ideas out-- feel free to take one, take many, take none. I know how hard it can be to settle on an idea once the assignments come in. So I'm offering a bunch of options that I will enjoy. None of these suggestions are hard and fast requirements. They're here to give you an idea of what's going on in my head and what my preferences look like.
My current blog is challahchic, over on Tumblr. I can't promise it will be helpful, but in the interest of helping with the stalking process, feel free to check me out over there.
I like:
Plot, adventures, banter and dry humor, happy endings, over the top AUs (steampunk, noir, organized crime, rum-runners, harems...), power-play, porn, gen, slash, femslash, het, any rating you feel comfortable with (for violence and/or sex), bittersweet things that are heavy on the sweet, interesting narrative voices and/or concepts, Happily Ever After/Happily For Now endings
I don't like:
Deathfic, gratuitous angst, character-bashing, introspective character pieces, five times fics, A/B/O universes, sad endings. (Also the standard DNWs: scat, watersports, necro, mpreg, homophobia, transphobia, etc)
Getbackers: Midou Ban, Amano Ginji
The Series:
Ginji Amano and Ban Mido, a pair of super powered individuals known as the "GetBackers". The duo operates a freelance repossession service out of one of the seedier areas of Shinjuku. For a fee, they will recover any lost or stolen item for a client with "an almost 100% success rate". The GetBackers' job often leads them into bizarre and dangerous situations in order to "get back what shouldn't be gone". Their targets range from lost video games to misplaced components of an atomic bomb. This is complicated by the fact that they are totally shit with money and basically too gay to function without each other.
The manga (which can be found here) ran from 1999-2007, and the anime has 49 episodes, and ran from 2002-2003, and can be found here
Request:
WHY HELLO THERE, NOSTALGIA FANDOM. I ship Ban and Ginji, as is right and correct and good, and I just want... everything. To do with them. Like, Ban seducing the Raitei to his side, and showing Ginji that there's more to life and love and emotion than he'd ever thought. Or their early attempts at finding jobs. Or just idk hanging out, being aggressively THEM.
Other plot ideas include host club AUs, or mafia AUs or Gangsta AUs, or something long and plotty that involves big fights and dealing with their traumas while getting back something massive and important.
I also accept hurt/comfort and something something lightening and chains because heaven knows all the promo art used to have Ginji all tied up and shit. Or Ginji somehow being regressed to his Raitei mindset and Ban putting himself in danger (sexy danger) and getting hurt to snap Ginji out of it. Then there's sex. Also, do they have sex in the car? How does that work? It's so SMALL.
And if you REALLY want to indulge me, write a fic based on the premise of this Getbackers pseudo-movie promo with angels and demons and shit: Getbackers: Get Back The Name of God
Extra Details:
I love how much weirdness can be packed into something that ostensibly makes sense. Like, no one ever really questions most of the weird powers, but they're not exactly explained either. And Mugenjou is just kind of... there, and no one seems too terribly concerned about what is, in essence, a version of the Kowloon Walled City, but with people who have weird-ass powers-- some of whom are computer holograms(?). Sometimes I wonder if the mangaka ever thought the politics or economics of any of this out.
And there's so much you can do with Ban and Ginji's powers in particular-- either in a shippy sexy way (I'M NOT COMPLAINING, GINJI IS A WALKING VIOLET WAND) or in a plotty dynamic way. I always loved some bittersweet angst with them, but they are so in love and so deeply co-dependent that I just can't imagine them ever not being together after they've met, even if there's some sort of massive betrayal.
No Game No Life - Kamiya Yuu: Sora, Shiro
The Series:
They are both NEETs and Hikikomoris… but on the internet, the genius gamer siblings Sora and Shiro are known as the undefeatable “__” (blank). Sora and Shiro’s talents and skills are so abnormally good they are considered as urban legend. One day, they are challenged by the god of games to chess and are victorious. As a result, the god summons them to Disboard, a reality which revolves around games. Intent on maintaining their reputation as the undefeated gamers, Sora and Shiro plan to conquer the sixteen ruling species and to usurp the god of games...
NGNL is a series of light novels, of which 6 have been translated (PDFs can be found here, or bought legally at any online bookstore). The No Game No Life anime can be found on Crunchyroll here.
Request:
The fact that Shiro and Sora literally cannot be separated from each other is one of the dynamics that I like about the series. I really enjoy codependent siblings as a Thing. So I would be happy if you played with that dynamic. Plotty gen for this series would be great-- it's always fun when one of them is much better than the other or they have to separate and execute plans while relying solely on the intuition of what their sibling will do. Alternately, someone kidnapping Sora and Shiro having to play a game to get him back while they both battle their inability to get anything done alone...
I'd love background on them, where they tried to separate or were forced to separate and failed to function, or where one or the other tried to interact with other people (maybe a gamer who tracked them down) but were either terrible at it, the other one quietly sabotaged the budding relationship, or the third person got way too freaked out by the way Sora and Shiro act around each other.
Future fic would also be great-- King/Queen Blank or even the Gods Blank, after they've beaten Tet. What does that look like? What kind of world are they making for themselves and each other?
