Yuletide Letter
Sep. 25th, 2013 02:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shifty_gardenerHello, dear Author! I'm happy we have a fandom in common. It means you clearly have discerning taste. ;) If I've requested a fandom, it means that I would be overjoyed to receive absolutely anything for it, so no pressure. Give me more of something I love, and I will love you for it! This is going to be a long letter, I can tell, but don’t stress about it! I plan to use the space to count the ways I love each manga/book/drama and also to come up with as many plot bunnies as I can to make your job as easy as possible (and also because I like having no idea what kind of gift I'll get). If you already have an idea for a story, you can go ahead and stop reading here. :)
Alsooooooo until recently I didn’t realize that in order to be matched on a fandom, the offerer has to say they can write for ALL of the characters requested, so rather than requesting all of the random characters I'd enjoy separately, I’m going to request one character for most of these fandoms and then write a bunch of prompts for random characters to give you room to write about whomever you want (the exceptions being Dating Agency: Cyrano and Mairelon the Magician) - there's no need to conflate multiple prompts and write ensemble fic.
Likes: angst, fluff, tropes, trope subversion, ridiculousness, terrible puns, when insignificant details/small plot threads come together in a HA! moment, gothic horror, banter, AUs, crack AUs that are treated seriously and make you feel things you can't believe you're feeling for a crack AU, limited POV, outsider/side character POV, slash, gen, het, consistent tone, exasperated characters, holidayfic, sickfic
Edit: I realize it was maybe not clear that I meant "slash" to include f/f as well as m/m. Well, it does!
Dislikes: fic concluding with a random making out scene (build up is important to me - feel free to leave something implied or gen), genderswapping only one character in a relationship, character death, telling rather than showing, embarrassing scenes (I have a really big embarrassment squick, so please try to avoid public declarations, etc), exhibitionism, teen rebellion, zombies, road trips, italics
Captive Prince
The author of Captive Prince is a huge fan of The Lymond Chronicles, and it shows - there's an antihero with a razor sharp wit (seriously, every time he opens his mouth there's an "oh snap" moment) and a historical setting. Luckily, while being a complex and nuanced in plot, characters and character interactions, it's from the perspective of a straightforward guy who often gets annoyed at the antihero's sideways thinking. In other words, it's a complete page-turner where, although the reader might learn some new vocabulary ("pellucid," is one that comes to mind) they at least won't be required to either know several languages or have google at hand to understand the dialogue.
Oh, also there's slow burn m/m romance because the entire first book is political intrigue disguised as the book form of a yaoi manga. Are you convinced that you must walk, not run, to read it yet??
That said, I'm requesting none of that this Yuletide! Freece's writing style and knack for writing twisty and intense plot and characters are nothing short of amazing, so I would never demand that kind of thing from a lighthearted holiday exchange (although if that's your thing, go for it!). What I mostly want for Captive Prince is to see the characters getting to have a break. The books are constantly go, go, go so we never get to see the characters kick back and let their guard down (we do sometimes on Damen and Laurent's pseudo-dates, but they're still a matter of life and death). Laurent is human, despite what he wants his followers to think, and I'd like to see the moments he can act like it.
If you'd rather not write fluff or slice-of-life, feel free to add the events of the book going on in the background of any of my missing-scene prompts or write something twisty and intense. I just, uh, won't have any prompts for you.
Prompts:
Because it was impossible, he allowed himself to imagine, just once, what it would be like to face Laurent as a man...if there had been no animosity between their countries, Laurent journeying to Akielos as part of an embassy, Damen's attention superficially caught by the blond hair. They'd attend banquets and sports together, and Laurent...he had seen Laurent with those he cultivated, charming and edged without being lethal; and he was honest enough with himself to admit that if he had encountered Laurent in that mode, all golden lashes and needling remarks, he might well have found himself in some danger.
What if this is what had happened? What if Auguste had never died and Laurent had remained the innocent bookworm he had been ("'I told [Auguste] he could get heirs and I would read books.'")?
Other things I would love to see: a moment between Laurent and Auguste before the events of the novel, of the fluffy or slice-of-life-y variety (if it's primarily about Auguste's final battle I will cry all over my keyboard and maybe short circuit my laptop so, uh, please use Marlas sparingly);
a view of Damen from another character's POV (he's supposed to be tall and imposing and also, it's hinted, super hot, but doesn't seem to notice his effect on people. he also calmly takes care of problems in a way that laurent, at least, is very impressed by. has lazar been hitting on him the whole time without him noticing? is half the company really initimidated by him? do he and laurent look like the perfect matched pair? does he have a weird accent??);
Nicaise and Laurent interacting (especially with banter or with Damen awkwardly sitting on the sidelines or maybe an AU where Laurent buys out Nicaise's contract);
Damen and Laurent years later, happily co-kings of their united kingdoms (wildly implausible, but it would be hilarious to hear them banter over something mundane, like Laurent manipulating Damen into taking a vacation or having a spring wedding, lol. I just want to see them happy and taking a break, for once.)
