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Dear Chocolatier ('20)
Jan. 3rd, 2020 09:15 pmDear Chocolatier,
Welcome to this year's mix of unalloyed fangirl nostalgia and a new game, just for variety. With an excess of gayess. I kind of ought to get a handle on myself, but I enjoy some pure indulgence in my fandom activity sometimes. I love that you find some of the same things interesting that I do, and I wish you all the best in your writing!
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 - notable exception in the Dishonored category this year - 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.
Emelan
The Circle - Whenever I prompt with these four together, 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 a touch mean to just demand that of someone, a couple of seeds if you want them - 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
Daja & Briar - Not that any of the Circle are impractical, per se, since that's rather the point of ambient mages, but these two are usually the most grounded and the most direct, with not a lot of compunction about dealing out a few raps with their fists, and I enjoy the dynamic that draws out of them. Some mini-case 'fic could work here, just the two of them working together on something that requires a bit of their ready-to-rumble attitude to life.
Tris & Sandry - On the flip side, here we have Vedris' all-but-heir and one of the most powerfully dangerous mages in the world. A little meditation on their various struggles to deal with this - Tris clearly hates it and is focused to a perhaps unhealthy degree on studying a Lightsbridge to get away; Sandry almost seems in denial about what her uncle's setting her up for - and how each advises the other might work here. Alternatively, commiserations between the two over what Daja and Briar keep getting up to seems like it has some amusing legs.
Tris & Daja - All of the Circle probably have their ways to help Tris feel calmer and more centred when she needs it. With Daja, I think there's something about forging - even if Tris is unlikely to get too involved herself - that could help: the rhythm of the hammer that you can gradually let fade into the background, and the heat and the steam that are also a part of Tris' dominion over natural forces. Daja giving Tris some space, and how Tris feel about that. You could also elaborate a bit more on their middle-class merchant vs. Trader interactions - friction it brought up a lot early and then occasionally later in their relationship, how they learnt to let that slide along more smoothly, ways in which they both come to share and enjoy their different backgrounds.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Faith &/ Buffy - These two always managed to portray a tremendous sense of connexion with each other, for good and ill, and that's really what I'd like to see here. Could be some expansions or changes to their times in Season Three - perhaps case 'fic where it's just them instead of the whole gang; or maybe there's no sudden shock to the system like Finch's death and Buffy keeps following Faith down the "Bad Girls" rabbit hole. Some deeper exploration of what's going on in their heads for This Year's Girl/Who Are You, which might have a more shippy ending if you're taking the / part of this prompt. Classic "Faith gets busted out of prison to be the Slayer after Buffy dies, and then helps her deal with Season Six". Or bonding moments during/after Season Seven, the two older Slayers feeling perhaps set apart from the other girls by their experience and by their mutual history together: the baby Slayers might be Potentials, or might have been empowered by Willow, but that's a long way from the Chosen Two.
Willow/Buffy - The two girls who were with each other right from the beginning to the very end. Through the laughter and the tears, through life and death (and pulling one of them back "against all the laws of nature" from death to life), through love and conflict and even bitter emnity. And "I kind of love you".
This is a pairing for which I also have great nostalgic adoration, so I'm going to be pretty happy with whatever I get. (I'll express a preference for something relatively positive, but that's not an absolute).
If however, you would prefer prompts, then a quick array includes: Willow developing an innocent kind of crush on Buffy over S1-2 and dealing with feelings she doesn't quite understand yet; Willow getting (even more) jealous of Faith's flirting with Buffy in S3 (optionally, Faith just starts flirting with Willow too); Willow starts to explore her sexuality with Buffy in S4 rather than Tara (and Buffy has to work her own sexuality out too); trying to rebuild together - as established lovers or while falling in love - post S7. (You might just ignore Kennedy's S7 existence instead of spending time and space on writing her out: use a bit of fanfic fiat there).
I haven't kept up with any post-show material (barring Angel S5), so the comics and so forth won't really ring a bell with me. You're welcome to draw on them, if you'd really like, but it's not likely to land particularly effectively.
The Authority
Fair warning, I'm assuming the fandom tag here to mean the original run. While I'm thinking about reading the Wildstorm reboot in the wake of this exchange, I certainly won't have finished it by the time requests are out. If you were expecting Jenny Mei and her counterparts, I'm sure I'll enjoy what you come up with, but afraid I haven't got much to give you by way of prompts. I'll have to trust you to come up with something, perhaps aided by my thoughts on the older versions. (A further note even on the older versions: I go through the original Ellis stories and his Stormwatch stuff a lot, but tended to bounce around the one-shots and special editions - e.g. Secret History, Kev, Scorched Earth - instead of keeping up with the main line after that. I'm assuming that's not a problem with these pairings, but just a warning that some stuff will fly past me if you reference the later runs too deeply. If nothing else, I'm happily aware that Apollo and Midnighter got married and adopted Jenny Quantum, so that much isn't gonna stun me).
