Dear Chocolatier ('21)
Jan. 1st, 2021 01:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seikasoter Dear Chocolatier,
Welcome to another year of obscure fandoms and extremely long rants on my favourite characterisation and relationship dynamics, extending far beyond the length of any actual 'fic that I'll write or will get written for me. I thank you so much for matching with me and for tolerating me. I hope you're inspired, and most of all I hope you have fun!
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' - that is, sticking a penis on a cis woman for the sake of making sure there's dick involved in sex - 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 (vore, scat, et al.) are a turn off, but I can handle most of what you’re throwing at me. My prompts generally don't stray too far toward the sexy side of things but, if you’re going unprompted or just feel like it fits your story, I can definitively say I have no objection to smut.
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
Seika on AO3, and I have my works, my previous gifts, 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 contradictory ones - 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.
This is all the more true for the Chocolate Box challenge, which has a lower word limit and is meant to be less pressurised than some other exchanges. Please do stay relaxed, and pick and choose as selectively as you like, rather than trying to deal with everything I've thrown out there for some of these fandoms.
Parahumans ('fic)
Lisa &/ Taylor - Lisa, I think, gets a bit of a bad rap in the fandom. Yeah, she could have been more creatively conceived than "author's infodump mouthpiece"; no, she's not at all nice to people she's on the wrong side of. But she tries very hard to be caring with people she does like, and it's not something that I think necessarily comes naturally to her: at least by the point of canon, when she's gone through her early life, her trigger, the powers that make it hard-to-impossible for her to ignore everyone's bad points, and then been screwed over by Coil.
So I'd like to see some writing that develops what we see of Lisa as the girl who, despite everything, takes Taylor in, gives her her own place (both physically and in a team who will actually be her friends), and who tries to help Skitter bear up under everything that has been and will be piled on her over the course of the novel. Taylor, of course, tries to repay her in turn: killing Coil, trying to rescue Lisa from her purposelessness after his death, trying to help her remember that she's more than just her power. In some ways, they both try to make each other a bit more human, and that's a crucial thing in their world. It also hits my buttons, because I'm a terrible sucker for mutually supportive relationships, with attraction running alongside a deep friendship.
For something a bit more on the "established" rather than "developing" side, this relationship - or, perhaps, this universe as a whole - is also entirely ripe for a pure H/C scenario. Maybe Taylor has (per usual) got too close to the action as a squishy non-Brute, or Lisa's dealing with a Thinker migraine (the first time Taylor's around for a really bad one?)
Independent of this being 'shippy or not, do feel free to either run with Lisa's power-enforced quasi-asexuality from canon or dismiss its admitted clumsiness, at your preference.
Warframe ('fic or art)
Lotus & Operator - Okay, look. I am really sad for my Operator right now, and quite sad for Lotus, and I would really like them both to be happy again. The moment in the Sacrifice when the Operator begged Ordis "I'd like to hear her" and then could ask for the line where Lotus tells us "My child... so beautiful to behold. How do you feel?" broke my heart.
Screw the Orokin and screw the Sentients. I want Space Mum and Space Child (Soldier) to be back together in their extremely unhealthy co-dependent relationship. You might just portray a moment of tenderness between them at some point in their relationship, or you might outright portray the Lotus' recovery. That could be an active rescue of her from the Sentients and Ballas, completely with some righteous Tenno fury; it could be just the aftermath of that battle, as we reassure her that we're back and she's no longer under their control; or it could be in the time afterwards as she has to readjust to her freedom and her free will, and tentatively tries to rebuild the relationship (which, of course, the Operator never gave up on).
Please fluff and maybe some hurt/comfort, not anything too bitter: I really want this one to turn out positively. (And have a terrible feeling canon won't give me my wish).
