Dear femslashex writer
Sep. 20th, 2013 12:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cest_whatFirstly, if there's a story you already have in your head for whatever pairing we got matched on, please feel free to ignore my letter and go for that! An idea you're excited for is almost always going to be a better story than one written when you want to be writing something else. But if you're looking for ideas to spark off, here are some things I like.
Generally: I love AUs, especially with self-indulgent tropey settings - highschool, space, coffeeshops, flower shops, band AUs etc. I love canon fic too, but just to say that if you were wondering about AUs, I am cool with them :) (The one caveat I'll add there is that I don't like seeing characters' nationalities changed for AUs.)
I love happy or somewhat hopeful endings, and pining, and first kisses. I love clever magic and plottiness and monsters and desperate codependent huddles. I love amnesia and memory shenanigans, and communication troubles, especially with a magical or SFnal bent, and In Vino Veritas and truth spells and deception and telepathy. I love charming plot-lite banter and cute animals, especially if they're a little weird. I love robots and AIs. I love listfic - 20 facts, care and feeding instructions, fic in the form of recipes etc.
I don't mind about rating - you can go as high as you like, or you can restrict them to a kiss on the hand, whatever works for the story.
I would rather not get tragic or unrequited endings, noncon or dubcon, omegaverse, infidelity, pregnancy and babyfic, marriage and weddings, or domestic established relationship/curtainfic (I don't object to it or anything, it's just a harder sell for me personally?)
Chihayafuru
Ships: Chihaya/Shinobu, Chitose/Shinobu
For Chihaya/Shinobu, I'd love to see future fic about them playing one another, or maybe something from Shinobu's POV about her growing awareness of Chihaya. Or the process of Chihaya falling first for Shinobu's karuta and then for her. I'd love it if their relationship was difficult, because Shinobu is spiky and lonely and aggressively ambitious and an arrogant jerk and also pretty knowingly charismatic, and Chihaya is oblivious and sometimes a bit of a steamroller and sometimes really uncertain, and also a weird mixture of socially inept and effortlessly charming/delightful, in a way that might be baffling or aggravating to Shinobu. And also because they are, of course, rivals. I'd also love to see them in AU settings where their karuta obsession and ambition is turned into obsession with something else. (If you feel like it, I'm pretty fond of the idea of background Arata/Taichi too - the only way I can ship them without Chihaya is if she's with Shinobu, basically.)
I think Chitose/Shinobu would be hilarious. Chitose would be horrified by Shinobu's sloppy presentation and awful taste, and Shinobu would be utterly cutting and probably an asshole about dismissing Chitose, which miiiiiight rouse Chitose's indignation and interest. On the other hand, if you want to tell a serious story about these two, I would welcome that as well!
Anime and manga canon are both fine.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ships: Azula/Ty Lee, Mai/Ty Lee, Azula/Mai
Aaaaaaand if you ship OT3 please feel free to add Azula/Mai/Ty Lee into that list. Basically I am cool with any permutation of these girls, I love all of their relationships, terrible as they frequently are.
I'd really love to see something that takes in some pre-canon for them, when they were at the Royal Fire Academy together. Or something set post-canon, in the aftermath. I'd also be interested in seeing a fork-in-the-road AU in which Azula doesn't alienate Mai and Ty Lee - how things might have gone if she'd still had them with her, and hadn't had her meltdown about people betraying her. If you're writing Azula/Mai, I'd also be interested in seeing more of Mai's amoral side, and exactly how formidable a force she and Azula could become together.
Gunnerkrigg Court
Ships: Kat/Annie, Gamma/Zimmy, Kat/Paz
For Kat/Paz, I'd really like to see cheerful fic - so not unrequited Kat-is-secretly-in-love-with-Annie-and-Paz-is-sad or such. Something from Paz's POV before they got together would be cool, the whole arc of her growing feelings that canon missed out on. Or just something from either POV from these early days of being girlfriends, when they're being video game playing doofuses and teasing each other and kissing in deserted corridors and delighted with their secret.
