Dear Original Works Exchange Author
Aug. 16th, 2018 11:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
platinum_firebirdHi! First of all, thanks for taking a look at my letter! I’ve tried to give a few ideas and guidelines as to what I like here, but please don’t feel the need to stick rigidly to anything. If you have a story you just feel I’ll like, please go ahead with it!
Links: I'm Burning_Nightingale on AO3
Likes
General
I’m a fan of romance, adventure (especially quests!), casefic, plotty fic, fluff, gen, world-building and character studies. I am happy with any rating and any tone, from fluffy curtain fic down to pretty dark stuff. I usually prefer at least a bittersweet ending, though. I love fics that are realistic and I love stuff that’s tropey as all get out; go wild.
Some themes/tropes I really love include: characters fighting against/changing fate, everything about survival (what it means, how it changes you, the lengths you went to), the pressures and struggles of leadership, two people against the world together, found family anything, harsh/beautiful (or harshly beautiful) physical landscapes, gifts or gestures with intense or very personal meanings, anything where characters just get one another, characters who grapple with becoming evil or doing evil deeds, villains who believe they’re in the right, villains who just don’t care about morality, characters who are determined hope will prevail above all else, characters who really feel the weight of their heritage/someone's legacy and a pressure to live up to that.
I am also very into AUs and fusions, including: fantasy (urban, high, whatever), post-apocalypse, sci-fi/space, superpowers, Pacific Rim fusions, reincarnation, royal/arranged marriage
Relationship Themed Trope Likes
Seemingly Unrequited Pining, Friends to Lovers, Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings, Battle Couple, Everyone Can See It, Like An Old Married Couple
Porn Likes
I really love porn that’s about the characters and centres their relationship. Emotionally charged, desperate, I-need-you-it-can’t-wait sex is fantastic! Sex that’s the culmination of a slow burn and/or a really intense bout of UST is my absolute jam. I’m pretty vanilla when it comes to things like BDSM, so anything beyond blindfolds and tying up wrists is a no-go for me. I’m not really into dom/sub dynamics, but a bit of dirty talk is great. A bit of rough sex – hair-pulling, pushing up against walls, scratching/biting, not being 100% gentle all the time is also very good ;)
DNWs
Scat + watersports, excessive gore (injuries happening is fine, injuries dwelt on in loving detail is not), incest, underage, character-bashing, non-con, dub-con (excluding things like sex pollen/X made them do it scenarios), strict BDSM relationships, de-aging, humiliation
Requests
Everything Else Ships
Captive to Be Sacrificed to a Foreign God/Foreign God: The idea of being ripped from your homeland and taken to a strange place to be sacrificed for a god you don't even believe in gives me the shivers. Make it dark and have the story end fatally, or make it a bit brighter and have the captive escape and/or make a deal with the god? I want to know where the captive came from, what the land they're taken to is like, and who is the god that demands blood sacrifices, and why? How does the god interact with the captive - do they take on human form, or are they some kind of eldritch horror? I've ticked noncon for this box so feel free to have that happen - or the god isn't interested in hurting the sacrifice? Maybe their worshippers have misinterpreted the signs, and the god doesn't want human sacrifices?
Prince Who Should Have Specified "Human" In Rules/Monsters Competing To Win His Hand In Marriage: I love this tag so much and I have so many questions. Why is the prince having a competition for his hand, and how do the monsters get to hear about it? Why are they interested in winning his hand? Is he set to inherit a wealthy kingdom or important magical artefact that the monsters are interested in? Or is he just really hot? Are there any humans competing against the monsters? Maybe the monsters try flirting with the prince to improve their chances? And exactly what kind of competition is it, and what do they do to win? My kingdom for some monster/prince smut, though I'd strongly prefer it to be dubcon rather than outright noncon. If a monster eventually wins the competition and the prince has to do his husbandly duty on their first night together? I'd love the prince to be terrified at first but then get into the monster-fucking against his better judgement. Make the monsters anything you want - the weirder the better!
Gen
(Can you tell there's a theme to these requests?)
