Innumerable Stars Letter

I'm sure you've ODAO'd by now, and I'm terribly sorry; this letter is very long and life's been extremely busy. I will finish this letter, but that's more of a personal thing than anything else. I'm not picky at all, and will love anything you give me! My previous exchange letters will probably expand upon my likes, if you're so inclined.

DNWs:

• Body horror/gore/guro (and violence more than canon level).
• Anything more than mild horror, for fic, and horror at all, for art.
• Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting for fic, and for art, no nausea/vomiting at all, please.
• (Fic) Reader inserts.
• Mundane AUs.
• (Fic) A/B/O.
• Cis men becoming pregnant.
• Suicide/suicidal thoughts as the focus of the fic (passing mentions are fine; subplots are fine; the entire fic being about suicide isn't). Art featuring suicide is fine.
• Crossovers/fusions between fandoms I haven't asked for.
• (Fic) Fics which are all fluff are very difficult for me to stomach—a limit to the cuteness would be good. (Which isn't to say I don't like fluff; I just like fluff in moderation, and with a dose of conflict!)
• Love at first sight is not my favourite thing. It's mostly to do with the fluff limit, so if you add complications, then I'm more than fine with it!
• (Fic) AUs with modern settings are no-no’s unless there’s a reasonable canon explanation (eg-: Tolkien, people cursed to be reborn again and again into mortal forms) and that only in Tolkien. Even then, please no high school or coffee shop AUs.
• Please no age regression, or AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
• (Fic) H/C fics centering on characters with depression and/or anxiety, and/or characters who self-harm or have eating disorders are not my favourite thing. (All of these things are more than fine in art and non-H/C fic, but not as the main focus of piece, please, and not as things which can be hugged/cuddled better.)
• (Fic) Same for torture as the main focus of a fic, although I don't mind PTSD with flashbacks to torture.
• No torture in art.

 

General Likes:

• Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
• Philosophical ponderings!
• Female-centric and F/F works always have my love. You can never go wrong with this.
• I love canon divergence AUs, and other ‘what-if’ scenarios.
• All the hard questions with no answers, characters trapped in unsolvable dilemmas, loss and grief and moving on.
• On soulmate AUs: I love them when it's messy and complicated (for example, one or both of them in love with someone else, soulmarks somehow blurred or removed on one person, circumstances which prevent them from getting together, one person not remembering their past lives but the other remembers), but for this trope, 'I knew the moment I saw you' is also lovely, as long as there's some angst. Also, I love timers, first/last words, names of both enemy and soulmate, and soulmarks. Red strings etc. are also fine, but please no variations of seeing color. Other soulmate things I love include in every version of every reality, in another life, fated to be separated again and again.
• In-world mythology
• Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
• I adore OFCs and textual ghosts, for many, many reasons. Also femslash. Did I mention femslash?
• I'm more than fine with most side relationships, unless stated otherwise.
• Genderbending! I always love Rule 63'd characters.
• Stories featuring bi, pan, aro, and/or ace characters are lovely! (Aro but not ace characters I don't see at all, so extra love for that.)
• Open relationships! Threesomes! Moresomes! (Non-explicit) orgies!
• Transgender characters would be amazing, as would non-binary characters and just genderfuckery in general.

In fic:

