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Dear Gifter - FIAB 2024
Aug. 19th, 2024 09:30 pmHello everyone! Another year, another letter! I have a pretty different slate of fandoms this year (I mean, besides the Naruto and OW and YGO stuff I deliberately carried over), which you'd THINK means my reading taste has changed, but it mostly just means the fandoms I want to read in have changed but my taste in the kind of stuff I liked has remained similar. If this is enough for you to get through without the rest of my letter I will take pride in my predictability.
General Information
I am always open for treats!
I have opted into a lot of medium tags. In general, I have opted into every medium that is not auditory, is not a poem, and is not a craft or puzzle I don't know how to do. That said: I am a writer, and I have trouble thinking of things outside of a writer context. I am also very bad at picking out visual elements of things I like. I have tried to give scaffolding for my other medium requests but I've likely done a poor job of it; this doesn't mean I wouldn't really want what you have to offer, it just means I'm bad at phrasing things!
As a note about the auditory thing: I have opted into fanvids, but I would steer clear of any fanvid that is mainly about things being spoken out loud. I am bad at processing auditory information and would not get much out of that! This is especially true for overlapping voices; if the intended effect is to confuse me it's fine though.
Some items that are often considered opt-in only that I am generally fine with so long as there isn't a DNW in that fandom that contradicts this: setting-changing AUs, gore, horror, OCs having major roles (especially in the worldbuilding tags), fankids, sad stories, downer endings, major character death that doesn’t end the fic (even for the requested character!), and your favorite identity headcanons (be it for sexuality, gender, or disability). You can also write a fic with none of these things, this is to clarify for those who might want to write them!
If you ever need to see my writing, or saved this page but not the automagic/AO3 prompt and have lost my AO3 since it doesn't share a name with this journal, my AO3 is![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
bee_4. I have a standing blanket permission statement on my profile, if you happen to hit a request you have a use for that with, although I wouldn't in any way expect this (especially since I haven't written much for most of the fandoms I'm requesting this year).
This letter is obscenely long and long-winded; I will still be delighted if you skip the details in it! That said, to try to make it easier to read, beneath each fandom dropdown you will find that all tags are phrased exactly as they are on AO3, albeit without the disambiguation (unless it's a crossover tag). This should let you easily just ctrl+F to the tag you're interested in, where I will have written a long paragraph about what interests me about the tag. Then if you need more information, the several paragraphs I have written for each fandom can come into play. I have also separated the tags into their own sub-headers in a way that makes sense to me.
Thank you so much! I look forward to seeing what you make!
Detailed Requests by Fandom
OW-Specific DNW: Magical girl fics that mock the concept, magical girl fics that are deconstructions. Clarification on both of these: I don't mind "darker" takes on magical girls at all, and I don't mind making jokes about magical girls! I am simply asking that the trope is played straight and taken seriously.
The nice thing about OW is that my general likes list is probably the list that applies best here, and that each and every tag is basically a miniature prompt by itself. If I've chosen the tag, the tropes that tag represent by themselves are almost certainly ALREADY enough for me, and so adding anything from my likes list is just going to be like, the cherry on top!
I deliberately changed tags or wrote tags I nominated to be gender-ambiguous in all but a few cases; this was to more easily allow for trans and nonbinary characters (which I would love!) as well as to allow for people to write whatever gender configurations they'd like best! There are a few tags I either left or wrote as specifically F/F, and the magical girls in the magical girl tags should be girls, but beyond that go nuts. I care a lot less about the genders than I do about the tropes in-play.
Some favorite tropes from magical girl stories include the coming-of-age elements, the idea of the "dark" magical girl, the inherent struggles and slow wearing-down on characters that being a magical girl can cause, the idea of "healing" magic as the ultimate weapon or goal, cool transformations, magic affecting the magical girls in both forms, dealing with injuries when you're basically Just Some Girl, the actual danger of the job, mascot/animal companion characters trying to care for their magical girl, the potential regrets and feelings of mascot characters, the interplay of fate and choice in magical girl destiny, how civilian life affects them in turn with their secret life, secret identity shenanigans, and REALLY COOL OUTFITS. Sort of want to emphasize that one again for any artists that match with me here: I love creative magical girl designs, in the creatures and outfits and enemies and transformations, and that's a great element to play up for any of these! My influence is generally most heavily from Princess Tutu and Sailor Moon, but take the magical girls in whatever direction you'd like (so long as you are still engaging with and taking seriously the idea of magical girls).
Some favorite tropes from superhero stories include: HEROES BEING FORCED TO WORK WITH VILLAINS AND VISE VERSA I know that's already on my likes list but I've got to say it again, worldbuilding surrounding how civilians interact with heroes, the affects powers have outside of fights, villain redemption arcs, "no one's allowed to hurt you but me", secret identity shenanigans (again), creative superpowers and uses for those powers, superheroes who still have mundane lives (the joke is that I really love characters taking the bus if that helps you figure out what that means), supervillains who genuinely think they're in the right, supervillains who feel like they have no choice in the matter for some reason or another, heroes who are exhausted but are still fundamentally good, good triumphing but that triumph being complicated.
In the miscellanea, I'll note that I love characters who have a transformation or who are learning to be human also being kind of a trans metaphor (or literally trans to go with the 'learning who I am' thing). I also always like stories about outsider POVs, social media-based stories, in-universe documents for an epistolary story, etc. This is the one fandom I don't have any worldbuilding tags nominated in because the nature but let it be said that if you have cool worldbuilding to give I WILL TAKE IT.
And I think that's all for the generic part of the letter; now, for the specific tags and any specific ideas I have for those!
THE MAGICAL GIRL ONES:
Magical Girl Hiding Her Struggles & Her Worried Mascot Companion: So I really, really like when the mascot companion in a magical girl show actually genuinely cares for their magical girl, and I also really like stories that explore the inherent struggle of leading that kind of double life. Some ideas for this include the idea that if it's a more "alien" mascot companion, they've had to learn to care for their magical girl as a person and not just a soldier but now find they do. Or maybe if it's a more "friendly" flavor, maybe they have always had kind of a parental care for them! As for what the magical girl is struggling with, it can be anything from "can't get enough sleep because of magical girling but thinks she can't sincerely show that kind of weakness to her companion" to "being bullied at school and trying to hide it" to "lost at love" to "the enemy is finding her when she's alone and she thinks she has to hide it because they'll hurt someone if she doesn't" to whatever you want to imagine! Wide range of possibilities here, which also leads to a wide range of possibilities for what the mascot companion can even do to help. Sometimes the mascot companion has powers of their own, sometimes they really don't, and sometimes the problem is something those powers couldn't fix!
Magical Girl & Her Fated Enemy Only Now Learning She’s A Teenager: This is of course the classic and beloved trope of a villain learning something about the hero and it changing their worldview. I think this would be a really good way to play with fate and destiny in the way it's often played with in magical girl stories! The enemy and head of the army of darkness can become redeemed in a magical girl way, or maybe learn something about their own lines they draw in the sand, or maybe just re-evaluate and gain a new respect for how hard what the magical girl is doing is. I particularly like the version of this that's "her fated enemy slowly starts to actually Take Care Of the magical girl in this context"; maybe the villain initially tries to recruit the magical girl, or makes an ill-advised attempt to forcibly adopt them? Bonus points if the magical girl remains unambiguously Good and if the animal companion isn't directly evil (but destiny or whatever forces set in motion the existence of magical girls can still be evil here). However, I'm fine with stories where this ends in the magical girl's corruption or where the animal companion is somehow inhuman or doesn't care as well!
Magical Girl & The Government Agency Trying to Corral Her: This is me unashamedly smushing one of my favorite superhero tropes (the Vague but Menacing Government Agency that either controls heroes, tries to stop them, or generally exists around them) with magical girls. I just think the ways such an agency would interface with a magical girl would be really interesting, especially given some of the differences, trope-wise! What would the government's view on the average magical girl be? Is this agency legitimately just trying to help and get a hold on the ways that especially a senshi style magical girl fight would cause damage, or are they trying to control the magical girl for more sinister aims? Do they figure out her identity, or is that protected? Do they become an Enemy in their own right, or are they a morally ambiguous ally? Up to you!
Magical Girl/Her Female Civilian Best Friend: So you know how a lot of magical girl characters have a best friend who is an ordinary civilian. And sometimes this friend gets sort of forgotten by the second season/later acts of the story, especially when the magical girl gets a proper team, but I think there's a lot to be explored with the idea of being a civilian who knows a magical girl. After all, she's out there doing things you fundamentally can't help with, on account of not having the magic to fight the kinds of threats a magical girl fights (or in some cases, literally being unable to see it)! The feelings of slowly being left behind or of fear for her friend's life are excellent to explore, as are ways a civilian could try to help, even without a magical destiny. On the magical girl's end, I like the idea of this friend being a tie to their ordinary life, a reminder of why remaining a civilian is important, and a reminder of what they're fighting for. She's able to remember what it means to just be a girl because of this friend! And, of course, they fall in love in the middle of all of these emotions. Does falling in love help, or just make all this more complicated? You decide but they should ABSOLUTELY kiss you know?
Magical Girl/Member of the Enemy Faction Getting Redeemed: Basically the pure distillation of the power of love in a magical girl story. "Member of the Enemy Faction" is vague, and this isn't an accident; this could be a Heavenly General SM-type character who's one of the bad guy generals, or a character like Quiche TMM, who is a rival "evil" love interest-type who starts to get emotions, or could be one of my personal favorite tropes, the dark magical girl (think Rue PTutu)! No matter what, the most important part of this to me is that this enemy is learning what love is from their new magical girl partner, learning how to be cared for, and learning how to be good. Meanwhile, on the magical girl end, this is a great one to slowly reveal they're still a person with flaws and their own deep concerns! Maybe trying to save this one enemy is them attempting to prove to themselves they can, or maybe it's a form of rebellion, or maybe it's simply that they're falling themselves. Up to you, but whatever you write with this trope I will absolutely eat it up!
Solo: Magical Girl Squad as a Polycule: So this is my "team as family" feelings turned into "so they're a found family but they also are in love"? Also, I think we've all seen a magical girl squad and gone "oh they should all be into each other". It's about the intimacy of all knowing each other in battle in both forms! The way that teams like this often see each other's worst moments! About having each other's backs! And, because they're young, learning what it means to be all in love! Bonus points for the "and they're all a little codependent because of their circumstances" trope.
Solo: Civilians in the Aftermath of a Magical Girl Battle: Another favorite trope superhero comics do well that I want to smush against magical girls: so what about the outsider POV? A lot of magical girl enemies do stuff like possess their victims or make those victims lash out, but a lot of other magical girl enemies do real, terrifying damage! What's it like being an ordinary civilian caught in this magical battle? What is it like if you were possessed? What's social media like in a magical girl world? Do ordinary civilians like... like the magical girls? Do any of them realize how young they are, or do they mostly assume they must be adults because of the power they wield? Basically whatever outsider POV you like for magical girls I would love to see it!
Solo: Transfem Magical Girl Using Her Transformation for Gender Reasons: Basic concept here: so like if I could magically transform into an idealized image of my gender I would take it and a magical girl story is SUCH a good metaphor for that. However, there are also fantastical elements to cover! Does this lead to dysphoria in times she can't be transformed? Does her transformation allow her to do anything but wear the magical girl clothes (like, can she use it in mundane situations so she can feel better about herself, or is she stuck only using it in times where her identity being given away is okay)? Does this lead to her throwing herself too much into her magical girl life to the detriment of her civilian one? Or, alternately, is this simply purely joyful for her? Does this represent goals she starts to seek out in her civilian life? Does it teach her things she wouldn't want her transformation to be like? There's a lot of really cool things to explore with "trans magical girl" and this is your opportunity to go wild with it!
Solo: Dark Magical Girl: SOMEONE ELSE NOMINATED THIS ONE AND I AM SO EXCITED. The trope of the dark magical girl is one of my favorites! I love these often antivillain, often tormented dark mirrors to the magical girl! My personal favorite example is Rue, but I love all of these rival characters. A story from a dark magical girl's perspective would be my JAM. What's her life like? Does she end up having to take charge/become a hero? What does she think of the "good guy" magical girls? Literally any direction you can go with this trope will make me SO SO HAPPY, so I'd love to see what you do with it!
THE SUPERHERO ONES:
Amnesiac Former Hero/Increasingly Guilty Former Nemesis: I really like the trope of "amnesiac character interacting with a character they knew in their former life but having the COMPLETE wrong idea of what their former relationship must have been like". Anyway, up to you how the hero got amnesia and why the nemesis decided it would be a good idea to start dating them, but the important part of the emotional conflict here for me is that the former nemesis starts to genuinely fall in love... and genuinely start to feel guilty, knowing what their relationship was once like and that the hero would never have approved normally. From there, it's up to you! Do they stay together? Do they break up? Does the hero ever regain their memories? Does the villain ever explain themselves? Does the nemesis get redeemed? Do things ever go back to normal? I don't know and I want you to tell me!
Retired Supervillain/Recently Turned Former Hero Seeking Advice: The basic premise here is that this former hero (now a villain) finds the retired supervillain to get advice. From there, however, there are several paths. One path might be the villain giving genuine advice. Another might be the villain trying to help get that recently fallen hero the redemption they never got. Maybe the villain is almost disgusted by this hero daring to turn and seek them out, or maybe they're sad, or maybe they're oddly flattered. There are a LOT of dynamics this tag could contain, and I'm excited to see every single one of them!
Superhero/Supervillain They Swapped Bodies With: BODY SWAP LET'S GO! I love the body swap trope, whether you play it in the "they have to then pretend to be each other and learn things about each other's lives" way or in the "they mostly have trouble using each other's powers during this very temporary swap while fighting their way back" or any other body swap thing you can think of! I think the most important trope to keep here, however, is that they end up forced to work together and that in turn leads to them starting to fall for each other. However, getting humanized by aspects of each other they wouldn't normally see is another HUGE part of the romance here for me! It can be as simple as "oh shit the hero has been pulling their punches from the beginning, I know this now that I'm in their body" or as complicated as having to live out their life and realizing how complicated and exhausted it is. I am personally a fan of villains learning the heroes aren't perfect and are sacrificing a lot to help people, but I'm equally a fan of heroes learning the villains lead complex lives and have reasons for their actions too. ALL OF WHICH THIS TROPE HAS. Great package all-around let's go.
Hero/Villain Captured and Tortured Together by a Worse Villain: Another "hero and villain forced to work together" but the whump trope version. I honestly love the idea of the hero and villain being thrown together in a horrible situation and growing close and protective and reliant on each other because they need some kind of positive human contact, even from their enemy. The idea of the hero standing protectively over the villain to try to take some of the torture for themselves, or the echo of the opposite happening... Bonding quietly over each other's motivations, which seem small in the face of what's happening to them... And then the AFTERMATH. I give you either "they're forced to work together to escape" or, maybe better, "they get rescued by one of their factions and are desperate, DESPERATE, to make sure the other one gets taken with them". And the ways they're changed by the experience! The bits of each other they take in desperation! I don't know man I just think this one has a lot of REALLY GOOD POSSIBILITIES. Very good whumpy possibilities but also just... character development ones. Good stuff.
Superhero Turned Into a Cat & Supervillain Who Cares For the Cat: A CHARACTER BEING TURNED INTO A CAT AND BEING TAKEN CARE OF BY THEIR NEMESIS IS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE REALLY SPECIFIC FANFIC TROPES. I love the way this would allow the superhero to learn new things about the supervillain! I love the moment of realization! I love the idea of the superhero maybe eventually resigning themselves to being a cat before being rescued! I love the idea of the villain not knowing and starting to worry about the hero! I love basically anything about how this makes the villain look softer and the weirdness of being someone's pet when you were originally a human and everything about this trope SO MUCH. I don't even have much to say other than waving my arms around and explaining this one is extremely iddy to me and if you lean into that I will go nuts.
Superhero fighting evil alternate version of self & Supervillain they ask to help: I love the idea of a hero being forced to go to a villain to help them, which is why this is the version of the tag I'm requesting. The idea of being forced to go to the one person who knows how to defeat you the best in order to defeat yourself... Man, that's a really good trope. plus, the idea of the villain getting to see what the hero would be like if they were actually evil is really good. Is it horrifying, or are they almost wistful? Plus, a hero and a villain being forced to team up is always excellent, I love the bonding and the tension that comes from it. Bonus points if the evil version of the hero is truly, truly terrifying; I love it when the hero becomes scary.
THE MISC ONES:
Human Weapon/Ordinary Civilian Who Accidentally Gained Control of Them: I love the trope of "human weapon" characters learning to feel love and be human. I also love the idea of a human weapon being accidentally given to an ordinary civilian who has NO idea what to do with it or how to handle it but, due to being a Normal-Ass Person, is completely horrified with what's been done to this human weapon. Then the trials and tribulations of both being a Normal Guy thrust into this crazy situation and of being a human weapon learning to just be human! Also there's great comedy potential in a human weapon doing scary weapon things to like, this ordinary human's mean boss or something. Just saying.
Solo: Starship’s Anthropologist Who’s Suddenly The Highest-Ranked Officer After a Disaster: Incredibly specific tag I know. This is because I have had an incredibly specific vision. In a Starfleet-esq space navy, where they do research and reaching out to new worlds, they'd need to have anthropologists, right? People whose job it is to understand and study new cultures. One that has been around a while is probably a ranking officer that belongs somewhere in the chain of command, because there are people who would be working under them. Another thing, however, that happens in sci-fi shows, is terrible catastrophes that threaten to take out the entire ship. This prompt is basically "what if a scientist–not even the kind that like studies disease or the unknown a social scientist–therefore found themselves in-charge after such a Problem In Space"? Your space navy can have whatever vibes or structure or worldbuilding you want, the disaster can be whatever you want, our space anthropologist can have whatever kind of success or failure here that you want! I compared it to Star Trek just because that makes it easiest to explain, not because you need to do Star Trek specifically. I just love stories about unlikely people having to take charge of situations and ALSO love stories about alien cultures and this prompt then sprung into my mind, fully formed, as a way to smash those two ideas together!
Aspiring Ruler Dragon & Stranded Alien: I love when fantasy and sci-fi collide, and this is a particularly fun way to do it. Dragons have so many ways they're portrayed; sometimes they're scheming, sometimes they're less intelligent, but they're ALWAYS powerful, and that dynamic over the alien is really interesting, especially with the way an aspiring ruler dragon might want to use the alien. Then again, though, a 'stranded alien' probably has technology and knowledge far beyond the dragon; this gives them their own power over the dragon, even if they're much less powerful than it. Maybe it's the alien who's the real brain here! Or maybe the alien is simply part of the dragon's hoard. Or maybe something else! I'd particularly love the ways whatever alien tech the alien has might clash with the dragon, how the people of the dragon's world might view the alien, and if the dragon ends up genuinely caring for the alien in some way.
Retired Spy & Underpaid Assassin Hired to Off Them & Bad Guys Now After Both of Them: This is such a fun action plot! It has great opportunities for the spy and the assassin to both show off the ways they might be badass or cool for each other, and I like the "enemies forced to team up" dynamic. Plus, this implies some interesting plot on the behalf of the bad guys, and I love a good road trip/journey/characters running away from something worse plotline to add momentum to a story. I like the idea of a comedy underpaid assassin, but I also love assassins who are human weapon-like or Black Widow-like. I like spies who are competent cool James Bond types, but I also love spies who are more of the "person who is simply good at getting information out of people by being friendly" types. And the bad guys can be after either of them or after both of them or doing a setup of some kind of anything else! Lots of possibilities, I'd just want to make sure there's also action in this one.
Final Girl Stopping for a Post-Horrors Burger & Fast Food Employee Who is Very Confused: Outsider POV is very fun, I love when characters that have been through Horrors and Trials and Tribulations encounter the normal world again and the normal world doesn't know what to make of them. This one's good from either POV; while I would slightly prefer the fast food employee's POV, there's still great comedy in the final girl trying to explain what has happened over her burger. I also love the almost weird competence characters like a final girl end up having; they have just been forced to, by circumstance, get really really good at surviving the horrors, but that comes across super weird in any other situation. A really fun prompt I would love to see!
I am new to the world of being a fan of Star Trek. Hey guys did you know Star Trek is GOOD? Wild. Anyway, when I say I'm new, I'm new. I am only through season 2 of TNG and a bit of background watching Lower Decks with my husband and that's it. That said, I am currently obsessed, I don't care AT ALL if you spoil me (in fact I welcome it, like, if it helps you write the fic you're writing I'm one of those people that will seek out spoilers when I like a thing), and I have like ten million worldbuilding tags I want to get out of this fandom. So even if you're uncomfortable writing me something character-centric knowing how little I've gotten through so far, you can get to the worldbuilding tags and make me equally happy!
(Genuinely, I want to be clear: I am currently extremely obsessed with Star Trek. I'm aware it's hard to write for someone who isn't very far into the series yet but you could write me about two guys I have never seen and never met dealing with an aspect of canon I won't run into until I'm several series deep and I will clap and cheer so much for it I promise you. I am at that stage of the fixation.)
As for alternate mediums... I didn't specifically request Star Trek fusions, but you can draw any of my blorbos as Star Trek crewmembers and races and I'll be excited. I'd love things like schematics or typographic design like one might find on a starship, and anything in-universe is always deeply loved.
I've divided this into two sections: the section about the characters and relationships I have requested and why I like them, and the section about worldbuilding and what I would want from those tags, since they have fairly different vibes. However, feel free to mix and match as needed and use one as inspiration for the other.
Also, noting here that I have some specific prompts for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fusion under the crossovers section, if that interests you!
CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Solo: Data: Data is the predictable one to have ended up one of my favorites, and I welcome anything about him at all! I love characters who are learning to be human, and I also love the narrative of the way Data's already "human". Personally, I'm curious how his time in Starfleet was prior to the Enterprise (he's stated he's been around for a while at this point), especially given that he seems to expect to be mistreated for not being "alive" the way other people are. I love storylines where Data interacts with alien races that are also "not normal life"! I also love every single storyline where someone who isn't used to Data responds like he's an object and Data is like "oh okay" and the entire crew around him is busy going "this is DATA he is a PERSON get it right". Also, introspection from Data's point of view! Certainly, he doesn't have "emotions" (I have thoughts about this from a writing perspective because he absolutely does but that's another conversation), but he's also shown to clearly introspect and re-evalute himself. A storyline where Data's "inhuman" characteristics save the day would also be cool. Data standing in an empty room petting his cat would satisfy me though I can't express enough how much this guy is just my blorbo now. I will take whump. I will take Data being cool. I will take a character study. I will take fluff. I will take anything just give me Data.
Solo: William Riker: My least predictable of my new favorites is Riker. I think it's the competence, but it's also the way he's written like he's kind of meant to be a loose canon character and then is perhaps one of the most straight-laced and sensible men on the Enterprise. Like, he sleeps around, sure, but it's canon as best I can tell that he can't actually maintain a relationship because he is in love with Starfleet. Also his beard is hot and I will not apologize for thinking so. Anyway, I have two very different specific requests for him. The first is whump. Because I think this man is cool and competent my brain has gone "so we should hit him with hammers". Basically any whump for him would be appreciated, but I am particularly partial to characters getting trapped in captivity with like, a broken leg and having to fight their way out, or something where he is forced to let go of the level of easygoing control he normally maintains over himself. I prefer whump that ends with the character escaping and at least the promise of future comfort (even if you do not write the comfort). My other request for him, however, is much, MUCH stupider. You see I put together "kind of a weirdo but like secretly" and "plays trombone of all instruments" and "acts like he's a rebel but is actually really straight-laced" and got "oh Riker is a band kid huh". Anyway please write me either about Riker's time in marching band or, better, the rest of the Enterprise finding out about his marching band past. This is also an opportunity to tell me about the Starfleet Academy Marching Band, a thing I have just now decided exists. Or, if this is indeed too stupid for you, you can just write the whump, I would also go insane over that.
Solo: Jean-Luc Picard: My third new favorite I've picked up, largely because no one told me before I started watching this show that he was also just sort of awkward? Personally I read him as autistic, but this in NO WAY has to be your headcanon for him or even relevant if you write him. Generally I like the ways that Picard is both kind of sad (he has trauma from his past times as captain!) and kind of awkward despite the fact that at first glance he's a cool collected person. I like that he has a pretty bad temper, but despite that his last resort is fighting and he'd prefer diplomacy! The ways he's explicitly more comfortable with people he can interact with through the structure of rank (this is part of why I think Riker works well as his XO; yeah sure Riker enters the first episode with 'and I will stop you if I think you're doing something stupid' but he's explicit about this and otherwise willing to interact with Picard through this layer of both rank and of being equals). I like how he's a stubborn asshole sometimes, and I like how he's protective of his crew! Also I like that he's a Fucking Nerd and likes dressing up in cosplay for the holodeck and Shakespear and also has a past full of breaking hearts. I'm aware none of this is really a prompt because unlike with the other two solo character tags here I honestly don't have much by way of prompt I mostly have a ramble about the things I like about his character and a desire to gesture at that and go "so, you know, go nuts". So that's what I'll do. Go nuts.
Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard: I like this ship from the show it is very cute. I also like the way that neither of them are ever going to be the person to make the first move (Picard has both rank and "I knew your ex husband" in the way and Crusher also has rank and "I can't tell if he's actually interested" in the way). I also really like how often people seem to assume Crusher would be like, mad about Picard's role in her husband's death when her actual emotions towards Picard are that she's in love with him. I'd love a fic where it's not that they don't know they're in love with each other, but it's simply not the right time while she's CMO and he's captain and so they mostly interact through Gestures and Knowing. Also I like how Picard is very bad at being nice to Westley but is trying because of Crusher, world's most okay-ish step dad. I just like the shared history here mostly!
Data/Geordi La Forge: THEY'RE HONESTLY JUST REALLY ADORABLE AND I WANT TO MAINTAIN THAT ENERGY. I like how easily they're best friends. They just fit together! I like how Geordi wants Data to be happy (even when Data doesn't think he can feel happy) and is perhaps best of everyone at treating Data as a person, but also as Data, a kind of person who isn't a human. Meanwhile, I like how Data seems to act more himself with Geordi and opens up to him. They're friends, and I really like pairings between people who are also friends! I also like when Geordi is protective of Data emotionally and Data is protective of Geordi physically. I also love the ways in which they're both sort of figuring out their relationship, even when it's easy for them. Basically I think this is really cute and also they should be Holmes and Watson again because that was really cute.
Solo: Crew of the Enterprise-E: This tag rather intentionally allows you to take whatever configuration of & relationships or solo fics you're interested in from the TNG cast; I am super obsessed with the show and here for you to write me your pitch about what relationship or character you think I should be interested in. I personally love the found family/team as family vibes, holodeck episodes, things that feel like they could be an episode, excuses for the crew to protect each other, excuses for a member of the crew to show off how badass they are, or stories that explore different positions the characters might take to a moral issue. An ensemble fic would be a dream as well; I love a good ensemble fic!
WORLDBUILDING
WB: Enlisted Sailors in Starfleet: So this is one of the outstanding questions I have about Starfleet that I have yet to find a consistent answer to: so like, where are the enlisted officers? Because if the way the show has treated becoming an ensign is accurate, that's definitely still a commissioned officer, just the lowest rank of commissioned officer. Or at least, it probably is? In order for Starfleet to be as big as it's implied to be they can't only have sailors through a ridiculously competitive Starfleet Academy entrance exam they have got to have enlisted officers somewhere, right? So basically tell me about that! (Or, if your argument is "there isn't a difference between enlisted and commissioned officers in Starfleet", tell me that! I just can't find a consistent answer and I am dying to know.)
WB: Folk Music from Around the Federation: I have a deep love of folk music in general, and there are a lot of really interesting Star Trek cultures and aliens that would have their own folk music. For example: would Betazoid music have an emotional or psychic component? We know Vulcans have their lyres/harps, and also big old drums; what kind of music would they like? What is Klingon folk music like? How about isolated colony planets; those would certainly develop their own cultures and musical traditions over time. Also, what about Starfleet itself? A certain level of musical tradition is common in the armed forces and especially on stuff like "five years on a spaceship and you need things to do". Given that "enjoys music" and "has a sense of rhythm" appear to apply to most Star Trek races, they would almost certainly have their own musical traditions, and I'd love to hear about some or all of them. Bonus points for portraying people enjoying themselves with this, also; I love stories about people sharing this kind of thing from their culture with one another.
WB: Life as a Kid on the Enterprise-E: There are children on this spaceship and they probably lead really interesting lives. I'd imagine it's similar to living on a military base, except... More, because most of what we see of the Enterprise-E really isn't that oriented towards civilians. Also, being effectively an "outsider POV" of some of the stuff that happens on the Enterprise when you're just a kid has got to be Something Else. I'd love any story about these kids and what they get up to, or how it affects their adult life, or how it might have compared to living planetside! Just seems like a really cool thing to explore.
WB: Muster Drills on the Enterprise-E: This one is one of the ones that is PROBABLY most looking for an alternate medium, although a plotty fic can do this really well if you want to do angst of some kind. Mostly this is just... how do you prepare to evacuate a ship the size of the Enterprise-E, which is often far from the nearest "shore", in a timely manner in an emergency? This is occasionally brought up on the show (they use the transporter, for one), but I'm curious about how they drill for it, how escape pods are set up, do they have environmental suits for the crew, etc. If you get very in-the-weeds and logistical I am down for that.
WB: Space Right-of-Way Laws: This can also read a LITTLE as "classes of ship that aren't Starfleet research and combat vessels" if you'd like, as well as radio communications, and is cousin to the space traffic control one. Basically: frequently, Starfleet ships are in "uncontrolled" space. What laws/rules/regulations govern who needs to make way for whom? What laws/rules/regulations govern how to otherwise unfamiliar ships should communicate? Space may be mostly empty, but so is the sky, and things ran into each other there easily until ATC was regulated at much lower speeds in vessels with much faster reaction times; how do regulations prevent that in space? And how does a Starfleet vessel handle that when, say, in non-Federation or unknown space where they may encounter vessels under the control of a different set of laws? Is there a treaty helping govern this? You decide!
WB: Starbase Space Traffic Control: And in cousin to the above: if in open space a collision is entirely possible but requires two ships getting close, at a location like a starbase ships will be close to each other all the time. This is a worldbuilding question about how those are controlled. Presumably, this is "controlled" space with an equivalent to ATC or a harbormaster at the very least. Do tugs help guide starships into position, or are they expected to go into position on their own? What is the standardized terminology used? How is the workplace if this is your job? What technology do they use to keep track of ships? Listen I'm a nerd I love this kind of logistical stuff give me logistics.
WB: Any: As I've said, I love any worldbuilding question you might have in mind. However, I want to give a special shoutout to a bunch of the tags in other Star Trek canons; I considered requesting them before deciding I would be upset personally if someone had requested my canon and then clarified they had never watched it, so I ended up not requesting them. I still love them, though, and would like to list some of my favorites so that if you want to write those worldbuilding tags in a TNG context, you have them available to do so with! There are a LOT of them so I'm not going to clarify ideas I've had for all of them, just like, feel free to use whatever here. I particularly like worldbuilding that goes over niche logistical details, that does interesting things with the cultures and needs of a variety of Federation species, or that helps flesh out the daily life of characters between episodes. Also, shoutout to the Enterprise poker nights; if you write the characters playing poker together that alone makes a great fic for me. As I've said a few times, I got a bit obsessed, so I will be fine with most anything!
Tags from other Star Trek canons I liked for inspiration:
WB: Enterprise First Contact Protocol (ST AOS)
WB: Multi-species design accommodation (ST AOS)
WB: Federation / Starfleet news services (ST: DS9)
WB: Spycraft in the 24th Century (ST: DS9)
WB: Colony Welfare Checks (ST: SNW)
WB: Daily Life On The Starship Enterprise (ST: SNW)
WB: Laws and ethics of genetic modification (ST: SNW)
WB: News and pop culture about Constitution-class ships and their crews (ST: SNW)
WB: Replicator Recipes/Formulas And Regulations Thereof (ST: SNW)
WB: Starfleet regulations about romantic relationships (ST: SNW)
WB: Time Travel protocols (ST: SNW)
WB: Cybernetics in the Federation (Lower Decks)
WB: Federation Pop Culture (Lower Decks)
WB: Paperwork involved with transporter duplicates & similar events (Lower Decks)
WB: Starfleet customs about Death & Resurrection (Lower Decks)
Pokemon-Specific DNW: Any human-bodied character/Pokemon-bodied character pairing, gruesome/gory depictions of injury to Pokemon. (It's fine if Pokemon get injured or killed, or are otherwise placed in real peril beyond what is normally shown in canon, but not if it's depicted in a way that's more gory than typical to canon.)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a game series that is near and dear to my heart; Explorers of Sky is still the game I will gladly declare is my favorite Pokemon game, main-series games included. Somehow, this is still the first time I've ever requested anything for it because only just now have I gone "wait holy shit that means someone... could make me mystery dungeon fanworks??? WILD."
My main favorite Mystery Dungeon game is Explorers, and most of the character and relationship tags here are Explorers tags. My second favorite is Rescue Team (tied with Super, I just didn't have very many good Super prompt ideas), and the one I am least familiar with is Gates. That said, I am fine with any of the the games for the worldbuilding tags! All of the games have some pretty neat ways to explore the world of Mystery Dungeon, after all, and all of them have slightly different takes on how the society runs. Also, while I'm aware that Super has a lot of flavor text that implies the characters from the other games are the recruits in Super, I've never treated that as fully canon; it is up to you how canon each game is to each other.
You can use whatever Pokemon you think fit best for the hero and partner of each game. However, my go-to hero and partner for each game are as follows: Rescue Team hero as Eevee with their partner Pikachu with a note that these are the only pair that I think definitely evolve once they have the opportunity into Vaporeon and Riachu; Explorers hero as Mudkip with their partner Phanpy; Gates hero as Axew with their partner Tepig; and Super hero as Chikorita and their partner Riolu (and if you know the ending of the game, later, Mew). You can use whatever names your heart desires, although personally I'd love some worldbuilding about Pokemon names versus human names if you do anything wild. You also, as I said, do not need to use my headcanons here; writing your own hero and partner makes just as much sense, and I'd love to read about them just as much!
I have this split up by game; this generally means relationships and characters come before worldbuilding tags, but there is one worldbuilding tag from a specific game.
Noting here that I have two main series/PMD crossover ideas in the crossovers section, along with 'Naruto in PMD' and 'TNG in PMD' prompts, if any of those interest you!
RESCUE TEAM:
Rescue Team Hero/Rescue Team Partner: I ship the hero and the partner in a lot of the games, but Rescue Team is the one that I really ship them in. The Hero/Partner relationship is the core of the mystery dungeon games, but in many ways the Rescue Team partner is the partner that does the most for the hero with the least benefit to themselves. In return, the Rescue Team hero is the one hero who deliberately chooses to stay in the world of Pokemon in the end, all for their "very best friend", the Partner! And while the hero character in the games is mostly a self-insert, that bit of characterization lives in my brain a lot. Personally, I would love something that focuses on the domesticity of them living together and working together as a rescue team. I'd love something in the aftermath of the game about them just existing, and about the hero making that choice! Alternately, sometime during the fugitives arc would be a really great time for them to get together. Anything about the ways the hero is alien to the partner by being formerly human would be really interesting, as would the ways the hero feels about how much the partner has done for the hero in this world! I just think they have the potential to be very, very cute, and I'd love to see it.
Solo: Gengar: Oh, Gengar. Gengar is a fascinating character; the main villain for much of the game, but his redemption and the ways he does still feel guilt for what he did to Gardevior are what make him interesting. Him helping the player after seeing Gardevior again in their dreams, and then his entire post-game arc... Anything about who Gengar is as a character through all of this would be really appreciated, as would him meeting and living with the newly-amnesiac Gardevior while working through his emotions. Alternately, Team Meanies: how did that end up happening? Details about how Gengar adjusted to being a Pokemon instead of a human would also be really appreciated. Any amount of character study on this guy, really; he's a really compelling character that makes me want to see more!
WB: Pelipper's Mail Service: In this game, before the idea that exploration teams are organized in-person was created, there was Pelipper's Mail. (Technically this also appears in future games for the wi-fi play, sometimes? Which is interesting.) I have so many fun questions! How do the Pelipper get mail from people in distress? How do they know how to deliver it? The mail station shows Pelipper flying in and out pretty frequently; how is that scheduled? Are Pelippers their own kind of explorers? Do they have to fight often, or do people leave them alone even in dungeons? How does one join the mail service? Is there an in-universe explanation for why the codes encoding what a piece of mail will have are so long and complicated? I just think there's a good amount to explore with the idea of a society-wide mail service that is used to help people in distress. It's cool.
EXPLORERS
Explorers Hero/Explorers Partner & Manaphy: So the entire Manaphy arc is really cute, even if getting those blue gummis is a pain. I'd love anything about the Hero and Partner basically raising a child together. Cute Manaphy shenanigans! Hero and Partner being exhausted together trying to deal with it! The fear they likely felt when Manaphy fell sick due to needing to be raised in the water! The post-game mission where you can go recruit Manaphy; how does a more grown-up Manaphy feel about these guys who raised them as a baby but had to give them up? Does having raised Manaphy together change the Hero and Partner's relationship? Obviously there's a slash in this tag so I ship the hero and partner here, but is this how they get together or were they together before then? Does anyone from the village help? Basically, anything to do with this arc would be deeply appreciated.
Grovyle & Explorers Hero: This relationship is so important to the story of the game, yet we get to see precious little of it due to the hero's amnesia. Grovyle knew the hero as a human, though, and the relationship between the two of them remains deep even after the hero forgets Grovyle and Grovyle thinks the hero has been lost forever! I'd love any kind of "origin" story of how they met, or a story from when they were hunting the Time Gears in the ruined future, or a story about Grovyle describing the hero to someone else, even now that the hero is a Pokemon that does not remember him, or even just a story about Grovyle and the hero in the short time they were working together in the present to save the future. It's also a great way to give the hero characterization, either in their past or in the ache of not quite being the person that someone is looking for, the ache of watching someone mourn you right in front of you. Lot of good potential here, is what I'm saying!
Solo: Grovyle: Similarly, Grovyle on his own is just a really interesting character. For one, he's evolved; a lot of details imply evolving is really hard to do while time is still broken, which has always fascinated me about Grovyle, since he's a character that's implied to have never known a world where the sun shines. For another, there's just that: he's a character that had never seen things like "sunshine" or "rain" or "flowing water"; he's a grass-type, even, who doesn't know those things! Anything about his relationship with things like sunshine would be really fantastic to hear about. I'd also love anything about his relationship to his goals, the things he's willing to do to meet them; someone once described him to me as Pokemon's true antihero and while I don't think he's that (he's too optimistic ultimately to be an antihero), there's something compelling about the fact he's a villain for the entire first part of the game because he's just desperate. Also, if you take his special episode from Sky as fully canon, what is it like to live after you were certain you would die? Grovyle did everything from the beginning knowing he was literally erasing himself from existence to get it done; what's it like when that doesn't happen and he has to go on existing? There's a lot of meat to Grovyle's character in the form of a character study or as a backstory or as origin story or as anything else you'd like to do with Grovyle in general.
Chatot & Wigglytuff: I really adore Chatot and Wigglytuff as characters. They have a fun "serious one" and "goofy one" dynamic, but between Wigglytuff's hidden serious side and Chatot's tendency to hide how much he cares until he dramatically reveals it, they have a really fun relationship. I like the ways Chatot uses being a hardass as his way of caring for Wigglytuff (and the rest of the guild), and I love the way that Wigglytuff can force Chatot to lighten up! They're another pair of characters I have questions about the origins of, also; we know the Brine Cave story, of course, which is how I'd like to imagine Wigglytuff and Chatot decided they'd stick together, but I'm curious how Chatot ended up Wigglytuff's second-in-command. I can kind of imagine them as platonic life partners or QPPs also; I'd love anything about the two of them being super domestic in their own weird Pokemon way. I don't mind shippy undertones, but I don't really see them as a ship; I simply see them as very, very close, and Pokemon who have been very, very close for a long time! So anything that leans on that idea would be really loved.
Solo: Wigglytuff's Guild: I would love any stories about Wigglytuff's Guild in their day-to-day lives, be it focusing on a specific single member of the guild or the entire guild as an ensemble. I love Wigglytuff's Guild being its own kind of family to one another, and I love any stories set with them while they're on expeditions or they're just having lunch or whatever. This is also a free space to focus on your favorite member of the guild that hasn't been brought up yet, such as Bidoof or Loudred. Just have fun with it, they're all characters I'd love to hear more about!
WB: The Paralyzed Future: The future Grovyle is from, the future where time is paralyzed and the sun never rises and change is broken. What was it like? How did Pokemon survive in an environment like that? It's somewhat implied many of them didn't, but many of them clearly did! What happened to things like rescue teams when this first started, given that it's generally implied this is a dystopian bad end future from what we know of it? What was Primal Dialga's rule like? Also, the hero means we know that humans existed in this horrible future, and that at least one human managed to find the world of Pokemon, or that the Pokemon found the main series world of humans! All these questions and more plague my mind. Literally any amount of detail on what the ruined future was like would be deeply appreciated and I'd love to see it!
ANY GAME
WB: Mystery Dungeons: So, Mystery Dungeons are known in-universe, but a lot of the ways they work mechanically don't quite make sense with how they're treated in-universe. So this is a great opportunity to reconcile that! Some of my biggest questions are things like "how does recruiting Pokemon from a dungeon work, and why do most Pokemon seem to indiscriminately attack", "how do random Pokemon manage to get lost in the dungeons", "are there rules to predict how dungeons will form or is that like a natural disaster for the area the dungeon is in" (it's been a bit but I feel like I remember Gates had some stuff with this, which was cool), or whatever else you want to discuss with them. I feel like every game explains why mystery dungeons exist slightly differently, and often blames them on the oncoming Plot-Relevant Natural Disaster, but they also continue to exist into the postgame! I'd love in-universe explanations, studies on the dungeons, myths on them, or even the characters doing a dungeon and encountering stuff that explains more about them. I just think they're neat.
WB: The Societal Role of Rescue Teams: Rescue teams as organizations seem to play a pretty decent part of life in the Mystery Dungeon world. Every game has them, every game has mystery dungeons, and every game seems to treat rescue teams as important. I want to hear more about how they interact with the world! How important are rescue teams to the average Pokemon? Do they do more than explore dungeons typically? How did the idea of a "rescue team" first form? There seem to be towns that spring up around rescue team hubs; is there a reason for this? (Gates is a really good example of this kind of thing.) Is this a thing that comes naturally to Pokemon, or is this kind of collaboration hard for them? I think there's a lot of interesting worldbuilding that can be done with rescue teams and this is also kind of a free space to do whatever rescue team worldbuilding you'd like!
WB: Views on Humans: Every game, we also hear a little bit about what the Mystery Dungeon world thinks of humans. Normally, they're from some other world and almost considered mythical, but notably, often Pokemon know what humans are, too, and have stories about them. In Explorers, Grovyle even knew the hero as a human! So I'm curious about what the various Mystery Dungeon worlds think of humans. Do they have legends about them? Do they know of things like the main-series Pokemon world? Are humans a thing they think of as scary or a thing they wish they'd meet? Alternately, the hero was once a human; what is the hero's perspective on how the Mystery Dungeon world thinks of humans? Is the hero slightly alien to them because of this? If a Mystery Dungeon Pokemon met a human, what would they think of them? There's a lot of fun stuff to explore with this.
WB: Views on Legendary Pokemon: Legendary Pokemon normally play a powerful and mysterious role in the various Mystery Dungeon games. That said, you can also recruit them and they sort of just hang out with you. Rayquaza has to be fought and convinced to stop a meteor, but Celebi is Grovyle's friend and the fact they're legendary is only occasionally acknowledged. That said, guys like Palkia or Dialga still have incredible power! Yveltal in Super is very powerful, but is actually possessed in the end by a greater power. Meanwhile, non-legendaries such as Ninetales can be shown as having incredible power as well. So, with stuff like that in mind: what does the average Pokemon think of legendary Pokemon? Are they still, well, legends? Are they facts of life? Do they even know about some of them? Are they considered gods or like just much stronger, more important fellow Pokemon?
WB: The Legends and Mythology of the Pokemon World: The Mystery Dungeon world is its own whole society with writing systems and ruins and magical things like mystery dungeons. Surely, they have their own mythology and legends! Plus, we hear about some of their legends during the games, be they stories passed down through the ages that are relevant to the plot or just little details in the postgame. Also, given the existence of the Bittercold and Dark Matter, there are powerful forces in this world that are not Pokemon. So what are the stories about those? Do Pokemon have their own legendary figures or gods or spirits? What are some Pokemon superstitions? I'd love in-universe tellings of these things, stories that reference the characters acting based on these things, or anything like that! There's lots of cool ways to take this.
WB: Organization/Logistics/Collaboration of Independent Rescue Teams: There are a lot of rescue teams that seem to not be a part of any explorer's guild, but instead just operate on their own. This is sensible, knowing how large of a cut that say, Wigglytuff's Guild takes, but what are the tradeoffs to being independent? How are they still able to get missions and keep ranks? They seem to collaborate some; how do they do that? In games like Rescue Team, this seems to be the norm, but in games like Super, it does not seem to be the norm. So I just want to hear about how this works, and what some of the things these independent rescue teams get up to are!
WB: Transformation into a pokemon: This tag is making me cheer and go WOO BODY HORROR LET'S GO! But beyond that, this is a great way to discuss, beyond just general views on humans, the ways the fact this just happens sometimes would affect society, but also the ways this affects the hero (or for that matter, Gengar). What is the actual transformation like? What kinds of legends surround it? In the human world the heroes come from, are there also stories about this kind of thing? I don't have much to add here because this tag by itself is pretty good just sort of waving my hands around and yelling really.
WB: Any: Honestly, Mystery Dungeon has such a cool setting and world. Footprint runes! The mail service! Towns and houses! Anything you can think of, really, that goes into the setting, I'd love to read! I don't have much expansion here because this is the tag I've nominated for you to give me worldbuilding about whatever I haven't already thought of, haha, of which I'm sure there's plenty.
Pokemon-Specific DNW: Any human-bodied character/Pokemon-bodied character pairing, gruesome/gory depictions of injury to Pokemon. (It's fine if Pokemon get injured or killed, or are otherwise placed in real peril beyond what is normally shown in canon, but not if it's depicted in a way that's more gory than typical to canon.)
Pokemon is in many ways my first fandom and remains a thing I have a lot of fondness for. That said, this is my first year requesting it for any kind of exchange, and that's exciting! I've spent time in fairly niche Pokemon fic communities (shoutout to the Nuzlocke forums and also Global Pokedex Plus in my youth), but I don't know much about the broader fic community and I haven't really been in the broader Pokemon fandom for some time, so this feels like a blast from the past! I do still see a lot of Pokemon art, and man, Pokemon artists are creative, I love to see art.
For those who are just coming to this tab for information on my Pokemon favorites: my favorite Pokemon is Sandshrew, but my most recent favorite in-game partner was Tyranitar. When I represent myself in Pokemon (such as on Showdown), I do so as the male Team Galactic grunt (with a red ribbon around his wrist when it's possible to give him it). My favorite Pokemon generation is Gen 4, my favorite game is either Platinum if you only count main-series or Explorers of Sky if you count the spinoffs. I haven't played ScarVi, although I want to play Violet sometime, especially since the DLC is supposed to be good, and I know all the story spoilers. I've played all the other main-series games, though, and also play a decent amount of Pokemon Go and most of the DS spinoffs. I'm a nuzlocker or challenge runner occasionally, although I am Not Very Good At It, and I normally do so with more of a focus on narrative than Winning The Correct Way.
As for what I'm looking for in a Pokemon request: this is a great fandom to do art in, obviously! I also love worldbuilding around Pokemon; there are a lot of really cool ways to take the world of Pokemon and everyone is always so creative about it! There's something so compelling about a world that is so close to our own and yet is just... not quite our own, often in ways that feel idyllic. The ways that Pokemon themselves shape the world are so interesting, but so are the ways the people in that world interact! As such, most of my tags in this fandom are worldbuilding.
This is split up into individual Pokemon requests, worldbuilding requests that require you have knowledge of a specific game's lore, and worldbuilding requests that could go into any game!
Noting here that I have two main series/PMD crossover ideas in the crossovers section, if that interests you!
INDIVIDUAL POKEMON:
Solo: Sandshrew: My favorite guy! Sandshrew is really really cute and that's my favorite Sandshrew quality: the cuteness. Also I've met real pangolins before and they are so cute and they run around so fast on their little pangolin legs. Basically, anything focused on how cute Sandshrew is, in art or in their lives, and I will be really really happy.
Solo: Tyranitar: By contrast, TTaur is probably one of my favorite recent Pokemon I've played with in-game, having recently played a hack that let me use the line all throughout a playthrough. It's also my favorite psuedo and just a really cool big guy! Bonus points for any portrayals with her wearing a Choice Scarf, and also bonus points for putting her with a male Galactic grunt, should you do art, but otherwise I'd love just hearing some about these giant Pokemon, what sorts of places they live in, and how someone would even take care of one if they had one in the real world!
Solo: The Lake Trio: One of my favorite sets of legendaries. The lake trio have really cool designs, and I think their thing is often underrated; not only do they have some pretty scary Pokedex entries (shoutout to Uxie removing memories, which is the one most people know, but did you know Azelf will simply remove your will to live?), but the powers of emotion, willpower, and memory are powerful on their own. Their ties to the red chain and how their power controls Sinnoh's other legendaries is also a really interesting question to me! I'd love to hear about how the Lake Trio exists in legend, how they've interacted with humans over the years, or just art of them being kind of spooky and really cool. I like their ominousness for guys that are so small and cute, basically.
Solo: Jirachi: My favorite of the mythical Pokemon! Jirachi is a Pokemon I like two different portrayals of. Often, Jirachi is portrayed as mostly just being cute and sleepy, and I certainly like that. However, often Jirachi is also portrayed as kind of ominous, from the third eye on its stomach to its tendency to grant wishes in a way the wisher didn't really want or expect, I feel like a Jirachi that's kind of sinister also fits with the way Jirachi is often shown. It's signature move is even "Doom Desire", which says a lot. So both of these portrayals are things I'd be really interested in! I think Jirachi especially would be great for writing cautionary tales about or old stories about, too, given the everything about it. It's a really neat Pokemon!
