I hope you find something that inspires you in this letter. If you enjoy a less-is-more prompting style, please feel free to only use my AO3 signup details! This letter is meant to give you a jumping off point if you’d like one; reading it is 100% optional.
The medium spotlights are opt-ins that I have a lot to say about--likes, ideas, and tutorial links if those are of interest to you. These sections are presented only if you'd like to read them; and they aren’t the only mediums I’m requesting! All of my medium opt-ins can be found in the left-hand column of each fandom request. If you’re on mobile, medium opt-ins will be found before the prompts.
+ Shenanigans. I love when characters have bright ideas and then get up to No Good. I am thrilled to read about the fallout of these shenanigans. Please give me as wild a shenanigan as you want to go. Second-hand embarrassment is amazing. I love the feeling of reading through my fingers, or gently saying "oh no" when characters make Very Bad decisions.
+ Slow (Emotional) Burns. Characters taking a while to learn/figure out that someone else also likes them in my jam. This in no way precludes characters from having sex. In fact, I love characters who have sex--repeatedly!--and then have the emotional awareness to genuinely wonder, “do you think they could possibly like me back?”
+ Canons, but with sex. If I request a ship in a canon, I am 100% down to read a version of that canon’s missions, adventures, cases, or problems...but also with sex.
+ First times. Get-Togethers. For requested ships, I love when I get to see characters fall in love, or tumble into bed for the first time, or experience that first moment that makes them seek each other out. I am far more excited about get-togethers than established relationship fics.
+ Original Works that are plotty. I really enjoy when original works come with a heaping side of whatever kind of problem you want to throw at the ship or character.
+ Case fic (or mission fic). If you’re interested, you could write mysteries for any of the requests in this letter. I love mysteries so much. From the simple-to-solve rather mundane cases (“who ate the last of the cheese?”) to the conspiracy-spanning ones (“unicorns are actually a plot to invade this reality.”)
I consider everything on this list extremely optional.If you're interested in writing smut for the pairings I've requested, please feel free to write what you think works best. If you'd prefer just to write a kiss and then a fade-to-black, or a curtain falls, I'm very okay with that too. Most of the pairings I've requested are rare. I'd be thrilled just to read a fic where they share the same air and maybe look at each other. If you'd like some guidance on what I enjoy, please read on!
+ A variety of different sex acts. Frottage, Intercrural, Blowjobs, Handjobs, Fingering, Rimming, Anal Sex. Masturbation. Mutual Masturbation.
+ Fucking in odd semi-public places! Sex on rooftops, stairwells, bathroom stalls, abandoned buildings, vaults, dungeons, crypts, monuments, weird technological remnants of ancient civilizations are all fabulous. Characters pushed up against walls. Characters having sex in moving vehicles.
+ Kinks that play with the border between fear & desire. Fights that become fucking. Characters that are trying to kill each other… and decide to resolve their differences by fucking instead. Anonymous sex. Identity play. Non-negotiated Kink. Kink that isn’t safe or sane.
+ Orgasm Denial. Edging. Ruined Orgasms. Shitty, Awful Sex. Interrupted Sex. One character falling asleep after sex. Only one character getting off.
+ Dubious Consent. I enjoy dubcon where both requested characters are coerced by external events/people/situations like fuck-or-die, or precursors-made-them-do-it, etc. Sex where characters aren't into it at first, but are fully onboard by the end.
+ Voyeurism. Sex in Semi-Public Places. One half of a ship watching the other with a third party, or by themselves.
- Sexual situations involving anyone younger than 16.
- Mpreg, pregnancy, or Omegaverse.
- Genderswaps or gender changes to requested characters.
- Noncon.
- Fic that mainly focuses on characters' encounters with prejudice. This includes fic that is mainly about characters experiencing or reacting to biphobia, homophobia, acephobia or transphobia; racism, sexism, misogyny, etc.
- Unrequested Crossovers.
- Requested characters dying permanently.
- Fauvism.
Additional Fandom-Specific Do Not Wants (DNWs)
Original Work Solo-Specific DNWs: gore; sexual content; original characters named Matt or Matthew
Original Work Ships-Specific DNWs: sad/unhappy endings; miscommunication plots leading to accusations of cheating/infidelity/breakups between requested characters; original characters named Matt or Matthew
Exchange Animal Fandom-Specific DNWs: gore; graphic violence; sexual content
His Greatest Adversary Yet-Specific DNWs: downer endings, no powers AUs
Shenanigans • solving puzzles • treasure chests full of shiny objects/loot • slice-of-life descriptions & illustrations • gentle sunsets • voxel/hexel/isometric descriptions & artwork • characters sitting on high places (bridges, cliffs, houses, etc) • rain & stormy seas (and the undersea life that is affected by neither) • phases of the moon • Large, dusty tomes • cute animals • characters who are trapped in dangerous situations • For characteres whose genders aren't specified, I love reading fic about all genders & identities • prefer they/them pronouns for NB characters
Gore; sexual content; original characters named Matt or Matthew
General Prompts • • •
+ Time travel! Someone gets stranded out-of-time, and they have to find their way back home. I enjoy quests to return home, adventures in far-away times or places, and general wonderment (and fear) that such a journey might create.
+ Magical realism! Where the world is more magical and unusual that the one that we come from. Frogs can opine about the bad weather and plan for a new Frog Home; Adventuresome Squids can inherit a magic sword and take up a quest to free their squad from the predations of a school of sharks.
+ Straight up Magic. I’d love to read a magic-is-real adventure, and where it might take the protagonist in a world where magic isn't run-of-the-mill or is outright disbelieved!
+ Crossovers between solo character tags! What if a garbage-tier magical item came into the Queseting Knight's life? What if an Adventurer Whose Magic Stopped Working had to rely on the garbage-tier magical item in a pinch? What if a questing knight just wanted to get a nice night’s rest, but kept being besieged by beds with spring-loaded axes, magical enchantments, and extremely inconvenient doppelgangers trying to steal his life? I’d love to read a magic-is-real adventure, and where it might take the protagonist.
Character-Specific Prompts • • • (click a ship to expand!)
+ Garbage-Tier Magical Item. Give me your crappiest, most garbage-worthy magical items. Find one that you like at a random item generator? I'd love to hear about how it helped (or failed someone) in a dangerous situation.
Maybe the garbage tier magical item will eventually be eaten by a mimic, who will be very happy with it.
Setting ideas: Fantasy, urban fantasy, anything that you think would be spruced up by a little magic!
For this request, I enjoy books, orbs, knives, spears, cloaks, journal entries, epistolary fic.
A D V E N T U R E S.
Being trapped in small spaces!
You know those scenes where a giant mechanism closes, sealing off a character inside, and their torch begins to dwindle? This is the moment that usually someone feels like they're going to get eaten by some terrible creature or beast that lives inside of the dungeon. That's where I'd love if you began a story. :D
Likes: puzzles, ancient temples, mechanisms that seem incongruous to their surroundings; survival narratives; escaping from 'inescapble' situations; escaping from places that had a way out all along, but the adventurer stopped themselves from looking for an exit in that place because they thought it wouldn't be there.
+ Adventurer Trying to Discover a New Form of Magic Because Their Spells Stopped Working.
How did the adventurer lose their magic, and why are they determined to get it back? Is magic a big part of their positive self-identity? Or is it what they think that they bring to a group dynamic? Or is it even more fundamental than that; that the adventurer can't imagine a life without [magic]? The adventurer's motivation is entirely up to you!
