Chocolate Box 2022
Jan. 6th, 2022 09:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tailcoat(Letter in progress, will be completed by 1/10)
All right, let's try this year thing again!
This is the Chocolate Box 2022 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. While there are a bunch of ships requested, I'm okay with anything from pining and getting together to established relationships taking the backseat to a larger plot event. As this is a more low-key exchange, please feel free to mix up styles or try something new! Changing PoV of the same situation? Snapshot scenes? Epistolary? Are all amazing, so please feel free to experiment if that's where the mood takes you! I also love all genres: fluff, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, canon, AU, pre/post-series, crossovers; if you have something in mind already, I’ll probably love it! I do prefer things to end on a happy or hopeful note, but I would never pass on or ask against angst and drama or even character injury.
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)(Tokyo Revengers, La Danse Macabre, and Genshin exempted for canon deaths), story focus on real-life illnesses (canon-esque illness or canon-typical focus is fine, but no further), pregnancy/kids as major plot focus
Tsurune
Aquatope on White Sand
Tokyo Revengers
Rusty Quill Gaming
La Danse Macabre
Genshin Impact
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
Tsurune:
Narumiya Minato/Takigawa Masaki
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! New Years hatsumode visits! Gifting a charm and not knowing what the intent behind it is! I am also here for an ensemble piece; do the others suspect anything, or just keep narrowly walking in on something happening?
The Aquatope on White Sand:
Misakino Kukuru/Miyazawa Fuuka
Buries my face in my hands and yells I cannot believe they made an anime directly targeting me. BEAUTIFUL AQUARIUMS. BACKGROUND MAGICAL REALISM. GIRLS IN LOVE. MARINE BIOLOGY. WEIRD FISH. ACTUALLY ADDRESSING WHAT IT MEANS TO WORK FOR AN AQUARIUM. ADULTS CHASING THEIR DREAMS AND FINDING NEW ONES. OCEAN CONSERVATION. MY EXACT BRAND OF SOFT, HOPEFUL MELANCHOLY. I sit in the exact center of the venn diagram of any possible potential audiences this anime might've been going for.
That said, I love Kukuru and Fuuka so much, the way they lean on each other and support each other and grow and how much of both of them is rooted in hard work and having to find new dreams and learning that that's okay and a part of life.
That said, the unholy noise I made when Kukuru had her breakthrough about the wedding planning by imagining Fuuka's wedding. Only matched by the wheeze at Fuuka saying her heart was with Kukuru the years she was away. I am down for totally domestic fic here - what is their actual wedding like? Did Kukuru ever go visit Fuuka in Hawaii? At what point do they stop having two apartments next to each other and just move in? How hard is it to date when all your coworkers are so close both inside and outside of work? Anything you do with them, especially if you weave in the plethora of marine life, I will absolutely love!
Tokyo Revengers (Anime):
Baji Keisuke/Matsuno Chifuyu
So I did not expect to fall this hard for a series about middle school delinquents? But here I am, an absolute mess over Baji and Chifuyu. I am anime-only and have requested the anime as such, so please no specifics from the manga.
That said, I would love absolutely anything here as well, from any of the timelines we've seen in the anime; I'm totally fine with taking any of the ones that have already been changed down a canon divergence path if you want to make it hurt! Baji haunting Chifuyu, maybe literally, their early days as the First division, Chifuyu helping Baji study, or even either of their perspectives during the time that Baji went to Valhalla. I love both of their adherence to their beliefs and desire to keep everyone on a path of camaraderie instead of the one of betrayal that Toman keeps being led down.
Rusty Quill Gaming:
Oscar Wilde/Zolf Smith
Drags my hands down my face I feel like I started shipping this as a joke right after the timeskip and here we are, years later, all-in. I would love anything, from any of the timeskips, either the original one in the main campaign, or any of the epilogue timeskips, to anything from any of the times either of them have been in mortal peril (Zolf's pragmatism versus Oscar's romanticism towards heroic gestures and death has made me scream in my car more than once). They're the sort who've come together under strange and unusual circumstances that outsiders don't always understand, and I'd love to see that reflected. Both of them dealing with the absence of magic in the world and finding their place, Zolf drifting in and out of Oscar's apartment, really anything would be great!
