Dear FEx '17 Creator

[seikasoter]

Dear FEx Creator,

Hi! This is a pretty huge exchange, which kinda scares me, but I guess it means that if we matched on something in the midst of all this, that's a good sign. I look forward to whatever you come up with.

My usual apologies for how long this is.

Some general preferences

Yes, please – extra/missing scenes which fit the gaps of canon; unbreakable friendships; teamwork; standing battered but triumphant; character introspection; a touch of the bittersweet; any other characters you want to add that I haven’t already discussed or nominated.

No, thank you – In general, a lot of the common plug-and-play AUs which significantly alter the background of the setting (e.g. ABO, D/s, vampires/werewolves, Hogwarts/school, daemons, total de-powering rather than just backgrounding supernatural elements) – I like a lot of these series not just for their characters but also for their worlds and the effect those worlds then have on their characters. If you’re hit really hard by a generic modern AU, that’s something I can take though. Character bashing: a villainous story role is fine; it’s when the author is clearly frustrated with a character and taking it out on them that I tune out. What I understand specifically by 'futa' or 'G!P' is not my kink, though actual trans women are fine.

Rating – from General to Explicit, it's fine. Whatever feels right for your inspiration and story. Seriousgore or fetishes are a turn off, but I can handle most of what you’re throwing at me. My prompts generally land on the more chaste side of things but, if you’re going unprompted or just feel like it fits your story, I have no objection to smut.

I'm Seika on AO3, and I have my works and some of my bookmarks public, often with notes on them, so you can glance through those if you're inclined to keep researching my bad taste.

Obviously, by the terms of the exchange, everything here is optional. I'm very happy for you to remember that, and to take advantage of it: please don't strain anything trying to fit your writing into my ideas. I'm trying to help spark off some thoughts if you aren't immediately seized by one, not to confine you. That's why my prompts often throw out a scattershot of questions and instances at you, even sometimes contradictory - you're free to pick up as many or as few threads as you'd like. If a single phrase inspires you, I'll be content.

Fandom Specifics

Magic: the Gathering

Chandra/Nissa, Chandra/Liliana, Chandra/Nissa/Liliana

Chandra/Nissa -Who knows what the developments will be as the story progresses between now and the deadline, but I'd be glad to see these two either as part of the Gatewatch or on their own after Bolas scattered it. Really, I'd just like to encourage Chandra and Nissa's relationship to move apace. Wizards may have got their main plots finally moving along, after years of glacial incrementation, but apparently they're still stuck in the old rut when it comes to character interaction. It could be the moment - or a series of moments - as they begin to overcome their difficulties and finally admit to love; or a point of contemplation and togetherness afterwards as they're bedding down into romance; or even just an adventure finally together as partners.

Chandra/Liliana - As for this one, I'd like to see something based on the ideas of the early Kaladesh story "Torch of Defiance", and their interactions there. (Whether you actually stick to that particular scenario or try something similar elsewhere and elsewhen is up to you).

'Chandra's own grin came unbidden. "Liliana, you're two centuries older than me. Exactly which of us is supposed to be the responsible one?"

"Let me tell you a secret." Liliana cupped a hand playfully near Chandra's ear. "There doesn't have to be a responsible one."'

I'm not really looking for Chandra going full black mage, necromanctic mass-murderer, but a sense of Liliana trying to work on that headlong, head-first, impulsiveness of Chandra. Drawing it out, guiding it towards a kind of live-in-the-moment hedonism, the pursuit of pleasure, some heedless and selfish fun, instead of Chandra's more purely Red instincts. (I can see this going pretty smutty or with a surprisingly minimal degree of physicality between them - maybe it culminates in Chandra at last daring to kiss Lili. But you write it however you want).

Chandra/Nissa/Liliana - In that this has less canon basis than either of the other two, and is not at all likely to happen, then I'd just be interested in your take on however this might come about. That said, if you want a prompt, I can see Liliana in an established relationship with Chandra nonetheless encouraging her desire for Nissa with some amusement, perhaps at first so Chandra doesn’t realise and then starting to get much more blatant about her teasing when she’s figured out. Chandra is eventually persuaded to invite Nissa in.

Mass Effect: Andromeda

F!Ryder/Cora Harper

I'm very sorry for indulging stereotypes, but STOP BEING SO SODDING ADMIRING ABOUT ASARI WHILE STILL PRETENDING YOU'RE STRAIGHT. Actually, take that in or out of character. I can totally see lategame Ryder, having finally got her feet under her, just snapping at the million times she's heard Cora sigh over the asari, and demanding to know if Cora genuinely hasn't noticed she likes breasts or if Ryder's just aren't good enough. (Funny is fine, but let's not make this strangely speciesist, please).

