Mali (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
malachiical) wrote2025-01-07 09:33 am
malachiical) wrote2025-01-07 09:33 am
Entry tags:
Candy Hearts Letter 2025
Hello, potential Candy Hearts creators! Thank you and welcome to my letter post! :P I'm Mal or Mali (malachiical @ AO3 as well); I'll try to keep each individual section of this letter brief, and you should be able to skip to wherever you like with anchor links and/or just expand the parts relevant to you via cut. I hope our ids align and you have a blast writing, because I'm definitely looking forward to whatever you come up with!
General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
How to Survive Camping (fainting--goat) - Beau | The Man With The Skull Cup/Kate
Inside Out (Pixar Movies) - Anxiety/Ennui
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel) - Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
How to Survive Camping (fainting--goat)
Beau | The Man With The Skull Cup/Kate
[Where you can find the stories free online: Here! (A table of contents; most links are via the Wayback Machine.)]
These characters have such a wild relationship with one another; I have not been able to get over it since I first read these stories, and a re-read brought all of that back not just full force but redoubled.
She hates him and is afraid of him, and she loves him like she loves the barn cat with the kinked tail or the plant her uncle gave her. She irritates him, and a lot of things about being near her and interacting with her outright hurts him, and he'll miss her. She was willing to give her life for him and she will fight him to the actual death and the very thought of him dying scares and pains her. He has a claim on her life and wants to use her to become something more instead and is willing to die for just the chance that she will do as he hopes. They have stabbed each other and saved one another's lives. She knows people ship them online and she trolls the shippers and him about it; he trolls her too just for kicks, often in the same apparently irritated deadpan as ever. He has made terrifying enemies because he chose her. She refilled his skull cup and basically soulbonded them together and he accepted that and tied his life to hers. She gave him a name and an identity. The people who read her stories love him because they see him through her eyes...
All this to say, this messy, messy relationship that is in its own way full of love and the effort, through fear and pain, to love, in their own ways, just absolutely fills and shatters my heart. I love how much they are there for each other and how much they are willing to do for each other when it comes down to it, while also being pretty brutal with each other at times and, when it comes down to it, being both willing to sacrifice themself for the other but also willing to harm or kill the other. And Kate is so, so human and Beau is so inhuman but in some unexpected ways they do meet each other in the middle, even if neither really wants to admit it, which I adore.
(I also love the weird gender stuff going on with Beau; it feels very relatable while also feeling very inhuman in ways I enjoy! I think it makes sense to interpret Beau as basically nonbinary or arguably the equivalent of a trans man, given how he looks different to everyone, including different genders, until his "self" starts to solidify due to Kate's stories describing him and her getting him a name. And I also adore that -- how entwined she is in his forming identity, how she gives him a name and does in fact start to solidify and change who he is, and how despite saying he can't change he still does start to change around her and go against his own nature even when it hurts!)
Ideas & Prompts
I love how canon incorporates folklore and fairy tale stuff, whether 1-for-1 or inspired by. There's a lot of general hospitality law creatures (the thing that tries to get into your tent at night being one of my favorites alongside Beau) as well as the rusalki, the werewolf incident, the Yule Cat and Perchta, etc. And of course the dapple grey stallion, which was basically a horror take on the fairy tale Dapplegrim! You could pull from some really interesting stuff if you felt like it, and I'd love anything you did there. Does one of them save the other's life again, or help the other out, or is there a mutual saving/helping? Does Kate lose another four-wheeler? 😔 Do either of them have to really get more used to the idea that they do not want anything to happen to the other?
Pretty early on, Kate asks in horror if she basically married Beau by refilling his skull cup, and Beau is sarcastic about it, says no but that Kate at least understands the gravity of the situation. But... what if yes? Or at least sort of yes? Like, what if some sort of inhuman thing or curse is around that affects only unmarried women (or married women) and what they have going on counts enough for Kate to be safe (or unsafe)? Alternately, what if Kate For Reasons (probably "fed up with their shit" reasons lbr) tells a family member of hers, or more than one family member, or the town that Beau is her husband or that they're dating? Does Beau even vaguely pretend to be human for this/is she pretending that Beau is human, or is Beau being inhuman part of why she's saying it?
I enjoy canon-divergent stuff! I like the idea of, rather than Kate ending up inhuman by the end of the story, Beau becoming more and more humanized due to the stories Kate has been telling. Them both having to deal with that could be... interesting. I could also really love something set post-canon where Kate regains herself, either still also being the Lady of Stories, an ancient inhuman thing, but way more Kate again somehow, or making her much less powerful but still inhuman (do she and Beau have to defend their territory more?), or even turning her human again (does Beau inherit the land after all because of it?).
I could also really like some full AUs. I like the idea of some crossover AUs, especially ones that let Beau stay quite inhuman in a way that might still make Kate hate and fear him at first. A Silent Hill AU where Beau is a creation of the town? An AU for The Last Halloween, if you've ever read that webcomic, where Beau is a monster, either Kate's or someone else's? Or maybe a Home Safety Hotline AU, where Kate's family runs a company like that and Beau is one of the things that households (and therefore her company) just have to deal with sometimes (and maybe also visits their offices)?
I also like the idea of AUs that are "mundane" but not mundane, like a coffee shop AU or a bartender AU, where the folklore stuff still happens around the coffee shop/bar and sometimes Beau just shows up like he works there and serves customers drinks (that maybe look like blood and carry the same property as the drink he offers in canon). Or something that's like a mix of How to Survive Camping and How to Survive College, either set back when Kate was a college student or in an AU where she was never going to inherit this campground, and she meets Beau as this... inhuman thing whose stomping ground is the college campus instead of the campground.
When it comes to porn, I could enjoy a lot of possible set-ups. Is this a rare exception for both of them? Do they need to fuck for some reason, like a soulbond thing or sex pollen or some equivalent? (I am okay with dubcon for this so long as it's dubious for both of them and also not, like, a horrific situation for them/they are kind of into it/the ending is okay!) If Beau is turning more human, does he have a libido he's suddenly having to deal with? I could also enjoy just PWP without much if any setup! The only thing I ask is that if you include any BDSM elements, Kate is not a sub. (I could see Beau as a masochist actually... I won't lie, I've had a thought that kissing or having sex with Kate might be one of those things that hurts Beau, but that Beau might realize he's kind of into that actually...)
Finally, if you want to do genderswap-to-F/F stuff... When it comes to making Beau a woman, I like the idea that Kate just... saw her as a woman from the start. Like I said, I love the weird gender stuff going on with Beau and how easily it lends itself to the character just being the lady with the skull cup instead. I prefer Beau to otherwise look exactly the same -- bald or shaved head, hoodie, an absolutely ludicrous number of piercings -- and I'm okay with any name you go with but if you want suggestions I have considered Bea, Belle, and Bella, or even Tegan; you could also arguably just keep her name Beau! Or just whatever you feel fits.
And it's not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Adrianne Lenker - "half return"; AG - "Terrible Thing"; The Amazing Devil - "The Horror and the Wild"; Charming Disaster - "Ouroboros"; Charming Disaster - "Wolf Song"; The Crane Wives - "Allies or Enemies"; Florence + The Machine - "Drumming Song"; IAMX - "I Come With Knives"; Paramore - "Careful"; Wolf Alice - "Beautifully Unconventional"
Canon-Specific DNWs
Inside Out (Pixar Movies)
Anxiety/Ennui
[Where you can find Inside Out 2 free online: Putlocker!