• I have zero problems with fics dealing with misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism etc. I like realism, but not overly-depressing fics or fics centered on issues at the expense of characterization. (I define 'overly-depressing' as continuous angst focusing on Issues and Only Issues.)
• I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy, but I also like a pinch of humor with my angst.
• All the things that could've happened, but didn;t/
• Characters who and relationships which fall just short of the mark, the almost-most-not-quite. I think the closest word to this would be hamartia in its original sense?
• Again, canon divergence AUs, and For Want Of A Nail and what-if scenarios. I'd love both longer fic and snapshots of what could have been.
• Fucked-up families and messy friendships which really, really aren't good for the characters, but they love each other very much anyway. I don't mind either characters finding ways to move past the fucked-upness and the relationships end up flourishing, or moving past fucked-up-ness and leaving what they don't want behind, but I also don't mind a constant cycle of messing up.
Found families!
• Intense friendships which play a central role in the characters' lives.
• For longer works, plotty fics are always welcome!
• Characters finding ways to come to terms with themselves, with their pasts, and with their loved ones and/or finding their place in the world (think Circle of Life).
• Characters who're broken, characters who're tired, characters who're lost, characters who refuse to be found, characters who're hurt over and over again, characters who never ever win, characters who've given up. And characters who love, characters who give, characters who're selfless and kind even after everything they've been through, characters who give their all and then some more to people they love, characters who never give up, characters who keep on hoping and keep on fighting even beyond the bitter end. And characters who're a mixture of both types.
• I like all kinds of fic, so go wild—linear narrative, flashbacks, epistolary…whatever you think of is lovely, the more daring the better.
• I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities! Awesome ladies can be awesome and flawed :).
• Characters teasing and bantering with each other.
• Iddy whump fic! (In general, bittersweet fics with lots of hurt (and not necessary comfort) and doom and gloom and/or politics and drama and plot hit my id very hard)
• I don’t mind any type of POV (including second person!). In fact, POV switches and outside POVs on relationships would be lovely.
• Time travel and time loops, especially timefuckery where everything is fucked up!
• Competence porn!
• I also adore people being messes and general failboats, because, uh, contradictions?

In art:

• I adore all kinds of jewellery—the more elaborate the better!
• And elaborate hairdos! And elaborate costumes!
• I do, however, also enjoy seeing characters in their workaday attire, doing everyday things.
• Characters with visible height differences from each other!
• Elaborate weapons
• Court settings with pomp and circumstance or everyday life are both things I enjoy seeing.
• Studies in opposites
• Limited palettes
• Characters of color! (Racebending is awesome, too.)
• Non-traditional art mediums would be welcome.

 

Art prompts:
General:

• Characters doing things they love together (I know this sounds very pairing-specific, but I'd lovelovelove this for friends and/or parents and children and/or siblings, too).
• Ceremonies and events (coronations, balls, feasts, weddings etc.)
• Characters arguing or debating with each other.
• Characters passionate with and about each other and about things they love
• Characters fighting and having each other's backs!
• Characters fighting and having each other's backs, and, for A:TLA, bending!
• Characters facing each other across the battlefield (especially friends-turned-enemies)
• For parents and children, older children taking care of their parents, or sharing a moment of quiet companionship with them
• Gift-giving, both literal and metaphorical
• Characters who look messy and/or rumpled and tired and way too fucking busy why is this my life

Pairing-specific:

• Charactes in a private moment
• Casually intimate gestures
• Kneeling and hand-kissing for pairings where I specify loyalty kink
• Forehead kissing!
• Day-to-day activities (eating, bathing, morning rituals etc.)
• Characters being cheesy or tender or dorky or awkward with each other (or all or some of these!).

 

Tolkien-specific likes:

• There aren't enough fics based on the Myths Transformed version of Middle-earth, and if that's something you'd like to explore, I'd love that, especially a more scientifically accurate (and sometimes, to my mind, a more tragic-and-dark-but-beautiful) vision of Middle-earth. (Other versions would also be wonderful, of course! This is just a specific thing I don't see much of.)
• I love the fact that Tolkien's canon is a patchwork of different stories and mythologies, both in the Doylist and Watsonian sense, and fic exploring that would be wonderful.
• Linked with the points above, I'm interested in lived vs. written stories, and Those Pesky Historians, and how unseen forces affect history.
• The mortals and Elves/free will and destiny debate and the role of the Valar would be a wonderful thing to read about—I'd love exploration of any of the philosophical questions of Tolkien's world, really, but especially this, as detailed in the Athrabeth and writings about the role of the Valar.
• I love the way magic and power operate in Tolkien's world—the work he's done to make it believable is wonderful. Writing a green sun, indeed! Anything you can write about this would be welcome and much-adored.
• I especially love the Ñoldor and Númenor, although every Age of Middle-earth holds my heart.
• For interspecies relationships, I'd love to see an emphasis on otherness and trying to understand each other.