Dear Darkest Night Writer,
Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm into really creepy murder mysteries, obsessive relationships, the horror of your body not exactly being under your control, and reality and time spiralling into madness.
DNWs
ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 - 三田誠 | Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - Sanda Makoto
Dr. Heartless/Waver Velvet
I really enjoyed their interaction in the anime - the inherent creepiness of Dr. Heartless posing as one of Waver's students and having unfettered access to his body, the fact that he's Waver's mirror in so many ways including his obsession with Iskander, and of course, I like a good villain who gets to be evil for another day.
So I'd love something which plays with the disturbing nature of the Fate magical world. Waver solving some sort of gruesome mystery and Dr. Heartless just shows up to make it worse? Waver gets injured once again (seriously, the show was aces on that front) and unfortunately, there's only one person who can help him out? Anything involving Dr. Heartless's horrifying ability to take over someone's vision and/or rip time and space apart to summon things?
Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dreams - Dreams bleeding into reality, Dynamic - uneasy allies, Horror - Cosmic Horror, Magic - Magic Curses, Murder - Murder Mystery, Plot - People Suddenly Start Mysteriously Disappearing, Shadows - Shadows coming to life, Time - memories of repeatedly trying and failing to break free of time loop, Trapped - Trapped in a Haunted House, Vehicles - Broken down car in the middle of nowhere
So this is a lot of tags grouped together, but I hope it gives an idea of what kind of creepy plots I'd be into. The Case Files and Fateverse in general have a lot of horrifying elements and any one of these tags (or more) would be a great jumping off point for a story. Plus, add in Dr. Heartless just manipulating things behind the scenes, or using existing plots to his advantage, and the horror factor increases.
Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher
Either way would be super interesting here - maybe Kayneth got sick of Waver's questioning and pawned him on Dr. Heartless and things went in a very different direction, or Adashino's younger brother enrolls in Waver's class and yeah, that's not going to end well at all.
Dub/Noncon - Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Dub/Noncon - Sex Required For Magical Ritual, Dub/noncon - to heal victim
So if your interests lean more towards the dubcon/noncon area, there's some definite fun areas to play around in. Maybe Dr. Heartless uses his ability to pose as someone else to get close to Waver - not to mention things on the train could have gone a different way in terms of magical healing.
Body Horror - Non-Consensual Body Modification, Corruption - Magical Corruption. Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Injuries - Temporarily Blinded, Mind Games
To be honest, one of the things that I love about Dr. Heartless is that he is your quintessential evil genius villain that creeps out even the Mage World - and they're amoral assholes. So I'm not going to say that him getting a hold of Waver in order to perform creepy magical experiments wouldn't be super up my alley, but yes, holy crap, evil eye implantation or something along that nature would be amazing.
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Napoléon Bonaparte/William Laurence
I'm definitely going for the whole "yeah, I know you said no, because of England and propriety and probably not being into French domination, but I don't care" angle here. Whether it's Napoleon deciding that his trophy for winning is going to be Laurence or the government just throwing up their hands and saying, "look, this guy's been nothing but trouble and you can have him," I'd love something where Napoleon finally gets his hands on Laurence, whether he likes it or not. Probably not.
It would also be fun to have canon divergence even earlier - Laurence gets injured or captured in a battle and Napoleon realizes the value of his prize and does everything he can to keep it. Really, I'd just love a variation of I'm doing this for your own good and Laurence realizing with horror that Napoleon seriously means it.
Betrayal - Betrayed by Allies, Captivity - Spoils of War, Effect - no good deed goes unpunished, Marriage - Forced Marriage, Plot - The War Was Lost, Politics - Political Machinations, Slavery - Character's Body Is Considered Government Property
So a lot of these tags have to do with a world in which Napoleon either wins or manages to fight England to a truce/stalemate. Either way, Laurence is part of the package deal - taken as part of the spoils? Diplomatic agreement? The government just sort of ships him off instead of imprisoning him for the whole dragon cure mess?