Mairelon the Magician
I love love love these books. They’re funny and complex and Kim is still feminine even while being a badass and she and Mairelon perfectly complement one another. You can write gen about any of the characters if you really want to (Mairelon’s family members and Mlle. D’Auber are particularly entertaining imo) but I ship Kim/Mairelon like burning so if you could write something about the dynamic of their relationship that would make me very happy, even if it’s gen.
Prompts:
Mairelon always appears to be so distracted and unaffected by everything, but in the second novel we get the sudden insight that he’d been in love with Kim for who knows how long. The book only gives little tidbits of Mairelon’s regard because Kim is so ignorant of it herself, but the tiiiiiny glimpses we get of the romance make me want to see more of it like burning. Any snippet from Richard’s POV and his thoughts on Kim at any point in the book series would be amazing – what did he think of her when they met? At what point did he fall in love with her? How did his conversation with the guy asking for her hand in marriage go?
Something from Hunch’s or Lady Wendell’s point of view has the potential to be hilarious, seeing as they both know Mairelon better than anyone and are typically very frank. I happen to really enjoy when two characters are practically already dating but just don’t realize it yet, so any side characters that can facepalm on the side would be lovely.
Other things that would be great: Jealousy! Mairelon being distracted by Kim when he’s supposed to be teaching her magic! Hurt/comfort! A honeymoon trip to the Continent that turns into a crimesolving adventure! A canon-divergent AU where Mairelon and Kim find out they love one another while investigating a mystery/crime in some shamelessly trope-y way (pretend to be betrothed! Sharing a bed! Truth spell!)! Them being affectionate in a bar and being mistaken for gay men! Kim and Mairelon meeting pre-series!
Feel free to write something as plotty or not plotty as you wish, because the book series has intense plottiness covered but casefic is always lovely. Also banter and Kim being exasperated is always awesome as well. ♥
Skip Beat
I loved Skip Beat! off the bat because I love how it defied the typical shoujo manga tropes the moment Kyoko became angry at Sho's betrayal rather than bursting into tears. It would have been fine had she done so - it's certainly what I would have done in that situation - but it would have made the moment much less satisfying. I'm a pretty mellow person irl, so I really enjoy media that make me feel strong emotions on a character's behalf. On top of that, I really look up to Kyoko in how she's sure of herself and confident in her emotions even when everyone around her feels differently. She doesn't not conform to be a special snowflake, but because after realizing how Sho had been treating her, she doesn't see the point in acting contrary to how she feels, or in changing how she feels to appease other people.
Prompts:
More of Kyoko’s father-daughter relationship with Kuu, please! I watched The Secret Garden waaaay too many times as a kid, and thus have a thing for pseudo-familial relationships where one or both characters are too gruff to hug it out (see: Hanna, The Fall). Does Kuu come visit again? Does she go to the states to see him? An AU where Kyoko somehow gets adopted by him (whether past, future or presentfic)? Does Ren ever tell Kuu why Kyoko’s acting of Kuon was spot on?
I’d also like to hear more about Kyoko’s mother – what exactly was her mother’s deal? Is Kyoko secretly not her kid? What happened to her father? What would happen if her mother became gravely ill or died? Would Sho go to her mother’s funeral? Would Kyoko be left something surprising in her will? What would have happened to Kyoko had Sho's family not taken her in?
Anything from the inside of Reino’s head would be interesting – I have a feeling it’s hilarious in there, and I’m pretty sure the whole visual kei attitude is a marketing gimmick (especially because he never wanted to be in a band in the first place). It’s also heavily implied that his psychic powers aren’t actually sinister – he offers to exorcise Kuon’s rock for Kyoko at one point – does his family own a shrine? Did he join the band because his mom was nagging at him to get a job? Does he witness any of the scenes from the manga, unseen? It would be hilarious if he saw Bo and Ren speaking, knowing with his ability to sense auras that Ren has no idea he’s talking to Kyoko and Kyoko has no idea she’s talking to Kuon.
And, of course, I would love some Kyoko/Ren, whether it’s about Kuon and Kyoko as children, or them doing something couple-y and Kyoko thinking nothing of it, or shippy futurefic.
