Yuletide 2020
Oct. 19th, 2020 02:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tailcoatIt's Yuletide!
This is the Yuletide 2020 letter for Labocat on AO3 - thank you so much for signing up and I hope we matched on something you're excited about!
In General: I’m really happy with anything! And by anything, I really do mean just about anything; it’s hard to find something that I absolutely don’t like hard stop. I'm good with all ratings, as well as with all takes on most tropes I enjoy, whether it be straight or subversive or somehow finagling it to fit a canon you wouldn't expect to find it in.
Please feel free to take the general tropes as all-purpose prompts for all fandoms and characters!
Some tropes I adore that are relevant (non-comprehensive):
A couple notes on things like pairing order - for the novels in which there are canon or typical "orders", don't feel obligated to stick to those if you're writing shipfic; I encourage switching if you're feeling it - first time topping or first time reversing is always of interest! Exception: Cang Ji/Jing Lin
Smut likes: I really enjoy size difference, blindfolds, light bondage, orgasm denial/delay, sex pollen or aphrodisiacs, messy/sloppy sex, desperate sex, intercrual, oral, semi-public sex (like in a closet or alley), praise kink, service kink, size kink, sensory deprivation, breathplay, toys (especially hidden plugs/vibes), marking/possessiveness, overstimulation, body worship, slow, drawn-out sex that can really tie in with the aforementioned body worship, or awkward first times.
Extra Optional: dubcon, vore/gore, tentacles and xenophilia, oviposition, comeplay, come inflation, heats and a/b/o, bloodplay, threesomes/moresomes, double/multiple penetration, degradation, non-con body mods.
DNWs: Permanent major character death (temporary is fine), story focus on real-life illnesses (canon-esque illness or canon-typical focus is fine, but no further), pregnancy/kids as major plot focus
Also, past letters are fair game to check if I've requested a fandom before! I've requested a few of these before in different exchanges, and while what I ask for may have shifted, I'm still interested for the same reasons and in for similar prompts, especially for freeform exchanges.
All of my canons have been put up for the Crueltide and Yuleporn challenges - some canon-specific details/more prompts are at the bottom of each request, but as always, those are non-restrictive and non-comprehensive, just guidelines! Please feel free to use them as inspiration as well!
A Charm of Magpies
Nan Chan (Carp Gong)
Can Ci Pin
Kaleidoscope of Death
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
Ring Fit Adventure
A Charm of Magpies:
Ned Hall, Crispin Tredarloe
How to Consume:Rag and Bone and its prequel A Queer Trade are the most relevant books here, but any other cameos from the Charm of Magpies world are welcome, especially from Jackdaw!
Historical fantasy is such a weakness of mine and I just absolutely fell in love with this spin-off. I love the concept of graphomancy, and I love characters who have a type of magic that falls outside of the standard rules and methods and so have to create their own path, so I was doomed from the start.
I’ll admit, after finishing Rag and Bone, I have been thinking about if Ned and Crispin have to, as part of a case as judiciary, go to Cornwall, with Crispin starting to slipping back into Cornish and childhood habits and alternately more comfortable and more awkward with his magic surrounded by familiar things and trying to prove that he’s succeeded to people who have known him as a child (while having to hide his magic and his job and his boyfriend). Bonus points if at some point along the way they run into Ben and Jonah (because I would put good odds on the part of Cornwall Crispin is from being close to where Ben and Jonah ended up because their lives have already mingled and why not) and they bond over being on slightly the wrong side of the law and finding refuge in Cornwall and in general seeing each other again and realizing how their timelines overlapped.
But that’s my super specific request! Otherwise I think that Ned and Crispin’s relationship is wonderful and adorable. Nicknames! Each thinking the other is wildly successful and amazing (despite not thinking they themselves are all that)! Ned being grumpy about suddenly being magical! Graphomancy! Being recruited precisely because they’re oddities (which fits so nicely into my love of what a character thinks of as a weakness others see as their strength)! I think it’s really charming that Ned’s talent was one for hearing to begin with when Crispin absolutely lacks it - they complement each other so well and I loved seeing them play off of that to solve problems. I think Ned would still take a lot of time to get used to have more than a flit’s talent, so maybe Crispin helping him deal with it or finding a way to use his hearing in a way that is actually nice and pleasing rather than stressful from all the noise of London. Their first run (or few runs as they fumble through!) as justiciary would be so neat to see as well!