I ship them, but do not expect other people to, so if you want to write shippy fic (with aged up Shiro!!!) for them, I will be surprised but happy. I will happily admit to wanting kinky sex games.
Extra Details:
I know this series isn't everyone's cup of tea, with the sheer amount of fanservice and Sora's utterly otaku personality and the pseudo-incest thing with the 12 year old. Personally, as is probably obvious from the request, I'm less interested in the fanservicey characters, and much more about the dynamics of Shiro and Sora's relationship. I love the way they know exactly what the other is capable of and trust each other completely and whole-heartedly. Whether you write something small and domestic or big and plotty, for me the core of NGNL is that they love, care and respect each other in a way that is beautiful but also extremely unhealthy.
If you want to go the shippy route, again, Shiro needs to be aged up appropriately-- it's always been interesting to me that Sora understands that it is inappropriate to sexualize his underage adopted sister, while Shiro goes out of her way to help sexualize other women for Sora's entertainment. There's a part of me that wonders if she's planning ahead for when she is old enough to be an "appropriate" (in age, if nothing else) sexual partner and is trying to get Sora to lose his virginity ahead of time.
Pet Shop of Horrors: Wu-fei Lau "Taizu"
The Series:
Pet Shop of Horrors is a Horror/Fantasy manga by Matsuri Akino, which was later developed into a four episode anime. Its demographic is Josei. Despite the title, the manga rarely focuses on horror, instead slowly building up the relationships between its characters in a magical setting. It has the occasional gore scene, though, and whole lot of terrifying monsters.
PSOH is the story of a peculiar shop in Chinatown -- or more accurately, the story of the clients that visit this particular shop. The store's proprietor is an effeminate and sinister man only known as "Count D". He sells both normal animals, as well as a selection of "special pets"--more specifically, animals that appear human to their often-dysfunctional owners. This particular type of pet appears in a shape that will grant people their deepest wishes and desires: a daughter who died, the perfect girlfriend, and so on -- but only to their owner. Almost anyone else will see an animal. Count D uses these shapeshifting creatures to teach their human caretaker a lesson, making them sign a contract stating they'll take good care of their new pets. Almost inevitably, they don't. The outcome is rarely pleasant, although some stories (especially those involving pets given to children) have very heartwarming endings.
Shin Pet Shop of Horrors (New PSOH, or PSOH:Tokyo, in English) is the sequel, with the action moved over to Shinjuku's Red Light District in Tokyo. You can find the manga translations here.
The Request:
No one writes Wu-Fei, okay? Just write me some Wu-Fei being all mafia-ish, and having UST (Or not-so unrequited sexual tension) with Count D, and I'll be happy.
Plotty case is a bonus-- D's weird and terrifying pet choices for people is great and Wu-Fei trying to figure out what the hell is going on in his turf is so much fun. I love how his theories are so fucking mundane-- Is D human trafficking? Is he selling drugs? Wu-Fei Just Doesn't Know. I wouldn't mind all the sexual chemistry with D too (much to Wu-Fei's eternal chagrin). I know Leon/D is the main ship for this series, but Wu-Fei having a thing for D that he doesn't understand and D leading him on and finding a soft spot for ANOTHER DAMN HUMAN would be amazing.
Also, I will never get over Wu-Fei possibly maybe getting impregnated accidentally. I'm not an mpreg-fan, but fucking Wu-Fei with magic when he doesn't understand or believe in magic is just... mmmm. Similarly, the assassination attempt just hit my kinks pretty hard, because organized-crime and magic combined are, like, My Thing.
Extra Details:
I am forever deeply disappointed that no one writes about Wu-Fei. Yes, He's not Leon, but I love him most because he's totally different from Leon. Maybe this is just my deep and abiding love for organized-crime-types and my general disinterest towards law enforcement, but I love the idea that there's this young guy who is trying so hard to run his criminal empire-- and things keep slipping through his fingers because D, that magical motherfucker, decided to move in. If you want to go with a coda from the manga, you could do something silly like him eating those super-fertility eggs that D accidentally supplied a baker with and getting himself pregnant (I don't normally like mpreg, but I kind of love the idea of Wu-Fei just having to deal with something totally ricockulous because he keeps having to spend time with D). Or there's always another assassination attempt, or some other mafia-like plot. But with added ~magic~ craziness because D has a vested interest in keeping Wu-Fei alive.
selector infected WIXOSS: Aoi Akira, Igarashi Rumi | Ulith
The Series:
WIXOSS is a popular trading card game in which players battle against each other with fighters known as LRIGs, using cards to support them. Certain LRIGs are able to communicate with their owners, and the girls chosen to wield them are known as "Selectors". Selectors are given the chance to have any wish granted by winning battles against other Selectors, but should they lose three times, their wish will be reversed into a curse instead.
The main series, selector infected WIXOSS, follows a girl named Ruko Kominato, who becomes a Selector after receiving an LRIG that she names Tama. As she and various other Selectors battle it out for the sake of their wish, Ruko finds herself drawn into the dark, sinister world of WIXOSS, discovering that, win or lose, there is always a price to pay.