Oresama Teacher
Oresama Teacher is my favourite manga of all time. It has the perfect balance between genres - it's ridiculous, plotty, heartwarming, action-y and meta in turns and I can't get through a chapter without laughing out loud about something. It's a shoujo manga but never feels the need to devolve into a love triangle in order to still have a captivating plot, and the characters mostly get really blushy about making a new friend. Oresama Teacher is so consistently and effortlessly hilarious without losing sight of the larger plot or side characters that after reading it, I have to take a break from other manga because nothing else measures up.
I ship Takaomi and Mafuyu. I tried to explain why succinctly, but my feelings will not be repressed, in the words of Mr Darcy, so I just put it in a different post here.
Hayasaka and Yui’s mutual understanding is mystifying and great. They’re both dumb about the simplest things, but manage to always be on the same page regardless (like their stupidity re: Mafuyu’s identities). Yui has always had Hayasaka’s back from the beginning without either of them exchanging any words on the subject, and the way Hayasaka acted when in chapter 90something-90something SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. They both just play so well off of one another, with Hayasaka always acting laid back but actually caring intensely about his friends, and Yui acting like he's above personal attachments and not noticing how much he's bonding with Mafuyu and Hayasaka. ;_; Yui places a lot of value on symbols of things - he refuses to be in a club without a clubroom but doesn't notice the spirit of camaraderie during their activities - while Hayasaka places value on substance - he refuses to play along with Mafuyu's idea of picture-book heartwarming friendship, but still considers her a really important friend. They are complimentary and dumb and Yui was really lucky he stumbled into friendship with Hayasaka, who is the exact kind of person Yui needs (i.e. someone laid-back enough to trick Yui into having fun without realizing it and then too stubborn to let Yui brush him off).
I love Sakurada’s crossdressing schenanegans! He’s so comfortable with his gender identity that he would dress in drag and hang out with a sworn enemy to play a lame prank on them. That is awesome. The Sakurada/Aoi situation is hilarious to me (I only have up to vol 8 so I don’t know how the end-of-manga-comic-strips progress past the festival chapter), and I like the whole we’re-kind-of-enemies-but-I-guess-we-can-hang-out relationship between him and Mafuyu.
Prompts:
Ships that I like (whether gen or romantic): Takaomi/Mafuyu, Mafuyu/Kenkawa, Mafuyu/girls, Yui/Hayasaka, Sakurada/Aoi
This comic is hilariously meta, so feel free to throw in any trope (pretend to be dating! Marriage of convenience! School play! H/c! Sickfic! Magically deaged/turned into a kittenfic! Anything else you can think of!) and have one of the characters step back and be like, how is this actually happening. ಠ_ಠ Futurefic for any of these pairings would be awesome (because I doubt the manga-ka will get Mafuyu and Takaomi together until she’s of age) but presentfic shenanigans, gen or otherwise would be great too.
Whenever Mafuyu asks about Hayasaka’s family or his name or Hayasaka accidentally says something weird about actually getting to speak to his parents over break, he quickly changes the subject. Why is that? Are his parents famous? Is he a foreigner? Is he a PRINCE?? Is someone going to come whisk him away? Does Yui sekritly know?
I really like all of Mafuyu’s friends from her old school (+Sakurada). What shenanigans do they get up to on a daily basis? It’s sort of implied that Mafuyu changes people when she’s around. How has she affected the people in her ex-gang? What does an outsider’s POV of one of Mafuyu’s visit look like?
What does Takaomi’s POV look like? Scenes from his perspective don’t usually have many thought bubbles. Also, what favor did Takaomi ask of the rich woman he helped out in volume 5?
Given all of the times characters in the manga make fun of shoujo manga and dramas, I think it'd be pretty funny if someone grew up to be a writer for manga or tv. What do you see the characters doing when they're older? Do weird combinations of people end up going to the same college? Does Mafuyu get a modelling job as Natsuo???
The Master and Margarita
This book, this book, this book. What to even say about this book. I love all of the characters Bulgakov has created (other than the Master – I actually wrote a paper arguing that he treats Margarita like his dog. that said, I'd be totally for an AU where Pontius Pilate and Banga are both humans and also soulmates*), and I love the melancholic atmosphere he weaves into all of their lives. I would be completely overjoyed if you wrote me something in the tone of the book, no matter how mundane it is (I got 200 words of Pontius Pilate petting his dog as a Treat one year and still periodically reread it and spazz out).
*Point of clarification: I'm not really one for bestiality, and this could be in a platonic soulmates way. I also kind of ship Pontius Pilate with Yeshua (platonic bffs or non-platonic), so if you, like, felt the need to write an AU where they're Jasmine, Raja and Aladdin, I would be pleased
Prompts:
We got to see the true nature of Woland’s retinue in the moonlight at the end of the book – who were Behemoth and Koroviev and Azazello before they ended up helping Woland? How did they end up part of his retinue? Do they ever run into people that resemble those from their former life?