You can also watch the first movie on Putlocker if you want more context on Riley's life so far, how the world works, etc., and it's a good introduction, but these two characters are not in it.
Both movies are about an hour and a half long each.
(And the Disney Magic Kingdoms event can be seen here if you're interested: 1, 2, 3, and 4! All four videos together are less than 20 minutes total, and you can skip around to where the characters are actually talking onscreen. You can also leave the sound off because there's no voice acting and the YouTuber reads the dialogue out loud, unfortunately.)]
These two have such a fun dynamic, while they don't interact as much as some other characters in the second movie, what is there makes me so happy! I am a sucker for "anxious all the time (but affectionate)" and "blasé all the time (but with a soft spot)" and these two really do have such nice little moments towards one another.
I love how, even during her movie-long downward spiral, Anxiety obviously cared for her three friends and was supportive and affectionate, and how she obviously went out of her way to learn at least a little French to call Ennui "mon ami"! I love how, despite acting entirely bored and "too cool for anyone," Ennui was still paying attention to Anxiety (despite her words) and actually physically got up to help out (in her casual way) from time to time. And when Anxiety really started breaking down, Ennui was visibly worried along with the others!
(Plus, like, it's totally extracanon noncanon material, but there's currently an event introducing Ennui and Anxiety into the mobile game Disney Magic Kingdoms and they are really cute in it. Ennui immediately recognizes signs that Anxiety is spiraling even when Anxiety isn't physically present! She tracks her down to where she's barricaded herself into a closet and talks her through breathing exercises to help calm her down, even tricking her into doing them halfway properly... while Anxiety is still inside the closet. And then makes her lounge to calm down when she's still kinda freaking out! And it works! And I'm emotional about it!)
I really like the idea of these two having this casual sort of history together, and bonding even further than they seem to already be in the movie... Either bonding due to the events of the movie (maybe Anxiety is trying to make up for everything, and/or Ennui is trying to check in and make sure Anxiety is okay now?), because they were already interested in each other (or one of them was interested before...), or maybe both! Anxiety encouraging Ennui to be a bit more motivated/engaged/social, or make her smile... maybe unintentionally getting her worked up... Ennui trying to find ways to help Anxiety relax and calm down, sometimes deadpan teasing or trolling her... These two could be so supportive, even if in a fumbling way, but I could also see them grating on each other sometimes too. They could have a really fun dynamic!
Ideas & Prompts
I would love stuff set soon after canon, or even in that space between the scene where Joy takes the console for the scrimmage and the actual end of the movie. If you wanted to play with their relationships with the other emotions any, how do the new emotions and the original emotions get past the initial awkwardness and uncertainty to really become a team? If not, do either or both of these two reach out to the other? All the new emotions seem to have an established closeness pre-canon, but I could see the events of the movie really bringing them together, too! Or maybe these two already cared about each other a good deal even if they weren't open about (or aware of) the extent of their feelings?
I especially like the idea of Ennui being more concerned than she necessarily wants to let on and going to check on Anxiety to see how she's doing after all that. Relatedly or not, one idea that came to mind is what if Anxiety tries to avoid touching the console at all for a while after what happened at camp, worried that she'll just hurt Riley again? I could also really like Ennui helping teach Anxiety ways to calm down. Or, honestly, Anxiety trying to coax Ennui to get a little more involved or open, because she knows she cares about everyone and Riley. It could also just be sweet to have one of them comforting the other after a nightmare of their own, or both of them doing so!
I really do like the worldbuilding of the Inside Out universe; if you wanted to play with anything that's already been shown to be there, or make some new stuff up, that could be great! Anxiety trying to sneak to Dream Studios to get them to not give Riley nightmares about what happened at hockey camp? Ennui encouraging another brainstorm more as a procrastination measure than anything? Them taking the Train of Thought for some reason, or hesitantly helping nurture the new, end-of-movie Sense of Self?
I could also really like some full AUs! When it comes to crossover AUs, I am mostly into Pokémon stuff. I could see Anxiety with Electric and/or Psychic type Pokémon, "watchful" Pokémon, and/or Sinistea/Polteageist, and Ennui with various sleep-related Pokémon (Snorlax, Munna, Komala), plus Rotom -- but you could give them any Pokémon and I'd be THRILLED! (Hell, you could make it a Pokémon Snap AU specifically and I'd be thrilled!) I could also enjoy an AU where the various emotions are friendly ghosts that are haunting Riley and trying to help her, whether Riley can see and talk to them or not. Also, while I'm not super into most mundane AUs, I am honestly a sucker for band AUs, dance AUs, noir AUs, and could be very interested in an AU where the emotions are themselves hockey players!
Finally, porn! I could really love porn for these two; they bring such different energy to the table, unless of course they end up meeting each other's energy... Some ideas for things I like with these two specifically: grinding/frottage (fully clothed or not), strap-on sex (possibly including blowjobs/handjobs, even!), massage turning erotic turning into sex, languid or energetic oral, fingering, nipple play, sex toy use via a phone app, unexpected orgasm from something they really didn't think would get them off, Anxiety taking things slower (or being made/encouraged to), Ennui getting worked up and more intense herself...
And it's not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Alice et Moi - "Je suis all about you"; dodie - "Would You Be So Kind"; girl in red - "i wanna be your girlfriend"; Joyce Jonathan - "Ça ira"; LP - "Conversation"; Madilyn Mei - "Knotted Constellations"; Mega Mango - "Blurt"; Natural Health - "Can't You See"; Ricky Montgomery - "Eraser"; Siamés - As You Get High
Canon-Specific DNWs
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel)
Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
[If you don't actually own the game, you can find the following videos on YouTube:
• BAI GAMING Video #1 - Pertinent parts are at 50:50-58:35 (The Razor, starting at the point where all the voices start coming in) and 2:12:52-2:56:12 (The Nightmare, with Voice of the Paranoid, and The Moment of Clarity with everyone)
• BAI GAMING Video #2 - Pertinent parts are at 57:46-1:06:59 (The Apotheosis, with Voice of the Paranoid) and 1:39:37-2:53:04 (The Spectre and The Wraith, with Voice of the Cold)
• Slay the Princess - The Spectre & The Wraith - Pertinent part is at 31:00-48:28 (The Wraith variation, with Voice of the Cold and Voice of the Paranoid)
• BAI GAMING Video #3 - Pertinent part is at 2:53:14-3:09:25 (The Wild, with Voice of the Paranoid)
• BAI GAMING Video #4 - Pertinent parts are at 26:22-46:40 (The Burned Grey, with Voice of the Cold), 1:30:29-1:49:54 (The Drowned Grey, with Voice of the Cold), and 1:53:08-2:41:07 (The Nightmare variations, with way more from Voice of the Paranoid)
• Slay the Princess - All Endings - Potentially pertinent part is at 26:15-28:09 (A New Dawn ending)
PRISTINE CUT ADDITIONS:
• Apotheosis Fight + Unravelled/Grace Endings (Paranoid) [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - About 40 minutes, with Voice of the Paranoid.
• The Cage Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - Pertinent part is at 27:49-48:57 (with Voice of the Paranoid).
• Adversarial Fury - Contrarian/Broken/Cold [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - Pertinent part is 1:08:59-1:42:38 (with Voice of the Cold).