SPECIFIC WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Day-to-Day Life of a Team Galactic Grunt: Team Galactic is my favorite of the evil teams aesthetically but they're probably the team which joining up into as a grunt makes like... the least sense, given their goals. Unless, of course, you take the implication that the grunts think Cyrus is going to also take them to his "perfect world" as true! But even still, what does Team Galactic like... do? They have public, known headquarters and seem to claim to be a clean energy company, but no one believes this canonically? Why do they steal Pokemon? Anything you want to do about one of the foot soldiers of Team Galactic is excellent in my books, before, during, and after the canon of the Sinnoh games. Give these weird teal-haired guys some fleshing out!
WB: Kalos War: Man, ever since I first played X/Y the fact this is a thing that is real and canonically happened and also they had the nuclear weapon metaphor of the ultimate weapon in it. And it's in a Pokemon game. And the things Xerneas did to like, AZ, as a result, are existentially horrifying. There's so much about Kalos's lore that is so fucking cool (god I'm excited for Legends AZ) and THIS IS ONE SUCH THING. What are more of its effects on the region? What was it like at the time? What are studies of it like now? It's just such a wildly dark thing to have in a Pokemon game (especially main-series; I'm a Mystery Dungeon fan I know they're allowed to pull extinction-level events it's still just wild when they do) and it intrigues me so much. I think this could be a fantastic prompt to put stuff like in-universe research, in-universe discoveries and documentation, artifacts from the war, etc; I think this is a REALLY GOOD PROMPT for alternate mediums!
WB: Newmoon Island: One of Pokemon's spookier locations, made all the more strange by the fact that it's otherwise fairly unremarkable. An island you're transported to in a dream, sister to Fullmoon Island, a place you can clearly get a boat ride to afterwards but before then... How does this all work? Is Newmoon Island like, real? How do all the supernatural elements work here? Have people stumbled across it by accident before, like sailor legends and such? I feel like there would be sailor legends.
WB: Public Opinion of Team Plasma in Unova: Team Plasma is one of the most interesting "Evil Teams" because they start as publicly being an activist organization. They clearly persuade some people then! How does the events of the game change that? Interestingly, does this then hurt any other activist groups with their own bad behavior? How do "Pokemon rights" organizations fare after Team Plasma's actions? Then, in B2W2, when you have the split in the ranks: what do people think of that split? Do they ever do any actual good work, and how is that complicated by their actions? I think there's a lot to dig into here that doesn't super get dug into by the games they're in, and I'd be delighted to see it dug into.
WB: The Darkest Day: This is another "disaster that happened 3000 years ago", which is already interesting in combination with things like the Kalos War (what's with things happening 3000 years ago, huh?). It's also not explained in terribly much detail in the game it's in, let alone in a way that explains how Chairman Rose is triggering it again or why he'd think that's a good idea. I just think there's a lot more fleshing out this could have; it's mythology, it's environmental impacts (beyond just 'dynamaxing is real now'), what kind of creature Eternatus is... Any kind of fic fleshing out what's going on here would be really good.
WB: The History of Ancient Johto: Johto has so many interesting ruins and towers and so much culture. The way it's tied to Kanto now but culturally is decently different from Kanto, the Sinjoh Ruins existing, everything to do with Celebi... Honestly, my love of Celebi and time travel stories makes me think that's a fantastic excuse to give Johto a sort of Legends-esq plot of a character going back in time to see what ancient Johto was like! But also, there's a decent argument to be made that Pokeballs as they're made today may have started in Johto, where the apricorn was common, and that would be a cool angle to take too! Any in-universe history or research could work well here too, I was just struck by the time travel plot.
WB: The Slumbering Weald: More SwSh stuff! The Slumbering Weald segment at the start of the game is my favorite location honestly. I love the way it's clearly meant to be a fey wilderness, mysterious and dangerous to humans who dare to wander in. I want to hear more about it! I want to hear the stories that have been passed down in Galar about that place, about children who wandered in and wandered out Different, about people who entered one year and walked out a century later, about the howling wolves within and the strange things that happen there. I want to hear about Zamezenta and Zacian too, and how they take home in that place. I feel like they'd be strange beasts as a result. I like spooky Pokemon locations and this one is spooky in such a unique way!
WB: The Ultimate Weapon: So I always read this as "this is a nuke, but an ancient nuke metaphor as much as anything else". However, everything we hear of its effects every time its used are deeply existentially horrifying (especially when it's Xerneas and not Yveltal powering it, although Yveltal powering it is pretty damn existential dread also). Also, how does this thing work? I don't have much to add here other than "it's very scary and I want to hear more about that".
GENERAL WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Education: A broad but really interesting category! Obviously, most of the education we see in the games seems to be focused around battling. And that largely makes sense! We're focusing on a character who mainly does battle! However, there's a lot of other types of people hanging around the Pokemon world, and I'd love to hear about how all of them are educated too. How long are kids normally in school for? What about adult continuing education? How does that all play in with the way that many people seem to travel, both as kids doing the league and otherwise? There are a lot of really cool directions to go in with this (especially given that a few Pokemon games even have canonical schools) and I'd love all of them.
WB: Mundane Uses for Pokemon: In a world where basically everyone knows and has Pokemon, a lot of Pokemon would be doing more mundane things, not fantastical ones. Legends Arceus is really good for stuff like "Pokemon helping with the farming", and Alola is good for "Pokemon as transportation"; what are some other ways people could be using Pokemon to help in their world? Pokemon doing construction is another canonical one; what kinds of construction do different Pokemon do? Pokemon helping to make food, Pokemon to keep people safe, Pokemon for help at various jobs... I just like the mundane reality of Pokemon and people living in the same world, and any way you have to show that would make me happy.
WB: Relationships Between Different Regions: Different regions, at the very least, seem to have different cultures. We don't know much about the governments of the Pokemon world (oftentimes the closest thing to 'governments' we seem to have are the Pokemon League, a thing that once again kind of makes sense given the perspective the games are told from but is also kind of fascinating). We also don't often see cross-regional relationships outside of the Kanto/Johto one. I think there's both an interesting political perspective on the question of "relationships between regions" (do they behave like nation-states, are there regions that have bad diplomatic relations, are there ones with particularly good relations, etc) and an interesting day-to-day one (are there stereotypes across regions, are there regions that have a "rivalry" going on, are there different cultural exports). There's probably even an angle for this I haven't thought of and I'd love that angle too!
WB: The Scientific Study of Pokemon: Being a Pokemon Professor must be so WEIRD. There are so many wild things Pokemon can do. Add in that canonically we actually don't know where Pokemon eggs come from (really funny, incidentally, although fair given how many mammals this would mean lay eggs) but that also the theory of evolution is clearly true given regional forms but ALSO whatever Area Zero has going on at any given time and... I feel like there would be such scientific discourse. I feel like the research papers must be WILD. I feel like the kind of field work you have to do must be wild. I feel like there's just a lot of really fun and funny stuff to do with the idea of trying to scientifically study these magical monsters that are enshrined in your world. You can also take this more seriously than "I think trying to do this would be hell in a funny way" I will take the serious version but I just keep thinking about. What was the scientific discourse like the two times the type charts changed...
WB: Views on Legendary Pokemon: This one is interesting because of how different it is across games, but also how different people interpret that. For example, Kanto doesn't seem to have a particular reverence for the legendary birds, but even neighboring Johto clearly has some amount of religion around Ho-oh. The Hoenn weather trio, well, control the weather, but the Latis are considered legendary but don't seem to have nearly the same reverence. This goes on across regions! I'd love stuff about what the everyday inhabitant of the world thinks of the legendary Pokemon, or about how different people agree or disagree with the idea of revering legendary Pokemon, or even the scientific idea of them! There are a lot of cool places to go with them, especially since the plots of the games reveal the legendary Pokemon to be factually real. In some ways, I wonder if that then makes them seem less like gods?
WB: Any: This is once again a free space to go nuts with your favorite Pokemon worldbuilding headcanons and make something really cool out of it. Don't have much to add since all of my Pokemon worldbuilding thoughts are pretty encapsulated in the tags I've already gone over; this is for you to tell me what I've forgotten that's cool!
Oh, Naruto. Probably one of my fandoms I have the most focused, specific desires for: I want Team 7 being friends, or I want worldbuilding. Naruto is one of the fandoms I tend to read fic in the most often, which means it's probably the fandom here I have the best-identified knowledge of what my favorite tropes for it are. I don't have much to add in the intro this time that aren't contained in the specific prompts other than "yay Naruto", haha! Don't let that fool you, though: I would be just as ecstatic to get Naruto fic as I would be about any other fandom, I just have less qualifying information to get through. Most of my desires are pretty neatly contained to my explanations of my prompts.
I haven't ever read or watched Boruto and know nothing about it, so feel free to entirely ignore it if that's your preference. Or don't! That's fine too! I also don't know much about the various Naruto movies.
This one is simply separated out into characters and then worldbuilding!
Also, noting here that I have some specific prompts for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fusion under the crossovers section, if that interests you!
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto or Hatake Kakashi & Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto: These two tags are getting the same blurb, because I've requested them for the same reason. One of my favorite genres of Naruto fic is the genre where Team 7 has something happen to them that causes them to become closer than they are in canon and become a true team-as-family. I love it when they're baby badasses, but I also love it when whatever happens takes into account how much of a mess they are in canon. I love it when it's that Kakashi takes things seriously, but I also love it when it's despite Kakashi. I love it when instead of falling apart because of their respective Issues, their Issues end up playing into how they get close to each other. However it happens, I don't care, I just love when it does! This prompt is obviously one I'd like as a canon divergence, but you can go as AU with that canon divergence as you'd like. I just want Team 7 as a family, or at least, the beginnings of what could be a fix-it for Team 7, you know?
Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto: Me, loudly: AND WHAT IF I ALSO THINK TEAM 7 SHOULD KISS. This is a further extension of the above "I love when Team 7 is all dependent on each other", because that often also falls into "and what if in the process they all end up kind of sleeping together because it only makes sense when they're all already in each other's pockets so much". This can be early canon puppy love (I think it would be funny for one of the members of Team 7 to decide this is the efficient way to solve the love triangle, for example), this can be as a part of one of the AUs described above. This can also be post-canon; there is a version of the post-canon in my head where Team 7 has to try to reconstruct and become reformers, given all of their traumas within the ninja village system. They could also fall into each other as some of the only people who fully understand what they all are after everything. Or you could choose some other point and reason for them to get together; I just think they could be a really interesting trio to explore.
Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto: Iruka and Naruto's relationship is really sweet. I think the fact Iruka is one of the only adults in Naruto's life to show him any kind of care is a really powerful relationship that I'd love to know more about and see more of. I think Naruto trying to figure out how to return that care as someone who hasn't seen much of it before is a really interesting angle to take it from! I also think, however, that it's interesting how young Iruka is; like, he's almost in older brother range when compared to Naruto, but in that strange zone where he's not quite a surrogate parent but isn't quite a brother but is more than just 'teacher', and I think there could be a lot of emotions about that. Also, I'm a sucker for the genre of fic where Iruka adopts Naruto if you're okay with canon divergence, though I am also just really interested in their canon dynamic.
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Age of Adulthood in the Shinobi World: Same as last year, I'm going to point at the "underage" DNW, since I think it could be easy to miss with this prompt. With that said: so, genin are treated as something halfway between an adult and a child in a lot of interesting ways. They're old enough to kill, to live by themselves, to take missions, to die for their country... but older ninja often treat them as kids in the "oh, they're young and stupid" way. Thirteen or fourteen is still considered old enough to promote, though, given Shikamaru becomes a chunin and is given a command shortly afterwards. As such, I am fascinated with what the concept of an 'age of adulthood' might be like in the shinobi world, as their concept of what an "adult" is and how old someone has to be to make decisions for themselves. In what ways is a new genin treated as an adult? In what ways are they still a child? How does this affect society? Does this only go for ninja, or does it go for other people around them as well? How does training a child to kill affect your idea of 'child'?
WB: Chakra Theory: I think there would be people who have to dedicate their lives to the study of chakra. We're only ever given some explanations of chakra theory, and I just like the idea of going more in-depth. Are there arguments about it, or are things we're shown in the show the accepted universal theory? What do people do in order to study this? What are some of the applications of it, and what is some of the theory behind it we aren't shown? I think both interesting technical documents and interesting arguments between scholars could happen here.
WB: Shinobi-Civilian Relations: There are civilians in Naruto; they hire ninja, and they live in both the hidden villages and elsewhere, and they don't use chakra the way ninja do. What is it like, being one of these civilians? What do ninja seem like to you? Are they frightening? Are they something you consider that protects you? How about ninja; how do they treat the civilians around them? How is living in a hidden village, a place that appears to constantly be under martial law? I think that the way civilians might interact with these guys with superpowers who kill people in the night legally and have wars against each other and all could be really interesting. There have to be guys who farm, after all! No sedentary society can survive without guys who farm! Who is doing all the agriculture? And how are those guys treated by a regime that seems to treat ninja as the most important thing?
WB: Civilian Education In Konoha: Man, this is such a good tag. Following up from my questions about shinobi-civilian relationships, there's "how are the civilians educated in Konoha". Ninja, at the very least, have a school system and appear to have free education with the massive caveat of "when you sign up you are also compelled to enlist". But do civilians have compulsory or free education, or is this one of the ways the Naruto world leans into its more feudal era elements? Is there a gap in education to compel more enlistment, or are the civilians treated just the same?
WB: Day-to-Day Village Administration: Ah, my paperwork tag. This is the tag about ninja paperwork. It's also about politics, but it's mostly, for me, about bureaucracy, of which Konoha at least appears to be one. After all, the ninja do paperwork, there are at least a few separate "departments" in the administration, and sure the Hokage runs a military dictatorship but given that the Hokage appears to largely be selected for military strength, who's making sure everyone has clean water? Who's solving the inevitable monetary disputes between ninja and clients (outside of murder, which goes back to 'do ninja bother treating civilians well' as a question)? Bureaucracy exists in every society as well, largely to keep track of taxes in some but if the society keeps records, it will have some amount of bureaucracy. But what kinds of records would ninja keep? What records would remain secret? How do taxes work? Also ninja having to do paperwork is very funny and we can't forget this. There are so many fun stories that could be told out of the various mundane details that would be necessary to running a ninja village; my most pipe-dream suggestion is "epistolary told entirely through various paperwork", but even just something about "who is the tax collection ninja" would be my dream come true. I just. I love... paperwork and mundane realities in fantasy worlds, you know?
WB: Medical Ninjutsu: Like most healing magic, the limitations of medical ninjutsu outside of "it requires good control and medical knowledge" aren't really clear. Something like medical ninjutsu would wildly change a society, though; the ninja world has hospitals that actually work. Modern medicine changed the world radically, and medical ninjutsu is normally shown as a thing that relies a little on an understanding of modern medicine. Also, it has magic wound-healing powers! Anything either mechanically about how medical ninjutsu works or socially about how medical ninjutsu changes the world would be really appreciated. (Bonus points go back to those civilian-ninja relations; do people who aren't ninja even get the benefits of medical ninjutsu?)
WB: Any: Free space! If my rambling on the above tags isn't clear, my preference is for in-the-weeds mundane details of a fantastical reality, but I will also truly take anything. This is the space for anything I didn't mention that you think is really cool and would like to show me!
GX, my favorite of the YGO spinoffs, is a show with a very dear place in my heart in the way only a show I watched when I was going through a real rough patch of my life can be. The characters are all so vivid to me and I love its juxtaposition between the incredibly goofy and the surprisingly serious and dark (even before you hit season 3, when suddenly taking everything seriously comes to the forefront). Those guys sure can coming-of-age story, huh?
I personally love post-canon GX stories a lot, and by default that’s what I’ll be prompting mostly here. I’d love things set during canon too, though, and studies of things during canon! I love stories that explore how their time in the Dark Dimension affected everyone, or stories about them being a found family as Slifer Red, or stories about them slowly and painfully reconnecting after everything that’s happened! I also love things fleshing out a bit of pre-canon and everyone’s messy family relationships before canon. I really love duel spirits as a concept, and literally anything exploring them and how they interact with the characters is beloved. Finally, even in fics where the pairing/character focus isn't on Yubel, I would prefer that post-canon Juudai at least acknowledge Yubel being around.
I am fine with DM characters appearing as long as they’re relevant, although do not mainly focus on them for one of the GX tags; that’s what the crossover worldbuilding request is for. I’m also one of those people who can and will read duels; that said, be warned that I played YGO at one point in my life and will notice rule breaks (although I mostly played under Master Rule 5 so admittedly I can be convinced of stuff under the old GX rules, and the anime does break its own rules when relevant). I tend to take Bonds Beyond Time as canon for GX but you do not have to. I know nothing about the GX manga and will assume unless otherwise stated that all fics are based on the anime; if you base something on the manga I'll still happily read it I'll just also be really confused.
If you care about my specific likes for the card game: if my default icon for this journal doesn't make it obvious, I'm a Weather Painters player by default! I also like Ghostricks, Counter Fairies, ABC/Ojama or other ABC decks (so I know how to play Manjoume's deck as it'd be in modern YGO, haha), and Salamangreats. If this doesn't make it clear: outside of the ABC stuff, I am mostly a control player! I apologize for my sins. I haven't played seriously since about 2020, though, so I am not up to date on the current meta. This is probably largely irrelevant, but if it comes up, there you go!
I have some crossover worldbuilding tags about combining the lore of DM and GX in crossovers, if that interests you!
This section is split up into characters/relationships and worldbuilding.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Solo: Yuuki Juudai: Oh, my blorbo. I am forever obsessed with both his sunshine happy self and his much more traumatized later self; he's so interesting because he's a shonen protagonist mostly played straight and then deconstructed specifically around the "and that would then fuck you up" axis. I have lots of ideas for directions you could go with a Juudai fic! Anything about his backstory would delight me; the hints we get of the original Yubel incident and him being able to see spirits until he had experimental brain surgery and everything else about that fascinates me and so much can be gleaned from it and how he acts in canon. I'd love things about his relationships with duel spirits in general. Fic about him reconciling all the Supreme King and Gentle Darkness stuff is always beloved, as is anything with the Neo Spacians. Post-canon adventures as he travels the world would also be reall, really good! There's a lot of space to explore with him because there's a lot of different points in his life and character development to start from. In general, I also like stories where he gets to be a bit badass, mostly because he is actually a bit badass under all of the goofy. I think him solving some mystery post-canon would also be really good!
Solo: Tenjouin Asuka: One of the more developed YGO girls, which unfortunately isn't a hard bar to clear but still. I really love her in season one especially; her motivations about saving her brother and the slow breaking down of her walls until she befriends Judai is really good. I also like how she is kind but that doesn't make her weak, generally; she's one of the strongest duelists in school, even if we don't get to see her do it nearly enough! Those are where I'd start with a prompt about her; her feelings during season one and stuff about her goals we didn't see in season one, and any excuse to have her duel. I mean, anyone who played Duel Links just after GX was added or even some recent formats of YGO knows that Cyber Angel Benten can, in fact, be pretty fucking busted. I also love some Asuka post-canon; her dealing with the events of the spirit world would be pretty cool, as would things about her being a teacher at Duel Academy! I also think I would love stories where she's badass.
Yubel/Yuuki Juudai: I am really fond of stories about two people who have hurt each other a lot and fucked up a lot coming together and figuring out how, godammit, they're going to make it work. And that's Yubel and Juudai to me: people who have hurt each other a lot and who have fucked up a lot coming together and willfully choosing to make it work. Also they share a body while doing that, which has to be something else. Touches of their relationship in their past life and details from the original Yubel incident when Juudai was young would be appreciated, but the main focus for me here is how the two of them figure out how to live together and love each other again after everything that happened between them, after Juudai uses Super Polymerization to fuse the two of them together. How do they adjust? How do they find a way to forgive each other? Do they have rough patches still? How do they get through those? I just think that they would have a lot to deal with in their relationship but that lot to deal with would be really, really good to tell a story with.
Yuuki Juudai/Manjoume Jun: GX Rivalshipping my beloved. I love the way they annoy each other and love each other! I love the way their arcs intersect; after so many times where Juudai pulled Manjoume out of a situation where he would have otherwise had bad things happen or become a bad person, Juudai finds himself lost when he loses Manjoume. I love the idea of them post-canon, when arguably Manjoume has become the core of the friend group with Juudai largely gone! I love the way they're two of the only characters in the show who can see spirits, and how they have that bond! Mostly, I just love them and think they'd be really awkward about being in love in a really cute way. As for specific prompts, I'm particularly fond of anything to do with that shared ability to see duel spirits or of post-canon the two of them coming back together after drifting apart.
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Alternate Dimensions: The way alternate dimensions work in GX fascinates me. We know a little about them from the show, but we aren't shown most of them; largely, we're just shown Dimension World and the Dark Dimension. I'd love to hear more about those, but I'd also love to hear about any of the other alternate dimensions GX posits exists! Where do the various Duel Spirits live there? Are there any of them that have particularly weird mechanics? How do they link to our world; are they mostly linked via Duel Academy, or are there other nexus point? How might one travel between them? Even the ones we see are places we don't see much of the structure of; what are the various smaller towns Shou was in like? How do they get food? How is their government structured? Anything here would be great!
WB: Duel Spirit Mechanics: I love duel spirits, so even if you just wrote a cute fic about Winged Kuriboh for this tag I'd be happy, but I largely am curious about how they work. For one, which comes first: the card or the spirit? The implication of Pegasus using the Millenium Eye to make Duel Monsters originally is that the spirits come first, but like... Kaibaman exists. How do they interact with the world? They appear to be able to affect it some even in the "real" world, but very few people can see them, so how does that work? How do they affect the game, both for people who can see spirits and those who don't? Given we know duel spirits exist in the Dimension World, how do they get from there to our world? Johan was seemingly practically raised by duel spirits; how did that happen?
WB: Professional Dueling: The concept of professional dueling is really funny to me honestly. I love the fact there are clearly underground/illegal professional dueling rings. I love the fact that professional duelists clearly make enough money that you can go to school for it. I love the way they all seem to have their own gimmicks (sort of like a wrestler). Anything to do with how the professional dueling circuit works or all of these things would be fantastic! Bonus points if you specifically follow Manjoume's career doing it, but any of the characters involved in professional dueling or even an OC would be fantastic! This seems like a great way to put in cool in-universe documentation as well.
WB: Any: Any type of worldbuilding you think I missed that I would like? As always, this is a free space for that! The main worldbuilding things I had actual ideas for have their own tags, so this is just so you can go hog wild. I love any worldbuilding at all!
Duel Monsters, the one where it all started! My requests, I think, make it pretty clear where my interests lie here. I have, over time, come to accept that I am a Kaiba girlie; I originally would have called Yugi my favorite character but the Kaibas. They compel me. I love all the characters of DM, though, due to me loving stories about people who are friends. I am one of those people who is VERY compelled by the power of love and friendship and DM is good at that. I am just also compelled by Kaiba being a messy bitch, lol.
As for my worldbuilding tags, this fandom is EXCELLENT for “mundane realities in a fantastical setting”; my thing about making characters report on their Q2 earnings or file for taxes strikes again. As a YGO fan, part of what compels me about DM is the way it’s before the world truly starts to center around card games, but things are already certainly escalating. It is almost a story that could be set in our world, but then it’s just not quite, and the ways those interact are full of potential. I also like fleshing out some of the more fantastical elements to their logical conclusion!
As I said for GX, I’m someone who actually likes when duels are written out in fics, just beware because I actually played YGO for a while and will notice rule breaks. I’m a bit less of a stickler for this in DM though because, well, we all saw Duelist Kingdom. I also am a huge fan of the DM characters playing other card games, board games, dice games, or games in general. I’m fine with and even deeply enjoy bringing Season 0/early manga details in. I tend to take DSoD as canon, but it’s up to you whether you do or not; I know jack shit about Pyramid of Light and have never watched it but if you consider it canon go forth with it. While I consider Bonds Beyond Time canon to GX and its unambiguously 5Ds canon, making it work with DM is much shakier; if you have a way to do it I’d love to see it! I tend to take DM as taking place anime-verse and before GX, even when I use Season 0, so details like Pegasus still being alive are what I first picture. I know manga-verse well enough you can go by that instead if you prefer, though.
I like when the spirits of the Millenium Items get their own bodies about equally with stories where they do not; that said, I dislike ignoring the Ceremonial Duel, so if you're going to do bring them back post-canon treat Atem's decision there with respect.
If you care about my specific likes for the card game: if my default icon for this journal doesn't make it obvious, I'm a Weather Painters player by default! I also like Ghostricks, Counter Fairies, ABC/Ojama or other ABC decks, and Salamangreats. If this doesn't make it clear: outside of the ABC stuff, I am mostly a control player! I apologize for my sins. I haven't played seriously since about 2020, though, so I am not up to date on the current meta. This is probably largely irrelevant, but if it comes up, there you go!
This one is simply split up into characters/pairings and then Worldbuilding!