What does the adventurer need that magic for, anyway? Do they have a goal that requires magic? Or are they just too set in their ways to switch careers now?
Bonus points if the adventurer resorts to seeking out forgotten types of magic, or straight-up tries to invent new magic from first principles.
And if all that fails, there's always a garbage-tier magical item waiting to be used! :D
Sidebar: due to the many typos in previous versions of this prompt, will also read a fic about an adventurer whose magic stops working because their spelling is atrocious.
+ Questing Knight Who Encounters Increasingly Deadly Traps When He Seeks Accommodation.
(This prompt is inspired in part by the Arthurian tale The Knight of the Cart, where Lancelot experienced harsh treatment from his hosts and an assortment of deadly traps beds that he wasn't supposed to sleep in.)
For this prompt, I'd enjoy reading about a knight just wanting to get a decent night's sleep, and finds himself beset by deadly traps.
I'd also enjoy reading about a knight who wants a decent night's sleep BUT ALSO has not a lick of sense in him, and he constantly chooses to sleep in forbidden places/cursed beds/hostile courts and wonders why LIFE IS SO HARD FOR HIM.
I'd also be interested in a knight has made some small, innocuous gaffe and it follows him around wherever he goes and leads to PROBLEMS SLEEPING. (e.g. he sits in the wrong chair in court, and now suddenly people are lining up to murder or imprison him for the ruler's honor.)
Any permutation on this prompt would be wonderful to read. :D
Traps could be realistic ones, magical ones. They could be set by his enemies who are trying to keep him from his ultimate goal (rescuing a queen? discovering a captured fairy knight?). The knight could be specifically cursed by something he chose to do.
If you want to draw inspiration from Arthurian works, I'm a huge fan of Chrétien de Troyes, Marie de France, the Gawain Poet, Mark Twain, Tennyson. If you want to draw on a historical canon for ideas, please stay away from crossing over with other canons. I'm interested in original characters/worlds. (Crossovers with other nominated solo characters are still okay!) I'm here for a knight in a world of your creation. If you want to do historical research for this prompt, I'm here for that too. Though none is required at all. I enjoy invented detail as much as historical detail! :D
Art Likes • • •
+ Your style! I would love to see what you would like to create for these characters! I'm into all kinds of art styles: chibis, sharpie sketches on napkins, stick figures, CG, voxel artwork, crayon drawings, abstract art. If you're inspired to make something, I'm excited to see it!!
+ Ikea-style illustrations. Ikea-style garbage-tier magical items with helpful ideas about how to deploy said item. Ikea-style deadly bed/inn traps. Ikea-style how to learn magic instruction manual!
+ Historical art pastiches. Some art styles I dig are: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Shin Hanga, Symbolist Painting, 1930s Magazine Covers, and the De Stijl movement, but there’s hardly an artist or art movement that I haven’t enjoyed (barring my one DNW, Fauvism). I also enjoy pastiches of the style of other canons I’ve requested.
+ Untitled Goose Game Pastiche or Crossover. Art that looks like Untitled Goose Game would be so rad! Goose shows up in a dungeon, completely ready to roll against the monsters therein. The Questing Knight moves from inn to inn, but he can't seem to shake this feathered interloper. Somehow (possibly using a miniature reverse-scuba suit), a Squid and a Goose meet and decide to do crime together.
+ Narrative maps. I’d love a map that details a character's exploits development, whether allegorical, or a map of their world, with notes scribbled with the margins. Where do the characters go? What do they see? Where do they battle the forces of unimaginable evil?
+ All kinds of color palettes. Limited color palettes. Vaporwave color palettes. Dusk/sunset color palettes. Rainbow color palettes. Lo-fi color palettes. Some additional favs are: gold, black and white; red, white, black. I also love palettes pulled from Julie Dillon paintings. (If you're making emoji, feel free to pick whatever colors work best! I have a slight preference for colors that show up nicely against the Discord Gray theme, but anything that helps details stand out when the emoji is small is good!!)
+ Any of my art likes from previous letters that don’t violate the Original Works:Solo DNWs. Basically anything from my previous prompts that isn’t about sexual content is desired here!
Some Opt-In Ideas • • •
+ Bestiary. The many types of garbage-tier magical items that seem to flourish in dungeons, no matter how many of them you clear out! The various types of bed traps that one can find out in the world, as compiled by our VERY weary Questing Knight.
+ Coat of Arms. I have such a fondness for medieval rolls of arms. If you'd like to design a coat of arms for any of my solo requests, I'd love to see it!
Some possible ideas: A garbage-tier magical item becomes a Peer of the Realm, and is given a coat of arms? An adventurer trying to find a new form of magic getting a new coat of arms to feature their super-effective magic, only to have it completely fizzle out? How optimistically do they keep rebranding themself? (Or do they just scratch out the old magically thingamabob in the middle and write NOT WORKING on it.) A questing knight gets his coat of arms...only to discover that they just seem to enrage literally everyone around him? To the point of several near-misses on his life?
I love seeing the coat of arms, in-universe documents about them, and reading meta about what the arms mean! I'm always excited to read a heraldic blazon, but I'm also just equally into reading documents about the coat of arm's design (like correspondence between the grant of arms/person requesting the grant, or the person requesting "corrections" to their coat only for the artist to be like "this lightning bolt: it means magic!! deal with it").
+ Weapon Schematics, or more generally any kind of schematic or informational art. I super-love art that has been labeled with little jokes/important features of the item or person in question (including where to pet memes). I love schematics that let us know how to use our everyday, ordinary objects that seem to resist conventional explanation (WHAT part of the garbage-tier magical item is used for stabbing; it's different than what you'd expect! :D). You can cross your artwork over with infographics if you have a lot to say!!
+ Recursive fic or sequel to previous gifts for me. A few Fic in a Boxes ago, I received several incredible Garbage-Tier Magical Item gifts:
I would love to receive sequels to these works, or anything that expands the worldbuilding of these very charming settings! I'm so curious about the magical items themselves: the dagger and the drawstring bag. If you wanted to draw these items, that would be wonderful!! I'm half-imagining something simmilar to D&D item cards, or warning labels/posters, or anything else that you might be inspired to make!
[NOTE: Two of these works are by authors with recursive fic permissions in their ao3 profiles, but the third is anonymous, so that one might have to be left up to the creator who originally made it!]
+ Maps. Adventure maps; treasure maps; allegorical maps; D&D-style dungeon maps; cloropeth maps showing the number of Adventures or Dangers or Magical Items occur in a given area--there's such a lovely array of things you could make for these tags! I always enjoy a good narrative map that has notes, scribbles, and other kinds of annotations from the map-owner on it, to let us know what they really think of an area.
sad/unhappy endings; miscommunication plots leading to accusations of cheating/infidelity/breakups between requested characters; original characters named Matt or Matthew
General Prompts • • •
+ Confronting an enemy/rival! Someone gets stranded out-of-time, and they have to find their way back home. I enjoy quests to return home, adventures in far-away times or places, and general wonderment (and fear) that such a journey might create.
+ Wainscot Fantasy! The world is more magical and unusual that the one that we come from, and all of this information is kept as secret as possible. No one actually expects to encounter the supernatural/divine/magic creatures until they actually do. That’s when the trouble starts… What I enjoy the most about wainscot settings is when one character thinks they know what the world is like, and then get proven that the world is infinitely more complex, weird, frightening and amazing than they’d thought.