• Fury - Quantum Beak (you can respawn) [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - Pertinent part is 22:39-39:10 (with Voice of the Cold).
• Happily Ever After Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - 37:39 minutes, with Voice of the Paranoid.
• The Princess and the Dragon Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - About 51 minutes, with Voice of the Cold.
Watching all of the above pertinent parts would take about 7 and a half hours, but you can easily knock it down to about 2 hours and 5 minutes by just watching their main routes: The Nightmare in the first video (2:12:52-2:40:21), The Spectre in the second video (1:39:37-2:28:30) and the Princess and the Dragon video, and The Wraith variation with both of them (31:00-48:28). Or watch whatever bits of whatever playthroughs you like...
Or, of course, play it yourself; just go with whatever works for you! :D]
These two really, really intrigue me. They don't get to interact that much, but they're quite interesting in The Wraith route, and also have moments in some of the other routes -- and some similarities and general qualities -- that make me think that they could really catch the other's attention if given more opportunity.
For one thing, they are both very aware of and surprisingly in control of their bodies. (Well, their shared body. The protagonist's body. Let's just say "their bodies" for simplicity.) Voice of the Cold constantly talks about choosing to just stop feeling things, both emotions and any negative physical sensations; their back-and-forth of "Do we have to explain to you why pain is bad?" "You have to explain to yourself why it isn't," is VERY cool. But despite Voice of the Paranoid being obviously high-strung, he also has an immense amount of steel to him, not only manually running the body's autonomic nervous system during The Nightmare route, but also showing up specifically to keep Voice of the Broken in check during The Apotheosis route after Broken let The Tower into their mind which led to their death.
There are also little details, such as the fact that Cold usually shows up after you kill the Princess in cold blood and then yourself, and Paranoid also encourages killing yourself if you become trapped in The Nightmare route due to killing her. This actually leads to Cold showing up... And interestingly, before that, if the protagonist says to the Hero and the Paranoid that it'd be fine to be stuck in the void forever because they're the best company, Paranoid says, "Oh, you could do better than us," and that's right before Cold comes into the picture. In The Wraith route, he and Cold and Hero and the protagonist have to all work together to toss their body into the void with The Wraith in it, if they choose that route, and the "everyone on the count of three" moment Paranoid takes charge of is just neat.
And in a general sense, I really think they could... see something interesting in each other. Paranoid is nervy and definitely hasn't shut off his emotions at all, but he also has that aforementioned steel and sharp control over himself/his body/The Body, that might be even more intriguing and impressive based on how unexpected it is. And Cold is a dangerous person, yes, but is actually less dangerous to the other voices than someone like the Broken or even the Smitten, and might also be easier to predict than someone like the Opportunist or even the Hunted -- you know exactly what his danger is, if he's going to be dangerous. And at the same time, Paranoid seems to trust the other voices in a way he doesn't trust anyone "other," and Cold seems to want to help the other voices, often trying to give them advice on how to get through situations without breaking down. There's an automatic sort of rapport there that makes it more likely they'd get close to each other than if they were just ordinary people with their same personalities.
Also, speaking of that, I do love the bodysharing and would be super into that if you want to roll with it, but I also love a theoretical post-canon situation where maybe the voices are all getting their own bodies. You don't even have to get into how and why they have different bodies if you want to do that; just handwaving it would be fine!
Ideas & Prompts
First, let me just say, feel free to give them any kinds of bodies and any kind of genitals, xeno or human, cis or trans, whatever. Full bird-monster like in game, somewhat more humanoid bird-people, mostly human-ish with bird elements, fully human or human-like bodies? Sure! Cloacas, dicks, vaginas, both sets, tentacles, a void that acts as an erogenous zone, able to have whatever they want with the power of belief? Absolutely! Also, feel free to make preening or wing stuff sexy or not!
I love how many ways there are to play with things in this canon. So many of the endings make for great post-canon fodder! After "There are no endings" or "A new and unending dawn," are the voices all still sharing that one body with the Long Quiet? Or do they split off into their own bodies at any point, maybe as sort of demigod helpers? After "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you" do they ever calm down or does the Long Quiet forcibly eject them from himself/herself? After "And? What happens next?" the voices all seem to be separate from the Long Quiet, at least, but invisible/formless; do they ever gain forms or not? Hero said they'd go and find the others, which could be fun to play with; are they stuck in the Construct (maybe a much less dangerous Construct) or do they escape out into the real world? And what is the state of that real world like?
I could even love some of the "less likely" endings as starting points. After the "Good Ending" or the "Oblivion Ending," might the voices, not wanting to cease existing, forcibly separate themselves from the nothingness that is the Long Quiet again and try to bring the Long Quiet and/or the Shifting Mound back? And what is going on in "Your New World" -- are the voices still with the Long Quiet but TLQ can't hear them, or did TLQ leave without them and now they're just out in that world, whatever it is like, completely unable to reach him and just having to deal with it all?
I also enjoy canon-divergent stuff! This could just be done at any point for any reason, new chapters, new Princesses (Chapter II or III or beyond!), new voice combinations, the "wrong" voices showing up in specific chapters, them showing up in a chapter with the Princess not there at all, just new and different options... It could be without any explanation, but it could also arguably be a post-"You're on a path in the woods..." ending thing, where maybe the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound loop so often the Construct starts glitching and breaking down?
I could also really like some full AUs. Urban fantasy AUs are pretty excellent, and more slice of life stuff while they're still bird people would be loved, honestly! Apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, horror, and fantasy AUs, and any mix of them, would be very fitting. And I love the idea of some crossover AUs: D&D, Spire: The City Must Fall, Night in the Woods, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Dead By Daylight, NaissanceE, BLAME!, and Annihilation all seem like they'd work super well! At the same time, I could really love all of this written not even as an AU, but just what the world is like outside of the Construct after one of the game's endings, with the voices suddenly having to deal with it.
I also love soulmates and soulbonding, though that can be an AU or not, tbh. Is soulbonding just a thing that can happen, or just a thing for the voices in general, because they all shared one body/used to be just one person? Are the voices and the vessels soulmates just inherently because of that "used to be one universal force/being" thing, and does that extend to the voices with one another (and the vessels with one another, actually)? And similarly to a lot of the stuff listed above, heat/rut, outright omegaverse, or hanahaki are things I could be into in the context of an AU, but I'd also love if the voices got their own bodies and/or were dropped out into the real world and those were just... things they suddenly have to get used to, rather than being a full AU!
Finally, when it comes to porn... I am into so much. I could see these two getting intense about each other. Choking, masochism in general, blade play, being overwhelmed by what they can do to the other (maybe especially Paranoid wanting to make Cold react/feel), experimentation, fear kink, trust, and of course first time stuff! I could love Paranoid asking Cold to push his limits until he has to safeword just to prove to himself a)that he can and trusts him and also that b)Cold will actually stop. I could love somnophilia where Cold's just like, yeah, you can do whatever while I'm asleep, but he ends up very responsive while asleep in a way Paranoid is very fascinated by, and maybe that starts bleeding into how he reacts to sex while awake? I could love Paranoid getting turned on by random shit he's alarmed and ashamed by his own response to (fear, being choked in a non-sex context, whatever) and either not wanting to masturbate about it and needing help, or getting caught masturbating about it (maybe even doing so in the same room where Cold is sleeping...?). I could love dubcon with sex pollen or possession or any number of things that they're actually both into and need to work out afterwards. I could love a scenario where these two have to hide for some reason and get trapped watching or listening to some people have sex, and they've never really experienced anything like that before and it gets them turned on/interested. I could love omegaverse (or some equivalent) where Paranoid is a beta/goes into heat and won't let ANY alphas or omegas/anyone who goes into heat or rut around him, but Cold is a beta/doesn't have either and someone needs to, like, bring Paranoid food and the like, but Paranoid is still increasingly desperate... And those are just some ideas; feel free to write any porn you think I might like!
