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Dear AUthor (AU 5k 2024-25)
Dec. 6th, 2024 10:19 pmHello, thank you for writing for me! I'm also primeideal on Ao3, and I'm requesting fic for all fandoms.
Feel free to use as much or as little of these ideas as you like; if you're inspired for a freeform/character or pairing combination that I didn't specifically elaborate on, that's great too!
Animorphs
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill & Jake Berenson & Cassie & Marco & Rachel & Tobias (Animorphs) Canon is actually a TRPG played by a group of kids
Soulmates -- as in "The Luminaries" (Eleanor Catton)
Wheel of Time: Different Two Rivers character is the Dragon Reborn
Canon is actually an RPG: I feel like this would be a perfect explanation for the ta'veren's unique powers and tendency to be at the center of the narrative. Maybe the GM has ideas for which characters are fated to get together and the players are like "actually, we have our own ships."
Soulmates--as in "The Luminaries": The idea here is that when two people were born under "the same sky" (same place and time), they're astral soulmates--and the first time they sleep together, it creates a bond, such that when one is shot or overdoses, the other feels the effects. This could tie in well with the existing focus on bonds and "oh, the Pattern has decreed you share a destiny." Also, canonically, they're so close in age that Moiraine doesn't know who's the chosen one--what if two or three of them had the exact same birthday and now have a bond that even the Aes Sedai don't understand, and have to figure that out along with all the other plot shenanigans? And/or, what if Rand had also slept with one/several of them, and it didn't trigger a bond, and that was the first clue that he wasn't actually born in the same place as the others...?
Different Two Rivers character is the Dragon Reborn: How would this play into Mat's refusal of the call? Perrin's guilt and fear about killing his wife, as an early precursor to his madness/breaking the world? Siuan's line about "ugh, this would be so much easier with a woman we knew how to train" while Egwene is on the other side of the continent in damane captivity? Nynaeve looking at everyone else like "I may be doomed by the narrative but at least I don't have relationship drama"?
--
Again, this is all optional, feel free to use as much or as little as is helpful. I look forward to reading your story!
Feel free to use as much or as little of these ideas as you like; if you're inspired for a freeform/character or pairing combination that I didn't specifically elaborate on, that's great too!
General Likes:
-worldbuilding
-dialogue
-nonstandard formats (documentation, epistolary, etc.)
-interactive fiction--I prefer formats like Twine to open-ended parsers.
-happy endings
-sad endings (character death, melodrama, heartbreak!)
General DNWs:
-explicit on-screen sex (fade-to-black or innuendo is fine)
-underage characters having sex
-rape/noncon
-moralizing/didactic stories (characters Learning An Important Lesson about the value of tolerance, etc.)
-non-canonical allegories of current events and/or contemporary politics (AMarco flirts with the governor of California: fine; Marco flirts with the governor and this is a metaphor for the Newsom administration: no thanks.)
-second person POV (in "normal" fic, fine with it in IF or similar!)
-character bashing
-cliffhanger endings
-themes of cynicism or futility, or that the (canon's) main plotlines "are for nothing"
Animorphs
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill & Jake Berenson & Cassie & Marco & Rachel & Tobias (Animorphs)
Cassie & Rachel (Animorphs) (Animorphs)
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill & Tobias (Animorphs)
Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul/Loren (Animorphs)
Jake Berenson & Marco (Animorphs)
Jake Berenson/Cassie (Animorphs)
Rachel/Tobias (Animorphs)
Battle Royale Fusion
Characters are aware they are characters but are also themselves (Thursday Next AU)
Time Traveling Team Assembled from Various Eras AU
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
No subtemporal grounding in Megamorphs 4
Battle Royale: idiot teenagers with a death wish! Could be a no-aliens AU, or maybe it's a setting where lots of people have morphing powers. Feel free to go tragic, or have people working together to break the game and escape.
Characters aware they are characters: Marco seems like the kind of person to sigh and complain about the fourth wall. Maybe lampshading how the introductions are formulaic but there's also more than enough information to narrow them down? (I'm currently in the process of reading the Thursday Next series and will be several books in by reveals, so feel free to cross over specific plot devices like SpecOps or Jurisfiction.)
