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lostinthewinterwood · 3 years

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Id Pro Quo 2021

Hey there!

It seems we share some aspects of id, my friend, so let the letter go forward :3

(also, if anyone is curious—would be delighted at art treats, though I haven’t requested any art)

Here’s the order of things:

- DNWs

- Likes

- Tags I may or may not have requested that would go great with anything (as additions, not instead of requested tags, lol)

- Mother of Learning

- Revolutionary Arc

- Original Work

General DNW

non-con/dub-con;

explicit sexual content;

incest (incl. adoptive/chosen family);

a/b/o;

mpreg;

non-canonical permanent major character death;

complete downer endings;

hurt no comfort;

heavy angst;

on-page deliberate self-harm*;

on-page suicide;

gore;

graphic physical trauma;

character bashing;

cringe comedy;

fic-as-writer-soapbox;

fic that’s all about real-world bigotries or real-world politics;

canon-typical 2020;

unrequested full-setting AUs;

marginalized identities as focus of fic;

unrequested romance as the main plot.

*I don’t include things like, say, punching a wall in a fit of emotion under this. However, something like cutting would not be appreciated.

General Likes

– I really like plotty fics

– Secret identity and disguise shenanigans, the more layers to them and more absurdity the better.

– Casual genderfuckery - guys in skirts and girls in suits, and nobody cares. Not necessarily any deep rumination on gender, just comfort in playing with it.

– Time travel and time loops are always fun

– A focus on family and/or friendship, especially characters realizing they’re not nearly as alone as they think they are, and just generally characters who like each other and enjoy spending time together

– Found family; families of choice

– Character studies

– Worldbuilding

– Canon-divergence AUs and missing scenes; things set pre- or post-canon; wriggling into canon and poking at it to see what it spits back at you, if that description makes any sense at all.

Tags that go great with literally any of these (unless contradicted by DNWs) as optional additions, if appropriate:

after worst day of A’s life A pretends to fall asleep on B to get tenderness without having to talk

all the diaspora feelings

Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence

Alternate Universe - Daemons

Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale

Alternate Universe - High Fantasy

Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic

Alternate Universe - Regency-Inspired Fantasy

Alternate Universe - Space Setting with Magic

Alternate Universe - Traveling Circus/Carnival

Badass in Distress

Ballroom Dancing

Bonding over music

Catching injured character as they faint or lose balance

Character A lost character B's trust; trying desperately to get it back

Character confesses traumatic events to sympathetic friend

Character Ignores Their Trauma; Their Friends Try to Help After They Can No Longer Deny It

Character is rescued and comforted

Character tries to hide their problems but friends are determined to help

Character who isn't used to being protected gets protected

character(s) get the therapy they so desperately need

Characters That Don't Like Each Other Nonetheless Find Comfort In Parallel Traumas

characters undercover as whatever seems interesting to you

characters understand each other so well they barely need to speak in times of crisis

Class Differences

Coming to terms with the permanent effects of significant injuries

Conversations In Liminal Spaces On The Border Of One World And Another

Conversations in Mundane Liminal Spaces

Cuddling & Snuggling

Drawing & Painting

Emotionally Repressed Characters Have to Work Through Having Emotions

Families - Found Family

Finding Someone Sleeping and Putting a Blanket or Coat Over Them

Fire-forged Friends

Forgiveness

Gratuitous descriptions of hugging

Gratuitous Descriptions of Winter

Grooming - hair brushing

Hair Braiding

Hair Stuff - A is unexpectedly very good at styling hair; styles B's ornately; B wears it all day

Hair Stuff - A looks up how to do fancy hairstyles so they can do B's hair

Hair Stuff - character cuts another character's hair

Hair Washing

A has baggage; doesn’t trust others & (less obviously) doesn’t trust themself/has guilt

Holding Hands

Hurt/Comfort - Character Doesn't Expect Tenderness But Gets It Anyway

Hurt/Comfort - comfort after a nightmare

Hurt/Comfort - comfort focusing on little hurt because the big hurt is massive and unapproachable

