Rare Pair letter 2024
Apr. 30th, 2024 11:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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personalapocalypseRare Pair Exchange 2024 letter!
I'm not fantastic at writing these - some of these are from earlier letters and a lot of it is just rambling about characters/relationships I really like. I still hope it helps you!
General Likes: Exploration of strange and unique lands. Plot threads and/or characters that don't get much attention in a game, or that get mentioned and then dropped abruptly. People dealing with strange customs. Culture shock. Overcoming differences in the name of friendship/love/family (or whatever.) Complicated relationships. Relationships in the past that have changed with time and separation, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. People who care about each other trying to solve conflict (even if they don't always succeed.) Studies of dysfunctional relationships as dysfunctional. Happy endings for non-dysfunctional relationships, or at least happily-for-now endings. Stories about characters getting the catharsis that they need. Friends becoming lovers, or former lovers who remain good friends.
DNWs: Non-con, dub-con, character bashing, underage characters + sex, abuse treated as romantic by the narrative, unrelenting angst without at least a hopeful ending.
Art notes: Historical styles are always fun (impressionism, art nouveau, art deco, baroque, etc....) Alternate costumes and redesigns are great.
Explicit/smut content is fine, so long as none of it hits any of my DNWs above. As far as positions or roles, as long as they feel in-character, I really don't have any preference for any particular relationships.
Fandoms:
Final Fantasy IV
General Notes:
- I call the Spoony Bard "Edward" because I played this when it first came out and am used to it, but have no problem with "Gilbart" (his pre-localization name.) Either one.
- I still haven't played TAY. I'm trying to replay FFIV DS first and that game is a lot harder than I remembered. So no TAY spoilers please.
Edward/Cecil/Rosa - Still not sure why my brain zeroed on this OT3. Edward and Cecil had a rocky start, considering that Edward was having a breakdown because his country was attacked and his girlfriend killed, and Cecil was a Dark Knight who was struggling with darkness and also from the country that attacked Edward's country and was making demands of Edward immediately. And while Rosa did travel with Edward for a while, I don't think that she had much interaction with him. That said I think that Cecil and Rosa would appreciate him and the courage he had to try to fight even though he knew he wasn't good at it, and I'm very fond of the idea of them growing closer during diplomatic visits, and Cecil and Rosa trying to help undo some of the damage that Baron did to Damcyan before they became Baron's king and queen.
Edward/Edge - A favorite crack pairing of mine. And another relationship that I particularly enjoy imagining in diplomatic terms. I kind of like Edge's excitement and energy and Edward's calm intensity playing off of each other. (And if you do go with Edward as the name, then jokes about them both being named Edward always amuse me. Are they named after the same person? Who knows?)
Edward/Kain - Another odd one but once I started my DS replay I wondered how they'd get along if they met, either during or after the game. (Edward would not have much opportunity to meet Kain in-game as an ally - maybe if they go to Troia to visit him, which considering Kain's role in stealing their Crystal would probably have issues, so feel free to touch on that.) Maybe Edward knows he was brainwashed and wants to understand why and how that happened to him, or maybe he understands that he's in what he thinks is a hopeless love and is trying to bring him out of the shell that the possessions and such have put him in. Maybe Edward is taking a journey to Mysidia post-game and happens to approach Mt. Ordeals, and they meet there. Anyway it's something I'd like to see explored.
Tellah/Cid - Bickering old men to lovers? Why not. This one hit me like a ton of bricks when I got to the end of the Tower of Zot in FFIV DS - everyone was upset but I felt like Cid was hit hardest out of the group. I'd like to see how they went from how they met (they were quite grumpy with each other IIRC) to how it ended. Eccentric old Cid is one of my favorites in this game and I don't really like how he was often treated as comic relief so some actual emotional content with him is always welcome.
Cid/Yang/Sheila - Cid and Yang, on the other hand, seemed to respect each other on sight, and I think they could also have a good relationship. Sheila, AKA Yang's wife, has a tough streak as well and I think that she and Cid would get along well. And so I had an idea for yet another OT3. So would love to see just about anything on this. As I said above, I like Cid but he's often just used as comic relief, so would love to see something with more emotional content.