Time Traveling Team Assembled From Various Eras: this could be a fun opportunity to revisit some of the canonical alternate universes/time travel mechanics, or make up your own! The "eras" don't necessarily have to be too far apart, if you want to do something where they're still teenagers but in slightly different timelines.
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: A Yeerk who was smarter/less impulsive than Temrash would have perfect knowledge of how to imitate one or more of the Animorphs without giving themselves away, seems like a great opportunity for some high-stakes social deduction. (You could also have more characters being infested in the "night phase" instead of dying.)
No Subtemporal Grounding: I like the premise of Megamorphs 4, but Cassie's "anomalous" sense of something being off and bringing the group together felt like a contrived way to make the book wrap up quickly, that never came up again. ;) So anything that expands on this universe without that feature would be great; Tobias' life as a Controller, Rachel and Marco's love life, Ax's woes in the human world... whether or not it resolves the larger plotline.
Harry Potter
Battle Royale Fusion
Characters are aware they are characters but are also themselves (Thursday Next AU)
Time Traveling Team Assembled from Various Eras AU
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
No subtemporal grounding in Megamorphs 4
Battle Royale: idiot teenagers with a death wish! Could be a no-aliens AU, or maybe it's a setting where lots of people have morphing powers. Feel free to go tragic, or have people working together to break the game and escape.
Characters aware they are characters: Marco seems like the kind of person to sigh and complain about the fourth wall. Maybe lampshading how the introductions are formulaic but there's also more than enough information to narrow them down? (I'm currently in the process of reading the Thursday Next series and will be several books in by reveals, so feel free to cross over specific plot devices like SpecOps or Jurisfiction.)
Time Traveling Team Assembled From Various Eras: this could be a fun opportunity to revisit some of the canonical alternate universes/time travel mechanics, or make up your own! The "eras" don't necessarily have to be too far apart, if you want to do something where they're still teenagers but in slightly different timelines.
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: A Yeerk who was smarter/less impulsive than Temrash would have perfect knowledge of how to imitate one or more of the Animorphs without giving themselves away, seems like a great opportunity for some high-stakes social deduction. (You could also have more characters being infested in the "night phase" instead of dying.)
No Subtemporal Grounding: I like the premise of Megamorphs 4, but Cassie's "anomalous" sense of something being off and bringing the group together felt like a contrived way to make the book wrap up quickly, that never came up again. ;) So anything that expands on this universe without that feature would be great; Tobias' life as a Controller, Rachel and Marco's love life, Ax's woes in the human world... whether or not it resolves the larger plotline.
Harry Potter
Regulus Black (HP - JKR)
Canon Divergence - Minor Character Fatality Survives and Becomes Major Character
Time Travel Fix-It
Regulus Black Lives
Regulus lives and has to deal with life as a traitor! Does he reach out to Sirius for help, or try to push forward on his own? Does he realize that there are more Horcruxes to deal with? Does he go back in time to fix his mistakes, or does someone else from the future save him? Does the rest of the first war go off-track?
Canon Divergence - Minor Character Fatality Survives and Becomes Major Character
Time Travel Fix-It
Regulus Black Lives
Regulus lives and has to deal with life as a traitor! Does he reach out to Sirius for help, or try to push forward on his own? Does he realize that there are more Horcruxes to deal with? Does he go back in time to fix his mistakes, or does someone else from the future save him? Does the rest of the first war go off-track?