Jenny/Shen - Jenny and Shen in the Secret History have a rather sweet, casual, almost domestic relationship. They will tease each other acidly, Shen giving as good as she gets to Jenny, in a way the other members of the team don't usually hit back. But Jenny also shows about as vulnerable a side to Shen as we ever get to see from her, at least when she's not very drunk, and Shen is gentle in her comforting. You might just show more of that; or you might show it came about in the first place.
Jenny/Angie - Angie plays off Jenny in a bit of a different way. Jenny's cynical, beaten down, worn out, and trying to truck on through it all to do good despite that. Angie's new to the game, more open and cheerful, and even a bit more scared, of the situations the Authority gets into and of what it does to solve them. And still, there's a lot alike in them too. Perhaps most of all, Jenny often lights up thinking about her age of "Scientific Romance" and the positives of the future, and that's Angie in a nutshell. I'd like to see how they play off each other, how they make their relationship work.
Other possibilities for Angie: Jenny's first reaction to her time-travelling is to hope that they're not lesbians together. Why did Jenny's mind just happen to jump there, I wonder? What did Angie do to convince her it wouldn't be such a bad relationship? If you like, you could even get future-Angie stuck in 1919 and build something in that time period. Instead, for another angle, what kind of emotions does Angie bring up in Jenny as a successor to the old Engineer, the one who ran with The High and seemed, like him, to be one of the group with genuinely good intentions? What does that mean to her?
A final prompt that could apply to both: not having gone much past the first run, I've never seen these two really mourning Jenny - either Shen as a comrade of some years, or Angela as part of her team for a few hectic months (even if they technically met eighty-odd years ago). I think there's a lot of poignancy to be drawn out here.
Dishonored
Billie/Delilah - I think the obvious one to go for here is how Delilah and Billie came into contact, and the seduction (more or less literally, according to taste) of Billie into her scheme. (Possible ancillaries: Who sought who out? Was Billie just a little stunned seeing Delilah and her handsomeness after some rounds of go-betweens? Was Delilah annoyed at her own rising eagerness to see what was underneath Billie's Whaler mask?)
Another option might be if Billie were successful in Knife of Dunwall - does Delilah bring her in closer afterwards, using her and the Whalers, making her part of the inner circle like, say, Breanna Ashworth? Does she set up a link with Billie like Daud had with his assassins, either renewing Billie's familiar powers (perhaps fading in the wake of Daud's death) or inducting her as a witch with quite a different skillset? (I can imagine Delilah being very seductive or surprisingly straightforward and pleasant when it comes to teaching Billie witchcraft). With Delilah having free rein to go after Emily with Billie's collaboration, what happens there?
You might also think about the betrayal that both of these characters are steeped in. Whatever the scenario these two are in, does Delilah keep leading Billie on, teasing, hinting at deeper feelings, until she finally thinks she's had all the use out of Billie she needs and discards her ungently? Does Billie eventually have an inconvenient attack of regret or conscience and stab Delilah in the back, yet another act of treachery against Delilah from one whom she'd started to feel something?
Emily/Delilah - "Sweet girl. Over time, you'll come to love me." Oooh dear. There's clearly the question of what happens if Emily doesn't escape at the beginning of D2. What does Delilah have in mind for her? Does she want the former Empress as a plaything, and how does she turn her into that? When Emily meets her in the Void during her dreams on the Dreadful Wale, Delilah still seems to want to justify herself to Emily - while Delilah clearly enjoys her headgames, there's also a longing for affection in her, especially from her family. Could they connect through similar dreams? What happens if Delilah manages to complete the ritual of The World As It Should Be? Is Emily the first to "sing my songs and lick my flesh: worship me!"? (Delilah has the best disturbing lines).
Conversely, does an Emily (of a kinder or crueller stripe) have anything in mind for a spared Deliah? One, perhaps, stripped of her powers by Emily's crafted corrupt bonecharm that turns Delilah's ritual upside-down, rather than imprisoned in her painting. How does she relate to the woman who usurped her, killed her friends, turned her father to stone, and made her life a misery? How on earth does Delilah react in turn, and - being as persistent as she is - what does she try to keep herself alive, well, and once more edging at least closer if not back onto the Throne of the Isles?
(If you want a kinder way out, you're perfectly welcome to go for some AU with its divergence a long way back from canon, perhaps resulting in a far less crazed Deliah who might possibly conceive of a somewhat healthy relationship).
Both these pairings clearly have dubious and unhealthy potential in their dynamics of consent. I prompted them, so I'm not gonna shy away from that: I have seen the dead dove label, and I am eating that dove. But, conversely, please don't take it any further than you yourself feel comfortable with.
