Darkest Night 2018 Letter

[straightforwardly]

Dear Writer,

I love this exchange so much—it was easily my favorite exchange that I did last year, and I’ve been so excited for it to roll around again.

AO3: straightforwardly

General Likes

• canon settings.
• canon divergence AUs.
• exploring the relationships between characters.
• quiet / subtle / low-key romances.
• hand-holding, casual touching, any focus on hands.
• dysfunctional or otherwise complicated relationships, especially if the people involved genuinely care about one another.
• worldbuilding.
• emotional hurt/comfort.
• trapped together / huddling for warmth scenarios.
• winter/autumn settings and atmosphere.
• enemies (reluctantly/forced to/willingly) working together, enemies becoming friends, enemies becoming lovers.
• any time-related shenanigans: time travel, time loops, peggy sue, etc.
• castles, shrines, abandoned ruins, dark forests, places with a deep sense of atmosphere and/or history.
• unusual formats (e.g., epistolary, interactive fiction, non-linear storytelling, & so on.)

Do Not Wants

• porn without plot.
• eye injuries.
• zombies / any of the rotting undead.
• detailed descriptions of/focus on pregnancy, childbirth, weddings, and non-canonical marriages.
• kid!fic. anything to do with the next generation, canonical or not.
• cannibalism; anything being eaten alive
• crack!fic, A/B/O, and complete AUs.
• characters giving up on dreams/careers for the sake of romantic love.
• characters being humiliated.

Shall We Date? The Niflheim

Requested Characters/Relationships: Jean & Isabella, Jean/Isabella

I love worldbuilding for all my fandoms, but this is one where it’d be particularly appreciated! Niflheim is such a weird, wonderful place, and I’m always up for seeing it explored.

Dark Character - Jean has a terrifying amount of power over the people of Niflheim. He doesn’t use it, because he’s not that kind of person, but the fact that he can literally wipe anything in Niflheim out of existence, people included, is really freaking scary. For years now, I’ve been fascinated by the concept of, what if Jean had reacted differently to that event 1000 years ago, when the people around him found out about his power and reacted in fear— and the Niflheim Isabella woke up in was very different as a result? Basically, give me dark!Jean, please. I’d prefer it if his friendship with Orlando remains intact, but otherwise, go to town!

How are relations with Muspelheim impacted by this? How does Jean’s relationship with Isabella go? Is she terrified by him? Trying to see the good in him? How do things play out if she falls in love with someone else? He already reacts pretty poorly in some of the canon routes, so how much worse would it be with a dark!Jean? I’d prefer it if the person she falls in love with is either Philippe or Orlando. An Orlando/Jean/Isabella ending would be very welcome (especially if Orlando has grown darker without Jean’s positive influence), as would a flat-out bad ending for either relationship. Or— how far does Jean’s control over Niflheim go, anyways? Can he rewrite people’s emotions?

In regards to noncon: I realize that there’s definitely an implication of noncon if Jean rewires Isabella to be in love with him, and I’m fine with that as long as their sex-life isn’t specifically mentioned. Otherwise, I don’t want any noncon at all. Please make the story dark in other ways. ♥

Cosmic Horror - This one might be a bit weird, but you know how Isabella is, from the player’s point of view, just a black figure with pretty hair and a pretty dress? What if that was actually what she was— a void, some type of unknowable horror squeezed into a vaguely human shape. I picture Jean being (mostly?) immune to her effects because of the whole “controls everything in Niflheim” thing (or is he? or does he just think he would be, but he’s wrong?), but what about everyone else? An outsider point of view of their relationship / cosmic horror!Isabella in general would be excellent.

I would prefer it if Isabella’s personality remained at least outwardly intact, and maybe her internal personality as well— Isabella sweetly and unknowingly striking unimaginable fear and terror into everyone who surrounds her could be excellently creepy if done right. (Or silly, but as this is a dark fic exchange, I’d rather run with the creepy variation.)

Feel free to combine this with my above prompt, too! Maybe dark!Jean chose Isabella as his bride specifically because he knew what she was?