Star Wars OT:
Bail Organa & Breha Organa & Leia Organa (SWOT)
Bail Organa & Breha Organa & Luke Skywalker (SW:OT)
Leia Organa & Darth Vader (SWOT)
Leia Organa & Luke Skywalker & Han Solo (SWOT)
Leia Organa & Yoda (SW:OT)
Luke Skywalker & Darth Vader (SWOT)
Time Traveling Team Assembled from Various Eras AU
Alderaan Is Not Destroyed
Time Traveling Team Assembled from Various Eras AU
Alderaan Is Not Destroyed
Darth Vader Is Redeemed Earlier
Darth Vader Lives
Darth Vader raises Luke and Leia
Force Ghost Obi-Wan Takes A More Active Role
ANH Obi-Wan Tells Everyone The Truth About Everything
ANH Obi-Wan Tells Everyone The Truth About Everything
Leia raised on Tatooine while Luke raised on Alderaan
Luke and Leia raised together
Luke Skywalker is successfully captured by Darth Vader
Padmé Amidala Lives
ROTS Anakin switches bodies with Darth Vader
I think most of these are self-explanatory: anything involving the Skywalker (extended) family drama would be great! Feel free to bring in any other film characters, but I'm not familiar with TV canon so I'd prefer no focus on that. For the "time traveling team assembled from various eras," feel free to have one or more characters be traveling back from the ST era (and trying to prevent it?), but otherwise I'm not interested in the ST era for these prompts.
I think most of these are self-explanatory: anything involving the Skywalker (extended) family drama would be great! Feel free to bring in any other film characters, but I'm not familiar with TV canon so I'd prefer no focus on that. For the "time traveling team assembled from various eras," feel free to have one or more characters be traveling back from the ST era (and trying to prevent it?), but otherwise I'm not interested in the ST era for these prompts.
Wheel of Time books:
Asmodean (WoT - RJ)
Egwene al'Vere (WoT - RJ)
Rand al'Thor (WoT - RJ)
Verin Mathwin (WoT - RJ)
Anathem (Neal Stephenson) AU
Book of the New Sun Fusion
Canon is actually a TRPG played by a group of kids
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will
Probabilities in Universe Skew to 5+1 Things Dynamic
Anathem: is Egwene a Unitarian or a Tenner trying to learn all she can from her mentors? Is Verin an Orolo-type character who seems just an absentminded professor but is actually spying on an alien spaceship? Did Asmodean join the Millenarians in search for immortality, and/or is he a bell ringer? Did the Ogier journey to our universe on a polycosmic ship?
Book of the New Sun: Rand wandering around with his "sword that is not a sword" and flirting with all the women in sight? Asmodean putting on musical theater productions that are actually about the heroes of past Ages? Maybe some of the women can have their own interior lives and goals, that would be fun ;)
Canon is actually an RPG: This would be fun with either the protagonists as the overpowered player characters, or the Forsaken trying to serve the Great Lord but always distracted by petty infighting.
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will: I sometimes find the contrasts between prophecy and "oh, free will is important actually" unconvincing. What might have been different for Rand if he hadn't been expecting to die? If Egwene's dreams were just her subconscious acting out? If Verin hadn't been reading the "Karaethon Cycle" and insisting that only five people go to Falme in book two?
Probabilities in Universe Skew to 5+1 Things Dynamic: The ta'veren's probability weirdness breaking the fourth wall is already similar enough that this feels plausible. Five Emond's Fielders and one outsider? 5+1 alternate realities that people saw via the Portal Stones or other ter'angreal like the Accepted test?
Verin Mathwin (WoT - RJ)
Anathem (Neal Stephenson) AU
Book of the New Sun Fusion
Canon is actually a TRPG played by a group of kids
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will
Probabilities in Universe Skew to 5+1 Things Dynamic
Anathem: is Egwene a Unitarian or a Tenner trying to learn all she can from her mentors? Is Verin an Orolo-type character who seems just an absentminded professor but is actually spying on an alien spaceship? Did Asmodean join the Millenarians in search for immortality, and/or is he a bell ringer? Did the Ogier journey to our universe on a polycosmic ship?
Book of the New Sun: Rand wandering around with his "sword that is not a sword" and flirting with all the women in sight? Asmodean putting on musical theater productions that are actually about the heroes of past Ages? Maybe some of the women can have their own interior lives and goals, that would be fun ;)
Canon is actually an RPG: This would be fun with either the protagonists as the overpowered player characters, or the Forsaken trying to serve the Great Lord but always distracted by petty infighting.
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will: I sometimes find the contrasts between prophecy and "oh, free will is important actually" unconvincing. What might have been different for Rand if he hadn't been expecting to die? If Egwene's dreams were just her subconscious acting out? If Verin hadn't been reading the "Karaethon Cycle" and insisting that only five people go to Falme in book two?