Crueltide coda: Lighter fare here, but absolutely okay with a job going wrong: we've seen practitioners hungry for power summon all sorts of things that would be a nightmare to deal with or to have go wrong. Bodily possession has also already come up and been a concern, so please feel free to play with that! Also it's canon that flits who get a taste for power are highly susceptible to getting addicted to magic and wanting more and we know that Ned's father was an alcoholic, so there's some open doors for addiction or for Crispin to be concerned about it.
Yuleporn coda: INTERCRUAL. that is all. (no, actually I'm here for just about anything - if you can find some way to bring graphomancy into play during, I would love you forever, but also I am always here for more intercrual)
Nan Chan:
Cang Ji, Jing Lin
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Jade Rabbit
LET THE FISH FUCK, LET THE FISH EAT. I still cannot believe I got into this novel under the description of "the gong is a carp, the gong very much wants to eat the shou" and then it ended up as this really striking, fascinating novel about love and suffering and memories and relationships and how they change us. While still very much being about a carp who wants to eat everyone but is especially conflicted about consuming the one he loves. I love everything about it, from the use of mythology and religion to all of the ways that the power of love and fate come up again and again to all of the recurring imagery and development of emotion as their journey progresses.
I love the dichotomy of Jing Lin in the past and present and how they slowly come back together with the reintroduction of Cang Ji to his life - the mental image of Jing Lin as having lost all sense of purpose and most of self, having locked away so much of himself in the stone, but knowing that keeping this brocade carp is important somehow, is just one that sticks so deep in my mind and heart. The way their journey tempers and reforms his emotions and soul and just how much they both love each other is fantastic, I love it.
Cang Ji is kind of incredible in both how shameless he is and how excessively protective he is of Jing Lin because how dare anyone touch Jing Lin before he has a chance to consume him (or figure out just what the feelings underlying the desire to consume are and remember their past)! I am so here for anything you want to do at any point in the book, whether it be training montages where both of them are too close and flustered and don't know what to do, sensual blood licking (after either sensual or not-sensual biting or blood loss), Cang Ji figuring out what sex is and what his desires towards Jing Lin are, Cang Ji's conflation with voring Jing Lin and keeping him by his side always, the conflation of consumption and love, flashes of memories coming back and not knowing what to do with how they make him feel, having to deal with their memories finally being back, Cang Ji's endless teasing, Jing Lin being unable to stop staring at Cang Ji's muscles, Cang Ji taking advantage of Jing Lin always being asleep, a post-canon adventure, please go where your heart takes you!
IT'S FINE THEY'RE RED-STRINGED IT'S FINE THEY HAD TO FACE THEIR MIRROR SELVES AND FIGHT BACK TO BACK IT'S FINE I'M FINE I'M NOT CRYING IT'S JUST RAIN. Feel free to make me cry harder.
Crueltide coda: Cang Ji's possessive nature could really come into play here, but I'll admit that for this, I'm thinking more early chapters, where neither of them really know the situation yet, between having to witness so many of the sufferings and be unable to do anything.
Yuleporn coda: chants softly missing scenes missing scenes missing scenes. I am always here for biting and bloodplay and holding down Jing Lin's canonically thin wrists and caressing his scars. Also all of Cang Ji's teasing.
Can Ci Pin:
Lu Bixing, Lin Jingheng
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Google Docs and Wattpad
Fandom-specific DNW: The Rainbow Virus is fair game, especially as a tool for whump, but please do not focus on either of the pandemic outbreaks or the public panic response to the outbreak as the major plot focus.
This book really does just have it all: from discussion of the repetitions of evolutions in human society and progress of technology and how that changes or doesn't as humanity expands into a galactic scale, to revolutions and plots spanning decades, to human experimentation and giant mechs, to the impact of found family and connections and making a place where you can belong and grow, to one optimistic, charismatic space engineer and one reticent, dedicated space commander-turned-rogue, it's just so rich and lovely and I'm in love with everything about it. I love how well everything is woven together, from the increase in scale to how it all reflects on both Lu Bixing and Lin Jingheng's origins and character development and relationship.
