ow-exchange letter
11/3/19 22:40![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
antheapDear Author,
Thank you for writing for me!
I'm very passionate about Original Works lately and I can't wait to read what you have in store for me! I am very enthusiastic about this exchange and I hope it turns out to be a nice experience for you; I wish you luck with both your gift and your assignment/treats (I, for one, am very easy to please, I promise!).
I'm antheeia on ao3 and I hope these ideas can help you out with your creating. However, consider them just as (in some cases pretty vague) suggestions in case you're unsure of what to do. If you already have an idea that doesn't go against my DNWs, then please go with it! I'd be happy to read it. The sections can vary in length, but I assure you that I'd be equally psyched to receive each and every single thing I requested.
I request OW whenever allowed in exchanges, so you can check my old letters if you want to get better acquainted with my tastes.
Should you be in doubt/want to ask me something, I encourage you to reach out to the mods. I'm very flexible about my DNWs, and most of them are just things I'm picky about/less likely to enjoy; something that isn't in there is almost surely fine (unless I forgot something, but I don't think I did). Either way, if you want to make sure I'd be okay with something I'd be happy to clarify.
Thank you in advance for creating something for me!
Content:
General info
Likes
DNWs
Requests
General info
[back to top]
- I'm a hardcore m/m shipper. Where not specified or left ambiguous in the prompt itself you can suppose that's my preference.
- Feel free to write anything, even if I haven't listed in the request, as long as it's not in my DNWs.
- I'm okay with any format, from multichapter, plot-heavy fic to short pwp. I also love unusual fic formats (epistolary, illustrated fic, IF, fake academic treaties, anything else crossing your mind) and I'm okay with any narrator (1st, 3rd, but also 2nd) and pov.
- I generally don't mind the addition of non-requested characters and ships, as long as the story focuses on the ones I requested.
Likes
[back to top]
General
- action/adventure, world-building, sci-fi, low/urban fantasy, contemporary settings
- darkfic, angst, horror, violence, gore
- fairytales aesthetics
- dry/witty humour and fluff, especially when it's "warped" fluff (fake shows of affection, lies and manipulation via kindness and PDA, or simply displays of affection that would not be so between two common people, etc.)
- stories based on canon or that play with the canon (so either canon compliant fics, or what ifs/canon divergence fics), non-mundane AUs (so anything with magic, assassin AUs, demons/angels AUs, etc)
- character studies, extremely introspective fics
- elaborated plots, casefics
- anything from heavy angst and torture to fix-it and happy endings
- villain focused stories, villains being inexcusably evil
- intense personal conflict, characters being extremely vulnerable but trying to hide it
Ship & smut
- hate/love, hate/lust relationships; enemies to lovers
- hurt/comfort
- underage & age-gap
- non-con, dub-con, gangbangs/rapes, mindbreak
- rough sex
- pining, UST, repressed feelings, unwanted feelings, crying during sex
- sex without feelings, sex leading to feelings
- orgasm delay, teasing, loss of control, overstimulation, humiliation, unwilling arousal (these last 3 especially in non-con situations)
- tentacles
Do Not Wants
[back to top]
- Issuefic
- kidfic, crack
- A/B/O, werewolves-pack dynamics and werewolves in general
- knotting, heat
- piercings & body modifications
- pregnancy and m-preg (unless explicty requested), birthing related kinks
- trans characters (unless explicitly requested)
- extreme underage (10yo or under)
- zoophilia/bestiality
- vomit, scat, watersports
- fisting
- age play (and related kinks), especially infantilisation, diaper play
Gods-related requests
[back to top]
Media type: fic
Ratings: Any
Feel free to mix and match requests among themselves! (trickster-death deity? character who is cursed/the god of death who cursed them? all is good)
As you can see from the prompted characters, I love Death as a character. I would find any rendition (from the most "classical" to the most original) extremely interesting.