Probabilities in Universe Skew to 5+1 Things Dynamic: The ta'veren's probability weirdness breaking the fourth wall is already similar enough that this feels plausible. Five Emond's Fielders and one outsider? 5+1 alternate realities that people saw via the Portal Stones or other ter'angreal like the Accepted test?
Dune Movies:
Alia Atreides & Paul Atreides & Jessica (Dune Movies)
Paul Atreides/Chani (Dune Movies)
Character deals with a canonical difficult situation better than in canon
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will
Prophecy subverted/denied/unfulfilled AU
Take a bad thing that happened to a character in canon and make it better
I'm interested in the worldbuilding, especially the Fremen, but it's hard to get invested when a lot of the plot is "I can't go south, if I do something terrible will happen" -> *goes south anyway*. So I'm interested in something where the plot goes off the rails, for better or for worse. Paul finds a way to stop being seen as the Mahdi? He doesn't drink the Water of Life? Jessica doesn't use the Voice on Chani, or Chani finds a way to throw it off, and Paul stays dead? When Stilgar is trying to get Paul to challenge him for leadership, maybe Chani defeats him instead and stops the jihad? What would happen to Alia if Jessica hadn't drunk the Water of Life?
Character deals with a canonical difficult situation better than in canon
Like canon but with less determinism/more free will
Prophecy subverted/denied/unfulfilled AU
Take a bad thing that happened to a character in canon and make it better
I'm interested in the worldbuilding, especially the Fremen, but it's hard to get invested when a lot of the plot is "I can't go south, if I do something terrible will happen" -> *goes south anyway*. So I'm interested in something where the plot goes off the rails, for better or for worse. Paul finds a way to stop being seen as the Mahdi? He doesn't drink the Water of Life? Jessica doesn't use the Voice on Chani, or Chani finds a way to throw it off, and Paul stays dead? When Stilgar is trying to get Paul to challenge him for leadership, maybe Chani defeats him instead and stops the jihad? What would happen to Alia if Jessica hadn't drunk the Water of Life?
Rogue One:
Cassian Andor & Jyn Erso (SW Rogue One)
Cassian Andor & Jyn Erso & Chirrut Îmwe & Baze Malbus & Bodhi Rook (Rogue One)
Cassian Andor & K-2SO (SW Rogue One)
Chirrut Imwe/Baze Malbus (SW Rogue One)
Canon Divergence Using Original Creator's Publicly Acknowledged Discarded Plan
Some or all of Rogue One team are carbon frozen and thawed out years later
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
Discarded Plan/Carbon Freezing: see this link for alternate endings that were proposed. Jyn and Cassian (or other characters) are being pursued by the Empire and decide to blow up their spaceship so they can't be tortured for information! Or they set off a bomb to put themselves in carbon freeze and aren't thawed out for years or decades, which explains why they're not in the OT! Feel free to bring in other OT or even ST characters to interact with.
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: who's secretly a traitor? Is Chirrut cold-reading people even without seeing their body language? Is K-2SO ignored by the humans even when he provides strategic analysis with 72.1% accuracy?
Canon Divergence Using Original Creator's Publicly Acknowledged Discarded Plan
Some or all of Rogue One team are carbon frozen and thawed out years later
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
Discarded Plan/Carbon Freezing: see this link for alternate endings that were proposed. Jyn and Cassian (or other characters) are being pursued by the Empire and decide to blow up their spaceship so they can't be tortured for information! Or they set off a bomb to put themselves in carbon freeze and aren't thawed out for years or decades, which explains why they're not in the OT! Feel free to bring in other OT or even ST characters to interact with.
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: who's secretly a traitor? Is Chirrut cold-reading people even without seeing their body language? Is K-2SO ignored by the humans even when he provides strategic analysis with 72.1% accuracy?
Farscape:
John Crichton & Zotoh Zhaan
Feel free to bring in any other characters you want, I just think these two are neat in their parallels as peacemakers and scholars.