Stand Still Stay Silent

Requested Characters/Relationships: Emil/Lalli

I’d be open to pretty much any take on Emil and Lalli’s relationship. Fic where they get together over the course of the story, established relationship, fic where they don’t get together but have unspoken feelings for one another, fic where one has unspoken feelings and it’s never made directly clear if the other one has feelings too or just feels friendship towards them, fic where they just care about each other a whole lot with no explicit mention of specifically romantic feelings… It’s all good!

The only thing I don’t want is for them to be the direct cause of the other’s pain/misery (indirect is fine), or for either of them to deliberately hurt one another. Also, with the exception of the prompts that require one of them to be already dead, I’d rather not see Emil or Lalli dying over the course of the story (though open endings where it’s unclear if they survive or not is definitely fine.)

For all of these, I’m fine with them diverging from any point before Tuuri’s death, or with them taking Tuuri’s death into account. Just do whatever’s best for the story.

Character Is Dead And Doesn't Know It - I’d be interested in both Emil or Lalli as the dead character in question! If it’s Emil: he dies, but his spirit tries to carry on like nothing’s happened. Maybe he doesn’t even realize that most of the characters outside of Lalli and Reynir can’t see him— or maybe he does, in the “why is everyone ignoring me?” sense. Or, write it from Lalli’s point of view— his friend is dead, and he doesn’t know that he’s dead— and Lalli’s a mage, and it’s his duty to help spirits move on, but then that means Emil really would be gone, for good…

Or, Lalli’s the dead character! Maybe he takes a hit in a battle, and then just… gets up, and doesn’t realize that he’s left his body behind him. And when he finally catches up to the group, he has no idea why everyone’s upset, because he can’t understand what they’re saying. (And, if Tuuri’s alive, doesn’t get why she’s ignoring him.)

Character Is Like Catnip To Supernatural Beings - Lalli’s already sensitive to the supernatural due to being a mage— why not take it one step further? There’s so many ways this could go. Attacks in the dreamspace. His haven being breached and Lalli being forced on the run every time he sleeps. I’d… honestly be fine with that being the whole story, even if it doesn’t include Emil. But to expand on that, maybe he comes across Emil’s dreamscape, and accidentally leads the spirits chasing him straight to Emil, dragging Emil into the same nightmare Lalli’s dreaming life has become? (Suddenly, Emil understands just why Lalli’s been so reluctant to sleep lately.) Increased attacks in the physical world would be great too, whether it’s attacks by trolls/beasts or ghosts.

Or maybe Emil’s the one who’s like catnip. Trolls and beasts would be bad enough, but he can’t even see any ghosts who might want to eat him up. Cue an increasingly exhausted Lalli trying to defend him from threats he’s blissfully unaware of? Or maybe he is aware of it and feels guilty about it, or becomes aware over the course of the story.

Forests That Probably Want To Eat You - Something set post-canon where Emil visits Lalli in Keuruu and they find themselves caught in a very unfriendly forest? Or during a future mission, or while heading to the rendezvous point… or maybe even just in the dreamscape! Maybe Emil gets pulled along while Lalli’s trying to get back into his head and they end up somewhere very strange? Or whatever you can think of! I would very much like it if it’s the forest itself out to get them, though, and not just trolls/ghosts/the usual dangers of the silent world.

Haunted by Dead Character - Ghost!Hotakainens, please! Maybe Emil fails to protect Lalli’s body and ends up haunted by Lalli’s ghost? Does any of Lalli’s mage-sight rub off on him so he can see him, or does the haunting make itself known in other ways? Or maybe it’s Tuuri who is doing the haunting. Is her spirit something that Lalli starts seeing when he gets back to his own body? Or maybe she starts showing up while Lalli’s still trapped in Emil’s mind… Or, for something completely different, maybe it’s Ensi Hotakainen doing the haunting...

Only Two Left Alive - I feel like this works best as a canon divergence set earlier in the series, but if you have another idea, go for it! Maybe that ambush post-Odense goes much, much worse than it did in canon, or maybe they get caught in another troll attack while still recovering from the last one… Basically, anything that leaves these two vulnerable and grieving and alone would be excellent.