Bargaining - Victim Offers/Sacrifices Self to Protect Others, Injuries - Temporarily Blinded, Plot - Presumed Dead and Left Behind
This might involve things earlier in canon - feel free to go angsty here as Laurence deals with the fact that he's cut off from his side. Maybe it's intentional - offering himself to the enemy so that someone else gets released? Or in the midst of fighting, something happens to both him and Temeraire (please don't kill him off, but temporarily incapacitated works for me) and Napoleon takes advantage of the confusion.
Dub/Noncon - Bathed by Rapist, Dub/Noncon - Rapist praises victim, Dub/noncon - Victim Treated Like a Lover, Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Manipulation - Emotional Manipulation, Obsession - Possessive Behavior, Trauma - Sexual Relationship as Unhealthy Coping Mechanic
Yep, the dubcon and noncon tags are in full force here. Anything involving just Napoleon being creepy and obsessed and he's not going to be aggressive or take what he wants. Not right away. And the longer the captivity/isolation/slightly disturbing courtship goes on, the less resistance Laurence can put up, especially if this is a universe where Napoleon wins.
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Original Luò Bīnghé/Yuè Qīngyuán/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū
This is sort of a weird threesome idea in my mind, but I've always wanted something where the Original Luo Binghe decides to not just take and fuck/mind-fuck Shen Qingqiu, but Yue Qingyuan as well. Sure, in this universe, they're not romantic, but in PIDW, he knew how to break both of them using the other one and wouldn't it be fun to see how to play with these new, shiny versions of them?
Also, possible daddy issues to resolve with his teachers, IDK. Just something where O!LBH decides to mess with both of them. Maybe Shen Qingqiu gets kidnapped and YQY is the one that goes after him but the trap this time around is less lethal, more insidious? Or O!LBH decides to see if the UST from his world can translate to another one - and possibly hurt his rival Binghe in the process?
Alternate Universe - Bad Ending, Bargaining - Victim Offers/Sacrifices Self to Protect Others, Codependency - "only person who could understand/accept me", Effect - Be Careful What You Wish For, Kidnapping, Marriage - Forced Marriage, Obsession - I Love You Too Much To Ever Let You Go, Trapped - Trapped in Another Universe
Really, a lot of this stems just from the weird little thought in my brain that it would be so interesting for O!LBH to interact with a SQQ and YQY who don't have their guilty codependent thing going on - yet. So much like me, O!LBH wants to see just how things play out in this new universe - maybe he poses as LBH more successfully or he sets up YQY to be the one to rescue SQQ (who's already feeling the guilt about taking away the original), but not before having a little fun first.
Dub/Noncon - Loved One Forced To Watch, Dub/Noncon - Sex Required For Magical Ritual, Dub/noncon - to heal victim, Dub/noncon - Victim Treated Like a Lover, Fuck or die - Forced to Rape Them or Let Them Be Raped by the Aggressor, Dub/noncon - presenting victim to romantic partner as gift, Intimacy - Falsely Gentle Threatening Touches
And by fun, it could mean noncon/dubcon because there are so many good options. Maybe he's already captured SQQ and he thinks he'll bring him a lovely new present. Or he gives YQY the option (in either world) of picking who's going to take SQQ - first. And of course, there's always weird bullshit plot options involving magic or healing where maybe SQQ needs to be cured and you know, it's going to boil down to sex.
Blood - Bloodplay, Corruption - Magical Corruption, Dreams - Dream Invasion, Magic - Blood Magic, Telepathy - Forced Bond
I also really enjoy all the strange plot devices in SVSSS - the demonic blood that can be used for anything from curing poisons to controlling people's bodies and the fun that comes from that. Both LBHs canonically hang out in SQQ's dreams, so there's that too. And forced bonding is always a treat for everyone involved.
The Devil's Advocate
John Milton/Kevin Lomax
I'd love something that plays with the mind-bending nature of Milton's plan - he's able to loop time, bend reality, and take any form he chooses, so it seems like a foregone conclusion that eventually he'll win over Kevin. So give me all the mind-fuckery inherent in his methods. Maybe Kevin even realizes what he's doing at a certain point, but by then, he knows it's too late to stop it.
Also, this is one where repeated character death would definitely be interesting - nothing permanent because Milton keeps rewinding back, trying to find or make the Kevin that can't escape him.