Hurt/Comfort - Loneliness

The Inexplicable Peace That Comes from Stargazing

Intelligent Characters Enthusing Over Learning New Things (Especially From Each Other)

Learning a New Language

Learning to Dance

Loneliness

Platonic Life Partners

Protectiveness - Character A drapes their jacket over B's shoulders

Protectiveness - Character being protected isn't used to being cared about

A rescues B from trouble B knowingly walked into (B thought they could handle it on their own)

Scars - Exchanging stories about scars

Scenery Porn

Snow and Ice

Teamwork

that fic genre w/ long lowercase title (&parenthetical) that’s sexy moody multilayered & complicated

Thing character has built a large chunk of their life around comes to an end; finding a new path

Touch-Starved Character gets their hair stroked & gets other kind gentle touches & cuddles

two people really want Found Family but are too emotionally stunted to admit it

Uncovering a major secret by gradually putting the pieces together

Worldbuilding

Worldbuilding - Magic Spells & Rituals

Young character(s) solving problems in surprisingly mature ways considering their age(s)

Mother of Learning - nobody103

- Solo: Kirielle Kazinski (Mother of Learning - nobody103)

- Kirielle Kazinski & Zorian Kazinski (Mother of Learning - nobody103)

- Mother of Learning - Controller Kirielle Kazinski

- Mother of Learning - Deaf Kirielle Kazinski

- Mother of Learning - Time Looper Kirielle Kazinski

fandom-specific dnw: romantic and/or sexual Zach/Zorian; physical parental abuse within the Kazinski family; significant exaggeration of canonical emotional neglect/abuse/general family dysfunction; explicit permanent erasure of time traveler characters in your fic who weren't erased in canon

Look, I just love Kirielle a lot, okay. And there are two basic concepts that will not leave my brain when it comes to her, so I’ve requested both here—if not this exchange, when else? Also, they’d definitely work great together, if you feel so inclined.

Anyway, concept 1—time traveler Kirielle. I think it would be really interesting to explore how she dealt with all of it—she’s nine, not fifteen, so she’d be growing up while looking like a child, and she’d have to trick her way around people a lot more to get them to take her seriously. It would be different, also, depending on if she were a hanger-on or the Controller; ironically she’d probably have more support in her learning and growing if she were a hanger-on, since there’d be at least one other person looping with her then. She’d also look like a lot less of a threat to anyone looking for those—physically, she’s nine years old, no matter how long she lives, and children are a lot less threatening than teenagers.

As for concept 2—I really should’ve mentioned this in my sign-up, but it slipped my mind at the time—I really, really don’t want to see fics that infantilize disabled characters—if Kiri’s deaf, she’s still gonna be herself, you know? Not exactly self-sufficient or anything, she is nine after all, but not a helpless little kid who can’t do anything on her own either. And please don’t cure her—magic (or mundane) adaptive tech is fine, but please no outright cure.

That being said, I’m using “deaf” here in the looser sense, so do what you will with that piece of knowledge.

Anyway. I’m fascinated by this idea, I think, because it would both fundamentally change Kirielle’s circumstances and be a big opportunity for worldbuilding—all we really know about disability in Eldemar is that modern disability theory is not a thing which is familiar to giant spiders or to fifteen-year-old boys. But like—if she’s deaf, then that means that she can’t be the perfect little girl Cikan quite clearly wants her to be; I’d be very surprised if they didn’t raise her oral, didn’t try to hide her disability or at least make it as invisible as possible to everyone else. And I’d imagine that there isn’t much of a Deaf community in Cirin of all places—maybe that makes her want to go to Cyoria even more, find a community there, learn a sign language so she can communicate in a way that’s easier for her.

Actually, I think it really would be interesting to combine these two—I know I already said they go great together, but like, it would just give her more time to find a community and a language and what it means to be a Deaf merchant family’s daughter in Eldemar, when you aren’t restricted to a tiny little village with parents who care too much about appearances.

Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88 (fanfic)

- Solo: Pansy Parkinson | Pandora Parkinson (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Solo: Arcturus Rigel "Archie" Black (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Solo: Adriana "Addy" Potter (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Arcturus Rigel "Archie" Black/Hermione Granger (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Francesca Lam/Aldon Rosier (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Harriet Potter | Rigel Black & Pansy Parkinson (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Hannah Abbott/Blaise Zabini (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Ginny Weasley & Ron Weasley (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Caelum Lestrange & Pansy Parkinson (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- Caelum Lestrange & Harriet Potter | Rigel Black (Revolutionary Arc - kitsunerei88)

- can't go back to school because you're critical to putting your country back together post-civil-war

- Characters That Don't Like Each Other Nonetheless Find Comfort In Parallel Traumas

- dissonance of normal college life and the secret civil war you fought overseas as a teenager

- finally getting a chance to sit down and process all the things you had to do to maintain your cover

- Fix-it - Last-minute rescue for character who died in canon before they die

- going back to school after fighting a yearlong civil war against the new dictator of your country

- going home after the war (but you can't go home again)

- Post-canon - characters slowly recover from trauma caused by canon

- A was too young to remember the war but every adult they know was involved in it

- we both have massive trust issues; it seems like we’re the only reasonable people in the world

- World-weary broken people find comfort and understanding in each other

Don’t have any fandom-specific dnws here.

For Rev Arc, what I’m looking for is essentially consequences and fallout; canon is nice! Canon is very nice! But we don’t see a whole lot of what happens afterwards—all these kids who came of age during the war, who have to or can’t go back to school, who have to live with the world that exists after. The new generation, who are in a lot of ways more akin in circumstance to canon HP’s characters than Rev Arc or RBC characters ever were. There was a war; the war’s been won. What now?

If you happened to be looking at the fix-it tag, I didn’t have any canonically dead characters in my requests, but I was definitely thinking of Draco when I requested it—you wouldn’t even really need to change much else, I don’t think, since he’s injured badly enough by the time Harry and Leo show up to put him out of commission for the rest of the war. Also, I formatted Pansy’s tag the way I did because I was thinking of her reconciling herself after it all, if that makes sense.

Original Work

Mentor angle

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & His Older Female Mentor

- Abused Child Grows To Trust New Authority Figures/Guardians

- Bonding over music

- Catching injured character as they faint or lose balance

- Character Discovers a Horrible Political Secret

- Character who isn't used to being protected gets protected

- Drawing & Painting

- Families - Found Family

- Finding Someone Sleeping and Putting a Blanket or Coat Over Them

- Gratuitous Descriptions of Winter

- Grooming - hair brushing

- Hair Braiding

- Hurt/Comfort - Character A discovers Character B's biggest secret

- Hurt/Comfort - Character expects to be punished but is comforted instead

- The Inexplicable Peace That Comes from Stargazing

- Learning to Dance

- A rescues B from trouble B knowingly walked into (B thought they could handle it on their own)

- song of the lioness style gender disguise plot

- teaching moments while rescues are taking place

- Thing character has built a large chunk of their life around comes to an end; finding a new path

- Uncovering a major secret by gradually putting the pieces together

Gen angle

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Male Student Warrior

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Female Student Warrior Disguised as a Boy

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl & Female Fellow Student Mage

- Character tries to hide their problems but friends are determined to help

- characters understand each other so well they barely need to speak in times of crisis

- Epic Friendship Slowburn

- Finding Someone Sleeping and Putting a Blanket or Coat Over Them

- Fire-forged Friends

- Found Family - characters come to unspoken acknowledgement that that's what they are

- going back to school after fighting a yearlong civil war against the new dictator of your country

- Hair Stuff - A is unexpectedly very good at styling hair; styles B's ornately; B wears it all day

- A has baggage; doesn’t trust others & (less obviously) doesn’t trust themself/has guilt