+ Trapped in an castle/magic forest/cave/whatever location is most appropriate for the pairing. I love “trapped in an x” types of fics. Whether the area they’re trapped in is small (like an elevator or cave) or it’s magical (magic forest), or it’s being trapped by obligation (the castle, or a peace talk for a new king)... I like when one half of the ship is forced to contend with the other half, and their relationship maybe grows faster or quicker or more intense than it otherwise would have.
+ Pining! Pining narratives are fantastic, especially when it’s mutual. (And especially when it seems to the perspective character that their affection could never be returned for a host of very good, and very detailed reasons… that are pretty much not true, because the other half of the ship is pining right back.)
+ Miscommunications. I enjoy miscommunications plotlines! I enjoy plotlines when a five minute conversation would clear up a whole host of issues, but characters are too embarrassed/politically compromised/their jobs are too important/their worldview depends on them not asking or saying what they need. Generally the type of miscommunications that I’m into are bad assumptions made about the other person’s emotional state, e.g. “we had sex, and I’m sure he didn’t enjoy it!” I’m here for the full gamut of miscommunication-type foibles, but please avoid the miscommunication DNW I have.
+ Bestiary. So many of these requested pairings have supernatural origins/creatures in them. I love compendiums of creatures, with or without pictures. And I'd love to see a shippy take on the bestiary. The Fallen Angel sending the Knight a document of the denizens of hell, because he keeps rescuing assholes that try to kill him? The Ronin spends his days in the forest making sketches & classifying the tengu, to try to find the one that he remembers from years ago? The Fake Psychic is scribbling down the cosmic horrors that the supernatural being in the tarot desk in showing them? Feel free to include marginalia where the characters talk to each other, if you wish!
Ship-Specific Prompts • • • (click a ship to expand!)
+ Devout Knight/Fallen Angel He Accidentally Rescues. A knight is returning to his home after time away fighting in another realm. He rescues someone who he sees stuck in a fairly mundane problem, and thinks nothing of it… until he sees the enormous incorporeal wings yawning behind them.
Or a more Arthurian twist: a knight prays for salvation (and his soul) on the way to achieve the grail. Before he reaches the grail castle, he comes across a strange tableau of an angel in chains-- which he assumes is a hallucination or a heavenly trial. He unchains the angel … only to discover that whoops, no, that wasn’t a trial. That was a fallen angel he just rescued.
What I love about this pairing is a believer meeting things that they believed was evil, forbidden, wrong… and then having to contend with his worldview being incongruent with what he meets. I also love cosmic entities/angels that are confined in physical bodies that they might not completely understand or like.
I don’t have any expectations about whether the fallen angel is good, bad, evil, chaotic, cranky, a bastard, scheming, friendly, whatever! I have loved all permutations of fallen angels that I’ve encountered. Some fallen angels I’ve enjoyed have been those in Constantine, Supernatural, Lucifer, Gabriel (2007), The Prophecy.
If you’d like tropey prompts, consider:
+ A knight rescues a fallen angel. By angelic custom, they’re now married.
+ The knight is trying to prove himself worthy. He rescues everyone who asks his help. Someone bids for his help, and he agrees before he knows what he’s agreed to. Next thing he knows, he’s in hell/a fantasy realm, having to fight his way to free his charge.
+ Accidental soulbond. After rescuing the fallen angel, the angel departs--only to discover that they now know whenever the knight is in danger, and feel the pull to go rescue him before it's too late.
+ Questing Knight/King Cursed to Be Made of Glass A new king takes the throne, and he’s immediately cursed by a rival (another ruler who he'd offended in his youth? a jealous rival for the throne? a brother who wants the new king's reign to be short?). The king's advisors urge him to respond, but how bad can one little curse be, really?
The dynamic that I'm excited for in this prompt is the knight and the king not being able to touch each other. Whether the king is glass all of the time, some of the time, or progressively becoming glass is up to you. I'd be excited by the king being untouchable, or that the glass curse will kill him when it reaches his heart/head or any number of body horror permutations that you can think up.
I’d love to see a tropey take on this pairing, if you’re game for it!
Some possible prompts:
+ Questing knight arrives at the court, and everyone celebrates because they think he's there to break the curse. The knight already has another quest! He has no such plans to de-curse the king.
+ The king has to set out on a quest to rid himself of the curse. While he's in disguise on the road, he encounters the questing knight. Identity play, Enemies(or rivals)-to-lovers, sharing a bed, touch-starved, or other kinds of dynamics where the knight and king can't touch would be amazing.
+ Exchanging gifts. I love if you borrowed the gift-swapping game from Gawain and the Green Knight. The knight and the king promise to swap gifts for whatever they receive during the day. Does the game go well? Or are the gifts so insulting, it results in weird fallout, and the knight has to marry the new king to compensate for his actions.
+ A slow burn direction would be fantastic too! The questing knight traveling far and wide to break the curse, only to return with the turn of the seasons...before he sets out again. Maybe he only sees the king at major tournaments, or festival days, and the relationship between them grows as the king recognizes that the knight will never give up hope of lifting the curse.
+ A quest but metaphorical. I've been positing the kinds of quests that involve the knight traveling to far-flung places, but what if the curse-breaking (and the questing) are mental? Or on a dreamscape? Or confined to the library? Or other kinds of journies that are more metaphorical and literal. I'd love to have the king and knight under the same roof, and watching their romance spark.
Historical settings, fantasy settings, secondary world settings are all pretty great. A medieval/Arthurian flavor is always appreciated, if you have similar tastes, but I also equally love Renaissance & Early Modern settings. Victorian settings. Fantasy settings that encapsulate what you enjoy about fantasy, and gets rid of that pesky problem of historical research are also very appreciated. For this prompt, I'm not so keen about space/sci-fi settings, but I suppose I could be talked around if there's a lot of flowing robes and pomp & circumstance!
If you have entirely different ideas for why the king is cursed, I'd love to hear your take on this prompt. Please draw from your own interests if you've already gotten some clever ideas.
+ Horny Artwork in a Haunted Church/Male Exorcist
I really, really love exorcists. And I'm extremely down for the Horny Artwork to get some.
I'm thrilled by any backstory you'd like to invent for the horny artwork. Did someone commission the horny artwork in the church, or did the artwork itself become horny having to spend so many years hanging around celibate priests? What kind of shape is the exorcist’s faith in, given these goings on – has he ever dealt with the supernatural (and/or a real demon before)? What's causing the haunting? Is it a ghost, a demon, or is the artwork itself cursed? What are the manifestations of this haunting?
(If the horny artwork is being haunted by a ghost or demon, I wouldn't mind you making this a backdoor into another exorcist/demon ship. I just want any entanglement that happens between the horny artwork (or the being haunting it) to eventually be consensual, even if it starts out rather dubiously so.)
I love all permutations of how this ship could happen: initially fearful/hostile interactions that become respect/affection/sex. Or, the exorcist and the demon don't like or understand each other but have to work together anyway, because they both agree that the demon needs to get back to hell.
I enjoy scenes where something Obviously Supernatural is going down (and the exorcist can tell that something that isn't right is happening), but the person they're reading for is completely obvious to the Supernatural Things happening.
Temporary character death/resurrection is a big YES from me for this prompt, if you want to head in that direction. Here are some short ideas that I'd like to throw out there as prompts:
+ Horny artwork starts sending dire warnings to the exorcist while he is reviewing the church. They've maybe never seen a real haunting before, so usually they barely pay attention to what "supernatural" things are going on. But...it starts to get unsettling enough that the exorcist is paying attention. (Bonus points if it's a priest or paritioner that notices the warnings first!)