The anime can be found on Crunchyroll here
Request:
So, you know how in my "general likes" I said I don't like "gratuitous angst"? In this fandom, there is no such thing as "gratuitous". Darkfic is absolutely welcome here. The thing I am most interested in here is the manipulative, awful relationship that Akira has with Ulith-as-Iona. Like, I love them all, and for some reason in this fandom, that comes out to "please break them".
Exploring their adult lives and how their relationships and the Wixoss game affected them in the future would be amazing. What else happened to them? What are their careers like? What are their home lives like? Are they... living together? Does some sort of magic continue to be a theme in their lives?
Feel free to write in-universe plot or no-powers universe, or some horrible Madoka or Yurikuma Arashi or other magical girl thing, where they can all be horribly manipulative lesbians together because that's magical and wonderful.
OTOH, if you want to write codependent-but-vaguely-functional adult Akira and Iona/Ulith being horrible assholes and having adventures of some sort (magic, detectives, idk) that is ALSO A+. I mean, I like happy endings, and if you can come up with something heartwarming ( or "heartwarming") I'm not going to complain.
Extra Details:
Evil lesbians are Problematic, I know. But Akira was one of my favorite characters from the word go and (if you're paying attention to my fandoms as a whole) I really really like codependent or unhealthy relationships. I love her love/hate relationship with Iona and with Ulith, and the way those two characters sort of get mixed up for Akira specifically. If you want to play with Iona and Ulith's personalities and interactions as well, that would also be pretty fun.
I'm also down for other types of AUs, like they have to get their shit together and track down someone who is killing Selectors, or they become selectors as adults and not girls.
I know they're young, but given that this is a super-fucking dark canon, I am totally cool with dubiously consensual sex either on or off-screen.
Dragon Prince Trilogy - Melanie Rawn: Ianthe of Princemarch, Sioned of River Run
The Series:
I want to say "if this wasn't the matched fandom you should go out and read them right the fuck now', but you really need to enjoy ridiculous high fantasy novels about politics and a dude who's the prince of a desert and some people who communicate via sunlight. Needless to say, there's magic in there somewhere. And a LOT of politics. It's full of cheese. If it sounds interesting to you, pretty much ever used bookstore I have ever been to has at least one copy of these books. I think they spawn on bookshelves or something. You can probably also find digital copies on the internet
The Request:
I love everything this series chooses to be. It's fun and cheesy and fantasy, which the best thing in the world.
I've always thought that Ianthe had a serious hate-crush on Sioned and part of the reason she was so vicious and fucked up was that whole "you must marry a guy and expand the empire or your useless" thing when maybe she didn't want to do that. Ianthe's always been one of my favorite characters because she's brilliant and ruthless and clearly takes joy in clever plans that go well. Of course, being the villain in a cheesy fantasy, she got no depth whatsoever, aside from that whole sexually liberated, taking male consorts thing (which is AWESOME, okay.) Sioned is also awesome and brilliant and kick ass. Her hesitance in the first book while she decided what she really wanted to do was pretty great, as was the fact that she promptly made friends with Tobin and pretty much every character not designated "villain". It seems like up through Ianthe's death, they're playing a game of brinkmanship. (Which isn't to say I don't like Sioned and Rohan together. They're bookTP and totally awesome.)
As for prompts, I normally prefer plotty fic to introspection. I feel like the whole sunrunner thing lends itself well to espionage, so political thriller, or murder mysteries or something would be great. If you want to do plot-what-plot involving these two-- either sex or just the sort of dancing around/pigtail pulling that would be great. Threesomes with Rohan-- also acceptable! Hell, if you want to do an AU where they end up together instead of Sioned marrying Rohan-- or alternately, an AU end to the trilogy, where Ianthe never died in the fire and ends up taking over as High Princess and making the Desert monarchs' lives hell and discovering her powers. Or something where she knew about her powers all along. Or Sioned, I don't know, realizing she kind of did think Ianthe was attractive. I also really enjoy Pandsala, but I didn't find her dynamic with Sioned and Rohan quite as engaging, even though she also did some bad-ass stuff in the long run. Her weird push and pull backstabby, politicized sisterly thing was interesting, though.
Extra Details: Okay, like I said, I think this series is the cheesiest fantasy series in the WORLD and in a lot of ways it's one of my first nostalgia fandoms. If you haven't read them, they are kind of ridiculously long (Like, GRR Martin-long), but they're quick reads despite that and rather less depressing than a lot of high fantasy. It's silly in the way that "adult fantasy" that takes itself way too seriously can be. A lot of the main protagonists actively enjoy each others' company and that's as much integral to the book as the politics and dragon-slaying.
That said, I kinda asked for a semi-serious plotty story. But if you want to run with the "it's cheesy fantasy" and want to write about Ianthe rescuing princesses or Sioned running away to be a knight and abducting Ianthe away from her toxic father, or something silly, I say get down with your nerd self and run with it.
I've only read parts of the second trilogy, and the second generation aren't really very interesting to me. If you want to write future-fic, I would prefer that it continues to focus on the original generation (no matter how much I love Andry, Pol just seems like kind of a jerk).
