Dear Fandom 5k Author
Mar. 24th, 2018 06:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sathinfectionHello there! I hope you like something that you see here. I’ve done my best to provide plenty of prompts and talk a little about what I like about each pairing. If you need any clarifications about DNWs, feel free to send me a message through the mods.
I’m on Tumblr as sathinfection, Twitter as sathindetection, and AO3 as Sath. If you want to dig into more stuff about my preferences, there’s lots of past letters on this account.
As you may have noticed, just about everything I've asked for is historical in setting. While I'm really happy to get historical accuracy, I'm not super picky about it and with a few exceptions, most of my historical knowledge boils down to what underwear people were probably wearing.
I’m happy to receive fic of any rating, and you can include smut for any of the pairings if you decide you want to. If your story goes far over 5k, that’s great! If you hit 5k exactly, that’s also great!
For Original Works, I have requested a variety of genres, but I haven't provided prompts for each one because all the requests for the fandom must be combined. If I have not prompted a genre you're interested in writing - don't worry, write it anyway! I just got a little exhausted with prompting.
- DNWS
- Genre Wants
- Astreiant
- Gentleman Bastard Sequence
- Provenance
- Original Works: Female Bakeneko/Female Samurai
- Original Works: High-Ranking Military Genius/Loyal Alien Fleet Commander
- Original Works: Early Modern Male Disinherited Noble Working As Tailor/Male Vigilante
- Original Works: Medieval Male Greenland Shark Selkie/Original Male Character
Do Not Wants
General do not wants:
| Porn do not wants:rough nipple play, humiliation, bestiality, rimming, watersports, vomit, scat, fisting, kink negotiation, stuffing/inflation/feeder kink, foot kink, penis in vagina intercourse, mommy/daddy kink, futanari, vore, teacher/student roleplay Porn do wants: |
Genre Wants
Action/AdventureFor me, action/adventure is all about getting into trouble and getting back out of it again. I like it when the characters are competent, though perhaps not prepared for what they’ve just landed into. I like descriptions of action scenes and people improvising on the spot, and I love when people are having a great time on their new adventure, even if it can be hard sometimes. The thrill of discovery and exploration is great! Action/adventure is great for making unresolved romantic tension to suddenly get resolved, as the characters realize their feelings for each other due to some genre-related pressure or success.
Angst
I love it when people are sad and crying, or sad and trying not to cry, or haunted by their past and trying not to give up and cry about it. I don’t actually require crying with my angst; stoically suffering is fine. I don’t want the character to be unable to function due to angst, and I don’t want angst caused by past sexual assault. Angst that comes out of a situation the character is in - for example, a Greenland shark selkie falling in love and knowing that he’ll outlive his lover by over a century - is my favorite.
Getting Together
I never get tired of seeing my OTPs getting together! There’s so many different ways it can happen. Another thing about getting together fics is that I love it when there’s lots of unresolved sexual/romantic tension that keeps building and building during the story and the characters finally get together at the end. Keep me at the edge of my feet with will they/won’t they and then they DO.
Established Relationship
I’m also totally into fics that just puts the characters together and then focuses on how their relationship works during whatever the plot of the fic is. What kind of dynamic do they have? How are they responding to things as a couple?
Horror
One of my favorite genres! I love horror played straight, but I also love when it’s played for romance or comedy. The horror can be straightforward - AHHH SCARY MONSTER - or more existential - AHHH SCARY NON-EUCLIDEAN GEOMETRIES. I’m not into gorn, where a character just gets horribly tortured and then tries to escape. Maybe the horror element is the love interest - like a bakeneko or a selkie. For me, horror is at its best when it reveals something, about the character, or human nature, or the monster. Maybe the source of the horror is human, or perhaps the horror is set up by the nature of the monster/alien critter. My two favorite horror movies are Ravenous and Alien. Some of my favorite horror doesn’t even involve the supernatural - just a hostile landscape with terrifying creatures, like the polar ice, deserts, or old-growth forest. I prefer happy ‘the evil is defeated’ endings for horror scenarios, except where noted.
Humor
I feel like humor is great by itself, but it also can improve whatever it’s added to - a sad story can be made sadder by having some laughter in it, an adventure is improved by comedy, etc. If you don’t feel confident with writing humor, I absolutely don’t need it in a story, but if you enjoy writing humor, go for it!