People Suddenly Start Mysteriously Disappearing - Again, I feel like this works best as something set earlier in canon, before the crew split up—maybe during the two week timeskip?—but if you have other ideas, go for it! I’m just really into the horror of the idea of the crew members being picked off one by one, and none of them really knowing what’s happening, only that their companions are probably dead…

Stranded Without Hope Of Rescue - Maybe they miss their rendezvous point, and end up stuck in the silent world? I’m always up for stories about characters struggling to survive in a harsh world. Is it just Emil or Lalli, or do the rest of the crew end up stranded as well somehow? Do they try to make the long trek back to where they entered the silent world, even knowing they’ll probably never make it? Or do they try to find a way to survive there long term?

Star Stealing Prince

Requested Characters/Relationships: Snowe, Erio & Astra, Erio & Astra & Hiante

While I’d mostly prefer gen for this request, I do ship Erio/Astra, and would be fine with mentions/hints of Erio’s canonical feelings for her or some low-key shippiness if you feel like it/find that your story is going in that direction. Also, I didn’t request her, but I do like Relenia a lot, and she’s more than welcome to appear in scenarios where it’d be logical for her to be there too.

Also, while pretty much all of my requests deal with a bad end of some sort, I’m not actually particularly interested in receiving stories about the canonical bad end. I’d rather see things go wrong earlier, while the characters are still stuck on Sabine.

Mission Failure - There’s one scenario that’s fascinated me ever since I first played this game and that one is, what if Erio hadn’t managed to get help from his sister when “paradise” fell? It’s canon that Erio planned to save at least Astra if that happened, and I doubt that Hiante could really die from something like that, but what happens next? 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 (i.e., Snowe) died? You could have the mission fail in other ways that don’t kill off Snowe too! I don’t have any specific ideas for that, but I’m open to just about anything. I just want the end result that these characters are unable to escape Sabine, as everything slowly grows colder and darker.

Post-Apocalyptic Survival - This is pretty similar to the above. Requested characters trapped on Sabine as it slowly grows colder, struggling to survive. Focus on the cold, exhaustion, hunger, fruitless huddling for warmth, the struggle to stay alive— I’d love any of that.

Character Is Dead And Doesn't Know It - In general, I do really love the idea of it only being revealed late in the story / at the end that said character is actually dead. I also really love the idea of the story being told from the point of view of the dead character, though the other way around could be fun too.

Most of my ideas for this revolve around Snowe, but I’d love it for any of the other characters too (except for Hiante, seeing as canonically he’s both dead and aware of it, ha). So: Snowe dies, maybe due to the above circumstances, but his ghost tags along with the surviving members of the group, unaware of what’s happened. Maybe the other characters can’t actually see him, but he doesn’t realize it. Or maybe only Hiante can see him (because they’re both dead), or only Erio (since he’s a demon). Or maybe everyone can see him. Astra playing along (and asking Hiante and Erio to do the same) because she doesn’t know how to handle it / hasn’t decided what to do yet would be excellent.

Or maybe Astra is the one who’s dead and doesn’t know it. Maybe Erio saved her from Paradise’s fall, but she dies later on as Sabine gets colder and snowier and darker— but her spirit continues travelling on with Erio, and he can’t bring himself to leave Sabine because of it, because he can’t bring himself to leave her behind. Bonus if not revealed that she’s dead until the very end of the story, and double-bonus if she herself never learns. If it’s Erio and Astra alone, I’d love this from either point of view; if it’s Erio and Astra and Hiante, I have a slight preference for it being from Astra’s point of view.

I don’t have any specific ideas for Erio, but feel free to have him be the dead character as well! I do like the idea of Astra not being able to let go of him either, or feeling guilty about his death.

Winterstrike

Requested Characters/Relationships: Female Main Character & the Ironbird

My only canon-specific do not wants are that I don’t want the main character to betray or hate the ironbird, or for the ironbird to see the main character as something disposable. I’d also rather not see either of them actually die.

