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First Time Exchange 2024: Letter
Jul. 6th, 2024 10:05 pmThanks for writing for me! This is my second time participating in the First Time Exchange; I had a great time last time with both the fic I wrote and the one I received, so I can't wait to see what you deliver this time around!
Note: Please do not take the fact that there is much more detail for some fandoms than others to mean that I'd be less excited if you wrote one over another! I just have more exacting preferences with some fandoms, or more specific ideas/prompts for what I want, whereas with others I'm more flexible. If there isn't as much detail, that just means I'm more open to see what you can do! (I've also requested some of these for previous exchanges and not others, so I have more of a history of detailed stuff to work from there, etc.) I'd be truly psyched to receive any of these!
I am open to treats in all requested fandoms!
ALL FANDOMS
LIKES:
This varies a bit by fandom, so please see those specific sections (for instance, there are some specific fandoms/ships where I prefer darker stuff, and most stuff below is relatively fluffy/lighthearted) but here are some general ideas of what sort of fic I enjoy.
I love a lot of the fandom cliches, particularly Only One Bed, fake dating turned real, friends to lovers. Can never get enough of those.
I’m a big fan of reading about characters in a relationship growing as people together, discovering new sides to themselves, figuring out how to live or raise kids together, etc.
I like soulmate AUs a LOT so long as the characters still get some chance to develop feelings organically, whether or not they are already aware of their soulmate status. Stuff where they find out before they are in love and kind of fight it at first, but end up getting to know and falling for the person anyway — love it, can’t get enough.
Big into people falling in love with someone they'd never expect.
I really love outside character perspectives/reactions on a particular unexpected relationship.
If you have characters from different cultures, countries, worlds, planets, etc. I really really love stuff that explores cultural differences in relationship norms (regardless of the nature of the specific relationship, I love this between friends, colleagues, etc. too as well as lovers) and where characters share their cultures with each other.
Some things I really like for smut fic: Oral sex, especially cunnilingus or rimming. Strap-ons. Motorboating, nipple play (no clamps though), boobs/chest focus. Marking, including/especially scent-marking but also stuff like leaving scars. Femdom in F/M. Creative and weird uses of non-human biology in sex in sci-fi and fantasy scenarios.
GENERAL DNWs, no exceptions:
ABO/Omegaverse of any kind | Amnesia/memory loss | Animal death/abuse/harm | Autistic or neurodivergent headcanons as main focus of the story | Bathroom kinks | Breathplay or other potentially life-threatening kink | Child sexual abuse, including in backstories (unless it is canonical. Note that a character having been abused as a child in some other way does not mean that "child sexual abuse" is canonical) | Daddy kink | Detailed violence/torture/gore | Explicit physical abuse | Extreme underage (i.e. younger than the age when teens typically start having consensual sex) | Feederism or other weight-fetishization | Focus on feminine grooming rituals (such as doing each others' hair/makeup) in F/F | Genital mutilation (such as sounding) | Issuefic. Feel free to give your characters strong opinions and explore fraught issues, but the key word there is explore; I don't want to feel like I'm being lectured to or taught a lesson | Jewish or Muslim characters with uncircumcised penises | Loss of intelligence/Flowers for Algernon plots | Making canonically LGBTQ+ characters cis/straight | Men domming women | Mpreg-specific: butt babies, surprise uteruses, or other stuff that's implausible to whatever fictional universe you're in | Negative/stigmatizing discussion of abortion | Pre-relationship/UST that never resolves in romance/ship fic | Pregnancy in a female character (unless in the background) | Rape/non-con | Sexual orientation headcanons that "contradict" their romantic and sexual relationships or "if it's you, it's okay" | “Soulmate AUs” where the main couple are not actually soulmates | Trans/non-binary headcanons for focus characters (specifically headcanons, does not apply to canonically trans/non-binary characters) | Using feminizing terms for male characters | Women giving up their ambitions/careers/dreams for a relationship treated as romantic/desirable/ideal, especially in F/M
GENERAL DNWs, with specific exceptions for specific fandoms/characters:
Ace/aro/demisexual/demiromantic headcanons (exception: I'm fine with ace and/or aro Eloise in Bridgerton if she's not in the main ship, though you should not have her actually label herself that - see discussion of historical conceptions of sexuality in the Bridgerton fandom section) | AUs that change the setting or central relationship significantly* (exception: both modern AUs and AUs in a version of the time period where certain bigotries/prejudices don't exist are fine with A Dangerous Man, the latter is also okay for Bridgerton) | Big power differentials between members of the main couple in ship fic (exception is Faisal/Lawrence in A Dangerous Man, as long as it's Faisal with more power) | Lifestyle BDSM (exception: Faisal/Lawrence again) | PIV in smut (this is not really my personal preference ever, but I'm fine with it in requested het ships unless otherwise noted, and taking my other smut preferences into account)
*Setting changes means like significant shifts in place/time or worldbuilding, like a sci-fi AU for a realistic fiction work, or moving a historical or futuristic work to the present day. It does not mean plot-divergence, or smaller worldbuilding changes (e.g. a soulmate AU) in an otherwise similar universe. You can use your best judgment on where to draw the line, obviously. "Central relationship" changes are stuff like changing people's ages, genders/sexes, species, etc. or "reversing" in-canon character dynamics (like giving characters each other's jobs or social roles).