Welcome to this year's mix of unalloyed fangirl nostalgia and a new game, just for variety. With an excess of gayess. I kind of ought to get a handle on myself, but I enjoy some pure indulgence in my fandom activity sometimes. I love that you find some of the same things interesting that I do, and I wish you all the best in your writing!
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 - notable exception in the Dishonored category this year - 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.
Emelan
The Circle - Whenever I prompt with these four together, 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 a touch mean to just demand that of someone, a couple of seeds if you want them - 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
Daja & Briar - Not that any of the Circle are impractical, per se, since that's rather the point of ambient mages, but these two are usually the most grounded and the most direct, with not a lot of compunction about dealing out a few raps with their fists, and I enjoy the dynamic that draws out of them. Some mini-case 'fic could work here, just the two of them working together on something that requires a bit of their ready-to-rumble attitude to life.
Tris & Sandry - On the flip side, here we have Vedris' all-but-heir and one of the most powerfully dangerous mages in the world. A little meditation on their various struggles to deal with this - Tris clearly hates it and is focused to a perhaps unhealthy degree on studying a Lightsbridge to get away; Sandry almost seems in denial about what her uncle's setting her up for - and how each advises the other might work here. Alternatively, commiserations between the two over what Daja and Briar keep getting up to seems like it has some amusing legs.
Tris & Daja - All of the Circle probably have their ways to help Tris feel calmer and more centred when she needs it. With Daja, I think there's something about forging - even if Tris is unlikely to get too involved herself - that could help: the rhythm of the hammer that you can gradually let fade into the background, and the heat and the steam that are also a part of Tris' dominion over natural forces. Daja giving Tris some space, and how Tris feel about that. You could also elaborate a bit more on their middle-class merchant vs. Trader interactions - friction it brought up a lot early and then occasionally later in their relationship, how they learnt to let that slide along more smoothly, ways in which they both come to share and enjoy their different backgrounds.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Faith &/ Buffy - These two always managed to portray a tremendous sense of connexion with each other, for good and ill, and that's really what I'd like to see here. Could be some expansions or changes to their times in Season Three - perhaps case 'fic where it's just them instead of the whole gang; or maybe there's no sudden shock to the system like Finch's death and Buffy keeps following Faith down the "Bad Girls" rabbit hole. Some deeper exploration of what's going on in their heads for This Year's Girl/Who Are You, which might have a more shippy ending if you're taking the / part of this prompt. Classic "Faith gets busted out of prison to be the Slayer after Buffy dies, and then helps her deal with Season Six". Or bonding moments during/after Season Seven, the two older Slayers feeling perhaps set apart from the other girls by their experience and by their mutual history together: the baby Slayers might be Potentials, or might have been empowered by Willow, but that's a long way from the Chosen Two.
Willow/Buffy - The two girls who were with each other right from the beginning to the very end. Through the laughter and the tears, through life and death (and pulling one of them back "against all the laws of nature" from death to life), through love and conflict and even bitter emnity. And "I kind of love you".
This is a pairing for which I also have great nostalgic adoration, so I'm going to be pretty happy with whatever I get. (I'll express a preference for something relatively positive, but that's not an absolute).
If however, you would prefer prompts, then a quick array includes: Willow developing an innocent kind of crush on Buffy over S1-2 and dealing with feelings she doesn't quite understand yet; Willow getting (even more) jealous of Faith's flirting with Buffy in S3 (optionally, Faith just starts flirting with Willow too); Willow starts to explore her sexuality with Buffy in S4 rather than Tara (and Buffy has to work her own sexuality out too); trying to rebuild together - as established lovers or while falling in love - post S7. (You might just ignore Kennedy's S7 existence instead of spending time and space on writing her out: use a bit of fanfic fiat there).
I haven't kept up with any post-show material (barring Angel S5), so the comics and so forth won't really ring a bell with me. You're welcome to draw on them, if you'd really like, but it's not likely to land particularly effectively.
The Authority
Fair warning, I'm assuming the fandom tag here to mean the original run. While I'm thinking about reading the Wildstorm reboot in the wake of this exchange, I certainly won't have finished it by the time requests are out. If you were expecting Jenny Mei and her counterparts, I'm sure I'll enjoy what you come up with, but afraid I haven't got much to give you by way of prompts. I'll have to trust you to come up with something, perhaps aided by my thoughts on the older versions. (A further note even on the older versions: I go through the original Ellis stories and his Stormwatch stuff a lot, but tended to bounce around the one-shots and special editions - e.g. Secret History, Kev, Scorched Earth - instead of keeping up with the main line after that. I'm assuming that's not a problem with these pairings, but just a warning that some stuff will fly past me if you reference the later runs too deeply. If nothing else, I'm happily aware that Apollo and Midnighter got married and adopted Jenny Quantum, so that much isn't gonna stun me).