For Gamma/Zimmy, I'd love some of Gamma's POV. Of the tragically tiny amount of fic for this pairing, I feel like people have tended to want to explore the experimental mess that is the inside of Zimmy's head, and that's interesting, but just as interesting is how that mess impinges on Gamma. They share thoughts a lot of the time, Gamma shares Zimmy's world, but it's not her storm. Or I'd also be interested in seeing something that explores the space for deception in their relationship - the lies and half-truths that Zimmy incorporates into her translations for Gamma, to keep her isolated from other people because Zimmy needs her so much (e.g. Gamma asking Annie on the rooftop if everybody else thinks she's stupid and ugly) or sometimes just because Zimmy doesn't interpret human behaviour the way other people do, and Gamma's whole world is filtered through Zimmy's world. I'd also love something that's just hurt/comforty, because damn is this a ship that lends itself to h/c.
For Kat/Annie ... gosh, anything. (Well, ideally not something that involves Paz being super sad? But it's ok if things with Paz are difficult, not totally amicable - or it's also ok if Paz is out of the picture altogether, because of time or circumstances or an AU setting.) In terms of specific ideas - I'd like to see Annie realise her feelings and then just get to see what she would do with them. Like, what the Antimony Carver version of pining and courtship would look like, because it would probably be super weird. And also she's quite secretive, so she would probably be really stealthy about it. Alternatively, I'd like to see Annie be super, super oblivious and just not get Kat's feelings at all for the longest time.
Extra love for any inclusion of Robot and Shadow. Or Parley and Smitty. Or Winsbury and Janet. Yeah ok really I just love the whole ensemble at Gunnerkrigg, do as you like.
Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Ships: Mikasa/Annie, Mikasa/Sasha, Christa/Ymir
What I said about being cool with AUs goes triple for Shingeki no Kyojin. Canon is so traumatic and awful that I really love seeing the characters transported to slightly less traumatic and awful settings where things may still be desperate or terrifying or tragic but people are not at constant risk of being eaten by things that look like and probably are people. Space AUs, historical AUs, modern military AUs etc. Or I'm cool with a setting that removes the danger and death altogether, like high school AUs etc. (Note on the nationality-changing thing I mentioned above: since the SnK universe seems by the names to be set somewhere vaguely Franco-Germanic, I'd rather not see them in e.g. an American high school.)
If you go for canon-fic, I'm up to date on English scanlations for the manga so no need to worry about plot spoilers, unless you're reading the Japanese releases. But since canon moves so quickly, and there's almost never any breathing space in between catastrophes, I'd particularly like to see canon fic set either in their training days or in some theoretical post-war period in which they've both survived (whoever else hasn't), and some kind of battered new world order is beginning. If you can see a space in the current rush of events to work in a scene or story you'd like to write, though, do go ahead.
xxxHolic
Ships: Ame-Warashi/Zashiki-Warashi, Jorougumo/Yaobikuni
(Context if it's needed: Jorougumo and the Yaobikuni are the spider queen and the mermaid-eater with the ruby tear Jorougumo wants, from the period after Watanuki becomes shopkeeper.)
I love the way that xxxHolic does the interweaving of folklore and modern aesthetics, and I'd love to see fic for either of these pairings that explores that. They're part of modern Tokyo but also frequently misunderstand it - not because they've been left behind by modernity, but because it's the human world and it never has entirely made sense. The Ame-Warashi and the Jorougumo take what they want of the human world and regard what they don't want or don't understand with supurb contempt, while the Zashiki-Warashi is distressed by misunderstanding things, and conscious of her/their* own unworldliness compared to, say, the Ame-Warashi. Then the Yaobikuni has tried living in the human world entirely, since she was human originally, and she understands it but has nearly been broken by it.
Or on the other hand if you'd like to do something totally mythic, apart from or centuries before modern times, I'd love to see that too. Either reworking an existing Japanese myth or folktale or doing something original.
(Or something futuristic, even - the end of xxxHolic is set one hundred years in the future, after all.)
There's so little canon on both these relationships that I'm happy for you to go in any direction you want with them - have Jorougumo and Yaobikuni have an existing important relationship and estrangement, or have them meeting face to face for the first time in the wake of the xxxHolic chapter; have Ame-Warashi/Zashiki-Warashi be an established love story, or make it something just starting now.
Bonus: It didn't occur to me when I was nominating, but honestly I'd be equally delighted to see Jorougumo shipped with the Ame-Warashi or the Zashiki-Warashi. I think Jorougumo and Ame-Warashi would be hilarious together, and I think Ame-Warashi would be hilarious about Zashiki-Warashi being with Jorougumo, and honestly I just want anything at all about any of them because I adore them.