---
Final Fantasy VI:
General notes:
- I know the usual interpretation of Shadow's fate at the end of the game but would be 100% okay with a work that averts it somehow - either by sheer luck or by someone coming back for him.
Shadow/Sabin - Slightly surprised this isn't more popular. Shadow and Sabin traveling together, meeting Cyan in Doma, and then having the opportunity to travel together again on the way to Zozo - lots of opportunities. I'd like to see how they interact - after all, Shadow doesn't even ask Sabin for money when they first meet! I'd love there to be a reason why. And Sabin seems to want to meet Shadow again later when he leaves at the Falls, even when Shadow doesn't really say goodbye; I think there's definitely room for something to develop, maybe a slow-burn that it takes both of them a long time to admit to. And I also admit to being amused by the idea of Sabin encouraging Shadow to try being a better father, and trying to also connect a bit more with his kid, once he learns about that.
Setzer/Daryl/Maria - I love the idea of Setzer and Daryl, a couple at this point, meeting an up-and-coming opera star and all of them falling for each other. Alternatively, maybe two of them were trying to court the third separately (none of them together at that point) and are rivals but then eventually all three of them become lovers. How does Maria, who is beholden to so many things because of her skill and her job, deal with being in love with two free spirits who can't seem to sit still? How do they spend their time together? Do Setzer or Daryl ever practice with her, can they perform musically at all? (As far as smut, I think that Maria has no canon age in this game and could easily be closer to Setzer's age than to a teenager, so I'm fine with any sexual material as long as she's not portrayed in the story as a teenager.)
(Headcanons: Personally I'm of the opinion that Daryl originally wanted to steal Maria away, that Maria was completely down for it, and that when Setzer tried to carry out his plan he was just trying to cheer her up since they were both hurting with Daryl gone. But that's quite possibly just me. Also (unrelated to this) I tend to think of Daryl as a trans woman and think that both Maria and Setzer taught her lots of makeup tips. All of these are just my thoughts, use it if it gives you any ideas, otherwise feel free to ignore it.)
---
Final Fantasy XIV:
General Notes:
- I'm fine with WoL being included in this, of any race/gender. Not necessarily in the relationships, but I'm okay either way if they're involved in a story.
- As far as character death - I don't want any of the characters to die or be dead during the course of the story, that's mentioned as a DNW in my request as well. However you need to treat Haurchefant's fate in the 3.0 storyline to work with that, feel free. Fic set before that point in the game is of course also fine.
Aymeric/Estinien/Haurchefant: Love the three of them together. There's lots of room for these three to support each other, emotionally or physically, and I really just eat that stuff up. I know it's ambiguous (in the game at least, if there's outside material that discusses this I don't know it and consider it optional anyway) when exactly Aymeric or Estinien would've met Haurchfant so there's a lot of room for interpretation. I also feel like all three of them might have some difficulties fully trusting/fitting in with Ishgard society (Haurchefant is a bastard, Aymeric is also a bastard but in a somewhat less visible way and is also rumored to be the son of the fantasy version of the Pope, and Estinien is from the country and also an orphan.) So I know there's friction and that sometimes the three of them probably end up frustrating each other, but also know they can rely on each other.
---
The Locked Tomb series:
General notes:
- I'm fine with blood/death/bones for this fandom. For obvious reasons.
- I know the usual trope with Ortus is that he's a virgin who's never had the opportunity to bed anyone. I am ok with that but also ok with other interpretations, so use whatever you want.
(Personally my first thought was that he was the youngest and most vigorous man on a planet with an aging population, full of older people who get lonely sometimes, and probably at least had plenty of opportunities to sleep with one or more of the people who propositioned him when his mother wasn't around to scream and kick them out. Haven't yet decided if he would've taken them up or what he would've thought about it.)
- Considering how HtN ends, I know that the spirits are supposed to have died in the fight with the Resurrection Beast. Go ahead and work around that however you want. Some form of AU that uses the same universe as the books is fine. Or maybe this is taking place inside of anotherdream bubble liminal space in the River.