How was Pontius Pilate’s life before being posted in Jerusalem? After Yeshua’s death? What was he like as a kid? When did he get his dog? What about a Golden Compass AU where Pontius Pilate is the polar bear and his dog is Lyra (feel free to ignore the majority of the plot of the book and focus more on how Pontius Pilate is a grouch because of hismigranes missing armor and Banga just wants to help him and cheer him up)?
What’s Homeless up to? Had he and Margarita met before the events of the novel? Does he go to Limbo after he dies and become friends with Margarita or Pontius Pilate? (if you can’t tell, those three are my favourite characters, perhaps because I liked the way they changed throughout the course of the novel and how they ended up being more sincere versions of themselves)
Feel free to try and make this AU if you don't feel like going for canon or melancholy. For example, Pontius Pilate can be a stressed out businessman, and Yeshua his zen barista/PA/veterinarian/dog walker, with bonus appearances of side characters and maybe with Woland owning whatever business Yeshua or Pontius Pilate works at. Or Homeless can be a blogger with a Sudden Change of Heart and be bros with other characters, who are fellow bloggers or otherwise internet famous. Go nuts!
Dating Agency: Cyrano (I'm romanizing the characters' names a particular way, but you can totally write them however you want to.)
I watched this drama along with a friend in a different city. There’s some part where Ah Rang is feeling low and Moo Jin gives him a ride on his motorcycle and lets him rest his head on his shoulder (this is the first time we see Moo Jin showing affection to another person), so I screencapped it to email it to her. My friend is typically someone who prefers het over slash, however, so I jokingly also screencapped Ah Rang and Min Young being really touchy feely a little earlier in the episode.
I had a good snigger to myself, and thought the matter was done with. Little did I know how wrong I was.
As the show progressed, any sort of chemistry or sexual tension between Min Young and the two other men in the love triangle failed to appear. Maddeningly, more and more evidence of the Min Young/Ah Rang I had jokingly pointed out did. Once I made the offhanded claim, I started to see it everywhere. The obvious age gap between Min Young and her suitors made this all the more frustrating, because that age gap seemed to justify the age gap between Ah Rang and Min Young, where in any other drama I could just write them off as not being the same age. Basically, I trolled myself into shipping the one pairing on the show that would never happen but would otherwise have been pretty plausible. And now, on to the evidence. These screencaps are only from episodes 4-10, but you’ll get the idea:
They’re very touchy-feely.
They stand ridiculously close to one another, as close or more so than Min Young and Main Love Interest.
Seriously, you could fit another person between Ah Rang and Moo Jin here:
In Ah Rang’s words…
They usually react to things in the same way/have similar opinions on things.
Ah Rang’s face lights up when Min Young enters a room.
Ah Rang takes opportunities Byong Hoon, the Main Love Interest, doesn’t.
Such as accepting high-fives:
Or taking Main Love Interest’s seat once MLI foolishly leaves:
They’re adorable together.
Bonus stares of longing.
Tl;dr Min Young and Ah Rang are incredibly compatible. They’d be an extremely functional couple and they’re very comfortable with one another physically.
Prompts:
Ah Rang/Min Young of any sort (het or pre-het gen) would make me really happy! Are they basically dating without noticing it and Moo Jin or someone else has to point it out? Is one of their targets a wedding planner and Min Young and Ah Rang have to pretend to be engaged? An AU of the chef episode where it's Ah Rang that teaches Min Young to cook? Does Ah Rang go off to college or overseas and then comes back and sweeps Min Young off her feet? Is there a power outage and they camp out in Ah Rang’s tent? All of Ah Rang’s peers are dazzled by him – is he charmed that Min Young treats him as an equal? Does he actually find this frustrating? Does Moo Jin step in and give him dating advice? Do he and Hye Ri try to set Min Young and Ah Rang up?
Feel free to go crazy with romcom tropes/aus with them, because they would be such a functional, adorable couple. ♥
If you don’t want to make it shippy, some snippet of them hanging out or someone else meditating on their relationship would be cute too. Orrr you could do some snippet of Moo Jin’s friendship with either Ah Rang or Min Young or an ot3 (please ignore rather than bash Moo Jin’s girlfriend) or a friendship!ot3. Randomly, I’d also be down for a Master/Moo Jin/Hye Ri or Master/his lackey(s) as a side pairing. Because Master’s pretty cool and needs to cheer up.