Alternate Universe - Villain Wins, Apotheosis - Nonconsensual, Corruption - Moral Corruption, Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Effect - Be Careful What You Wish For, Effect - no good deed goes unpunished, Motivation - the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Plot - Becoming The Thing That You Most Hate/Fear
The ending pretty much implies that eventually, Milton wins and Kevin is corrupted somehow. So how does he get what he wants? Does he succeed in making Kevin think he's doing the right thing, only to pull the rug out from under him at the end? Or maybe it's a universe where Kevin took the deal at the end (in this instance, referenced relationship to him and Christabella is fine), and father and son are surveying the destruction at their hands.
Altered States - Hallucinations, Amnesia - False Memories, Death - Repeatedly Killed and Resurrected, Dreams - Dreams bleeding into reality, Mental - Descent into Madness, Mind Games, reality warped by deity being driven insane, Resurrection - Comes Back More Wrong Every Time, Time - Time Loop
Really, there's not a lot separating this group of tags from the one above, except that this involves way more surreality. I love that the movie really plays around with the idea that you can't trust what you're seeing and that time and reality are malleable things. So go weird here if you'd like - Kevin keeps getting killed by his dad and every time he comes back, he loses something in the process.
Dub/Noncon - Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Dub/noncon - Ritual sex, Violence - Sex in the blood of their enemies
Also, Milton is definitely willing to sleep with his kids. That would be a problem in families not related to the Devil, but here, it's more a bonus feature. Part of me thinks he totally would pose as a beautiful woman (hell, Mary Ann) just to get to Kevin and maybe he tells him about it just to break him a little. Maybe he doesn't because it's just as much fun to see how long he can keep it going.
DNWs
- No permanent nominated character death - characters can be near death, mistakenly thought dead, or supernatural beings brought to undead life through curses, magic, or people commiting acts of dubious science, but I want them to be consciously aware and capable of physically interacting with the world (no ghosts of nommed characters, please). Also, death of any characters not nominated is fine - that includes characters in the tagset that I didn't choose.
- No animal harm, extreme underage, bodily fluids (blood is fine). Canon level violence/gore is fine too.
- No focus on unrequested pairings involving nominated characters. I'm fine with minor characters being paired off (including canon parents of characters) and references to past canon relationships are fine.
- Examples: For Lord El-Melloi, I'm fine with Rider/Waver (unrequited or requited), SVSSS - look, I ship Shen Yuan with everyone but Shen Jiu, so references to any of that is cool, and YQY/SJ is at the very least, heavily implied in my request. O!LBH's canon harem is also perfectly fine to reference.
ロード・エルメロイⅡ世の事件簿 - 三田誠 | Lord El-Melloi II Case Files - Sanda Makoto
Dr. Heartless/Waver Velvet
I really enjoyed their interaction in the anime - the inherent creepiness of Dr. Heartless posing as one of Waver's students and having unfettered access to his body, the fact that he's Waver's mirror in so many ways including his obsession with Iskander, and of course, I like a good villain who gets to be evil for another day.
So I'd love something which plays with the disturbing nature of the Fate magical world. Waver solving some sort of gruesome mystery and Dr. Heartless just shows up to make it worse? Waver gets injured once again (seriously, the show was aces on that front) and unfortunately, there's only one person who can help him out? Anything involving Dr. Heartless's horrifying ability to take over someone's vision and/or rip time and space apart to summon things?
Dark Fairy Tale Elements, Dreams - Dreams bleeding into reality, Dynamic - uneasy allies, Horror - Cosmic Horror, Magic - Magic Curses, Murder - Murder Mystery, Plot - People Suddenly Start Mysteriously Disappearing, Shadows - Shadows coming to life, Time - memories of repeatedly trying and failing to break free of time loop, Trapped - Trapped in a Haunted House, Vehicles - Broken down car in the middle of nowhere
So this is a lot of tags grouped together, but I hope it gives an idea of what kind of creepy plots I'd be into. The Case Files and Fateverse in general have a lot of horrifying elements and any one of these tags (or more) would be a great jumping off point for a story. Plus, add in Dr. Heartless just manipulating things behind the scenes, or using existing plots to his advantage, and the horror factor increases.
