straightforwardly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
straightforwardly) wrote2016-09-03 12:22 pm
straightforwardly) wrote2016-09-03 12:22 pm
Trick Or Treat Exchange 2016 Letter
Dear Writer,
Hello, dear writer! I’m ridiculously excited about this exchange, and I hope that you are too!
Before I go any further, though, I should mention that for real-life reasons, I might not be able to immediately read/comment on my gift when the time comes. I do promise that I’ll try to get to it as soon as I possibly can!
I should also mention is that I do believe that optional details are optional. Please do pay attention to my DNWs, and treat my requested characters with love and respect, but other than that, everything else is simply meant to inspire.
I’m equally interested in tricks or treats. When it comes to tricks, I’d really love something creepy, dark, or otherwise unnerving— though not violent. Subtlety is always key. With treats, I’d just like anything that gives me warm, fuzzy feelings. It doesn’t have to be uncomplicated fluff— there can be hints of complications and darker issues— but in the end, I want it to leave me smiling.
This year, I chose not to divide my prompts into “tricks” or “treats”, mainly because I ended up having quite a few that I thought would be interesting either way. Do feel free to take a fluffy-seeming prompt for a “trick”, or carve out some fluff in a darker-sounding scenario for a “treat”, if you so desire!
AO3 Handle: straightforwardly
Previous Letters: 2015
Canon: A free otome game that can be downloaded here.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Character death. A bad/unfriendly relationship between Emma and the Count. Anything that focuses too heavily on/romanticizes the fact that the Count is a celebrity. Unrequested pairings.
With the exception of Emma, I use the in-game names (i.e., “Mr. Bandages”, etc.) for all of the characters when writing this section, partially because those are the names you see the most often throughout the game, and partially because it’s been some years since I’ve played through any route other than the Count’s, and I... can’t actually remember the other characters’ real names.
I’d prefer fics set during the Count’s route, in terms of how events play out / how the relationships between the team develops.
On that note, I do really ship the Count/Emma, and so would definitely enjoy any fics that included that pairing. But I would also genuinely love gen! I adore the Count, blindingly yellow sweaters and all, and just would be happy to have more of him. On that note, I also really love the relationship between the team as a whole, and would be delighted to see that included as well, if you so desire.
Finally, you might notice that a decent number of my prompts are supernatual-based. That’s mainly because when I first played through this game, I couldn’t get the idea of “what if the supernatural elements were real?” out of my head (especially during the doll segment), and am still incredibly charmed by the idea.
Prompts
* For this prompt, please note my discomfort with zombies/zombie-like creatures, and not have Mr. Bandages be rotting, or anything like that.
Canon: A free-to-play visual novel/otome game on the cellphone.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Victor/Anyone. Skeletiano/Isabella. Philippe/Anyone-who-isn’t-Isabella. Orlando in a fluffy romance.
Quick note: I’m familiar with all of the main routes (though not quite all of the endings), and most of the event stories. If you want to reference something that happened in one of the temporary Grace Point event stories, feel free to do so. I remember the Lovesickness Event and onwards best, though I did read through the Grace Point event that happened before it.
I’m stupidly, madly in love with this canon, both in terms of the world-building, and the actual characters. I feel like this canon has fantastic potential to go darker, but is also perfectly suited for sweet moments, which makes it pretty much perfect for this exchange. I’d particularly love canon-divergences set at literally any point in any route, and darker takes on any of the concepts that appear in the game.
I’m open to nearly all pairings for my requested characters (for the few exceptions, see my Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants), but my personal favorites for them are Orlando/Jean, Philippe/Isabella, J.J./Isabella, and Jean/Isabella. But if one of my prompts inspire you to play with a different pairing, then go for it!
I would also be absolutely delighted to receive gen, and particularly friendship fic. I’m open to all of the above-mentioned pairings as friendships (I admit that I can’t see Philippe ever having completely platonic feelings for Isabella, but that should only affect things if it’s from his POV), and am also particularly fond of Philippe & J.J. and Philippe & Orlando.
I would also like to drop a reminder that I do have a massive zombie squick, so I do ask that, if you write about him, you please don’t linger on J.J. being a zombie/what that means. If you absolutely must mention it, that’s fine, but please be as brief as possible, and don’t give any details.
Prompts
Canon: A free indie RPG that can be downloaded either here or here.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Erio not genuinely caring about Astra, and vice versa. Anything set when Astra was very young— I’d like her to be a young teen at the absolute youngest, please. Unrequested pairings.
I really love this game, and I really, really love Erio and Astra, so I’d be delighted to see anything you might write for it. I do ship Erio/Astra pretty hard, and would certainly enjoy receiving that, but I’m also 100% fine with gen fic as well, whether it focuses on their bond or on them as individual characters.