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ('fic or art)
Fate/Nanoha - I'm requesting this mostly on the grounds of nostalgia for a show and pairing whose heyday has long since passed. But they've been adorable ever since the two of them exchanged ribbons and blushed at the end of S1, through Fate's determined defence of Nanoha when Vita was beating her down, and into their one-bed apartment and mutual adoption of a child. Really, I'd be happy with something based on any of these stages of their relationship: an innocent and sweet pair of puppy-crushes, which all the adults are probably cooing over; realising exactly what they mean to each other as they begin to grow up; and that apparently very domestic and settled partnership while they're still surprisingly young adults, even as their professional lives involve vast amounts of danger, and even more vast laser beams. (If you chose the last one, perhaps you might write about what new dynamics the sudden introduction of Vivio brings to their relationship, and how they deal with it).
I'm not familiar with the sound stages, Force/Vivid, or the games, so while you're welcome to use details from them, a certain amount will end up being lost on me.
Baldur's Gate ('fic)
Specific DNW for this fandom: No EE content, please.
Male Charname/Valygar - Valygar's sexuality is an interesting topic. His writer, David Gaider, has said that he was one of the candidates for a female romance in SoA; he does have a cut ToB romance left over in the files; we also know that he was meant to have been in a passionate relationship with Suna Seni before her part was essentially cut. He's also said that he wrote Valygar as gay - one assumes only for a part of the timeline when the romance wasn't in play - and there are multiple lines in the game (from the male drow masseur, from Viconia and even from Cernd) which support that. (He has also said that Val's gayness was essentially a joke among the writing staff, and not an attempt at actual representation, which I believe more than his attempts to legitimise it later on, if you'll forgive my cynicism).
In any case, I'd like to see Valygar done some justice in this arena. It needn't be some kind of full romance script or anything, but I'd quite like to just have one or more fairly intimate - not necessarily sexual - and understated scenes (rather like the ranger himself). You might also raise his past relationships with women, and have him talk about his coming to terms with being either gay or bi/pan, and what that meant to him.
Female Charname/Valygar - This has a somewhat different slant to it, although it's still something that we could have got and never quite did. Again, I just like Valygar, and wouldn't at all mind an understated bit of quiet romance, a bit of peace amidst the chaos of the Bhaalspawn's life. Another angle might address his determination not to have children, and how that impacts a relationship particularly with a female character. (I am quite happy for a female Charname to upend him by laughing this off and declaring either that she had no intention of having children over adventuring, or to point out that her bloodline is a hell of a lot more tainted than Valygar's and she was even more convinced that kids were a bad idea).
Charname & Imoen - Several possibilities: What’s your take on Imoen first coming to Candlekeep and meeting Charname, for example, and beginning to see that she might be able to make a home there with Gorion and Winthrop and this other kid with whom she feels a strange kind of connexion?
Or, the times when each has to comfort the other. Imoen looking after a distraught Charname for the first day and night in the wilderness after Gorion's death; Charname trying so hard to get through to the dazed and confused Imoen in Spellhold; their more conscious reunion after Irenicus has left Charname soulless too, and they're dumped bleeding physically and spiritually into Bodhi's maze; Imoen trying to help Charname when she's taken her soul back from Bodhi, but Charname is still struggling with Irenicus' theft...
Planescape: Torment ('fic)
Welcome to another year of obscure fandoms and extremely long rants on my favourite characterisation and relationship dynamics, extending far beyond the length of any actual 'fic that I'll write or will get written for me. I thank you so much for matching with me and for tolerating me. I hope you're inspired, and most of all I hope you have fun!
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' - that is, sticking a penis on a cis woman for the sake of making sure there's dick involved in sex - 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 (vore, scat, et al.) are a turn off, but I can handle most of what you’re throwing at me. My prompts generally don't stray too far toward the sexy side of things but, if you’re going unprompted or just feel like it fits your story, I can definitively say I have no objection to smut.
I'm
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 contradictory ones - 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.