And it's also not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Apistat Commander - "Bird/Switchblade"; Charlotte Martin - "Four Walls"; Holly Conlan - "OK"; Hozier - "Shrike"; Julien Baker - "Shadowboxing"; Manchester Orchestra - "I Know How To Speak"; Mega Mango - "Undone"; Penelope Scott - "Sin Eater"; Purity Ring - "fineshrine"; Will Wood - "Um, it's Kind of a Lot"
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas/some more specific prompts, I've done a couple of freeform exchanges!
Canon-Specific DNWs
General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
How to Survive Camping (fainting--goat) - Beau | The Man With The Skull Cup/Kate
Inside Out (Pixar Movies) - Anxiety/Ennui
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel) - Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
General DNWs
- noncon/dubcon (unless otherwise stated)
- permanent character death (unless otherwise stated; undead, including ghosts, are fine and don't count for this DNW!)
- halves of a ship feeling like they really just don't like or care about each other at all (even with more complicated stuff I am a BIG SOPPY ROMANTIC)
- a ship having sexualities that mean they aren't attracted to one another (with the exception of Beau/Kate, and even then I like there being Something There because they're just weird and unique like that)
- being ashamed of or hating one's body (even for trans stuff, if you write it; just no focus on dysphoria please)
- requested characters being permanently separated in any way, or at risk of it, by the end of the story (unless otherwise stated)
- unhappy endings
- unrequested AUs (canon divergence is fine)
- unrequested identity headcanons (mentions for OCs are fine)
- unrequested noncanon ships (background canon ships that don't break up the requested pairing are fine; mentions of OCs being in relationships with one another is fine)
- unrequested poly (mentions of OCs being in poly relationships with one another is fine)
- feederism, weight gain, inflation, pregnancy (mentions of OCs being pregnant are fine; breeding kink without any possibility of pregnancy is great!)
- scat, most forms of watersports (desperation is fine!), vomit kink (someone throwing up not in a kink context is fine)
- vore, bestiality, mommy- or daddykink, 24/7 D/S
- canon-specific DNWs and exceptions in the fandom sections!
General Likes
- hurt/comfort! fics with a balance on both or ones that lean towards more comfort than hurt; feel free to get deep in the hurt but I love a sizeable focus on the comfort!
- pining and culmination of pining: getting together, kissing, romantic tension/UST being resolved, mutual pining or initially one-sided pining, pining that lasts for weeks or even years
- fluff, snapshot moments of what's going on in their lives
- romantic tension, UST that eventually becomes resolved
- flirting, confident or awkward or just fuckin disastrous
- extreme loyalty
- TRUST
- intense relationships and general intensity
- happy or at least hopeful/somewhat upbeat endings
- first times and milestones (sexual or non, doesn’t even have to be overly romantic, stuff like taking a photo for the first time together or and the like is also good!)
- descriptions of making out tbh
- trans headcanons where it’s not A Thing in the fic, no coming out or explanations necessary, or it's just accepted and not super dwelled on unless the prompt is about self-exploration. no Having To Deal With Bigotry or issuefic or anything, just character(s) happen(s) to be trans (both same gender/pronouns as in canon and different gender/pronouns are fine)
- trans characters having gender realizations, and/or getting gender euphoria, due to crossdressing/drag
- or genderswap to make something F/F is also great!
- canon divergent AUs, change one thing about a canon and maybe other things happen differently
- I like longfic if you want to write it!
- more canon-specific likes in the fandom sections!
- fic and art treats are both more than welcome!
Porn Likes
- first times and milestones
- frot, scissoring, intercrural, grinding against ass, basically all that stuff
- handjobs, fingering, oral
- romantic smut, lots of touching, focus on touching/wanting to touch and sensations and body parts, loving descriptions of partner's body (description of both stereotypically attractive and not stereotypically attractive features welcome so long as they're INTO it!), kissing during sex, hand-holding during sex, eye contact during sex, all that stuff!
- clothed sex, partially clothed sex, and clothing kink!
- inexperience, awkward, clumsy but eager and enjoyable sex
- XENO. xeno xeno xeno I am so into xeno, play around with alien genitalia and I am here for it, tentacles, cloacas, characters having both sets of genitalia, ovipositors, genitals resembling flowers or wet pinecone dick, Mouths Down There, legit whatever you can think of just g o f o r i t
- BDSM tones, mild or more formal
- praise kink and instructions/requests/begging flavors of dirty talk
- breeding kink is welcome when pregnancy is outright impossible, even if it's handwaved impossible (PIV but they know it can't happen is fine; neither has a womb and obviously it can't happen is fine; this type of sex can't even result in pregnancy but we'll talk about it anyway is fine; species are incompatible is fine)
- even without breeding kink, kinking on coming inside is also hot, but so is kinking on come/cum-play and messier sex like that
- strap-on sex in general, and also when it's treated like a dick (including handjobs/blowjobs)
- manhandling, hair pulling, love bites and scratches, rough but not outright painful (or only pleasantly painful) sex
- orgasm delay (though not total denial), edging
- alternately, multiple orgasms, "forced" orgasms that are still enjoyable
- e n t h u s i a s m and detailed descriptions of sex, just go for it
- in general, prefer the terms: penis, cock, dick, length; nipples, ass, and testicles/balls can just be called those things; vagina, vulva, cunt, or pussy if that comes up; come or cum are both fine spellings (just no "cumming")
- piv in trans smut is fine; oral and pia sex super welcome; alternatives are also loved; prefer for vagina to be called vagina, cunt, or pussy, or to be referred to vaguely, not "hole"; prefer for ass NOT to be called a vagina/cunt/pussy, but referred to vaguely & implied to be one is fine, or just called ass; fine with clit being called clit or penis/cock/dick, fine with penis being called penis/cock/dick or hen or clit
- trans characters having gender realizations, and/or getting gender euphoria, during sex
How to Survive Camping (fainting--goat)
Beau | The Man With The Skull Cup/Kate
[Where you can find the stories free online: Here! (A table of contents; most links are via the Wayback Machine.)]
These characters have such a wild relationship with one another; I have not been able to get over it since I first read these stories, and a re-read brought all of that back not just full force but redoubled.
She hates him and is afraid of him, and she loves him like she loves the barn cat with the kinked tail or the plant her uncle gave her. She irritates him, and a lot of things about being near her and interacting with her outright hurts him, and he'll miss her. She was willing to give her life for him and she will fight him to the actual death and the very thought of him dying scares and pains her. He has a claim on her life and wants to use her to become something more instead and is willing to die for just the chance that she will do as he hopes. They have stabbed each other and saved one another's lives. She knows people ship them online and she trolls the shippers and him about it; he trolls her too just for kicks, often in the same apparently irritated deadpan as ever. He has made terrifying enemies because he chose her. She refilled his skull cup and basically soulbonded them together and he accepted that and tied his life to hers. She gave him a name and an identity. The people who read her stories love him because they see him through her eyes...