La Danse Macabre:
Arme/Libel
Arme/Libel/Qual
Arme/Qual
Cura/Reue
Did I mean to nominate quite so many ships for this? NO. However. As much as I love the main i7 story, there was just so much about danmaca that I love and adore and that just sucked me in, and I love having these self-contained mini stories and worlds that get to go ham on some really dark and wild themes. History repeating? Love getting people both into and out of trouble? Kuon LITERAL ANGEL (I had to not list everyone here for my sanity, but please feel free to utilize any nominated ships as you would like!)
- Arme/Libel - OOF. Either ending route you want to go for this, I am here for, either pre-choice, or Arme thinking back, or what happened between them through all those thousands of years while everything changed (part of me wants to believe, for the sake of it feeling a little less bleak, that a lot of the main ending happened because all the pieces were in motion for it to, and that Arme and Libel helped as they could from the outside). I love that Arme really just wants to experience life and Libel is the first to really treat him like a human being and respect his opinions as such.
- Arme/Qual - And the ship that grew from Libel's influence! Qual's broken-hearted response and mind shift after realizing how much Arme was hurting to the absolute gap moe of his calling Arme by name and wanting to be friends (everyone gave stellar performances in danmaca, but I really do have to call out basically all of Qual's lines to Arme), to his shift to being Arme's support as the rebellion continues...just chef's kiss. Arme standing up to his treatment and saying what he wants, Qual being there for him....just great.
- Arme/Libel/Qual - LOOK. For a brief, shining moment we could've had it all. Qual and Libel bickering, Arme laughing on the side, both of them head over heels for Arme and growing on each other through respect and mutual badassery. Bickering over the right way to teach (or even if to tech) Arme how to fight! Qual finding ways to send Libel off on tasks to subtly lessen Arme's impact on him because deep down he cares and knows Libel won't stay away on his own!
- Cura/Reue - I will freely admit I yelped out loud at this when they came up in the ending, I love the image of Reue just going down and irritating everyone in Rebellion, but especially Cura and teasing him about being the leader now and fitting basically seamlessly in. I can definitely see the two of them drinking together in the hideout and Reue just nonchalantly spilling all the awful things he's seen and done for the Order.
Genshin Impact:
Albedo/Imposter Albedo | Subject Two
Albedo/Imposter Albedo | Subject Two/Kong | Aether
Beidou/Ninguang
- Albedo/Subject Two - Hhhhhhh. As much as I love Albedo questioning what makes him human and what makes him an outsider and the philosophizing upon that, I love this very forceful confrontation of his origins and his place even more. Subject two watching jealously from the side, just waiting and taking notes to do his best to make a seamless theft of Albedo's life? Chef's kiss. Subject Two stalking Albedo and Albedo either noticing or not would be fantastic, or the confrontation between them during the event (either way you believe it ends and which one of them it is at each point at the end is great), Subject Two trying to get "reactions" out of Albedo, for "realism".
- Albedo/Subject Two/Aether - Take the above and add in Aether, either from a "Subject Two trying to steal Aether" or either of them trying to prove they are the "real" Albedo to Aether angle. I feel like Subject Two would have been incredibly jealous of Albedo for Aether, for someone who saw his inhuman nature and accepted him anyway, who loved him anyway, seen Aether's acceptance and love as almost hand-in-hand with acceptance of his own validity and existence. Anyway, go nuts.
- Beidou/Ninguang - WHAT QUESTION WOULD BEIDOU HAVE ASKED OF NINGGUANG YOU KNOW SHE HAD ONE. Okay I am also absolutely feral for these two; I love their semi-competitive relationship even though neither of them even compete in the same arena, the back and forth of banter and genuine respect. Both of them are so competent and are into how competent the other is as well.
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku:
Cain/Owen
Murr/Shylock
For both of these, feel free to really lean into the intermingling of hate and love and obsession and gaslighting and confusing one emotion for another.
- Cain/Owen - 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. Cain is doing his best in a horrible situation, and I love that for him, but especially when he keeps getting thrown into increasingly weirder situations. That he can only consistently see Owen? Beautiful. Dealing with afflicted Owen as well as normal? Great. I am also obsessed with the fact that Owen split his soul and seems almost hell-bent on getting Cain to try to kill him for that reason, despite, or perhaps because of Cain's strong moral compass.