Alsooooooo until recently I didn’t realize that in order to be matched on a fandom, the offerer has to say they can write for ALL of the characters requested, so rather than requesting all of the random characters I'd enjoy separately, I’m going to request one character for most of these fandoms and then write a bunch of prompts for random characters to give you room to write about whomever you want (the exceptions being Dating Agency: Cyrano and Mairelon the Magician) - there's no need to conflate multiple prompts and write ensemble fic.
Likes: angst, fluff, tropes, trope subversion, ridiculousness, terrible puns, when insignificant details/small plot threads come together in a HA! moment, gothic horror, banter, AUs, crack AUs that are treated seriously and make you feel things you can't believe you're feeling for a crack AU, limited POV, outsider/side character POV, slash, gen, het, consistent tone, exasperated characters, holidayfic, sickfic
Edit: I realize it was maybe not clear that I meant "slash" to include f/f as well as m/m. Well, it does!
Dislikes: fic concluding with a random making out scene (build up is important to me - feel free to leave something implied or gen), genderswapping only one character in a relationship, character death, telling rather than showing, embarrassing scenes (I have a really big embarrassment squick, so please try to avoid public declarations, etc), exhibitionism, teen rebellion, zombies, road trips, italics
Captive Prince
The author of Captive Prince is a huge fan of The Lymond Chronicles, and it shows - there's an antihero with a razor sharp wit (seriously, every time he opens his mouth there's an "oh snap" moment) and a historical setting. Luckily, while being a complex and nuanced in plot, characters and character interactions, it's from the perspective of a straightforward guy who often gets annoyed at the antihero's sideways thinking. In other words, it's a complete page-turner where, although the reader might learn some new vocabulary ("pellucid," is one that comes to mind) they at least won't be required to either know several languages or have google at hand to understand the dialogue.
Oh, also there's slow burn m/m romance because the entire first book is political intrigue disguised as the book form of a yaoi manga. Are you convinced that you must walk, not run, to read it yet??
That said, I'm requesting none of that this Yuletide! Freece's writing style and knack for writing twisty and intense plot and characters are nothing short of amazing, so I would never demand that kind of thing from a lighthearted holiday exchange (although if that's your thing, go for it!). What I mostly want for Captive Prince is to see the characters getting to have a break. The books are constantly go, go, go so we never get to see the characters kick back and let their guard down (we do sometimes on Damen and Laurent's pseudo-dates, but they're still a matter of life and death). Laurent is human, despite what he wants his followers to think, and I'd like to see the moments he can act like it.
If you'd rather not write fluff or slice-of-life, feel free to add the events of the book going on in the background of any of my missing-scene prompts or write something twisty and intense. I just, uh, won't have any prompts for you.
Prompts:
Because it was impossible, he allowed himself to imagine, just once, what it would be like to face Laurent as a man...if there had been no animosity between their countries, Laurent journeying to Akielos as part of an embassy, Damen's attention superficially caught by the blond hair. They'd attend banquets and sports together, and Laurent...he had seen Laurent with those he cultivated, charming and edged without being lethal; and he was honest enough with himself to admit that if he had encountered Laurent in that mode, all golden lashes and needling remarks, he might well have found himself in some danger.
What if this is what had happened? What if Auguste had never died and Laurent had remained the innocent bookworm he had been ("'I told [Auguste] he could get heirs and I would read books.'")?
Other things I would love to see: a moment between Laurent and Auguste before the events of the novel, of the fluffy or slice-of-life-y variety (if it's primarily about Auguste's final battle I will cry all over my keyboard and maybe short circuit my laptop so, uh, please use Marlas sparingly);
a view of Damen from another character's POV (he's supposed to be tall and imposing and also, it's hinted, super hot, but doesn't seem to notice his effect on people. he also calmly takes care of problems in a way that laurent, at least, is very impressed by. has lazar been hitting on him the whole time without him noticing? is half the company really initimidated by him? do he and laurent look like the perfect matched pair? does he have a weird accent??);
Nicaise and Laurent interacting (especially with banter or with Damen awkwardly sitting on the sidelines or maybe an AU where Laurent buys out Nicaise's contract);
Damen and Laurent years later, happily co-kings of their united kingdoms (wildly implausible, but it would be hilarious to hear them banter over something mundane, like Laurent manipulating Damen into taking a vacation or having a spring wedding, lol. I just want to see them happy and taking a break, for once.)
Mairelon the Magician
I love love love these books. They’re funny and complex and Kim is still feminine even while being a badass and she and Mairelon perfectly complement one another. You can write gen about any of the characters if you really want to (Mairelon’s family members and Mlle. D’Auber are particularly entertaining imo) but I ship Kim/Mairelon like burning so if you could write something about the dynamic of their relationship that would make me very happy, even if it’s gen.