Alternate Universe - Student/Teacher
Either way would be super interesting here - maybe Kayneth got sick of Waver's questioning and pawned him on Dr. Heartless and things went in a very different direction, or Adashino's younger brother enrolls in Waver's class and yeah, that's not going to end well at all.
Dub/Noncon - Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Dub/Noncon - Sex Required For Magical Ritual, Dub/noncon - to heal victim
So if your interests lean more towards the dubcon/noncon area, there's some definite fun areas to play around in. Maybe Dr. Heartless uses his ability to pose as someone else to get close to Waver - not to mention things on the train could have gone a different way in terms of magical healing.
Body Horror - Non-Consensual Body Modification, Corruption - Magical Corruption. Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Injuries - Temporarily Blinded, Mind Games
To be honest, one of the things that I love about Dr. Heartless is that he is your quintessential evil genius villain that creeps out even the Mage World - and they're amoral assholes. So I'm not going to say that him getting a hold of Waver in order to perform creepy magical experiments wouldn't be super up my alley, but yes, holy crap, evil eye implantation or something along that nature would be amazing.
Temeraire - Naomi Novik
Napoléon Bonaparte/William Laurence
I'm definitely going for the whole "yeah, I know you said no, because of England and propriety and probably not being into French domination, but I don't care" angle here. Whether it's Napoleon deciding that his trophy for winning is going to be Laurence or the government just throwing up their hands and saying, "look, this guy's been nothing but trouble and you can have him," I'd love something where Napoleon finally gets his hands on Laurence, whether he likes it or not. Probably not.
It would also be fun to have canon divergence even earlier - Laurence gets injured or captured in a battle and Napoleon realizes the value of his prize and does everything he can to keep it. Really, I'd just love a variation of I'm doing this for your own good and Laurence realizing with horror that Napoleon seriously means it.
Betrayal - Betrayed by Allies, Captivity - Spoils of War, Effect - no good deed goes unpunished, Marriage - Forced Marriage, Plot - The War Was Lost, Politics - Political Machinations, Slavery - Character's Body Is Considered Government Property
So a lot of these tags have to do with a world in which Napoleon either wins or manages to fight England to a truce/stalemate. Either way, Laurence is part of the package deal - taken as part of the spoils? Diplomatic agreement? The government just sort of ships him off instead of imprisoning him for the whole dragon cure mess?
Bargaining - Victim Offers/Sacrifices Self to Protect Others, Injuries - Temporarily Blinded, Plot - Presumed Dead and Left Behind
This might involve things earlier in canon - feel free to go angsty here as Laurence deals with the fact that he's cut off from his side. Maybe it's intentional - offering himself to the enemy so that someone else gets released? Or in the midst of fighting, something happens to both him and Temeraire (please don't kill him off, but temporarily incapacitated works for me) and Napoleon takes advantage of the confusion.
Dub/Noncon - Bathed by Rapist, Dub/Noncon - Rapist praises victim, Dub/noncon - Victim Treated Like a Lover, Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Manipulation - Emotional Manipulation, Obsession - Possessive Behavior, Trauma - Sexual Relationship as Unhealthy Coping Mechanic
Yep, the dubcon and noncon tags are in full force here. Anything involving just Napoleon being creepy and obsessed and he's not going to be aggressive or take what he wants. Not right away. And the longer the captivity/isolation/slightly disturbing courtship goes on, the less resistance Laurence can put up, especially if this is a universe where Napoleon wins.
人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Original Luò Bīnghé/Yuè Qīngyuán/Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū
This is sort of a weird threesome idea in my mind, but I've always wanted something where the Original Luo Binghe decides to not just take and fuck/mind-fuck Shen Qingqiu, but Yue Qingyuan as well. Sure, in this universe, they're not romantic, but in PIDW, he knew how to break both of them using the other one and wouldn't it be fun to see how to play with these new, shiny versions of them?
Also, possible daddy issues to resolve with his teachers, IDK. Just something where O!LBH decides to mess with both of them. Maybe Shen Qingqiu gets kidnapped and YQY is the one that goes after him but the trap this time around is less lethal, more insidious? Or O!LBH decides to see if the UST from his world can translate to another one - and possibly hurt his rival Binghe in the process?