Prompts
And that’s that! Good luck, dear writer— I hope you have fun with this!
Hello, dear writer! I’m ridiculously excited about this exchange, and I hope that you are too!
Before I go any further, though, I should mention that for real-life reasons, I might not be able to immediately read/comment on my gift when the time comes. I do promise that I’ll try to get to it as soon as I possibly can!
I should also mention is that I do believe that optional details are optional. Please do pay attention to my DNWs, and treat my requested characters with love and respect, but other than that, everything else is simply meant to inspire.
I’m equally interested in tricks or treats. When it comes to tricks, I’d really love something creepy, dark, or otherwise unnerving— though not violent. Subtlety is always key. With treats, I’d just like anything that gives me warm, fuzzy feelings. It doesn’t have to be uncomplicated fluff— there can be hints of complications and darker issues— but in the end, I want it to leave me smiling.
This year, I chose not to divide my prompts into “tricks” or “treats”, mainly because I ended up having quite a few that I thought would be interesting either way. Do feel free to take a fluffy-seeming prompt for a “trick”, or carve out some fluff in a darker-sounding scenario for a “treat”, if you so desire!
AO3 Handle: straightforwardly
Previous Letters: 2015
General Likes & Dislikes
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Halloween Otome
Requested Characters: The CountCanon: A free otome game that can be downloaded here.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Character death. A bad/unfriendly relationship between Emma and the Count. Anything that focuses too heavily on/romanticizes the fact that the Count is a celebrity. Unrequested pairings.
With the exception of Emma, I use the in-game names (i.e., “Mr. Bandages”, etc.) for all of the characters when writing this section, partially because those are the names you see the most often throughout the game, and partially because it’s been some years since I’ve played through any route other than the Count’s, and I... can’t actually remember the other characters’ real names.
I’d prefer fics set during the Count’s route, in terms of how events play out / how the relationships between the team develops.
On that note, I do really ship the Count/Emma, and so would definitely enjoy any fics that included that pairing. But I would also genuinely love gen! I adore the Count, blindingly yellow sweaters and all, and just would be happy to have more of him. On that note, I also really love the relationship between the team as a whole, and would be delighted to see that included as well, if you so desire.
Finally, you might notice that a decent number of my prompts are supernatual-based. That’s mainly because when I first played through this game, I couldn’t get the idea of “what if the supernatural elements were real?” out of my head (especially during the doll segment), and am still incredibly charmed by the idea.
Prompts
- IDENTITY PORN. You have no idea how much I loved how his route used the Count’s two identities to the fullest, but suffice it to say I adored it, and would love to see more!
- What if during the event, everyone somehow literally turns into their costumes? Cue the Count as an actual!vampire, Mr. Wolf as an actual werewolf (or maybe just a normal wolf?), and… Emma becoming surprisingly good at archery? How does everyone react? I could see some real body horror coming out of this, perhaps.
If you go on a more shippy route, maybe Emma could let the Count suck her blood?For a treat, you could take a H/C route, or a humourous spin on the concept.* - What if the doll’s curse was real? What was the history behind it? The effects that no one ever saw? Did she come and haunt the Count at nights? Considering this scenario, how did he feel as he watched Emma work her way through the puzzle that would break the curse? What if she failed, or something else went wrong?
- This could arguably be tied in with the above prompt, but: Halloween Otome as gothic horror.
- The Count finally gets the fluffy dog with short legs of his dreams!
- I kind of adored the Count and Mr. Bandages’ antagonistic friendship, so I’d love anything with the two of them interacting (& hopefully bickering?), whether it’s before or after Mr. Bandages figures out who the Count is.
- The whole team finally uses those tickets to have their reunion trip.
* For this prompt, please note my discomfort with zombies/zombie-like creatures, and not have Mr. Bandages be rotting, or anything like that.
Shall We Date? The Niflheim
Requested Characters: Orlando, Jean, J.J., PhilippeCanon: A free-to-play visual novel/otome game on the cellphone.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Victor/Anyone. Skeletiano/Isabella. Philippe/Anyone-who-isn’t-Isabella. Orlando in a fluffy romance.
Quick note: I’m familiar with all of the main routes (though not quite all of the endings), and most of the event stories. If you want to reference something that happened in one of the temporary Grace Point event stories, feel free to do so. I remember the Lovesickness Event and onwards best, though I did read through the Grace Point event that happened before it.
I’m stupidly, madly in love with this canon, both in terms of the world-building, and the actual characters. I feel like this canon has fantastic potential to go darker, but is also perfectly suited for sweet moments, which makes it pretty much perfect for this exchange. I’d particularly love canon-divergences set at literally any point in any route, and darker takes on any of the concepts that appear in the game.