- Murr/Shylock - 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. 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).
All right, let's try this year thing again!
This is the Chocolate Box 2022 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. While there are a bunch of ships requested, I'm okay with anything from pining and getting together to established relationships taking the backseat to a larger plot event. As this is a more low-key exchange, please feel free to mix up styles or try something new! Changing PoV of the same situation? Snapshot scenes? Epistolary? Are all amazing, so please feel free to experiment if that's where the mood takes you! I also love all genres: fluff, action/adventure, hurt/comfort, canon, AU, pre/post-series, crossovers; if you have something in mind already, I’ll probably love it! I do prefer things to end on a happy or hopeful note, but I would never pass on or ask against angst and drama or even character injury.
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
- 5+1 format
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)(Tokyo Revengers, La Danse Macabre, and Genshin exempted for canon deaths), story focus on real-life illnesses (canon-esque illness or canon-typical focus is fine, but no further), pregnancy/kids as major plot focus
Tsurune
Aquatope on White Sand
Tokyo Revengers
Rusty Quill Gaming
La Danse Macabre
Genshin Impact
Mahoutsukai no Yakusoku
Narumiya Minato/Takigawa Masaki
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! New Years hatsumode visits! Gifting a charm and not knowing what the intent behind it is! I am also here for an ensemble piece; do the others suspect anything, or just keep narrowly walking in on something happening?
Misakino Kukuru/Miyazawa Fuuka
Buries my face in my hands and yells I cannot believe they made an anime directly targeting me. BEAUTIFUL AQUARIUMS. BACKGROUND MAGICAL REALISM. GIRLS IN LOVE. MARINE BIOLOGY. WEIRD FISH. ACTUALLY ADDRESSING WHAT IT MEANS TO WORK FOR AN AQUARIUM. ADULTS CHASING THEIR DREAMS AND FINDING NEW ONES. OCEAN CONSERVATION. MY EXACT BRAND OF SOFT, HOPEFUL MELANCHOLY. I sit in the exact center of the venn diagram of any possible potential audiences this anime might've been going for.
That said, I love Kukuru and Fuuka so much, the way they lean on each other and support each other and grow and how much of both of them is rooted in hard work and having to find new dreams and learning that that's okay and a part of life.
That said, the unholy noise I made when Kukuru had her breakthrough about the wedding planning by imagining Fuuka's wedding. Only matched by the wheeze at Fuuka saying her heart was with Kukuru the years she was away. I am down for totally domestic fic here - what is their actual wedding like? Did Kukuru ever go visit Fuuka in Hawaii? At what point do they stop having two apartments next to each other and just move in? How hard is it to date when all your coworkers are so close both inside and outside of work? Anything you do with them, especially if you weave in the plethora of marine life, I will absolutely love!
Baji Keisuke/Matsuno Chifuyu
So I did not expect to fall this hard for a series about middle school delinquents? But here I am, an absolute mess over Baji and Chifuyu. I am anime-only and have requested the anime as such, so please no specifics from the manga.
That said, I would love absolutely anything here as well, from any of the timelines we've seen in the anime; I'm totally fine with taking any of the ones that have already been changed down a canon divergence path if you want to make it hurt! Baji haunting Chifuyu, maybe literally, their early days as the First division, Chifuyu helping Baji study, or even either of their perspectives during the time that Baji went to Valhalla. I love both of their adherence to their beliefs and desire to keep everyone on a path of camaraderie instead of the one of betrayal that Toman keeps being led down.
Oscar Wilde/Zolf Smith
Drags my hands down my face I feel like I started shipping this as a joke right after the timeskip and here we are, years later, all-in. I would love anything, from any of the timeskips, either the original one in the main campaign, or any of the epilogue timeskips, to anything from any of the times either of them have been in mortal peril (Zolf's pragmatism versus Oscar's romanticism towards heroic gestures and death has made me scream in my car more than once). They're the sort who've come together under strange and unusual circumstances that outsiders don't always understand, and I'd love to see that reflected. Both of them dealing with the absence of magic in the world and finding their place, Zolf drifting in and out of Oscar's apartment, really anything would be great!