Alternate Universe - Bad Ending, Bargaining - Victim Offers/Sacrifices Self to Protect Others, Codependency - "only person who could understand/accept me", Effect - Be Careful What You Wish For, Kidnapping, Marriage - Forced Marriage, Obsession - I Love You Too Much To Ever Let You Go, Trapped - Trapped in Another Universe
Really, a lot of this stems just from the weird little thought in my brain that it would be so interesting for O!LBH to interact with a SQQ and YQY who don't have their guilty codependent thing going on - yet. So much like me, O!LBH wants to see just how things play out in this new universe - maybe he poses as LBH more successfully or he sets up YQY to be the one to rescue SQQ (who's already feeling the guilt about taking away the original), but not before having a little fun first.
Dub/Noncon - Loved One Forced To Watch, Dub/Noncon - Sex Required For Magical Ritual, Dub/noncon - to heal victim, Dub/noncon - Victim Treated Like a Lover, Fuck or die - Forced to Rape Them or Let Them Be Raped by the Aggressor, Dub/noncon - presenting victim to romantic partner as gift, Intimacy - Falsely Gentle Threatening Touches
And by fun, it could mean noncon/dubcon because there are so many good options. Maybe he's already captured SQQ and he thinks he'll bring him a lovely new present. Or he gives YQY the option (in either world) of picking who's going to take SQQ - first. And of course, there's always weird bullshit plot options involving magic or healing where maybe SQQ needs to be cured and you know, it's going to boil down to sex.
Blood - Bloodplay, Corruption - Magical Corruption, Dreams - Dream Invasion, Magic - Blood Magic, Telepathy - Forced Bond
I also really enjoy all the strange plot devices in SVSSS - the demonic blood that can be used for anything from curing poisons to controlling people's bodies and the fun that comes from that. Both LBHs canonically hang out in SQQ's dreams, so there's that too. And forced bonding is always a treat for everyone involved.
The Devil's Advocate
John Milton/Kevin Lomax
I'd love something that plays with the mind-bending nature of Milton's plan - he's able to loop time, bend reality, and take any form he chooses, so it seems like a foregone conclusion that eventually he'll win over Kevin. So give me all the mind-fuckery inherent in his methods. Maybe Kevin even realizes what he's doing at a certain point, but by then, he knows it's too late to stop it.
Also, this is one where repeated character death would definitely be interesting - nothing permanent because Milton keeps rewinding back, trying to find or make the Kevin that can't escape him.
Alternate Universe - Villain Wins, Apotheosis - Nonconsensual, Corruption - Moral Corruption, Dynamic - antagonist tells protagonist that “it’s for your own good”, Effect - Be Careful What You Wish For, Effect - no good deed goes unpunished, Motivation - the road to hell is paved with good intentions, Plot - Becoming The Thing That You Most Hate/Fear
The ending pretty much implies that eventually, Milton wins and Kevin is corrupted somehow. So how does he get what he wants? Does he succeed in making Kevin think he's doing the right thing, only to pull the rug out from under him at the end? Or maybe it's a universe where Kevin took the deal at the end (in this instance, referenced relationship to him and Christabella is fine), and father and son are surveying the destruction at their hands.
Altered States - Hallucinations, Amnesia - False Memories, Death - Repeatedly Killed and Resurrected, Dreams - Dreams bleeding into reality, Mental - Descent into Madness, Mind Games, reality warped by deity being driven insane, Resurrection - Comes Back More Wrong Every Time, Time - Time Loop
Really, there's not a lot separating this group of tags from the one above, except that this involves way more surreality. I love that the movie really plays around with the idea that you can't trust what you're seeing and that time and reality are malleable things. So go weird here if you'd like - Kevin keeps getting killed by his dad and every time he comes back, he loses something in the process.
Dub/Noncon - Dubious Consent Due To Identity Issues, Dub/noncon - Ritual sex, Violence - Sex in the blood of their enemies
Also, Milton is definitely willing to sleep with his kids. That would be a problem in families not related to the Devil, but here, it's more a bonus feature. Part of me thinks he totally would pose as a beautiful woman (hell, Mary Ann) just to get to Kevin and maybe he tells him about it just to break him a little. Maybe he doesn't because it's just as much fun to see how long he can keep it going.