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malachiical) wrote2024-01-07 01:55 pm
malachiical) wrote2024-01-07 01:55 pm
Entry tags:
Candy Hearts Exchange Letter 2024
Hello, Candy Hearts creator! Thank you for writing for me! 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
The Last Halloween (Webcomic) - Doctor Fugue/Robert
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel) - Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
The Last Halloween (Webcomic)
Doctor Fugue/Robert
[Where you can find the comic: Here!
Book 1 is by far the most pertinent; that's 7 chapters/about 114 pages.]
For Doctor Fugue/Robert, this takes a little bit of explaining, since their interactions are minor and not particularly significant. But the more I thought about them individually, I liked what their slight interplay does say about them and how the shapes of their arcs kinda work together.
Doctor Fugue is undead, a doctor and supernatural (mad) scientist, a Victorian-ish ghost. One who haunts the church and can't leave. He employs what he thinks of as a little group of undead children to help him graverob bodies for his raising-the-dead experiments (as well as upgrading/replacing Jangles's various bits). He's a big faker; Robert flat-out says he's not a good doctor, which is proven very correct when Mona comes back. He not only hands a ten year old a magic weapon he knows nothing about and sends her and the other "kids" out with completely incorrect information, he's apparently sent multiple "group[s] of untrained misfits to their deaths without actually nowing what was going on," to the point that Charon's chewed him out about it at least once before. Fugue shoves a magic sickle into Mona's hands and pushes her out the door with a few undead "child" chaperones during the Apocalypse so that she can go take care of it; this is a whole bunch of terrible decisions all in a clump, made worse by him not understanding the situation and actually sending them on a wild goose chase in the end. Mona has to chop up and even kill multiple monsters, nearly dying more than once and actually losing an arm to the ordeal, something she makes clear to Fugue that she'll never forgive him for (which he finds fair). His whole arc seems to involve him getting a huge dose of guilt for once in his unlife, realizing just how badly he fucked this little group up, seeming to have a change of heart about the "playing Dr. Frankenstein" thing and trying in some small ways to start to make amends.
Robert, on the other hand, is posing as an undead, a doll cursed to life by voodoo. Until he tells Mona and Shirley, literally no one in the group including Fugue knows that he's a monster, not undead at all, and is also immortal (or what they call immortal) due to killing his human several decades prior; he claims to be an undead to avoid the attention of the Phagocyte. He's around 117 years old, if not a bit older, and he's often the closest thing the group has to a straight-man; he keeps his own secrets, even when it would be really helpful to share, because he rarely feels invested in others, and he doesn't tend to personally lend much of a hand, especially not to save people. He's calm and soft-spoken, good with normal human adults, and very calmly makes threats when called for as well (and sometimes even commits violence against his undead "friends," such as sewing Ringley's mouth shut, though they don't seem to mind). He, and let me state this again, killed his own human, Gene, decades before the canon starts, and tells the story at one point about how they had been one another's dearest friends and Robert had ruined Gene's entire life thoroughly until Gene had asked Robert to kill him. He says that it was and is his nature. He shows that this may not be as true as he thought.
Robert goes along on the save-the-world quest to keep everyone on track and give them even a tiny chance, but he saves Mona's life once and then tells her he'll never do it again so she'd better learn to save herself. Mona does learn, however, despite him keeping a lot of information back and outright lying at times, and he becomes more attached and invested in the outcome of their mission. It even gets to the point that he eventually fully opens up, becomes somewhat more reassuring (and even open to affectionate touch, which was Not a thing for him at first), sort of steps into a mentor role to Mona, and promptly sacrifices his own life to give her a fighting chance. His own arc involves him actually becoming attached to the situation and its people for once, to the point of purposefully sacrificing his life to give Mona a chance to survive and succeed (on what is, unbeknownst to them, a fool's errand), even admitting his own origins and past and coming face-to-face with the fact, for the first time, that maybe his nature as a monster is something he can choose to act counter to.
...So Fugue sends Mona, Robert, and the others off on a pointless quest that gets one of them killed and nearly kills two more of them, and is having to live with that fuck-up (figuratively speaking). He's obviously hit pretty hard by Robert's death and Mona's hatred of him, and comes to regret his choices and the results they had on the others, actually swearing off using corpses to make more undead for a while as he decides to use one of the fresh corpses to save Shirley's life instead. And by the end of Book One Fugue still hasn't even been made aware that Robert was a monster the whole time and has sort of... fused with the magic sickle that's supernaturally bonded to Mona. Overall, the canon, or at least Book 1, is a very interesting set of characters and relationships who are all affected and shaken badly by the general situation but also by the lies told and secrets kept, primarily by Fugue but also arguably by Robert, and the idea of two of them together really intrigues me.