+ The exorcist is gung-ho about destroying haunted church because it's HOPELESS and EVIL, and then has no idea what to when he realizes that the horny artwork just seems like him, except its demonic instead of heavenly.
+ The exorcist struggles with an attraction to the entity possessing the horny artwork, after he realizes that the ghost/demon saved him once before.
Some Extra Likes for this pairing:
Sympathetic monsters/villains
Death wishes or otherwise reckless behaviour
Suppression of emotion & shame
Characters being assholes because they don't know how to process their own trauma/emotions/feelings
Characters that have a great chemistry, whether it's romantic or antagonistic or friendly, so long as they get under each other's skin
Bondage; consensual sexual violence and pain; fight-fucking. Fighting that was supposed to be fighting and then became fucking. Choking. Breathplay.
Religious kinks about wrestling with desire vs. a vow of chastity that come into play if the exorcist is a priest.
The horny artwork manifests physically to the fake psychic as a character from the artwork.
The horny artwork manifests physically to the fake psychic as a character from the painting to warn the psychic of another, hostile entity also manifesting. The psychic is worried. (Also, horny artwork, how is this helping if you're just going to be incredibly hot and distracting??)
+ Ronin/Bored Tengu.
I love this pairing mainly based on this woodblock print of Kintaro being thwarted by some Tengu who are hidden up a tree. Tengu are demons that have all kinds of guises. I love the large, monstrous bird version of tengu, but I'm here for any ideas that you may have about their appearance. I am interested in any kind of tengu, or you to borrow any details from popular folk tales. I am most delighted by tengu that are overcome by their curiosity and are easily deceived by people.
In certain folkloric practice, there's a distinction between good vs. bad tengu. I leave it in your hands to decide which to write about. Some of my favorite kinds of characters tend to be anti-heroes, or characters that defy easy classification as good or bad (usually because they do "bad" things towards a good or neutral or selfish purpose). I greatly enjoy redemption arcs, seduction arcs, and arcs where characters just kinda accept how the other person is. If you wanted to write about a "bad" tengu who comes around to being less of an asshole, or to trying to be good over the course of your fic, I'd be delighted! I also enjoy arcs where a "good" character is seduced to break their vows, so I'd love to see a "bad" tengu in a plotline where a ronin is being tempted to give up his code of honor.
I'd be delighted if you wanted to set your fic in a historical era of Japan, but I'm also open to modern settings, and fantasy/sci-fi settings that are vaguely inflected by Japanese culture & customs.
Here are some prompts, which you're free to take all or only part of:
+ A tengu decides to (or gets tricked into a barter where he has to) seduce a ronin passing through a nearby village. To win the bet, and thus win an object it desires, a tengu has to do its level best to seduce a ronin into bed. The tengu is really not great at mimicking human courtship rituals, but he'll keep trying until the ronin has passed through the area and out of the tengu's sphere of influence. It would be amazing if the tengu, after being rebuffed, forgets the bet and is now focused on FUCKING THE RONIN. How many different ways does a tengu have to plead to get laid around here?
+ A ronin has been hired to defend a remote village against a tengu's shenanigans. The villagers importune the ronin--and manage to scrape together the money to hire him. The ronin arrives, ready to defending the village from an earthly foe...only to find out that the village's problems are supernatural. The ronin is stumped, but he was hired to do a job and he's not going to go back on his word.
+ In disguise as a priest. A caravan of pilgrims and priests hires a ronin to escort them to a holy site. The ronin agrees... and discovers that night after night, new troubles befall the caravan. The ronin lays a trap, only to discover one night that he's captured one of the priests in it. How much should he trust this priest? If he discovers the priest is a tengu, will the ronin keep his secret? Why does the tengu want to go to this holy site anyway?
+ Possession. Some tengu can possess human bodies, toward what end, remains up to the tengu's knowledge. A nobleman has been possessed, and his worried family has summoned a priest on the sly to try to rid him of this bad influence. A ronin is escorting a buddhist monk to the nobleman's estate...he is there to protect the priest, and nothing more. Except when he arrives at the estate, he finds himself immediately drawn into intrigues with the possessed nobleman. The ronin is torn between leaving (and violating his oath to the priest) and the strange attraction he feels to the tengu.
+ Church Painter Who May Be the Devil/Village Priest
This pairing seems to me to be all about a holy man being tempted either by his own desires or by an external force. I love the idea of a painter being hired by someone (someone in the parish? The Archbishop? The patron of the church?) to create something for the priest's church. Is the work the painter makes so lovely/disturbing/haunting that it leads the priest into sin? For this prompt, I'd enjoy reading about a religious man struggling to reconcile his desire with his faith. He can blame the desire on outside forces (the devil, his own mortal weakness, original sin, the object of his desire) but it's probably not actually the devil whose forcing him to be aroused.
...Or is it? I'm perfectly happy to read your take on this prompt where the church painter clearly isn't the devil but the lust-clouded priest just thinks of him that way--all the way through unreliable narration where we can't be sure the painter isn't the devil, and up to "The Devil vacations from Hell by painting churches into beautiful edifices." We've all got to have hobbies, right?
I'd also be really fascinating by reading the version of this story that's seen from the church painter's perspective! Is he just just a painter who's here to do his job, and finding himself drawn deeper into a strange attraction with the priest? Is the painter the actual!facts Devil that's here for [reasons], and the priest falling for him happens to be a weird, unintended consequence? Is the painter an angel, who's on earth for other reasons, trying to reach out to godliness while he's away from heaven?
There are many different directions to go with this prompt, from light to pretty dark...I'm really curious to see what you'd like to explore!
Specific Likes for this Prompt:
Pining, UST, and RST are all fantastic. One-sided pining while the other character is oblivious. Mutual pining because of chastity vows/seeming disinterest
Slow burns!
Renaissance Italy settings, and historical settings from 1400 onward. I love historical description, and if you'd like to do historical research, awesome! But I'm really just here for you to have fun with my prompts. No extra research is necessary.
Temptation narratives (and angst)
Chiaroscuro. Tenebrism. Baroque.
Technical discussions about art, if you're into the material side of painting/fresco.
Surreal, supernatural, and miraculous events. If you want the painter to create a supernatural painting, I am here for that.
If the painter really is the devil, I have a lot positive feelings about a version of the devil/Lucifer that isn't unrepentantly evil. Versions of the Devil that don't line up with traditional takes on him are some of my favorite takes on the character. The Devil being selfish or hurt/angry about his Fall: awesome! I'm also cool with versions of Lucifer where he's been one, or various other underworld gods and thus has traits or history specific to those deities. Or depictions where the Devil isn't responsible for mortals' sins; he's just their keeper in the afterlife. I'm basically here for whatever you'd like to explore with the Devil!
Smut Likes for this pairing: Wet dreams; dream/surreal sex; dubcon; religious-based shame, guilt, & humiliation; blasphemy during sex; characters getting off on a the sensuousness of a painting; masturbation; trying to reconcile sin with desire and then just giving in to lust; mutual masturbation; frottage; oral sex; anal sex; rimming; fingering; pain play; impact play; face-slapping; being so overcome with desire that either one or both characters in the ship masturbates in confessionals; sex in confessionals; reading penitentials for sexual inspiration; semi-public sex; sex on altars; ritual sex; crying during sex; interrupted sex; violent/hate sex; gentle sex is also good too!; clothed/unclothed; kinking on priest robes or other holy vestments
+ Surreal or emotional journeys depicted in artwork.