Noting here also that I have a prompt for Kaiba Seto & Tony Stark in the crossovers section, if that interests you! I also have some crossover worldbuilding tags about combining the lore of GX and DM there.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Atem | Yami Yuugi/Thief King Bakura | Yami Bakura: I really like darkshipping. This is my single most "enemies-to-lovers" or perhaps "enemies that are lovers" ship imaginable. I think it's really important to keep the dynamic and reasons they are enemies alive, but at the same time, they're two people who can understand each other more than anyone else possibly could! After all, no one else has been trapped in a Millenium Item, no one else has had those things affect their life to the degree they have, and no one else has the experience of trying to figure out who they are in the context of being in the body of someone else. So that's something they can bond over... but at the same time, they're still enemies. Yami Bakura has got legit reasons to hate Atem, and those can't easily be glossed over! Similarly, Atem has legit reasons to distrust or hate Yami Bakura! I just think a story of the two of them reluctantly being forced to bond over their similarities and realizing this enemy of theirs is a complex, 3D person who didn't do everything right would be good AND I think it would be good if they kissed about it. If this rant doesn't make it clear, I'm much more on the side of "shipping them in the modern day or in the afterlife after the events of canon or in a canon divergence" side, since I think their respective experiences being someone's dark shadow is an important part of their bond. However, if you have a cool idea for shipping them in their pre-canon Millenium World selves, I won't stop you! I think any prompt for that would almost certainly have a side of "either one or both of them are trying to use each other", and that's a really cool dynamic too.
Bakura Ryou/Mutou Yuugi: This is one of those pairings that I think is extremely cute and also that I think has a lot of depth to it. This is another "these are two people who share an experience very few other people could understand" situation. I think they'd both be able to just talk a lot. I think Yugi would understand the parts of Ryou that still miss the spirit of the ring, and Ryou would understand the parts of Yugi that hated having Atem in his body! I think they would, post-canon, be able to share the very specific grief of suddenly only being themselves again in a way that very few other people could! I think that they'd have the ability to truly understand things like missing having noise in their head or being unable to check out on a situation the way they used to or any of that. I am like, really interested in them post-canon, able to understand each other in a way no one else can. I also think putting them during canon or otherwise combining this with the darkshipping above works. The other strength of heartshipping is of course that both of them are absolutely game nerds and also both used to being slightly overlooked/underestimated, especially in favor of their respective spirits. So that's another really good angle to explore with them!
Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi: DM Rivalshipping is one of my favorite things, and it's for all the ways it's sort of weird as a ship. Kaiba, in many ways, interacts with the Other Yugi far more favorably than he ever does to Yugi. I think the appeal of DM Rivalshipping to me is both in a shared grief way where they both deeply miss Atem and in a "someone realizing that this person who's been in their life for a long time is actually a much more complex person than they thought" way. I like this ship as one where Seto learns to respect Yugi! I like Seto being surprised by the way Yugi's competent and has steel of his own! I like Yugi standing up for himself! I also like how Yugi is basically the only person who consistently refers to Seto as a friend during canon (not even Atem does this that much), and I think it's interesting to explore why Yugi does that, and the ways that Yugi sees something in Kaiba despite the like... several times Kaiba nearly gets him killed. Yugi saves Seto's life from Atem at one point! They've got to have feelings about that! And, as I said, the shared grief, but also the ways they disagree about that shared grief. This is the plot of DSoD I know, but I also like the idea of the two of them figuring out how to reconcile that. I'm also a HUGE sucker for the trope of Yugi ending up working for Kaiba Corp in some way, especially in the context of DM Rivalshipping.
Kaiba Mokuba & Kaiba Seto: The Kaiba brothers make me feel things. Their relationship is extremely close and yet often dynsfucntional. In some ways, they're brothers. In some ways, Mokuba is forced to behave much "older" than he should have to because of the decisions Seto made (it was Seto who got them into everything with Gozaburo). In some ways, Seto has been forced to basically be Mokuba's parent since he was like... is it ten or eleven when they were adopted by Gozaburo? Since then. The ways they've been forced to be codependent and then independent and the ways they have hurt each other (and if you are using season 0/the early manga, they have absolutely hurt each other), the ways they're both kind of ruthless and awful but in different shapes, the ways Seto tries to shield Mokuba from the worst of it and the ways Mokuba tries to take that on anyway, the amount they're deeply protective of each other and how Seto caring for Mokuba again is the sign that he's become a better person... Everything about them is just really appealing to me as a relationship and anything from family fluff to heartbreaking angst about their relationship is something I'm super down for. Stories about post-DSoD when Mokuba has basically been told to take over the company should Seto not come back are another fun bonus way to think about their relationship. Basically, I love them.
Kaiba Mokuba & Mutou Yuugi: This tag works best in a context where Yugi sticks around the Kaiba brothers, and I think he would! I just think any relationship between Yugi and Mokuba would be sweet, whether it be in a context of them playing games together, the context of my afformentioned love for the trope where Yugi ends up working for Kaiba Corp, whether it be through their shared love of Kaiba or through just trying to help Mokuba deal with the insane amount of pressure and stress he'd be under. Also, I'm kind of a sucker for Mokuba bullying Yugi into friendship because he's eleven and has simply Decided it's going to happen. That's a really cute one. I don't have a giant paragraph to write about this one my main opinion is just "it'd be really cute", and hopefully that's good enough!
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Shadow Games: The concept of the Shadow Games intrigue me, especially through a season 0 context, where they're like... only kind of magic, but frequently are less "magic" and more "Yami Yugi has really good foresight on how to manipulate people"? What exactly the magic in a shadow game is is unclear, is what I'm saying, or if they're magic at all. That said, though, by the time we get to things like Kaiba's Mind Break, the shadow games have to at least be a little magic. Millenium World confirms this too! So I guess my worldbuilding question is: to what extent are they magic? How do they work? Are they more tied to Duel Monsters (the game), the Millenium Items, or some other external force of magic?
WB: Average Civilian Views of Battle City: Battle City as a thing that has happened is nuts. I've always kind of headcanoned as a result that Domino City is at least kind of a Kaiba Corp company town, but more seriously, how does the non-dueling public think of Battle City? Most of the people in Domino cannot possibly be duelists, after all, and things get wild pretty quickly. How does Kaiba Corp's reputation suffer or improve because of it? Does that matter? I'd love some outsider POV on all the Battle City stuff, is basically my point!
WB: Industrial Illusions & Kaiba Corp’s Business Relationship: So. These two companies have to have a close working relationship, given the shared branding in Duel Monsters. However, there was that time Pegasus tried to do an industrial espionage to bring his dead wife back to life by kidnapping Mokuba. However there is also the fact Duel Disks exist in general. There is also also the fact that Kaiba and Pegasus being forced to endure the same work negotiations together is really fucking funny. I'd also love any of the practical realities of licensing agreements, tournament negotiations, shared copyright, or whatever else is involved in this relationship! Mostly though I think this one is very ripe for comedy.
WB: Kaiba Corp Day-to-Day Functions: So like... what is it like to be an employee at Kaiba Corp? I have so many ideas for this prompt, anything from the comedy you can pull out of a cooporate email chain to what Kaiba Corp's information technology department gets up to to what Kaiba Corp's taxes look like to how many people they employ to what the people who aren't doing insane card game nonsense do, there's a lot of mundane reality to go with this company that largely exists to be the backdrop to why Kaiba is like that. I have a personal preference for Seto actually being pretty good at running Kaiba Corp, even if he's Like That, but even with that being true half the stuff he does has to be wild. Bonus points for, if you're an anime watcher, outsider POV stuff on the Big Five trying to take over the company or like, how DOMA affected stocks. Additional bonus points for outsider POV on Seto and his weird friends. Even more additional bonus points if you happen to be an accountant or something and give me accurate paperwork for Kaiba Corp here. Basically, anything about what a company that we're meant to believe is a coprorate beheamouth actually does is appreciated.
WB: Kaiba Corp's Product Lineup: So, we know they make Duel Disks. However, presumably Kaiba Corp makes like... at least one other product. Tell me about it! I've always headcanoned it's "consumer electronics", but it can be whatever you think makes sense for Kaiba Corp to have switched to be making once Seto took over. How popular is it? Do they sell other products that make use of the Duel Disk hologram technology? I'd have to imagine there are a lot of other applications for that kind of thing! Is it a situation where the only thing people actually buy are Duel Disks, or do average consumers buy a lot of their other products? It's up to you! This also seems like a really good prompt to give me things like schematics, product catalogues, technical diagrams, or other things like that.
WB: Kaiba Corp’s Former Weapons Contracts: So, given Seto's backstory of "took over Kaiba Corp, forced them to start building stuff like toys and theme parks instead of weapons"... What are some of those weapons Kaiba Corp used to make? There's the stuff we see in DOMA, of course, but are there other things? Was Gozaburo scrupulous or legal about who got them, or was it known they sold things on the side? Did Seto have to design any of those weapons? What do those contractors think now that Seto has pretty uncerimoniously broken those contracts? Does any of that prior weapons knowledge play into the current supply lines and designs Kaiba Corp makes? How do those former contracts and supply lines shape what Kaiba Corp is known for today? I think this is a really interesting area to explore the consequences of.
WB: The Design and Opperation of Kaiba Land: I'm a big theme park nerd, and I think Kaiba Land is really cool. This is a prompt for you to talk about theme park nerd stuff, like coaster design, or themeing, or guest experience, or operations, or anything else! This is another one that's great for technical documents, or something like an in-universe enthusiast's video or blog could be neat. Alternately, the characters just spending a day at Kaiba Land and encountering a bunch of things that nicely seague into the worldbuilding could be really cool! Since I'm a little bit of a parks nerd this is probably something better to take on if you, too, are a parks nerd, but even without nerdery stuff like "what rides does Kaiba Land have when it is no longer half-designed for murdering Mutou Yuugi" could be a really fun prompt to cover!
WB: Any: Is there anything you think I missed, especially about the operations of Kaiba Corp, that you'd like to write me worldbuilding about? Good news: that's what this tag is for! For your imagination to run wild! Go, be free!
HGCZ-Specific DNW: No setting change AUs in this fandom, please.
Okay so first, if you've wandered in here without having read HGCZ, I have good news for you: it's free and you can download it and read it here! You can almost certainly read it without that much fandom knowledge, if it interests you for any reason; it's basically just 410 pages of a self-contained superhero AU that happens to also be based in Hermitcraft. If you are a Hermitcraft fan... go! Go read it now! It's really good, everyone did so much good work on it!
So, once you have read it: ever since we started creating this world and its characters I've been obsessed with it, and I'd love to hear your interpretations of the characters and relationships in it! I am particularly interested in side stories that take place during or after canon, as affected by the events of HGCZ canon. Alternately, if you want to do any kind of canon divergence or roleswap or time travel AU, I think all of those are cool kinds of ways to explore these characters! Any of your favorite superhero tropes being put on these characters would also be beloved. I just want to see further explorations of the world from perspectives that aren't mine.
SOLO CHARACTERS:
Solo: ZombieCleo: Cleo's such a fun character in the zine; her canonical ability is the ability to recieve any kind of organ in transplant, she canonically does illegal organ harvesting, and also she's the only doctor basically the entire vigilante and villain community can use. As such, she knows basically everyone's identities, and this is a really fascinating place to take her character. What does she do with those identities? Why does she act as doctor for the community? Is there a reason she's trusted by everyone?Is she tired of having to treat Grian? Alternately, anything about what her life was like before the mutations and how she would have even figured out that mutation would be beloved.
Solo: Jimmy: So, for the record: internal team's known power for Jimmy is that he revives every time he dies. This is word of god currently, though, which means, hey, the one thing you know about him from the zine alone is that he has seemingly died at least twice and that Grian didn't know he'd survived Deer Hunting Season until basically the end. That's gotta fuck with a man! So, I'd love any story about Jimmy. Why was he avoiding Grian? How did he survive getting shot in the head? Does he have any trauma about that? Why was he stealing documents for a friend? Does he ever do any other villainy, or does he indeed stay out of that life from then on? He's just such a fun character to poke at the concept of!
PAIRINGS/RELATIONSHIPS:
Grian & Jimmy: POV: Jimmy figures out your secret identity in what is basically just one word and then gets shot in front of you, changing the tragectory of your life forever. More seriously, though: Grian and Jimmy clearly knew each other pre-canon. How did they know each other? How did they get so close Jimmy could basically instantly recognize Grian? How does the events of Deer Hunting Season shape their relationship? Does Grian ever forgive him for avoiding him after dying? How do they sort out their lives with Jimmy knowing Grian's identity? I also like my Grian and Jimmy still as antagonistic as ever but friends; Grian mocks because he cares, and I think that's an important aspect of their relationship.
Scar & Grian or Scar/Grian: The core relationship of the zine. I interpret them as devoted to one another and very close; it is up to you if this means romantic, platonic, or a secret third thing! I love any stories exploring how they feel about each other at any point in the zine and the formation of Hotguy and Cuteguy as a team. Stories about them hanging out as civillians post-identity reveal would be really loved, as would a story about them taking down some random bad guy! I also love stories in which they're forced to, by circumstance, show off the amount of trust they have in each other (if I told you I was the person who wrote Deer Hunting Season specifically, would this help you understand what I mean). I think, ultimately, they make each other happy, and that's the most important thing. Tell me a story about that!
Scar & Pearl: MAN SCAR AND PEARL'S RELATIONSHIP IN THIS AU... People who could be friends, maybe should be friends, but are on opposite sides of the conflict. Who know each other's identities, could destroy each other's lives, but choose not to. Reporter and hero, villain and hero, actor and villain, reporter and actor... any configuration of their relationship is amazing to me, and their conversation in A Role to Play makes me kind of cry. I just think there's a lot to explore in two people who want, so badly, to consider each other friends that it ends up warping how both of them act in their roles as hero and villain, and this is your opportunity to do it!
Pearl/Gem: I ship GemPearl and I'm not sorry. Obviously, the in-zine piece to work off of most of all here is Through the Looking Glass, Darkly, but I like to personally think that they've had a lot of time to get to know each other. I think that the way they're kind of bad for each other is the most interesting part to me; they're both loyal, devoted to the cause and to each other, but they're also both villains! Pearl's regret stat being 6 and Gem's being 0 is another fascinating way to approach their relationship. Also, how do two villains fall in love, and how do their increasingly divergant ideas of the situation Soup Group finds themselves in affect that relationship? Alternately: anything else you think would be cool about the two of them together! I simply think that the Bleeding Hart and Scour should get to kiss, you know?
Pearl & Gem & Impulse: Soup Group HGCZ is like... a team of three tragic antivillains with ambitions. I'd love stories about them as friends, about what they do in their downtime. I'd love stories about some of their villainous endeavors with one another. Mostly, I just want stories about them together, especially during the zine, even knowing that they're going to fall apart later. I would also love a post-canon story: what happens to them? Do they find a way to come back together? Do they fall apart? Do they escape arrest or do they all get arrested? What do you do after you decide your life's work isn't worth it anymore if it's really hurting your friends? Also their designs are all sick and if you want to do your own Smoke Signal, Bleeding Hart, and Scour, I'd love to see them!
So, you've decided to dare venture into my crossover requests. Welcome! There are four types of request here. The first category is a bunch of PMD fusions; in those tags I'm explaining my headcanons and visions for what you can do with those. The second category is the cross-game Pokemon crossovers, in which either a team from PMD gets put in the main series games or a villain from the main series gets put in PMD. This is largely an exercise in exploring the differences between the main series and PMD, and a great opportunity if the thing you like about PMD is the isekai aspect. Next, there's the YGO worldbuilding crossovers, largely meant to cover the things that changed between DM and GX and to allow you to connect them in interesting ways. Finally, there's the MCU/YGO crossover with Kaiba Seto and Tony Stark.
I might want decently different things for each of these, so I recommend just reading the tag you're interested in writing. In general, none of these crossover fandoms lack a fandom I've already requested elsewhere; if you want, say, my more generalized Mystery Dungeon thoughts, you can always scroll up to that section of the letter and check it!
MYSTERY DUNGEON FUSIONS:
Solo: Team 7 (Naruto) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: So, I picture one of two things for this fusion. The first concept I picture is that canon Team 7, probably from just before the Chuunin Games but maybe just after (but ideally before Sasuke leaves), gets transported to the world of Pokemon for Reasons and must attempt to adapt. It's a good old classic "something Bad happens and Kakashi has to step up and the team has to actually for-real bond" scenario! The other vision I have for this is a fusion where Team 7 is a newly-formed rescue team, trying to make their way and become a legendary exploration team of their own. This is much more of a straight fusion idea than an isekai type of thing, but I think it has the potential to also be cute (the Hokage runs an explorers guild, maybe?). With either idea, I think that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke should all be basic Pokemon. It's your choice what sort of Pokemon you think that then makes them! Also, in the isekai concept, the nine-tailed fox becoming a Ninetales would be really funny to me specifically.
Solo: Crew of the Enterprise-E (ST: TNG) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: This is the other one that makes me go "you could do an isekai!"; given the sort of nonsense that happens in Star Trek you could probably even justify "oh no the away team have been turned into Pokemon" and do something cool with the idea of the bridge crew trying to rescue the isekai'ed away team while the away team is busy doing Pokemon things. A more pure crossover works as well, with the Enterprise discovering the world of Pokemon in distress and having a plotline about all of that; bonus points given that the PMD universe knows humans exist but has none in it, which makes the Prime Directive a lot of an issue! As for the fusion, the Enterprise being ab Explorer's Guild lead by Picard is probably the easiest way to do a fusion, given that there's a few too many of them to be a single rescue team, but having them come across an episode plot but turned into a Pokemon thing would be fun. I have only one strong Pokemon headcanon here, and it's that Data is obviously either a Porygon (or Porygon2 but not Porygon-Z; Porygon-Z would be Lore) or Type-Null, depending on what level of angst you want to go with here. (You could go in a Mewtwo direction but I like Type-Null better for him, personally.) Other than that, go absolutely nuts with the Pokemon assignments here.
CROSS-GAME POKEMON CROSSOVERS:
Any Hero & Partner (PMD) in Pokemon Main Series Games: One of the fascinating things to me about the character of the hero in PMD is the way they seem to entirely adjust to being a Pokemon over time. Combine that with my fascination with how the PMD cast tends to talk about humans in each individual game, and I think there's some really interesting potential in the idea of forcing them to confront that! So, this is specifically a prompt about taking the Hero and Partner from your favorite PMD (I tend to imagine this with the Rescue Team hero and partner, if that helps) and putting them in the world of the main series. You can turn them into humans or leave them as Pokemon (or even have the Hero become human again and the Partner be a Pokemon), but I want them to have to quickly adapt to a world where Pokemon aren't living in civilizations! I want the Hero to get the chance to be the Partner's guide to a world unfamiliar to them, getting the chance to pull that role reversal! I want the Hero to get confronted about how this world that's presumably the one they came from feels alien to them now! I think they would freak out at the idea of "Pokeballs". I think they'd assume every cave might be a mystery dungeon. I think they'd just need to make so much effort to adapt, especially because the main series games ALSO have a society of people that go "this may as well happen" and would take care of people who seemingly fell out of the sky, but like... even in PMD they faced some suspicion. I just think this is a really cool opportunity to give the Hero and Partner fun characterization in having the life they built for themselves (even given the hero was isekai'ed) torn from them once more.
Any Main Series Pokemon Villain (Pokemon) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: This one, meanwhile, is "what if you take your favorite villain and give them Gengar's arc". I love the idea of any of the Pokemon villains being forced to have a redemption arc, and isekai'ing someone who is not inclined to save the world immediately and is not a hero is fun. So, do that! Make a Pokemon villain into a small and vulnerable Pokemon themselves, in a world surrounded by other Pokemon where they have no power and everything is alien to them, and see what happens! This is another really good prompt to really get into details about what's different between the Pokemon world and the human world, since I'd generally prefer the Pokemon villains keep their memories, but it's also a great prompt to explore the character of that villain and what they'd do when put in a situation where they don't have the pwoer to do that villainy anymore (and indeed may be more like the victims of that villainy than anything else).
CROSS-SERIES YU-GI-OH CROSSOVERS:
WB: Kaiba Corp in Years Between YGO DM and YGO GX: So, the years between DM and GX are when Kaiba Corp started to really become the canonical behemouth that it becomes. Amongst other things, they appear to have done private space exploration (or at least, private blasting trading cards into space), opened a school, and gotten put in an even stronger position of power over the world. But also... those are really weird things for Kaiba Corp to have done without the context of the Plot and the magic involved in those events! So, what does Kaiba Corp get up to in this time? Why does it open Duel Academy as a company? How did it discover the Sacred Beasts on Academy Island? How did it get into the private space travel business? What exactly was Kaiba's goals in getting trading cards hit with cosmic rays? Bonus points for incorporating DSoD and that movie's own "Kaiba Corp does space travel"; additional bonus points for integrating how much Kaiba Corp is or isn't involved in the professional dueling scene!
WB: Duel Spirits (YGO GX) in the Context of Shadow Games (YGO DM): The thing about Millenium World is that it implies that the monsters in duel monsters come from people, even if they're being summoned as beasts. Then there's the fact Pegasus got Duel Monsters from Egyptian ruins and then the Millenium Eye. Fast forward to GX, though, and duel monsters appear to be their own spirits, which come from their own alternate dimension and largely don't come from people (Yubel notwithstanding). Shadow games still exist in GX, though, and then there are weird edge cases like Kaibaman. This is a prompt about reconciling the way shadow games work with how duel spirits generally work by the end of GX! Is there a good, cohesive way to fit this all together on one timeline? Is there a way to reconcile how this works with the creation of Duel Monsters, the game? Is the afterlife itself another card game I must know. Bonus points for having members of the DM cast who gain the ability to see duel spirits the way Juudai can; additional bonus points for finding some way to make Juudai do a real shadow game!
WB: Rise of Professional Dueling in Years Between YGO DM and YGO GX: This ties into the other two plots: so by the time of the end of DM, dueling is a spectator sport. However, the idea of a "professional duelist" doesn't seem to super exist as it does in GX; there ARE pro duelists but they're more like IRL pro MTG players than what we see in GX. This is a tag to explore that intermediary year, when dueling is starting to be big enough to be its own professional career by itself! What kind of societal shifts have to happen for this to go down? What kind of tournaments sit in-between something like the tournament in DSoD and the almost wrestling-like personas of GX? Where does stuff like the underground dueling circuit come in? This also gives you license to make any members of the DM cast professional duelists that you think would have done that instead of getting some other job.
KAIBA AND TONY STARK:
Tony Stark (MCU) & Kaiba Seto (YGO!DM): So this is my stupid crack crossover pairing! Buckle up because this one inherently requires the most explanation so is several paragraphs. The thing is that Tony Stark and Kaiba Seto have really similar backstories in that they both are super-geniuses who got recognized at a young age for being geniuses and groomed to take over their fathers' arms companies; however, once they came of age, they were in some way betrayed/forced into taking over by someone they trusted, and then chose to shut down the weapons production of their companies to go into consumer electronics of some kind. The main differences is that Tony was older when he took over Stark Industries and older when he cut out the weapons (both of those were after he was an adult whereas Seto took over Kaiba Corp at around 15, depending on what age you believe he is by that point in Season 0), that Seto was actually adopted by his Duplicitous Mentor Figure, and that Stark Industries is more of a clean energy/phones kind of company whereas Kaiba Corp has a particular focus on things that will make children laugh. Like, those are remarkably similar backstories in remarkably similar timelines! It's pretty neat!
Anyway I think they'd hate each other.
So Seto is not a personable person and has little patience for fools; Tony is constantly playing the fool that's like his thing. Both of them dislike being compared to other people and they'd CONSTANTLY get compared to each other in a universe where they both existed in it. They both share a dislike for magic but don't be fooled I think that would make them hate each other's association with the magic of their universe. I think Tony would have also at least at some point been kinda condescending to the teenaged CEO and Seto would be incredibly dismissive of someone who could get distracted by something as pointless as romantic affairs, please. They'd hate each other. And they'd absolutely know each other, too, probably even from when they were both still on the weapons side of things.
And I think this would be really fun even as a short oneshot about them hating each other but ALSO as a full crossover if you have further crossover ideas! If you know how to reconcile the MCU and the events of YGO DM (probably not actually that bad), that could be really fun! Including non-Tony and non-Seto characters into the crossover would be delightful! If you're doing more complex MCU stuff, know I kind of checked out after Infinity War and while I'm a fast learner I won't immediately have any idea what you're talking about. I also obviously have a Kaiba bias over an MCU one so I'd like Seto to at least come across as kind of cool, even if he's also an absolute loser of a man, you know? Mostly though I want to see what people do with my stupid crack crossover if they take it and run.
I also think this could be a really fun like, animash fanvid type thing, or some really fun art of the two of them comparing their... towers... or anything like that!
And if you disagree that they'd hate each other... You can write that too! Just sell it to me.