Hurt/Comfort
I like hurt/comfort best when the hurt character has some kind of injury that leaves them needing care, but they’re not completely bedridden. If you’ve seen Netflix’s Daredevil series, that’s basically perfect in terms of character gets beaten up, gets some treatment, proceeds to stagger around like a woobie. On the more psychological end, I like hurts that are caused by the sudden ripping away of something the character thought was absolute - like, they’re betrayed by someone they’re close to, exiled, find out that their beloved parent/mentor was evil, discover that they made a horrible mistake, etc. I don’t like h/c when the character just has something mild, like a head cold, or has a deadly illness, like cancer. If you want to hit the character with plague, sure!
Mystery/Procedural
I’m not super invested in how mysterious the mystery is or how hard the case is to crack - I like how the characters get to the solution. What’s their interaction like along the way? Do they realize anything about themselves/each other/the world/human nature? I like when mysteries/cases go against audience expectations - set me up for one thing, but deliver another thing. On the other hand, I can really enjoy something predictable if there’s really good set-up and execution along the way. I am HORRENDOUSLY bad at guessing a mystery in advance.
Smut
Please see my smut swap letter for more than you could ever want to know about my smut preferences. If you’re under 18, DO NOT WRITE SMUT FOR ME.
Worldbuilding
I love digging into new worlds and different times. Give me the sorts of extra details you’re into! Like, if you’ve seen five different documentaries on the designs of salt shakers in 1840, now is your time to include that salt shaker knowledge you have treasured for so long in a fanfic. Did you love one particular aspect of canon? Share that love with me! I’m always up for reading about whatever my author’s into, unless it’s a DNW. Have you spent a lot of time thinking about amphibians and you want to include those headcanons for the Geck ambassador? WOW. Do you think about grain futures? Gimme.
ON TO THE LETTER. I have organized my prompts/thoughts around the genre tags, but don’t feel bound to make any idea match the genre, or to write any of my particular prompts - I want to see where you want to go with it! Genres just ended up the easiest way for me to write prompts and organize the letter.
Astreiant
Philip Eslingen/Nicolas RatheWow, it was such a pleasure to get into this series in January. I read all 3 books and the novella in a row. I love how the worldbuilding is homophobia-free, and I love the characters.
I have one beef with the books: we never get Philip and Nico’s first moment of getting together, though we do get their Let’s Officialize This moment. You, dear potential writer, could fix that.
I'd love it if you wrote their first time together, if you filled out any of the missing scenes during/between the books, or if you set it after the third book with Eslingen in the new City Guard. You could include he most conventionally vanilla sex between the two of them and I'd be thrilled, or go for spicier.
Rathe and Eslingen have a really interesting relationship, because they're on equal footing with each other, skill-wise, and they trust the other person to get things done the right way when they can't be there. But on the other hand, people call Eslingen Rathe's “black dog,” and damn if that doesn't open up some interesting commentary on the power dynamics other people are observing from them. Eslingen tends to let Rathe's feelings on a matter dictate what what he does, and Rathe doesn't seem to notice that Eslingen does this, though he does know how much Eslingen cares for him.
Action/Adventure
Philip and Nico are always getting up to trouble! This would be a good way to bring in stuff happening post Fair’s Point, or you could go into one of their past adventures. I’d really like something set in between Point of Hopes and Point of Knives - perhaps with some necromancy involved? Other types of magic? Maybe just some really clever bandits. Some sort of mystery requires putting Philip and Nico on a Silklands caravan.
AU - Canon Divergence
What if Philip had never left Coindarel’s Dragons? How might he have met Nico, with his “I hate the guards” attitude, and yet they’d still end up falling for each other? Were they forced to work together? Did Nico have to compete with Coindarel? Alternatively, what if Philip stayed under Caiazzo’s employ?
Smut
Check out my Smut Swap letter.
Horror
The canon has necromancy and ghost tides and all sorts of spooky things in the background that I’d love to see moved into the foreground. Perhaps we finally find out Nico’s horoscope and it’s tied to some sort of horrifying eldritch astrological moment!