Prompts:
Mairelon always appears to be so distracted and unaffected by everything, but in the second novel we get the sudden insight that he’d been in love with Kim for who knows how long. The book only gives little tidbits of Mairelon’s regard because Kim is so ignorant of it herself, but the tiiiiiny glimpses we get of the romance make me want to see more of it like burning. Any snippet from Richard’s POV and his thoughts on Kim at any point in the book series would be amazing – what did he think of her when they met? At what point did he fall in love with her? How did his conversation with the guy asking for her hand in marriage go?
Something from Hunch’s or Lady Wendell’s point of view has the potential to be hilarious, seeing as they both know Mairelon better than anyone and are typically very frank. I happen to really enjoy when two characters are practically already dating but just don’t realize it yet, so any side characters that can facepalm on the side would be lovely.
Other things that would be great: Jealousy! Mairelon being distracted by Kim when he’s supposed to be teaching her magic! Hurt/comfort! A honeymoon trip to the Continent that turns into a crimesolving adventure! A canon-divergent AU where Mairelon and Kim find out they love one another while investigating a mystery/crime in some shamelessly trope-y way (pretend to be betrothed! Sharing a bed! Truth spell!)! Them being affectionate in a bar and being mistaken for gay men! Kim and Mairelon meeting pre-series!
Feel free to write something as plotty or not plotty as you wish, because the book series has intense plottiness covered but casefic is always lovely. Also banter and Kim being exasperated is always awesome as well. ♥
Skip Beat
I loved Skip Beat! off the bat because I love how it defied the typical shoujo manga tropes the moment Kyoko became angry at Sho's betrayal rather than bursting into tears. It would have been fine had she done so - it's certainly what I would have done in that situation - but it would have made the moment much less satisfying. I'm a pretty mellow person irl, so I really enjoy media that make me feel strong emotions on a character's behalf. On top of that, I really look up to Kyoko in how she's sure of herself and confident in her emotions even when everyone around her feels differently. She doesn't not conform to be a special snowflake, but because after realizing how Sho had been treating her, she doesn't see the point in acting contrary to how she feels, or in changing how she feels to appease other people.
Prompts:
More of Kyoko’s father-daughter relationship with Kuu, please! I watched The Secret Garden waaaay too many times as a kid, and thus have a thing for pseudo-familial relationships where one or both characters are too gruff to hug it out (see: Hanna, The Fall). Does Kuu come visit again? Does she go to the states to see him? An AU where Kyoko somehow gets adopted by him (whether past, future or presentfic)? Does Ren ever tell Kuu why Kyoko’s acting of Kuon was spot on?
I’d also like to hear more about Kyoko’s mother – what exactly was her mother’s deal? Is Kyoko secretly not her kid? What happened to her father? What would happen if her mother became gravely ill or died? Would Sho go to her mother’s funeral? Would Kyoko be left something surprising in her will? What would have happened to Kyoko had Sho's family not taken her in?
Anything from the inside of Reino’s head would be interesting – I have a feeling it’s hilarious in there, and I’m pretty sure the whole visual kei attitude is a marketing gimmick (especially because he never wanted to be in a band in the first place). It’s also heavily implied that his psychic powers aren’t actually sinister – he offers to exorcise Kuon’s rock for Kyoko at one point – does his family own a shrine? Did he join the band because his mom was nagging at him to get a job? Does he witness any of the scenes from the manga, unseen? It would be hilarious if he saw Bo and Ren speaking, knowing with his ability to sense auras that Ren has no idea he’s talking to Kyoko and Kyoko has no idea she’s talking to Kuon.
And, of course, I would love some Kyoko/Ren, whether it’s about Kuon and Kyoko as children, or them doing something couple-y and Kyoko thinking nothing of it, or shippy futurefic.
Oresama Teacher
Oresama Teacher is my favourite manga of all time. It has the perfect balance between genres - it's ridiculous, plotty, heartwarming, action-y and meta in turns and I can't get through a chapter without laughing out loud about something. It's a shoujo manga but never feels the need to devolve into a love triangle in order to still have a captivating plot, and the characters mostly get really blushy about making a new friend. Oresama Teacher is so consistently and effortlessly hilarious without losing sight of the larger plot or side characters that after reading it, I have to take a break from other manga because nothing else measures up.
I ship Takaomi and Mafuyu. I tried to explain why succinctly, but my feelings will not be repressed, in the words of Mr Darcy, so I just put it in a different post here.