All this to say, this messy, messy relationship that is in its own way full of love and the effort, through fear and pain, to love, in their own ways, just absolutely fills and shatters my heart. I love how much they are there for each other and how much they are willing to do for each other when it comes down to it, while also being pretty brutal with each other at times and, when it comes down to it, being both willing to sacrifice themself for the other but also willing to harm or kill the other. And Kate is so, so human and Beau is so inhuman but in some unexpected ways they do meet each other in the middle, even if neither really wants to admit it, which I adore.
(I also love the weird gender stuff going on with Beau; it feels very relatable while also feeling very inhuman in ways I enjoy! I think it makes sense to interpret Beau as basically nonbinary or arguably the equivalent of a trans man, given how he looks different to everyone, including different genders, until his "self" starts to solidify due to Kate's stories describing him and her getting him a name. And I also adore that -- how entwined she is in his forming identity, how she gives him a name and does in fact start to solidify and change who he is, and how despite saying he can't change he still does start to change around her and go against his own nature even when it hurts!)
Ideas & Prompts
I love how canon incorporates folklore and fairy tale stuff, whether 1-for-1 or inspired by. There's a lot of general hospitality law creatures (the thing that tries to get into your tent at night being one of my favorites alongside Beau) as well as the rusalki, the werewolf incident, the Yule Cat and Perchta, etc. And of course the dapple grey stallion, which was basically a horror take on the fairy tale Dapplegrim! You could pull from some really interesting stuff if you felt like it, and I'd love anything you did there. Does one of them save the other's life again, or help the other out, or is there a mutual saving/helping? Does Kate lose another four-wheeler? 😔 Do either of them have to really get more used to the idea that they do not want anything to happen to the other?
Pretty early on, Kate asks in horror if she basically married Beau by refilling his skull cup, and Beau is sarcastic about it, says no but that Kate at least understands the gravity of the situation. But... what if yes? Or at least sort of yes? Like, what if some sort of inhuman thing or curse is around that affects only unmarried women (or married women) and what they have going on counts enough for Kate to be safe (or unsafe)? Alternately, what if Kate For Reasons (probably "fed up with their shit" reasons lbr) tells a family member of hers, or more than one family member, or the town that Beau is her husband or that they're dating? Does Beau even vaguely pretend to be human for this/is she pretending that Beau is human, or is Beau being inhuman part of why she's saying it?
I enjoy canon-divergent stuff! I like the idea of, rather than Kate ending up inhuman by the end of the story, Beau becoming more and more humanized due to the stories Kate has been telling. Them both having to deal with that could be... interesting. I could also really love something set post-canon where Kate regains herself, either still also being the Lady of Stories, an ancient inhuman thing, but way more Kate again somehow, or making her much less powerful but still inhuman (do she and Beau have to defend their territory more?), or even turning her human again (does Beau inherit the land after all because of it?).
I could also really like some full AUs. I like the idea of some crossover AUs, especially ones that let Beau stay quite inhuman in a way that might still make Kate hate and fear him at first. A Silent Hill AU where Beau is a creation of the town? An AU for The Last Halloween, if you've ever read that webcomic, where Beau is a monster, either Kate's or someone else's? Or maybe a Home Safety Hotline AU, where Kate's family runs a company like that and Beau is one of the things that households (and therefore her company) just have to deal with sometimes (and maybe also visits their offices)?
I also like the idea of AUs that are "mundane" but not mundane, like a coffee shop AU or a bartender AU, where the folklore stuff still happens around the coffee shop/bar and sometimes Beau just shows up like he works there and serves customers drinks (that maybe look like blood and carry the same property as the drink he offers in canon). Or something that's like a mix of How to Survive Camping and How to Survive College, either set back when Kate was a college student or in an AU where she was never going to inherit this campground, and she meets Beau as this... inhuman thing whose stomping ground is the college campus instead of the campground.
When it comes to porn, I could enjoy a lot of possible set-ups. Is this a rare exception for both of them? Do they need to fuck for some reason, like a soulbond thing or sex pollen or some equivalent? (I am okay with dubcon for this so long as it's dubious for both of them and also not, like, a horrific situation for them/they are kind of into it/the ending is okay!) If Beau is turning more human, does he have a libido he's suddenly having to deal with? I could also enjoy just PWP without much if any setup! The only thing I ask is that if you include any BDSM elements, Kate is not a sub. (I could see Beau as a masochist actually... I won't lie, I've had a thought that kissing or having sex with Kate might be one of those things that hurts Beau, but that Beau might realize he's kind of into that actually...)
Finally, if you want to do genderswap-to-F/F stuff... When it comes to making Beau a woman, I like the idea that Kate just... saw her as a woman from the start. Like I said, I love the weird gender stuff going on with Beau and how easily it lends itself to the character just being the lady with the skull cup instead. I prefer Beau to otherwise look exactly the same -- bald or shaved head, hoodie, an absolutely ludicrous number of piercings -- and I'm okay with any name you go with but if you want suggestions I have considered Bea, Belle, and Bella, or even Tegan; you could also arguably just keep her name Beau! Or just whatever you feel fits.
And it's not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Adrianne Lenker - "half return"; AG - "Terrible Thing"; The Amazing Devil - "The Horror and the Wild"; Charming Disaster - "Ouroboros"; Charming Disaster - "Wolf Song"; The Crane Wives - "Allies or Enemies"; Florence + The Machine - "Drumming Song"; IAMX - "I Come With Knives"; Paramore - "Careful"; Wolf Alice - "Beautifully Unconventional"
Canon-Specific DNWs
- the Lady of Stories written into the fic as Kate's permanent end state, or focus on Kate as her. setting things during canon and just not touching on that whole thing at all, canon divergence so it never happens, or "fix it" where the Lady becomes more Kate again somehow are all acceptable! but I consider them separate characters.
- Kate being a submissive if you write sex! (Kate as dom and Beau as sub works; both of them being more inclined towards domming works; no dom/sub dynamic works.)
- writing Kate as not aroace. I ship them and am into the idea of smut with them, so I don't mean that; just don't write her as identifying as another sexuality, or have her POV saying things like she knows what she likes during sex or recounting a noncanonical romantic/sexual history, etc.
- basically these two being not even just each other's "exceptions," with whatever they have being abnormal and nonstandard and weird even for them!
- canon-typical horror, fantasy, and/or even humor stuff!
- fic set during the events of canon, including but not limited to canon divergence AUs
- specifically a canon-divergence AU where instead of Kate becoming more inhuman, Beau becomes more human... (or maybe they meet each other halfway but in a more limited capacity, on Kate's side, than in canon?)
- "fix it" fic set post-canon where the Lady of Stories becomes much more Kate again
- all their dichotomies, their difficult and cruel/ruthless/callous parts, alongside their compassion and care and striving, and how it makes them similar in some ways despite being so different
- the mutual life-saving! how it's instinctive sometimes and at other times fully thought-out and self-sacrificial!
- he knife fighting and stabbings and things too :)
- THE BANTER
- how some things HURT BEAU and he'll still do them for Kate (masochist)
- Beau's friendships with the harvesters and with the lead dancer
- Kate's relationship with her brother, her relationships with the other inhuman beings, with the old sheriff and his wife, with Bryan...