+ Kisses. Clinches! Do your best romance-cover-quality artwork or book cover! Passionate, dreamy, very cheating-to-the-camera poses! Shirtless love interests! Everyone shirtless! Streaming tresses. More fabric than a person should probably wear! Someone looking off into the distance in Deep Thought. I am a sucker for all of these things.
+ Characters staring forlornly at each other/in diptychs, separated by time or space.
+ Limited color palettes. Some favs are: gold, black and white; red, white, black. I also love palettes pulled from Julie Dillon paintings.
+ Characters staring into a beautiful sunset.
+ If I’ve put in an art like or request from another prompt that speaks to you, but you’d like to do it for an original work ship instead, I’m here for it!
Some Opt-in Prompts & Likes • • •
+ Card Game Reskin. I'd love to see card game reskins! They'd be lovely for any of my requested ships, especially if there's a strong visual element to the ship (like Ronin/Tengu or Church Painter/Village Priest). Card games that I'm familiar with: Coin Age, Love Letter, Fluxx, Werewolf (and One-Night Ultimate Werewolf), Sushi Go!, Gloom, Selfish, How to Human, Point Salad, Snake Oil.
For this medium, I don't consider bad or sad possible endings in a base card game to violate my DNW for "sad/unhappy endings" if I can ultimately arrive at a (reasonably) happy one through multiple plays. Some games revel in bad endings, like Gloom, and that's a-okay by me!
+ Conspiracy Board. Most of my requested ships have some (potential) supernatural angle to them, and a lot of my prompts focus on some kind of supernatural goings-on that needs to be investigated, or a character that has a secret identity. I love identity shenanigans. I'd love to see a conspiracy board that explores one half of the ship "????" their way towards discovering the other's secret identity. Maybe that church painter IS the devil! I CAN PROVE IT WITH ALL OF THESE WEIRD GOINGS-ON that I have documented meticulously on my corkboard. What? I'm sure this isn't unhinged behavior.
NB: conspiracy boards are invited for any ship, even if the idea of a conspiracy board hadn't been invented yet. Conspiracy codexes/rooms are welcome, as are completely ahistorical/4th-wall breaking conspiracy boards.
+ Interactive Fiction - web based. I'd love to see an interactive fic that features multiple possible endings/paths the ship could take! For this medium, I don't consider bad or sad possible endings in a game to violate my DNW for "sad/unhappy endings" if I can ultimately arrive at a happy one through multiple plays. Please feel free to pile on the bad/sad possible outcomes if it makes for a fun IF!
+ Isometric Rooms/Cityscapes. For my ship requests, you don't have to make these little rooms shippy, if you don't know how to manage both the ship tag & the artwork. I just would love to see some of the rooms that these characters might have. Is it where they live? A place they might stay during their adventuring? A lonely inn room on the road? A snowed-in manor or remote temple? The church or ruins at the end of a long quest? The vestibule where the horny artwork is hung? If you could imagine the scene from a fic you might read about these two, and then make a tiny room about it, I will love it 100% guarenteed. Other things I love: little slices/glimpses of characters' lives, acutaways of historical buildings, imagining what their furnishings and rooms might look like. (NB: I don't expect historical accuracy, if you're concerned about that!)
+ Narrative maps. I’d love a map that details a ship’s development, whether allegorical, or a map of their world, with notes scribbled with the margins. Where do the characters meet? Where do they fall in love? Where do they battle the forces of unimaginable evil?
+ Sequel To Previous Gift To Me By The Same Author. I have received some wonderful gifts for these tags over the years, and I would adore reading a sequel to them!!
Adorable birds, birbs, borbs, and more • boxes and what they contain • metafiction about exchanges • allegories about the creative process / symbolic adventures or quests about writing • solving puzzles • treasure chests full of shiny objects/loot • slice-of-life descriptions & illustrations • gentle sunsets • voxel/hexel/isometric descriptions & artwork • characters sitting on high places (bridges, cliffs, houses, etc) • Large, dusty tomes • being friends with cute frogs, cats, or squids • characters who are trapped in dangerous situations • For characteres whose genders aren't specified, I love reading fic about all genders & identities • prefer they/them pronouns for NB characters
+ Birb Trying Its Very Best To Finish A Gift! What kinds of setbacks keep cropping up to stop the birb from finishing their gift?
+ Solving mysteries! FIAB Birb has a dayjob, and it's solving mysteries. Low-stakes exchange mysteries and high-stakes mysteries like solving murders equally welcome!
+ Magical realism! Where the world is more magical and unusual that the one that we come from.
+ Crossover with OW tags like the Garbage-Tier Magical Item or A Writer Trapped in a Procrastination Allegory. What if a garbage-tier magical item came into the FIAB birb's life? What if they had to rely on the garbage-tier magical item in a pinch(-hit situation)??
+ Crossover/Recursive fic of Swaps Puzzle for the Swaps Swap. (NOTE: Both authors of the Swaps Puzzle have permission statements that allow recursive works!) Maybe the FIAB Birb has to help Metalls save the exchange?? Or help Thief of Corn sort out the swaps swaps?? Or is the FIAB birb secretly the pinch hitter who helps the exchange open on time every year? I'd love to see your take on how the FIAB birb fits into the Swaps Swaps worldbuilding.
+ Bestiary. The many types of boxes that exist for the birb to explore, and what they might contain therein: boxes to look out for; the kinds of boxes that contain prizes; and your regular everyday run of the mill presentless boxes. I love the idea of a box bestiary that's a bit like a mushroom identification guide book, complete with "WARNING: DANEROUS BOXES!! DO NOT GO NEAR THESE BOXES!!!" entries. Or BOX MIMICS that might try to devour the birb D:
Character-Specific Prompts • • • (click a ship to expand!)
+ FIAB Banner Birb I love this birb a whole bunch, and can't get enough of its sweet little face.
Setting ideas: Fantasy, urban fantasy, contemporary mystery-thriller--anything that you think would be fun! I love mixing genres. Putting the FIAB birb into globe-trotting adventure setting, or a 19th-century crime-solving setting, or a low-key noir setting, or a medieval quest setting...
Possible Adventures:
FIAB birb runs a writer's cafe. One day, they overhear someone who is about to embark on an adventure, and it's clear they're in over their head. FIAB birb decides to stow away in their belongings, and help them when possible from the shadows! If FIAB birb is successful, the writer will be none the wiser.
Being trapped in small spaces! You know those scenes where a giant mechanism closes, sealing off a character inside, and their torch begins to dwindle? This is the moment that usually someone feels like they're going to get eaten by some terrible creature or beast that lives inside of the dungeon. That's where I'd love if you began a story. :D
Art Heists and secret identities! I'm always a fan of artists who have secret identities; and worlds where animals have secret lives that they're conducting next to humans (but humans generally have no idea about the fantasy elements of their own world). What if the FIAB birb is secretly a renowned artist, but everyone thinks that they're just a bird? What might happen if a beloved artwork that they made was suddenly stolen? How might they recover their prized work? Who might they turn to for help?
Adventuring Likes: puzzles; survival narratives; escaping from 'inescapble' situations; escaping from places that had a way out all along, but the adventurer stopped themselves from looking for an exit in that place because they thought it wouldn't be there; abandoned/forgotten buildings or cities; remote locations, and bustling cities.