Young Justice (Comics): Match (Young Justice (Comics))
The Series:
Comics are confusing! This request is for the late-90s version of Young Justice by Peter David, which consisted of Robin, Impulse, Superboy, Arrowette, Secret, and Wonder Girl, along with others. It's very much a young-heroes-trying-to-make-their-way. Unlike the newer show, this Young Justice tended to be left on their own without much of a guiding hand aside from Red Tornado. It was a very 90s comic, with very 90s fashion and a lot of nod-nod-wink-wink in-jokes. I love it because it's a series that always wore it's humor on its sleeve. It's an affectionate look at young superheroes, and allowed them to react to teen problems alongside the more standard superhero tropes. There's the possibility for angst and darkness (and once they graduated to Teen Titans especially, that came up more), but they were allowed to be both hurt and upset AND fun and cheerful.
The comics weren't available collected until this year (it took them TWENTY YEARS JFC), and it's well-worth buying from your local retailer, but you can also find them online here. The character I'm requesting first appeared in Superboy's solo series (starting in issue #35), which can be found here and again in the first volume of Young Justice: Sins of Youth.
The Request:
SO! I have always loved Match in the original YJ and Superboy comics, and the writers gave him really short shrift. We have a clone of Kon, who is as smart, if not smarter, can pretend to be Kon for extended periods of time- but every time he tries, people get hurt or die. I’ve always wondered how Tim felt that he literally couldn’t tell his best friend from an imposter (and IIRC, the Identity Crisis stuff may have happened while Match was pretending to be Kon-- so it’s possible that the person Tim got close to was Match and not Kon in the first place). And then Match went and ran off and disappeared and no one ever seemed to consider what he was doing, after thousands of his/Kon’s siblings/clones were murdered essentially in front of him and Cadmus fell apart. (I’m not entirely surprised that Kon didn’t pay attention to all of those clones of him dying, but think about it from the stand point of someone for whom those were supposed to be an army of his siblings. What a way to get survivor’s guilt.)
Did Match go to Lex? It doesn’t seem like it, but given that as Kon’s clone, he’s technically Lex’s son too, it’s a possibility. Or alternately! He got himself out of the superhero game and did something else! What was it?
The stuff on One Year Later and just prior to Nu52 also gave me Feelings. Because everyone treated Match-as-Bizarro as just Something That Happened- but how? How did Slade keep him under control? Why was he still pretending to be Superboy? There’s still some rational thought in him- after all, what irrational Bizarro would be scared for the Titans and know to try and get Raven’s attention when possessed by Jericho? Is it possible that Slade did something to fuck Match up? (Slade’s mind control serum is kryptonite green, I’m JUST SAYING) What did the Titans do with Match after the Jericho fiasco- if you wrote me a “Match slowly coming back to his senses and trying to cope with being back among heroes after clearly being away from that world for so long” thing I’d be so happy.
I’d also love for a story about him wanting to be a super and have that family that Kon and Clark have, but being shut out of that world because he’s a “villain”. Or him getting that family after so long. Or him showing up at the Kents’ place because “fuck it, if Kon can have this, so can I” and it goes… well or poorly, depending on you. Or him finding his own family in a place that is separate from the who superhero thing, and Kon or Tim or Clark stumbling on him. Or Lex trying to use him- whether or not it works is up to you, although I’d love for it to touch on Match’s need to be part of something larger- after all, he was built and trained to be the vanguard for an army that was summarily murdered in front of him.
ALSO, MY DEEPLY HELD RARE PAIR FROM THE 90s: Tim/Match! See above, re: Match being present for Identity Crisis instead of Kon. I’d love Match to be trying to follow Kon’s footsteps re: Cassie, and being way more into Tim, which leads to Tim being confused and into Kon. Also any of the above prompts can include Tim (maybe he ends up as Match’s “parole officer” after the Jericho fiasco! Or tries to help cushion a meeting between Match and Kon or Clark! Or maybe he just ends up Match’s sugar daddy. I’m down.)
Although this request is ripe for dubious identity weirdness with Match pretending to be Kon, I'd really prefer that you focus on Match getting to be his own person, even if there's some pretending-to-be-Kon in there.
Extra Details:
This has been a lowkey love of mine for literally decades. My absolute favorite gift of all time was original pages from one of the Superboy issues where he appears for the first time. I used to ask for this stuff during Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, when that exchange was still active, but honestly Match is such an obscure character that I've never really gotten anything. BUT I LOVE HIM. And as I've grown older, my love for this rare, obscure character has deepened. Also, as I've grown older, I've begun to want more adult!Match, or growing up!Match just because the idea of growing up in the margins of superhero culture after everything that happened to him is really interesting. He was straight-up groomed and brainwashed, and then the Agenda was gone, so how did he cope? What is he doing now? What kind of adult does he make (either before or after the Slade and Jericho incidents)? What kind of relationships does he have?
As I've said elsewhere in the letter, I really prefer Happily Ever After/Happily For Now stuff, and I prefer my bittersweet fics heavy on the sweetness. Please give Match the love and affection he's always deserved.
I don't really watch the new cartoon, but from stuff online, it seems the series at least gives Match a viable relationship with Kon and Clark, so if you would like to integrate some of that characterization in, I won't be opposed, but keep in mind that I watched the first half of the first season, and have very little knowledge of that version of the characters.
To start with, if you're writing fic for me, I love you. I'm going to be happy just to be able to share my fandom love with someone.