What I like in general from godly characters is:
- an inhuman relationship with gender (they don't understand it, or maybe they do but they feel like one couldn't satisfy them, or maybe they have/had trouble choosing which one fits them the most). In short, I'd love genderfluid gods;
- angst about their immortal status;
- a certain focus on their supernatural/otherworldly abilities.
As for prompted ships, same as above applies for the godly characters. As for their relationship, I'd like it to be fairly conflicted (god being playful/human taking it too seriously or being scared; god being super serious/human thinking it's not gonna last because it's a god they're talking about; immortal/mortal couple typical angst; and any other type of conflict you can think about).
In this specific group of prompts, I have no strong gender preferences. The genderfluid God thing would be rad but is not necessary in any way, and, in ship prompts, I have a very slight preference for the human half being male. However, anything goes!
Death God (Original Work) & Personification of Death (Original Work)
In addition to what I already explained about this group of requests in general, for this prompt I'd love a slice-of-life-y work focused on a Death God or a Personification of Death.
Are they the only Death God in the world/universe or is there more like them? (there could be one per planet, or several on each planet sharing their competence territory.) How is their daily life? They could live alone or together with other gods, and the other Gods might have all kinds of opinions about them: maybe they hate them, maybe the find them strange, maybe they're scared of them, maybe they love them. They could be a cheerful God or a sad one, a serious one or a playful one. They could have strong feelings about humans, be them positive or negative.
Just really, anything simply showcasing Death's personal and strange point of view about things via their usual, maybe even boring, daily life.
If you want to go for something plottier, why not! Feel free to go heavy on the worldbuilding. Maybe a fellow (Death) God went mad and the protagonist has to stop them from killing everyone/destroying the world? Maybe the protagonist has a deathwish (see next character prompt)?
Immortal Deity with a Deathwish
I really like this character prompt, especially if combined with the one I listed before. I'd love for a fic to explore this deathwish, not necessarily bringing it to reality.
Why does an immortal wish for death? Is it out of boredom, out of love, out of curiosity maybe, or maybe because of a terrible experience they had? The fic could be an introspective piece exploring this wish that maybe is never acted on because of the impossibility of it; or maybe it is acted on, and the fic could be a grotesquely humorous (or an intensely angsty one) one detailing several unsuccessful suicide attempts of this deity; the story could be about them trying to get their wish fulfilled in any way and in the end discovering a new reason to live.
I'm okay with anything strange and queer (in fact I encourage it!) and I'd be particularly interested in familial-like bonds (parent-child especially), romance, or just very deep friendships, or one-sided feelings of any kind. I'm super fine with extreme violence and gore if that's the direction you're heading towards, and I have no particular squick about violence related stuff.
Trickster Deity (Original Work) & Trickster Deity/Original Human Character
I don't have specific plot ideas for this that differ much from everything I listed so far in the general section, in this group of requests' introduction and in previous prompts. But that doesn't mean I would love receiving one of these two prompts any less!
The Trickster deity character has a very strong appeal for me and, in general, I'd love seeing them in either something light and humorous or something very dark in which their attitude seems almost inappropriate to the situation. Maybe the fic could be the tale of a series of jokes and tricks this god has done, or maybe one specific instance in which their trickstery put them in a hard situation and how they got out of it.
If you want to go for the ship, the same suggestions work, but maybe in this case a human inexplicably helps the deity out of trouble (for a super secret reason, out of gratitude for something the deity doesn't even remember or maybe out of generosity), or maybe they are the deity's favorite victim (and maybe they start pranking the god back!)
character who is cursed/the god or entity that cursed them
I initially interpreted this prompt as one where a god put a nasty curse on a human and then kept an eye on them to see how it would go; but as the situation evolved, the god ended up falling in love for the person they had cursed.
I'd love this dynamic: maybe the human did something blasphemous according to the god, and the curse was their punishment; better yet, maybe the human was cursed as a newborn because of their parent(s) and, as they struggled to live with that curse, they proved how different they were from their parent(s), effectively changing the God's mind; maybe the cursed character does the impossible to talk to the god, fight them, even, to get the curse lifted, and that's what the god admires.