I'd be thrilled to receive fic for this prompt. A fic about an author struggling through an allegory of procrastination, with the FIAB birb as their guide to reach their writing goal would be amazing. Please feel free to pull inspiration from any of my adventuring/questing prompts.
The FIAB Birb Writing a "self-help" guide about procrastination. You be the sage guide this time! Tell us how to avoid procrastination with the most folksy tales, and the most elaborately crafted scenario; with bullet-points and actionable activities, if you'd like! Be as earnest or as tongue-in-cheek as you like; I love self-help writing guides so much.
A fic writer struggling with their inspiration gets wrapped up, somehow, in a crime! And the FIAB birb is there! Being kind of suspicious! Who would ever expect a bird to do a crime. And how, exactly, do you prove a bird's guilt??
Birb's map to safely escape Procrastination.You can take the allegory as literally, or as figuratively as you like. A map that shows off the stages of/types of distractions that lead to procrastination as allegorical places; or these types of procrastination could be literal, physical places they go (the swamp of despair; the quicksand of wank; the jetty of bad ideas that seemed really good at the time.)
Art Likes • • •
+ Your style! I adore seeing what kind of fanart you want to make!! Chibis, sharpie sketches on napkins, stick figures, CG, isometric artworks, crayon drawings, abstract art; I love all of it.
+ Style pastiches. Some art styles I dig are: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Shin Hanga, Symbolist Painting, 1930s Magazine Covers, and the De Stijl movement, but there’s hardly an artist or art movement that I haven’t enjoyed (barring my one DNW, Fauvism). I also enjoy pastiches of the style of other canons I’ve requested.
+ Hidden Object drawings. I'm such a sucker for where's waldo-esque puzzles and "find the hidden object" illustrations. If you're excited to make one, I would love to find that birb!
+ Narrative maps. I’d love a map that details a character's exploits development, whether allegorical, or a map of their world, with notes scribbled with the margins. Where do the characters go? What do they see? Where do they battle the forces of unimaginable evil?
+ 90s Throwbacks! Do you like vaporwave? Lisa Frank rainbow color palettes?? Gimme your 90s throwback arts, if you want to make them! A Lisa Frank rainbow landscape for the FIAB Birb would be out of this world!
+ Limited color palettes. Some favs are: gold, black and white; red, white, black. I also love palettes pulled from Julie Dillon paintings, sunset palettes, jewel-tone palettes, palettes inspired by Morrocan tiles.
+ Emoji-friendly palettes. If you're making emoji, I love emoji that show up great against the Discord Gray theme. I enjoy emojis with thick outlines, or yellows/light colors that show up well at small sizes.
+ Any of my art likes from previous letters that don’t violate the Exchange Animals Fandom DNWs. Basically anything from my previous prompts that isn’t about sexual content or graphic violence is desired here!
Some Opt-In Ideas • • •
+ Square User Icons and Emoji I love icons & emojis, and often use them interchangably. Some possible ideas: Birb in boxes! Birb popping from boxes! Birb enjoying gifts or presents. Birbs interacting with various creative media. Lo-fi birb. Birb listening to tunes, painting a landscape. Angy birb.
+ Action Figure Packaging Bio. I'd love to read the action figure packaging bio for the FIAB birb. Is this birb particularly fearless? Curious? Cunning? Slightly unnerving? I love media that likes to turn item advertising on its head. If you'd like some inspiration, I love itemLabel's whole deal. If you want to combine this writing opt-in with art, I'd be thrilled to see the Birb inside of packaging (or a glass container + label)!
+ Infographics. .
+ In-Universe Restaurant Menu. FIAB Birb running a writer cafe? An corner artist grab-and-go? A creative supply store that sells supplies (instead of food) in a menu. Menu for actual other birbs?? If you're wondering what kind of restaurant vibes you might want to explore, I love this twitter meme about running an upscale small plates restaurant for an elderly cat. I also love other kinds of advertising blurbs & worldbuilding around restaurants, if you'd like to delve into that!
+ Online Dress-Up Game. Dress that birb!! It's almost reveal days, what will FIAB birb wear? (Sparkly accoutrements? The despair of too many late nights? Fetching rainbow paint stains??)
If "so this is where I've chosen to lay my affection" was a canon
General Likes
Uniforms • heists & mission fic • slice-of-life descriptions & illustrations • drawings & descriptions of rooms, labs, towers, and other locations • Max's past crimes • Max's experience of the Deep • the social side of being a supervillain • identity porn, identity play and identity reveals • get-together fic • Happy or at least hopeful endings • Babbage • Warden Tower • Crab Friend
+ Coffee Date! How will Joseph conceal his identity from EVERYONE ELSE ON THE PLANET (or at least from this rooftop bar) so he can have a casual date with Max? What the heck is Joseph going to say to Max once he confronts him, knowing he's Doctor Nowhere?
+ Casefic. How I love nothing more than cases or crimes and the supervillains that cause them and the superheroes that try to solve them. I'd adore some casefic or mission fic for this canon, possibly set before His Greatest Adversary Yet. I love characters crossing paths before they officially "meet" in canon, even if they don't come face-to-face. What if one of Hexbeast & Max's early heists had been of sensitive scientific equipment that got the Wardens on their case? What if Joseph thought he was going to solve an easy case during some of his downtime, only to end up stumped at the end? (I enjoy canon divergence and AUs in addition to canon-compliant fic, so if want to have Max and Joseph meet, that would be amazing.)
+ Any idea that you have for this canon. If there are other tantalizing details that you'd like to pull out of the story, I'd be thrilled to know more about them/see art of them! Like we get all of these mentions of stuff happening in space, but it seems so far-off and remote to the average citizen. And then, bam, a space ship shows up to steal the Pacific Ocean. I'd love to see snippets, scenes, comics, or artworks of Joseph and/or Max reacting to these crises and/or saving the day, as the case may be!
Character & Ship-Specific Prompts • • • (click a box to expand!)
+ Maxwell Missing/Joseph Nayar.
Yes, hello, I would like to introduce you to Maxwell Missing/Joseph Nayar. Joseph Nayar is the Beacon, a retired superhero who has left the whole world guessing what happened to him when he suddenly disappears. He's like Captain America and Superman all rolled up into one. He can project barriers and walls in various shapes, and so far, has never met a match for his powers. Maxwell Missing is the bank robber who can walk through walls and almost bested the Beacon, one time. They're not nemeses. Max is pretty clear on that. Except for the part where he built a gun just to kill the Beacon, should they ever meet again.
Except they DO meet again. And it goes wildly different than Max could have ever expected.
I love this ship, and want the best things for them. I would enjoy shipfic or gen fic for Joseph and Max. I'd love to read basically anything you'd like to write about them and any and all art you might like to make of them.
I've given some specific prompts up above with accord with canon, but I'm also 100% down for tropey superhero nonsense. Fake dating! Joseph returns to the Wardens and now has to keep his relationship with Doctor Nowhere a secret! Supervillains saving their favorite superheroes! Maxwell Missing going to a welcome-back soiree thrown in honor of The Beacon and them running off to neck in the closet! Maxwell Missing infiltrating the Wardens? Or DEXA?
If you want to give me a remix on canon, that would be lovely too. What if Max and Joseph had met under different circumstances? What if they'd met earlier in their careers? WHAT IF TIME TRAVEL?? I'm here for all of it.
