Yuletide 2021
Oct. 21st, 2021 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tailcoatIt's been a wild ride, let's make this next twist a good one!
This is the Yuletide 2021 letter for Labocat on AO3 - I'm so glad we've made it this far and 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):
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 Yuleporn, and most are up for Crueltide - 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
Tsurune
Can Ci Pin
The Green Knight
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
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 magical 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)
Tsurune:
Narumiya Minato, Takigawa Masaki
How to Consume: Available for streaming on Crunchyroll
I am obsessed with the parallels between Narumiya and Masa and the interactions of the two of them together, from both of them inspiring each other and learning from each other all the ways that kyuudo is important to them, both as athletes and people, to simply drawing each other out of the shells they'd withdrawn in and didn't really know where to go from there. Okay also look, Narumiya's early release is such a good opportunity for hand-holding guidance on holding his stance for longer and getting him to focus on something other than his target panic when he draws. I'm also super here for anything having to do with Masa's role as a priest at the shrine! Magical realism curses! Festivals! Gifting a charm and not knowing what the intent behind it is! I am also here for an ensemble piece; the whole team is great, as is Shuu, who is such an awkward duckling who just doesn't know how to share friends.
Yuleporn coda: Late nights at the shrine! Barely held-back lust any time either of them shoot with one shoulder bared! Narumiya's general awe of Masa's draw! I'm here for basically anything lmao
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.
The Green Knight:
Gawain, The Green Knight
How to Consume: Available on most on-demand streaming services.
What a beautiful, atmospheric movie with an absolute failboat of a main character. I love that EVERY single named character in the movie cradles Gawain's face at some point in time; there's just something about him that invokes this! That said, I think there's just so much potential for Gawain and the Green Knight -- GAWAIN, BUDDY. You get told whatever you do to the Green Knight will be returned, and you go for decapitation??? No kissing with biting, no sexual favors, nothing? NO IMAGINATION. I am here for any sort of alternate first meeting you want, or even at the end, if Gawain sticks around with the Green Knight for longer. Ooh, or plant-based body horror with the long waiting periods in the green chapel and the vines. I'm here for psychological manipulation, vines, basically anything that you want to do with them I'll love! There's so much great opportunity for more types of psychological manipulation, maybe a continued loop of all the lives Gawain could have lead, or traps he bumbles into trying to escape from the green chapel, all of it is delicious.
Yuleporn coda VINES. whatever you want to do with vines I will LOVE, I promise
Crueltide coda: MORE VINES. Manipulation, body horror, slow torture, ohhhhh I'm here for it.
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku | The Wizard's Promise:
Owen
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
I hate that Bunta and COLY went "let's make a character to get all the CLAMP fuckers" and it worked, it worked so well. Owen is terrible and I love him, from picking at everyone else's insecurities and talking a big game to cover his own, to just plucking out Cain's eye to trade for his own for ???? reasons, to his love for animals and sweets but only expressing it in the creepiest way possible. I bet this asshole would just stand around on top of streetlights for the hell of it. I'm so intrigued about literally everything, from his past and developing his magic, to how the fuck he got Cerberus in a suitcase, to misadventures in the North, or even just quiet moments at the Manor. I am also absolutely obsessed with the way he split his soul and hid it, seemingly for the sole purpose of angering people so that they kill him and he just pops up again later to taunt them. What is that like? Does it hurt each time he comes back? Does his soul fracture a little more each time? Does it make him more susceptible to turn to stone eventually? He hides so much by pushing other people away before they can figure anything out, and the dichotomy between his normal self and his afflicted self really brings that into perspective and I'd love to see that explored more if it calls to you!
Yuleporn coda: I'm honestly good to ship him with any character and I do mean any character. I can absolutely see him talking a big game and then ending up way in over his head if anyone calls his bluff as to a sort of "Fuck you" "You wish you could" "Oh yeah? Let's go" situation.