Arme/Libel
Arme/Libel/Qual
Arme/Qual
Cura/Reue
Did I mean to nominate quite so many ships for this? NO. However. As much as I love the main i7 story, there was just so much about danmaca that I love and adore and that just sucked me in, and I love having these self-contained mini stories and worlds that get to go ham on some really dark and wild themes. History repeating? Love getting people both into and out of trouble? Kuon LITERAL ANGEL (I had to not list everyone here for my sanity, but please feel free to utilize any nominated ships as you would like!)
- Arme/Libel - OOF. Either ending route you want to go for this, I am here for, either pre-choice, or Arme thinking back, or what happened between them through all those thousands of years while everything changed (part of me wants to believe, for the sake of it feeling a little less bleak, that a lot of the main ending happened because all the pieces were in motion for it to, and that Arme and Libel helped as they could from the outside). I love that Arme really just wants to experience life and Libel is the first to really treat him like a human being and respect his opinions as such.
- Arme/Qual - And the ship that grew from Libel's influence! Qual's broken-hearted response and mind shift after realizing how much Arme was hurting to the absolute gap moe of his calling Arme by name and wanting to be friends (everyone gave stellar performances in danmaca, but I really do have to call out basically all of Qual's lines to Arme), to his shift to being Arme's support as the rebellion continues...just chef's kiss. Arme standing up to his treatment and saying what he wants, Qual being there for him....just great.
- Arme/Libel/Qual - LOOK. For a brief, shining moment we could've had it all. Qual and Libel bickering, Arme laughing on the side, both of them head over heels for Arme and growing on each other through respect and mutual badassery. Bickering over the right way to teach (or even if to tech) Arme how to fight! Qual finding ways to send Libel off on tasks to subtly lessen Arme's impact on him because deep down he cares and knows Libel won't stay away on his own!
- Cura/Reue - I will freely admit I yelped out loud at this when they came up in the ending, I love the image of Reue just going down and irritating everyone in Rebellion, but especially Cura and teasing him about being the leader now and fitting basically seamlessly in. I can definitely see the two of them drinking together in the hideout and Reue just nonchalantly spilling all the awful things he's seen and done for the Order.
Albedo/Imposter Albedo | Subject Two
Albedo/Imposter Albedo | Subject Two/Kong | Aether
Beidou/Ninguang
- Albedo/Subject Two - Hhhhhhh. As much as I love Albedo questioning what makes him human and what makes him an outsider and the philosophizing upon that, I love this very forceful confrontation of his origins and his place even more. Subject two watching jealously from the side, just waiting and taking notes to do his best to make a seamless theft of Albedo's life? Chef's kiss. Subject Two stalking Albedo and Albedo either noticing or not would be fantastic, or the confrontation between them during the event (either way you believe it ends and which one of them it is at each point at the end is great), Subject Two trying to get "reactions" out of Albedo, for "realism".
- Albedo/Subject Two/Aether - Take the above and add in Aether, either from a "Subject Two trying to steal Aether" or either of them trying to prove they are the "real" Albedo to Aether angle. I feel like Subject Two would have been incredibly jealous of Albedo for Aether, for someone who saw his inhuman nature and accepted him anyway, who loved him anyway, seen Aether's acceptance and love as almost hand-in-hand with acceptance of his own validity and existence. Anyway, go nuts.
- Beidou/Ninguang - WHAT QUESTION WOULD BEIDOU HAVE ASKED OF NINGGUANG YOU KNOW SHE HAD ONE. Okay I am also absolutely feral for these two; I love their semi-competitive relationship even though neither of them even compete in the same arena, the back and forth of banter and genuine respect. Both of them are so competent and are into how competent the other is as well.
Cain/Owen
Murr/Shylock
For both of these, feel free to really lean into the intermingling of hate and love and obsession and gaslighting and confusing one emotion for another.
- Cain/Owen - 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. Cain is doing his best in a horrible situation, and I love that for him, but especially when he keeps getting thrown into increasingly weirder situations. That he can only consistently see Owen? Beautiful. Dealing with afflicted Owen as well as normal? Great. I am also obsessed with the fact that Owen split his soul and seems almost hell-bent on getting Cain to try to kill him for that reason, despite, or perhaps because of Cain's strong moral compass.
- Murr/Shylock - 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. 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).