Alternatively, I'm just pretty hungry for some F!Ryder/Cora, so I'll take a quick unticking of the gender flag in Cora's romance, and seeing that at least be a possibility - even if it comes later than M!Ryder's - without a sudden inflexion point for it.

League of Legends

Diana/Leona, Lux/Jinx, Illaoi/Miss Fortune

Diana/Leona - I'm interested particularly in the way some of the new lore begins to bear on Diana and Leona's relationship, with them now not merely being blessed by Sun and Moon, but now actually harbouring Aspects of these great and terrible powers in themselves. What, perhaps, does it mean for them if they find that they don't agree with the quasi-gods within them? (Consider how Pantheon's former self has been totally taken over by his Aspect). Interestingly, we now seem to have a reverse of the old lore: before, Leona and Diana had previously seemed okay with each other but were set against each other because of their faiths. Now Leona and Diana have personal problems with each other over the Solari elders' deaths, but their gods are apparently best buds and they've both been told that.

And, without the League, how do these two meet again, given Leona's seeking Diana and Diana's running from the Rakkor? How do they react to each other if they meet? Do they debate, do they fight, do they do start on one and move to the other, do they do both continuously? What even is their relationship at all?

That said, an old lore approach to their conflict, which frankly had plenty of its own unanswered questions given the total lack of organisation, is perfectly acceptable too. Let's see the heretic and the paladin butting heads, Diana's fury fighting with her old admiration for Leona, Leona's simple faith in the sun shaken if she ever takes in what Diana says about the Lunari's history.

Lux/Jinx - Star Guardian time! The trailer set up the pure Magical Girl classic in about every way it could, and the special interactions hammer it home really hard. "Lux even makes boring beautiful!" So run with that and give me Jinx as that independence-seeking rival who says she can't stand the team's no-fun attitude, and that the leader is the softest and weakest of all, but who actually still wants precious friendship in the end and is totally into Lux (and her short skirt). Silly, cliché fun.

Illaoi/Miss Fortune - Frankly, I’m very much down for some really filthy smut with this pair. (Tentacles not even necessary). I mean, have you seen them? Hello, sailors.

On the other hand, I can also see this as quite a tentative exploratory pairing: Illaoi’s wandering independence, fierce advocacy of Nagakabouros, and propensity for testing the strength of people’s spirits must cause a lot of headaches for the new top dog of Bilgewater, and yet I think they’d both find a lot to appreciate in each other too. You might consider Illaoi fending off the Harrowing around Bilgewater, the clash between her native Serpent Isles culture and the Bilgewater foreigners, or even working with the plot set up about her providing aid to Gangplank when he's trying to take revenge on MF. (Perhaps she also tests MF and finds her just as worthy, and so reverses course. All is motion).

For reference, given what a mess League lore has been up until Universe launched: Bilgewater, the Burning Tides story, the Burning Tides event site, MF bio (and short story), and Illaoi's bio (and short story).

Tomb Raider

Sam Nishimura/Lara Croft

Surprise, I'm also annoyed by Sam disappearing from Rise, being continuously squirrelled away in the comics, and apparently being weirdly retconned in the movie. Like, I dunno, it seems everyone else who was interested in this dynamic from TR 2013. So, frankly, I just want something which isn't that.

Talk to me about Yamatai and how Sam sees Lara being beaten and burnt and crushed for her but always rushing back. Talk to me about exhaustion and grief and anger weighing on Lara until the single focus of Sam is all that can get her to lift another step. Talk to me about that time when sun finally shone through the clouds on the two of them re-united. Talk to me about Lara carrying Sam down that mountain in a white dress, with flowers in her hair, and whether they laughed at it or cried or were just silent, together.

Talk to me about a post-Yamatai in which Lara and Sam go on together. Maybe Sam still has troubles with Himiko's soul insidiously poking at the cracks created by Matthias' half-complete ritual, but for sod's sake, let's have Lara stay by her side and fight for her again. Maybe Lara's still struggling with the fall-out of becoming the vaunted 'Survivor', that angry demi-goddess whom the Solarii and Oni saw cutting them down by the end, but let's have Sam stick with her and help her learn about being safe again. Maybe Rise still happens, but this time Sam appears in something other than, like, one journal entry.

Gimme something, people, please.