You'll notice I throw a lot of ideas out-- feel free to take one, take many, take none. I know how hard it can be to settle on an idea once the assignments come in. So I'm offering a bunch of options that I will enjoy. None of these suggestions are hard and fast requirements. They're here to give you an idea of what's going on in my head and what my preferences look like.
My current blog is challahchic, over on Tumblr. I can't promise it will be helpful, but in the interest of helping with the stalking process, feel free to check me out over there.
I like:
Plot, adventures, banter and dry humor, happy endings, over the top AUs (steampunk, noir, organized crime, rum-runners, harems...), power-play, porn, gen, slash, femslash, het, any rating you feel comfortable with (for violence and/or sex), bittersweet things that are heavy on the sweet, interesting narrative voices and/or concepts, Happily Ever After/Happily For Now endings
I don't like:
Deathfic, gratuitous angst, character-bashing, introspective character pieces, five times fics, A/B/O universes, sad endings. (Also the standard DNWs: scat, watersports, necro, mpreg, homophobia, transphobia, etc)
Getbackers: Midou Ban, Amano Ginji
The Series:
Ginji Amano and Ban Mido, a pair of super powered individuals known as the "GetBackers". The duo operates a freelance repossession service out of one of the seedier areas of Shinjuku. For a fee, they will recover any lost or stolen item for a client with "an almost 100% success rate". The GetBackers' job often leads them into bizarre and dangerous situations in order to "get back what shouldn't be gone". Their targets range from lost video games to misplaced components of an atomic bomb. This is complicated by the fact that they are totally shit with money and basically too gay to function without each other.
The manga (which can be found here) ran from 1999-2007, and the anime has 49 episodes, and ran from 2002-2003, and can be found here
Request:
WHY HELLO THERE, NOSTALGIA FANDOM. I ship Ban and Ginji, as is right and correct and good, and I just want... everything. To do with them. Like, Ban seducing the Raitei to his side, and showing Ginji that there's more to life and love and emotion than he'd ever thought. Or their early attempts at finding jobs. Or just idk hanging out, being aggressively THEM.
Other plot ideas include host club AUs, or mafia AUs or Gangsta AUs, or something long and plotty that involves big fights and dealing with their traumas while getting back something massive and important.
I also accept hurt/comfort and something something lightening and chains because heaven knows all the promo art used to have Ginji all tied up and shit. Or Ginji somehow being regressed to his Raitei mindset and Ban putting himself in danger (sexy danger) and getting hurt to snap Ginji out of it. Then there's sex. Also, do they have sex in the car? How does that work? It's so SMALL.
And if you REALLY want to indulge me, write a fic based on the premise of this Getbackers pseudo-movie promo with angels and demons and shit: Getbackers: Get Back The Name of God
Extra Details:
I love how much weirdness can be packed into something that ostensibly makes sense. Like, no one ever really questions most of the weird powers, but they're not exactly explained either. And Mugenjou is just kind of... there, and no one seems too terribly concerned about what is, in essence, a version of the Kowloon Walled City, but with people who have weird-ass powers-- some of whom are computer holograms(?). Sometimes I wonder if the mangaka ever thought the politics or economics of any of this out.
And there's so much you can do with Ban and Ginji's powers in particular-- either in a shippy sexy way (I'M NOT COMPLAINING, GINJI IS A WALKING VIOLET WAND) or in a plotty dynamic way. I always loved some bittersweet angst with them, but they are so in love and so deeply co-dependent that I just can't imagine them ever not being together after they've met, even if there's some sort of massive betrayal.
No Game No Life - Kamiya Yuu: Sora, Shiro
The Series:
They are both NEETs and Hikikomoris… but on the internet, the genius gamer siblings Sora and Shiro are known as the undefeatable “__” (blank). Sora and Shiro’s talents and skills are so abnormally good they are considered as urban legend. One day, they are challenged by the god of games to chess and are victorious. As a result, the god summons them to Disboard, a reality which revolves around games. Intent on maintaining their reputation as the undefeated gamers, Sora and Shiro plan to conquer the sixteen ruling species and to usurp the god of games...
NGNL is a series of light novels, of which 6 have been translated (PDFs can be found here, or bought legally at any online bookstore). The No Game No Life anime can be found on Crunchyroll here.
Request:
The fact that Shiro and Sora literally cannot be separated from each other is one of the dynamics that I like about the series. I really enjoy codependent siblings as a Thing. So I would be happy if you played with that dynamic. Plotty gen for this series would be great-- it's always fun when one of them is much better than the other or they have to separate and execute plans while relying solely on the intuition of what their sibling will do. Alternately, someone kidnapping Sora and Shiro having to play a game to get him back while they both battle their inability to get anything done alone...
I'd love background on them, where they tried to separate or were forced to separate and failed to function, or where one or the other tried to interact with other people (maybe a gamer who tracked them down) but were either terrible at it, the other one quietly sabotaged the budding relationship, or the third person got way too freaked out by the way Sora and Shiro act around each other.
Future fic would also be great-- King/Queen Blank or even the Gods Blank, after they've beaten Tet. What does that look like? What kind of world are they making for themselves and each other?