*Note on the Zashiki-Warashi: I'm happy to see them as canonically nonbinary or as female, however you like to read them.
Generally: I love AUs, especially with self-indulgent tropey settings - highschool, space, coffeeshops, flower shops, band AUs etc. I love canon fic too, but just to say that if you were wondering about AUs, I am cool with them :) (The one caveat I'll add there is that I don't like seeing characters' nationalities changed for AUs.)
I love happy or somewhat hopeful endings, and pining, and first kisses. I love clever magic and plottiness and monsters and desperate codependent huddles. I love amnesia and memory shenanigans, and communication troubles, especially with a magical or SFnal bent, and In Vino Veritas and truth spells and deception and telepathy. I love charming plot-lite banter and cute animals, especially if they're a little weird. I love robots and AIs. I love listfic - 20 facts, care and feeding instructions, fic in the form of recipes etc.
I don't mind about rating - you can go as high as you like, or you can restrict them to a kiss on the hand, whatever works for the story.
I would rather not get tragic or unrequited endings, noncon or dubcon, omegaverse, infidelity, pregnancy and babyfic, marriage and weddings, or domestic established relationship/curtainfic (I don't object to it or anything, it's just a harder sell for me personally?)
Chihayafuru
Ships: Chihaya/Shinobu, Chitose/Shinobu
For Chihaya/Shinobu, I'd love to see future fic about them playing one another, or maybe something from Shinobu's POV about her growing awareness of Chihaya. Or the process of Chihaya falling first for Shinobu's karuta and then for her. I'd love it if their relationship was difficult, because Shinobu is spiky and lonely and aggressively ambitious and an arrogant jerk and also pretty knowingly charismatic, and Chihaya is oblivious and sometimes a bit of a steamroller and sometimes really uncertain, and also a weird mixture of socially inept and effortlessly charming/delightful, in a way that might be baffling or aggravating to Shinobu. And also because they are, of course, rivals. I'd also love to see them in AU settings where their karuta obsession and ambition is turned into obsession with something else. (If you feel like it, I'm pretty fond of the idea of background Arata/Taichi too - the only way I can ship them without Chihaya is if she's with Shinobu, basically.)
I think Chitose/Shinobu would be hilarious. Chitose would be horrified by Shinobu's sloppy presentation and awful taste, and Shinobu would be utterly cutting and probably an asshole about dismissing Chitose, which miiiiiight rouse Chitose's indignation and interest. On the other hand, if you want to tell a serious story about these two, I would welcome that as well!
Anime and manga canon are both fine.
Avatar: The Last Airbender
Ships: Azula/Ty Lee, Mai/Ty Lee, Azula/Mai
Aaaaaaand if you ship OT3 please feel free to add Azula/Mai/Ty Lee into that list. Basically I am cool with any permutation of these girls, I love all of their relationships, terrible as they frequently are.
I'd really love to see something that takes in some pre-canon for them, when they were at the Royal Fire Academy together. Or something set post-canon, in the aftermath. I'd also be interested in seeing a fork-in-the-road AU in which Azula doesn't alienate Mai and Ty Lee - how things might have gone if she'd still had them with her, and hadn't had her meltdown about people betraying her. If you're writing Azula/Mai, I'd also be interested in seeing more of Mai's amoral side, and exactly how formidable a force she and Azula could become together.
Gunnerkrigg Court
Ships: Kat/Annie, Gamma/Zimmy, Kat/Paz
For Kat/Paz, I'd really like to see cheerful fic - so not unrequited Kat-is-secretly-in-love-with-Annie-and-Paz-is-sad or such. Something from Paz's POV before they got together would be cool, the whole arc of her growing feelings that canon missed out on. Or just something from either POV from these early days of being girlfriends, when they're being video game playing doofuses and teasing each other and kissing in deserted corridors and delighted with their secret.
For Gamma/Zimmy, I'd love some of Gamma's POV. Of the tragically tiny amount of fic for this pairing, I feel like people have tended to want to explore the experimental mess that is the inside of Zimmy's head, and that's interesting, but just as interesting is how that mess impinges on Gamma. They share thoughts a lot of the time, Gamma shares Zimmy's world, but it's not her storm. Or I'd also be interested in seeing something that explores the space for deception in their relationship - the lies and half-truths that Zimmy incorporates into her translations for Gamma, to keep her isolated from other people because Zimmy needs her so much (e.g. Gamma asking Annie on the rooftop if everybody else thinks she's stupid and ugly) or sometimes just because Zimmy doesn't interpret human behaviour the way other people do, and Gamma's whole world is filtered through Zimmy's world. I'd also love something that's just hurt/comforty, because damn is this a ship that lends itself to h/c.