Lu Bixing has my heart, my whole heart: I love this charismatic space scientist and his boundless optimism, how everything he has gone through hasn't erased his optimism and has instead tempered it, that he's stronger for having had to go through so much pain and loss and choosing to work through that by finding what he can to progress forward and change things for the better.
Lin Jingheng and his slow melting is one of the other best progresses of the novel, of learning why he's built up those walls and watching Lu Bixing get around every one of them and how that slowly means opening up more and more to the rest of the people around him, that his sense of responsibility is only good for when the people he's protecting knows he cares about them too.
I love them both as the galaxy's power couple as well as the Eighth Galaxy's Prime Minister and the Commander of the Eight Galaxy Defense, and just the power and responsibility and they've both fought for and wield and how so much of it was for each other AHHHHHHHHH. I cannot believe how many times Lu Bixing had to bring up proposals before Lin Jingheng got the point, and also HOLY FUCK their conversations in book 5 and having to re-learn each other and readjust are just some of my favorite things. That they do actually talk to each other and that it's not things that are easy to resolve but they both want their relationship and each other enough to be so torn about it just gets me like a punch to the heart. I also just adore how much they let down around each other, how playful they are (and how much it always catches Lu Bixing off-guard when Lin Jingheng teases back), and the softer sides they don't show anyone else. I would love anything for them, from mid-canon catching time together, to thoughts about each other during the separation (feel free to make this hurt), to post-canon retirement or dealing with their collected menagerie of people and animals.
Crueltide coda: Biochip malfunctions, anything playing with the very thin line of morals in Lu Bixing's experimentations at various points, set between books 4 and 5 and not actually knowing the other's status, Nuwa-project-related resurgence/body horror
Yuleporn coda: whispers again missing scenes, missing sceeeeeeeeenes. I ADORE the fact that both of them enjoy their relationship so much and that there's a sense of trust and enthusiasm to the experimentation with new things and situations. Lu Bixing is just so ready and enthusiastic to try anything as long as it's with Lin Jingheng, and can talk Lin Jingheng into anything and both of them know it.
Kaleidoscope of Death:
Ruan Nanzhu, Lin Qiushi
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Taida
Note: I will be keeping current with the English translation and only know that far, but please feel free to play with things that come up later if they feel relevant.
Me, two years ago: I'm not that big on horror, I scare too easily
Me, this year, reading Kaleidoscope of Death before bed: Ah, what a good bedtime story.
Seriously though, this is just such a good balance of really fascinating short horror worlds with a puzzle/solving the story lens as well as just two perfect lead characters. Lin Qiushi is just so perfectly accepting of everything that happens, whether door-related or Ruan Nanzhu-related and rolls with it - sometimes a little too well, though it feeds into his special brand of shamelessness, and it's beautiful. He's competent in a steady way that I really enjoy even while being the densest man about Ruan Nanzhu's moves on him.
Ruan Nanzhu is just his perfect foil, utterly shameless in the other direction and intriguingly dichotomic inside and outside the door. I love the underlying sincerity in all of his jokes and actions, especially toward Lin Qiushi, and he is just such a perfect blend of flippant and competent and a master of shifting how he comes across to fit what he wants out of the situation. He is the "I'll do it better than you /and/ in 6-inch heels" meme personified.
I'd love to see anything, from a new door world to any downtime outside of the doors (dates omg or dates within the door SOMEHOW), MORE BEDSHARING, ALWAYS BEDSHARING, Lin Qiushi getting jealous over Chestnut's affections, the return of Qiuqiu, anything!
Crueltide coda: Anything involving the doors and what might lie behind them is fair game! The peril of the door stories and environments and all the close calls are all fantastic - what if they were separated within the door for long enough for that peril to sink in further?
Yuleporn coda: BEDSHARING LEADS TO ~*~MORE~*~
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku | The Wizard's Promise:
Shylock, Murr
How to Consume: Mobile game is available for download on Android and Apple on Japan-region stores (or apk download); English translation of main story chapters at Mahoyaku-Eng
Note: I have read all of the main story, and am only very slowly making my way through the affection and location stories, but feel free to pull from any content, including event stories, as I will likely have gotten through them by reveals
OHHHH where do I even start with these two? I am so utterly fascinated with Murr as this genius philosopher and researcher who fell for a concept and threw himself into his work, only to fall, Icarus-style, by getting too close to the truth and utterly shattering his soul. Why was this part of his personality the one that stuck around? Why is it still the dominant personality, even after recovering some of the fragments?