Humor
There’s some funny things in the books which could really be punched up. Basket terrier races! Ghosts! Nico is faced with some sort of truly ridiculous case, like the theft of a famous pair of undergarments.
Getting together / Established Relationship
I’m desperate for fic about their first time and how they got together. What made Nico go from thinking Philip was straight (and being disappointed about it) to getting his bone on? What was their first kiss like? However, if you want to go the established relationship route, that's fine with me!
Canon Style Plot
While I would like a little more emphasis on Philip and Nico’s relationship than in the books, I love the style of them and would be happy to read more in the exact flavor.
Gentleman Bastard Sequence
Locke Lamora/Jean Tannen
Jean and Locke have a wonderful dynamic that keeps getting more and more codependent as the books go on. I'm pretty sure that Scott Lynch has a hurt/comfort and service kink going on, based on how books 2 and 3 both start with Jean taking care of Locke while he's mostly helpless and acting pathetic.
If you would like to whump/injure/put Locke in distress, then in the spirit of the canon: please do so, but I don’t require it. I have no preference for if you'd rather write them getting together, or take the established relationship route.
Action/Adventure
This is basically canon-style plot, sort of. Except focusing I guess on more of the running around and stealing things and getting into some combat.
Angst
I love Locke’s depression, and how Jean manages to bring him out of it. I think Locke is even starting to develop some coping techniques by the end of book 3? There’s so many things for Locke to angst about at every point in his life. You know what else would be cool? JEAN ANGST. I would love some Jean angst, where he angsts over how he’s in love with what has to be the world’s most troublesome man, or how he fits in differently with the Bastards because he was orphaned later in life, or just Jean getting emotionally exhausted by everything that’s happened in the last few years and being temporarily unable to handle it.
AU - Canon Divergence
There’s lots of great points for canon divergence in the plot! Some possibilities:
- Locke is never sold to Chains, and instead he ends up with one of the other capas. Jean and Locke end up best friends (and getting together) anyway.
- Jean’s parents never die. Locke could meet him as an adult either by trying to con Jean, or through some other coincidence.
- Bug and the Sanzas don’t die! Neither does Nazca!
Canon Style Plot
Totally cool with me. If you could manage to write a canon style plot that somehow revolves around doublets? Amazing.
Horror
I feel like horror is one of the few genres that hasn’t come up in the books yet, which is shocking, considering how horrifying the various Eldren artifacts are - the Gentling, the things under the ocean, all the horrible things hinted at about magic by Patience… Jean and Locke go looking for an artifact in a ruin, and end up descending into some good ol’ primal madness. What if they end up going on an expedition to a forbidding landscape and the person leading it steers them into a nightmare situation in a crazed effort to recover something Eldren?
Humor
The banter/creative swearing/plans going creatively wrong in the books is great, so feel free to pepper that all over the place, though I don’t need it.
Hurt/Comfort
So, the beginning of book 3 may not TECHNICALLY be prize-winning literature, but I sure as heck have re-read the thrilling saga of Locke bleeding everywhere and Jean becoming more and more desperate to save him. I’m all for the sorts of hurt/comfort scenarios that happen in the book, but it’d also be great for Locke to end up having to take care of Jean, though I think he’d be pretty shitty at it. It’s his thoughts that count! (actually, he has done OK with emotional comfort in the past I will admit) Perhaps Jean got horribly injured while protecting Locke (as usual).
Established relationship
Getting together
Both of these are good! I’m not picky.
Smut
See my Smut Swap letter.
Scifi/Fantasy Elements
I love this pairing, and I love science fiction! It’d be so neat to read about confidence games in space. What if instead of being the result of an evil wizard’s experiment with immortality, Locke finds out that he’s actually an evil shapeshifting alien in human shape? How does he deal with that? Is there a greater plot surrounding a conflict/heist with the type of alien Locke finds out he has? I mean basically let’s take bondsmagi for aliens here. Feel free to do all sorts of other changes to the characters to make the scifi element work. I like space opera, military SF, Star Wars-y stuff, Ann Leckie’s work… lots of stuff!