I’m open to nearly all pairings for my requested characters (for the few exceptions, see my Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants), but my personal favorites for them are Orlando/Jean, Philippe/Isabella, J.J./Isabella, and Jean/Isabella. But if one of my prompts inspire you to play with a different pairing, then go for it!
I would also be absolutely delighted to receive gen, and particularly friendship fic. I’m open to all of the above-mentioned pairings as friendships (I admit that I can’t see Philippe ever having completely platonic feelings for Isabella, but that should only affect things if it’s from his POV), and am also particularly fond of Philippe & J.J. and Philippe & Orlando.
I would also like to drop a reminder that I do have a massive zombie squick, so I do ask that, if you write about him, you please don’t linger on J.J. being a zombie/what that means. If you absolutely must mention it, that’s fine, but please be as brief as possible, and don’t give any details.
Prompts
- Anything that explores the weirdness of Niflheim. If you like world-building, then here’s your chance to go wild!
- Philippe’s pre-canon time in Niflheim really intrigues me, and I’d love to see anything set during that time period, especially if it involves his relationship with J.J. or Orlando. After all, a thousand years is a long time. How does he fill it? Does he have any moments of hopelessness or despair? I know that his Birthday Event deals a bit with that, but even assuming that it doesn’t just happen on his own route, a single spark of hope in 1000 years really isn’t that much. How does he get through it? Does his relationship with other characters help?
- How is the problem of Philippe being alive resolved in the other routes? I doubt that the ghosts will stay away forever…
- J.J. invents something. It goes horribly wrong.
- Anything that deals with J.J.’s Does Not Compute reaction to feelings, and how he reacts to new experiences.
- A super-possessive and/or co-dependent take on Orlando/Jean, especially if the relationships starts in the pre-game period.
- Anything that deals with Jean’s connection to Niflheim— for better or for worse. H/C that deals with his guilt? Or maybe a canon-divergence AU where he goes darker after that pre-game moment when people found out about his power? (Orlando/Jean and/or Jean/Isabella would be fantastic in such a setting.)
- Jean is much more competent than he appears, but the fact remains that Orlando is the driving force behind much of the day-to-day running of the kingdom. Show me the various ways he’s handled things for Jean/Niflheim as a whole— especially if it involves him being a manipulative bastard, and/or diplomacy of any kind.
Star Stealing Prince
Requested Characters: Astra, ErioCanon: A free indie RPG that can be downloaded either here or here.
Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants: Erio not genuinely caring about Astra, and vice versa. Anything set when Astra was very young— I’d like her to be a young teen at the absolute youngest, please. Unrequested pairings.
I really love this game, and I really, really love Erio and Astra, so I’d be delighted to see anything you might write for it. I do ship Erio/Astra pretty hard, and would certainly enjoy receiving that, but I’m also 100% fine with gen fic as well, whether it focuses on their bond or on them as individual characters.
Prompts
- The game stresses at several points that if too much demon magic goes through a human, they start decaying. Show this happening to someone. It doesn’t have to be Astra— it can be Snowe, Relenia, or even someone else entirely. How do they react? Do they try to hide it from the others?
- Anything dealing with the scarecrows. For this prompt, you don’t have to focus on Erio or Astra if you don’t want to— considering how unsettling some of the things the scarecrows say are, I’d be happy with general world-build-y stuff too.
- At one point in the game, Astra mentions that Erio once almost lost his arms while trying to teleport with another person. Tell me about what happened. I don’t think it’s unlikely that the person he was trying to teleport with was Astra; perhaps it was even during one of their trips to the meadow.
- When “paradise” falls at the end of chapter six, the cast only manages to survive because Erio’s sister lends him her power in order to teleport everyone to safety. However, Erio mentions that, if that were to fail, he was planning on at least trying to save Astra (though he also shows some concern for Hiante as well).
Take this to the obvious conclusion! Show me a canon divergence where the teleport does fail. Does Erio manage to save Astra? (I’d prefer “yes”, but could be coaxed into enjoying a “no”.) At what price?
On a broader scale, what does this outcome it mean for their fate (and that of all of Sabine), since the only person who could take down the stars died? - Pre-game. Astra gets sick, and Erio and Hiante have to figure out how to care for her. Does the fact that both of their biologies are very different from hers come up? They’re her bodyguards, but how can they guard her from her own body?
- Erio slowly starting to bond with Hiante over the years.
- Post-game, a quiet moment between Erio and Astra.
And that’s that! Good luck, dear writer— I hope you have fun with this!