Then Shylock, as someone who has both known him for so long as well as lived so long and seen so much of their world change and shift, what is his agenda? He's such a smooth talker, but boy do his words have bite. The concept of love and hate is so intertwined for them both still, as it seemed to be in their past. I cannot believe that they met by Murr walking into his bar and asking him his thoughts onyaoi loneliness.
I would love anything from any point - from their past, just after meeting and their collaborations, to Shylock realizing that Murr had fallen in love with the Calamity and his feelings on that, especially in relation to his own feelings toward Murr and if that changed the tenor of their friendship at all, to finding Murr with his soul shattered, to anything ongoing, finding new fragments and the struggle of will Murr ever be complete again (ALSO WHAT THE /FUCK/ WAS WITH SHYLOCK SWALLOWING ONE OF THEM AND WHAT EFFECTS DOES /THAT/ HAVE). I absolutely ship them, but I also think the emotions of rivalry, hate, jealousy, fear, and love are all too closely intertwined for them to separate out just one emotion, so please feel free to play that up!
Crueltide coda: oh god all the gaslighting, misuse of power, soul shattering, co-dependency, please lean all the way in on that. I am also very here for hatefucking.
Yuleporn coda: If they fuck they don't have to talk about feelings right
Ring Fit Adventure
Ring, Dragaux
How to Consume: Fitness game on the Nintendo Switch!
Apparently all I needed to be able to set a fitness routine and stick with it was the ability to crush monsters with the power of my thighs and the opportunity to unlock a truly mystifyingly horny storyline. The game developers did not have to go as hard as they did making Dragaux a giant muscle dragon in a singlet. And yet.
I'm actually kind of delighted in the sort of nonsense the game gets up to in general - it's your standard "save an old friend from corruption as they try to destroy the world" jrpg storyline except we've set it in this fun, lovely, bright world and part of it feels like isekai but fuck it, let's save the world through exercise and the power of friendship.
What really got me, though, was just how hard they go on the relationship between Ring and Dragaux - the lingering on their past, their motivation of each other, the teasing, Ring's odd guilt complex about Dragaux falling to the lunk side, the fact that there's no real reason for Dragaux to just sit there waiting for you and Ring to come and fight him, except he does it every single time anyway (yes I know game mechanics don't take this story reason from me) just so they can banter and Ring can keep holding on hope. The player is very clearly just there as a proxy because Ring can't save Dragaux on its own despite, well...everything.
I am fine with this set at any point, past or present, or during that period of time that Ring had Dragaux sealed away within itself (don't feel the need to assign Ring a gender; I do play with the male voice because it made me choose, but it is also a sentient ring). How did they meet? How did Dragaux finally fall to the lunk side? How did Ring seal him away? What was that like for both of them? (there was a whole lot of bondage going on when the player finds Ring) What were their early days of training like? Please feel free to make this horny, oh god please feel free. I don't actually know if this game has an end (it has to, right?), but what does that mean for them? Do they reconcile and Dragaux has to get a new fitness routine and what does that mean for the ratio of Ring's size to Dragaux's dick?
Please also feel free to land anywhere on the scale of human to ring to dragon you'd like to for either of them, I'm very flexible (at least when it comes to that; the game and I are still working on muscle flexibility)
Crueltide coda: At some point Dragaux had to gain control over Ring while he was bound up inside because he tricks the player into freeing him from Ring's bondage - what the fuck happened there and just what mindgames did he play with Ring to achieve that??? How did Ring trick Dragaux into trying bondage anyway???
Yuleporn coda: Dragon fucking all day every day, this is fine go wild, also Ring is extremely malleable and is probably the right size to fit around Dragaux's dick so have fun with that.
This is the Yuletide 2020 letter for Labocat on AO3 - thank you so much for signing up and I hope we matched on something you're excited about!
In General: I’m really happy with anything! And by anything, I really do mean just about anything; it’s hard to find something that I absolutely don’t like hard stop. I'm good with all ratings, as well as with all takes on most tropes I enjoy, whether it be straight or subversive or somehow finagling it to fit a canon you wouldn't expect to find it in.
Please feel free to take the general tropes as all-purpose prompts for all fandoms and characters!