Usually DNW, with broader exceptions for certain fandoms in ship fic, please look at the specific fandom:
Abusive relationships between requested characters/pairings/that are non-canonical | Cheating on main couple in ship fic | Major Character Death | Whump/dark fic (as stated in some of the fandom sections, I'm never really a fan of full-on "Hurt No Comfort," but I'm cool with and even prefer darker themes for some fandoms)
Additional caveats:
Consent: Characters do not have to give explicit verbal consent to be considered "consenting." Characters being drunk/high/stoned is fine as long as they're both clearly into it, and as long as they're not clearly way past the point where they could consent IRL (just use your best judgment here, I'm just really tired of fics where one beer is treated like a "dubcon" situation).
Dubcon: I do not want any outright non-con/rape, but I am fine with some degree of dubcon as long as it's a situation where the person would be interested in that other person if they were clear-headed (or whatever the case may be), where it's more of a catalyst to acting on real feelings, and also where whomever is not "dubconned" isn't intentionally taking advantage of the other party. I prefer mutual dubcon, and I especially enjoy the classic tropes like "sex pollen," pon-farr/fuck-or-die stuff with sci-fi and fantasy races, etc.
Historical accuracy: I'm someone who has a strong interest in history, including in the periods for historical fiction works here. I don't expect exacting historical accuracy, but please don't get basic and broad things wrong: some examples would be which countries existed, having people use overly modern slang, etc. My one caveat is anything involving music, as that is my own area of academic expertise. If you're going to incorporate something involving music history or music trivia please make sure you really and truly know it (as in, are not just relying on something you saw online or you remember your high school band teacher telling you) because it will truly take me out of the fic if people get things wrong there! Characters talking about music, playing it, going to concerts, etc. is fine, but if they are going to make a fact claim about it, fact-check it if it's intended to be accurate (obviously, if you intend the character to be wrong or unsure, that's fine). (Additional note: For the purposes of this exchange, this whole section mainly applies to A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. With Bridgerton and A Song of Ice and Fire, since they're set in what are essentially AUs of Regency Britain and the Middle Ages, I'm more about them just being consistent with what those canons establish, and the characters not feeling overly "contemporary" in how they talk, their attitudes, etc. See the sections on those specific fandoms for more detail.)
FANDOM-SPECIFIC
I've requested most of these fandoms before! I recommend checking the tags for previous letters. Here are some I'd particularly recommend looking at, keeping in mind the nature of past exchanges with particular themes:
If you're here for Bridgerton, though, here's its section!
I was so thrilled by the canonical queer Bridgertons in season 3! Haters to the left, you can all stop watching if you want, the show is for us :) So I've decided to focus my letter on those once and potentially future F/F and M/M ships.
I have also read all but two of the Bridgerton novels (Hyacinth's and Gregory's), but I would prefer that your story focus on the show canon in any places where the two conflict. I also have some specific things that happen in the books that the show hasn't yet covered that I do NOT want in my fic, even in the background - see that in the "DNW" section. Otherwise, though, stuff from book canon that does not conflict with show canon is fine (including from those two books; I know broadly what happens, who they each end up with, etc. so I'm fine with book spoilers as long it's not stuff where I'd have to have actually read those books for it to make sense. I don't expect this will be a problem since I didn't request any Hyacinth or Gregory ships, lol.)