I ship them, but do not expect other people to, so if you want to write shippy fic (with aged up Shiro!!!) for them, I will be surprised but happy. I will happily admit to wanting kinky sex games.
Extra Details:
I know this series isn't everyone's cup of tea, with the sheer amount of fanservice and Sora's utterly otaku personality and the pseudo-incest thing with the 12 year old. Personally, as is probably obvious from the request, I'm less interested in the fanservicey characters, and much more about the dynamics of Shiro and Sora's relationship. I love the way they know exactly what the other is capable of and trust each other completely and whole-heartedly. Whether you write something small and domestic or big and plotty, for me the core of NGNL is that they love, care and respect each other in a way that is beautiful but also extremely unhealthy.
If you want to go the shippy route, again, Shiro needs to be aged up appropriately-- it's always been interesting to me that Sora understands that it is inappropriate to sexualize his underage adopted sister, while Shiro goes out of her way to help sexualize other women for Sora's entertainment. There's a part of me that wonders if she's planning ahead for when she is old enough to be an "appropriate" (in age, if nothing else) sexual partner and is trying to get Sora to lose his virginity ahead of time.
Pet Shop of Horrors: Wu-fei Lau "Taizu"
The Series:
Pet Shop of Horrors is a Horror/Fantasy manga by Matsuri Akino, which was later developed into a four episode anime. Its demographic is Josei. Despite the title, the manga rarely focuses on horror, instead slowly building up the relationships between its characters in a magical setting. It has the occasional gore scene, though, and whole lot of terrifying monsters.
PSOH is the story of a peculiar shop in Chinatown -- or more accurately, the story of the clients that visit this particular shop. The store's proprietor is an effeminate and sinister man only known as "Count D". He sells both normal animals, as well as a selection of "special pets"--more specifically, animals that appear human to their often-dysfunctional owners. This particular type of pet appears in a shape that will grant people their deepest wishes and desires: a daughter who died, the perfect girlfriend, and so on -- but only to their owner. Almost anyone else will see an animal. Count D uses these shapeshifting creatures to teach their human caretaker a lesson, making them sign a contract stating they'll take good care of their new pets. Almost inevitably, they don't. The outcome is rarely pleasant, although some stories (especially those involving pets given to children) have very heartwarming endings.
Shin Pet Shop of Horrors (New PSOH, or PSOH:Tokyo, in English) is the sequel, with the action moved over to Shinjuku's Red Light District in Tokyo. You can find the manga translations here.
The Request:
No one writes Wu-Fei, okay? Just write me some Wu-Fei being all mafia-ish, and having UST (Or not-so unrequited sexual tension) with Count D, and I'll be happy.
Plotty case is a bonus-- D's weird and terrifying pet choices for people is great and Wu-Fei trying to figure out what the hell is going on in his turf is so much fun. I love how his theories are so fucking mundane-- Is D human trafficking? Is he selling drugs? Wu-Fei Just Doesn't Know. I wouldn't mind all the sexual chemistry with D too (much to Wu-Fei's eternal chagrin). I know Leon/D is the main ship for this series, but Wu-Fei having a thing for D that he doesn't understand and D leading him on and finding a soft spot for ANOTHER DAMN HUMAN would be amazing.
Also, I will never get over Wu-Fei possibly maybe getting impregnated accidentally. I'm not an mpreg-fan, but fucking Wu-Fei with magic when he doesn't understand or believe in magic is just... mmmm. Similarly, the assassination attempt just hit my kinks pretty hard, because organized-crime and magic combined are, like, My Thing.
Extra Details:
I am forever deeply disappointed that no one writes about Wu-Fei. Yes, He's not Leon, but I love him most because he's totally different from Leon. Maybe this is just my deep and abiding love for organized-crime-types and my general disinterest towards law enforcement, but I love the idea that there's this young guy who is trying so hard to run his criminal empire-- and things keep slipping through his fingers because D, that magical motherfucker, decided to move in. If you want to go with a coda from the manga, you could do something silly like him eating those super-fertility eggs that D accidentally supplied a baker with and getting himself pregnant (I don't normally like mpreg, but I kind of love the idea of Wu-Fei just having to deal with something totally ricockulous because he keeps having to spend time with D). Or there's always another assassination attempt, or some other mafia-like plot. But with added ~magic~ craziness because D has a vested interest in keeping Wu-Fei alive.
selector infected WIXOSS: Aoi Akira, Igarashi Rumi | Ulith
The Series:
WIXOSS is a popular trading card game in which players battle against each other with fighters known as LRIGs, using cards to support them. Certain LRIGs are able to communicate with their owners, and the girls chosen to wield them are known as "Selectors". Selectors are given the chance to have any wish granted by winning battles against other Selectors, but should they lose three times, their wish will be reversed into a curse instead.
The main series, selector infected WIXOSS, follows a girl named Ruko Kominato, who becomes a Selector after receiving an LRIG that she names Tama. As she and various other Selectors battle it out for the sake of their wish, Ruko finds herself drawn into the dark, sinister world of WIXOSS, discovering that, win or lose, there is always a price to pay.