Abigail/Magnus/Ortus - These three show some great camaraderie as soon as they meet in Harrow's "play," with Abigail and Magnus immediately bonding with Ortus due to his love of history and epic poetry. I cannot take Magnus's "Stop flirting with my wife!" entirely at face value (I really like the idea that he's actually saying to stop flirting with his wife if he's not going to flirt with him too.) Would adore seeing these three having a chance to be alone together and just nerd out and enjoy each other's company.
Ortus/Mattias - Ortus's hero worship and Mattias's bemusement at how he's portrayed by the Noniad during the final fight amuse me, and I do wonder how the two of them would've interacted if they'd had longer to talk about how things really went back then. I just wanted them to have a chance to really interact and maybe to show Ortus that he really isn't chasing an impossible ideal.
Yakuza:
General Notes:
- I know enough about the early Yakuza games to follow them if you want to include references, but the requests I want to see here are from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Also I haven't gotten to Infinite Wealth yet, so no spoilers, please. (Note: I do know one - Sawashiro's fate after LaD - but would prefer no details besides that.)
Adachi/Ichiban/Nanba/Saeko: I really adore the interactions and conversations between all four of them, and I really want to see more about how they'd maybe realize they'd want to be more than friends and battling companions. The idea of Ichiban getting privately asked if he's with any one of them and then making jokes about them being his 'love interests' and finding out that they actually are interested is funny. Ichiban and his "this is totally a video game" imaginings do tend to add a lot of humor to things and I think that's important, considering what the group has been through. At one point the group talks about pretending to be a family to stay in an expensive hotel and I feel like that would be a hilarious front they could put on in order to get rooms together.
Arakawa/Sawashiro: I really love how Sawashiro came to join Arakawa's family, how he was fully trusted and how much and how much he wants to be like Arakawa when he meets him years later - and how he realizes that it all came from a misunderstanding, figuring out who the other kid was and becoming so angry as a result, partially because the idea that Arakawa and his biological son might realize the truth. It's not a relationship that would ever end happily but it's still fascinating.
I'm not fantastic at writing these - some of these are from earlier letters and a lot of it is just rambling about characters/relationships I really like. I still hope it helps you!
General Likes: Exploration of strange and unique lands. Plot threads and/or characters that don't get much attention in a game, or that get mentioned and then dropped abruptly. People dealing with strange customs. Culture shock. Overcoming differences in the name of friendship/love/family (or whatever.) Complicated relationships. Relationships in the past that have changed with time and separation, sometimes for the better and sometimes not. People who care about each other trying to solve conflict (even if they don't always succeed.) Studies of dysfunctional relationships as dysfunctional. Happy endings for non-dysfunctional relationships, or at least happily-for-now endings. Stories about characters getting the catharsis that they need. Friends becoming lovers, or former lovers who remain good friends.
DNWs: Non-con, dub-con, character bashing, underage characters + sex, abuse treated as romantic by the narrative, unrelenting angst without at least a hopeful ending.
Art notes: Historical styles are always fun (impressionism, art nouveau, art deco, baroque, etc....) Alternate costumes and redesigns are great.
Explicit/smut content is fine, so long as none of it hits any of my DNWs above. As far as positions or roles, as long as they feel in-character, I really don't have any preference for any particular relationships.
Fandoms:
Final Fantasy IV
General Notes:
- I call the Spoony Bard "Edward" because I played this when it first came out and am used to it, but have no problem with "Gilbart" (his pre-localization name.) Either one.
- I still haven't played TAY. I'm trying to replay FFIV DS first and that game is a lot harder than I remembered. So no TAY spoilers please.
Edward/Cecil/Rosa - Still not sure why my brain zeroed on this OT3. Edward and Cecil had a rocky start, considering that Edward was having a breakdown because his country was attacked and his girlfriend killed, and Cecil was a Dark Knight who was struggling with darkness and also from the country that attacked Edward's country and was making demands of Edward immediately. And while Rosa did travel with Edward for a while, I don't think that she had much interaction with him. That said I think that Cecil and Rosa would appreciate him and the courage he had to try to fight even though he knew he wasn't good at it, and I'm very fond of the idea of them growing closer during diplomatic visits, and Cecil and Rosa trying to help undo some of the damage that Baron did to Damcyan before they became Baron's king and queen.