I'm fine with Bridgerton's flagrant, campy historical inaccuracies, but I still would prefer that characters act somewhat like people from its version of Regency Britain. For instance, don't use speech that sounds overly out of place; and especially, please, don't have them talk about queer identities or sexuality in a way that sounds like someone from the 21st century - including likely using the word "queer" at all, affixing specific labels to themselves, or really understanding it as an "identity" in the first place rather than an action (that was something that only really came about beginning in the late 19th century at the earliest). That being said, I am cool with an AU where people are more accepting of what we now understand as non-cishet identities than they would've been in both the historical Regency and Bridgerton's version of it - not a modern AU, but a same-as-canon-except-less-homophobic AU: such as a situation where same-gender marriage is a possibility. (I really like the idea I saw on a Tumblr post, when talking about making queer arranged marriages in fantasy-historical settings, of having it be a way of marrying off "surplus" children in large families, similar to what joining the church was like in some other countries in reality - so, not a possibility for Anthony, but perhaps some of his younger siblings?)
With this being a virginity exchange, I like the idea of both exploring with some characters (such as male!Sophie, perhaps, or Eloise) them being fully inexperienced, while others might be experienced specifically in opposite-sex sex but not with the same sex. Basically, lots of room to play with the idea of virginity, as you see fit for the couple in question. With Lady Danbury's questionably-consensual relationship with her late husband, does she only see herself as truly losing her virginity when she has consensual sex after? If you read Francesca as lesbian (I am fine with either lesbian or bi readings for her), does she feel like she only loses her virginity with Michaela rather than with John, or does she view them as essentially two "separate" virginities? And so on and so forth.
Extra note if you pick Francesca/Michaela: When He Was Wicked is one of my favorites of the books, so if you're familiar with it, I'm really curious to see how you can adapt plot/characterization elements from that book to a lesbian relationship rather than a straight one. I can't wait to see where the show goes with that, so I'm eager to see your twist on it too!
BRIDGERTON-SPECIFIC DNW:
All the "usually DNW" apply to this fandom.
Note: Please do not take the fact that there is much more detail for some fandoms than others to mean that I'd be less excited if you wrote one over another! I just have more exacting preferences with some fandoms, or more specific ideas/prompts for what I want, whereas with others I'm more flexible. If there isn't as much detail, that just means I'm more open to see what you can do! (I've also requested some of these for previous exchanges and not others, so I have more of a history of detailed stuff to work from there, etc.) I'd be truly psyched to receive any of these!
I am open to treats in all requested fandoms!
ALL FANDOMS
LIKES:
This varies a bit by fandom, so please see those specific sections (for instance, there are some specific fandoms/ships where I prefer darker stuff, and most stuff below is relatively fluffy/lighthearted) but here are some general ideas of what sort of fic I enjoy.
I love a lot of the fandom cliches, particularly Only One Bed, fake dating turned real, friends to lovers. Can never get enough of those.
I’m a big fan of reading about characters in a relationship growing as people together, discovering new sides to themselves, figuring out how to live or raise kids together, etc.
I like soulmate AUs a LOT so long as the characters still get some chance to develop feelings organically, whether or not they are already aware of their soulmate status. Stuff where they find out before they are in love and kind of fight it at first, but end up getting to know and falling for the person anyway — love it, can’t get enough.
Big into people falling in love with someone they'd never expect.
I really love outside character perspectives/reactions on a particular unexpected relationship.
If you have characters from different cultures, countries, worlds, planets, etc. I really really love stuff that explores cultural differences in relationship norms (regardless of the nature of the specific relationship, I love this between friends, colleagues, etc. too as well as lovers) and where characters share their cultures with each other.
Some things I really like for smut fic: Oral sex, especially cunnilingus or rimming. Strap-ons. Motorboating, nipple play (no clamps though), boobs/chest focus. Marking, including/especially scent-marking but also stuff like leaving scars. Femdom in F/M. Creative and weird uses of non-human biology in sex in sci-fi and fantasy scenarios.