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas for prompts than the ones listed below, I've asked for this ship in freeform exchanges a few times now!
- Something set pre-canon could be interesting, though it might be harder to make it shippy! Robert obviously met Fugue after Gene was dead and he'd started claiming to be undead/a cursed doll. What might their early dynamic have been like? How did he even start doing jobs for Fugue; how did they think about each other at the start and how did they come to think about each other over time? (This could be fun for little snapshots of their relationship over time, whether in a 5+1 format or something else!)
- Something set post-canon somehow would be great; you could handwave a world where monsters and undead are now the undisputed main people on Earth, or one or both are dying out because they actually did need humans, or maybe humans have made a comeback, or maybe there's even an uneasy peace now! I am okay with Robert either having survived the situation with Ba'al or having been brought back from the dead somehow, or even being around as a spirit himself. What is the new normal for everyone, and/or for these two specifically?
- Something set post-Book 1 but maybe during or before Book 2 could be a lot of fun... I'll admit, I particularly love scenarios where Fugue brings Robert back to life, either because Mona actually goes to him for help (is Robert still alive on some level because he's merged with her sickle? ...is she now unaging/immortal herself, do they have a weird bond now?) or because Fugue just feels immensely guilty and is trying to make as much right as possible. Fugue does know rituals to raise the dead, after all! I would be happy with Robert back in his own healed body somehow, in a different but identical (or near-identical) body, in a different doll-ish body, as a ghost/spirit himself, or maybe even in a human (or human-looking) body (especially if you lean into how disquieting someone who isn't used to things like "facial expressions" or "blinking" could be in a human body!). I could also be very happy with an AU where Robert didn't die to Ba'al!
- What about a scenario where Robert and Fugue (and any of the other characters, like Shirley or even Mona's parent?) are traveling with Mona on her quest? This could be fun! Why did they go? Did monsters find their town, maybe trying to hunt down the monster slayer? How do they escape unharmed from that situation? (Rescues or H/C?) How would Fugue get free of that church? He apparently can't leave... Would destroying the place somehow free him from it, especially if one of them carries along a piece of the church with them? Any part of this could be fun, including any of the previous scenarios, quiet conversations in the night, searching for the Phagocyte, risking traversing the Shadow Dimension, taking out dangerous monsters, traversing potentially-dangerous but arguably neutral towns... or what if they find the hospital where the Phagocyte is at and come face to face with the gods? (Or if Tick-Tock loops the hospital hallways and won't let them into the room and Robert not only realizes what's happening but that the gods must be there and actually goes "I think we need to leave immediately"...)
- Maybe something set in an alternate universe where the monster apocalypse didn't happen at all! How much Robert and Fugue grow closer without that character development... Or how might they develop the same or similarly without that apocalypse, what would have to happen?
- I do also ship Robert and Gene, but even without that, can I just say that I love the concept of Robert being literally or figuratively haunted by Gene. This has come up before but really. Gene or one of his relatives or past loves literally coming back as an angry, dangerous ghost or other type of undead? A living relative or old friend/flame of Gene's tipping the Phagocyte off towards Robert somehow?
- An AU where everyone knew Robert was a monster from the start, or Robert only came through into the world when the monster apocalypse starts (with Gene being alive/maybe even a child in the current time, or the monster apocalypse happening back them instead)? Or an AU where Robert is actually undead, a cursed doll, and Fugue is a monster that might resemble an unhinged mad scientist ghost?
- I love scenarios where these two bond over having similar character arcs, whether they actually talk about it or not. Not really caring at first but suddenly being hit with attachment that's strong enough to hurt (or maybe even kill), keeping secrets that are responsible for really harming the people around you that you've come to care about maybe a little too late... They're both sort of growing and changing as people when they probably hadn't thought it possible and hadn't even been at all interested before, so that could be a very fun dynamic to play with!
- I also love scenarios where Fugue finds out Robert is a monster and is kinda fascinated by it! Does it make him look at Robert in a new light? He was basically sending off "weird undead children" to do random shit for him and then eventually maybe get killed, and now this "weird undead child" isn't undead and has never even been a child, and maybe he has so many questions (for the sake of future slideshows)... I also find it funny that even after Book 1 Fugue never found out that Robert was a monster, so him finding out when it comes time to resurrect him, or even after Robert's been back to life for a while could be pretty funny too!