Confession time: I’ve never actually been able to bring myself to do any of the endings other than the Ironbird’s Prophet. I fell in love with the ironbird pretty much immediately in my first playthrough, and have always been fairly attached to its relationship with the main character when the main character is kind to it. How could I not, with moments like this?: “Despite the ice all around you, you settle into the lee of a blasted wall and sleep with the ironbird standing watch. In the morning your hands and feet are cold, but the ironbird's happy crooning eases something in your heart.” The ironbird’s protectiveness of the main character, how, in the Ironbird’s Prophet ending, it looks upon her with “darkly affectionate eyes”— I love it all. Even learning that it’s the bringer of a planet-wide apocalypse hasn’t dimmed my affection.

For this fandom, I want anything dealing with the Ironbird’s Prophet ending. Anything. The progression of the growing hold the ironbird has on the main character, the strangely insular, possessive, and possibly codependent relationship they form, the main character aiding in planetary genocide for its sake— really, take any of the darker/more unsettling elements of that path and run with it.

As my requesting “Betraying One’s Home” might suggest, I usually go with the native-Irian background for the main character, but if you matched on one of the other tags, you are free to give her one of the other backgrounds. As for which faction she joins, that’s your choice, if it comes up at all.

Betraying One’s Home - I’ve already touched on this a bit above, but I love the native-Irian background for the extra poignancy and darkness it adds to the main character’s final choice. She’s not just helping the ironbird destroy an entire planet, but the planet that’s her home— a home that she seemed to care about at the beginning of the game. Show me her starting to draw away from the native foods/festivals/sights/etc. in favor of the ironbird. Show me her caring deeply about her home, but caring about the ironbird too much to want to betray it— show me her choosing to betray the home she loves rather than the ironbird. Anything in that vein would be adored.

Loss of Humanity - This tag probably speaks for itself, considering the ending of the Ironbird’s Prophet. (For reference: “The ironbird awaits you. It has sunk into the deck of the control center. Icicle-studded wires connect it to every conceivable surface, and blue-violet lights run along the wires like steady insects. Careful not to upset any of the wires, you make your way to your seat beside it. It lifts its head and whistles, with a timbre between iron and glass, at your approach. (...) Wires cut into your skin as you, too, are joined to the starship. The next city is far away, but not far enough, and in the meantime the ironbird is already brooding its single egg to restart the cycle with another winterstrike.”)

But to talk about it further— I’d love stories about that journey, about how the main character’s relationship with the ironbird develops during that journey as her own humanity deteriorates. I’d also love stories about when they reach their next destination, and see what role she plays in the next winterstrike.

I’d also be interested in a story about the main character’s metaphorical loss of humanity, before they leave Iria! After all, she canonically needs a high Ice stat to finish the Ironbird Prophet ending— meaning she essentially has to freeze away her own heart. Sometimes I reach the beginning of the Ironbird’s Prophet ending with a high enough Ice stat already, but sometimes it’s relatively low and I need to build it up before I can continue. I would love a story about the latter— where the main character has thrown her lot in with the ironbird, but isn’t quite cold-hearted enough yet to kill everyone (/destroy her home, if combining this with the “Betraying One’s Home” tag), and deliberately forces herself to harden her heart in order to help the ironbird. Just. Yes. *_*

Time Travel - Making The Same Mistakes - This tag was basically inspired by my own inability to go for any other ending except the Ironbird’s Prophet. Maybe the main character never fully hardened her heart and she came to regret her choice— or maybe she did freeze herself enough, but that coldness faded over time. The exact hows and whys of the time travel can be glossed over, and I’m fine with it being deliberate or accidental. I did envision a Peggy Sue-style of time travel when nominating this, and my prompts do lean in that direction, but if you have ideas for a more traditional style of time travel, I’d be open to that too.

Regardless of the hows and whys: the main character goes back, and tries to save Iria— except that no matter what she does, she can’t bring herself to betray the ironbird. She can’t make any other choice than to protect it. And she sees Iria fall again. Maybe it’s one cycle. Maybe it’s many, happening over and over again, as she tries and tries and tries but just can’t bring herself to do what needs to be done, and she just lives in a cycle of her own mistakes.

Self-hatred, regret, and a helpless, unbreakable love for the ironbird are all welcome here. If you want to make the main character Irian-born to add an extra layer to her desperation, by all means, do so.