Maybe the love stays one-sided on the god's part, or maybe not but it's never acted upon for some reason. Maybe the two start a relationship, but it's difficult to make it work through all their differences. In short: UST and complicated relationship are an absolute yes.
Another possible reading of the prompt is the human character being cursed to fall in love with the god. That would go into a dub or non-con scenario though, even if not necessarily sexually. But in case that's what you want to do, or in case you like the idea, go for it! It could either end very bad or well, depending on where you wanna take it. I'm on board anyway!
Sci-fi requests
[back to top]
Media type: fic
Ratings: Any
Feel free to mix and match requests among themselves!
I really love sci-fi and robots. I'm a fan of Asimov's works on robots and on Data's character in Star Trek. Those are the best examples of my favorite type of representation of robots in fiction. I'm particularly interested in androids, as in completely artificial humanoid robots, as opposed to non-humanoid robots and human-robots hybrids (cyborgs), who I don't dislike either.
I think my favorite themes in robot-related fiction are:
- the struggle of the robot to understand humanity (either because of the supposed lack of feelings, or because of the different ways humans and artificial life-form work and think);
- the theme of trying to fit in;
- the theme of breaking free from the condition of inferiority from humans, the change from being "machines" to having human dignity.
Ship-wise:
- robot/technophile human is always wonderful! The human being all fussy and excited around his robotic companion and all his technological parts! Unrequited feelings, UST!
- very logical and "inhuman" android built for war/an android that, instead, was built with a nourishing programming.
Gender preference for this group of requests is m/m (for androids/robots, count that as male presenting/identifying) for the ships, and indifferent for non-ship prompts.
Android Trying to Prove They're Human
This would be perfect with the themes I mentioned above. They could be trying to prove it to a single person they really care about (you could put this together with the robot/engineer ship prompt), to their "family", to the whole of humanity.
I'd really like if there was someone the robot could really count on, someone who believed in them already, that they didn't have to convince. This someone could be a child (the youngest of the family, the engineer's son, the android builder's daughter...). I love the purity and innocence of the interactions between children and non-human characters, and that goes for androids specifically.
If that is your thing I'd die for a fic formatted in some original way (incorporating a computer code to emulate the robot's thinking process, stuff like that!)
Violent Decommissioned War Robot
If the previous character prompt was focused on innocence, this would be like a complete opposite take on it. Maybe this robot takes the difference between themselves and humans as a sign of their own superiority, or maybe they just never questioned their programming. Maybe they only knew violence and now that they're decommissioned everything has changed, and they're not equipped to face the change.
Their reaction to the situation could range from trying to understand the situation, looking for a solution logically, or going on a violence spree until someone is forced to destroy them, and anything in between.
This too could be combined with the ship prompts: the engineer could be the person that has to reprogam the robot, the new, non-genocidal android one designed for the purpose of helping getting rid of war models, and anything else listed in those prompts!
Cyborg or Robot/Their Engineer
This one is wildly generic and could go a lot of ways so I'm just gonna list the ones that come to mind!
- One where the setting is a society where robots are the norm, but sophisticated androids that look and act very similar to human being don't exist yet/are a taboo. The engineer is someone who built the robot on their own and is trying to keep him hidden!
- In alternative, a society in which androids are the norm, and the engineer is just someone who has to repair/reprogram old/broken bots. One of them, however, is special. That might be because it seems hopeless to fix, but the engineer doesn't want to give up on it, or because a glitch made it basically human and the engineer doesn't want to fix it because they feel it would be like killing them.
- If you want to go the cyborg route, the setting could be classic sci-fi, or maybe steampunk! The cyborg is a renegade and the engineer is the only one who will fix him without telling the authorities (because the engineer has been in love since forever, but never had the guts to confess). A lot of action and dramatic declaration! or maybe a lot of introspection and UST!!
- The engineer is the one that makes the cyborg a cyborg, after they're left disabled by an incident. The engineer follow their client's recovery very closely, and it's not just because they want to be sure they did a good job.