Jenny/Shen - Jenny and Shen in the Secret History have a rather sweet, casual, almost domestic relationship. They will tease each other acidly, Shen giving as good as she gets to Jenny, in a way the other members of the team don't usually hit back. But Jenny also shows about as vulnerable a side to Shen as we ever get to see from her, at least when she's not very drunk, and Shen is gentle in her comforting. You might just show more of that; or you might show it came about in the first place.
Jenny/Angie - Angie plays off Jenny in a bit of a different way. Jenny's cynical, beaten down, worn out, and trying to truck on through it all to do good despite that. Angie's new to the game, more open and cheerful, and even a bit more scared, of the situations the Authority gets into and of what it does to solve them. And still, there's a lot alike in them too. Perhaps most of all, Jenny often lights up thinking about her age of "Scientific Romance" and the positives of the future, and that's Angie in a nutshell. I'd like to see how they play off each other, how they make their relationship work.
Other possibilities for Angie: Jenny's first reaction to her time-travelling is to hope that they're not lesbians together. Why did Jenny's mind just happen to jump there, I wonder? What did Angie do to convince her it wouldn't be such a bad relationship? If you like, you could even get future-Angie stuck in 1919 and build something in that time period. Instead, for another angle, what kind of emotions does Angie bring up in Jenny as a successor to the old Engineer, the one who ran with The High and seemed, like him, to be one of the group with genuinely good intentions? What does that mean to her?
A final prompt that could apply to both: not having gone much past the first run, I've never seen these two really mourning Jenny - either Shen as a comrade of some years, or Angela as part of her team for a few hectic months (even if they technically met eighty-odd years ago). I think there's a lot of poignancy to be drawn out here.
Dishonored
Billie/Delilah - I think the obvious one to go for here is how Delilah and Billie came into contact, and the seduction (more or less literally, according to taste) of Billie into her scheme. (Possible ancillaries: Who sought who out? Was Billie just a little stunned seeing Delilah and her handsomeness after some rounds of go-betweens? Was Delilah annoyed at her own rising eagerness to see what was underneath Billie's Whaler mask?)
Another option might be if Billie were successful in Knife of Dunwall - does Delilah bring her in closer afterwards, using her and the Whalers, making her part of the inner circle like, say, Breanna Ashworth? Does she set up a link with Billie like Daud had with his assassins, either renewing Billie's familiar powers (perhaps fading in the wake of Daud's death) or inducting her as a witch with quite a different skillset? (I can imagine Delilah being very seductive or surprisingly straightforward and pleasant when it comes to teaching Billie witchcraft). With Delilah having free rein to go after Emily with Billie's collaboration, what happens there?
You might also think about the betrayal that both of these characters are steeped in. Whatever the scenario these two are in, does Delilah keep leading Billie on, teasing, hinting at deeper feelings, until she finally thinks she's had all the use out of Billie she needs and discards her ungently? Does Billie eventually have an inconvenient attack of regret or conscience and stab Delilah in the back, yet another act of treachery against Delilah from one whom she'd started to feel something?
Emily/Delilah - "Sweet girl. Over time, you'll come to love me." Oooh dear. There's clearly the question of what happens if Emily doesn't escape at the beginning of D2. What does Delilah have in mind for her? Does she want the former Empress as a plaything, and how does she turn her into that? When Emily meets her in the Void during her dreams on the Dreadful Wale, Delilah still seems to want to justify herself to Emily - while Delilah clearly enjoys her headgames, there's also a longing for affection in her, especially from her family. Could they connect through similar dreams? What happens if Delilah manages to complete the ritual of The World As It Should Be? Is Emily the first to "sing my songs and lick my flesh: worship me!"? (Delilah has the best disturbing lines).
Conversely, does an Emily (of a kinder or crueller stripe) have anything in mind for a spared Deliah? One, perhaps, stripped of her powers by Emily's crafted corrupt bonecharm that turns Delilah's ritual upside-down, rather than imprisoned in her painting. How does she relate to the woman who usurped her, killed her friends, turned her father to stone, and made her life a misery? How on earth does Delilah react in turn, and - being as persistent as she is - what does she try to keep herself alive, well, and once more edging at least closer if not back onto the Throne of the Isles?
(If you want a kinder way out, you're perfectly welcome to go for some AU with its divergence a long way back from canon, perhaps resulting in a far less crazed Deliah who might possibly conceive of a somewhat healthy relationship).
Both these pairings clearly have dubious and unhealthy potential in their dynamics of consent. I prompted them, so I'm not gonna shy away from that: I have seen the dead dove label, and I am eating that dove. But, conversely, please don't take it any further than you yourself feel comfortable with.