Magic Sword & People who are not suitable to be king: I'm thinking perhaps people know this is the sword of the king, and having it will support their claim to kingship, but the magic sword does not support them? Or maybe the sword is the one who picks the next king, and has a strange cast of people trying to talk it into picking them? How is each person not suitable, and how does the sword tell them/get them to leave it alone? Does it eventually find the true king?
Magic Sword that has found the future king & Guy who really really doesn't want to be king: This could feasibly be combined with the prompt above - after a series of disappointments, the sword finally finds the perfect king! Except this guy is much happier where he is, thanks. How does the sword go about convincing him? Is it a comedy where the sword bugs him constantly, or maybe something darker, where the sword has some kind of power to possess it's wielder?
Self-Aware Magic Sword & Its Various Wielders Through Fantasy History: I would love a series of vignettes about who the various wielders were. Go wild with the variation! What kind of weird characters have picked up the sword, what were their goals, and did the sword want to help or hinder them? Does the sword have certain prerequisites you have to fulfil before you can wield it? Do you have to be evil or good, or an elf/orc/halfling, or royalty?
M/M (Fantasy-style)
Deposed King/Still-Loyal Knight: The loyal knight is one of my FAVOURITE tropes, especially if he/she is loyal to a powerful Queen. I really love when the reasons for someone's loyalty are explored in depth, and characters with an unshakable loyalty are fascinating. Does the person they're loyal to value their loyalty, or exploit it? I would love to see both a knight loyal to someone who deserves their devotion or to someone who takes advantage of them. What makes them endlessly loyal, and how did they get there in the first place? Or perhaps their loyalty is tested, or reaches it's limits? And the king - why was he deposed, and does he deserve it?
Forty-Year-Old Virgin King/His Male Knight Who Wants to Gently Deflower Him: I think this tag is incredibly sweet and I super want fluffy hurt/comforty stuff for it. Why is the king a virgin - by accident or by choice? Maybe he's been waiting for The One, and he never came along? And the knight - older or younger? I'd love for him to be helplessly in love with the king and willing to do anything for him. Maybe the king is insecure about love/having never experienced sex, and somehow admits it to the knight, who is 100% here for helping him with this particular problem. Then they have passionate, gentle, loving sex, y/y?
Idealistic Newly-Crowned Young Ruler/His More Practical Adviser and Childhood Friend: I'm always here for childhood friend romance! Maybe the adviser has been trying to make himself a name away from the royal family for a while, but comes back to support his best friend in his new royal role? Maybe something he's been doing/somewhere he's been has given him his more practical perspective that contrasts with his idealistic king who's never really seen much of the world outside the palace/books? How do they balance their viewpoints and start working together to move their country forward - and how do they admit they're in love?
King Making an Effort Not to Pressure His New Husband/His Prince Husband Who's Very Into Him: I'd love if the King was also into his new husband, but conscious that this is an arranged marriage and with no wish to force himself onto someone. Maybe his husband gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks the King isn't attracted to him, and there's some angst before they eventually sort their feelings out? The circumstances behind their marriage would be interesting - who arranged the marriage and why? They come from different countries, so how are they different? Are their countries neighbours, or is the prince from very far away? I'd love it if the prince eventually just straight up demonstrated how into the King he is ;)
Very Attractive Knight/Gruff Male Armourer Forging His New Armour: The gruff armourer definitely doesn't have a crush on this handsome knight. Definitely not. Nope. There's no reason he's taking so long making this particular set of armour /perfect/. That's basically all I want from this prompt; the armourer falling for the pretty boy against his will, and the knight being oblivious right up until that moment he isn't (and then he's totally into it, because that armourer has a hot beard and muscles like /hot damn/) Your choice whether the armour is for serious combat or is more showy. Perhaps the armourer can also weave magic into his creations? I'd totally be up for some h/c where the knight actually gets hurt in a battle and the armourer feels guilty that he didn't make the armour good enough.
Victorious Human Warlord/Deposed Elven Prince: Human warlord forces elven prince into an arranged marriage to gain the prestige of his lineage/to gain royal status would be cool. This can either include dark noncon or have the warlord be mostly doing all this for the royal status, and then discovering he's into the prince along the way. Can these two ever make it work, even after the warlord conquered the prince's country?