- NAME STUFF! it feels especially meaningful in this canon! (Kate gave him a name...) I love how canonically Kate went from calling him and thinking of him as "the man with the skull cup" (or rather "the lady with the skull cup" in this exchange) to calling him Beau; I love how Beau calls Kate by name except for when he seems particularly annoyed with her in which case he switches over to "campground manager" like most of the other inhuman things LOL. anything that plays with their fun dynamic and push-and-pull with names would be great!
- if you're interested, I could like trans headcanons for either/both of these characters! I have a preference for Kate being either a trans woman or the embodiment of the "im probably nonbinary but i have a job so idrc about that rn" tweet, and can easily canon Beau as the inhuman equivalent of nonbinary and/or a trans man, and would be happy for that to be changed to nonbinary and/or a trans woman. trans headcanons for any other characters that show up are also 100% good. and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!
Inside Out (Pixar Movies)
Anxiety/Ennui
[Where you can find Inside Out 2 free online: Putlocker!
You can also watch the first movie on Putlocker if you want more context on Riley's life so far, how the world works, etc., and it's a good introduction, but these two characters are not in it.
Both movies are about an hour and a half long each.
(And the Disney Magic Kingdoms event can be seen here if you're interested: 1, 2, 3, and 4! All four videos together are less than 20 minutes total, and you can skip around to where the characters are actually talking onscreen. You can also leave the sound off because there's no voice acting and the YouTuber reads the dialogue out loud, unfortunately.)]
These two have such a fun dynamic, while they don't interact as much as some other characters in the second movie, what is there makes me so happy! I am a sucker for "anxious all the time (but affectionate)" and "blasé all the time (but with a soft spot)" and these two really do have such nice little moments towards one another.
I love how, even during her movie-long downward spiral, Anxiety obviously cared for her three friends and was supportive and affectionate, and how she obviously went out of her way to learn at least a little French to call Ennui "mon ami"! I love how, despite acting entirely bored and "too cool for anyone," Ennui was still paying attention to Anxiety (despite her words) and actually physically got up to help out (in her casual way) from time to time. And when Anxiety really started breaking down, Ennui was visibly worried along with the others!
(Plus, like, it's totally extracanon noncanon material, but there's currently an event introducing Ennui and Anxiety into the mobile game Disney Magic Kingdoms and they are really cute in it. Ennui immediately recognizes signs that Anxiety is spiraling even when Anxiety isn't physically present! She tracks her down to where she's barricaded herself into a closet and talks her through breathing exercises to help calm her down, even tricking her into doing them halfway properly... while Anxiety is still inside the closet. And then makes her lounge to calm down when she's still kinda freaking out! And it works! And I'm emotional about it!)
I really like the idea of these two having this casual sort of history together, and bonding even further than they seem to already be in the movie... Either bonding due to the events of the movie (maybe Anxiety is trying to make up for everything, and/or Ennui is trying to check in and make sure Anxiety is okay now?), because they were already interested in each other (or one of them was interested before...), or maybe both! Anxiety encouraging Ennui to be a bit more motivated/engaged/social, or make her smile... maybe unintentionally getting her worked up... Ennui trying to find ways to help Anxiety relax and calm down, sometimes deadpan teasing or trolling her... These two could be so supportive, even if in a fumbling way, but I could also see them grating on each other sometimes too. They could have a really fun dynamic!
Ideas & Prompts
I would love stuff set soon after canon, or even in that space between the scene where Joy takes the console for the scrimmage and the actual end of the movie. If you wanted to play with their relationships with the other emotions any, how do the new emotions and the original emotions get past the initial awkwardness and uncertainty to really become a team? If not, do either or both of these two reach out to the other? All the new emotions seem to have an established closeness pre-canon, but I could see the events of the movie really bringing them together, too! Or maybe these two already cared about each other a good deal even if they weren't open about (or aware of) the extent of their feelings?
I especially like the idea of Ennui being more concerned than she necessarily wants to let on and going to check on Anxiety to see how she's doing after all that. Relatedly or not, one idea that came to mind is what if Anxiety tries to avoid touching the console at all for a while after what happened at camp, worried that she'll just hurt Riley again? I could also really like Ennui helping teach Anxiety ways to calm down. Or, honestly, Anxiety trying to coax Ennui to get a little more involved or open, because she knows she cares about everyone and Riley. It could also just be sweet to have one of them comforting the other after a nightmare of their own, or both of them doing so!
I really do like the worldbuilding of the Inside Out universe; if you wanted to play with anything that's already been shown to be there, or make some new stuff up, that could be great! Anxiety trying to sneak to Dream Studios to get them to not give Riley nightmares about what happened at hockey camp? Ennui encouraging another brainstorm more as a procrastination measure than anything? Them taking the Train of Thought for some reason, or hesitantly helping nurture the new, end-of-movie Sense of Self?
I could also really like some full AUs! When it comes to crossover AUs, I am mostly into Pokémon stuff. I could see Anxiety with Electric and/or Psychic type Pokémon, "watchful" Pokémon, and/or Sinistea/Polteageist, and Ennui with various sleep-related Pokémon (Snorlax, Munna, Komala), plus Rotom -- but you could give them any Pokémon and I'd be THRILLED! (Hell, you could make it a Pokémon Snap AU specifically and I'd be thrilled!) I could also enjoy an AU where the various emotions are friendly ghosts that are haunting Riley and trying to help her, whether Riley can see and talk to them or not. Also, while I'm not super into most mundane AUs, I am honestly a sucker for band AUs, dance AUs, noir AUs, and could be very interested in an AU where the emotions are themselves hockey players!
Finally, porn! I could really love porn for these two; they bring such different energy to the table, unless of course they end up meeting each other's energy... Some ideas for things I like with these two specifically: grinding/frottage (fully clothed or not), strap-on sex (possibly including blowjobs/handjobs, even!), massage turning erotic turning into sex, languid or energetic oral, fingering, nipple play, sex toy use via a phone app, unexpected orgasm from something they really didn't think would get them off, Anxiety taking things slower (or being made/encouraged to), Ennui getting worked up and more intense herself...
And it's not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Alice et Moi - "Je suis all about you"; dodie - "Would You Be So Kind"; girl in red - "i wanna be your girlfriend"; Joyce Jonathan - "Ça ira"; LP - "Conversation"; Madilyn Mei - "Knotted Constellations"; Mega Mango - "Blurt"; Natural Health - "Can't You See"; Ricky Montgomery - "Eraser"; Siamés - As You Get High
Canon-Specific DNWs
- Anxiety presented as an actual villain as opposed to just the antagonist of the movie
- anyone but Joy calling Ennui "Weewee / Ui-ui," or Ennui liking that nickname
- fic set pre-canon, before the new emotions come up to Headquarters, maybe even pre-canon get together
- fic set post-canon, dealing with what happened or just settling in, growing closer, getting together then
- fic that starts pre-canon and ends post-canon
- exploring how the emotions are pretty heavily inclined towards their own emotion but also have depth and other aspects to them
- how much these two, and the new emotions in general, seem to care about and vibe with each other, how easily they work together and encourage each other!
