Yuletide letter
Nov. 19th, 2011 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liri
In general, I like ship-fic, and I like happy endings. I don't mind darkness - frequently backstory darkness is canon, and I have no problem with exploration of that - but if you're writing post-canon, I'd rather not get something that ends on a bleak or hopeless note. I tend to feel like the heroes have earned a happy ending by the time canon is done. So if you want to write angst, go to town, just set it at some point in or before canon.
When I talk about shipfic, I don't mean that it has to end with a wedding or anything, but I'd rather not see my pairing decide they can never be together, or end up with other people but pine for each other, or anything like that. I'm fine with smut, but probably best to err on the side of vanilla, and if you're not comfortable writing sex, that's okay! Neither am I! I tend to like couples that I feel have a strong friendship as the basis of their relationship, and an ability to tease each other.
Final Fantasy VI
I love all the characters of FFVI, but especially Terra, who is my favorite character of all time. I love her character arc, from completely lost and confused to strong and independent; I love her character design, and I love that she uses swords and fire. I loved that this game had two female protagonists, and that neither of them was forced into the glass-cannon mage role. I appreciate the understated but very present dark elements of the story, and the open-ended hopefulness of the ending. From a reading/writing perspective, I love the fact that so much is hinted and so little is stated - you can take several characters' backstories and everyone's futures in multiple different directions, all equally valid. I love the mildly-steampunk setting, too.
Prompts: I ship Locke/Terra. I have always shipped Locke/Terra. If you write me Locke/Terra fic, I will love you forever and ever. Just about anything - fluff, smut, h/c, angst... as long as the ending has them alive, happy, and (plot permitting) together as a couple, I'm good. A couple of more specific possibilities: Something about Locke developing feelings for Terra early in the game, when she's too confused to really return them; bonding during their travel together between the sack of Vector and Kefka's assault on Thamasa; or just about anything near the end of the game or post-canon, from fluffy first-time stuff to angst over confronting Kefka and Terra potentially sacrificing herself, or a post-game estabished relationship.
If you can't write the two of them as a couple, I'd also be happy with Terra/Cyan, as friends or a couple. There I'm interested in the fact that here's a man who lost his family, then halfway adopted Gau, and a woman with quite the passel of kids, giving them common ground despite their differences in age and background. (If you go that route, I'd be tickled if you'd include Sabin as Cyan's platonic co-parent.) I'd also be interested in Terra and Celes, again as friendship or something more, maybe touching on their shared past with the Empire and the fact Terra knows so little about it. Add in any other characters you want; I love the whole cast! There's no need to include all the characters I requested, though.
The things I don't want are Edgar/Terra or Locke/Celes, even as background pairings.
Suikoden III
While the Zexen Knights were far and away my favorites, I loved the way the three-protagonists system gave you multiple perspectives on the same events. Chris is unquestionably my favorite character in that game, and possibly in the whole Suikoden series. I love both the Lady-of-War element of her character and the way she interacts with the other knights - maintaining enough distance not to undermine her authority, but also clearly viewing them as friends and comfortable joking around with them. I really like the way that things are temporarily resolved but not permanently fixed, post-game, but the fact that there's never been a Suikoden III sequel is one of the things I mourn the most about the Suikoden series.
A note: I really had issues with the way the Suiko3 manga characterized Chris as unconfident and weepy and the way it handled the knights' relations with the uncooperative and corrupt government (military coups and fabricating evidence are not the solution!) Wherever there's a difference, I vastly prefer game characterization.
Prompt: Any kind of Zexen Knights fic. I ship Chris/Salome and would be delighted with something about them getting together, or navigating a more established relationship given some of the obstacles in their way (the fact he's her second-in-command, her immortality and his lack of it...) I like Percival's snark, too, and I'd also be delighted with IC Zexen gen with as many or as few characters as you want. Maybe something set around Percival's return, post-game - why he comes out of retirement, when, how he returns and how they all react. Maybe something set earlier, before Chris becomes captain - she's the youngest of the knights, though close in age to Borus and Percival, so what was it like having her as the rookie? Something mid-game, when they're based at the castle on the lake? Or if you wanted to go plotty, have them tackle the issue of the traitors on the Council, and the general corruption in Zexen government. The RIGHT way, not the integrity-free way the manga did it. I'm always interested in runic magic, and especially with Chris, given the personal baggage of the True Water Rune, and the fact that Chris both is and isn't an ice queen - I certainly think she projects that persona deliberately at times, but she never seems cold or repressed when dealing with people she knows well, including the other knights.