M/M (Everything Else)
Regency Nobleman/Acquaintance He's Pining For Who's Fallen on Hard Times and Won't Ask for Help: How are these two acquainted and what's their relationship? How long has the nobleman been pining? Why exactly has the acquaintance fallen on hard times, and why won't he ask for help - too much pride? Embarrassed about why he's fallen on hard times? Is he in debt for something embarrassing? Does he eventually accept help, or does the nobleman force it upon him - and how does he react? How do they work things out?
Alpha/His Beta best friend who offers to "practice" sex with him in preparation for his future Omega: All the pining! How do they get to the point where the Beta makes his offer - maybe the Alpha is getting very insecure about not having found his Omega yet? I'd love if they have mind blowing sex and the Alpha begins to wonder....does he need an Omega if he has his Beta? I'd love the Alpha being worried about the Beta being able to take his knot and the Beta encouraging him to do it (and loving it).
Benevolent Vampire Who Works as a Doctor/Human Nurse Who's Just Realized His Secret: How does the nurse realize - what slip up does the doctor make? Maybe they notice a lot of little things and put them together? Or they catch the doctor helping himself to the blood bags in the hospital's cold storage? I'd love if the nurse freaks out about it and eventually gathers his courage to confront the vampire (maybe with a stake/holy water/garlic etc?) and the doctor is just amused and/or wants to reassure his friend that he has no bad intentions. How does the doctor ensure the nurse's silence?
Big bad with the flu/hero hellbent on reform via TLC: ALL THE CUTENESS. I don't mind what kind of setting you want to make this - modern, sci-fi, fantasy - or if you want to make the big bad's illness a really serious case of flu or just a mancold, I'm just here for the relentlessly optimistic hero determinedly playing out all the 'caring for the sick' tropes and the big bad being won over despite himself. I'd love if at the beginning the big bad is like a grumpy cat refusing to be coddled, but he gets so miserable that he ends up being grateful for the hero's care, and then finds himself hopelessly in love despite himself.
Snarky jaded male supervillain/Adorably optimistic male superhero: I would love the supervillain going from irritated to exasperated to fond to unwillingly but hopelessly in love. The superhero just never gives up, never stops smiling - how??? I would love the superhero being determined that they're not going to give up until the supervillain turns good and the supervillain being endlessly amazed at the superhero's optimism and stubbornness. Bonus for a supervillain who feels like he's not worthy of love and trust but craves both from the superhero anyway.
Mixed Gen & Ship
Victorious King/Son of Conquered King to be Sacrificed to His Country's God & Father Forced To Watch: My general idea for this was the victorious king nonconning the hell out of the son of the conquered king, potentially because it's required for the ritual to sacrifice him for the country's god. The victorious king being a dick about it and hurting the son while making the father (and potentially a whole crowd of people?) watch would be great. Up to you whether the son gets sacrificed at the end or if there's a twist where the god intervenes or doesn't accept the sacrifice for some reason.
Alien Queen & Male Human Captain she's trying to reward/Male Alien General she's trying to punish: So maybe the alien general was once the queen's favourite, and now resents the human captain for taking the limelight? I'd love if the human captain had been invited to stay with the queen for a while as part of the reward, and this brought him into proximity with the alien general who hangs out at her court, and their animosity somehow blossoms into attraction. What would the queen think of all that? And what's the general relationship between the aliens and humans/their governments/their cultures? What will these two do when the human captain's stay is over?
Mixed Gender Ships
Powerful Female Witch/Surly Male Werewolf Who Owes Her a Life Debt: What is the relationship between these two, and how did he end up with a life debt to her? Presumably the witch saved his life - so how, and from what? How do they get along – 'surly' suggests not entirely peacefully, but are they reluctantly working together, or do they fight before they come to an understanding? What is the witch’s magic like, and what is the werewolf transformation like?
Accidentally Double-Booked Female Prostitute/Victorian Male Rake/Closeted Victorian Gentleman: I'd love if the first two, after realizing what's happened, manage to sweet talk the latter into having a threesome with them. The closeted gentleman thought he'd rather die than admit he likes men, but maybe he's had a bit of Dutch courage before coming, and that rakish man is so attractive......Maybe the closeted gentleman was coming to the prostitute to try and prove to himself that he's not gay? And the rake is bi? I don't mind some angsting over homophobia but I'd rather it not be too serious an obstacle/take up too much of the story.