Genocidal Warlord Android / Newly build not-so-genocidal Android
First of all, i'd love to see some worldbuilding: why does a warlord android even exists, what was the war? Why was it built? Maybe genocide (of aliens? of the human race?) was their purpose once but now it's not useful anymore and they refuse to let their programming be changed. Maybe it's still their purpose but they've been captured by the enemy that's trying to crack their programming for battle advantage. Maybe they're decommissioned because they're old, damaged and outdated. One thing it's sure, they're dangerous!
In all of this, what's the role of the newly build android? They could be a more efficient model, or an enemy non-battle model specialized in hacking which has been tasked with reprogramming the warlord android or finding out the secrets they hide.
I imagine the two starting out with a very conflicted relationship but then slowly coming to terms with each other and maybe finding middle ways, agreement, It could be a redemption story where the newly built android manages to convince the older model to be reprogrammed/adapt to a different life; or it could be corruption story ending up with the two putting together their forces for the old model's last genocide!
Royalty requests
[back to top]
Media type: fic
Ratings: Any
Things I would like for this group of requests are:
- count intrigue, fantasy politics;
- social classes related drama (ostracized love because the two are of a different class, thinking the other person wouldn't want a relationship because of it, etc);
- UST-charged sparring;
- moments of extreme fragility and tenderness, tears;
The setting doesn't have to be medieval/fantasy; could also be futuristic, steampunk, or any other particular setting you want to write for this prompts. However, I'd rather it not be contemporary.
Most of these requests have a gender preference already made clear. "Blind Crown Prince/Prince's Guard Tasked with Taking Care of His Needs" might be the more neutral worded one, but in this case, too, I'd prefer it to be m/m.
Demigod Dictator/His Protégé Who Rebelled Against Him (M/M)
What I like the most about this prompt is the sick, warped type of Mentor/Protégé relationship that would come out of it. It makes me think of glorious acts of rebellion, of desperate antagonism, conflicted feelings and pain on the Protégé's part and of psychological grooming, manipulation and possessiveness on the Mentor's part.
I imagined the dictator as a cruel man who earned his place by having no qualms using his godly powers and no pity towards anyone, and the Protégé as a young naive man who first admired him and then realized how horrible he truly was when he got to know the whole truth. I love angst, so I'd love if the Protégé was in love with the Dictator from the start (spontaneously or as a product of psychological manipulation) which of course would add several layers of torment to the fic.
I'd also love to see a dramatic a battle in which the Protégé tries to kill the dictator, ultimately failing (because he just can't, or because the demigod is just too powerful). Maybe the Dictator captures him and takes his revenge on him, or tries to break him and get him back on his side. Smut of any kind (from non.con to consensual) is very welcome, as with all requests.
Destined King/The Wise Male Interim Ruler He Is Dethroning By Turning Up & Usurper King/His New Husband Former King
I can see this prompt featuring two mature protagonists that both love the country they rule/ruled. I'd love if the ones leaving the throne kept making decisions from "the shadows" thanks to their relationships with the new king, and exploring how this change of role might be initially disliked but eventually seen as having its advantages, too.
In the case of the destined king, the relationship with the interim ruler could be there from before he turned up or develop afterwards, maybe as a way from the former interim ruler to gain the favours of the new king. The destined king taking his place could be a completelly planned thing and a careful choice made pacefully. I'd love however, if the interim ruler started having second thought about it when he sees how "unwise" the new king is being.
In the case of the usurper king, maybe there's a forced marriage to give legitipacy to the new king; alternatively, the initiative could have come from the former king, in the hopes of keeping a tiny bit of control over what happend to his country. I'd love if their relationship was extremely hostile and the story was about then coming to terms with each other and slowly getting to know one another.
Older Male Knight/Young King who has been in his care his entire life
Agegap is one of my weaknesses, and it's personally what attracted me the most about this prompt.
The story could go different ways, and I'm absolutely sure I would like them all. What I'd really like to read in it would be a lonely, isolated young prince and then king, for whom the knight that takes care of him is the only friend and confidant. What are the things that bother a boy that grew up too fast to fit into a role bigger than himself? What can a mera Knight do to help him?