Hayasaka and Yui’s mutual understanding is mystifying and great. They’re both dumb about the simplest things, but manage to always be on the same page regardless (like their stupidity re: Mafuyu’s identities). Yui has always had Hayasaka’s back from the beginning without either of them exchanging any words on the subject, and the way Hayasaka acted when in chapter 90something-90something SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER. They both just play so well off of one another, with Hayasaka always acting laid back but actually caring intensely about his friends, and Yui acting like he's above personal attachments and not noticing how much he's bonding with Mafuyu and Hayasaka. ;_; Yui places a lot of value on symbols of things - he refuses to be in a club without a clubroom but doesn't notice the spirit of camaraderie during their activities - while Hayasaka places value on substance - he refuses to play along with Mafuyu's idea of picture-book heartwarming friendship, but still considers her a really important friend. They are complimentary and dumb and Yui was really lucky he stumbled into friendship with Hayasaka, who is the exact kind of person Yui needs (i.e. someone laid-back enough to trick Yui into having fun without realizing it and then too stubborn to let Yui brush him off).
I love Sakurada’s crossdressing schenanegans! He’s so comfortable with his gender identity that he would dress in drag and hang out with a sworn enemy to play a lame prank on them. That is awesome. The Sakurada/Aoi situation is hilarious to me (I only have up to vol 8 so I don’t know how the end-of-manga-comic-strips progress past the festival chapter), and I like the whole we’re-kind-of-enemies-but-I-guess-we-can-hang-out relationship between him and Mafuyu.
Prompts:
Ships that I like (whether gen or romantic): Takaomi/Mafuyu, Mafuyu/Kenkawa, Mafuyu/girls, Yui/Hayasaka, Sakurada/Aoi
This comic is hilariously meta, so feel free to throw in any trope (pretend to be dating! Marriage of convenience! School play! H/c! Sickfic! Magically deaged/turned into a kittenfic! Anything else you can think of!) and have one of the characters step back and be like, how is this actually happening. ಠ_ಠ Futurefic for any of these pairings would be awesome (because I doubt the manga-ka will get Mafuyu and Takaomi together until she’s of age) but presentfic shenanigans, gen or otherwise would be great too.
Whenever Mafuyu asks about Hayasaka’s family or his name or Hayasaka accidentally says something weird about actually getting to speak to his parents over break, he quickly changes the subject. Why is that? Are his parents famous? Is he a foreigner? Is he a PRINCE?? Is someone going to come whisk him away? Does Yui sekritly know?
I really like all of Mafuyu’s friends from her old school (+Sakurada). What shenanigans do they get up to on a daily basis? It’s sort of implied that Mafuyu changes people when she’s around. How has she affected the people in her ex-gang? What does an outsider’s POV of one of Mafuyu’s visit look like?
What does Takaomi’s POV look like? Scenes from his perspective don’t usually have many thought bubbles. Also, what favor did Takaomi ask of the rich woman he helped out in volume 5?
Given all of the times characters in the manga make fun of shoujo manga and dramas, I think it'd be pretty funny if someone grew up to be a writer for manga or tv. What do you see the characters doing when they're older? Do weird combinations of people end up going to the same college? Does Mafuyu get a modelling job as Natsuo???
The Master and Margarita
This book, this book, this book. What to even say about this book. I love all of the characters Bulgakov has created (other than the Master – I actually wrote a paper arguing that he treats Margarita like his dog. that said, I'd be totally for an AU where Pontius Pilate and Banga are both humans and also soulmates*), and I love the melancholic atmosphere he weaves into all of their lives. I would be completely overjoyed if you wrote me something in the tone of the book, no matter how mundane it is (I got 200 words of Pontius Pilate petting his dog as a Treat one year and still periodically reread it and spazz out).
*Point of clarification: I'm not really one for bestiality, and this could be in a platonic soulmates way. I also kind of ship Pontius Pilate with Yeshua (platonic bffs or non-platonic), so if you, like, felt the need to write an AU where they're Jasmine, Raja and Aladdin, I would be pleased
Prompts:
We got to see the true nature of Woland’s retinue in the moonlight at the end of the book – who were Behemoth and Koroviev and Azazello before they ended up helping Woland? How did they end up part of his retinue? Do they ever run into people that resemble those from their former life?
How was Pontius Pilate’s life before being posted in Jerusalem? After Yeshua’s death? What was he like as a kid? When did he get his dog? What about a Golden Compass AU where Pontius Pilate is the polar bear and his dog is Lyra (feel free to ignore the majority of the plot of the book and focus more on how Pontius Pilate is a grouch because of his
What’s Homeless up to? Had he and Margarita met before the events of the novel? Does he go to Limbo after he dies and become friends with Margarita or Pontius Pilate? (if you can’t tell, those three are my favourite characters, perhaps because I liked the way they changed throughout the course of the novel and how they ended up being more sincere versions of themselves)
Feel free to try and make this AU if you don't feel like going for canon or melancholy. For example, Pontius Pilate can be a stressed out businessman, and Yeshua his zen barista/PA/veterinarian/dog walker, with bonus appearances of side characters and maybe with Woland owning whatever business Yeshua or Pontius Pilate works at. Or Homeless can be a blogger with a Sudden Change of Heart and be bros with other characters, who are fellow bloggers or otherwise internet famous. Go nuts!