This is all the more true for the Chocolate Box challenge, which has a lower word limit and is meant to be less pressurised than some other exchanges. Please do stay relaxed, and pick and choose as selectively as you like, rather than trying to deal with everything I've thrown out there for some of these fandoms.
Parahumans ('fic)
Lisa &/ Taylor - Lisa, I think, gets a bit of a bad rap in the fandom. Yeah, she could have been more creatively conceived than "author's infodump mouthpiece"; no, she's not at all nice to people she's on the wrong side of. But she tries very hard to be caring with people she does like, and it's not something that I think necessarily comes naturally to her: at least by the point of canon, when she's gone through her early life, her trigger, the powers that make it hard-to-impossible for her to ignore everyone's bad points, and then been screwed over by Coil.
So I'd like to see some writing that develops what we see of Lisa as the girl who, despite everything, takes Taylor in, gives her her own place (both physically and in a team who will actually be her friends), and who tries to help Skitter bear up under everything that has been and will be piled on her over the course of the novel. Taylor, of course, tries to repay her in turn: killing Coil, trying to rescue Lisa from her purposelessness after his death, trying to help her remember that she's more than just her power. In some ways, they both try to make each other a bit more human, and that's a crucial thing in their world. It also hits my buttons, because I'm a terrible sucker for mutually supportive relationships, with attraction running alongside a deep friendship.
For something a bit more on the "established" rather than "developing" side, this relationship - or, perhaps, this universe as a whole - is also entirely ripe for a pure H/C scenario. Maybe Taylor has (per usual) got too close to the action as a squishy non-Brute, or Lisa's dealing with a Thinker migraine (the first time Taylor's around for a really bad one?)
Independent of this being 'shippy or not, do feel free to either run with Lisa's power-enforced quasi-asexuality from canon or dismiss its admitted clumsiness, at your preference.
Warframe ('fic or art)
Lotus & Operator - Okay, look. I am really sad for my Operator right now, and quite sad for Lotus, and I would really like them both to be happy again. The moment in the Sacrifice when the Operator begged Ordis "I'd like to hear her" and then could ask for the line where Lotus tells us "My child... so beautiful to behold. How do you feel?" broke my heart.
Screw the Orokin and screw the Sentients. I want Space Mum and Space Child (Soldier) to be back together in their extremely unhealthy co-dependent relationship. You might just portray a moment of tenderness between them at some point in their relationship, or you might outright portray the Lotus' recovery. That could be an active rescue of her from the Sentients and Ballas, completely with some righteous Tenno fury; it could be just the aftermath of that battle, as we reassure her that we're back and she's no longer under their control; or it could be in the time afterwards as she has to readjust to her freedom and her free will, and tentatively tries to rebuild the relationship (which, of course, the Operator never gave up on).
Please fluff and maybe some hurt/comfort, not anything too bitter: I really want this one to turn out positively. (And have a terrible feeling canon won't give me my wish).
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha ('fic or art)
Fate/Nanoha - I'm requesting this mostly on the grounds of nostalgia for a show and pairing whose heyday has long since passed. But they've been adorable ever since the two of them exchanged ribbons and blushed at the end of S1, through Fate's determined defence of Nanoha when Vita was beating her down, and into their one-bed apartment and mutual adoption of a child. Really, I'd be happy with something based on any of these stages of their relationship: an innocent and sweet pair of puppy-crushes, which all the adults are probably cooing over; realising exactly what they mean to each other as they begin to grow up; and that apparently very domestic and settled partnership while they're still surprisingly young adults, even as their professional lives involve vast amounts of danger, and even more vast laser beams. (If you chose the last one, perhaps you might write about what new dynamics the sudden introduction of Vivio brings to their relationship, and how they deal with it).
I'm not familiar with the sound stages, Force/Vivid, or the games, so while you're welcome to use details from them, a certain amount will end up being lost on me.
Baldur's Gate ('fic)
Specific DNW for this fandom: No EE content, please.