If you want to go plottier I'd love court intrigue, assasination attempts, betrayals, and a lot of loyalty going on betwen king and knight.
Blind Crown Prince/Prince's Guard Tasked with Taking Care of His Needs
Truth is, I really love blind main characters. I find that blindness adds a great, obvious vulnerability, to the character (that could, why not, be the basis for badassery) but also a certain challenge for the author (since most narrative relies heavily on sight) that results in a very interesting experience for the reader. So this is obviously the part that attracted me the most about this original prompt, and one I'm very much interested in.
I'd love if the Prince was born blind and yet managed to do everything everyone else did and then some. I imagined him sword fighting/sparring (with the guard/bastard) and being surprisingly good at it. But you could also choose a more hurt/comfort idea: maybe he lost his sight in an accident, or in battle, and he's still adjusting to the change (with the Guard's help).
As for the guard, maybe he's skeptic at first, maybe he thinks the prince is extremely pampered and spoiled, but, by growing close to him, changes his mind because the Prince is a gentle and kind person and would probably be a great king. Or maybe he's very careful around him and treats the prince as the most delicate thing in the world, but soon has to realize the prince is not delicate and that he can fight for himself, and pretty well, too.
I imagined this as a classical medieval/fantasy setting and that or maybe a steampunk setting would be absolutely great for it, but I wouldn't dislike any other setting you can think about.
Love/hate requests
[back to top]
As you might have guessed I love hero/villain ships or any other dynamic in which a love/hate relationship exists. A fic about one of these prompts can be/have:
- corruption tales or redemption stories;
- emotionally charged declarations of love after one unexpectedly saves the other from something deadly;
- slow burn/UST, resolved or not;
- sex without feelings turning out to be sex with many feelings.
Where not specified, my gender preference is m/m; if you really really don't want to write m/m I'd ask you, however, to avoid m/f.
superhero/supervillian
For this prompt, I'd like anything I mention in the following ones, and in the general section regarding these love/hate requests. The prompt is very generic and I'm okay with anything you might come up with that doesn't go against my general DNWs.
Male Superhero/His Male Supervillain Nemesis Who Has Amnesia
This prompt made my enemies to lovers heart flutter.
The premise for this could be the superhero taking his nemesis' amnesia as the perfect opportunity to turn the Supervillain around, or maybe guilt as he was the one to cause the amnesia during a fight. Either way I'd love for him to discover his nemesis' vulnerabile side and fall in love with it. I'd love to see a lot of denial and conflicted feelings, but also a lot of soft, kind moments when the villain's amnesia causes him to be frustrated or hurt.
Maybe the villain falls in love with the superhero, too, and the hero finds himself in the painful position to choose if he should tell him the truth about what he was or not. Maybe the villain used to be sexually exploited before becoming a villain and he reverts back to that point in his life, and the Superhero cannot accept his advances despite discovering he wants to.
I really just want enemies to lovers, maybe gentle sex (if you feel like smut) and all the amnesia tropes you can think about.
Retired Supervillain/Wannabe Superhero who knows his Identity & Keeps Asking for Advice (M/M)
This one I imagine as a series of episodes starting with how the wannabe superhero finds out about the retired Supervillain's identity and continuing with how he takes advantage of this knowledge.
I'd love this as a corruption story: the wannabe superhero maybe uses the supervillain's true identity to blackmail the guy into giving him advice. That's not a very superhero thing to do, and maybe the supervillain finds that the wannabe superhero has actually great potential as a villain, and tries to teach him how to do that. (Does he manage, though?)
On the opposite, it would also be nice as a redemption story, in which the relationship between the two is soft and gentle and the retired supervillain retired because he's tired of crime. Maybe he acts annoyed when the wannabe superhero shows up, but he actually finds it endearing, and maybe he slowly grows fond of him and takes it as the perfect opportunity for redemption and teaches the wannabe superhero how to be the best hero possible.