- crossdressing and gender play
- Ennui helping Anxiety calm some; Anxiety giving Ennui a little more energy or making her respond more openly
- DANCING TOGETHER
- noncanon background pairings I actually enjoy if they happen to come up: Joy/Sadness, Joy/Sadness/Disgust, Disgust/Lance Slashblade, and/or Bree/Grace; also Riley having a crush on Val or otherwise just not being straight (and/or being nonbinary!)
- nicknames! pet names! names in general! plus LANGUAGE STUFF! primarily I just love how Anxiety calls Ennui "mon ami" at that one point, so I could also really love either or both of these two calling each other cute little French endearments at any point! (Ennui calling Anxiety "mon souci" could be cute, because souci can mean marigold but also worry/concern/anxiety...) or Ennui calling her Anxiété or Angoisse sometimes? I love Ennui's random French she tosses out in general!
- if you're interested, I could like trans headcanons for either/both of these characters! I have a preference for both of them either being trans women, or either she/they or they/them nonbinary. trans headcanons for any other characters that show up are also 100% good; I have a slight preference for Disgust, Joy, and Sadness staying women, trans or not, and I love nonbinary Riley and could really like transfem and/or nonbinary Fear, but really just do whatever! and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel)
Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
[If you don't actually own the game, you can find the following videos on YouTube:
• BAI GAMING Video #1 - Pertinent parts are at 50:50-58:35 (The Razor, starting at the point where all the voices start coming in) and 2:12:52-2:56:12 (The Nightmare, with Voice of the Paranoid, and The Moment of Clarity with everyone)
• BAI GAMING Video #2 - Pertinent parts are at 57:46-1:06:59 (The Apotheosis, with Voice of the Paranoid) and 1:39:37-2:53:04 (The Spectre and The Wraith, with Voice of the Cold)
• Slay the Princess - The Spectre & The Wraith - Pertinent part is at 31:00-48:28 (The Wraith variation, with Voice of the Cold and Voice of the Paranoid)
• BAI GAMING Video #3 - Pertinent part is at 2:53:14-3:09:25 (The Wild, with Voice of the Paranoid)
• BAI GAMING Video #4 - Pertinent parts are at 26:22-46:40 (The Burned Grey, with Voice of the Cold), 1:30:29-1:49:54 (The Drowned Grey, with Voice of the Cold), and 1:53:08-2:41:07 (The Nightmare variations, with way more from Voice of the Paranoid)
• Slay the Princess - All Endings - Potentially pertinent part is at 26:15-28:09 (A New Dawn ending)
PRISTINE CUT ADDITIONS:
• Apotheosis Fight + Unravelled/Grace Endings (Paranoid) [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - About 40 minutes, with Voice of the Paranoid.
• The Cage Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - Pertinent part is at 27:49-48:57 (with Voice of the Paranoid).
• Adversarial Fury - Contrarian/Broken/Cold [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - Pertinent part is 1:08:59-1:42:38 (with Voice of the Cold).
• Fury - Quantum Beak (you can respawn) [Slay The Princess - The Pristine Cut] - Pertinent part is 22:39-39:10 (with Voice of the Cold).
• Happily Ever After Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - 37:39 minutes, with Voice of the Paranoid.
• The Princess and the Dragon Route in Slay the Princess - Playthrough and Route Endings - About 51 minutes, with Voice of the Cold.
Watching all of the above pertinent parts would take about 7 and a half hours, but you can easily knock it down to about 2 hours and 5 minutes by just watching their main routes: The Nightmare in the first video (2:12:52-2:40:21), The Spectre in the second video (1:39:37-2:28:30) and the Princess and the Dragon video, and The Wraith variation with both of them (31:00-48:28). Or watch whatever bits of whatever playthroughs you like...
Or, of course, play it yourself; just go with whatever works for you! :D]
These two really, really intrigue me. They don't get to interact that much, but they're quite interesting in The Wraith route, and also have moments in some of the other routes -- and some similarities and general qualities -- that make me think that they could really catch the other's attention if given more opportunity.
For one thing, they are both very aware of and surprisingly in control of their bodies. (Well, their shared body. The protagonist's body. Let's just say "their bodies" for simplicity.) Voice of the Cold constantly talks about choosing to just stop feeling things, both emotions and any negative physical sensations; their back-and-forth of "Do we have to explain to you why pain is bad?" "You have to explain to yourself why it isn't," is VERY cool. But despite Voice of the Paranoid being obviously high-strung, he also has an immense amount of steel to him, not only manually running the body's autonomic nervous system during The Nightmare route, but also showing up specifically to keep Voice of the Broken in check during The Apotheosis route after Broken let The Tower into their mind which led to their death.
There are also little details, such as the fact that Cold usually shows up after you kill the Princess in cold blood and then yourself, and Paranoid also encourages killing yourself if you become trapped in The Nightmare route due to killing her. This actually leads to Cold showing up... And interestingly, before that, if the protagonist says to the Hero and the Paranoid that it'd be fine to be stuck in the void forever because they're the best company, Paranoid says, "Oh, you could do better than us," and that's right before Cold comes into the picture. In The Wraith route, he and Cold and Hero and the protagonist have to all work together to toss their body into the void with The Wraith in it, if they choose that route, and the "everyone on the count of three" moment Paranoid takes charge of is just neat.
And in a general sense, I really think they could... see something interesting in each other. Paranoid is nervy and definitely hasn't shut off his emotions at all, but he also has that aforementioned steel and sharp control over himself/his body/The Body, that might be even more intriguing and impressive based on how unexpected it is. And Cold is a dangerous person, yes, but is actually less dangerous to the other voices than someone like the Broken or even the Smitten, and might also be easier to predict than someone like the Opportunist or even the Hunted -- you know exactly what his danger is, if he's going to be dangerous. And at the same time, Paranoid seems to trust the other voices in a way he doesn't trust anyone "other," and Cold seems to want to help the other voices, often trying to give them advice on how to get through situations without breaking down. There's an automatic sort of rapport there that makes it more likely they'd get close to each other than if they were just ordinary people with their same personalities.
Also, speaking of that, I do love the bodysharing and would be super into that if you want to roll with it, but I also love a theoretical post-canon situation where maybe the voices are all getting their own bodies. You don't even have to get into how and why they have different bodies if you want to do that; just handwaving it would be fine!
Ideas & Prompts
First, let me just say, feel free to give them any kinds of bodies and any kind of genitals, xeno or human, cis or trans, whatever. Full bird-monster like in game, somewhat more humanoid bird-people, mostly human-ish with bird elements, fully human or human-like bodies? Sure! Cloacas, dicks, vaginas, both sets, tentacles, a void that acts as an erogenous zone, able to have whatever they want with the power of belief? Absolutely! Also, feel free to make preening or wing stuff sexy or not!
I love how many ways there are to play with things in this canon. So many of the endings make for great post-canon fodder! After "There are no endings" or "A new and unending dawn," are the voices all still sharing that one body with the Long Quiet? Or do they split off into their own bodies at any point, maybe as sort of demigod helpers? After "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you" do they ever calm down or does the Long Quiet forcibly eject them from himself/herself? After "And? What happens next?" the voices all seem to be separate from the Long Quiet, at least, but invisible/formless; do they ever gain forms or not? Hero said they'd go and find the others, which could be fun to play with; are they stuck in the Construct (maybe a much less dangerous Construct) or do they escape out into the real world? And what is the state of that real world like?