General Information
General DNW
- Underage
- Bodily fluids that aren't blood
- Noncon/rape (even in backstory/reference)
- Covid
- Cancer
- Terminal illness
- Suicide
- Self-harm for mental health reasons (so a character, for example, having to injure themselves to remove an alien from their body is fine, but not them injuring themselves because they want to punish themselves for that alien)
- Soulmate AUs
- Real-world current events
- Age regression or ageplay
- Character death that ends the fic (IE, you can kill a major character all you want but there must be at least some amount of fic afterwards that is affected by this happening)
- Fantasy racism
- Real-life racism
- Incest (even ‘fake’ incest as a kink)
- First person in traditional narrative prose (if you are writing something that's not traditional narrative prose, such as an epistolary fic, first person as typical for that medium is fine)
- High school aus
- Pregnancy
- Bestiality
- Character bashing
- Adult characters being "adopted" by other adult characters in a parental way
- Porn/smut (NSFW of the gore kind is totally fine with me though)
General Likes
- Body horror
- Cultural worldbuilding
- Worldbuilding about mundane details in fantastical worlds
- In-universe social media
- In-universe regulation and bureaucracy
- Complicated relationships
- Weird settings
- Mashups of sci-fi and fantasy
- Horror aus, high concept
- Team-as-family
- Found family (not in a "nuclear family" sense but in a "they're all very close" sense)
- Non-consensual body modification
- Superhero aus
- Human weapons
- Characters learning what it means for someone to care about them for the first time
- Characters learning how to be human
- Magical girls
- Metafiction
- Creative uses of medium
- Enemies being forced to work together
- Relationships formed under pressure
- Apocalypse fiction
- Slice-of-life within canon
- Missing scenes
- Fics written like an episode of canon
- Time loops
- Characters attempting to work through emotions they do not have the proper words to explain
- Explorations of how characters act under pressure
- Explorations of how characters act after a tragedy/negative event
- Stories that do not wrap up neatly/have ambiguous endings
- Plotty stories
- Stories about how there is hope despite everything
- Music and playing music together as an expression of love or happiness
- Characters playing cards together (especially when used to demonstrate things about their characters and relationships but also in general)
I am always open for treats!
I have opted into a lot of medium tags. In general, I have opted into every medium that is not auditory, is not a poem, and is not a craft or puzzle I don't know how to do. That said: I am a writer, and I have trouble thinking of things outside of a writer context. I am also very bad at picking out visual elements of things I like. I have tried to give scaffolding for my other medium requests but I've likely done a poor job of it; this doesn't mean I wouldn't really want what you have to offer, it just means I'm bad at phrasing things!
As a note about the auditory thing: I have opted into fanvids, but I would steer clear of any fanvid that is mainly about things being spoken out loud. I am bad at processing auditory information and would not get much out of that! This is especially true for overlapping voices; if the intended effect is to confuse me it's fine though.
Some items that are often considered opt-in only that I am generally fine with so long as there isn't a DNW in that fandom that contradicts this: setting-changing AUs, gore, horror, OCs having major roles (especially in the worldbuilding tags), fankids, sad stories, downer endings, major character death that doesn’t end the fic (even for the requested character!), and your favorite identity headcanons (be it for sexuality, gender, or disability). You can also write a fic with none of these things, this is to clarify for those who might want to write them!
If you ever need to see my writing, or saved this page but not the automagic/AO3 prompt and have lost my AO3 since it doesn't share a name with this journal, my AO3 is
This letter is obscenely long and long-winded; I will still be delighted if you skip the details in it! That said, to try to make it easier to read, beneath each fandom dropdown you will find that all tags are phrased exactly as they are on AO3, albeit without the disambiguation (unless it's a crossover tag). This should let you easily just ctrl+F to the tag you're interested in, where I will have written a long paragraph about what interests me about the tag. Then if you need more information, the several paragraphs I have written for each fandom can come into play. I have also separated the tags into their own sub-headers in a way that makes sense to me.
Thank you so much! I look forward to seeing what you make!
Detailed Requests by Fandom
Original Works
OW-Specific DNW: Magical girl fics that mock the concept, magical girl fics that are deconstructions. Clarification on both of these: I don't mind "darker" takes on magical girls at all, and I don't mind making jokes about magical girls! I am simply asking that the trope is played straight and taken seriously.
The nice thing about OW is that my general likes list is probably the list that applies best here, and that each and every tag is basically a miniature prompt by itself. If I've chosen the tag, the tropes that tag represent by themselves are almost certainly ALREADY enough for me, and so adding anything from my likes list is just going to be like, the cherry on top!
I deliberately changed tags or wrote tags I nominated to be gender-ambiguous in all but a few cases; this was to more easily allow for trans and nonbinary characters (which I would love!) as well as to allow for people to write whatever gender configurations they'd like best! There are a few tags I either left or wrote as specifically F/F, and the magical girls in the magical girl tags should be girls, but beyond that go nuts. I care a lot less about the genders than I do about the tropes in-play.
Some favorite tropes from magical girl stories include the coming-of-age elements, the idea of the "dark" magical girl, the inherent struggles and slow wearing-down on characters that being a magical girl can cause, the idea of "healing" magic as the ultimate weapon or goal, cool transformations, magic affecting the magical girls in both forms, dealing with injuries when you're basically Just Some Girl, the actual danger of the job, mascot/animal companion characters trying to care for their magical girl, the potential regrets and feelings of mascot characters, the interplay of fate and choice in magical girl destiny, how civilian life affects them in turn with their secret life, secret identity shenanigans, and REALLY COOL OUTFITS. Sort of want to emphasize that one again for any artists that match with me here: I love creative magical girl designs, in the creatures and outfits and enemies and transformations, and that's a great element to play up for any of these! My influence is generally most heavily from Princess Tutu and Sailor Moon, but take the magical girls in whatever direction you'd like (so long as you are still engaging with and taking seriously the idea of magical girls).
Some favorite tropes from superhero stories include: HEROES BEING FORCED TO WORK WITH VILLAINS AND VISE VERSA I know that's already on my likes list but I've got to say it again, worldbuilding surrounding how civilians interact with heroes, the affects powers have outside of fights, villain redemption arcs, "no one's allowed to hurt you but me", secret identity shenanigans (again), creative superpowers and uses for those powers, superheroes who still have mundane lives (the joke is that I really love characters taking the bus if that helps you figure out what that means), supervillains who genuinely think they're in the right, supervillains who feel like they have no choice in the matter for some reason or another, heroes who are exhausted but are still fundamentally good, good triumphing but that triumph being complicated.
In the miscellanea, I'll note that I love characters who have a transformation or who are learning to be human also being kind of a trans metaphor (or literally trans to go with the 'learning who I am' thing). I also always like stories about outsider POVs, social media-based stories, in-universe documents for an epistolary story, etc. This is the one fandom I don't have any worldbuilding tags nominated in because the nature but let it be said that if you have cool worldbuilding to give I WILL TAKE IT.
And I think that's all for the generic part of the letter; now, for the specific tags and any specific ideas I have for those!
THE MAGICAL GIRL ONES:
Magical Girl Hiding Her Struggles & Her Worried Mascot Companion: So I really, really like when the mascot companion in a magical girl show actually genuinely cares for their magical girl, and I also really like stories that explore the inherent struggle of leading that kind of double life. Some ideas for this include the idea that if it's a more "alien" mascot companion, they've had to learn to care for their magical girl as a person and not just a soldier but now find they do. Or maybe if it's a more "friendly" flavor, maybe they have always had kind of a parental care for them! As for what the magical girl is struggling with, it can be anything from "can't get enough sleep because of magical girling but thinks she can't sincerely show that kind of weakness to her companion" to "being bullied at school and trying to hide it" to "lost at love" to "the enemy is finding her when she's alone and she thinks she has to hide it because they'll hurt someone if she doesn't" to whatever you want to imagine! Wide range of possibilities here, which also leads to a wide range of possibilities for what the mascot companion can even do to help. Sometimes the mascot companion has powers of their own, sometimes they really don't, and sometimes the problem is something those powers couldn't fix!
Magical Girl & Her Fated Enemy Only Now Learning She’s A Teenager: This is of course the classic and beloved trope of a villain learning something about the hero and it changing their worldview. I think this would be a really good way to play with fate and destiny in the way it's often played with in magical girl stories! The enemy and head of the army of darkness can become redeemed in a magical girl way, or maybe learn something about their own lines they draw in the sand, or maybe just re-evaluate and gain a new respect for how hard what the magical girl is doing is. I particularly like the version of this that's "her fated enemy slowly starts to actually Take Care Of the magical girl in this context"; maybe the villain initially tries to recruit the magical girl, or makes an ill-advised attempt to forcibly adopt them? Bonus points if the magical girl remains unambiguously Good and if the animal companion isn't directly evil (but destiny or whatever forces set in motion the existence of magical girls can still be evil here). However, I'm fine with stories where this ends in the magical girl's corruption or where the animal companion is somehow inhuman or doesn't care as well!
Magical Girl & The Government Agency Trying to Corral Her: This is me unashamedly smushing one of my favorite superhero tropes (the Vague but Menacing Government Agency that either controls heroes, tries to stop them, or generally exists around them) with magical girls. I just think the ways such an agency would interface with a magical girl would be really interesting, especially given some of the differences, trope-wise! What would the government's view on the average magical girl be? Is this agency legitimately just trying to help and get a hold on the ways that especially a senshi style magical girl fight would cause damage, or are they trying to control the magical girl for more sinister aims? Do they figure out her identity, or is that protected? Do they become an Enemy in their own right, or are they a morally ambiguous ally? Up to you!
Magical Girl/Her Female Civilian Best Friend: So you know how a lot of magical girl characters have a best friend who is an ordinary civilian. And sometimes this friend gets sort of forgotten by the second season/later acts of the story, especially when the magical girl gets a proper team, but I think there's a lot to be explored with the idea of being a civilian who knows a magical girl. After all, she's out there doing things you fundamentally can't help with, on account of not having the magic to fight the kinds of threats a magical girl fights (or in some cases, literally being unable to see it)! The feelings of slowly being left behind or of fear for her friend's life are excellent to explore, as are ways a civilian could try to help, even without a magical destiny. On the magical girl's end, I like the idea of this friend being a tie to their ordinary life, a reminder of why remaining a civilian is important, and a reminder of what they're fighting for. She's able to remember what it means to just be a girl because of this friend! And, of course, they fall in love in the middle of all of these emotions. Does falling in love help, or just make all this more complicated? You decide but they should ABSOLUTELY kiss you know?
Magical Girl/Member of the Enemy Faction Getting Redeemed: Basically the pure distillation of the power of love in a magical girl story. "Member of the Enemy Faction" is vague, and this isn't an accident; this could be a Heavenly General SM-type character who's one of the bad guy generals, or a character like Quiche TMM, who is a rival "evil" love interest-type who starts to get emotions, or could be one of my personal favorite tropes, the dark magical girl (think Rue PTutu)! No matter what, the most important part of this to me is that this enemy is learning what love is from their new magical girl partner, learning how to be cared for, and learning how to be good. Meanwhile, on the magical girl end, this is a great one to slowly reveal they're still a person with flaws and their own deep concerns! Maybe trying to save this one enemy is them attempting to prove to themselves they can, or maybe it's a form of rebellion, or maybe it's simply that they're falling themselves. Up to you, but whatever you write with this trope I will absolutely eat it up!
Solo: Magical Girl Squad as a Polycule: So this is my "team as family" feelings turned into "so they're a found family but they also are in love"? Also, I think we've all seen a magical girl squad and gone "oh they should all be into each other". It's about the intimacy of all knowing each other in battle in both forms! The way that teams like this often see each other's worst moments! About having each other's backs! And, because they're young, learning what it means to be all in love! Bonus points for the "and they're all a little codependent because of their circumstances" trope.
Solo: Civilians in the Aftermath of a Magical Girl Battle: Another favorite trope superhero comics do well that I want to smush against magical girls: so what about the outsider POV? A lot of magical girl enemies do stuff like possess their victims or make those victims lash out, but a lot of other magical girl enemies do real, terrifying damage! What's it like being an ordinary civilian caught in this magical battle? What is it like if you were possessed? What's social media like in a magical girl world? Do ordinary civilians like... like the magical girls? Do any of them realize how young they are, or do they mostly assume they must be adults because of the power they wield? Basically whatever outsider POV you like for magical girls I would love to see it!
Solo: Transfem Magical Girl Using Her Transformation for Gender Reasons: Basic concept here: so like if I could magically transform into an idealized image of my gender I would take it and a magical girl story is SUCH a good metaphor for that. However, there are also fantastical elements to cover! Does this lead to dysphoria in times she can't be transformed? Does her transformation allow her to do anything but wear the magical girl clothes (like, can she use it in mundane situations so she can feel better about herself, or is she stuck only using it in times where her identity being given away is okay)? Does this lead to her throwing herself too much into her magical girl life to the detriment of her civilian one? Or, alternately, is this simply purely joyful for her? Does this represent goals she starts to seek out in her civilian life? Does it teach her things she wouldn't want her transformation to be like? There's a lot of really cool things to explore with "trans magical girl" and this is your opportunity to go wild with it!
Solo: Dark Magical Girl: SOMEONE ELSE NOMINATED THIS ONE AND I AM SO EXCITED. The trope of the dark magical girl is one of my favorites! I love these often antivillain, often tormented dark mirrors to the magical girl! My personal favorite example is Rue, but I love all of these rival characters. A story from a dark magical girl's perspective would be my JAM. What's her life like? Does she end up having to take charge/become a hero? What does she think of the "good guy" magical girls? Literally any direction you can go with this trope will make me SO SO HAPPY, so I'd love to see what you do with it!
THE SUPERHERO ONES:
Amnesiac Former Hero/Increasingly Guilty Former Nemesis: I really like the trope of "amnesiac character interacting with a character they knew in their former life but having the COMPLETE wrong idea of what their former relationship must have been like". Anyway, up to you how the hero got amnesia and why the nemesis decided it would be a good idea to start dating them, but the important part of the emotional conflict here for me is that the former nemesis starts to genuinely fall in love... and genuinely start to feel guilty, knowing what their relationship was once like and that the hero would never have approved normally. From there, it's up to you! Do they stay together? Do they break up? Does the hero ever regain their memories? Does the villain ever explain themselves? Does the nemesis get redeemed? Do things ever go back to normal? I don't know and I want you to tell me!
Retired Supervillain/Recently Turned Former Hero Seeking Advice: The basic premise here is that this former hero (now a villain) finds the retired supervillain to get advice. From there, however, there are several paths. One path might be the villain giving genuine advice. Another might be the villain trying to help get that recently fallen hero the redemption they never got. Maybe the villain is almost disgusted by this hero daring to turn and seek them out, or maybe they're sad, or maybe they're oddly flattered. There are a LOT of dynamics this tag could contain, and I'm excited to see every single one of them!
Superhero/Supervillain They Swapped Bodies With: BODY SWAP LET'S GO! I love the body swap trope, whether you play it in the "they have to then pretend to be each other and learn things about each other's lives" way or in the "they mostly have trouble using each other's powers during this very temporary swap while fighting their way back" or any other body swap thing you can think of! I think the most important trope to keep here, however, is that they end up forced to work together and that in turn leads to them starting to fall for each other. However, getting humanized by aspects of each other they wouldn't normally see is another HUGE part of the romance here for me! It can be as simple as "oh shit the hero has been pulling their punches from the beginning, I know this now that I'm in their body" or as complicated as having to live out their life and realizing how complicated and exhausted it is. I am personally a fan of villains learning the heroes aren't perfect and are sacrificing a lot to help people, but I'm equally a fan of heroes learning the villains lead complex lives and have reasons for their actions too. ALL OF WHICH THIS TROPE HAS. Great package all-around let's go.
Hero/Villain Captured and Tortured Together by a Worse Villain: Another "hero and villain forced to work together" but the whump trope version. I honestly love the idea of the hero and villain being thrown together in a horrible situation and growing close and protective and reliant on each other because they need some kind of positive human contact, even from their enemy. The idea of the hero standing protectively over the villain to try to take some of the torture for themselves, or the echo of the opposite happening... Bonding quietly over each other's motivations, which seem small in the face of what's happening to them... And then the AFTERMATH. I give you either "they're forced to work together to escape" or, maybe better, "they get rescued by one of their factions and are desperate, DESPERATE, to make sure the other one gets taken with them". And the ways they're changed by the experience! The bits of each other they take in desperation! I don't know man I just think this one has a lot of REALLY GOOD POSSIBILITIES. Very good whumpy possibilities but also just... character development ones. Good stuff.
Superhero Turned Into a Cat & Supervillain Who Cares For the Cat: A CHARACTER BEING TURNED INTO A CAT AND BEING TAKEN CARE OF BY THEIR NEMESIS IS LIKE ONE OF MY FAVORITE REALLY SPECIFIC FANFIC TROPES. I love the way this would allow the superhero to learn new things about the supervillain! I love the moment of realization! I love the idea of the superhero maybe eventually resigning themselves to being a cat before being rescued! I love the idea of the villain not knowing and starting to worry about the hero! I love basically anything about how this makes the villain look softer and the weirdness of being someone's pet when you were originally a human and everything about this trope SO MUCH. I don't even have much to say other than waving my arms around and explaining this one is extremely iddy to me and if you lean into that I will go nuts.
Superhero fighting evil alternate version of self & Supervillain they ask to help: I love the idea of a hero being forced to go to a villain to help them, which is why this is the version of the tag I'm requesting. The idea of being forced to go to the one person who knows how to defeat you the best in order to defeat yourself... Man, that's a really good trope. plus, the idea of the villain getting to see what the hero would be like if they were actually evil is really good. Is it horrifying, or are they almost wistful? Plus, a hero and a villain being forced to team up is always excellent, I love the bonding and the tension that comes from it. Bonus points if the evil version of the hero is truly, truly terrifying; I love it when the hero becomes scary.
THE MISC ONES:
Human Weapon/Ordinary Civilian Who Accidentally Gained Control of Them: I love the trope of "human weapon" characters learning to feel love and be human. I also love the idea of a human weapon being accidentally given to an ordinary civilian who has NO idea what to do with it or how to handle it but, due to being a Normal-Ass Person, is completely horrified with what's been done to this human weapon. Then the trials and tribulations of both being a Normal Guy thrust into this crazy situation and of being a human weapon learning to just be human! Also there's great comedy potential in a human weapon doing scary weapon things to like, this ordinary human's mean boss or something. Just saying.
Solo: Starship’s Anthropologist Who’s Suddenly The Highest-Ranked Officer After a Disaster: Incredibly specific tag I know. This is because I have had an incredibly specific vision. In a Starfleet-esq space navy, where they do research and reaching out to new worlds, they'd need to have anthropologists, right? People whose job it is to understand and study new cultures. One that has been around a while is probably a ranking officer that belongs somewhere in the chain of command, because there are people who would be working under them. Another thing, however, that happens in sci-fi shows, is terrible catastrophes that threaten to take out the entire ship. This prompt is basically "what if a scientist–not even the kind that like studies disease or the unknown a social scientist–therefore found themselves in-charge after such a Problem In Space"? Your space navy can have whatever vibes or structure or worldbuilding you want, the disaster can be whatever you want, our space anthropologist can have whatever kind of success or failure here that you want! I compared it to Star Trek just because that makes it easiest to explain, not because you need to do Star Trek specifically. I just love stories about unlikely people having to take charge of situations and ALSO love stories about alien cultures and this prompt then sprung into my mind, fully formed, as a way to smash those two ideas together!
Aspiring Ruler Dragon & Stranded Alien: I love when fantasy and sci-fi collide, and this is a particularly fun way to do it. Dragons have so many ways they're portrayed; sometimes they're scheming, sometimes they're less intelligent, but they're ALWAYS powerful, and that dynamic over the alien is really interesting, especially with the way an aspiring ruler dragon might want to use the alien. Then again, though, a 'stranded alien' probably has technology and knowledge far beyond the dragon; this gives them their own power over the dragon, even if they're much less powerful than it. Maybe it's the alien who's the real brain here! Or maybe the alien is simply part of the dragon's hoard. Or maybe something else! I'd particularly love the ways whatever alien tech the alien has might clash with the dragon, how the people of the dragon's world might view the alien, and if the dragon ends up genuinely caring for the alien in some way.
Retired Spy & Underpaid Assassin Hired to Off Them & Bad Guys Now After Both of Them: This is such a fun action plot! It has great opportunities for the spy and the assassin to both show off the ways they might be badass or cool for each other, and I like the "enemies forced to team up" dynamic. Plus, this implies some interesting plot on the behalf of the bad guys, and I love a good road trip/journey/characters running away from something worse plotline to add momentum to a story. I like the idea of a comedy underpaid assassin, but I also love assassins who are human weapon-like or Black Widow-like. I like spies who are competent cool James Bond types, but I also love spies who are more of the "person who is simply good at getting information out of people by being friendly" types. And the bad guys can be after either of them or after both of them or doing a setup of some kind of anything else! Lots of possibilities, I'd just want to make sure there's also action in this one.
Final Girl Stopping for a Post-Horrors Burger & Fast Food Employee Who is Very Confused: Outsider POV is very fun, I love when characters that have been through Horrors and Trials and Tribulations encounter the normal world again and the normal world doesn't know what to make of them. This one's good from either POV; while I would slightly prefer the fast food employee's POV, there's still great comedy in the final girl trying to explain what has happened over her burger. I also love the almost weird competence characters like a final girl end up having; they have just been forced to, by circumstance, get really really good at surviving the horrors, but that comes across super weird in any other situation. A really fun prompt I would love to see!
Star Trek: The Next Generation
I am new to the world of being a fan of Star Trek. Hey guys did you know Star Trek is GOOD? Wild. Anyway, when I say I'm new, I'm new. I am only through season 2 of TNG and a bit of background watching Lower Decks with my husband and that's it. That said, I am currently obsessed, I don't care AT ALL if you spoil me (in fact I welcome it, like, if it helps you write the fic you're writing I'm one of those people that will seek out spoilers when I like a thing), and I have like ten million worldbuilding tags I want to get out of this fandom. So even if you're uncomfortable writing me something character-centric knowing how little I've gotten through so far, you can get to the worldbuilding tags and make me equally happy!
(Genuinely, I want to be clear: I am currently extremely obsessed with Star Trek. I'm aware it's hard to write for someone who isn't very far into the series yet but you could write me about two guys I have never seen and never met dealing with an aspect of canon I won't run into until I'm several series deep and I will clap and cheer so much for it I promise you. I am at that stage of the fixation.)
As for alternate mediums... I didn't specifically request Star Trek fusions, but you can draw any of my blorbos as Star Trek crewmembers and races and I'll be excited. I'd love things like schematics or typographic design like one might find on a starship, and anything in-universe is always deeply loved.
I've divided this into two sections: the section about the characters and relationships I have requested and why I like them, and the section about worldbuilding and what I would want from those tags, since they have fairly different vibes. However, feel free to mix and match as needed and use one as inspiration for the other.
Also, noting here that I have some specific prompts for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fusion under the crossovers section, if that interests you!
CHARACTERS AND RELATIONSHIPS
Solo: Data: Data is the predictable one to have ended up one of my favorites, and I welcome anything about him at all! I love characters who are learning to be human, and I also love the narrative of the way Data's already "human". Personally, I'm curious how his time in Starfleet was prior to the Enterprise (he's stated he's been around for a while at this point), especially given that he seems to expect to be mistreated for not being "alive" the way other people are. I love storylines where Data interacts with alien races that are also "not normal life"! I also love every single storyline where someone who isn't used to Data responds like he's an object and Data is like "oh okay" and the entire crew around him is busy going "this is DATA he is a PERSON get it right". Also, introspection from Data's point of view! Certainly, he doesn't have "emotions" (I have thoughts about this from a writing perspective because he absolutely does but that's another conversation), but he's also shown to clearly introspect and re-evalute himself. A storyline where Data's "inhuman" characteristics save the day would also be cool. Data standing in an empty room petting his cat would satisfy me though I can't express enough how much this guy is just my blorbo now. I will take whump. I will take Data being cool. I will take a character study. I will take fluff. I will take anything just give me Data.
Solo: William Riker: My least predictable of my new favorites is Riker. I think it's the competence, but it's also the way he's written like he's kind of meant to be a loose canon character and then is perhaps one of the most straight-laced and sensible men on the Enterprise. Like, he sleeps around, sure, but it's canon as best I can tell that he can't actually maintain a relationship because he is in love with Starfleet. Also his beard is hot and I will not apologize for thinking so. Anyway, I have two very different specific requests for him. The first is whump. Because I think this man is cool and competent my brain has gone "so we should hit him with hammers". Basically any whump for him would be appreciated, but I am particularly partial to characters getting trapped in captivity with like, a broken leg and having to fight their way out, or something where he is forced to let go of the level of easygoing control he normally maintains over himself. I prefer whump that ends with the character escaping and at least the promise of future comfort (even if you do not write the comfort). My other request for him, however, is much, MUCH stupider. You see I put together "kind of a weirdo but like secretly" and "plays trombone of all instruments" and "acts like he's a rebel but is actually really straight-laced" and got "oh Riker is a band kid huh". Anyway please write me either about Riker's time in marching band or, better, the rest of the Enterprise finding out about his marching band past. This is also an opportunity to tell me about the Starfleet Academy Marching Band, a thing I have just now decided exists. Or, if this is indeed too stupid for you, you can just write the whump, I would also go insane over that.
Solo: Jean-Luc Picard: My third new favorite I've picked up, largely because no one told me before I started watching this show that he was also just sort of awkward? Personally I read him as autistic, but this in NO WAY has to be your headcanon for him or even relevant if you write him. Generally I like the ways that Picard is both kind of sad (he has trauma from his past times as captain!) and kind of awkward despite the fact that at first glance he's a cool collected person. I like that he has a pretty bad temper, but despite that his last resort is fighting and he'd prefer diplomacy! The ways he's explicitly more comfortable with people he can interact with through the structure of rank (this is part of why I think Riker works well as his XO; yeah sure Riker enters the first episode with 'and I will stop you if I think you're doing something stupid' but he's explicit about this and otherwise willing to interact with Picard through this layer of both rank and of being equals). I like how he's a stubborn asshole sometimes, and I like how he's protective of his crew! Also I like that he's a Fucking Nerd and likes dressing up in cosplay for the holodeck and Shakespear and also has a past full of breaking hearts. I'm aware none of this is really a prompt because unlike with the other two solo character tags here I honestly don't have much by way of prompt I mostly have a ramble about the things I like about his character and a desire to gesture at that and go "so, you know, go nuts". So that's what I'll do. Go nuts.
Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard: I like this ship from the show it is very cute. I also like the way that neither of them are ever going to be the person to make the first move (Picard has both rank and "I knew your ex husband" in the way and Crusher also has rank and "I can't tell if he's actually interested" in the way). I also really like how often people seem to assume Crusher would be like, mad about Picard's role in her husband's death when her actual emotions towards Picard are that she's in love with him. I'd love a fic where it's not that they don't know they're in love with each other, but it's simply not the right time while she's CMO and he's captain and so they mostly interact through Gestures and Knowing. Also I like how Picard is very bad at being nice to Westley but is trying because of Crusher, world's most okay-ish step dad. I just like the shared history here mostly!
Data/Geordi La Forge: THEY'RE HONESTLY JUST REALLY ADORABLE AND I WANT TO MAINTAIN THAT ENERGY. I like how easily they're best friends. They just fit together! I like how Geordi wants Data to be happy (even when Data doesn't think he can feel happy) and is perhaps best of everyone at treating Data as a person, but also as Data, a kind of person who isn't a human. Meanwhile, I like how Data seems to act more himself with Geordi and opens up to him. They're friends, and I really like pairings between people who are also friends! I also like when Geordi is protective of Data emotionally and Data is protective of Geordi physically. I also love the ways in which they're both sort of figuring out their relationship, even when it's easy for them. Basically I think this is really cute and also they should be Holmes and Watson again because that was really cute.
Solo: Crew of the Enterprise-E: This tag rather intentionally allows you to take whatever configuration of & relationships or solo fics you're interested in from the TNG cast; I am super obsessed with the show and here for you to write me your pitch about what relationship or character you think I should be interested in. I personally love the found family/team as family vibes, holodeck episodes, things that feel like they could be an episode, excuses for the crew to protect each other, excuses for a member of the crew to show off how badass they are, or stories that explore different positions the characters might take to a moral issue. An ensemble fic would be a dream as well; I love a good ensemble fic!
WORLDBUILDING
WB: Enlisted Sailors in Starfleet: So this is one of the outstanding questions I have about Starfleet that I have yet to find a consistent answer to: so like, where are the enlisted officers? Because if the way the show has treated becoming an ensign is accurate, that's definitely still a commissioned officer, just the lowest rank of commissioned officer. Or at least, it probably is? In order for Starfleet to be as big as it's implied to be they can't only have sailors through a ridiculously competitive Starfleet Academy entrance exam they have got to have enlisted officers somewhere, right? So basically tell me about that! (Or, if your argument is "there isn't a difference between enlisted and commissioned officers in Starfleet", tell me that! I just can't find a consistent answer and I am dying to know.)
WB: Folk Music from Around the Federation: I have a deep love of folk music in general, and there are a lot of really interesting Star Trek cultures and aliens that would have their own folk music. For example: would Betazoid music have an emotional or psychic component? We know Vulcans have their lyres/harps, and also big old drums; what kind of music would they like? What is Klingon folk music like? How about isolated colony planets; those would certainly develop their own cultures and musical traditions over time. Also, what about Starfleet itself? A certain level of musical tradition is common in the armed forces and especially on stuff like "five years on a spaceship and you need things to do". Given that "enjoys music" and "has a sense of rhythm" appear to apply to most Star Trek races, they would almost certainly have their own musical traditions, and I'd love to hear about some or all of them. Bonus points for portraying people enjoying themselves with this, also; I love stories about people sharing this kind of thing from their culture with one another.
WB: Life as a Kid on the Enterprise-E: There are children on this spaceship and they probably lead really interesting lives. I'd imagine it's similar to living on a military base, except... More, because most of what we see of the Enterprise-E really isn't that oriented towards civilians. Also, being effectively an "outsider POV" of some of the stuff that happens on the Enterprise when you're just a kid has got to be Something Else. I'd love any story about these kids and what they get up to, or how it affects their adult life, or how it might have compared to living planetside! Just seems like a really cool thing to explore.
WB: Muster Drills on the Enterprise-E: This one is one of the ones that is PROBABLY most looking for an alternate medium, although a plotty fic can do this really well if you want to do angst of some kind. Mostly this is just... how do you prepare to evacuate a ship the size of the Enterprise-E, which is often far from the nearest "shore", in a timely manner in an emergency? This is occasionally brought up on the show (they use the transporter, for one), but I'm curious about how they drill for it, how escape pods are set up, do they have environmental suits for the crew, etc. If you get very in-the-weeds and logistical I am down for that.
WB: Space Right-of-Way Laws: This can also read a LITTLE as "classes of ship that aren't Starfleet research and combat vessels" if you'd like, as well as radio communications, and is cousin to the space traffic control one. Basically: frequently, Starfleet ships are in "uncontrolled" space. What laws/rules/regulations govern who needs to make way for whom? What laws/rules/regulations govern how to otherwise unfamiliar ships should communicate? Space may be mostly empty, but so is the sky, and things ran into each other there easily until ATC was regulated at much lower speeds in vessels with much faster reaction times; how do regulations prevent that in space? And how does a Starfleet vessel handle that when, say, in non-Federation or unknown space where they may encounter vessels under the control of a different set of laws? Is there a treaty helping govern this? You decide!
WB: Starbase Space Traffic Control: And in cousin to the above: if in open space a collision is entirely possible but requires two ships getting close, at a location like a starbase ships will be close to each other all the time. This is a worldbuilding question about how those are controlled. Presumably, this is "controlled" space with an equivalent to ATC or a harbormaster at the very least. Do tugs help guide starships into position, or are they expected to go into position on their own? What is the standardized terminology used? How is the workplace if this is your job? What technology do they use to keep track of ships? Listen I'm a nerd I love this kind of logistical stuff give me logistics.
WB: Any: As I've said, I love any worldbuilding question you might have in mind. However, I want to give a special shoutout to a bunch of the tags in other Star Trek canons; I considered requesting them before deciding I would be upset personally if someone had requested my canon and then clarified they had never watched it, so I ended up not requesting them. I still love them, though, and would like to list some of my favorites so that if you want to write those worldbuilding tags in a TNG context, you have them available to do so with! There are a LOT of them so I'm not going to clarify ideas I've had for all of them, just like, feel free to use whatever here. I particularly like worldbuilding that goes over niche logistical details, that does interesting things with the cultures and needs of a variety of Federation species, or that helps flesh out the daily life of characters between episodes. Also, shoutout to the Enterprise poker nights; if you write the characters playing poker together that alone makes a great fic for me. As I've said a few times, I got a bit obsessed, so I will be fine with most anything!
Tags from other Star Trek canons I liked for inspiration:
WB: Enterprise First Contact Protocol (ST AOS)
WB: Multi-species design accommodation (ST AOS)
WB: Federation / Starfleet news services (ST: DS9)
WB: Spycraft in the 24th Century (ST: DS9)
WB: Colony Welfare Checks (ST: SNW)
WB: Daily Life On The Starship Enterprise (ST: SNW)
WB: Laws and ethics of genetic modification (ST: SNW)
WB: News and pop culture about Constitution-class ships and their crews (ST: SNW)
WB: Replicator Recipes/Formulas And Regulations Thereof (ST: SNW)
WB: Starfleet regulations about romantic relationships (ST: SNW)
WB: Time Travel protocols (ST: SNW)
WB: Cybernetics in the Federation (Lower Decks)
WB: Federation Pop Culture (Lower Decks)
WB: Paperwork involved with transporter duplicates & similar events (Lower Decks)
WB: Starfleet customs about Death & Resurrection (Lower Decks)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon
Pokemon-Specific DNW: Any human-bodied character/Pokemon-bodied character pairing, gruesome/gory depictions of injury to Pokemon. (It's fine if Pokemon get injured or killed, or are otherwise placed in real peril beyond what is normally shown in canon, but not if it's depicted in a way that's more gory than typical to canon.)
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon is a game series that is near and dear to my heart; Explorers of Sky is still the game I will gladly declare is my favorite Pokemon game, main-series games included. Somehow, this is still the first time I've ever requested anything for it because only just now have I gone "wait holy shit that means someone... could make me mystery dungeon fanworks??? WILD."
My main favorite Mystery Dungeon game is Explorers, and most of the character and relationship tags here are Explorers tags. My second favorite is Rescue Team (tied with Super, I just didn't have very many good Super prompt ideas), and the one I am least familiar with is Gates. That said, I am fine with any of the the games for the worldbuilding tags! All of the games have some pretty neat ways to explore the world of Mystery Dungeon, after all, and all of them have slightly different takes on how the society runs. Also, while I'm aware that Super has a lot of flavor text that implies the characters from the other games are the recruits in Super, I've never treated that as fully canon; it is up to you how canon each game is to each other.
You can use whatever Pokemon you think fit best for the hero and partner of each game. However, my go-to hero and partner for each game are as follows: Rescue Team hero as Eevee with their partner Pikachu with a note that these are the only pair that I think definitely evolve once they have the opportunity into Vaporeon and Riachu; Explorers hero as Mudkip with their partner Phanpy; Gates hero as Axew with their partner Tepig; and Super hero as Chikorita and their partner Riolu (and if you know the ending of the game, later, Mew). You can use whatever names your heart desires, although personally I'd love some worldbuilding about Pokemon names versus human names if you do anything wild. You also, as I said, do not need to use my headcanons here; writing your own hero and partner makes just as much sense, and I'd love to read about them just as much!
I have this split up by game; this generally means relationships and characters come before worldbuilding tags, but there is one worldbuilding tag from a specific game.
Noting here that I have two main series/PMD crossover ideas in the crossovers section, along with 'Naruto in PMD' and 'TNG in PMD' prompts, if any of those interest you!
RESCUE TEAM:
Rescue Team Hero/Rescue Team Partner: I ship the hero and the partner in a lot of the games, but Rescue Team is the one that I really ship them in. The Hero/Partner relationship is the core of the mystery dungeon games, but in many ways the Rescue Team partner is the partner that does the most for the hero with the least benefit to themselves. In return, the Rescue Team hero is the one hero who deliberately chooses to stay in the world of Pokemon in the end, all for their "very best friend", the Partner! And while the hero character in the games is mostly a self-insert, that bit of characterization lives in my brain a lot. Personally, I would love something that focuses on the domesticity of them living together and working together as a rescue team. I'd love something in the aftermath of the game about them just existing, and about the hero making that choice! Alternately, sometime during the fugitives arc would be a really great time for them to get together. Anything about the ways the hero is alien to the partner by being formerly human would be really interesting, as would the ways the hero feels about how much the partner has done for the hero in this world! I just think they have the potential to be very, very cute, and I'd love to see it.
Solo: Gengar: Oh, Gengar. Gengar is a fascinating character; the main villain for much of the game, but his redemption and the ways he does still feel guilt for what he did to Gardevior are what make him interesting. Him helping the player after seeing Gardevior again in their dreams, and then his entire post-game arc... Anything about who Gengar is as a character through all of this would be really appreciated, as would him meeting and living with the newly-amnesiac Gardevior while working through his emotions. Alternately, Team Meanies: how did that end up happening? Details about how Gengar adjusted to being a Pokemon instead of a human would also be really appreciated. Any amount of character study on this guy, really; he's a really compelling character that makes me want to see more!
WB: Pelipper's Mail Service: In this game, before the idea that exploration teams are organized in-person was created, there was Pelipper's Mail. (Technically this also appears in future games for the wi-fi play, sometimes? Which is interesting.) I have so many fun questions! How do the Pelipper get mail from people in distress? How do they know how to deliver it? The mail station shows Pelipper flying in and out pretty frequently; how is that scheduled? Are Pelippers their own kind of explorers? Do they have to fight often, or do people leave them alone even in dungeons? How does one join the mail service? Is there an in-universe explanation for why the codes encoding what a piece of mail will have are so long and complicated? I just think there's a good amount to explore with the idea of a society-wide mail service that is used to help people in distress. It's cool.
EXPLORERS
Explorers Hero/Explorers Partner & Manaphy: So the entire Manaphy arc is really cute, even if getting those blue gummis is a pain. I'd love anything about the Hero and Partner basically raising a child together. Cute Manaphy shenanigans! Hero and Partner being exhausted together trying to deal with it! The fear they likely felt when Manaphy fell sick due to needing to be raised in the water! The post-game mission where you can go recruit Manaphy; how does a more grown-up Manaphy feel about these guys who raised them as a baby but had to give them up? Does having raised Manaphy together change the Hero and Partner's relationship? Obviously there's a slash in this tag so I ship the hero and partner here, but is this how they get together or were they together before then? Does anyone from the village help? Basically, anything to do with this arc would be deeply appreciated.
Grovyle & Explorers Hero: This relationship is so important to the story of the game, yet we get to see precious little of it due to the hero's amnesia. Grovyle knew the hero as a human, though, and the relationship between the two of them remains deep even after the hero forgets Grovyle and Grovyle thinks the hero has been lost forever! I'd love any kind of "origin" story of how they met, or a story from when they were hunting the Time Gears in the ruined future, or a story about Grovyle describing the hero to someone else, even now that the hero is a Pokemon that does not remember him, or even just a story about Grovyle and the hero in the short time they were working together in the present to save the future. It's also a great way to give the hero characterization, either in their past or in the ache of not quite being the person that someone is looking for, the ache of watching someone mourn you right in front of you. Lot of good potential here, is what I'm saying!
Solo: Grovyle: Similarly, Grovyle on his own is just a really interesting character. For one, he's evolved; a lot of details imply evolving is really hard to do while time is still broken, which has always fascinated me about Grovyle, since he's a character that's implied to have never known a world where the sun shines. For another, there's just that: he's a character that had never seen things like "sunshine" or "rain" or "flowing water"; he's a grass-type, even, who doesn't know those things! Anything about his relationship with things like sunshine would be really fantastic to hear about. I'd also love anything about his relationship to his goals, the things he's willing to do to meet them; someone once described him to me as Pokemon's true antihero and while I don't think he's that (he's too optimistic ultimately to be an antihero), there's something compelling about the fact he's a villain for the entire first part of the game because he's just desperate. Also, if you take his special episode from Sky as fully canon, what is it like to live after you were certain you would die? Grovyle did everything from the beginning knowing he was literally erasing himself from existence to get it done; what's it like when that doesn't happen and he has to go on existing? There's a lot of meat to Grovyle's character in the form of a character study or as a backstory or as origin story or as anything else you'd like to do with Grovyle in general.
Chatot & Wigglytuff: I really adore Chatot and Wigglytuff as characters. They have a fun "serious one" and "goofy one" dynamic, but between Wigglytuff's hidden serious side and Chatot's tendency to hide how much he cares until he dramatically reveals it, they have a really fun relationship. I like the ways Chatot uses being a hardass as his way of caring for Wigglytuff (and the rest of the guild), and I love the way that Wigglytuff can force Chatot to lighten up! They're another pair of characters I have questions about the origins of, also; we know the Brine Cave story, of course, which is how I'd like to imagine Wigglytuff and Chatot decided they'd stick together, but I'm curious how Chatot ended up Wigglytuff's second-in-command. I can kind of imagine them as platonic life partners or QPPs also; I'd love anything about the two of them being super domestic in their own weird Pokemon way. I don't mind shippy undertones, but I don't really see them as a ship; I simply see them as very, very close, and Pokemon who have been very, very close for a long time! So anything that leans on that idea would be really loved.
Solo: Wigglytuff's Guild: I would love any stories about Wigglytuff's Guild in their day-to-day lives, be it focusing on a specific single member of the guild or the entire guild as an ensemble. I love Wigglytuff's Guild being its own kind of family to one another, and I love any stories set with them while they're on expeditions or they're just having lunch or whatever. This is also a free space to focus on your favorite member of the guild that hasn't been brought up yet, such as Bidoof or Loudred. Just have fun with it, they're all characters I'd love to hear more about!
WB: The Paralyzed Future: The future Grovyle is from, the future where time is paralyzed and the sun never rises and change is broken. What was it like? How did Pokemon survive in an environment like that? It's somewhat implied many of them didn't, but many of them clearly did! What happened to things like rescue teams when this first started, given that it's generally implied this is a dystopian bad end future from what we know of it? What was Primal Dialga's rule like? Also, the hero means we know that humans existed in this horrible future, and that at least one human managed to find the world of Pokemon, or that the Pokemon found the main series world of humans! All these questions and more plague my mind. Literally any amount of detail on what the ruined future was like would be deeply appreciated and I'd love to see it!
ANY GAME
WB: Mystery Dungeons: So, Mystery Dungeons are known in-universe, but a lot of the ways they work mechanically don't quite make sense with how they're treated in-universe. So this is a great opportunity to reconcile that! Some of my biggest questions are things like "how does recruiting Pokemon from a dungeon work, and why do most Pokemon seem to indiscriminately attack", "how do random Pokemon manage to get lost in the dungeons", "are there rules to predict how dungeons will form or is that like a natural disaster for the area the dungeon is in" (it's been a bit but I feel like I remember Gates had some stuff with this, which was cool), or whatever else you want to discuss with them. I feel like every game explains why mystery dungeons exist slightly differently, and often blames them on the oncoming Plot-Relevant Natural Disaster, but they also continue to exist into the postgame! I'd love in-universe explanations, studies on the dungeons, myths on them, or even the characters doing a dungeon and encountering stuff that explains more about them. I just think they're neat.
WB: The Societal Role of Rescue Teams: Rescue teams as organizations seem to play a pretty decent part of life in the Mystery Dungeon world. Every game has them, every game has mystery dungeons, and every game seems to treat rescue teams as important. I want to hear more about how they interact with the world! How important are rescue teams to the average Pokemon? Do they do more than explore dungeons typically? How did the idea of a "rescue team" first form? There seem to be towns that spring up around rescue team hubs; is there a reason for this? (Gates is a really good example of this kind of thing.) Is this a thing that comes naturally to Pokemon, or is this kind of collaboration hard for them? I think there's a lot of interesting worldbuilding that can be done with rescue teams and this is also kind of a free space to do whatever rescue team worldbuilding you'd like!
WB: Views on Humans: Every game, we also hear a little bit about what the Mystery Dungeon world thinks of humans. Normally, they're from some other world and almost considered mythical, but notably, often Pokemon know what humans are, too, and have stories about them. In Explorers, Grovyle even knew the hero as a human! So I'm curious about what the various Mystery Dungeon worlds think of humans. Do they have legends about them? Do they know of things like the main-series Pokemon world? Are humans a thing they think of as scary or a thing they wish they'd meet? Alternately, the hero was once a human; what is the hero's perspective on how the Mystery Dungeon world thinks of humans? Is the hero slightly alien to them because of this? If a Mystery Dungeon Pokemon met a human, what would they think of them? There's a lot of fun stuff to explore with this.
WB: Views on Legendary Pokemon: Legendary Pokemon normally play a powerful and mysterious role in the various Mystery Dungeon games. That said, you can also recruit them and they sort of just hang out with you. Rayquaza has to be fought and convinced to stop a meteor, but Celebi is Grovyle's friend and the fact they're legendary is only occasionally acknowledged. That said, guys like Palkia or Dialga still have incredible power! Yveltal in Super is very powerful, but is actually possessed in the end by a greater power. Meanwhile, non-legendaries such as Ninetales can be shown as having incredible power as well. So, with stuff like that in mind: what does the average Pokemon think of legendary Pokemon? Are they still, well, legends? Are they facts of life? Do they even know about some of them? Are they considered gods or like just much stronger, more important fellow Pokemon?
WB: The Legends and Mythology of the Pokemon World: The Mystery Dungeon world is its own whole society with writing systems and ruins and magical things like mystery dungeons. Surely, they have their own mythology and legends! Plus, we hear about some of their legends during the games, be they stories passed down through the ages that are relevant to the plot or just little details in the postgame. Also, given the existence of the Bittercold and Dark Matter, there are powerful forces in this world that are not Pokemon. So what are the stories about those? Do Pokemon have their own legendary figures or gods or spirits? What are some Pokemon superstitions? I'd love in-universe tellings of these things, stories that reference the characters acting based on these things, or anything like that! There's lots of cool ways to take this.
WB: Organization/Logistics/Collaboration of Independent Rescue Teams: There are a lot of rescue teams that seem to not be a part of any explorer's guild, but instead just operate on their own. This is sensible, knowing how large of a cut that say, Wigglytuff's Guild takes, but what are the tradeoffs to being independent? How are they still able to get missions and keep ranks? They seem to collaborate some; how do they do that? In games like Rescue Team, this seems to be the norm, but in games like Super, it does not seem to be the norm. So I just want to hear about how this works, and what some of the things these independent rescue teams get up to are!
WB: Transformation into a pokemon: This tag is making me cheer and go WOO BODY HORROR LET'S GO! But beyond that, this is a great way to discuss, beyond just general views on humans, the ways the fact this just happens sometimes would affect society, but also the ways this affects the hero (or for that matter, Gengar). What is the actual transformation like? What kinds of legends surround it? In the human world the heroes come from, are there also stories about this kind of thing? I don't have much to add here because this tag by itself is pretty good just sort of waving my hands around and yelling really.
WB: Any: Honestly, Mystery Dungeon has such a cool setting and world. Footprint runes! The mail service! Towns and houses! Anything you can think of, really, that goes into the setting, I'd love to read! I don't have much expansion here because this is the tag I've nominated for you to give me worldbuilding about whatever I haven't already thought of, haha, of which I'm sure there's plenty.
Pokemon Main Series
Pokemon-Specific DNW: Any human-bodied character/Pokemon-bodied character pairing, gruesome/gory depictions of injury to Pokemon. (It's fine if Pokemon get injured or killed, or are otherwise placed in real peril beyond what is normally shown in canon, but not if it's depicted in a way that's more gory than typical to canon.)
Pokemon is in many ways my first fandom and remains a thing I have a lot of fondness for. That said, this is my first year requesting it for any kind of exchange, and that's exciting! I've spent time in fairly niche Pokemon fic communities (shoutout to the Nuzlocke forums and also Global Pokedex Plus in my youth), but I don't know much about the broader fic community and I haven't really been in the broader Pokemon fandom for some time, so this feels like a blast from the past! I do still see a lot of Pokemon art, and man, Pokemon artists are creative, I love to see art.
For those who are just coming to this tab for information on my Pokemon favorites: my favorite Pokemon is Sandshrew, but my most recent favorite in-game partner was Tyranitar. When I represent myself in Pokemon (such as on Showdown), I do so as the male Team Galactic grunt (with a red ribbon around his wrist when it's possible to give him it). My favorite Pokemon generation is Gen 4, my favorite game is either Platinum if you only count main-series or Explorers of Sky if you count the spinoffs. I haven't played ScarVi, although I want to play Violet sometime, especially since the DLC is supposed to be good, and I know all the story spoilers. I've played all the other main-series games, though, and also play a decent amount of Pokemon Go and most of the DS spinoffs. I'm a nuzlocker or challenge runner occasionally, although I am Not Very Good At It, and I normally do so with more of a focus on narrative than Winning The Correct Way.
As for what I'm looking for in a Pokemon request: this is a great fandom to do art in, obviously! I also love worldbuilding around Pokemon; there are a lot of really cool ways to take the world of Pokemon and everyone is always so creative about it! There's something so compelling about a world that is so close to our own and yet is just... not quite our own, often in ways that feel idyllic. The ways that Pokemon themselves shape the world are so interesting, but so are the ways the people in that world interact! As such, most of my tags in this fandom are worldbuilding.
This is split up into individual Pokemon requests, worldbuilding requests that require you have knowledge of a specific game's lore, and worldbuilding requests that could go into any game!
Noting here that I have two main series/PMD crossover ideas in the crossovers section, if that interests you!
INDIVIDUAL POKEMON:
Solo: Sandshrew: My favorite guy! Sandshrew is really really cute and that's my favorite Sandshrew quality: the cuteness. Also I've met real pangolins before and they are so cute and they run around so fast on their little pangolin legs. Basically, anything focused on how cute Sandshrew is, in art or in their lives, and I will be really really happy.
Solo: Tyranitar: By contrast, TTaur is probably one of my favorite recent Pokemon I've played with in-game, having recently played a hack that let me use the line all throughout a playthrough. It's also my favorite psuedo and just a really cool big guy! Bonus points for any portrayals with her wearing a Choice Scarf, and also bonus points for putting her with a male Galactic grunt, should you do art, but otherwise I'd love just hearing some about these giant Pokemon, what sorts of places they live in, and how someone would even take care of one if they had one in the real world!
Solo: The Lake Trio: One of my favorite sets of legendaries. The lake trio have really cool designs, and I think their thing is often underrated; not only do they have some pretty scary Pokedex entries (shoutout to Uxie removing memories, which is the one most people know, but did you know Azelf will simply remove your will to live?), but the powers of emotion, willpower, and memory are powerful on their own. Their ties to the red chain and how their power controls Sinnoh's other legendaries is also a really interesting question to me! I'd love to hear about how the Lake Trio exists in legend, how they've interacted with humans over the years, or just art of them being kind of spooky and really cool. I like their ominousness for guys that are so small and cute, basically.