GENERAL DNWs, no exceptions:
ABO/Omegaverse of any kind | Amnesia/memory loss | Animal death/abuse/harm | Autistic or neurodivergent headcanons as main focus of the story | Bathroom kinks | Breathplay or other potentially life-threatening kink | Child sexual abuse, including in backstories (unless it is canonical. Note that a character having been abused as a child in some other way does not mean that "child sexual abuse" is canonical) | Daddy kink | Detailed violence/torture/gore | Explicit physical abuse | Extreme underage (i.e. younger than the age when teens typically start having consensual sex) | Feederism or other weight-fetishization | Focus on feminine grooming rituals (such as doing each others' hair/makeup) in F/F | Genital mutilation (such as sounding) | Issuefic. Feel free to give your characters strong opinions and explore fraught issues, but the key word there is explore; I don't want to feel like I'm being lectured to or taught a lesson | Jewish or Muslim characters with uncircumcised penises | Loss of intelligence/Flowers for Algernon plots | Making canonically LGBTQ+ characters cis/straight | Men domming women | Mpreg-specific: butt babies, surprise uteruses, or other stuff that's implausible to whatever fictional universe you're in | Negative/stigmatizing discussion of abortion | Pre-relationship/UST that never resolves in romance/ship fic | Pregnancy in a female character (unless in the background) | Rape/non-con | Sexual orientation headcanons that "contradict" their romantic and sexual relationships or "if it's you, it's okay" | “Soulmate AUs” where the main couple are not actually soulmates | Trans/non-binary headcanons for focus characters (specifically headcanons, does not apply to canonically trans/non-binary characters) | Using feminizing terms for male characters | Women giving up their ambitions/careers/dreams for a relationship treated as romantic/desirable/ideal, especially in F/M
GENERAL DNWs, with specific exceptions for specific fandoms/characters:
Ace/aro/demisexual/demiromantic headcanons (exception: I'm fine with ace and/or aro Eloise in Bridgerton if she's not in the main ship, though you should not have her actually label herself that - see discussion of historical conceptions of sexuality in the Bridgerton fandom section) | AUs that change the setting or central relationship significantly* (exception: both modern AUs and AUs in a version of the time period where certain bigotries/prejudices don't exist are fine with A Dangerous Man, the latter is also okay for Bridgerton) | Big power differentials between members of the main couple in ship fic (exception is Faisal/Lawrence in A Dangerous Man, as long as it's Faisal with more power) | Lifestyle BDSM (exception: Faisal/Lawrence again) | PIV in smut (this is not really my personal preference ever, but I'm fine with it in requested het ships unless otherwise noted, and taking my other smut preferences into account)
*Setting changes means like significant shifts in place/time or worldbuilding, like a sci-fi AU for a realistic fiction work, or moving a historical or futuristic work to the present day. It does not mean plot-divergence, or smaller worldbuilding changes (e.g. a soulmate AU) in an otherwise similar universe. You can use your best judgment on where to draw the line, obviously. "Central relationship" changes are stuff like changing people's ages, genders/sexes, species, etc. or "reversing" in-canon character dynamics (like giving characters each other's jobs or social roles).
Usually DNW, with broader exceptions for certain fandoms in ship fic, please look at the specific fandom:
Abusive relationships between requested characters/pairings/that are non-canonical | Cheating on main couple in ship fic | Major Character Death | Whump/dark fic (as stated in some of the fandom sections, I'm never really a fan of full-on "Hurt No Comfort," but I'm cool with and even prefer darker themes for some fandoms)
Additional caveats:
Consent: Characters do not have to give explicit verbal consent to be considered "consenting." Characters being drunk/high/stoned is fine as long as they're both clearly into it, and as long as they're not clearly way past the point where they could consent IRL (just use your best judgment here, I'm just really tired of fics where one beer is treated like a "dubcon" situation).
Dubcon: I do not want any outright non-con/rape, but I am fine with some degree of dubcon as long as it's a situation where the person would be interested in that other person if they were clear-headed (or whatever the case may be), where it's more of a catalyst to acting on real feelings, and also where whomever is not "dubconned" isn't intentionally taking advantage of the other party. I prefer mutual dubcon, and I especially enjoy the classic tropes like "sex pollen," pon-farr/fuck-or-die stuff with sci-fi and fantasy races, etc.
Historical accuracy: I'm someone who has a strong interest in history, including in the periods for historical fiction works here. I don't expect exacting historical accuracy, but please don't get basic and broad things wrong: some examples would be which countries existed, having people use overly modern slang, etc. My one caveat is anything involving music, as that is my own area of academic expertise. If you're going to incorporate something involving music history or music trivia please make sure you really and truly know it (as in, are not just relying on something you saw online or you remember your high school band teacher telling you) because it will truly take me out of the fic if people get things wrong there! Characters talking about music, playing it, going to concerts, etc. is fine, but if they are going to make a fact claim about it, fact-check it if it's intended to be accurate (obviously, if you intend the character to be wrong or unsure, that's fine). (Additional note: For the purposes of this exchange, this whole section mainly applies to A Dangerous Man: Lawrence After Arabia. With Bridgerton and A Song of Ice and Fire, since they're set in what are essentially AUs of Regency Britain and the Middle Ages, I'm more about them just being consistent with what those canons establish, and the characters not feeling overly "contemporary" in how they talk, their attitudes, etc. See the sections on those specific fandoms for more detail.)