Possible Prompts:
+ Conspiracy Boards. What if, when Max was snooping around Joseph's house, he found a conspiracy board that was trying to track down Doctor Nowhere's identity? How would that have played out? Would Max have tried to plant false leads? Or perhaps be incensed if Joseph was attributing crimes to him that he didn't commit/overlooking the ones that he did?
+ Canon divergence What if Joseph and Max's first confrontation had ended--not in a maze to a sleeping-gas grenade--but to Joseph himself? What if Joseph had decided to retire because he had an inadvisable hookup with a supervillain who's face he never saw?
+ Coffee date but with an Identity Porn swerve! Joseph does NOT know that Max is Doctor Nowhere when he offers to see him at the Watchtower. What the hell happens if Joseph finds out when they're literally out on the town together, and a minor supervillain crashes their fun?
+ Maxwell Missing. So we get to see Max's crisis of (sexuality, supervillainness?, his own ability to hold a conversation??) in canon, but we don't get to see much of his history prior to this revelation. What drove Max to crime? Why did he choose crime over literally anything else? I'd love to hear more about his thoughts on The Deep, or what he'd like to do when he's there. Dream narratives are amazing.
I'm also a huge sucker for crafting. Wanna just show us what Max is making in his underground lair? I'm all for it. I love schematics, drawings of item collections, drawings of a workbench, plans or sketches or fully rendered interiors. You name it. I'd love to see more of Max's world!
+ Pre-canon heist(s). Doctor Nowhere, Hexbeast and Max and Mercury Man got up to some shit prior to canon, of that I am sure. Anything about their pre-canon crimes would be great!.
+ Attending crime soirees. One of my favorite things about superhero media is those ever-present parties, charity balls, soirees, dos, dedications and all of the other kinds of parties that get thrown. So what if those, but for the supervillain world? What would a supervillain social calendar even look like? Does Doctor Nowhere score the invites to a supervillain showing off their latest Warden-thwarting piece of technology? Please, write me anything about this.
+ Joseph Nayar. Give me any and/or all of those little vignettes about his life. His big save from the tsunami. Character studies of him with his adoptive brother & sister. A mission of him leading the Wardens. What made him so goddamn successful for 30ish years? I want to see more of that. Or, heck, something much more domestic! Joseph Nayar was a quasi-military man for three decades of his life. Max saw all of the tell-tale signs of a man who doesn't know what to do with his life now that he's "retired". So tell me all about it, if you want! I love slice of life domestic fic. I'd also just love to see where Joseph is living. I'm such a fan of modern architecture. I'd love to get a glimpse inside of his cabin. See the things on his desk(s) or lack thereof. See his pottery experiments.
The very unsuccessful identity stuff that Joseph is attempting...I'd love to see him try to meet up with a pottery group. It would probably have to be a VERY murky setting. Or maybe, some really thick sunglasses. xD
And if you want to serve me up Joseph riled up from his meeting with Max, I'd love to see what the heck he got up to before he received Max's call. Sad/angry/frustrated masturbating? Yes please. :D :D :D
Possible Prompts:
+ Temporary De-powering! What if Joseph's retirement had been caused by a temporary loss of his powers? How would his six months in solitude have looked differently? I love narratives about superheroes trying to regain their powers, especially if they don't quite understand the source of where their power comes from.
Art Likes • • •
+ Tarot or Oracle Card-inspired artworks. This is such a fun trend in Dragon Age: Inquisition art, and this would be RAD AS HELL here.
+ Faves in knitwear. Sweaters. Ugly sweaters. Cozy Sweaters. Christmas Sweaters. Fair Isle Sweaters. Yeah, idk, I just love characters in knitted or crocheted items. If you're familiar with any of the images that were being shared in the #cursed channel on the We Die Like Fen Discord, that's exactly my jam. If you weren't there, here is a sampling: 1, 2, 3, 4.
+ E-rated artwork. Anything involving any of my smut likes would be amazing.
+ Princess carry poses. Joseph rescuing Max? Max rescuing Joseph??
+ Joseph's blue glowing barriers.
+ the DEEP :D
+ TRAINING MONTAGE. Max doing parkour! Hexbeast slapping things with her tentacles! How does Joseph get in shape?? Superhero/supervillain training montages are awesome.
+ Hexbeast's scribbly neon eyes that float around her. Seriously, she is so cool. I'd love to see some character art of Hexbeast (tentacles visible or not is up to you!)
+ Isometric interiors of canon locations (drawn, voxels, 3D--however you'd like to make 'em!) I would love to see the interior of Joseph's cabin in the woods; or Max's fancy abandoned subway hideout. Maybe a section of Warden Tower? It's described as being very art-deco-y, and I'd love to see more of it!
Some Opt-In Ideas • • •
+ Any In-Universe Documents That Fit The Setting. I'm so hungry for worldbuilding details. Want to make mission reports, or complaint forms for the Wardens? In-universe magazine spreads during the frenzy of speculation about what happened to the Blue Beacon? Tabloid stories about the Beacon and what he's been up to? Please feel free to go wild!
+ Conspiracy Board. Joseph's conspiracy board about Doctor Nowhere's identity or crimes? Max's conspiracy board about what DEXA is doing with its Joseph-replacements. Some other fan's conspiracy board about Hexbeast's & Max's heists. An in-universe celeb watcher who TOTALLY knows what's happened to Joseph that none of the other networks would report??? There are so many possibilities in this setting. A superhero universe practically begs for weird, pet theories! Feel free to get as bizarre as you'd like.
+ Costume Design. A labcoat-inspired costume for Max, perhaps? Or a very trim tunic-like costume for Joseph? We get some descriptions about what they look like in canon, but I'd love to see the villain and/or hero aesthetic realized on the page!
+ In-Universe Infographic. Infographics about Joseph's superheroing career, or infographics about the crimes/disasters that the Wardens have averted during and after Joseph's leadership of the Wardens. Infographics about crime committed in the city? Where DOES all of Max's money end up. I'm not saying that Max would be vain enough to make infographics about his own crimes, but, well, he sure does have a lot of free time. xD
+ Maps that characters might have drawn at various points in canon. Maps to Joseph's "grave"; Map to or of Echo Lake, with helpful annotations. Maps from one of Hexbeast's heists. Max drawing a map of how he commits a crime. Serious, funny, silly maps are all welcome.
+ Playing Card. Warden themed playing cards? Villains and Superheroes as suits? I adore playing card design, so I'd be curious to see which cards you see each character as.
+ TTRPG rules. There are SO many options for a one or two-paged TTRPG set in His Greatest Adversary Yet. A heist-based game for Max & Hexbeast. What are they trying to heist? Money? Scientific equipment? Exotic matter?? Or, perhaps, Max breaking into Warden Tower.
For a shippy RPGs, maybe a duelling brunch based RPG where Max and Joseph are both trying to prepare for brunch, and stuff just keeps cropping up. Or an encounter-based RPG about their first meeting (the fight where Joseph traps Max in his maze) or their second meeting (Max lying very poorly outside of Joseph's cabin). Little turn-based map games geared towards easy combat or deception mechanics would be great. Oh no, what happens when they're brunching and Joseph catches Max out in his lies?? :D
NOTE ABOUT DNWs: for TTRPGs, I don't consider bad or sad possible endings in a game a "downer ending" if I can ultimately arrive at a happy one through multiple plays! Please feel free to pile on bad/sad possible outcomes if it makes for a fun game!