Solo: Jirachi: My favorite of the mythical Pokemon! Jirachi is a Pokemon I like two different portrayals of. Often, Jirachi is portrayed as mostly just being cute and sleepy, and I certainly like that. However, often Jirachi is also portrayed as kind of ominous, from the third eye on its stomach to its tendency to grant wishes in a way the wisher didn't really want or expect, I feel like a Jirachi that's kind of sinister also fits with the way Jirachi is often shown. It's signature move is even "Doom Desire", which says a lot. So both of these portrayals are things I'd be really interested in! I think Jirachi especially would be great for writing cautionary tales about or old stories about, too, given the everything about it. It's a really neat Pokemon!
SPECIFIC WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Day-to-Day Life of a Team Galactic Grunt: Team Galactic is my favorite of the evil teams aesthetically but they're probably the team which joining up into as a grunt makes like... the least sense, given their goals. Unless, of course, you take the implication that the grunts think Cyrus is going to also take them to his "perfect world" as true! But even still, what does Team Galactic like... do? They have public, known headquarters and seem to claim to be a clean energy company, but no one believes this canonically? Why do they steal Pokemon? Anything you want to do about one of the foot soldiers of Team Galactic is excellent in my books, before, during, and after the canon of the Sinnoh games. Give these weird teal-haired guys some fleshing out!
WB: Kalos War: Man, ever since I first played X/Y the fact this is a thing that is real and canonically happened and also they had the nuclear weapon metaphor of the ultimate weapon in it. And it's in a Pokemon game. And the things Xerneas did to like, AZ, as a result, are existentially horrifying. There's so much about Kalos's lore that is so fucking cool (god I'm excited for Legends AZ) and THIS IS ONE SUCH THING. What are more of its effects on the region? What was it like at the time? What are studies of it like now? It's just such a wildly dark thing to have in a Pokemon game (especially main-series; I'm a Mystery Dungeon fan I know they're allowed to pull extinction-level events it's still just wild when they do) and it intrigues me so much. I think this could be a fantastic prompt to put stuff like in-universe research, in-universe discoveries and documentation, artifacts from the war, etc; I think this is a REALLY GOOD PROMPT for alternate mediums!
WB: Newmoon Island: One of Pokemon's spookier locations, made all the more strange by the fact that it's otherwise fairly unremarkable. An island you're transported to in a dream, sister to Fullmoon Island, a place you can clearly get a boat ride to afterwards but before then... How does this all work? Is Newmoon Island like, real? How do all the supernatural elements work here? Have people stumbled across it by accident before, like sailor legends and such? I feel like there would be sailor legends.
WB: Public Opinion of Team Plasma in Unova: Team Plasma is one of the most interesting "Evil Teams" because they start as publicly being an activist organization. They clearly persuade some people then! How does the events of the game change that? Interestingly, does this then hurt any other activist groups with their own bad behavior? How do "Pokemon rights" organizations fare after Team Plasma's actions? Then, in B2W2, when you have the split in the ranks: what do people think of that split? Do they ever do any actual good work, and how is that complicated by their actions? I think there's a lot to dig into here that doesn't super get dug into by the games they're in, and I'd be delighted to see it dug into.
WB: The Darkest Day: This is another "disaster that happened 3000 years ago", which is already interesting in combination with things like the Kalos War (what's with things happening 3000 years ago, huh?). It's also not explained in terribly much detail in the game it's in, let alone in a way that explains how Chairman Rose is triggering it again or why he'd think that's a good idea. I just think there's a lot more fleshing out this could have; it's mythology, it's environmental impacts (beyond just 'dynamaxing is real now'), what kind of creature Eternatus is... Any kind of fic fleshing out what's going on here would be really good.
WB: The History of Ancient Johto: Johto has so many interesting ruins and towers and so much culture. The way it's tied to Kanto now but culturally is decently different from Kanto, the Sinjoh Ruins existing, everything to do with Celebi... Honestly, my love of Celebi and time travel stories makes me think that's a fantastic excuse to give Johto a sort of Legends-esq plot of a character going back in time to see what ancient Johto was like! But also, there's a decent argument to be made that Pokeballs as they're made today may have started in Johto, where the apricorn was common, and that would be a cool angle to take too! Any in-universe history or research could work well here too, I was just struck by the time travel plot.
WB: The Slumbering Weald: More SwSh stuff! The Slumbering Weald segment at the start of the game is my favorite location honestly. I love the way it's clearly meant to be a fey wilderness, mysterious and dangerous to humans who dare to wander in. I want to hear more about it! I want to hear the stories that have been passed down in Galar about that place, about children who wandered in and wandered out Different, about people who entered one year and walked out a century later, about the howling wolves within and the strange things that happen there. I want to hear about Zamezenta and Zacian too, and how they take home in that place. I feel like they'd be strange beasts as a result. I like spooky Pokemon locations and this one is spooky in such a unique way!
WB: The Ultimate Weapon: So I always read this as "this is a nuke, but an ancient nuke metaphor as much as anything else". However, everything we hear of its effects every time its used are deeply existentially horrifying (especially when it's Xerneas and not Yveltal powering it, although Yveltal powering it is pretty damn existential dread also). Also, how does this thing work? I don't have much to add here other than "it's very scary and I want to hear more about that".
GENERAL WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Education: A broad but really interesting category! Obviously, most of the education we see in the games seems to be focused around battling. And that largely makes sense! We're focusing on a character who mainly does battle! However, there's a lot of other types of people hanging around the Pokemon world, and I'd love to hear about how all of them are educated too. How long are kids normally in school for? What about adult continuing education? How does that all play in with the way that many people seem to travel, both as kids doing the league and otherwise? There are a lot of really cool directions to go in with this (especially given that a few Pokemon games even have canonical schools) and I'd love all of them.
WB: Mundane Uses for Pokemon: In a world where basically everyone knows and has Pokemon, a lot of Pokemon would be doing more mundane things, not fantastical ones. Legends Arceus is really good for stuff like "Pokemon helping with the farming", and Alola is good for "Pokemon as transportation"; what are some other ways people could be using Pokemon to help in their world? Pokemon doing construction is another canonical one; what kinds of construction do different Pokemon do? Pokemon helping to make food, Pokemon to keep people safe, Pokemon for help at various jobs... I just like the mundane reality of Pokemon and people living in the same world, and any way you have to show that would make me happy.
WB: Relationships Between Different Regions: Different regions, at the very least, seem to have different cultures. We don't know much about the governments of the Pokemon world (oftentimes the closest thing to 'governments' we seem to have are the Pokemon League, a thing that once again kind of makes sense given the perspective the games are told from but is also kind of fascinating). We also don't often see cross-regional relationships outside of the Kanto/Johto one. I think there's both an interesting political perspective on the question of "relationships between regions" (do they behave like nation-states, are there regions that have bad diplomatic relations, are there ones with particularly good relations, etc) and an interesting day-to-day one (are there stereotypes across regions, are there regions that have a "rivalry" going on, are there different cultural exports). There's probably even an angle for this I haven't thought of and I'd love that angle too!
WB: The Scientific Study of Pokemon: Being a Pokemon Professor must be so WEIRD. There are so many wild things Pokemon can do. Add in that canonically we actually don't know where Pokemon eggs come from (really funny, incidentally, although fair given how many mammals this would mean lay eggs) but that also the theory of evolution is clearly true given regional forms but ALSO whatever Area Zero has going on at any given time and... I feel like there would be such scientific discourse. I feel like the research papers must be WILD. I feel like the kind of field work you have to do must be wild. I feel like there's just a lot of really fun and funny stuff to do with the idea of trying to scientifically study these magical monsters that are enshrined in your world. You can also take this more seriously than "I think trying to do this would be hell in a funny way" I will take the serious version but I just keep thinking about. What was the scientific discourse like the two times the type charts changed...
WB: Views on Legendary Pokemon: This one is interesting because of how different it is across games, but also how different people interpret that. For example, Kanto doesn't seem to have a particular reverence for the legendary birds, but even neighboring Johto clearly has some amount of religion around Ho-oh. The Hoenn weather trio, well, control the weather, but the Latis are considered legendary but don't seem to have nearly the same reverence. This goes on across regions! I'd love stuff about what the everyday inhabitant of the world thinks of the legendary Pokemon, or about how different people agree or disagree with the idea of revering legendary Pokemon, or even the scientific idea of them! There are a lot of cool places to go with them, especially since the plots of the games reveal the legendary Pokemon to be factually real. In some ways, I wonder if that then makes them seem less like gods?
WB: Any: This is once again a free space to go nuts with your favorite Pokemon worldbuilding headcanons and make something really cool out of it. Don't have much to add since all of my Pokemon worldbuilding thoughts are pretty encapsulated in the tags I've already gone over; this is for you to tell me what I've forgotten that's cool!
Naruto
Oh, Naruto. Probably one of my fandoms I have the most focused, specific desires for: I want Team 7 being friends, or I want worldbuilding. Naruto is one of the fandoms I tend to read fic in the most often, which means it's probably the fandom here I have the best-identified knowledge of what my favorite tropes for it are. I don't have much to add in the intro this time that aren't contained in the specific prompts other than "yay Naruto", haha! Don't let that fool you, though: I would be just as ecstatic to get Naruto fic as I would be about any other fandom, I just have less qualifying information to get through. Most of my desires are pretty neatly contained to my explanations of my prompts.
I haven't ever read or watched Boruto and know nothing about it, so feel free to entirely ignore it if that's your preference. Or don't! That's fine too! I also don't know much about the various Naruto movies.
This one is simply separated out into characters and then worldbuilding!
Also, noting here that I have some specific prompts for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon fusion under the crossovers section, if that interests you!
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto or Hatake Kakashi & Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto: These two tags are getting the same blurb, because I've requested them for the same reason. One of my favorite genres of Naruto fic is the genre where Team 7 has something happen to them that causes them to become closer than they are in canon and become a true team-as-family. I love it when they're baby badasses, but I also love it when whatever happens takes into account how much of a mess they are in canon. I love it when it's that Kakashi takes things seriously, but I also love it when it's despite Kakashi. I love it when instead of falling apart because of their respective Issues, their Issues end up playing into how they get close to each other. However it happens, I don't care, I just love when it does! This prompt is obviously one I'd like as a canon divergence, but you can go as AU with that canon divergence as you'd like. I just want Team 7 as a family, or at least, the beginnings of what could be a fix-it for Team 7, you know?
Haruno Sakura/Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto: Me, loudly: AND WHAT IF I ALSO THINK TEAM 7 SHOULD KISS. This is a further extension of the above "I love when Team 7 is all dependent on each other", because that often also falls into "and what if in the process they all end up kind of sleeping together because it only makes sense when they're all already in each other's pockets so much". This can be early canon puppy love (I think it would be funny for one of the members of Team 7 to decide this is the efficient way to solve the love triangle, for example), this can be as a part of one of the AUs described above. This can also be post-canon; there is a version of the post-canon in my head where Team 7 has to try to reconstruct and become reformers, given all of their traumas within the ninja village system. They could also fall into each other as some of the only people who fully understand what they all are after everything. Or you could choose some other point and reason for them to get together; I just think they could be a really interesting trio to explore.
Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto: Iruka and Naruto's relationship is really sweet. I think the fact Iruka is one of the only adults in Naruto's life to show him any kind of care is a really powerful relationship that I'd love to know more about and see more of. I think Naruto trying to figure out how to return that care as someone who hasn't seen much of it before is a really interesting angle to take it from! I also think, however, that it's interesting how young Iruka is; like, he's almost in older brother range when compared to Naruto, but in that strange zone where he's not quite a surrogate parent but isn't quite a brother but is more than just 'teacher', and I think there could be a lot of emotions about that. Also, I'm a sucker for the genre of fic where Iruka adopts Naruto if you're okay with canon divergence, though I am also just really interested in their canon dynamic.
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Age of Adulthood in the Shinobi World: Same as last year, I'm going to point at the "underage" DNW, since I think it could be easy to miss with this prompt. With that said: so, genin are treated as something halfway between an adult and a child in a lot of interesting ways. They're old enough to kill, to live by themselves, to take missions, to die for their country... but older ninja often treat them as kids in the "oh, they're young and stupid" way. Thirteen or fourteen is still considered old enough to promote, though, given Shikamaru becomes a chunin and is given a command shortly afterwards. As such, I am fascinated with what the concept of an 'age of adulthood' might be like in the shinobi world, as their concept of what an "adult" is and how old someone has to be to make decisions for themselves. In what ways is a new genin treated as an adult? In what ways are they still a child? How does this affect society? Does this only go for ninja, or does it go for other people around them as well? How does training a child to kill affect your idea of 'child'?
WB: Chakra Theory: I think there would be people who have to dedicate their lives to the study of chakra. We're only ever given some explanations of chakra theory, and I just like the idea of going more in-depth. Are there arguments about it, or are things we're shown in the show the accepted universal theory? What do people do in order to study this? What are some of the applications of it, and what is some of the theory behind it we aren't shown? I think both interesting technical documents and interesting arguments between scholars could happen here.
WB: Shinobi-Civilian Relations: There are civilians in Naruto; they hire ninja, and they live in both the hidden villages and elsewhere, and they don't use chakra the way ninja do. What is it like, being one of these civilians? What do ninja seem like to you? Are they frightening? Are they something you consider that protects you? How about ninja; how do they treat the civilians around them? How is living in a hidden village, a place that appears to constantly be under martial law? I think that the way civilians might interact with these guys with superpowers who kill people in the night legally and have wars against each other and all could be really interesting. There have to be guys who farm, after all! No sedentary society can survive without guys who farm! Who is doing all the agriculture? And how are those guys treated by a regime that seems to treat ninja as the most important thing?
WB: Civilian Education In Konoha: Man, this is such a good tag. Following up from my questions about shinobi-civilian relationships, there's "how are the civilians educated in Konoha". Ninja, at the very least, have a school system and appear to have free education with the massive caveat of "when you sign up you are also compelled to enlist". But do civilians have compulsory or free education, or is this one of the ways the Naruto world leans into its more feudal era elements? Is there a gap in education to compel more enlistment, or are the civilians treated just the same?
WB: Day-to-Day Village Administration: Ah, my paperwork tag. This is the tag about ninja paperwork. It's also about politics, but it's mostly, for me, about bureaucracy, of which Konoha at least appears to be one. After all, the ninja do paperwork, there are at least a few separate "departments" in the administration, and sure the Hokage runs a military dictatorship but given that the Hokage appears to largely be selected for military strength, who's making sure everyone has clean water? Who's solving the inevitable monetary disputes between ninja and clients (outside of murder, which goes back to 'do ninja bother treating civilians well' as a question)? Bureaucracy exists in every society as well, largely to keep track of taxes in some but if the society keeps records, it will have some amount of bureaucracy. But what kinds of records would ninja keep? What records would remain secret? How do taxes work? Also ninja having to do paperwork is very funny and we can't forget this. There are so many fun stories that could be told out of the various mundane details that would be necessary to running a ninja village; my most pipe-dream suggestion is "epistolary told entirely through various paperwork", but even just something about "who is the tax collection ninja" would be my dream come true. I just. I love... paperwork and mundane realities in fantasy worlds, you know?
WB: Medical Ninjutsu: Like most healing magic, the limitations of medical ninjutsu outside of "it requires good control and medical knowledge" aren't really clear. Something like medical ninjutsu would wildly change a society, though; the ninja world has hospitals that actually work. Modern medicine changed the world radically, and medical ninjutsu is normally shown as a thing that relies a little on an understanding of modern medicine. Also, it has magic wound-healing powers! Anything either mechanically about how medical ninjutsu works or socially about how medical ninjutsu changes the world would be really appreciated. (Bonus points go back to those civilian-ninja relations; do people who aren't ninja even get the benefits of medical ninjutsu?)
WB: Any: Free space! If my rambling on the above tags isn't clear, my preference is for in-the-weeds mundane details of a fantastical reality, but I will also truly take anything. This is the space for anything I didn't mention that you think is really cool and would like to show me!
Yu-Gi-Oh! GX
GX, my favorite of the YGO spinoffs, is a show with a very dear place in my heart in the way only a show I watched when I was going through a real rough patch of my life can be. The characters are all so vivid to me and I love its juxtaposition between the incredibly goofy and the surprisingly serious and dark (even before you hit season 3, when suddenly taking everything seriously comes to the forefront). Those guys sure can coming-of-age story, huh?
I personally love post-canon GX stories a lot, and by default that’s what I’ll be prompting mostly here. I’d love things set during canon too, though, and studies of things during canon! I love stories that explore how their time in the Dark Dimension affected everyone, or stories about them being a found family as Slifer Red, or stories about them slowly and painfully reconnecting after everything that’s happened! I also love things fleshing out a bit of pre-canon and everyone’s messy family relationships before canon. I really love duel spirits as a concept, and literally anything exploring them and how they interact with the characters is beloved. Finally, even in fics where the pairing/character focus isn't on Yubel, I would prefer that post-canon Juudai at least acknowledge Yubel being around.
I am fine with DM characters appearing as long as they’re relevant, although do not mainly focus on them for one of the GX tags; that’s what the crossover worldbuilding request is for. I’m also one of those people who can and will read duels; that said, be warned that I played YGO at one point in my life and will notice rule breaks (although I mostly played under Master Rule 5 so admittedly I can be convinced of stuff under the old GX rules, and the anime does break its own rules when relevant). I tend to take Bonds Beyond Time as canon for GX but you do not have to. I know nothing about the GX manga and will assume unless otherwise stated that all fics are based on the anime; if you base something on the manga I'll still happily read it I'll just also be really confused.
If you care about my specific likes for the card game: if my default icon for this journal doesn't make it obvious, I'm a Weather Painters player by default! I also like Ghostricks, Counter Fairies, ABC/Ojama or other ABC decks (so I know how to play Manjoume's deck as it'd be in modern YGO, haha), and Salamangreats. If this doesn't make it clear: outside of the ABC stuff, I am mostly a control player! I apologize for my sins. I haven't played seriously since about 2020, though, so I am not up to date on the current meta. This is probably largely irrelevant, but if it comes up, there you go!
I have some crossover worldbuilding tags about combining the lore of DM and GX in crossovers, if that interests you!
This section is split up into characters/relationships and worldbuilding.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Solo: Yuuki Juudai: Oh, my blorbo. I am forever obsessed with both his sunshine happy self and his much more traumatized later self; he's so interesting because he's a shonen protagonist mostly played straight and then deconstructed specifically around the "and that would then fuck you up" axis. I have lots of ideas for directions you could go with a Juudai fic! Anything about his backstory would delight me; the hints we get of the original Yubel incident and him being able to see spirits until he had experimental brain surgery and everything else about that fascinates me and so much can be gleaned from it and how he acts in canon. I'd love things about his relationships with duel spirits in general. Fic about him reconciling all the Supreme King and Gentle Darkness stuff is always beloved, as is anything with the Neo Spacians. Post-canon adventures as he travels the world would also be reall, really good! There's a lot of space to explore with him because there's a lot of different points in his life and character development to start from. In general, I also like stories where he gets to be a bit badass, mostly because he is actually a bit badass under all of the goofy. I think him solving some mystery post-canon would also be really good!
Solo: Tenjouin Asuka: One of the more developed YGO girls, which unfortunately isn't a hard bar to clear but still. I really love her in season one especially; her motivations about saving her brother and the slow breaking down of her walls until she befriends Judai is really good. I also like how she is kind but that doesn't make her weak, generally; she's one of the strongest duelists in school, even if we don't get to see her do it nearly enough! Those are where I'd start with a prompt about her; her feelings during season one and stuff about her goals we didn't see in season one, and any excuse to have her duel. I mean, anyone who played Duel Links just after GX was added or even some recent formats of YGO knows that Cyber Angel Benten can, in fact, be pretty fucking busted. I also love some Asuka post-canon; her dealing with the events of the spirit world would be pretty cool, as would things about her being a teacher at Duel Academy! I also think I would love stories where she's badass.
Yubel/Yuuki Juudai: I am really fond of stories about two people who have hurt each other a lot and fucked up a lot coming together and figuring out how, godammit, they're going to make it work. And that's Yubel and Juudai to me: people who have hurt each other a lot and who have fucked up a lot coming together and willfully choosing to make it work. Also they share a body while doing that, which has to be something else. Touches of their relationship in their past life and details from the original Yubel incident when Juudai was young would be appreciated, but the main focus for me here is how the two of them figure out how to live together and love each other again after everything that happened between them, after Juudai uses Super Polymerization to fuse the two of them together. How do they adjust? How do they find a way to forgive each other? Do they have rough patches still? How do they get through those? I just think that they would have a lot to deal with in their relationship but that lot to deal with would be really, really good to tell a story with.
Yuuki Juudai/Manjoume Jun: GX Rivalshipping my beloved. I love the way they annoy each other and love each other! I love the way their arcs intersect; after so many times where Juudai pulled Manjoume out of a situation where he would have otherwise had bad things happen or become a bad person, Juudai finds himself lost when he loses Manjoume. I love the idea of them post-canon, when arguably Manjoume has become the core of the friend group with Juudai largely gone! I love the way they're two of the only characters in the show who can see spirits, and how they have that bond! Mostly, I just love them and think they'd be really awkward about being in love in a really cute way. As for specific prompts, I'm particularly fond of anything to do with that shared ability to see duel spirits or of post-canon the two of them coming back together after drifting apart.
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Alternate Dimensions: The way alternate dimensions work in GX fascinates me. We know a little about them from the show, but we aren't shown most of them; largely, we're just shown Dimension World and the Dark Dimension. I'd love to hear more about those, but I'd also love to hear about any of the other alternate dimensions GX posits exists! Where do the various Duel Spirits live there? Are there any of them that have particularly weird mechanics? How do they link to our world; are they mostly linked via Duel Academy, or are there other nexus point? How might one travel between them? Even the ones we see are places we don't see much of the structure of; what are the various smaller towns Shou was in like? How do they get food? How is their government structured? Anything here would be great!
WB: Duel Spirit Mechanics: I love duel spirits, so even if you just wrote a cute fic about Winged Kuriboh for this tag I'd be happy, but I largely am curious about how they work. For one, which comes first: the card or the spirit? The implication of Pegasus using the Millenium Eye to make Duel Monsters originally is that the spirits come first, but like... Kaibaman exists. How do they interact with the world? They appear to be able to affect it some even in the "real" world, but very few people can see them, so how does that work? How do they affect the game, both for people who can see spirits and those who don't? Given we know duel spirits exist in the Dimension World, how do they get from there to our world? Johan was seemingly practically raised by duel spirits; how did that happen?
WB: Professional Dueling: The concept of professional dueling is really funny to me honestly. I love the fact there are clearly underground/illegal professional dueling rings. I love the fact that professional duelists clearly make enough money that you can go to school for it. I love the way they all seem to have their own gimmicks (sort of like a wrestler). Anything to do with how the professional dueling circuit works or all of these things would be fantastic! Bonus points if you specifically follow Manjoume's career doing it, but any of the characters involved in professional dueling or even an OC would be fantastic! This seems like a great way to put in cool in-universe documentation as well.
WB: Any: Any type of worldbuilding you think I missed that I would like? As always, this is a free space for that! The main worldbuilding things I had actual ideas for have their own tags, so this is just so you can go hog wild. I love any worldbuilding at all!
Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters
Duel Monsters, the one where it all started! My requests, I think, make it pretty clear where my interests lie here. I have, over time, come to accept that I am a Kaiba girlie; I originally would have called Yugi my favorite character but the Kaibas. They compel me. I love all the characters of DM, though, due to me loving stories about people who are friends. I am one of those people who is VERY compelled by the power of love and friendship and DM is good at that. I am just also compelled by Kaiba being a messy bitch, lol.
As for my worldbuilding tags, this fandom is EXCELLENT for “mundane realities in a fantastical setting”; my thing about making characters report on their Q2 earnings or file for taxes strikes again. As a YGO fan, part of what compels me about DM is the way it’s before the world truly starts to center around card games, but things are already certainly escalating. It is almost a story that could be set in our world, but then it’s just not quite, and the ways those interact are full of potential. I also like fleshing out some of the more fantastical elements to their logical conclusion!
As I said for GX, I’m someone who actually likes when duels are written out in fics, just beware because I actually played YGO for a while and will notice rule breaks. I’m a bit less of a stickler for this in DM though because, well, we all saw Duelist Kingdom. I also am a huge fan of the DM characters playing other card games, board games, dice games, or games in general. I’m fine with and even deeply enjoy bringing Season 0/early manga details in. I tend to take DSoD as canon, but it’s up to you whether you do or not; I know jack shit about Pyramid of Light and have never watched it but if you consider it canon go forth with it. While I consider Bonds Beyond Time canon to GX and its unambiguously 5Ds canon, making it work with DM is much shakier; if you have a way to do it I’d love to see it! I tend to take DM as taking place anime-verse and before GX, even when I use Season 0, so details like Pegasus still being alive are what I first picture. I know manga-verse well enough you can go by that instead if you prefer, though.
I like when the spirits of the Millenium Items get their own bodies about equally with stories where they do not; that said, I dislike ignoring the Ceremonial Duel, so if you're going to do bring them back post-canon treat Atem's decision there with respect.