Some tropes I adore that are relevant (non-comprehensive):
- pining (preferably mutual and resolved, but I am not at all picky)
- hurt/comfort and whump (assorted fave freeforms from h/c exchange: accepting injury to protect someone, trapped together while one is injured, character pushes themselves too hard while injured and relapses, character doesn't realize how hurt they are until they collapse (bonus: other character catching them as they do so), carrying hurt character)
- alternate PoVs of scenes
- pre-canon backstory
- curtainfic/established relationship
- casefic
- fake relationship/arranged marriage/accidentally married/accidental confessions
- found family
- enemies/rivals to lovers (also friends to lovers)
- secret relationships/friendships
- reincarnation/fated/soulbonds
- trapped somewhere together/canadian shack
- loyalty
- magically bonded together (either physically or telepathically)
- redemption or corruption
- road trips
- the 90s anime onsen episode
- pollen/aphrodisiacs (sex or truth, but oh man, forced to choose between sex and truth pollen is especially good)
- sharing a bed, either by choice or circumstance
- focus on scars/wounds(recent or old), field surgery or first aid
- blood, just anything involving blood, whether it be biting, injuries, crying blood, smearing blood on people's faces IDC IT'S ALL GOOD
- timeloops (one-day loop, upon (temporary) character death or anything, really!)
- canon-typical cannibalism/bloodplay/vore ideation
- canon-typical body horror
A couple notes on things like pairing order - for the novels in which there are canon or typical "orders", don't feel obligated to stick to those if you're writing shipfic; I encourage switching if you're feeling it - first time topping or first time reversing is always of interest! Exception: Cang Ji/Jing Lin
Smut likes: I really enjoy size difference, blindfolds, light bondage, orgasm denial/delay, sex pollen or aphrodisiacs, messy/sloppy sex, desperate sex, intercrual, oral, semi-public sex (like in a closet or alley), praise kink, service kink, size kink, sensory deprivation, breathplay, toys (especially hidden plugs/vibes), marking/possessiveness, overstimulation, body worship, slow, drawn-out sex that can really tie in with the aforementioned body worship, or awkward first times.
Extra Optional: dubcon, vore/gore, tentacles and xenophilia, oviposition, comeplay, come inflation, heats and a/b/o, bloodplay, threesomes/moresomes, double/multiple penetration, degradation, non-con body mods.
DNWs: Permanent major character death (temporary is fine), story focus on real-life illnesses (canon-esque illness or canon-typical focus is fine, but no further), pregnancy/kids as major plot focus
Also, past letters are fair game to check if I've requested a fandom before! I've requested a few of these before in different exchanges, and while what I ask for may have shifted, I'm still interested for the same reasons and in for similar prompts, especially for freeform exchanges.
All of my canons have been put up for the Crueltide and Yuleporn challenges - some canon-specific details/more prompts are at the bottom of each request, but as always, those are non-restrictive and non-comprehensive, just guidelines! Please feel free to use them as inspiration as well!
A Charm of Magpies
Nan Chan (Carp Gong)
Can Ci Pin
Kaleidoscope of Death
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
Ring Fit Adventure
Ned Hall, Crispin Tredarloe
How to Consume:Rag and Bone and its prequel A Queer Trade are the most relevant books here, but any other cameos from the Charm of Magpies world are welcome, especially from Jackdaw!
Historical fantasy is such a weakness of mine and I just absolutely fell in love with this spin-off. I love the concept of graphomancy, and I love characters who have a type of magic that falls outside of the standard rules and methods and so have to create their own path, so I was doomed from the start.
I’ll admit, after finishing Rag and Bone, I have been thinking about if Ned and Crispin have to, as part of a case as judiciary, go to Cornwall, with Crispin starting to slipping back into Cornish and childhood habits and alternately more comfortable and more awkward with his magic surrounded by familiar things and trying to prove that he’s succeeded to people who have known him as a child (while having to hide his magic and his job and his boyfriend). Bonus points if at some point along the way they run into Ben and Jonah (because I would put good odds on the part of Cornwall Crispin is from being close to where Ben and Jonah ended up because their lives have already mingled and why not) and they bond over being on slightly the wrong side of the law and finding refuge in Cornwall and in general seeing each other again and realizing how their timelines overlapped.