Male Charname/Valygar - Valygar's sexuality is an interesting topic. His writer, David Gaider, has said that he was one of the candidates for a female romance in SoA; he does have a cut ToB romance left over in the files; we also know that he was meant to have been in a passionate relationship with Suna Seni before her part was essentially cut. He's also said that he wrote Valygar as gay - one assumes only for a part of the timeline when the romance wasn't in play - and there are multiple lines in the game (from the male drow masseur, from Viconia and even from Cernd) which support that. (He has also said that Val's gayness was essentially a joke among the writing staff, and not an attempt at actual representation, which I believe more than his attempts to legitimise it later on, if you'll forgive my cynicism).
In any case, I'd like to see Valygar done some justice in this arena. It needn't be some kind of full romance script or anything, but I'd quite like to just have one or more fairly intimate - not necessarily sexual - and understated scenes (rather like the ranger himself). You might also raise his past relationships with women, and have him talk about his coming to terms with being either gay or bi/pan, and what that meant to him.
Female Charname/Valygar - This has a somewhat different slant to it, although it's still something that we could have got and never quite did. Again, I just like Valygar, and wouldn't at all mind an understated bit of quiet romance, a bit of peace amidst the chaos of the Bhaalspawn's life. Another angle might address his determination not to have children, and how that impacts a relationship particularly with a female character. (I am quite happy for a female Charname to upend him by laughing this off and declaring either that she had no intention of having children over adventuring, or to point out that her bloodline is a hell of a lot more tainted than Valygar's and she was even more convinced that kids were a bad idea).
Charname & Imoen - Several possibilities: What’s your take on Imoen first coming to Candlekeep and meeting Charname, for example, and beginning to see that she might be able to make a home there with Gorion and Winthrop and this other kid with whom she feels a strange kind of connexion?
Or, the times when each has to comfort the other. Imoen looking after a distraught Charname for the first day and night in the wilderness after Gorion's death; Charname trying so hard to get through to the dazed and confused Imoen in Spellhold; their more conscious reunion after Irenicus has left Charname soulless too, and they're dumped bleeding physically and spiritually into Bodhi's maze; Imoen trying to help Charname when she's taken her soul back from Bodhi, but Charname is still struggling with Irenicus' theft...
Or, how did she feel when Charname laid down their divinity too and they could return to the world as two siblings untainted and unguided by prophecy? (Alternatively, perhaps, how did she feel at Charname’s ascension? Charname was “strange among their kin” for their soul’s reaction to the taint, and is heavily implied to have a much more significant part of Bhaal’s essence than Imoen. Is there relief, in a way, that Charname has been able to live up to the weighty destiny that’s always seemed to be laid on their shoulders and which has frankly scared Imoen? A gladness that Imoen’s helped see them through to something that she’s felt could be coming for some time now? Certainly there’ll be a pain at parting, but coming out a victor in the Bhaalspawn War and becoming a deity is still a triumph in no uncertain terms).
Female Charname/Imoen - the above, plus gay shippiness? Like, innocent teenage romance (and pranks) at Candlekeep, heavily flavoured with dramatic irony by our knowledge of the future; or, injecting a kiss into some hurt/comfort; or Imoen feeling relieved at the person whom she loves giving up the taint of murder, and looking forward to their lives together. Or, honestly, anything else: I'm pretty starved for this 'ship.Planescape: Torment ('fic)
I'm aware that PS:T is a long game, and not necessarily one that everyone will have replayed lately, so I've included some quotes from the dialogue to jog memories and creative thoughts.
Grace &/ Annah - These two have a fascinating dynamic. Whenever Grace tries to talk to Annah - and she tries it a lot - Annah completely shuts her down. She doesn't trust her, she continually harps on her nature as a fiend (despite Annah's own blood, which says something interesting), and she is blatantly and violently jealous of the slightest possibility that TNO might be interested in the succubus. Conversely, Grace is kindly, protective, and complimentary towards this young, angry, offensive Hive rat, above anyone else we see in the game. She stands up to bloody Vhailor for her!