FANDOM-SPECIFIC
I've requested most of these fandoms before! I recommend checking the tags for previous letters. Here are some I'd particularly recommend looking at, keeping in mind the nature of past exchanges with particular themes:
- A Song of Ice and Fire: Purim Gifts for ships featuring female characters, Fandom 5K 2023 for all ships (though I've requested some that might not be included there, this should still give you some idea of what I generally like from this fandom)
- A Dangerous Man: Lawrence after Arabia: Yuletide 2023
- Star Trek DS9: Star Trek Holidays 2023 - I also requested Garashir for the previous First Time Exchange
- Wayfarers Series: Wayfarers Series Letter
If you're here for Bridgerton, though, here's its section!
I was so thrilled by the canonical queer Bridgertons in season 3! Haters to the left, you can all stop watching if you want, the show is for us :) So I've decided to focus my letter on those once and potentially future F/F and M/M ships.
I have also read all but two of the Bridgerton novels (Hyacinth's and Gregory's), but I would prefer that your story focus on the show canon in any places where the two conflict. I also have some specific things that happen in the books that the show hasn't yet covered that I do NOT want in my fic, even in the background - see that in the "DNW" section. Otherwise, though, stuff from book canon that does not conflict with show canon is fine (including from those two books; I know broadly what happens, who they each end up with, etc. so I'm fine with book spoilers as long it's not stuff where I'd have to have actually read those books for it to make sense. I don't expect this will be a problem since I didn't request any Hyacinth or Gregory ships, lol.)
I'm fine with Bridgerton's flagrant, campy historical inaccuracies, but I still would prefer that characters act somewhat like people from its version of Regency Britain. For instance, don't use speech that sounds overly out of place; and especially, please, don't have them talk about queer identities or sexuality in a way that sounds like someone from the 21st century - including likely using the word "queer" at all, affixing specific labels to themselves, or really understanding it as an "identity" in the first place rather than an action (that was something that only really came about beginning in the late 19th century at the earliest). That being said, I am cool with an AU where people are more accepting of what we now understand as non-cishet identities than they would've been in both the historical Regency and Bridgerton's version of it - not a modern AU, but a same-as-canon-except-less-homophobic AU: such as a situation where same-gender marriage is a possibility. (I really like the idea I saw on a Tumblr post, when talking about making queer arranged marriages in fantasy-historical settings, of having it be a way of marrying off "surplus" children in large families, similar to what joining the church was like in some other countries in reality - so, not a possibility for Anthony, but perhaps some of his younger siblings?)
With this being a virginity exchange, I like the idea of both exploring with some characters (such as male!Sophie, perhaps, or Eloise) them being fully inexperienced, while others might be experienced specifically in opposite-sex sex but not with the same sex. Basically, lots of room to play with the idea of virginity, as you see fit for the couple in question. With Lady Danbury's questionably-consensual relationship with her late husband, does she only see herself as truly losing her virginity when she has consensual sex after? If you read Francesca as lesbian (I am fine with either lesbian or bi readings for her), does she feel like she only loses her virginity with Michaela rather than with John, or does she view them as essentially two "separate" virginities? And so on and so forth.
Extra note if you pick Francesca/Michaela: When He Was Wicked is one of my favorites of the books, so if you're familiar with it, I'm really curious to see how you can adapt plot/characterization elements from that book to a lesbian relationship rather than a straight one. I can't wait to see where the show goes with that, so I'm eager to see your twist on it too!
BRIDGERTON-SPECIFIC DNW:
- Contemporary approaches to sexuality/sexual identity that don't fit in with the show's version of the Regency (per above elaboration)
- Eloise/Phillip, even in the background (just really hate that relationship, Eloise deserves so much better, and I especially can't see show!Eloise being at all interested)
- Exclusively heterosexual Benedict, even in background (him being in a monogamous relationship with a woman is fine in the background, I mean exclusive in terms of his attraction/orientation)
- Male Michael (instead of Michaela), even in background (I do like Michael in the books, but this is show canon, and I will not see their excellent decision to make Michaela a lesbian contradicted lol)
- Unhappy endings for main ship
- Woobification. I like these characters for their faults!
All the "usually DNW" apply to this fandom.