Links: I'm Burning_Nightingale on AO3
Likes
General
I’m a fan of romance, adventure (especially quests!), casefic, plotty fic, fluff, gen, world-building and character studies. I am happy with any rating and any tone, from fluffy curtain fic down to pretty dark stuff. I usually prefer at least a bittersweet ending, though. I love fics that are realistic and I love stuff that’s tropey as all get out; go wild.
Some themes/tropes I really love include: characters fighting against/changing fate, everything about survival (what it means, how it changes you, the lengths you went to), the pressures and struggles of leadership, two people against the world together, found family anything, harsh/beautiful (or harshly beautiful) physical landscapes, gifts or gestures with intense or very personal meanings, anything where characters just get one another, characters who grapple with becoming evil or doing evil deeds, villains who believe they’re in the right, villains who just don’t care about morality, characters who are determined hope will prevail above all else, characters who really feel the weight of their heritage/someone's legacy and a pressure to live up to that.
I am also very into AUs and fusions, including: fantasy (urban, high, whatever), post-apocalypse, sci-fi/space, superpowers, Pacific Rim fusions, reincarnation, royal/arranged marriage
Relationship Themed Trope Likes
Seemingly Unrequited Pining, Friends to Lovers, Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings, Battle Couple, Everyone Can See It, Like An Old Married Couple
Porn Likes
I really love porn that’s about the characters and centres their relationship. Emotionally charged, desperate, I-need-you-it-can’t-wait sex is fantastic! Sex that’s the culmination of a slow burn and/or a really intense bout of UST is my absolute jam. I’m pretty vanilla when it comes to things like BDSM, so anything beyond blindfolds and tying up wrists is a no-go for me. I’m not really into dom/sub dynamics, but a bit of dirty talk is great. A bit of rough sex – hair-pulling, pushing up against walls, scratching/biting, not being 100% gentle all the time is also very good ;)
DNWs
Scat + watersports, excessive gore (injuries happening is fine, injuries dwelt on in loving detail is not), incest, underage, character-bashing, non-con, dub-con (excluding things like sex pollen/X made them do it scenarios), strict BDSM relationships, de-aging, humiliation
Requests
Everything Else Ships
Captive to Be Sacrificed to a Foreign God/Foreign God: The idea of being ripped from your homeland and taken to a strange place to be sacrificed for a god you don't even believe in gives me the shivers. Make it dark and have the story end fatally, or make it a bit brighter and have the captive escape and/or make a deal with the god? I want to know where the captive came from, what the land they're taken to is like, and who is the god that demands blood sacrifices, and why? How does the god interact with the captive - do they take on human form, or are they some kind of eldritch horror? I've ticked noncon for this box so feel free to have that happen - or the god isn't interested in hurting the sacrifice? Maybe their worshippers have misinterpreted the signs, and the god doesn't want human sacrifices?
Prince Who Should Have Specified "Human" In Rules/Monsters Competing To Win His Hand In Marriage: I love this tag so much and I have so many questions. Why is the prince having a competition for his hand, and how do the monsters get to hear about it? Why are they interested in winning his hand? Is he set to inherit a wealthy kingdom or important magical artefact that the monsters are interested in? Or is he just really hot? Are there any humans competing against the monsters? Maybe the monsters try flirting with the prince to improve their chances? And exactly what kind of competition is it, and what do they do to win? My kingdom for some monster/prince smut, though I'd strongly prefer it to be dubcon rather than outright noncon. If a monster eventually wins the competition and the prince has to do his husbandly duty on their first night together? I'd love the prince to be terrified at first but then get into the monster-fucking against his better judgement. Make the monsters anything you want - the weirder the better!
Gen
(Can you tell there's a theme to these requests?)
Magic Sword & People who are not suitable to be king: I'm thinking perhaps people know this is the sword of the king, and having it will support their claim to kingship, but the magic sword does not support them? Or maybe the sword is the one who picks the next king, and has a strange cast of people trying to talk it into picking them? How is each person not suitable, and how does the sword tell them/get them to leave it alone? Does it eventually find the true king?
