Dear NPT author ('17)

Dear NPT Author,

Good luck, for whatever got you matched with me! (I'm scared of how many fandoms I'm the sole nominator for this time around, so I appreciate that we share some of the same taste. Good on you, and thank you).

As ever, apologies for the length.


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. Serious gore 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 - I'm writing this as the AKH story is still coming out, so who knows what the developments will be, but let's say just I'd 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).

Secret special option - If you're feeling up for the full Jund trio in whatever fashion you'd like to explore, I won't object to that either.


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, Diana/Leona, Jax, Lux/Jinx

Diana & Leona, 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.

Ship/gen entirely up to you.

Jax - Jax. Jaaaaaaax. Okay, so I adore this character. On the one hand, he's pretty simple - a dude who likes to fight and is very, very, very good at it. On the other, he's covered from head-to-foot, including the (three-fingered) hands; has forgotten his own skin colour because he's been in that state for so long; and is now from Icathia.

Icathia is a contemporary of old Shurima, the ancient, buried empire Nasus, Renekton, Xerath and Azir were from. Nasus might have been fatally cursed by 'evil magics' cast by an Icathian 'cult-leader'. Renekton's giant axe, which he uses as a crocodilian demi-god, was once wielded by one of their warrior-kings. The ruins of Icathian cities are where Kassadin and Malzahar had their visions of the Void, setting the courses of the lives as Walker and Prophet. Icathia is mysterious, powerful, and long-dead. And apparently Jax is from it. And he's trying to find warriors good enough to fight the Void "monsters from beyond", just as Nasus says "monsters" killed his friend as Icathia fell.

TALK TO ME ABOUT THIS GUY.

What did Icathia use to be like in its glory days? What was Jax's life like then - was he a warrior, was he something else? What happened when Icathia fell? How did he escape? How did he change, then, and in the apparent millennia which have followed? What great heroes has he rejected in all the years he's been looking, since he still travels alone? If you've got a favourite champion you think is worthy of it, will you tell me how Jax finally finds them acceptable as a warrior against the Void? (Bonus points for someone like Poppy or Trist, where it seems funny but you can also say, "Yeah, I do see that.") Tell me something about Jax.

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.


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.


Emelan
Tris & Daja & Sandry & Briar, Tris/Daja/Sandry/Briar

Whenever I prompt with these four, I'm very open-ended, because it's the dynamic that I love about them, these family and friends and an inextricable Circle, and the plots which serve to show it off are sorta incidental to me.

So, yeah, literally anything that has the Circle eventually being that concerted, loving whole. Domestic, action-y, drama, according to your choice. This is one where I'd like to encourage the author to come up with their own plot and service it according to their own preferences, rather than follow my whims.

That said, because it's also mean to just demand that of someone, some seeds if you want them: the Circle are really bad at dealing with each other's romances, whether inside or outside the group (eventual poly-ship optional but entirely accepted). The Circle in middle age: a weird un-related family no-one would believe are un-related if it weren't for their looks, who teach kid students in Discipline, or help govern Emelan in the Summersea Citadel, or just are a cheerfully terrifying bunch of great mages in their own little house whom no potential enemy ever wants to cross. The Circle scattered across the world as when they Opened, but now with the magical power and knowledge to keep their bond open, communicating advice, sarcasm, and love even while they're apart.


Fate/Stay Night
Artoria/Rin

I'd like a scenario where Rin is actually acting as Artoria's Master. Maybe it's post-UBW Good End, and there's some cute fluff happening during their daily lives in Fuyuki. Maybe, if you'd rather a little more tension, action, and conflict, you could show me snippets of a Grail War where Rin actually managed to grab her coveted Saber somehow. (Like, she passes Tokiomi's clock test as the Tōsaka goof-up trait miraculously fails to kick in, and Shirō doesn't get an Avalon-reserved spot for whatever reason). Whether you choose these options or another, I'd also kind of like to see Rin's reaction to Saber in a suit, per Zero, if only for a short while. She's terribly adoring of Saber when she gets knightly, and generally tsundere about her beauty, so I'd love to see how she takes Artoria in elegant modern fashion.