But really, I'd be fine with almost anything except Chris/Nash.
Tiger & Bunny
In my shiny new fandom, I ship the two leads like BURNING. I realize this isn't really an unpopular opinion! That would be why I didn't request them - I'm not starved for fic of this pairing like I am for so many others. I've tl;dr-ed extensively about the series as a whole, but the short version is that I love the depth of characterization for everyone (and the hints in interviews and articles that the creators have more in mind than we've seen in the show) and the fact that we see a lot of the character inter-relationships, not just how everybody relates to the main characters. I'm especially enraptured with Nathan, because I was really worried at first that he'd be a two-dimensional okama stereotype played for laughs, and instead he's a successful businessman, his own boss, and one of the most intelligent and perceptive heroes.
Prompt: I'd love to see some girl-power-team interaction, set at any point in the series. Maybe something in the episode-25 timeskip, showing some of what's going on with the heroes while T&B are in retirement. Or I'd be fine with gen that focuses mostly on one of the characters, especially Karina or Nathan - he runs a business and she's maintaining both a full-time career and at least occasional singing gigs while still in high school. What are their days like? For that matter, what's Pao-lin's educational situation like? Or if you'd rather write something shippy, I'm a pretty recent convert to Nathan/Antonio.
I'm totally okay with mention of Karina's crush on Kotetsu (it'd be hard not to mention it) but I don't want to see it returned. And I OTP Kotetsu and Barnaby to the point that I don't want either of them with anyone else. Other than that I'm pretty pairing-neutral.
Tsugai Kogarashi
This is one of my favorite songs, but I also chose it because it seemed like it could actually be ficced; the lyrics and the fan-made videos suggest a story without telling it in full. I'm really interested in the story that's hinted in the lyrics and implied a bit more strongly in the four (that I've found) fan videos. I made a post embedding all the videos I've been able to find, as a reference.
Prompt: If you know Vocaloid fanon characterization, I ship Meiko and Kaito in that, so feel free to use that, if toned down to fit the serious tone of the song. And if you don't, no worries, I feel plenty silly enough about shipping a couple of computer programs. Feel free to treat the couple in the song as OCs if you'd prefer. If you want to throw in any of the other Vocaloids, as one of the videos does, no objections from this corner. Do as you will with this one - I'm curious to see the results!
When I talk about shipfic, I don't mean that it has to end with a wedding or anything, but I'd rather not see my pairing decide they can never be together, or end up with other people but pine for each other, or anything like that. I'm fine with smut, but probably best to err on the side of vanilla, and if you're not comfortable writing sex, that's okay! Neither am I! I tend to like couples that I feel have a strong friendship as the basis of their relationship, and an ability to tease each other.
Final Fantasy VI
I love all the characters of FFVI, but especially Terra, who is my favorite character of all time. I love her character arc, from completely lost and confused to strong and independent; I love her character design, and I love that she uses swords and fire. I loved that this game had two female protagonists, and that neither of them was forced into the glass-cannon mage role. I appreciate the understated but very present dark elements of the story, and the open-ended hopefulness of the ending. From a reading/writing perspective, I love the fact that so much is hinted and so little is stated - you can take several characters' backstories and everyone's futures in multiple different directions, all equally valid. I love the mildly-steampunk setting, too.
Prompts: I ship Locke/Terra. I have always shipped Locke/Terra. If you write me Locke/Terra fic, I will love you forever and ever. Just about anything - fluff, smut, h/c, angst... as long as the ending has them alive, happy, and (plot permitting) together as a couple, I'm good. A couple of more specific possibilities: Something about Locke developing feelings for Terra early in the game, when she's too confused to really return them; bonding during their travel together between the sack of Vector and Kefka's assault on Thamasa; or just about anything near the end of the game or post-canon, from fluffy first-time stuff to angst over confronting Kefka and Terra potentially sacrificing herself, or a post-game estabished relationship.
If you can't write the two of them as a couple, I'd also be happy with Terra/Cyan, as friends or a couple. There I'm interested in the fact that here's a man who lost his family, then halfway adopted Gau, and a woman with quite the passel of kids, giving them common ground despite their differences in age and background. (If you go that route, I'd be tickled if you'd include Sabin as Cyan's platonic co-parent.) I'd also be interested in Terra and Celes, again as friendship or something more, maybe touching on their shared past with the Empire and the fact Terra knows so little about it. Add in any other characters you want; I love the whole cast! There's no need to include all the characters I requested, though.