Possibilities: As Grace once suggests, what if she'd found Annah when she was younger - before Pharod, or perhaps a little after his adoption? What would Annah be like after time at the Brothel and how would her relationship with Grace develop? What if Grace and Annah met without the lure of Torment on TNO, and without jealousy driving a deeper wedge between them? Could they help each other with their own torments even so? On the way with TNO, how would Annah react to Grace standing in front of the incarnate Executioner's Axe that is Vhailor for her - could this change her feelings towards Grace and make her see her in a new light? Or what could happen between them after everything is over and they finally stumble out of the Fortress of Regrets, with Nameless gone to his fate?
"Hey, don't let the fiendling get to you, Grace. She's just not as pretty as she'd like to be."
"No, she's not pretty. But she might easily be beautiful."
"She is strong and capable, and she is quite passionate. I almost wish I had met her long ago and asked her to come to the Brothel... perhaps things might have been different." Grace studies you for a moment. "What do you think of her?"
"Stop your questioning, Vhailor." Fall-From-Grace's words are spoken without the slightest hint of a threat, but somehow, they feel dangerous. "This is not a court, and you will not place her on trial in my presence. Leave her alone."
*She has committed INJUSTICES. I will PUNISH her.*
"To do so, Vhailor, you must go through me. I will not allow her to be harmed."
Grace &/ TNO - This is by all means the more understated of the romances, barely one at all until the finale, and overshadowed by Deionarra and Ravel as well as Annah. But Grace's last goodbye is one of the most powerful parts of the game for me, and brings out her sheer dedication. Annah's romance is maybe more real, relatable, but Grace's is more Planar, more rooted in concepts and beliefs and story-telling. (Where TNO's most comprehensive answer to "what may change the nature of a man?" is so often given as belief, Grace calls it love).
You might flesh out TNO and Grace's developing relationship - friendly or romantic - on their journey. (A discussion of their contrasting thoughts on belief and love might actually make for an interesting setpiece to hang some writing on). I'd also enjoy seeing the the fulfilment of Grace's final promise in the Fortress of Regrets.
I CANNOT REMAIN HERE FOR MUCH LONGER. MY PUNISHMENT CALLS, AND FATE AND TIME SHALL SOON BE HERE. I WILL RETURN YOU TO SIGIL, IF YOU WISH.
"That is not my wish." Fall-From-Grace reaches forward, and her hand lightly touches your arm. There is a slight tingling sensation, barely felt, then she takes it away. "I *will* find you again, no matter where in the Lower Planes you will be - just as you shall be able to find me."
IT MAY BE A LONG TIME. WHERE I AM BOUND, TIME IS NOT MEASURED IN YEARS. AND THE CRIMES I HAVE COMMITTED ARE STRONGER THAN ANY CAGE.
"No cage shall separate us, and no Plane shall divide us." Fall-From-Grace's face becomes like stone. "Keep thinking of me, and we shall meet again."
I SHALL NOT FORGET ALL YOU SACRIFICED FOR ME.
She shakes her head. "Just do not forget me."
TIME LAYS WASTE TO ALL THINGS. BUT I SHALL FIGHT IT AS LONG AS I CAN.
"Time is not your enemy. Forever is."
"Because love would not allow it - and it can bend even the strongest to its will." Fall-From-Grace voice is soft, questioning. "Does it not, Ravel?"
"I would say this - love may move the Planes themselves when it is strong and true, and there is nothing truer in all of my experiences that the truth about one *feels* about another."
"Before you seek to guard others from your feelings, know this - love is powerful, so powerful that it found its way into Ravel's twisted black heart and its touch caused her to value another more than herself. Do you not know the *strength* required to change a heart such as Ravel's? For all the pain it may have caused, I think there is something to be said for the good it has created."