- Hurt/Comfort - Being comforted by someone character distrusts

- Hurt/Comfort - Character A discovers Character B's biggest secret

- Hurt/Comfort - Character overuses magic/powers/etc. to protect a loved one

- I would do anything to save you from yourself (including physically fight you if it comes to it)

- Intelligent Characters Enthusing Over Learning New Things (Especially From Each Other)

- Learning a New Language

- A rescues B from trouble B knowingly walked into (B thought they could handle it on their own)

- song of the lioness style gender disguise plot

- Uncovering a major secret by gradually putting the pieces together

- Villain undercover as a good guy; grows to care about good guys leading to heel-face turn

- X tells Y the (outlandish) truth; Y thinks it’s a joke until something proves X’s truthfulness

Ship angle

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Male Student Warrior

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Student Warrior Disguised as a Boy

- Male Student Mage Disguised as a Girl/Female Fellow Student Mage

- A Admires B's Fighting Skills

- all the diaspora feelings

- Ballroom Dancing

- Character sees color for the first time upon meeting soulmate; it's a highly inconvenient time

- Characters Didn't Realise The Relationship Was Secret; They Thought It Was Obvious

- characters understand each other so well they barely need to speak in times of crisis

- Fake Dating Leads to Feelings Despite Characters' Best Attempts

- Hair Stuff - A is unexpectedly very good at styling hair; styles B's ornately; B wears it all day

- Hurt/Comfort - Character A discovers Character B's biggest secret

- I would do anything to save you from yourself (including physically fight you if it comes to it)

- Intelligent Characters Enthusing Over Learning New Things (Especially From Each Other)

- Language of Flowers

- A rescues B from trouble B knowingly walked into (B thought they could handle it on their own)

- song of the lioness style gender disguise plot

- Soulmates - Scars appear on each other's skin

- Soulmates- Name on the wrist is not the one character goes by

- Uncovering a major secret by gradually putting the pieces together

- Undercover - Masquerade Party

- Villain undercover as a good guy; grows to care about good guys leading to heel-face turn

- X tells Y the (outlandish) truth; Y thinks it’s a joke until something proves X’s truthfulness

fandom-specific dnw: age gaps in ships of more than 3 or so years when one character is underage; predatory manipulation between characters in the relationship in service of the relationship; transphobia directed at cisgender characters; crossdressing as fetish. I’d also rather not see any kind of serious relationship with at least one character disguising their gender pre-reveal of that disguise–flirting, starting to date a little is okay but if it’s going further please have them reveal it. Please don’t play into the idea of gender-disguised character as “trap”. If actual trans characters are present, then some transphobia isn’t a hard dnw—my gift in Heart Attack didn’t bother me at all.

also dnw characters requested as gender-disguised to be written as trans or to be written as absolutely loathing their disguise. other characters are fair game. if writing trans characters, dnw them to be explicitly nondysphoric (but not addressing it is fine).

So, uh, I’m sure you can see the… theme in all these requests. For these ones especially, the freeforms aren’t the really iddy part; I just picked the ones I liked best and thought I suited the relationships best. It’s the ship tags that are the iddy part.

Look, I fell in love with Song of the Lioness as a kid, then I grew up and realized there was a tragic dearth of gender-flipped versions, and now I’m fishing for them in exchanges.

So give me this boy and the people in his life! Tell me a story—what is this world, that this is necessary? How does he handle various aspects of it? Or just let them go on an adventure or have a nice quiet day tbh, those would both be rad too.

#exchange letters #id pro quo #requested: fic #requested: revolutionary arc #requested: mother of learning #requested: original work

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sorceresscrowe · 4 years

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How Crowe Came Back to Life (updated)

There had been a sudden squealing of tires, and she was suddenly hit, her bike crumpling away from underneath her as she went flying off of the road. She laid there in the dirt for a moment, trying to process what had just happened. Without her helmet on, she had hit her head hard on the ground.