But that’s my super specific request! Otherwise I think that Ned and Crispin’s relationship is wonderful and adorable. Nicknames! Each thinking the other is wildly successful and amazing (despite not thinking they themselves are all that)! Ned being grumpy about suddenly being magical! Graphomancy! Being recruited precisely because they’re oddities (which fits so nicely into my love of what a character thinks of as a weakness others see as their strength)! I think it’s really charming that Ned’s talent was one for hearing to begin with when Crispin absolutely lacks it - they complement each other so well and I loved seeing them play off of that to solve problems. I think Ned would still take a lot of time to get used to have more than a flit’s talent, so maybe Crispin helping him deal with it or finding a way to use his hearing in a way that is actually nice and pleasing rather than stressful from all the noise of London. Their first run (or few runs as they fumble through!) as justiciary would be so neat to see as well!
Crueltide coda: Lighter fare here, but absolutely okay with a job going wrong: we've seen practitioners hungry for power summon all sorts of things that would be a nightmare to deal with or to have go wrong. Bodily possession has also already come up and been a concern, so please feel free to play with that! Also it's canon that flits who get a taste for power are highly susceptible to getting addicted to magic and wanting more and we know that Ned's father was an alcoholic, so there's some open doors for addiction or for Crispin to be concerned about it.
Yuleporn coda: INTERCRUAL. that is all. (no, actually I'm here for just about anything - if you can find some way to bring graphomancy into play during, I would love you forever, but also I am always here for more intercrual)
Cang Ji, Jing Lin
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Jade Rabbit
LET THE FISH FUCK, LET THE FISH EAT. I still cannot believe I got into this novel under the description of "the gong is a carp, the gong very much wants to eat the shou" and then it ended up as this really striking, fascinating novel about love and suffering and memories and relationships and how they change us. While still very much being about a carp who wants to eat everyone but is especially conflicted about consuming the one he loves. I love everything about it, from the use of mythology and religion to all of the ways that the power of love and fate come up again and again to all of the recurring imagery and development of emotion as their journey progresses.
I love the dichotomy of Jing Lin in the past and present and how they slowly come back together with the reintroduction of Cang Ji to his life - the mental image of Jing Lin as having lost all sense of purpose and most of self, having locked away so much of himself in the stone, but knowing that keeping this brocade carp is important somehow, is just one that sticks so deep in my mind and heart. The way their journey tempers and reforms his emotions and soul and just how much they both love each other is fantastic, I love it.
Cang Ji is kind of incredible in both how shameless he is and how excessively protective he is of Jing Lin because how dare anyone touch Jing Lin before he has a chance to consume him (or figure out just what the feelings underlying the desire to consume are and remember their past)! I am so here for anything you want to do at any point in the book, whether it be training montages where both of them are too close and flustered and don't know what to do, sensual blood licking (after either sensual or not-sensual biting or blood loss), Cang Ji figuring out what sex is and what his desires towards Jing Lin are, Cang Ji's conflation with voring Jing Lin and keeping him by his side always, the conflation of consumption and love, flashes of memories coming back and not knowing what to do with how they make him feel, having to deal with their memories finally being back, Cang Ji's endless teasing, Jing Lin being unable to stop staring at Cang Ji's muscles, Cang Ji taking advantage of Jing Lin always being asleep, a post-canon adventure, please go where your heart takes you!
IT'S FINE THEY'RE RED-STRINGED IT'S FINE THEY HAD TO FACE THEIR MIRROR SELVES AND FIGHT BACK TO BACK IT'S FINE I'M FINE I'M NOT CRYING IT'S JUST RAIN. Feel free to make me cry harder.
Crueltide coda: Cang Ji's possessive nature could really come into play here, but I'll admit that for this, I'm thinking more early chapters, where neither of them really know the situation yet, between having to witness so many of the sufferings and be unable to do anything.
Yuleporn coda: chants softly missing scenes missing scenes missing scenes. I am always here for biting and bloodplay and holding down Jing Lin's canonically thin wrists and caressing his scars. Also all of Cang Ji's teasing.
Lu Bixing, Lin Jingheng
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Google Docs and Wattpad
Fandom-specific DNW: The Rainbow Virus is fair game, especially as a tool for whump, but please do not focus on either of the pandemic outbreaks or the public panic response to the outbreak as the major plot focus.