If you care about my specific likes for the card game: if my default icon for this journal doesn't make it obvious, I'm a Weather Painters player by default! I also like Ghostricks, Counter Fairies, ABC/Ojama or other ABC decks, and Salamangreats. If this doesn't make it clear: outside of the ABC stuff, I am mostly a control player! I apologize for my sins. I haven't played seriously since about 2020, though, so I am not up to date on the current meta. This is probably largely irrelevant, but if it comes up, there you go!
This one is simply split up into characters/pairings and then Worldbuilding!
Noting here also that I have a prompt for Kaiba Seto & Tony Stark in the crossovers section, if that interests you! I also have some crossover worldbuilding tags about combining the lore of GX and DM there.
CHARACTERS/PAIRINGS:
Atem | Yami Yuugi/Thief King Bakura | Yami Bakura: I really like darkshipping. This is my single most "enemies-to-lovers" or perhaps "enemies that are lovers" ship imaginable. I think it's really important to keep the dynamic and reasons they are enemies alive, but at the same time, they're two people who can understand each other more than anyone else possibly could! After all, no one else has been trapped in a Millenium Item, no one else has had those things affect their life to the degree they have, and no one else has the experience of trying to figure out who they are in the context of being in the body of someone else. So that's something they can bond over... but at the same time, they're still enemies. Yami Bakura has got legit reasons to hate Atem, and those can't easily be glossed over! Similarly, Atem has legit reasons to distrust or hate Yami Bakura! I just think a story of the two of them reluctantly being forced to bond over their similarities and realizing this enemy of theirs is a complex, 3D person who didn't do everything right would be good AND I think it would be good if they kissed about it. If this rant doesn't make it clear, I'm much more on the side of "shipping them in the modern day or in the afterlife after the events of canon or in a canon divergence" side, since I think their respective experiences being someone's dark shadow is an important part of their bond. However, if you have a cool idea for shipping them in their pre-canon Millenium World selves, I won't stop you! I think any prompt for that would almost certainly have a side of "either one or both of them are trying to use each other", and that's a really cool dynamic too.
Bakura Ryou/Mutou Yuugi: This is one of those pairings that I think is extremely cute and also that I think has a lot of depth to it. This is another "these are two people who share an experience very few other people could understand" situation. I think they'd both be able to just talk a lot. I think Yugi would understand the parts of Ryou that still miss the spirit of the ring, and Ryou would understand the parts of Yugi that hated having Atem in his body! I think they would, post-canon, be able to share the very specific grief of suddenly only being themselves again in a way that very few other people could! I think that they'd have the ability to truly understand things like missing having noise in their head or being unable to check out on a situation the way they used to or any of that. I am like, really interested in them post-canon, able to understand each other in a way no one else can. I also think putting them during canon or otherwise combining this with the darkshipping above works. The other strength of heartshipping is of course that both of them are absolutely game nerds and also both used to being slightly overlooked/underestimated, especially in favor of their respective spirits. So that's another really good angle to explore with them!
Kaiba Seto/Mutou Yuugi: DM Rivalshipping is one of my favorite things, and it's for all the ways it's sort of weird as a ship. Kaiba, in many ways, interacts with the Other Yugi far more favorably than he ever does to Yugi. I think the appeal of DM Rivalshipping to me is both in a shared grief way where they both deeply miss Atem and in a "someone realizing that this person who's been in their life for a long time is actually a much more complex person than they thought" way. I like this ship as one where Seto learns to respect Yugi! I like Seto being surprised by the way Yugi's competent and has steel of his own! I like Yugi standing up for himself! I also like how Yugi is basically the only person who consistently refers to Seto as a friend during canon (not even Atem does this that much), and I think it's interesting to explore why Yugi does that, and the ways that Yugi sees something in Kaiba despite the like... several times Kaiba nearly gets him killed. Yugi saves Seto's life from Atem at one point! They've got to have feelings about that! And, as I said, the shared grief, but also the ways they disagree about that shared grief. This is the plot of DSoD I know, but I also like the idea of the two of them figuring out how to reconcile that. I'm also a HUGE sucker for the trope of Yugi ending up working for Kaiba Corp in some way, especially in the context of DM Rivalshipping.
Kaiba Mokuba & Kaiba Seto: The Kaiba brothers make me feel things. Their relationship is extremely close and yet often dynsfucntional. In some ways, they're brothers. In some ways, Mokuba is forced to behave much "older" than he should have to because of the decisions Seto made (it was Seto who got them into everything with Gozaburo). In some ways, Seto has been forced to basically be Mokuba's parent since he was like... is it ten or eleven when they were adopted by Gozaburo? Since then. The ways they've been forced to be codependent and then independent and the ways they have hurt each other (and if you are using season 0/the early manga, they have absolutely hurt each other), the ways they're both kind of ruthless and awful but in different shapes, the ways Seto tries to shield Mokuba from the worst of it and the ways Mokuba tries to take that on anyway, the amount they're deeply protective of each other and how Seto caring for Mokuba again is the sign that he's become a better person... Everything about them is just really appealing to me as a relationship and anything from family fluff to heartbreaking angst about their relationship is something I'm super down for. Stories about post-DSoD when Mokuba has basically been told to take over the company should Seto not come back are another fun bonus way to think about their relationship. Basically, I love them.
Kaiba Mokuba & Mutou Yuugi: This tag works best in a context where Yugi sticks around the Kaiba brothers, and I think he would! I just think any relationship between Yugi and Mokuba would be sweet, whether it be in a context of them playing games together, the context of my afformentioned love for the trope where Yugi ends up working for Kaiba Corp, whether it be through their shared love of Kaiba or through just trying to help Mokuba deal with the insane amount of pressure and stress he'd be under. Also, I'm kind of a sucker for Mokuba bullying Yugi into friendship because he's eleven and has simply Decided it's going to happen. That's a really cute one. I don't have a giant paragraph to write about this one my main opinion is just "it'd be really cute", and hopefully that's good enough!
WORLDBUILDING:
WB: Shadow Games: The concept of the Shadow Games intrigue me, especially through a season 0 context, where they're like... only kind of magic, but frequently are less "magic" and more "Yami Yugi has really good foresight on how to manipulate people"? What exactly the magic in a shadow game is is unclear, is what I'm saying, or if they're magic at all. That said, though, by the time we get to things like Kaiba's Mind Break, the shadow games have to at least be a little magic. Millenium World confirms this too! So I guess my worldbuilding question is: to what extent are they magic? How do they work? Are they more tied to Duel Monsters (the game), the Millenium Items, or some other external force of magic?
WB: Average Civilian Views of Battle City: Battle City as a thing that has happened is nuts. I've always kind of headcanoned as a result that Domino City is at least kind of a Kaiba Corp company town, but more seriously, how does the non-dueling public think of Battle City? Most of the people in Domino cannot possibly be duelists, after all, and things get wild pretty quickly. How does Kaiba Corp's reputation suffer or improve because of it? Does that matter? I'd love some outsider POV on all the Battle City stuff, is basically my point!
WB: Industrial Illusions & Kaiba Corp’s Business Relationship: So. These two companies have to have a close working relationship, given the shared branding in Duel Monsters. However, there was that time Pegasus tried to do an industrial espionage to bring his dead wife back to life by kidnapping Mokuba. However there is also the fact Duel Disks exist in general. There is also also the fact that Kaiba and Pegasus being forced to endure the same work negotiations together is really fucking funny. I'd also love any of the practical realities of licensing agreements, tournament negotiations, shared copyright, or whatever else is involved in this relationship! Mostly though I think this one is very ripe for comedy.
WB: Kaiba Corp Day-to-Day Functions: So like... what is it like to be an employee at Kaiba Corp? I have so many ideas for this prompt, anything from the comedy you can pull out of a cooporate email chain to what Kaiba Corp's information technology department gets up to to what Kaiba Corp's taxes look like to how many people they employ to what the people who aren't doing insane card game nonsense do, there's a lot of mundane reality to go with this company that largely exists to be the backdrop to why Kaiba is like that. I have a personal preference for Seto actually being pretty good at running Kaiba Corp, even if he's Like That, but even with that being true half the stuff he does has to be wild. Bonus points for, if you're an anime watcher, outsider POV stuff on the Big Five trying to take over the company or like, how DOMA affected stocks. Additional bonus points for outsider POV on Seto and his weird friends. Even more additional bonus points if you happen to be an accountant or something and give me accurate paperwork for Kaiba Corp here. Basically, anything about what a company that we're meant to believe is a coprorate beheamouth actually does is appreciated.
WB: Kaiba Corp's Product Lineup: So, we know they make Duel Disks. However, presumably Kaiba Corp makes like... at least one other product. Tell me about it! I've always headcanoned it's "consumer electronics", but it can be whatever you think makes sense for Kaiba Corp to have switched to be making once Seto took over. How popular is it? Do they sell other products that make use of the Duel Disk hologram technology? I'd have to imagine there are a lot of other applications for that kind of thing! Is it a situation where the only thing people actually buy are Duel Disks, or do average consumers buy a lot of their other products? It's up to you! This also seems like a really good prompt to give me things like schematics, product catalogues, technical diagrams, or other things like that.
WB: Kaiba Corp’s Former Weapons Contracts: So, given Seto's backstory of "took over Kaiba Corp, forced them to start building stuff like toys and theme parks instead of weapons"... What are some of those weapons Kaiba Corp used to make? There's the stuff we see in DOMA, of course, but are there other things? Was Gozaburo scrupulous or legal about who got them, or was it known they sold things on the side? Did Seto have to design any of those weapons? What do those contractors think now that Seto has pretty uncerimoniously broken those contracts? Does any of that prior weapons knowledge play into the current supply lines and designs Kaiba Corp makes? How do those former contracts and supply lines shape what Kaiba Corp is known for today? I think this is a really interesting area to explore the consequences of.
WB: The Design and Opperation of Kaiba Land: I'm a big theme park nerd, and I think Kaiba Land is really cool. This is a prompt for you to talk about theme park nerd stuff, like coaster design, or themeing, or guest experience, or operations, or anything else! This is another one that's great for technical documents, or something like an in-universe enthusiast's video or blog could be neat. Alternately, the characters just spending a day at Kaiba Land and encountering a bunch of things that nicely seague into the worldbuilding could be really cool! Since I'm a little bit of a parks nerd this is probably something better to take on if you, too, are a parks nerd, but even without nerdery stuff like "what rides does Kaiba Land have when it is no longer half-designed for murdering Mutou Yuugi" could be a really fun prompt to cover!
WB: Any: Is there anything you think I missed, especially about the operations of Kaiba Corp, that you'd like to write me worldbuilding about? Good news: that's what this tag is for! For your imagination to run wild! Go, be free!
Hotguy Comics Zine
HGCZ-Specific DNW: No setting change AUs in this fandom, please.
Okay so first, if you've wandered in here without having read HGCZ, I have good news for you: it's free and you can download it and read it here! You can almost certainly read it without that much fandom knowledge, if it interests you for any reason; it's basically just 410 pages of a self-contained superhero AU that happens to also be based in Hermitcraft. If you are a Hermitcraft fan... go! Go read it now! It's really good, everyone did so much good work on it!
So, once you have read it: ever since we started creating this world and its characters I've been obsessed with it, and I'd love to hear your interpretations of the characters and relationships in it! I am particularly interested in side stories that take place during or after canon, as affected by the events of HGCZ canon. Alternately, if you want to do any kind of canon divergence or roleswap or time travel AU, I think all of those are cool kinds of ways to explore these characters! Any of your favorite superhero tropes being put on these characters would also be beloved. I just want to see further explorations of the world from perspectives that aren't mine.
SOLO CHARACTERS:
Solo: ZombieCleo: Cleo's such a fun character in the zine; her canonical ability is the ability to recieve any kind of organ in transplant, she canonically does illegal organ harvesting, and also she's the only doctor basically the entire vigilante and villain community can use. As such, she knows basically everyone's identities, and this is a really fascinating place to take her character. What does she do with those identities? Why does she act as doctor for the community? Is there a reason she's trusted by everyone?
Solo: Jimmy: So, for the record: internal team's known power for Jimmy is that he revives every time he dies. This is word of god currently, though, which means, hey, the one thing you know about him from the zine alone is that he has seemingly died at least twice and that Grian didn't know he'd survived Deer Hunting Season until basically the end. That's gotta fuck with a man! So, I'd love any story about Jimmy. Why was he avoiding Grian? How did he survive getting shot in the head? Does he have any trauma about that? Why was he stealing documents for a friend? Does he ever do any other villainy, or does he indeed stay out of that life from then on? He's just such a fun character to poke at the concept of!
PAIRINGS/RELATIONSHIPS:
Grian & Jimmy: POV: Jimmy figures out your secret identity in what is basically just one word and then gets shot in front of you, changing the tragectory of your life forever. More seriously, though: Grian and Jimmy clearly knew each other pre-canon. How did they know each other? How did they get so close Jimmy could basically instantly recognize Grian? How does the events of Deer Hunting Season shape their relationship? Does Grian ever forgive him for avoiding him after dying? How do they sort out their lives with Jimmy knowing Grian's identity? I also like my Grian and Jimmy still as antagonistic as ever but friends; Grian mocks because he cares, and I think that's an important aspect of their relationship.
Scar & Grian or Scar/Grian: The core relationship of the zine. I interpret them as devoted to one another and very close; it is up to you if this means romantic, platonic, or a secret third thing! I love any stories exploring how they feel about each other at any point in the zine and the formation of Hotguy and Cuteguy as a team. Stories about them hanging out as civillians post-identity reveal would be really loved, as would a story about them taking down some random bad guy! I also love stories in which they're forced to, by circumstance, show off the amount of trust they have in each other (if I told you I was the person who wrote Deer Hunting Season specifically, would this help you understand what I mean). I think, ultimately, they make each other happy, and that's the most important thing. Tell me a story about that!
Scar & Pearl: MAN SCAR AND PEARL'S RELATIONSHIP IN THIS AU... People who could be friends, maybe should be friends, but are on opposite sides of the conflict. Who know each other's identities, could destroy each other's lives, but choose not to. Reporter and hero, villain and hero, actor and villain, reporter and actor... any configuration of their relationship is amazing to me, and their conversation in A Role to Play makes me kind of cry. I just think there's a lot to explore in two people who want, so badly, to consider each other friends that it ends up warping how both of them act in their roles as hero and villain, and this is your opportunity to do it!
Pearl/Gem: I ship GemPearl and I'm not sorry. Obviously, the in-zine piece to work off of most of all here is Through the Looking Glass, Darkly, but I like to personally think that they've had a lot of time to get to know each other. I think that the way they're kind of bad for each other is the most interesting part to me; they're both loyal, devoted to the cause and to each other, but they're also both villains! Pearl's regret stat being 6 and Gem's being 0 is another fascinating way to approach their relationship. Also, how do two villains fall in love, and how do their increasingly divergant ideas of the situation Soup Group finds themselves in affect that relationship? Alternately: anything else you think would be cool about the two of them together! I simply think that the Bleeding Hart and Scour should get to kiss, you know?
Pearl & Gem & Impulse: Soup Group HGCZ is like... a team of three tragic antivillains with ambitions. I'd love stories about them as friends, about what they do in their downtime. I'd love stories about some of their villainous endeavors with one another. Mostly, I just want stories about them together, especially during the zine, even knowing that they're going to fall apart later. I would also love a post-canon story: what happens to them? Do they find a way to come back together? Do they fall apart? Do they escape arrest or do they all get arrested? What do you do after you decide your life's work isn't worth it anymore if it's really hurting your friends? Also their designs are all sick and if you want to do your own Smoke Signal, Bleeding Hart, and Scour, I'd love to see them!
Crossovers
So, you've decided to dare venture into my crossover requests. Welcome! There are four types of request here. The first category is a bunch of PMD fusions; in those tags I'm explaining my headcanons and visions for what you can do with those. The second category is the cross-game Pokemon crossovers, in which either a team from PMD gets put in the main series games or a villain from the main series gets put in PMD. This is largely an exercise in exploring the differences between the main series and PMD, and a great opportunity if the thing you like about PMD is the isekai aspect. Next, there's the YGO worldbuilding crossovers, largely meant to cover the things that changed between DM and GX and to allow you to connect them in interesting ways. Finally, there's the MCU/YGO crossover with Kaiba Seto and Tony Stark.
I might want decently different things for each of these, so I recommend just reading the tag you're interested in writing. In general, none of these crossover fandoms lack a fandom I've already requested elsewhere; if you want, say, my more generalized Mystery Dungeon thoughts, you can always scroll up to that section of the letter and check it!
MYSTERY DUNGEON FUSIONS:
Solo: Team 7 (Naruto) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: So, I picture one of two things for this fusion. The first concept I picture is that canon Team 7, probably from just before the Chuunin Games but maybe just after (but ideally before Sasuke leaves), gets transported to the world of Pokemon for Reasons and must attempt to adapt. It's a good old classic "something Bad happens and Kakashi has to step up and the team has to actually for-real bond" scenario! The other vision I have for this is a fusion where Team 7 is a newly-formed rescue team, trying to make their way and become a legendary exploration team of their own. This is much more of a straight fusion idea than an isekai type of thing, but I think it has the potential to also be cute (the Hokage runs an explorers guild, maybe?). With either idea, I think that Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke should all be basic Pokemon. It's your choice what sort of Pokemon you think that then makes them! Also, in the isekai concept, the nine-tailed fox becoming a Ninetales would be really funny to me specifically.
Solo: Crew of the Enterprise-E (ST: TNG) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: This is the other one that makes me go "you could do an isekai!"; given the sort of nonsense that happens in Star Trek you could probably even justify "oh no the away team have been turned into Pokemon" and do something cool with the idea of the bridge crew trying to rescue the isekai'ed away team while the away team is busy doing Pokemon things. A more pure crossover works as well, with the Enterprise discovering the world of Pokemon in distress and having a plotline about all of that; bonus points given that the PMD universe knows humans exist but has none in it, which makes the Prime Directive a lot of an issue! As for the fusion, the Enterprise being ab Explorer's Guild lead by Picard is probably the easiest way to do a fusion, given that there's a few too many of them to be a single rescue team, but having them come across an episode plot but turned into a Pokemon thing would be fun. I have only one strong Pokemon headcanon here, and it's that Data is obviously either a Porygon (or Porygon2 but not Porygon-Z; Porygon-Z would be Lore) or Type-Null, depending on what level of angst you want to go with here. (You could go in a Mewtwo direction but I like Type-Null better for him, personally.) Other than that, go absolutely nuts with the Pokemon assignments here.
CROSS-GAME POKEMON CROSSOVERS:
Any Hero & Partner (PMD) in Pokemon Main Series Games: One of the fascinating things to me about the character of the hero in PMD is the way they seem to entirely adjust to being a Pokemon over time. Combine that with my fascination with how the PMD cast tends to talk about humans in each individual game, and I think there's some really interesting potential in the idea of forcing them to confront that! So, this is specifically a prompt about taking the Hero and Partner from your favorite PMD (I tend to imagine this with the Rescue Team hero and partner, if that helps) and putting them in the world of the main series. You can turn them into humans or leave them as Pokemon (or even have the Hero become human again and the Partner be a Pokemon), but I want them to have to quickly adapt to a world where Pokemon aren't living in civilizations! I want the Hero to get the chance to be the Partner's guide to a world unfamiliar to them, getting the chance to pull that role reversal! I want the Hero to get confronted about how this world that's presumably the one they came from feels alien to them now! I think they would freak out at the idea of "Pokeballs". I think they'd assume every cave might be a mystery dungeon. I think they'd just need to make so much effort to adapt, especially because the main series games ALSO have a society of people that go "this may as well happen" and would take care of people who seemingly fell out of the sky, but like... even in PMD they faced some suspicion. I just think this is a really cool opportunity to give the Hero and Partner fun characterization in having the life they built for themselves (even given the hero was isekai'ed) torn from them once more.
Any Main Series Pokemon Villain (Pokemon) in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: This one, meanwhile, is "what if you take your favorite villain and give them Gengar's arc". I love the idea of any of the Pokemon villains being forced to have a redemption arc, and isekai'ing someone who is not inclined to save the world immediately and is not a hero is fun. So, do that! Make a Pokemon villain into a small and vulnerable Pokemon themselves, in a world surrounded by other Pokemon where they have no power and everything is alien to them, and see what happens! This is another really good prompt to really get into details about what's different between the Pokemon world and the human world, since I'd generally prefer the Pokemon villains keep their memories, but it's also a great prompt to explore the character of that villain and what they'd do when put in a situation where they don't have the pwoer to do that villainy anymore (and indeed may be more like the victims of that villainy than anything else).
CROSS-SERIES YU-GI-OH CROSSOVERS:
WB: Kaiba Corp in Years Between YGO DM and YGO GX: So, the years between DM and GX are when Kaiba Corp started to really become the canonical behemouth that it becomes. Amongst other things, they appear to have done private space exploration (or at least, private blasting trading cards into space), opened a school, and gotten put in an even stronger position of power over the world. But also... those are really weird things for Kaiba Corp to have done without the context of the Plot and the magic involved in those events! So, what does Kaiba Corp get up to in this time? Why does it open Duel Academy as a company? How did it discover the Sacred Beasts on Academy Island? How did it get into the private space travel business? What exactly was Kaiba's goals in getting trading cards hit with cosmic rays? Bonus points for incorporating DSoD and that movie's own "Kaiba Corp does space travel"; additional bonus points for integrating how much Kaiba Corp is or isn't involved in the professional dueling scene!
WB: Duel Spirits (YGO GX) in the Context of Shadow Games (YGO DM): The thing about Millenium World is that it implies that the monsters in duel monsters come from people, even if they're being summoned as beasts. Then there's the fact Pegasus got Duel Monsters from Egyptian ruins and then the Millenium Eye. Fast forward to GX, though, and duel monsters appear to be their own spirits, which come from their own alternate dimension and largely don't come from people (Yubel notwithstanding). Shadow games still exist in GX, though, and then there are weird edge cases like Kaibaman. This is a prompt about reconciling the way shadow games work with how duel spirits generally work by the end of GX! Is there a good, cohesive way to fit this all together on one timeline? Is there a way to reconcile how this works with the creation of Duel Monsters, the game? Is the afterlife itself another card game I must know. Bonus points for having members of the DM cast who gain the ability to see duel spirits the way Juudai can; additional bonus points for finding some way to make Juudai do a real shadow game!
WB: Rise of Professional Dueling in Years Between YGO DM and YGO GX: This ties into the other two plots: so by the time of the end of DM, dueling is a spectator sport. However, the idea of a "professional duelist" doesn't seem to super exist as it does in GX; there ARE pro duelists but they're more like IRL pro MTG players than what we see in GX. This is a tag to explore that intermediary year, when dueling is starting to be big enough to be its own professional career by itself! What kind of societal shifts have to happen for this to go down? What kind of tournaments sit in-between something like the tournament in DSoD and the almost wrestling-like personas of GX? Where does stuff like the underground dueling circuit come in? This also gives you license to make any members of the DM cast professional duelists that you think would have done that instead of getting some other job.
KAIBA AND TONY STARK:
Tony Stark (MCU) & Kaiba Seto (YGO!DM): So this is my stupid crack crossover pairing! Buckle up because this one inherently requires the most explanation so is several paragraphs. The thing is that Tony Stark and Kaiba Seto have really similar backstories in that they both are super-geniuses who got recognized at a young age for being geniuses and groomed to take over their fathers' arms companies; however, once they came of age, they were in some way betrayed/forced into taking over by someone they trusted, and then chose to shut down the weapons production of their companies to go into consumer electronics of some kind. The main differences is that Tony was older when he took over Stark Industries and older when he cut out the weapons (both of those were after he was an adult whereas Seto took over Kaiba Corp at around 15, depending on what age you believe he is by that point in Season 0), that Seto was actually adopted by his Duplicitous Mentor Figure, and that Stark Industries is more of a clean energy/phones kind of company whereas Kaiba Corp has a particular focus on things that will make children laugh. Like, those are remarkably similar backstories in remarkably similar timelines! It's pretty neat!
Anyway I think they'd hate each other.
So Seto is not a personable person and has little patience for fools; Tony is constantly playing the fool that's like his thing. Both of them dislike being compared to other people and they'd CONSTANTLY get compared to each other in a universe where they both existed in it. They both share a dislike for magic but don't be fooled I think that would make them hate each other's association with the magic of their universe. I think Tony would have also at least at some point been kinda condescending to the teenaged CEO and Seto would be incredibly dismissive of someone who could get distracted by something as pointless as romantic affairs, please. They'd hate each other. And they'd absolutely know each other, too, probably even from when they were both still on the weapons side of things.
And I think this would be really fun even as a short oneshot about them hating each other but ALSO as a full crossover if you have further crossover ideas! If you know how to reconcile the MCU and the events of YGO DM (probably not actually that bad), that could be really fun! Including non-Tony and non-Seto characters into the crossover would be delightful! If you're doing more complex MCU stuff, know I kind of checked out after Infinity War and while I'm a fast learner I won't immediately have any idea what you're talking about. I also obviously have a Kaiba bias over an MCU one so I'd like Seto to at least come across as kind of cool, even if he's also an absolute loser of a man, you know? Mostly though I want to see what people do with my stupid crack crossover if they take it and run.
I also think this could be a really fun like, animash fanvid type thing, or some really fun art of the two of them comparing their... towers... or anything like that!
And if you disagree that they'd hate each other... You can write that too! Just sell it to me.