The things I don't want are Edgar/Terra or Locke/Celes, even as background pairings.
Suikoden III
While the Zexen Knights were far and away my favorites, I loved the way the three-protagonists system gave you multiple perspectives on the same events. Chris is unquestionably my favorite character in that game, and possibly in the whole Suikoden series. I love both the Lady-of-War element of her character and the way she interacts with the other knights - maintaining enough distance not to undermine her authority, but also clearly viewing them as friends and comfortable joking around with them. I really like the way that things are temporarily resolved but not permanently fixed, post-game, but the fact that there's never been a Suikoden III sequel is one of the things I mourn the most about the Suikoden series.
A note: I really had issues with the way the Suiko3 manga characterized Chris as unconfident and weepy and the way it handled the knights' relations with the uncooperative and corrupt government (military coups and fabricating evidence are not the solution!) Wherever there's a difference, I vastly prefer game characterization.
Prompt: Any kind of Zexen Knights fic. I ship Chris/Salome and would be delighted with something about them getting together, or navigating a more established relationship given some of the obstacles in their way (the fact he's her second-in-command, her immortality and his lack of it...) I like Percival's snark, too, and I'd also be delighted with IC Zexen gen with as many or as few characters as you want. Maybe something set around Percival's return, post-game - why he comes out of retirement, when, how he returns and how they all react. Maybe something set earlier, before Chris becomes captain - she's the youngest of the knights, though close in age to Borus and Percival, so what was it like having her as the rookie? Something mid-game, when they're based at the castle on the lake? Or if you wanted to go plotty, have them tackle the issue of the traitors on the Council, and the general corruption in Zexen government. The RIGHT way, not the integrity-free way the manga did it. I'm always interested in runic magic, and especially with Chris, given the personal baggage of the True Water Rune, and the fact that Chris both is and isn't an ice queen - I certainly think she projects that persona deliberately at times, but she never seems cold or repressed when dealing with people she knows well, including the other knights.
But really, I'd be fine with almost anything except Chris/Nash.
Tiger & Bunny
In my shiny new fandom, I ship the two leads like BURNING. I realize this isn't really an unpopular opinion! That would be why I didn't request them - I'm not starved for fic of this pairing like I am for so many others. I've tl;dr-ed extensively about the series as a whole, but the short version is that I love the depth of characterization for everyone (and the hints in interviews and articles that the creators have more in mind than we've seen in the show) and the fact that we see a lot of the character inter-relationships, not just how everybody relates to the main characters. I'm especially enraptured with Nathan, because I was really worried at first that he'd be a two-dimensional okama stereotype played for laughs, and instead he's a successful businessman, his own boss, and one of the most intelligent and perceptive heroes.
Prompt: I'd love to see some girl-power-team interaction, set at any point in the series. Maybe something in the episode-25 timeskip, showing some of what's going on with the heroes while T&B are in retirement. Or I'd be fine with gen that focuses mostly on one of the characters, especially Karina or Nathan - he runs a business and she's maintaining both a full-time career and at least occasional singing gigs while still in high school. What are their days like? For that matter, what's Pao-lin's educational situation like? Or if you'd rather write something shippy, I'm a pretty recent convert to Nathan/Antonio.
I'm totally okay with mention of Karina's crush on Kotetsu (it'd be hard not to mention it) but I don't want to see it returned. And I OTP Kotetsu and Barnaby to the point that I don't want either of them with anyone else. Other than that I'm pretty pairing-neutral.
Tsugai Kogarashi
This is one of my favorite songs, but I also chose it because it seemed like it could actually be ficced; the lyrics and the fan-made videos suggest a story without telling it in full. I'm really interested in the story that's hinted in the lyrics and implied a bit more strongly in the four (that I've found) fan videos. I made a post embedding all the videos I've been able to find, as a reference.
Prompt: If you know Vocaloid fanon characterization, I ship Meiko and Kaito in that, so feel free to use that, if toned down to fit the serious tone of the song. And if you don't, no worries, I feel plenty silly enough about shipping a couple of computer programs. Feel free to treat the couple in the song as OCs if you'd prefer. If you want to throw in any of the other Vocaloids, as one of the videos does, no objections from this corner. Do as you will with this one - I'm curious to see the results!