Dating Agency: Cyrano (I'm romanizing the characters' names a particular way, but you can totally write them however you want to.)
I watched this drama along with a friend in a different city. There’s some part where Ah Rang is feeling low and Moo Jin gives him a ride on his motorcycle and lets him rest his head on his shoulder (this is the first time we see Moo Jin showing affection to another person), so I screencapped it to email it to her. My friend is typically someone who prefers het over slash, however, so I jokingly also screencapped Ah Rang and Min Young being really touchy feely a little earlier in the episode.
I had a good snigger to myself, and thought the matter was done with. Little did I know how wrong I was.
As the show progressed, any sort of chemistry or sexual tension between Min Young and the two other men in the love triangle failed to appear. Maddeningly, more and more evidence of the Min Young/Ah Rang I had jokingly pointed out did. Once I made the offhanded claim, I started to see it everywhere. The obvious age gap between Min Young and her suitors made this all the more frustrating, because that age gap seemed to justify the age gap between Ah Rang and Min Young, where in any other drama I could just write them off as not being the same age. Basically, I trolled myself into shipping the one pairing on the show that would never happen but would otherwise have been pretty plausible. And now, on to the evidence. These screencaps are only from episodes 4-10, but you’ll get the idea:
They’re very touchy-feely.
They stand ridiculously close to one another, as close or more so than Min Young and Main Love Interest.
Seriously, you could fit another person between Ah Rang and Moo Jin here:
In Ah Rang’s words…
They usually react to things in the same way/have similar opinions on things.
Ah Rang’s face lights up when Min Young enters a room.
Ah Rang takes opportunities Byong Hoon, the Main Love Interest, doesn’t.
Such as accepting high-fives:
Or taking Main Love Interest’s seat once MLI foolishly leaves:
They’re adorable together.
Bonus stares of longing.
Tl;dr Min Young and Ah Rang are incredibly compatible. They’d be an extremely functional couple and they’re very comfortable with one another physically.
Prompts:
Ah Rang/Min Young of any sort (het or pre-het gen) would make me really happy! Are they basically dating without noticing it and Moo Jin or someone else has to point it out? Is one of their targets a wedding planner and Min Young and Ah Rang have to pretend to be engaged? An AU of the chef episode where it's Ah Rang that teaches Min Young to cook? Does Ah Rang go off to college or overseas and then comes back and sweeps Min Young off her feet? Is there a power outage and they camp out in Ah Rang’s tent? All of Ah Rang’s peers are dazzled by him – is he charmed that Min Young treats him as an equal? Does he actually find this frustrating? Does Moo Jin step in and give him dating advice? Do he and Hye Ri try to set Min Young and Ah Rang up?
Feel free to go crazy with romcom tropes/aus with them, because they would be such a functional, adorable couple. ♥
If you don’t want to make it shippy, some snippet of them hanging out or someone else meditating on their relationship would be cute too. Orrr you could do some snippet of Moo Jin’s friendship with either Ah Rang or Min Young or an ot3 (please ignore rather than bash Moo Jin’s girlfriend) or a friendship!ot3. Randomly, I’d also be down for a Master/Moo Jin/Hye Ri or Master/his lackey(s) as a side pairing. Because Master’s pretty cool and needs to cheer up.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-10-18 09:18 pm (UTC)Damen is an actual life-ruiner so I really hope Laurent already knows.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 05:06 am (UTC)My thoughts are so twisted about this, and quite honestly the speculation is driving me far more crazy than something like the ending of the second season of Sherlock ever could. @_@
ALSO SOMETIMES I REMEMBER THAT LAURENT ASKED FOR DAMEN'S OTHER WRIST CUFF SO THEY HAD MATCHING ONES AND I DIE A LITTLE IN SIDE BECAUSE IT'S LIKE PERMANENT WRISTING + WEDDING BAND AND I JUST CAN'T HANDLE IT FROM SOMEONE LIKE LAURENT. ;________________________; HE HAD BETTER FREAKING KNOW OR HE WILL BE B R O K E N. Ahem. Sorry about that. There's just nothing like an extremely eloquent book to reduce me to a flailing mess.
no subject
Date: 2013-10-20 05:13 pm (UTC)