I could even love some of the "less likely" endings as starting points. After the "Good Ending" or the "Oblivion Ending," might the voices, not wanting to cease existing, forcibly separate themselves from the nothingness that is the Long Quiet again and try to bring the Long Quiet and/or the Shifting Mound back? And what is going on in "Your New World" -- are the voices still with the Long Quiet but TLQ can't hear them, or did TLQ leave without them and now they're just out in that world, whatever it is like, completely unable to reach him and just having to deal with it all?
I also enjoy canon-divergent stuff! This could just be done at any point for any reason, new chapters, new Princesses (Chapter II or III or beyond!), new voice combinations, the "wrong" voices showing up in specific chapters, them showing up in a chapter with the Princess not there at all, just new and different options... It could be without any explanation, but it could also arguably be a post-"You're on a path in the woods..." ending thing, where maybe the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound loop so often the Construct starts glitching and breaking down?
I could also really like some full AUs. Urban fantasy AUs are pretty excellent, and more slice of life stuff while they're still bird people would be loved, honestly! Apocalyptic, post-apocalyptic, horror, and fantasy AUs, and any mix of them, would be very fitting. And I love the idea of some crossover AUs: D&D, Spire: The City Must Fall, Night in the Woods, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Dead By Daylight, NaissanceE, BLAME!, and Annihilation all seem like they'd work super well! At the same time, I could really love all of this written not even as an AU, but just what the world is like outside of the Construct after one of the game's endings, with the voices suddenly having to deal with it.
I also love soulmates and soulbonding, though that can be an AU or not, tbh. Is soulbonding just a thing that can happen, or just a thing for the voices in general, because they all shared one body/used to be just one person? Are the voices and the vessels soulmates just inherently because of that "used to be one universal force/being" thing, and does that extend to the voices with one another (and the vessels with one another, actually)? And similarly to a lot of the stuff listed above, heat/rut, outright omegaverse, or hanahaki are things I could be into in the context of an AU, but I'd also love if the voices got their own bodies and/or were dropped out into the real world and those were just... things they suddenly have to get used to, rather than being a full AU!
Finally, when it comes to porn... I am into so much. I could see these two getting intense about each other. Choking, masochism in general, blade play, being overwhelmed by what they can do to the other (maybe especially Paranoid wanting to make Cold react/feel), experimentation, fear kink, trust, and of course first time stuff! I could love Paranoid asking Cold to push his limits until he has to safeword just to prove to himself a)that he can and trusts him and also that b)Cold will actually stop. I could love somnophilia where Cold's just like, yeah, you can do whatever while I'm asleep, but he ends up very responsive while asleep in a way Paranoid is very fascinated by, and maybe that starts bleeding into how he reacts to sex while awake? I could love Paranoid getting turned on by random shit he's alarmed and ashamed by his own response to (fear, being choked in a non-sex context, whatever) and either not wanting to masturbate about it and needing help, or getting caught masturbating about it (maybe even doing so in the same room where Cold is sleeping...?). I could love dubcon with sex pollen or possession or any number of things that they're actually both into and need to work out afterwards. I could love a scenario where these two have to hide for some reason and get trapped watching or listening to some people have sex, and they've never really experienced anything like that before and it gets them turned on/interested. I could love omegaverse (or some equivalent) where Paranoid is a beta/goes into heat and won't let ANY alphas or omegas/anyone who goes into heat or rut around him, but Cold is a beta/doesn't have either and someone needs to, like, bring Paranoid food and the like, but Paranoid is still increasingly desperate... And those are just some ideas; feel free to write any porn you think I might like!
And it's also not necessary for you to follow any of these prompts! If any of them inspire you, that's very cool. If not, you can give me anything you think I'd like based on my likes, what I've written here, the way I've described this ship... and I know I'll love it!
Songs that make me think of them: Apistat Commander - "Bird/Switchblade"; Charlotte Martin - "Four Walls"; Holly Conlan - "OK"; Hozier - "Shrike"; Julien Baker - "Shadowboxing"; Manchester Orchestra - "I Know How To Speak"; Mega Mango - "Undone"; Penelope Scott - "Sin Eater"; Purity Ring - "fineshrine"; Will Wood - "Um, it's Kind of a Lot"
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas/some more specific prompts, I've done a couple of freeform exchanges!
Canon-Specific DNWs
- any implication that the characters will cease existing after the end of the game/any time soon
- either character bodysharing with the protagonist or any of the other voices (except each other!) by the time porn is happening, if it happens, unless otherwise requested!
- non-canon background pairings I'm good with if any of these characters show up are: any other voice/voice shipping (including poly); literally any vessel/vessel shipping; Adversary/Stubborn, Broken/Stranger, Broken/Wild, Cheated/Thorn, Damsel/Smitten, Hunted/Wild, Prisoner/Skeptic, Razor/Stubborn; Contrarian/Echo/Hero
- I'm happy with the voices being varying degrees of bird-person, with or without beaks, straightforwardly bird-y or more like Mothman given the Protagonist's reflection (or even like dragon-bird hybrid things!), or with more human (or human-looking) forms
- I'm also equally happy with every single voice having their own separate body, or with some of them still bodysharing while they sort out the whole "getting their own bodies" thing, just so long as Cold and Paranoid aren't sharing bodies with any characters other than each other when any smut starts if applicable
- the sheer amount of control these two both seem to have over themselves...
- and, alternately, the idea that each might actually be able to make the other come apart. maybe more than anyone else could manage. maybe in part because they might just let it happen.
- the "And? What happens next?" ending and the strong hints that the voices will continue to exist and find one another again even after the protagonist and the Princess leave
- fic set while in the Construct, maybe even during the events of the game, somehow!
- the "A New and Unending Dawn" ending (whether everyone hates you or not) and the idea of the voices figuring out existence after that
- come to that, the strong hints that the voices are actually developing beyond their named traits and becoming their own more rounded individual people: Contrarian in The Stranger version of the "And? What happens next?" ending, Hero protesting being just "a shard of broken glass," all of them wanting to avoid individual death and continue existing
- the idea of the voices surviving even in the new "Your New World" ending, just being separated completely and irreversibly from the new god that is the Long Quiet, and having to deal with this new world now
- mutual fascination with real fondness underneath, even if there's exasperation there too
- INTENSITY
- crossdressing, and just exploring wearing clothes in general! (trans realizations due to this are loved!)
- DANCING TOGETHER
- AUs I'm into: soulmates AU; AU where soulbonding is a thing; heat/rut or omegaverse AU; hanahaki AU; post-apocalyptic or apocalypse AU; D&D, the Spire RPG, Night in the Woods, Silent Hill, Fatal Frame, Dead By Daylight, NaissanceE, BLAME!, or Annihilation crossover AUs; especially any of these "AUs" only they get dropped into a universe where those are a thing post-canon, so they're not written as an AU!
- NAME STUFF. names in general! nicknames and pet names if you can make it work for them! none of the voices really refer to one another by name or even by description in canon; do they still think of each other as "Voice of the Cold," or just "the Paranoid," or just "Cold," or something like "the paranoid one"? how might they come to refer to one another, think about one another? (I like the nickname Para, tbh, even if Cold doesn't use it himself!)
- if you're interested, I could like trans headcanons for either/both of these characters! I have a preference for trans woman Paranoid, and can easily imagine "any pronouns" nonbinary Cold, but anything works for either of them! trans headcanons for any other characters that show up are also 100% good. and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!