Edward/Edge - A favorite crack pairing of mine. And another relationship that I particularly enjoy imagining in diplomatic terms. I kind of like Edge's excitement and energy and Edward's calm intensity playing off of each other. (And if you do go with Edward as the name, then jokes about them both being named Edward always amuse me. Are they named after the same person? Who knows?)
Edward/Kain - Another odd one but once I started my DS replay I wondered how they'd get along if they met, either during or after the game. (Edward would not have much opportunity to meet Kain in-game as an ally - maybe if they go to Troia to visit him, which considering Kain's role in stealing their Crystal would probably have issues, so feel free to touch on that.) Maybe Edward knows he was brainwashed and wants to understand why and how that happened to him, or maybe he understands that he's in what he thinks is a hopeless love and is trying to bring him out of the shell that the possessions and such have put him in. Maybe Edward is taking a journey to Mysidia post-game and happens to approach Mt. Ordeals, and they meet there. Anyway it's something I'd like to see explored.
Tellah/Cid - Bickering old men to lovers? Why not. This one hit me like a ton of bricks when I got to the end of the Tower of Zot in FFIV DS - everyone was upset but I felt like Cid was hit hardest out of the group. I'd like to see how they went from how they met (they were quite grumpy with each other IIRC) to how it ended. Eccentric old Cid is one of my favorites in this game and I don't really like how he was often treated as comic relief so some actual emotional content with him is always welcome.
Cid/Yang/Sheila - Cid and Yang, on the other hand, seemed to respect each other on sight, and I think they could also have a good relationship. Sheila, AKA Yang's wife, has a tough streak as well and I think that she and Cid would get along well. And so I had an idea for yet another OT3. So would love to see just about anything on this. As I said above, I like Cid but he's often just used as comic relief, so would love to see something with more emotional content.
---
Final Fantasy VI:
General notes:
- I know the usual interpretation of Shadow's fate at the end of the game but would be 100% okay with a work that averts it somehow - either by sheer luck or by someone coming back for him.
Shadow/Sabin - Slightly surprised this isn't more popular. Shadow and Sabin traveling together, meeting Cyan in Doma, and then having the opportunity to travel together again on the way to Zozo - lots of opportunities. I'd like to see how they interact - after all, Shadow doesn't even ask Sabin for money when they first meet! I'd love there to be a reason why. And Sabin seems to want to meet Shadow again later when he leaves at the Falls, even when Shadow doesn't really say goodbye; I think there's definitely room for something to develop, maybe a slow-burn that it takes both of them a long time to admit to. And I also admit to being amused by the idea of Sabin encouraging Shadow to try being a better father, and trying to also connect a bit more with his kid, once he learns about that.
Setzer/Daryl/Maria - I love the idea of Setzer and Daryl, a couple at this point, meeting an up-and-coming opera star and all of them falling for each other. Alternatively, maybe two of them were trying to court the third separately (none of them together at that point) and are rivals but then eventually all three of them become lovers. How does Maria, who is beholden to so many things because of her skill and her job, deal with being in love with two free spirits who can't seem to sit still? How do they spend their time together? Do Setzer or Daryl ever practice with her, can they perform musically at all? (As far as smut, I think that Maria has no canon age in this game and could easily be closer to Setzer's age than to a teenager, so I'm fine with any sexual material as long as she's not portrayed in the story as a teenager.)
(Headcanons: Personally I'm of the opinion that Daryl originally wanted to steal Maria away, that Maria was completely down for it, and that when Setzer tried to carry out his plan he was just trying to cheer her up since they were both hurting with Daryl gone. But that's quite possibly just me. Also (unrelated to this) I tend to think of Daryl as a trans woman and think that both Maria and Setzer taught her lots of makeup tips. All of these are just my thoughts, use it if it gives you any ideas, otherwise feel free to ignore it.)
