deepestbluesky

Dear Creator Letter

hello! if you’re making something for me, i’m already guaranteed to love you and whatever you create, but i also know that personally, i love getting a ton of info to work from in exchanges, so i’ve written a bunch here! feel free to look through it for ideas, but also please please don’t feel beholden to it. this is intended as a bouquet of options that you can pick one or two things from, not something you should feel obligated to check boxes off for.

generally, i love rarepairs and genfic and poly ships - i really enjoy character interactions between characters who don't always interact a lot in canon, and stuff like genfic and rarepairs gets you a lot of that. found family is one of my always-favorite tropes too! i’m also very big into pairings in fic that aren’t necessarily OTPs - casual sex, friends who hook up sometimes, queerplatonic relationships, relationships that change over the course of the story, complex relationships that don’t fit neatly into a platonic vs romantic vs sexual divide; those are all things i find really fun, and as a person who likes multishipping, i’ll check out anything as long as it has cool stuff going for it, even stories that “contradict” ships i generally enjoy. of course, i’ve loved many many stories that are classic romance between two characters too! i just tend to like them more if there are also important relationships with other characters.

in terms of tropes and themes, i love a good future fic that digs into what ways a character might have changed since we knew them in canon. i love stories that play with POV, either using something unusual like second person or an unreliable narrator whose POV hides things from the audience until a crucial moment. i always enjoy any sort of magical/supernatural/fantasy au (especially if it’s regular setting- But Now With 200% More Magic! OR in the case of canons with magic, modern AU but there’s still magic around). similarly, i love TTRPG AUs, whether that’s character in a modern setting playing a game together or fantasy AUs based on something like D&D. i love a good queer genderbend AU, especially if it’s trans characters or if it engages with how changed genders might change the characters. i also love a good ‘take your fandom to work’ or Very Specific Setting AU. i am somewhat ambivalent about omegaverse in general, BUT i love omegaverse that focuses on betas or has a focus on worldbuilding, especially if it’s not the classic omegaverse setup. with AUs, part of the joy for me is seeing how the creator plays with canon, whether that’s a canon divergent au where you get to see how a small change can make a big impact, or a complete AU that still echoes canon in interesting ways, or a fusion where you get to enjoy how the creator has “cast” characters in roles or combined/split up roles from one canon to fit another.

podfic-specific likes (i’m definitely not gonna be unhappy if you don’t include any of these. but if you do want to, go for it!)
music
freetalk
sound effects
first or second person narration
anything you feel uniquely qualified to do (a language you speak, a dialect you have, singing that is in your range, etc)

some more general likes
road trips (or canon-appropriate road trip equivalent)
stories About queerness
bondage (as a kink or as something like a d/s au)
circus au
banter/snarking
tattoos (just as a thing or as a tattoo store au)
superheroes
vampires
tentacles (but only if everyone involved enjoys it)
multimedia or non-traditional narrative fic
characters poking fun at each other as a form of affection

extra special likes
polyamory where everyone’s relationship with each other is different and they get different things from each person
Queer Themes (including/especially characters struggling to articulate queerness or feeling settled in a form of queerness they can’t clearly explain)
original characters and/or outside POV
that moment where someone sees something new in someone else for the first time and is taken aback by it
significant changes in how one character refers to another character (names)

DNWs
(non-canonical or non-temporary) major character death
rape/non-con
stories centered around the terminal illness of a main character (in fandoms where this is canon or basically canon, i’m obviously fine with its inclusion but i’d prefer it not be the main focus)
cutting in a realistic self-harm sense. i don't mind descriptions of cuts, or general self-harm behaviors, or fantasy things where a character cuts themselves for magic reasons, or anything else adjacent to this basically. i only mind this specific thing.
bashing/villainizing of canon significant others

dislikes
high school au
big power imbalance
age difference as a feature (like, i don’t hate age difference pairings, but it’s not an appeal)
amnesia
pregnancy
cheating/infidelity
angsty endings
PWP
(dub-con is fine as long as it’s the ‘everyone is into everything going on but can’t necessarily consent’ version, but i wouldn’t say it’s a selling point for me)
i get A LOT of visceral secondhand embarrassment when listening to things, so if you record a fic that heavily features this, i will physically cringe through the whole thing (sometimes it’s still good enough to be worth! but maybe do not choose one that has this as a selling point)

definitely feel free to snoop through my bookmarks, works, and gifts on ao3 for more of an idea of what i like! i also have blanket permission for transformative works and am always happy to receive fanwork of my own fanworks (with the exception of my hockey rpf fanworks—you are still welcome to transform them, but i’m no longer interested in that fandom, so please don’t make anything from it as a gift for me). i also have a twitter and a tumblr at the same username as ao3/DW, but those have mostly been used while i’ve been really into word of honor and a few other cdramas and danmei, so they won’t be as helpful for other fandoms, and i’ve been inconsistently active on them.

Fandoms and fandom specific things

Critical Role
i’ve watched and loved all three campaigns so far, so go wild with any. i’d love you forever if you recorded some polymachina or poly nein (?) or ... no sorry i got nothing for a bells hells poly pun, but them too! i also adore gen stories. i’m not super interested in critrole fic purely about one ship, because part of what i love is how interconnected the characters all are, but i am definitely open to pretty much any ship. also happy to listen to AUs here, although i prefer AUs where there is still some magic and, like, tieflings and elves and such. i would ALSO love anything from Exandria Unlimited (regular flavor or Calamity)!