Provenance
Tic Uisine/Garal Ket | Pahlad Budrakim
I read Provenance a few months ago and it was such a cozy read. The Geck ambassador was probably my favorite character - if only I had a mech that I could use to dramatically flail out my claws! The development of Tic and Garal as two characters who didn’t ‘fit’ - Tic for his lack of gills, Garal for e’s time in Compassionate Removal and general identity shifting from Pahlad to Garal - was really interesting to me. And then the tender developing feelings between Tic and Garal! The easy bit of proximity that Garal and Tic show with each other on the end, along with their decision to travel together, really sold me on this understated pairing.
I’d love to see more worldbuilding with the Geck - perhaps a reconciliation between Tic and the ambassador, or Garal could act as a mediator between the two of them. Let Garal learn more about Geck culture, and the humans living with the Geck. It’d be great to have more of Tic’s backstory, as well as what it was like for him to grow up with the Geck.
I’m up for reading explorations of Garal’s trauma in Compassionate Removal, but I’d prefer you avoid mentioning any sexual assault. As for Garal’s relationship with Tic, you can keep it at the same level of casual, non-sexual intimacy that pops up in the book, or you could bring them into a more explicitly romantic/sexual relationship. I don’t want any focus on Garal feeling pressured (by emself or by Tic) to overcome eir responses to contact. In short: please no narratives about Garal overcoming sex repulsion or learning to like sex, extended conversations about sex repulsion, or excessively discussing consent, e.g. establishing a red light/green light system or needed to do consent checks at every stage. In the book, Tic seems really savvy about where Garal’s boundaries are and how he should respect them.
Action/Adventure
I’d love to read about Tic having yet another troublesome passenger situation. Is it a strange alien going to the Conclave? A sentient AI? A Radchaai? Do they encounter some sort of mechanical problem and they have to make an emergency landing on a strange planet?
Character Development
More of Tic and Garal’s backstories! More of the Geck ambassador! How do Tic and Garal develop their relationship? Just more Tic and Garal.
Canon-style Plot
I love the canon, so feel free to write something in the same spirit.
Humor
Tic and Garal both have this rather dry, sardonic approach to life that makes for good humor, and the spider mechs/Geck ambassador are adorable. The sea-worms, my goodness. Humorous worldbuilding a huge plus.
Worldbuilding
I loooooove Ann Leckie’s world. Giving me more details about anywhere is great. I loved the Radchaai ambassador, and how strange she seemed to Ingray, after the books where the Radchaai were the POV characters and it was everyone who was strange. I’d love it if Tic and Garal visited the Geck, or maybe an entirely new planet with a new species.
Top↑Original Works: Female Bakeneko/Female Samurai
I was thinking of samurai here in the sense of a member of the samurai class, but if you want the samurai to be a fighter, that’s rad! I don’t have a preference as for when you set the story.
You can keep to historical gender dynamics or do a “yeah this is historical Japan but women are on equal footing with men” handwave. I’d rather the plot not focus on how women were restricted, though.
I love bakeneko because I love shapeshifting monsters and I love cats and bakeneko are shapeshifting cat-monsters, which is amazing. I’m so happy to live in a world with tales about cats getting really old, starting to talk, murdering and eating grandma, and then pretending that they are grandma. Feel free to include weird bits of bakeneko lore! All the lore is weird.
Getting Together
Maybe the samurai saves a cat from danger or takes in an injured/sick kitty and nurses her back to health and then it turns out that there is a HOT AND GRATEFUL WOMAN in her home. Or, the samurai discovers that perhaps her dear friend is not her dear friend anymore and is instead a bakeneko impersonating her friend.
Horror
THEY EAT PEOPLE AND TAKE THEIR SHAPE.
Humor
Bakeneko like to dance with napkins on their head, eat grandma, and drink lamp oil. The humor writes itself.
Mystery/Procedural
The samurai is investigating some horrible local tales of people being eaten, and a bakeneko is suspected, or maybe they think it’s some other kind of monster or a vicious dog or something. Alternatively, maybe the bakeneko enjoys solving crimes by other supernatural critters and she draws the samurai into it.
Smut
I wrote a bit about how I’d want bakeneko on human smut to go in my Smut Swap letter, though the genders were reversed. You can see the other F/F pairings I asked for to find out how I like my F/F.