---
Final Fantasy XIV:
General Notes:
- I'm fine with WoL being included in this, of any race/gender. Not necessarily in the relationships, but I'm okay either way if they're involved in a story.
- As far as character death - I don't want any of the characters to die or be dead during the course of the story, that's mentioned as a DNW in my request as well. However you need to treat Haurchefant's fate in the 3.0 storyline to work with that, feel free. Fic set before that point in the game is of course also fine.
Aymeric/Estinien/Haurchefant: Love the three of them together. There's lots of room for these three to support each other, emotionally or physically, and I really just eat that stuff up. I know it's ambiguous (in the game at least, if there's outside material that discusses this I don't know it and consider it optional anyway) when exactly Aymeric or Estinien would've met Haurchfant so there's a lot of room for interpretation. I also feel like all three of them might have some difficulties fully trusting/fitting in with Ishgard society (Haurchefant is a bastard, Aymeric is also a bastard but in a somewhat less visible way and is also rumored to be the son of the fantasy version of the Pope, and Estinien is from the country and also an orphan.) So I know there's friction and that sometimes the three of them probably end up frustrating each other, but also know they can rely on each other.
---
The Locked Tomb series:
General notes:
- I'm fine with blood/death/bones for this fandom. For obvious reasons.
- I know the usual trope with Ortus is that he's a virgin who's never had the opportunity to bed anyone. I am ok with that but also ok with other interpretations, so use whatever you want.
(Personally my first thought was that he was the youngest and most vigorous man on a planet with an aging population, full of older people who get lonely sometimes, and probably at least had plenty of opportunities to sleep with one or more of the people who propositioned him when his mother wasn't around to scream and kick them out. Haven't yet decided if he would've taken them up or what he would've thought about it.)
- Considering how HtN ends, I know that the spirits are supposed to have died in the fight with the Resurrection Beast. Go ahead and work around that however you want. Some form of AU that uses the same universe as the books is fine. Or maybe this is taking place inside of another
Abigail/Magnus/Ortus - These three show some great camaraderie as soon as they meet in Harrow's "play," with Abigail and Magnus immediately bonding with Ortus due to his love of history and epic poetry. I cannot take Magnus's "Stop flirting with my wife!" entirely at face value (I really like the idea that he's actually saying to stop flirting with his wife if he's not going to flirt with him too.) Would adore seeing these three having a chance to be alone together and just nerd out and enjoy each other's company.
Ortus/Mattias - Ortus's hero worship and Mattias's bemusement at how he's portrayed by the Noniad during the final fight amuse me, and I do wonder how the two of them would've interacted if they'd had longer to talk about how things really went back then. I just wanted them to have a chance to really interact and maybe to show Ortus that he really isn't chasing an impossible ideal.
Yakuza:
General Notes:
- I know enough about the early Yakuza games to follow them if you want to include references, but the requests I want to see here are from Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Also I haven't gotten to Infinite Wealth yet, so no spoilers, please. (Note: I do know one - Sawashiro's fate after LaD - but would prefer no details besides that.)
Adachi/Ichiban/Nanba/Saeko: I really adore the interactions and conversations between all four of them, and I really want to see more about how they'd maybe realize they'd want to be more than friends and battling companions. The idea of Ichiban getting privately asked if he's with any one of them and then making jokes about them being his 'love interests' and finding out that they actually are interested is funny. Ichiban and his "this is totally a video game" imaginings do tend to add a lot of humor to things and I think that's important, considering what the group has been through. At one point the group talks about pretending to be a family to stay in an expensive hotel and I feel like that would be a hilarious front they could put on in order to get rooms together.
Arakawa/Sawashiro: I really love how Sawashiro came to join Arakawa's family, how he was fully trusted and how much and how much he wants to be like Arakawa when he meets him years later - and how he realizes that it all came from a misunderstanding, figuring out who the other kid was and becoming so angry as a result, partially because the idea that Arakawa and his biological son might realize the truth. It's not a relationship that would ever end happily but it's still fascinating.