The anime can be found on Crunchyroll here
Request:
So, you know how in my "general likes" I said I don't like "gratuitous angst"? In this fandom, there is no such thing as "gratuitous". Darkfic is absolutely welcome here. The thing I am most interested in here is the manipulative, awful relationship that Akira has with Ulith-as-Iona. Like, I love them all, and for some reason in this fandom, that comes out to "please break them".
Exploring their adult lives and how their relationships and the Wixoss game affected them in the future would be amazing. What else happened to them? What are their careers like? What are their home lives like? Are they... living together? Does some sort of magic continue to be a theme in their lives?
Feel free to write in-universe plot or no-powers universe, or some horrible Madoka or Yurikuma Arashi or other magical girl thing, where they can all be horribly manipulative lesbians together because that's magical and wonderful.
OTOH, if you want to write codependent-but-vaguely-functional adult Akira and Iona/Ulith being horrible assholes and having adventures of some sort (magic, detectives, idk) that is ALSO A+. I mean, I like happy endings, and if you can come up with something heartwarming ( or "heartwarming") I'm not going to complain.
Extra Details:
Evil lesbians are Problematic, I know. But Akira was one of my favorite characters from the word go and (if you're paying attention to my fandoms as a whole) I really really like codependent or unhealthy relationships. I love her love/hate relationship with Iona and with Ulith, and the way those two characters sort of get mixed up for Akira specifically. If you want to play with Iona and Ulith's personalities and interactions as well, that would also be pretty fun.
I'm also down for other types of AUs, like they have to get their shit together and track down someone who is killing Selectors, or they become selectors as adults and not girls.
I know they're young, but given that this is a super-fucking dark canon, I am totally cool with dubiously consensual sex either on or off-screen.
Dragon Prince Trilogy - Melanie Rawn: Ianthe of Princemarch, Sioned of River Run
The Series:
I want to say "if this wasn't the matched fandom you should go out and read them right the fuck now', but you really need to enjoy ridiculous high fantasy novels about politics and a dude who's the prince of a desert and some people who communicate via sunlight. Needless to say, there's magic in there somewhere. And a LOT of politics. It's full of cheese. If it sounds interesting to you, pretty much ever used bookstore I have ever been to has at least one copy of these books. I think they spawn on bookshelves or something. You can probably also find digital copies on the internet
The Request:
I love everything this series chooses to be. It's fun and cheesy and fantasy, which the best thing in the world.
I've always thought that Ianthe had a serious hate-crush on Sioned and part of the reason she was so vicious and fucked up was that whole "you must marry a guy and expand the empire or your useless" thing when maybe she didn't want to do that. Ianthe's always been one of my favorite characters because she's brilliant and ruthless and clearly takes joy in clever plans that go well. Of course, being the villain in a cheesy fantasy, she got no depth whatsoever, aside from that whole sexually liberated, taking male consorts thing (which is AWESOME, okay.) Sioned is also awesome and brilliant and kick ass. Her hesitance in the first book while she decided what she really wanted to do was pretty great, as was the fact that she promptly made friends with Tobin and pretty much every character not designated "villain". It seems like up through Ianthe's death, they're playing a game of brinkmanship. (Which isn't to say I don't like Sioned and Rohan together. They're bookTP and totally awesome.)
As for prompts, I normally prefer plotty fic to introspection. I feel like the whole sunrunner thing lends itself well to espionage, so political thriller, or murder mysteries or something would be great. If you want to do plot-what-plot involving these two-- either sex or just the sort of dancing around/pigtail pulling that would be great. Threesomes with Rohan-- also acceptable! Hell, if you want to do an AU where they end up together instead of Sioned marrying Rohan-- or alternately, an AU end to the trilogy, where Ianthe never died in the fire and ends up taking over as High Princess and making the Desert monarchs' lives hell and discovering her powers. Or something where she knew about her powers all along. Or Sioned, I don't know, realizing she kind of did think Ianthe was attractive. I also really enjoy Pandsala, but I didn't find her dynamic with Sioned and Rohan quite as engaging, even though she also did some bad-ass stuff in the long run. Her weird push and pull backstabby, politicized sisterly thing was interesting, though.
Extra Details: Okay, like I said, I think this series is the cheesiest fantasy series in the WORLD and in a lot of ways it's one of my first nostalgia fandoms. If you haven't read them, they are kind of ridiculously long (Like, GRR Martin-long), but they're quick reads despite that and rather less depressing than a lot of high fantasy. It's silly in the way that "adult fantasy" that takes itself way too seriously can be. A lot of the main protagonists actively enjoy each others' company and that's as much integral to the book as the politics and dragon-slaying.
That said, I kinda asked for a semi-serious plotty story. But if you want to run with the "it's cheesy fantasy" and want to write about Ianthe rescuing princesses or Sioned running away to be a knight and abducting Ianthe away from her toxic father, or something silly, I say get down with your nerd self and run with it.
I've only read parts of the second trilogy, and the second generation aren't really very interesting to me. If you want to write future-fic, I would prefer that it continues to focus on the original generation (no matter how much I love Andry, Pol just seems like kind of a jerk).