Crueltide coda: I feel like everything about him is just a list of Crueltide aspects, so please go nuts and dig into any of them! Manipulation, bloodplay, gaslighting, go for it!
This is the Yuletide 2021 letter for Labocat on AO3 - I'm so glad we've made it this far and 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
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 Yuleporn, and most are up for Crueltide - 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
Tsurune
Can Ci Pin
The Green Knight
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
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 magical 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)
Narumiya Minato, Takigawa Masaki
How to Consume: Available for streaming on Crunchyroll
I am obsessed with the parallels between Narumiya and Masa and the interactions of the two of them together, from both of them inspiring each other and learning from each other all the ways that kyuudo is important to them, both as athletes and people, to simply drawing each other out of the shells they'd withdrawn in and didn't really know where to go from there. Okay also look, Narumiya's early release is such a good opportunity for hand-holding guidance on holding his stance for longer and getting him to focus on something other than his target panic when he draws. I'm also super here for anything having to do with Masa's role as a priest at the shrine! Magical realism curses! Festivals! Gifting a charm and not knowing what the intent behind it is! I am also here for an ensemble piece; the whole team is great, as is Shuu, who is such an awkward duckling who just doesn't know how to share friends.
Yuleporn coda: Late nights at the shrine! Barely held-back lust any time either of them shoot with one shoulder bared! Narumiya's general awe of Masa's draw! I'm here for basically anything lmao
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.
Gawain, The Green Knight
How to Consume: Available on most on-demand streaming services.
What a beautiful, atmospheric movie with an absolute failboat of a main character. I love that EVERY single named character in the movie cradles Gawain's face at some point in time; there's just something about him that invokes this! That said, I think there's just so much potential for Gawain and the Green Knight -- GAWAIN, BUDDY. You get told whatever you do to the Green Knight will be returned, and you go for decapitation??? No kissing with biting, no sexual favors, nothing? NO IMAGINATION. I am here for any sort of alternate first meeting you want, or even at the end, if Gawain sticks around with the Green Knight for longer. Ooh, or plant-based body horror with the long waiting periods in the green chapel and the vines. I'm here for psychological manipulation, vines, basically anything that you want to do with them I'll love! There's so much great opportunity for more types of psychological manipulation, maybe a continued loop of all the lives Gawain could have lead, or traps he bumbles into trying to escape from the green chapel, all of it is delicious.
Yuleporn coda VINES. whatever you want to do with vines I will LOVE, I promise
Crueltide coda: MORE VINES. Manipulation, body horror, slow torture, ohhhhh I'm here for it.
Owen
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
I hate that Bunta and COLY went "let's make a character to get all the CLAMP fuckers" and it worked, it worked so well. Owen is terrible and I love him, from picking at everyone else's insecurities and talking a big game to cover his own, to just plucking out Cain's eye to trade for his own for ???? reasons, to his love for animals and sweets but only expressing it in the creepiest way possible. I bet this asshole would just stand around on top of streetlights for the hell of it. I'm so intrigued about literally everything, from his past and developing his magic, to how the fuck he got Cerberus in a suitcase, to misadventures in the North, or even just quiet moments at the Manor. I am also absolutely obsessed with the way he split his soul and hid it, seemingly for the sole purpose of angering people so that they kill him and he just pops up again later to taunt them. What is that like? Does it hurt each time he comes back? Does his soul fracture a little more each time? Does it make him more susceptible to turn to stone eventually? He hides so much by pushing other people away before they can figure anything out, and the dichotomy between his normal self and his afflicted self really brings that into perspective and I'd love to see that explored more if it calls to you!
Yuleporn coda: I'm honestly good to ship him with any character and I do mean any character. I can absolutely see him talking a big game and then ending up way in over his head if anyone calls his bluff as to a sort of "Fuck you" "You wish you could" "Oh yeah? Let's go" situation.
Crueltide coda: I feel like everything about him is just a list of Crueltide aspects, so please go nuts and dig into any of them! Manipulation, bloodplay, gaslighting, go for it!