Undercover Cop/Mob Boss He's Trying to Take Down & Mob Boss In Love With Man He Knows Is An Undercover Cop/Cop Who Doesn't Realize He's Been Found Out
In both cases, I'd love if the relationship started as a way to get the Mob Boss's trust and affection. In the firts case, maybe the cop then developed feelings that, besides being onesided (in his opinion) are prohibited and bad. I'd like the story to focus on the cop's moral dilemma, and to see how he faces these incovenient feelings. The second one would be nice, but from the other prespective, when it's the mob boss the one who has unwanted feelings to deal with. It would be super cool to have both conflicts depicted (maybe with a double pov, the same scene told from one and then the other!).
Unhappy endings are okay and even encouraged, if that's your thing.
Underage requests
[back to top]
Media type: fic
Ratings: Any
These prompts have at least one underage character implied. The relationship doesn't have to be sexual if it's romantic (healthily or not), nor it has to be romantic if it's sexual. I would love smut, if you're up for it, unless the underage character is extremely underage.
I put detailed ideas in my letter but in general what I'd like is:
- resourceful/stubborn/bratty underage character;
- horror/horror vibes;
- atmospheric landscape descriptions (regardless of what setting the fic might be);
- unexpected fragility/tender moments.
Male Longhaul Trucker/Little Boy Hitchhiker
For some reason, this request really spoke to me.
I like the on-the-road setting: when I read this prompt the first time, I could imagine the slow-paced, monotonous views and the lazy, boring hours of travel spent doing nothing, the suffocating heat of the asphalt in summer or the frigid winter wind howling outside of the truck. At first I imagined this in a contemporary or recent-past setting, but I could also see it perfectly with a sci-fi twist (futuristic scenarios and roads, maybe there's aliens, cyborgs, robots or AIs involved), a (post-)apocalyptic setting (desolate lands and that "each man for himself" kind of mood), or a urban fantasy one!
A few ideas about the characters involved:
- The boy: why is he hitchicking? Depending on the setting, the answer could be very different. He could range from a naive runaway boy just looking to leave a conservative family, to a lost robot who got his memory wiped, to an orphan, indipendent teen who's trying to survive in a destroyed, lawless world, to an immortal supernatural being looking for a victim.
- The trucker: I can imagine him from young to middle aged and, depending on the setting, the content of his truck could be very important (maybe he's transporting the key to bring back civilization), plot relevant (maybe his load contains spare parts that will help the robot-boy) or absolutely irrelevant.
- Why does the trucker stop for the boy? He could have met him on a gas station and decided to help out of kindness, or he could be ill-intentioned and offer him a ride because he seems like an easy "prey" (but is he really? Maybe he's actually dangerous or not as naive as he seems, or maybe he is very innocent and pure and the guilt changes the trucker's plans.); or maybe, the trucker doesn't want him aboard and yet the boy sneaks in.
Prince Cursed with Monstrous Form/Runaway Teen Boy Who Takes Refuge in a Seemingly Abandoned Castle
This one materialized in my mind immediately as a horror fairytale-esque sort of story, with snow and winter wind forcing the boy into the huge castle covered with weeds and him slowly discovering the place is not as abandoned as it seems. Unexplainable magic, a creepy, scary presence slowly revealing itself, horrendous details and maybe even a happy ending.
What kind of monstrous form has the prince been cursed with? I imagine it as a beastly form, maybe with scales and fangs, something that makes his face deformed and absolutely repulsing but affects his whole body as well. And can the curse be broken, and can the boy help with it? Does he want to from the beginning and does he change his mind?
I'd love to see how the two of them, prince and teenage boy, come to grow closer to each other, and how the boy learns to know what's hidden behind the monstrous appearance, and also what's behind the rage, the fury and the violence the prince shows sporadically.
Maybe in the end the curse is lifted and the prince goes back to his reign, or maybe it doesn't get lifted and the prince and the teen find their own special kind of happiness! As long as you get me a happy end, I'm on board with everything!