Anathem (Neal Stephenson) AU
Arctic (or Antarctic) Research Station AU
Characters are aware they are characters but are also themselves (Thursday Next AU)
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
Anathem: maybe they meet at a Convox? John is irreligious like Raz and Zhaan is a Matarrhite? Does D'Argo practice vale lore? Will Rygel eat anything, even food from another cosmos? Are humans the "more Platonic" versions of the violent Sebaceans?
Arctic/Antarctic research station AU: they're both nerds who would make the most of their research, but maybe succumb to cabin fever on occasion. Does John snap and make pop culture allusions no one understands? Does Zhaan pray or meditate to get through the long night? Or what happens when she sees the sun for the first time in months and can't contain herself?
Characters are aware they are characters: John compares himself to a bunch of fictional characters already, would he just sigh and be like "figures, that's my luck"? Or try to find a way to sneak into other franchises and borrow some of their technology? (I'm currently in the process of reading the Thursday Next series and will be several books in by reveals, so feel free to cross over specific plot devices like SpecOps or Jurisfiction.)
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: there are several instances of "spot the impostor," I'd love to see some more game mechanics thrown in!
Wheel of Time (TV)
Feel free to bring in any other characters you want, I just think these two are neat in their parallels as peacemakers and scholars.
Anathem (Neal Stephenson) AU
Arctic (or Antarctic) Research Station AU
Characters are aware they are characters but are also themselves (Thursday Next AU)
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths
Anathem: maybe they meet at a Convox? John is irreligious like Raz and Zhaan is a Matarrhite? Does D'Argo practice vale lore? Will Rygel eat anything, even food from another cosmos? Are humans the "more Platonic" versions of the violent Sebaceans?
Arctic/Antarctic research station AU: they're both nerds who would make the most of their research, but maybe succumb to cabin fever on occasion. Does John snap and make pop culture allusions no one understands? Does Zhaan pray or meditate to get through the long night? Or what happens when she sees the sun for the first time in months and can't contain herself?
Characters are aware they are characters: John compares himself to a bunch of fictional characters already, would he just sigh and be like "figures, that's my luck"? Or try to find a way to sneak into other franchises and borrow some of their technology? (I'm currently in the process of reading the Thursday Next series and will be several books in by reveals, so feel free to cross over specific plot devices like SpecOps or Jurisfiction.)
Werewolf/Mafia Game Played With Real Deaths: there are several instances of "spot the impostor," I'd love to see some more game mechanics thrown in!
Wheel of Time (TV)
Egwene al'Vere/Mat Cauthon (WoT TV)
Egwene al'Vere/Perrin Aybara (WoT TV)
Egwene al'Vere/Perrin Aybara/Mat Cauthon (WoT TV)
Perrin Aybara/Mat Cauthon (WoT TV)
Soulmates -- as in "The Luminaries" (Eleanor Catton)
Wheel of Time: Different Two Rivers character is the Dragon Reborn
Canon is actually an RPG: I feel like this would be a perfect explanation for the ta'veren's unique powers and tendency to be at the center of the narrative. Maybe the GM has ideas for which characters are fated to get together and the players are like "actually, we have our own ships."
Soulmates--as in "The Luminaries": The idea here is that when two people were born under "the same sky" (same place and time), they're astral soulmates--and the first time they sleep together, it creates a bond, such that when one is shot or overdoses, the other feels the effects. This could tie in well with the existing focus on bonds and "oh, the Pattern has decreed you share a destiny." Also, canonically, they're so close in age that Moiraine doesn't know who's the chosen one--what if two or three of them had the exact same birthday and now have a bond that even the Aes Sedai don't understand, and have to figure that out along with all the other plot shenanigans? And/or, what if Rand had also slept with one/several of them, and it didn't trigger a bond, and that was the first clue that he wasn't actually born in the same place as the others...?
Different Two Rivers character is the Dragon Reborn: How would this play into Mat's refusal of the call? Perrin's guilt and fear about killing his wife, as an early precursor to his madness/breaking the world? Siuan's line about "ugh, this would be so much easier with a woman we knew how to train" while Egwene is on the other side of the continent in damane captivity? Nynaeve looking at everyone else like "I may be doomed by the narrative but at least I don't have relationship drama"?
--
Again, this is all optional, feel free to use as much or as little as is helpful. I look forward to reading your story!