Original Works: High-Ranking Military Genius/Loyal Alien Fleet Commander
I love xeno and alien cultures and military loyalty kink. I didn’t specify gender here because what I care about the most is the alien being alien - everything else is window dressing. Feel free to write f/f, m/m, m/f, or one or both of the characters being NB. I love it when aliens have different ideas/stereotypes/manifestations of gender than humans do.
Despite my xeno kink, I’m ultimately most interested in how the alien perceives and responds to things differently than a human would, and how that alien would feel/express loyalty to a human superior officer in a way that’s mixed up with romantic feelings. Alternatively, how the human perceives the alien and interprets the alien’s feelings/romantic feelings for an alien. Maybe human/alien relationships are super common, or perhaps they’re rare/unheard of.
I’m up for requited, unrequited, or requited but never acted upon for this pairing.
If you have no personal alien preferences yourself, I really like bipedal insect-like ones (particularly mantids, wasps, and ants), humanoid with spidery traits, cephalopod-inspired aliens, or lizard/dinosaur types. I like aliens that are either human-sized or like, bigger, but I wouldn’t want to go more than 8 feet tall or so.
Another possibility is space elves. I’m not a fan of aliens covered in fur, though.
If you wanna write smut and include weird genitals, go for it! Honestly feel free to make the sex really weird. Or it could be perfectly unsurprising! However, please don’t include impregnation/impregnation kink.
NOTE: since I didn’t specify the species of the military genius, it’s possible that the ‘alien’ fleet commander is actually human and the military genius is the alien.
Action/Adventure
Space battles! Surprise reversals! Alternatively: the military genius and the fleet commander crash land on a hostile planet and it’s up to just the two of them to find their missing ship and save the day. (I really like marooned scenarios)
Angst
I’m very for the classic scenario of ‘oh no, we’re of different ranks, this is against the rules and also such a bad idea because we respect each other and this could interfere with our working relationship.’ Or maybe they love each other but the cultural or physical gap is just SO OVERWHELMING (perhaps they make it work, perhaps they don’t).
Another thing that could happen is that the fleet commander’s loyalty is tested - who are they more loyal to? The officer they’re in love with? The military? Their species? What if the military genius becomes a turncoat? Will the fleet commander follow - or will they try to stop the person they love?
Getting Together
What makes them finally move from being into each other to doing something about that?
Horror
I love claustrophobic space horror. What if something terrible has started to prey on the crew? What if they encounter an enemy so horrible it’s hard to comprehend? What if the fleet commander and the military genius are suddenly alone on the ship, and have to survive?
Humor
Cultural differences can lead to a lot of humor! What if one of them tries to court the other and it’s just incredibly awkward and nothing quite goes right?
Hurt/Comfort
A lot of the prompts above lend themselves really well to hurt/comfort. What if the genius and the commander are betrayed by their own military superiors, and have to band together and support each other? What if there’s a crash and one of them gets injured and requires care? What if one of them was manipulated into doing something horrible in the line of duty?
Mystery/Procedural
One of them is framed for a murder they didn’t commit! One of them is set up as a traitor but the other believes SO MUCH that their love interest is flawless that they tirelessly work to clear their name!
Worldbuilding
ALIEN CULTURES WHOOOOOOOOO. And how humans fit into those cultures!
Top↑Original Works: Early Modern Male Disinherited Noble Working As Tailor/Male Vigilante
I had the idea for this pairing while watching Daredevil and thinking, wow I love how Matt gets beat up, shame he’s not wearing a doublet and hose. Then I realized that my obsession with early modern fashion and dudes getting beat is getting a little untamed, so why not embrace it? I’m also into storylines about characters losing it all, hence the disinherited noble. I slapped some tropes together and now it’s time for fic gravy.
As usual, I’m not picky about the specifics of setting and location, though I’d like the characters to be close in age. As long as the disinherited noble is doing some tailoring on the vigilante (this can be vigilante-outfit related but does not have to be) and the vigilante gets roughed up while trying to pursue early modern justice, I’ll be happy. I have no preference as to the vigilante’s day job. Go where you like with it!