Magic Sword that has found the future king & Guy who really really doesn't want to be king: This could feasibly be combined with the prompt above - after a series of disappointments, the sword finally finds the perfect king! Except this guy is much happier where he is, thanks. How does the sword go about convincing him? Is it a comedy where the sword bugs him constantly, or maybe something darker, where the sword has some kind of power to possess it's wielder?
Self-Aware Magic Sword & Its Various Wielders Through Fantasy History: I would love a series of vignettes about who the various wielders were. Go wild with the variation! What kind of weird characters have picked up the sword, what were their goals, and did the sword want to help or hinder them? Does the sword have certain prerequisites you have to fulfil before you can wield it? Do you have to be evil or good, or an elf/orc/halfling, or royalty?
M/M (Fantasy-style)
Deposed King/Still-Loyal Knight: The loyal knight is one of my FAVOURITE tropes, especially if he/she is loyal to a powerful Queen. I really love when the reasons for someone's loyalty are explored in depth, and characters with an unshakable loyalty are fascinating. Does the person they're loyal to value their loyalty, or exploit it? I would love to see both a knight loyal to someone who deserves their devotion or to someone who takes advantage of them. What makes them endlessly loyal, and how did they get there in the first place? Or perhaps their loyalty is tested, or reaches it's limits? And the king - why was he deposed, and does he deserve it?
Forty-Year-Old Virgin King/His Male Knight Who Wants to Gently Deflower Him: I think this tag is incredibly sweet and I super want fluffy hurt/comforty stuff for it. Why is the king a virgin - by accident or by choice? Maybe he's been waiting for The One, and he never came along? And the knight - older or younger? I'd love for him to be helplessly in love with the king and willing to do anything for him. Maybe the king is insecure about love/having never experienced sex, and somehow admits it to the knight, who is 100% here for helping him with this particular problem. Then they have passionate, gentle, loving sex, y/y?
Idealistic Newly-Crowned Young Ruler/His More Practical Adviser and Childhood Friend: I'm always here for childhood friend romance! Maybe the adviser has been trying to make himself a name away from the royal family for a while, but comes back to support his best friend in his new royal role? Maybe something he's been doing/somewhere he's been has given him his more practical perspective that contrasts with his idealistic king who's never really seen much of the world outside the palace/books? How do they balance their viewpoints and start working together to move their country forward - and how do they admit they're in love?
King Making an Effort Not to Pressure His New Husband/His Prince Husband Who's Very Into Him: I'd love if the King was also into his new husband, but conscious that this is an arranged marriage and with no wish to force himself onto someone. Maybe his husband gets the wrong end of the stick and thinks the King isn't attracted to him, and there's some angst before they eventually sort their feelings out? The circumstances behind their marriage would be interesting - who arranged the marriage and why? They come from different countries, so how are they different? Are their countries neighbours, or is the prince from very far away? I'd love it if the prince eventually just straight up demonstrated how into the King he is ;)
Very Attractive Knight/Gruff Male Armourer Forging His New Armour: The gruff armourer definitely doesn't have a crush on this handsome knight. Definitely not. Nope. There's no reason he's taking so long making this particular set of armour /perfect/. That's basically all I want from this prompt; the armourer falling for the pretty boy against his will, and the knight being oblivious right up until that moment he isn't (and then he's totally into it, because that armourer has a hot beard and muscles like /hot damn/) Your choice whether the armour is for serious combat or is more showy. Perhaps the armourer can also weave magic into his creations? I'd totally be up for some h/c where the knight actually gets hurt in a battle and the armourer feels guilty that he didn't make the armour good enough.
Victorious Human Warlord/Deposed Elven Prince: Human warlord forces elven prince into an arranged marriage to gain the prestige of his lineage/to gain royal status would be cool. This can either include dark noncon or have the warlord be mostly doing all this for the royal status, and then discovering he's into the prince along the way. Can these two ever make it work, even after the warlord conquered the prince's country?