Reaching for her watch, she began setting it. She became aware of men approaching, blurry in her concussed state. She tried saying something—probably ask for help—but she couldn't get the words out. One yanked her up by the hair, and her vision started to improve.

“Luche?”

He stood in front of her. She registered the gun only a moment later.

“It's nothing personal, Crowe. We just can't have you getting in the way.” He pulled back the hammer. “I'm sorry.”

Then there was a gunshot and a sharp pain in her middle. Crowe cried out, but whoever gripped her hair kept her from falling over. Another shot came, and then it went dark.

It stayed dark and quiet for a long moment. It didn't take long for her to realize that she was dead, and she had failed her mission—the most important mission she could have ever had. Instead, she was dead on the side of the road, killed before she could even start it.

Something glimmered in the darkness, approaching her. It soon turned out to be a shining woman, overall bigger than herself. She gave a smile.

“Crowe,” She greeted, showing a brief look of pity. “Your actions would have changed everything to come, if it wasn't for the traitors in your midst.”

The reminder that there were traitors among the Kingsglaive was like getting shot all over again, but this time, Crowe was angry. After losing their home and fighting battles for their king, they had become like family. She sure as hell didn't have anyone else. Why would family kill her?

“Who are you?” She demanded, glancing around. Their surroundings were completely dark. The glowing woman was all that there was.

The demand didn't upset her, but a sad expression crossed her face. “The people of ancient times called me Etro, before Bahamut replaced me as the patron deity over the House Lucis Caelum. Did no one ever mention me?”

Crowe pondered the information, wondering whether to believe this strange woman or not. The Glaive hadn't been bothered with the history of the king's lineage. They just fought for him on the promise that their home would be free from Niflheim someday. With the treaty signing, though, they all realized that their king was letting them down. Maybe Tredd had been right; they were just used as soldiers in a losing war. Whether they lived or died didn't really matter.

“The powers your king granted you were passed down originally from Bahamut, and to take that away from you and make you start all again would be cruel.” Etro went on. “You are naturally gifted with magic.”

“What are you talking about?” Crowe made another demand. She didn't put much thought into gods; where were the gods when Galahd fell, or when she was exiled from her village when she was just a little girl? They may have granted magic to ancient rulers long ago, but they certainly didn't give a damn about the world now. Why should the world care about them either?

“You will return to life with my Blessing.” Etro explained. “I will not take you to the other side yet. You can still change what is about to happen. Your actions will make all the difference in the world.”

“How? What is that supposed to mean?” Crowe asked, then realized that the light around the larger woman was fading, as was she.

She gave a farewell smile. “Crowe, if I told you everything, then you wouldn't learn anything for yourself. Destiny isn't set in stone like you are taught to believe.”

Two faces appeared in the dark, fading with Etro's light. They were two dark-haired women, one of which was older and had blue eyes. The other was younger and with gray eyes.

“Find the others with my Blessing. Only together can you make a difference.”

And with that, everyone was gone.

Crowe opened her eyes to a dull gray sky, slowly turning pink. She propped herself up on her elbows to see the sun peaking over the horizon, which were some far off hills. Her surroundings were dirt, spotted with the occasional dry brush. There were decrepit buildings at the corners of the road, riddled with so many holes that they were easy to look through.

She stood up at one corner. Her bike was gone. There was no sign of the van that hit her, or the traitors that attacked her afterwards. She was the only living thing around.

The sunrise chased away all of the daemons of the night, but there were still wild creatures to worry about. Crowe couldn't see any kind of town; she had been dropped off far enough from the city that spies shouldn't have suspected a thing. However, now it made her unsure of which direction the city was in.

Should she return without Lady Lunafreya? Etro, if she was being truthful, said there was still time to see the mission through. Crowe must not have been dead that long. The other part—that of there being traitors within the Kingsglaive—was also a pressing issue that needed to be reported. She hoped Libertus and Nyx realized it and did something. With her own mission sabotaged by her teammates, Crowe could assume that the princess was in more danger than they all knew.