I think the questions of why the noble was disinherited (perhaps exiled to boot) and why the vigilante has decided to deliver justice (fatal or non-fatal, I don’t care) are interesting ones to answer. I’d rather the reason for the noble tailor’s exile not have anything to do with his orientation - perhaps the noble was just too generally dissolute, framed for doing something bad (or actually did the Bad), or maybe just outcompeted by someone else. As for the vigilante, I have no preference for whether the character is out just generally Stoppin’ Bad Crime or if they’re out for One Specific Revenge. It’d be neat if the tailor’s backstory fit into the vigilante’s backstory. Maybe they were both fucked over by the same person?
As a general item, I love masquerades.
NOTE: yes I have read Marvel 1602 and it did not deliver on the early modern man wearing a goofy outfit and getting beaten up front.
Action/Adventure
The pairing really lends itself to this one. I do like a good revenge tale! Maybe the tailor even gets the vigilante to exact revenge for him - or maybe the tailor’s the whole reason why the vigilante turns vigilante. He’s going to avenge his boyfriend, dammit!
Horror
Perhaps there is some sort of AWFUL CREATURE preying on people. Maybe the noble tailor’s uncle is a horrendous vampire.
Humor
I love masquerades, but also: MASQUES. Maybe some sort of elaborate revenge plan involves amateur theater. Maybe the revenge is for the amateur theater in the first place.
Hurt/Comfort
Perhaps the tailor patches up more than just the vigilante’s clothes :)))
Mystery/Procedural
I think a locked room mystery would be pretty awesome here. The mystery could also come from the revenge story as the vigilante and/or noble tailor is trying to figure out who wronged them. A procedural element could come from the fact that like, early “police” forces were basically vigilantes who sometimes also got paid.
Smut
I really like early modern clothing and also injured sex so there we go.
Original Works: Medieval Male Greenland Shark Selkie/Original Male Character
So, I got obsessed with the Greenland Shark in September of 2017, and I made a throwaway comment about a Greenland Shark selkie, and then I received Greenland Shark selkie fanfiction (all amazing), and now I’m just That Person with that unspeakable, endless thirst for a Greenland Shark selkie. I decided to slap some specificity on here because I like medieval stuff, so why not? I left the shark selkie’s love interest blank because there are so many possibilities for smoochin’. Past shark letters, with facts, are here and here.
I have listed dubcon and noncon as DNWs, so please don’t have the OMC using the selkie’s skin to manipulate the selkie into marrying him or doing what he wants. You can use the sharkskin as part of the plot or just be like, “oh, he had his skin in a backpack, it’s fine.”
The only thing I’m picky about here is time (medieval). You can set the story wherever you want - maybe the Greenland shark decided he wanted to go for warm waters, though I do love stories about frozen hellscapes and icy seas. Despite my fannishness for the medieval period, it’s not necessary to go for Super Historical Accuracy unless you want to go there.
Action/Adventure
Perhaps the OMC is a Viking chieftain! Maybe the shark decides he wants to go a-viking too! What if the OMC is an explorer? An intrepid merchant? A traveling bard who happens to be on the shoreline at the right time? Does the Greenland shark selkie get incredibly lost and end up in New Zealand?
Humor and Horror
There are so many biologically strange things about deep sea creatures (and the Greenland shark in particular) that could go into ‘ha ha funny’ or ‘wow that’s horrifying’ territory that I’ve decided to just include them all together. Greenland sharks are very long-lived (perhaps up to 500 years old). Kind of like a vampire but instead of sucking blood they scavenge whale carcasses. They have functioning eyes but their eyes are often eaten by phosphorescent parasites? Perhaps the shark selkie makes for a convincing human on land except for some… unnerving details. Xeno is totally cool with me.
Despite the brief and funny ‘pee shark’ memes, please do not include pee.
Mystery/Procedural
What if the shark selkie goes on land so he can find who stole his skin and ran off with it and it turns out that the dastardly skin thief has gone cross-country with it? What if it turns out that the person who stole the skin was the love interest and the love interest traded it for some beer and now he feels really bad and he’s going to help the shark selkie find his skin again?
What if the love interest’s great-great grandfather hit the shark selkie with a whaling spear and the selkie has come out of the water FOR REVENGE but it took him like 150 years to bother with it? Does he even realize how long it took him?
Worldbuilding
Here’s your chance to get deep into the deep sea, deep into shark biology, or deep into the medieval culture and area of your choice! Both! All three! Whichever!