This book really does just have it all: from discussion of the repetitions of evolutions in human society and progress of technology and how that changes or doesn't as humanity expands into a galactic scale, to revolutions and plots spanning decades, to human experimentation and giant mechs, to the impact of found family and connections and making a place where you can belong and grow, to one optimistic, charismatic space engineer and one reticent, dedicated space commander-turned-rogue, it's just so rich and lovely and I'm in love with everything about it. I love how well everything is woven together, from the increase in scale to how it all reflects on both Lu Bixing and Lin Jingheng's origins and character development and relationship.
Lu Bixing has my heart, my whole heart: I love this charismatic space scientist and his boundless optimism, how everything he has gone through hasn't erased his optimism and has instead tempered it, that he's stronger for having had to go through so much pain and loss and choosing to work through that by finding what he can to progress forward and change things for the better.
Lin Jingheng and his slow melting is one of the other best progresses of the novel, of learning why he's built up those walls and watching Lu Bixing get around every one of them and how that slowly means opening up more and more to the rest of the people around him, that his sense of responsibility is only good for when the people he's protecting knows he cares about them too.
I love them both as the galaxy's power couple as well as the Eighth Galaxy's Prime Minister and the Commander of the Eight Galaxy Defense, and just the power and responsibility and they've both fought for and wield and how so much of it was for each other AHHHHHHHHH. I cannot believe how many times Lu Bixing had to bring up proposals before Lin Jingheng got the point, and also HOLY FUCK their conversations in book 5 and having to re-learn each other and readjust are just some of my favorite things. That they do actually talk to each other and that it's not things that are easy to resolve but they both want their relationship and each other enough to be so torn about it just gets me like a punch to the heart. I also just adore how much they let down around each other, how playful they are (and how much it always catches Lu Bixing off-guard when Lin Jingheng teases back), and the softer sides they don't show anyone else. I would love anything for them, from mid-canon catching time together, to thoughts about each other during the separation (feel free to make this hurt), to post-canon retirement or dealing with their collected menagerie of people and animals.
Crueltide coda: Biochip malfunctions, anything playing with the very thin line of morals in Lu Bixing's experimentations at various points, set between books 4 and 5 and not actually knowing the other's status, Nuwa-project-related resurgence/body horror
Yuleporn coda: whispers again missing scenes, missing sceeeeeeeeenes. I ADORE the fact that both of them enjoy their relationship so much and that there's a sense of trust and enthusiasm to the experimentation with new things and situations. Lu Bixing is just so ready and enthusiastic to try anything as long as it's with Lin Jingheng, and can talk Lin Jingheng into anything and both of them know it.
Ruan Nanzhu, Lin Qiushi
How to Consume: Original novel on JJWXC | English translation on Taida
Note: I will be keeping current with the English translation and only know that far, but please feel free to play with things that come up later if they feel relevant.
Me, two years ago: I'm not that big on horror, I scare too easily
Me, this year, reading Kaleidoscope of Death before bed: Ah, what a good bedtime story.
Seriously though, this is just such a good balance of really fascinating short horror worlds with a puzzle/solving the story lens as well as just two perfect lead characters. Lin Qiushi is just so perfectly accepting of everything that happens, whether door-related or Ruan Nanzhu-related and rolls with it - sometimes a little too well, though it feeds into his special brand of shamelessness, and it's beautiful. He's competent in a steady way that I really enjoy even while being the densest man about Ruan Nanzhu's moves on him.
Ruan Nanzhu is just his perfect foil, utterly shameless in the other direction and intriguingly dichotomic inside and outside the door. I love the underlying sincerity in all of his jokes and actions, especially toward Lin Qiushi, and he is just such a perfect blend of flippant and competent and a master of shifting how he comes across to fit what he wants out of the situation. He is the "I'll do it better than you /and/ in 6-inch heels" meme personified.
I'd love to see anything, from a new door world to any downtime outside of the doors (dates omg or dates within the door SOMEHOW), MORE BEDSHARING, ALWAYS BEDSHARING, Lin Qiushi getting jealous over Chestnut's affections, the return of Qiuqiu, anything!
Crueltide coda: Anything involving the doors and what might lie behind them is fair game! The peril of the door stories and environments and all the close calls are all fantastic - what if they were separated within the door for long enough for that peril to sink in further?