M/M (Everything Else)
Regency Nobleman/Acquaintance He's Pining For Who's Fallen on Hard Times and Won't Ask for Help: How are these two acquainted and what's their relationship? How long has the nobleman been pining? Why exactly has the acquaintance fallen on hard times, and why won't he ask for help - too much pride? Embarrassed about why he's fallen on hard times? Is he in debt for something embarrassing? Does he eventually accept help, or does the nobleman force it upon him - and how does he react? How do they work things out?
Alpha/His Beta best friend who offers to "practice" sex with him in preparation for his future Omega: All the pining! How do they get to the point where the Beta makes his offer - maybe the Alpha is getting very insecure about not having found his Omega yet? I'd love if they have mind blowing sex and the Alpha begins to wonder....does he need an Omega if he has his Beta? I'd love the Alpha being worried about the Beta being able to take his knot and the Beta encouraging him to do it (and loving it).
Benevolent Vampire Who Works as a Doctor/Human Nurse Who's Just Realized His Secret: How does the nurse realize - what slip up does the doctor make? Maybe they notice a lot of little things and put them together? Or they catch the doctor helping himself to the blood bags in the hospital's cold storage? I'd love if the nurse freaks out about it and eventually gathers his courage to confront the vampire (maybe with a stake/holy water/garlic etc?) and the doctor is just amused and/or wants to reassure his friend that he has no bad intentions. How does the doctor ensure the nurse's silence?
Big bad with the flu/hero hellbent on reform via TLC: ALL THE CUTENESS. I don't mind what kind of setting you want to make this - modern, sci-fi, fantasy - or if you want to make the big bad's illness a really serious case of flu or just a mancold, I'm just here for the relentlessly optimistic hero determinedly playing out all the 'caring for the sick' tropes and the big bad being won over despite himself. I'd love if at the beginning the big bad is like a grumpy cat refusing to be coddled, but he gets so miserable that he ends up being grateful for the hero's care, and then finds himself hopelessly in love despite himself.
Snarky jaded male supervillain/Adorably optimistic male superhero: I would love the supervillain going from irritated to exasperated to fond to unwillingly but hopelessly in love. The superhero just never gives up, never stops smiling - how??? I would love the superhero being determined that they're not going to give up until the supervillain turns good and the supervillain being endlessly amazed at the superhero's optimism and stubbornness. Bonus for a supervillain who feels like he's not worthy of love and trust but craves both from the superhero anyway.
Mixed Gen & Ship
Victorious King/Son of Conquered King to be Sacrificed to His Country's God & Father Forced To Watch: My general idea for this was the victorious king nonconning the hell out of the son of the conquered king, potentially because it's required for the ritual to sacrifice him for the country's god. The victorious king being a dick about it and hurting the son while making the father (and potentially a whole crowd of people?) watch would be great. Up to you whether the son gets sacrificed at the end or if there's a twist where the god intervenes or doesn't accept the sacrifice for some reason.
Alien Queen & Male Human Captain she's trying to reward/Male Alien General she's trying to punish: So maybe the alien general was once the queen's favourite, and now resents the human captain for taking the limelight? I'd love if the human captain had been invited to stay with the queen for a while as part of the reward, and this brought him into proximity with the alien general who hangs out at her court, and their animosity somehow blossoms into attraction. What would the queen think of all that? And what's the general relationship between the aliens and humans/their governments/their cultures? What will these two do when the human captain's stay is over?
Mixed Gender Ships
Powerful Female Witch/Surly Male Werewolf Who Owes Her a Life Debt: What is the relationship between these two, and how did he end up with a life debt to her? Presumably the witch saved his life - so how, and from what? How do they get along – 'surly' suggests not entirely peacefully, but are they reluctantly working together, or do they fight before they come to an understanding? What is the witch’s magic like, and what is the werewolf transformation like?
Accidentally Double-Booked Female Prostitute/Victorian Male Rake/Closeted Victorian Gentleman: I'd love if the first two, after realizing what's happened, manage to sweet talk the latter into having a threesome with them. The closeted gentleman thought he'd rather die than admit he likes men, but maybe he's had a bit of Dutch courage before coming, and that rakish man is so attractive......Maybe the closeted gentleman was coming to the prostitute to try and prove to himself that he's not gay? And the rake is bi? I don't mind some angsting over homophobia but I'd rather it not be too serious an obstacle/take up too much of the story.