Young Justice (Comics): Match (Young Justice (Comics))
The Series:
Comics are confusing! This request is for the late-90s version of Young Justice by Peter David, which consisted of Robin, Impulse, Superboy, Arrowette, Secret, and Wonder Girl, along with others. It's very much a young-heroes-trying-to-make-their-way. Unlike the newer show, this Young Justice tended to be left on their own without much of a guiding hand aside from Red Tornado. It was a very 90s comic, with very 90s fashion and a lot of nod-nod-wink-wink in-jokes. I love it because it's a series that always wore it's humor on its sleeve. It's an affectionate look at young superheroes, and allowed them to react to teen problems alongside the more standard superhero tropes. There's the possibility for angst and darkness (and once they graduated to Teen Titans especially, that came up more), but they were allowed to be both hurt and upset AND fun and cheerful.
The comics weren't available collected until this year (it took them TWENTY YEARS JFC), and it's well-worth buying from your local retailer, but you can also find them online here. The character I'm requesting first appeared in Superboy's solo series (starting in issue #35), which can be found here and again in the first volume of Young Justice: Sins of Youth.
The Request:
SO! I have always loved Match in the original YJ and Superboy comics, and the writers gave him really short shrift. We have a clone of Kon, who is as smart, if not smarter, can pretend to be Kon for extended periods of time- but every time he tries, people get hurt or die. I’ve always wondered how Tim felt that he literally couldn’t tell his best friend from an imposter (and IIRC, the Identity Crisis stuff may have happened while Match was pretending to be Kon-- so it’s possible that the person Tim got close to was Match and not Kon in the first place). And then Match went and ran off and disappeared and no one ever seemed to consider what he was doing, after thousands of his/Kon’s siblings/clones were murdered essentially in front of him and Cadmus fell apart. (I’m not entirely surprised that Kon didn’t pay attention to all of those clones of him dying, but think about it from the stand point of someone for whom those were supposed to be an army of his siblings. What a way to get survivor’s guilt.)
Did Match go to Lex? It doesn’t seem like it, but given that as Kon’s clone, he’s technically Lex’s son too, it’s a possibility. Or alternately! He got himself out of the superhero game and did something else! What was it?
The stuff on One Year Later and just prior to Nu52 also gave me Feelings. Because everyone treated Match-as-Bizarro as just Something That Happened- but how? How did Slade keep him under control? Why was he still pretending to be Superboy? There’s still some rational thought in him- after all, what irrational Bizarro would be scared for the Titans and know to try and get Raven’s attention when possessed by Jericho? Is it possible that Slade did something to fuck Match up? (Slade’s mind control serum is kryptonite green, I’m JUST SAYING) What did the Titans do with Match after the Jericho fiasco- if you wrote me a “Match slowly coming back to his senses and trying to cope with being back among heroes after clearly being away from that world for so long” thing I’d be so happy.
I’d also love for a story about him wanting to be a super and have that family that Kon and Clark have, but being shut out of that world because he’s a “villain”. Or him getting that family after so long. Or him showing up at the Kents’ place because “fuck it, if Kon can have this, so can I” and it goes… well or poorly, depending on you. Or him finding his own family in a place that is separate from the who superhero thing, and Kon or Tim or Clark stumbling on him. Or Lex trying to use him- whether or not it works is up to you, although I’d love for it to touch on Match’s need to be part of something larger- after all, he was built and trained to be the vanguard for an army that was summarily murdered in front of him.
ALSO, MY DEEPLY HELD RARE PAIR FROM THE 90s: Tim/Match! See above, re: Match being present for Identity Crisis instead of Kon. I’d love Match to be trying to follow Kon’s footsteps re: Cassie, and being way more into Tim, which leads to Tim being confused and into Kon. Also any of the above prompts can include Tim (maybe he ends up as Match’s “parole officer” after the Jericho fiasco! Or tries to help cushion a meeting between Match and Kon or Clark! Or maybe he just ends up Match’s sugar daddy. I’m down.)
Although this request is ripe for dubious identity weirdness with Match pretending to be Kon, I'd really prefer that you focus on Match getting to be his own person, even if there's some pretending-to-be-Kon in there.
Extra Details:
This has been a lowkey love of mine for literally decades. My absolute favorite gift of all time was original pages from one of the Superboy issues where he appears for the first time. I used to ask for this stuff during Jingle Bells, Batman Smells, when that exchange was still active, but honestly Match is such an obscure character that I've never really gotten anything. BUT I LOVE HIM. And as I've grown older, my love for this rare, obscure character has deepened. Also, as I've grown older, I've begun to want more adult!Match, or growing up!Match just because the idea of growing up in the margins of superhero culture after everything that happened to him is really interesting. He was straight-up groomed and brainwashed, and then the Agenda was gone, so how did he cope? What is he doing now? What kind of adult does he make (either before or after the Slade and Jericho incidents)? What kind of relationships does he have?
As I've said elsewhere in the letter, I really prefer Happily Ever After/Happily For Now stuff, and I prefer my bittersweet fics heavy on the sweetness. Please give Match the love and affection he's always deserved.
I don't really watch the new cartoon, but from stuff online, it seems the series at least gives Match a viable relationship with Kon and Clark, so if you would like to integrate some of that characterization in, I won't be opposed, but keep in mind that I watched the first half of the first season, and have very little knowledge of that version of the characters.