the_wavesinger | Innumerable Stars Letter (Reply)

Hello and welcome, dearest creator!

I am so, so happy we've matched and overjoyed that you're writing/drawing for me!

This letter is basically my likes/DNWs + a list of the things I've requested; hopefully that's enough to go on. (Although, quite frankly, I am ridiculously easy to please and would love anything that's not in my DNWs.) With regard to the worldbuilding tags I've requested, you can choose to use one of them, all of them, some of them, or none of them; they're more vague guidelines than things I 100% need to see. I've requested art & fic both for everything.

If you want to know more about me , I’m

The_Wavesinger,

the-wavesinger and The Wavesinger (Silmarillion Writers’ Guild) on my fannish haunts. You can also find me here on DW, and as

the_wavesinger on LJ, but I don’t frequent those places often. If you want more on my fic preferences (however unlikely that is, after this very long letter!), my fic rec tag on Tumblr and my AO3 bookmarks may be of some use, and for art, my art and fan art tags on Tumblr may be of some use. You may also want to poke through my previous exchange letters, for both fic and art.

DNWs:

Gore/guro/vore.
Necrophilia, bestiality.
Torture of animals. (Humans/humanoids/other sapients being tortured is more than fine!)
Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting for fic, nausea/vomiting at all for art.
(Fic) Reader inserts.
Mundane AUs.
Crossovers/fusions between fandoms I haven't asked for. (Crossover within any fandom in my letter or previous exchange letters, along with mythology and folklore, are more than fine!)
(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, de-ageing, or AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
For smut, I'd prefer not to see bloodplay, scat, watersports, and age play, and any sort of permanent marking/scarring (scarring and permanent markings outside smut is perfectly fine) unless I've prompted these things for the specific pairing.
F/M smut unless I've requested a F/M pairing.
Parent/child incest unless specifically requested. (Other incest is perfectly fine.)
(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 things which can be hugged/cuddled better, please.)
Genderswap which makes F/F or M/M canon pairings or F/F or M/M pairings I've requested F/M.

General Likes:

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
Philosophical ponderings!
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.
Soulmates! Not necessarily soulmate AUs (although that'd be more than fine), but soulmates as in 'I knew you the moment I saw you', or 'I felt you in my soul' or any other version of that—the electric connection is something I adore. Soulmate things I love include in every version of every reality, in another life, fated to be separated again and again.
Stoic and/or emotionally incompetent characters
Fake dating within the canon setting.
In-world mythology.
I have A Thing for sister/sister, and focusing on the sister aspects of the relationship—how they're alike and how they're different, and just how they're sisters.
Gallows humour, and humour in otherwise dark situations generally.
Battle couples!
Lovers to enemies
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
I adore OFCs and textual ghosts, for many, many reasons.
I'm more than fine with most side relationships, unless stated otherwise.
Genderbending! I always love Rule 63'd characters.
Open relationships! Threesomes! Moresomes! (Non-explicit) orgies!
Transgender characters would be amazing, as would non-binary characters and just fucking with and/or ignoring traditional gender roles in general.
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, all the things that could've happened, but didn't.
Hurt, and not necessarily comfort.
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 especially adore faux-historical documents.
I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities! Awesome ladies can be awesome and flawed :).
Characters teasing and bantering with each other.
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?
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.)
Bittersweetness.
Characters dancing and spending time outdoors.
Characters in situations that shouldn't be funny, but are.
Characters who're comfortable around each other, and who tease and laugh with each other.
Slice-of-life fics and, for relationships, a look at all the quirks/annoyances of cohabitation.
Banter! I feel like I've repeated this a million times in this letter, but I adore banter!
Casual situations and everyday annoyances
Characters playing pranks on each other.
Generally over-the-top things played straight.
Drama interspersed with humor.
Characters sleeping on each other, making out for hours, drinking from the same cup, and generally being adorable!
Characters solving mysteries and going on journeys together!

Smut Likes

I will always want F/F or M/M smut, even if I haven't explicitly requested it!
I prefer a balance between sensuality, emotions, and physical sensations. Anything from playful to creepy is more than fine (although there are a few things I'd prefer not to see, as outlined in the kink DNWs).
Helplessness and humiliation. These are the two main things I love in kinky smut, and everything else derives from there.
Bantering and laughing during sex is lovely, as is gentleness.
And banter between the dom and the sub in D/s scenes (which can edge towards slightly cruel on the dom's part!).
Angry sex, smut that gives off vibes of slightly creepy but in a way that can't be pinpointed
Dubcon and emotional manipulation!
Explorations of power dynamics. I especially like service submission, and power dynamics based on the characters' titles/positions! (I do confess to having a kink for honorifics and titles!)
Doms having control over the sub's everyday minutiae (although for short periods of time—24/7/365 high-protocol D/s is a turn-off)
Punishment play, especially unusual forms of discipline! (I don't like erotic spanking in and of itself, but spanking as punishment is great!)
Tickling! Both playful tickling and tickle torture (bondage + tickling = yessss).
Gags and other ways to prevent speech. And weirdly specific, but fingers of one character in the other's mouth.
Groping, especially pulling breasts out of tops (and sometimes letting them just hang there, if you're into humiliation).
Orgasm denial, especially chastity devices.
Fuck-or-die scenarios.
Creative bondage (including predicament bondage. No, strike that, especially predicament bondage, and especially if the predicament is partly psychological).
Similarly, ordering a partner to stay still/hold a certain pose.
(Not really a like, but I'm afraid my AO3 bookmarks won't say much about my smut likes, because I have a separate account for smutty bookmarks. Sorry.)

Darkfic/art Likes

Dark places and enchantments which entrap people without their knowledge
Getting lost in creepy surroundings
Corruption and decay
Explorations of the darker side of magic (or its equivalent), especially magic that's considered 'good'.
Exploration of the supernatural aspects of the canons.
Nature being eerily alive and dangerous.
Child soldiers, trauma, and really ugly, messy wars.
Characters trapped in vicious cycles.
Characters who think they're 'not good enough' for their partner(s).
Situations where characters are blackmailed/coerced into doing things they don't want to do.
Fucked-up families and friendships and relationships; people codependent to the point of almost-insanity, and far beyond anything healthy.
Looking into messed-up characters' thought processes.
Terrible things being done in the name of good by characters who see themselves as good.
Perversion of the 'good' side of magic to do evil things.
Mindfucks and powerplay.
Torture for the sake of torture, and characters being stoic through torture.
Noncon. I like both works focused on noncon and whumpu noncon aftermath.
Badtouch that doesn't lead to noncon, it's just there and creepy. (Especially when coupled with emotional fuckery and mindgames.)
Relationships where one characters is in love, but the other isn't.
Partners doing terrible things to each other.
Characters who hate themselves and lash out at the world and do fucked-up things as a result.
Really, really dark stories which end in the 'everyone dying' sort of tragedy.
AUs where everything goes wrong.
For darkfic especially, I love outsider PoVs—it makes everything 100% more terrible for me.

Art Likes & Prompts

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.
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.
Starlight and warm colors and pastels.
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)
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
Characters 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!).
All the smutty things I've indicated in the smut section! For art especially, a visual focus on power difference (standing/kneeling, clothed/unclothed etc.), looking well-fucked and/or humiliated, straining against bondage, decorative bondage.

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.
Nature that comes alive.
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.
All things Darkness and Light, really—I'm very fascinated by how these polar opposites work in Tolkien's world (and you can go back right to the beginning, to the Music, if you like), and how Arda is both grim and uplifting at the same time.
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.

Crossover Fandom

Request 1