+ Weapon Schematics. Schematics to Max's phase educer. He sure went through a lot of trouble to make a weapon to kill the Beacon. I wonder what the annotations would look like on the schematics, before Max understood just how thirsty he was for him.
Hello, and welcome to the medium spotlights! These spotlights are on media that I have a lot to say about, so I decided to put all of that stuff in one place. These media are not the be-all, end-all of what I’m requesting. Spotlights include likes, ideas, and tutorial links. If you are interested in picking up a new medium for this exchange, I hope you will find the tutorial links useful! If you've never made a map, or a crest, or an emoji before, I'm absolutely thrilled by the prospect of you making one for me. :D
Reading these are completely optional! If you already know what you want to make me, feel free to jump right in.
Bestiary
Make tiny monsters come alive in book-format! Collecting all of the things!
I love the bestiary as a way to “collect” things. Just have a bunch of different things, as though they were assembled together in a book (like Medieval Bestiaries), or someone’s journal (like those monster-hunter manuals that would pop up whenever we got a gander at The Diary in Supernatural). I also love the kinds of bestiary where it’s clear that someone is collecting these creatures, whether they’re taking notes about them, Actually Collecting Them, just drawing them as they spot them, or taking snapshots of the Cool Critters They Have Seen.
While I’ve listed a bunch of bestiaries that are mainly drawn, I enjoy them just as much if they’re written compendiums of creatures, critters, beasts, or EGGS.
Things that I like from bestiaries:
Fantastical or surreal creatures. Cute critters!
A blatant disregard for anatomy & structure.
Medieval or medieval-pastiche book pages.
Pastiches of other genres/aesthetics. Ikea furniture manual meets bestiary?
EGGS. How I hunger for different colored and textured and styled eggs. Bird eggs. Monster eggs. Supernatural element eggs. Stone eggs. Jeweled eggs.
BOXES. Regular boxes. Chests. Treasure Chests. Trunks. Crates. Anything that is square that contains other things. :'D
I love playing card games! I play a lot of 1-2 player games, but also love bigger party-game type card games that are good with a group. Some of these games use A LOT of cards; if one of them tickles your fancy, but you'd like to only do a partial re-skin, I'm very open to that!
I enjoy games of deduction and deceit (Werewolf), drafting (Sushi Go), mysteries, puzzles, and games that you solve with clever use of the cards you have in your hand (Gloom, Cards Against Humanity, Fluxx). I'm very open to discovering new games, too, if you have one in mind for my requests!!
If you'd like to make printable game cards, I print on letter-sized pages (8.5x11 inches).
Coat of arms showcase a character, a house, a corporation, a city or a nation.
I enjoy coat of arms that take inspiration from the historical rules of heraldry, and then adapt them new, fun ways for modern use. Rules of heraldry may vary a bit from tradition to tradition, and I’m not overly fussed about whether you might want to adhere to them or not. Familiarizing yourself with heraldry might give you some ideas about why certain things are done in certain ways, such as shield divisions. Many free guides are available! And some coat of arms generators can give you some ideas, if you’re stuck. But please feel free to ignore all of this historical detail, and to follow your creativity wherever it takes you.
+ Any of the art movements I've gushed about would be amazing as a coloring page. (Including but not limited to: Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Priarie Style, Symbolist-inspired Designs, De Stijl.
I love designs that I can print out and color to unwind.
I’m a huge fan of small details from patterns, details, and abstract shapes. I’m also a fan of designs with big wide open spaces where I can choose to create my own details. Designs that borrow from abstract styles, geometric tattoos, and other kinds of art that blends realistic details with simple geometric shapes are my jam. So are stars, night skies, and solar system elements. And I will never say no to cute, silly, humorous designs. :D
I'd like to encourage anyone to make inforgraphics, even if they've never done it before. I love data visualization, charts, and data that tells a story. I will be thrilled to see what you create!
I've requested Meta Infographics for some fandoms, In-Universe Infographics for others, and just plain ole infographics in certain cases.
There are many types of infographics out there, and you might not know where to start. The Data Viz Project has a huge source of types of data visualization that might spark ideas for the kinds of data that could help create your infographic(s). And you don't have to go nuts about it either! I love simple types of visualizations as well as complex ones.
My favorite thing about infographics is a strong narrative element. For example, an infographic about the number of people that Blue Beacon has saved over his superheroing career--we only realize halfway through the visualization that it's Maxwell Missing disgruntled recitation of facts, and suddenly you realize that the data being presented in the inforgraphic is WAY more suspect than when we first started looking at it. That kind of thing is awesome! The unreliable narrator, but infographics is such a fun trope to play around with.
Isometric rooms are one of my favorite types of art. They're little dioramas of still lifes & interior design all wrapped up in one. You can see some beautiful examples of isometric rooms here: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. And here are some wonderful isometric cityscapes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. I'm also not too fussed about how literally you take the "cityscape" part. Single buildings are rad. As are natural landscapes done in this style: 1, 2, 3, 4.
I honestly don't care about perfect isometric perspective; if you like to draw in a loose style, don't feel like you have to nail the exact perspective. I love the small frames that create a sense of intimacy. I love all of the little details that evoke a sense of place. Any mood or tone that you want to give them is brilliant: cozy, friendly, mystical, mysterious, haunting.
I also love isometric rooms, cities, land and seascapes that are contained inside of a different kind of a frame (drink containers & terrariums are faves).
While I normally love lineart, for this style of art, adding tones or even flat color is greatly appreciated. They help me understand placement & separate individual objects from each other.
I love mandala designs that I can enjoy on their own merits, as well as mandala that are meant to be print out and colored.
Black & white mandalas, full colored mandalas. Gold and white on black backgrounds. Yes, yes, and yes.
I’m a huge fan of designs that blend the aesthetic of mandala & other meditative arts with the aesthetics from my requested canons & their aesthetics. I enjoy poring over designs and delighting in their small details. Patterns, intricate shading, and abstract shapes are all wonderful. I’m also a fan of designs with big wide open spaces where I can choose to create my own details. Designs that borrow from abstract styles, geometric tattoos, and other kinds of art that blends realistic details with simple geometric shapes are my jam. So are stars, night skies, and solar system elements. And I will never say no to cute, silly, humorous designs. :D
+ Maps that are based on any art styles from requested canons or Art movements that I love (e.g. Art Nouveau, Art Deco, De Stijl)
Exploration & A Sense of Place That's Been Lost.
Are you thinking of creating a map? Let me count the ways that I love thee! I would like to encourage you in your mappish-thoughts! The fandoms that I am requesting maps in share an element of exploration or a sense of place that’s been lost. What I’d love to see out of a map, even if that fandom already has a canonical map:
Things that struck YOU as being important (that maybe canon did not)
Maps that chart a character’s or ship’s journey
Colors, palettes, styles, and designs that evokes something from the canon
Maps that subvert my expectations. E.g. a tense and moody D & D style map for a canon character’s otherwise warm and welcoming home.
Allegorical maps about the [dangers of that canon]. Maps about the pitfalls of pining? Places where You Can Go Wrong when you are an author trapped in an allegory for procrastination.
Maps that you wish characters had. E.g. Map of Ancient Greece for Teucer where gods would like to Fuck You (Personally) Over, Pls Avoid.
If you are creating humorous maps, please lean into the joke. Don’t feel like you need to be constrained by reality, or the canonical places of things. Geographic accuracy not needed for maps set on Earth!
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