For Kat/Annie ... gosh, anything. (Well, ideally not something that involves Paz being super sad? But it's ok if things with Paz are difficult, not totally amicable - or it's also ok if Paz is out of the picture altogether, because of time or circumstances or an AU setting.) In terms of specific ideas - I'd like to see Annie realise her feelings and then just get to see what she would do with them. Like, what the Antimony Carver version of pining and courtship would look like, because it would probably be super weird. And also she's quite secretive, so she would probably be really stealthy about it. Alternatively, I'd like to see Annie be super, super oblivious and just not get Kat's feelings at all for the longest time.
Extra love for any inclusion of Robot and Shadow. Or Parley and Smitty. Or Winsbury and Janet. Yeah ok really I just love the whole ensemble at Gunnerkrigg, do as you like.
Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Ships: Mikasa/Annie, Mikasa/Sasha, Christa/Ymir
What I said about being cool with AUs goes triple for Shingeki no Kyojin. Canon is so traumatic and awful that I really love seeing the characters transported to slightly less traumatic and awful settings where things may still be desperate or terrifying or tragic but people are not at constant risk of being eaten by things that look like and probably are people. Space AUs, historical AUs, modern military AUs etc. Or I'm cool with a setting that removes the danger and death altogether, like high school AUs etc. (Note on the nationality-changing thing I mentioned above: since the SnK universe seems by the names to be set somewhere vaguely Franco-Germanic, I'd rather not see them in e.g. an American high school.)
If you go for canon-fic, I'm up to date on English scanlations for the manga so no need to worry about plot spoilers, unless you're reading the Japanese releases. But since canon moves so quickly, and there's almost never any breathing space in between catastrophes, I'd particularly like to see canon fic set either in their training days or in some theoretical post-war period in which they've both survived (whoever else hasn't), and some kind of battered new world order is beginning. If you can see a space in the current rush of events to work in a scene or story you'd like to write, though, do go ahead.
xxxHolic
Ships: Ame-Warashi/Zashiki-Warashi, Jorougumo/Yaobikuni
(Context if it's needed: Jorougumo and the Yaobikuni are the spider queen and the mermaid-eater with the ruby tear Jorougumo wants, from the period after Watanuki becomes shopkeeper.)
I love the way that xxxHolic does the interweaving of folklore and modern aesthetics, and I'd love to see fic for either of these pairings that explores that. They're part of modern Tokyo but also frequently misunderstand it - not because they've been left behind by modernity, but because it's the human world and it never has entirely made sense. The Ame-Warashi and the Jorougumo take what they want of the human world and regard what they don't want or don't understand with supurb contempt, while the Zashiki-Warashi is distressed by misunderstanding things, and conscious of her/their* own unworldliness compared to, say, the Ame-Warashi. Then the Yaobikuni has tried living in the human world entirely, since she was human originally, and she understands it but has nearly been broken by it.
Or on the other hand if you'd like to do something totally mythic, apart from or centuries before modern times, I'd love to see that too. Either reworking an existing Japanese myth or folktale or doing something original.
(Or something futuristic, even - the end of xxxHolic is set one hundred years in the future, after all.)
There's so little canon on both these relationships that I'm happy for you to go in any direction you want with them - have Jorougumo and Yaobikuni have an existing important relationship and estrangement, or have them meeting face to face for the first time in the wake of the xxxHolic chapter; have Ame-Warashi/Zashiki-Warashi be an established love story, or make it something just starting now.
Bonus: It didn't occur to me when I was nominating, but honestly I'd be equally delighted to see Jorougumo shipped with the Ame-Warashi or the Zashiki-Warashi. I think Jorougumo and Ame-Warashi would be hilarious together, and I think Ame-Warashi would be hilarious about Zashiki-Warashi being with Jorougumo, and honestly I just want anything at all about any of them because I adore them.
*Note on the Zashiki-Warashi: I'm happy to see them as canonically nonbinary or as female, however you like to read them.