Stranger Things
i love that there's a real ensemble cast, i love that there are kids and teens and adults who all get real storylines and feel equally relevant to the story, i think also there's something genuinely so lovely about how much of the emotional drive of the show is family and friendship—i love how much these people care about each other! did i fall into the steve/eddie pit with everyone else after watching s4? yeah of course. am i also still extremely wild about steve/nancy/jonathan? yes. do i love the kids? yes absolutely, especially max and lucas (together or individually). (i do Not love billy, sorry.) i'm less interested in stories about the adults but stories about the kids and the teens are both absolutely all delightful to me.

DCU
[deep breath] Titans, Teen Titans (2003), Young Justice (cartoon), DCAU, DCEU, Birds of Prey, Dark Knight/Nolanverse, comics (in any mashup you like), honestly i’m happy with any sort of frankenstein-ed canon you like, but i’m not particularly into the DC CW shows
i love the batfam, and any variety of the teen titans, as well as classic justice league/trinity centric stuff. i would extra love stuff about diana & donna troy & cassie sandsmark. i also love midnighter & apollo. i’m not into no capes/superpowers AUs, although a good ‘what if’ story is always welcome. if you go for batfam, i’d love stories that don’t exclude cass and duke from the family, and also would prefer you avoid fics that lessen one robin to build up another one.

TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing
WOW I STILL LOVE THIS STORY AND THESE CHARACTERS. i really enjoy xie lian and hua cheng AND their relationship, but i also like almost all of the side characters, and as you may have guessed from my other notes, i love stories about complicated relationships and the different ways people relate to each other, so like: go wild! (more TGCF podfic is always a good thing in my humble opinion.)

Shan He Ling/Word of Honor, Tian Ya Ke/Faraway Wanderers, Qi Ye/Lord Seventh
(aka the JBY-ZZS extended universe, but i know that would be incomprehensible to mods as a name lol) I Still Live Here. some things i'm especially !!!! about include lqq, han ying, the sable, jby and zzs's relationship, when will ping'an get the vacation he deserves, the women that shl added to tyk's story, "I was never afraid of ghosts knocking at my door" (tyk ch17), jby's first life, the inherent tragedy of being hly, and what happens postcanon with chengling. i don't love the immortality ending of shl as much as i like a more tyk ending for wenzhou, but i still think it can be super interesting! if you choose to go a qi ye route, please know that i'm pretty wary about stories related to nanjiang given how xenophobically i think the actual book/worldbuilding treats it. NOTE: as you might guess from the wording of my DNW, this fandom is an exception to my terminal illness DNW.

Borderlands (video games)
idk yall, i LIKE borderlands. there's so much questionable and terrible shit in the games, but i DO like a lot of the humor and the very occasional shockingly sharp criticism of capitalism and i like the characters a lot and i'm absolutely obsessed with the setting and the vibes! i'm currently playing bl3 but i've played all the other games. i'm not interested in stories about Handsome Jack.

Tamora Pierce
tortall and emelan both VERY beloved (although i have slightly more feelings about emelan). i really love the style of humor in tamora pierce’s books, so anything that captures that would be extra great.

Queen’s Thief
It’s Just Good, Y’all. i have a slight preference for gen and irene as main characters over sophos or costis and kamet, but i love them all, and also most of the side characters. maybe not as into an outside POV here as i would be with other fandoms, just since we get that in canon.

The Witcher
I have watched most of the TV show (not the latest season), but i'm more interested in stuff based on the books and games.

Challengers
i love a fucked-up little threesome, and i think there should be more podfic for this fandom, thank you for your time

Legend of Korra
okay, gonna be honest: every time i’ve tried to search for LoK fic, i’ve given up. so if you have a great lok story that you love, give it to me! i don’t want korra and asami broken up, but otherwise i don’t care if it’s gen or centered on other people/ships. AU or canon all good! as much as i love A:tLA, i’m asking for LoK here, so it’s okay if some of the atla characters are important, but i’d rather have it be /about/ the lok-era characters.

Legend of Fei
i just think it's neat!

Nirvana in Fire
nif is a fandom i'm probably going to think about for a LONG time!! but i'm especially obsessed with Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan/Mu Nihuang.

Dimension 20
i've been getting into d20 a little bit! i've now watched Never Stop Blowing Up, the first season of Misfits and Magic, Escape from the Bloodkeep, and A Court of Fey and Flowers, so any of those would be welcome.

Couple of Mirrors
i just watched this and AAAHHHHH what a show! i would list specific likes but this fandom is very small lol so i'll just leave it there.

okay this isn't a real fandom so i didn't sign up with it, but ON THE OFF CHANCE: weird yuletide fandoms
i LOVE when yuletide fandoms include things where canon is about 2 minutes long or essentially nonexistent—mcsweeneys articles, ikea commercials, ticket to ride board game, tom gauld cartoons, those kinds of things! so i would love any podfics along those lines.

Thank you so much for making something for me, i’m gonna be delighted to listen to it!

give:
CQL/MDZS, Critical Role, Tortall (series), Emelan (series), The Queen's Thief (series), TGCF, DC Comics/related, Legend of Fei, Murderbot, Word of Honor, Tian Ya Ke, Qi Ye, The Locked Tomb (series), Stranger Things, The Witcher (video games), The Witcher (books), Challengers, Nirvana in Fire