She picked a direction and began walking. She would find the closest town, and from there find out where she was. Maybe they'd even have bikes there. Though checking her pockets, Crowe realized that she didn't have any money on her.

It wasn't far into her trek that she saw something interesting in a nearby trash heap—her bike. It was mangled, with some parts having been torn off completely in the crash. The saddle bags hadn't been scratched too much. Crowe dug through them for her effects. Someone must have already did the same. There wasn't any money; all that was left was her Glaive uniform was still there.

Throwing the bags over her shoulder, Crowe continued walking up the road. It wouldn't fly if she returned with Lady Lunafreya, but not in her proper uniform. Everyone at the Citadel was huge on decorum. Crowe wasn't going to look like a fool in her moment of honor.

The sun rose quite high in the sky before she caught sight of an outpost. She had been lucky enough to be left alone by the wildlife. She considered trading in her uniform for money; she was starving and in need of a drink.

There was a lot more activity at the outpost than she would have thought. Crowds of people milled about glumly. A couple of buses were parked on the side of the road. Crowe observed them as she walked into the gas station. She could probably swipe a few things there, especially for how crowded it was.

Everyone standing by the front door seemed to be reading newspapers. Everywhere she looked, the front page was there: “Insomnia Falls”.

Forgetting about food, Crowe found the nearly-empty newspaper stand and picked up a copy for herself. She scanned the front page. Tempers flew at the signing ceremony, and it all spiraled into chaos from there. The wall fell at King Regis's death. Prince Noctis and Lady Lunafreya were also slain by Niflheim.

Crowe didn't bother flipping through the pages to find the rest of the story. She dropped the paper back into the stand and walked out of the gas station.

Her mission was all for nothing. Lady Lunafreya was dead. Drautos had said that she would be in Tenebrae, and while the Emperor wasn't looking, Crowe was to escort her to Altissia for her wedding. But the Emperor must have suspected something, taking the princess to Insomnia to tease the people, and then have her killed.

Crowe had been brought back to life just to fail all over again.

“Shit.” She swore to herself.

Everything was all wrong. It should have made sense by now that Niflheim would go back on their word. They endangered the princess so carelessly. And part of her own family had helped.

She felt helpless. There had been nothing about the Kingsglaive or the Crownsguard on the front page, other than to say that all efforts were overtaken. That couldn't mean that Lib and Nyx were dead too.

That was something Crowe could do. It was almost impossible to know who she could trust among the Kingsglaive, but she knew those two wouldn't betray the crown, no matter what Niflheim offered them. She just hoped they hadn't been killed in the cross fire. Nyx loved being heroic.

She walked into the diner then. Despite the crowded booths of refugees from Insomnia, it was quiet. Everyone seemed to be listening to the radio as it continued to report on the fallout of the treaty signing. Crowe listened for any word on the Glaive as she joined a line, shuffling along for the free meal promised to refugees. It wasn't her first time being called that.

Nothing was mentioned the entire time she was there. She took a small seat at a booth that was offered to her, squeezing in among strangers. A lot of people remained in the city until Niflheim's martial law. There was a resistance, and it would make perfect sense for Nyx and Lib to join it. But Crowe quickly realized that showing her face in the city wouldn't be a smart idea, after she had been killed. The king was gone, and so was the magic he granted to the Kingsglaive. In any case, it didn't sound as though anyone was allowed into the city while things were still so intense.

She considered going home, back to Galahd, before remembering that the resistance there made Niflheim keep a tight grip on the island. She couldn't imagine what it was like now after Insomnia fell.

Crowe could join this caravan of refugees to Lestallum, and hope to find friendly faces there. There were some Crownsguards here, but none that Crowe recognized. There were likely to be more at Lestallum, and they could tell her more.

But there was a stronger urge to see Insomnia for herself. Was everyone truly just gone like that?

The buses were preparing to leave as she left the diner. Crowe walked against the flow of the crowd. She found a bike, stole it, and sped towards the city.

#drabble #tweaked a few tiny details

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