Yuleporn coda: BEDSHARING LEADS TO ~*~MORE~*~
Shylock, Murr
How to Consume: Mobile game is available for download on Android and Apple on Japan-region stores (or apk download); English translation of main story chapters at Mahoyaku-Eng
Note: I have read all of the main story, and am only very slowly making my way through the affection and location stories, but feel free to pull from any content, including event stories, as I will likely have gotten through them by reveals
OHHHH where do I even start with these two? I am so utterly fascinated with Murr as this genius philosopher and researcher who fell for a concept and threw himself into his work, only to fall, Icarus-style, by getting too close to the truth and utterly shattering his soul. Why was this part of his personality the one that stuck around? Why is it still the dominant personality, even after recovering some of the fragments?
Then Shylock, as someone who has both known him for so long as well as lived so long and seen so much of their world change and shift, what is his agenda? He's such a smooth talker, but boy do his words have bite. The concept of love and hate is so intertwined for them both still, as it seemed to be in their past. I cannot believe that they met by Murr walking into his bar and asking him his thoughts on
I would love anything from any point - from their past, just after meeting and their collaborations, to Shylock realizing that Murr had fallen in love with the Calamity and his feelings on that, especially in relation to his own feelings toward Murr and if that changed the tenor of their friendship at all, to finding Murr with his soul shattered, to anything ongoing, finding new fragments and the struggle of will Murr ever be complete again (ALSO WHAT THE /FUCK/ WAS WITH SHYLOCK SWALLOWING ONE OF THEM AND WHAT EFFECTS DOES /THAT/ HAVE). I absolutely ship them, but I also think the emotions of rivalry, hate, jealousy, fear, and love are all too closely intertwined for them to separate out just one emotion, so please feel free to play that up!
Crueltide coda: oh god all the gaslighting, misuse of power, soul shattering, co-dependency, please lean all the way in on that. I am also very here for hatefucking.
Yuleporn coda: If they fuck they don't have to talk about feelings right
Ring, Dragaux
How to Consume: Fitness game on the Nintendo Switch!
Apparently all I needed to be able to set a fitness routine and stick with it was the ability to crush monsters with the power of my thighs and the opportunity to unlock a truly mystifyingly horny storyline. The game developers did not have to go as hard as they did making Dragaux a giant muscle dragon in a singlet. And yet.
I'm actually kind of delighted in the sort of nonsense the game gets up to in general - it's your standard "save an old friend from corruption as they try to destroy the world" jrpg storyline except we've set it in this fun, lovely, bright world and part of it feels like isekai but fuck it, let's save the world through exercise and the power of friendship.
What really got me, though, was just how hard they go on the relationship between Ring and Dragaux - the lingering on their past, their motivation of each other, the teasing, Ring's odd guilt complex about Dragaux falling to the lunk side, the fact that there's no real reason for Dragaux to just sit there waiting for you and Ring to come and fight him, except he does it every single time anyway (yes I know game mechanics don't take this story reason from me) just so they can banter and Ring can keep holding on hope. The player is very clearly just there as a proxy because Ring can't save Dragaux on its own despite, well...everything.
I am fine with this set at any point, past or present, or during that period of time that Ring had Dragaux sealed away within itself (don't feel the need to assign Ring a gender; I do play with the male voice because it made me choose, but it is also a sentient ring). How did they meet? How did Dragaux finally fall to the lunk side? How did Ring seal him away? What was that like for both of them? (there was a whole lot of bondage going on when the player finds Ring) What were their early days of training like? Please feel free to make this horny, oh god please feel free. I don't actually know if this game has an end (it has to, right?), but what does that mean for them? Do they reconcile and Dragaux has to get a new fitness routine and what does that mean for the ratio of Ring's size to Dragaux's dick?
Please also feel free to land anywhere on the scale of human to ring to dragon you'd like to for either of them, I'm very flexible (at least when it comes to that; the game and I are still working on muscle flexibility)
Crueltide coda: At some point Dragaux had to gain control over Ring while he was bound up inside because he tricks the player into freeing him from Ring's bondage - what the fuck happened there and just what mindgames did he play with Ring to achieve that??? How did Ring trick Dragaux into trying bondage anyway???
Yuleporn coda: Dragon fucking all day every day, this is fine go wild, also Ring is extremely malleable and is probably the right size to fit around Dragaux's dick so have fun with that.