- Just in general I love shippy stuff for them and porn stuff, especially if it's weird or complicated! Forgiveness but wariness/forgiving but not forgetting? Judging but also deeply understanding each other? Willing to let the other get hurt until some invisible switch flips and they absolutely are not willing to let that happen at all? Awkwardly learning how to care about someone and actually show it? Possession as sexy (or as basically sex)? Weird genitalia or sex that doesn't have to do with genitalia at all? Weird intimacy either romantic or sexual or both or some third thing they're not sure about naming, it's all fun!
- As a final note, for this particular canon and ship, I opt into gore so long as it's recovered from/resurrected from/impossibly healed (and how could one even harm a ghost?), body horror, and permanent injury (maybe Robert is also missing an arm like Mona, since one of his is wrapped around the sickle now... and again, how might one injure a ghost at all?). I also opt into permanent character death in two very specific ways: the fact that, well, Fugue is a ghost (but I do not want him permanently going to the afterlife!), and I am also fine with Robert staying dead (or rather undead) so long as he becomes a ghost about it!
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 - Pertinent part is at 26:15-28:09 (A New Dawn ending)
Watching all of the above pertinent parts would take about 4 hours and 7 minutes, but you can easily knock it down to about 1 hour and 14 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 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; I have a guide for getting the most pertinent routes for this ship here. 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!
(Finally, I didn't request any other ships involving these two specifically because I really want fic where their relationship is the focus. That said, I am open to several other ships including them with that caveat: If you feel like writing Cold/Contrarian/Paranoid, Cold/Contrarian/Hero/Paranoid, or Cold/Hunted/Paranoid; Cold/Paranoid also with Nightmare, Spectre, or Wraith, whether or not Hero and/or the Long Quiet are also involved; or a fic where the voices are in general a polycule, go nuts!)
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas for prompts than what's below, I've asked for this ship in a freeform exchange once before, though it was a very specific one:
Honestly, as long as these two are into each other -- especially if there is a weird intensity to it to any degree -- I will be into it! But for some more specific ideas if you want to pull anything from any of these:
- Something set during the game somehow. As I said, I didn't request any poly ships with these two because I definitely want the focus to be on them. This can mean they somehow wind up interacting one-on-one alone during the events of the game -- maybe having to deal with a Princess or stuck in the Long Quiet together, either in one body or somehow separate? -- or I would be totally open to them in another path with the Protagonist and Voice of the Hero also around (maybe Chapter III: The Wraith, maybe an alternate Chapter III; feel free to veer off from canon here!).
- As an extra potential thing that sort of fits with the above: in the AMA for the game's release, Tony Howard-Arias noted that while the game was still in development, they had an idea where during the Shifting Mound fight, you would have to go back and resolve the final story beats with each vessel you'd collected, meaning finishing the fights with some. Voice of the Hero also says that the other voices are still out there mixed up with Her. So what about a scenario where Cold and Paranoid are stuck with the Wraith and having to deal with her in that context? Or one is stuck dealing with one Princess and the other actually shows up to help, having dealt with their own Princess already -- maybe the Spectre was much less unpleasant and Cold shows up to help free Paranoid and Opportunist from the Wild or help Paranoid kill the Apotheosis (I, uh, doubt Broken would be helping), or Paranoid managed to flee the Nightmare and is actually able to help Cold and Skeptic get away from the Grey?
- Something set after the "And? What happens next?" ending (either the default version or the Stranger version, doesn't matter!). Are the voices stuck in what remains of the construct now? Are they formless, all in one body again, or able to have separate forms? Or do they get to go out into actual reality... And what would actual reality even look like? You could go with a lot of things here, medieval fantasy, Basically Just D&D, modern/urban fantasy, futuristic, a blend of medieval and futuristic like Nimona, outright post-apocalyptic or even post-apocalyptic horror... I would love even little snapshots of a situation in any of those worlds! Them exploring, dealing with dangers, helping one another, rescues or H/C, quiet moments of intimacy, getting used to having their own individual bodies if they do... Are they mortal now? Are they demigods?
- In general, if you play with bodysharing, I kind of love the idea that Paranoid could just straight-up grab their shared body's hindbrain and stop Cold from doing something dangerous by either literally shutting that shit down or making him actually experience a panic attack without being able to shut it out! Hell, in an even more general sense, I love the idea that Paranoid can maybe manually make Cold feel things -- however you interpret that.
- Something set after one of the game's other endings! In "A new and unending dawn" they're all with the Long Quiet; can they interact in there, or do they split off and become their own little gods of this new world without death? In "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you," Paranoid seems hurt/betrayed/furious and Cold doesn't seem to care... How do they deal with things in that case? (Given how vast the Long Quiet is, I do not necessarily count them being in the Long Quiet in the "new and unending dawn" endings to be the same as bodysharing with him or with any of the others. I feel like it could get weird in there, no reason they can't have some privacy.) What if the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound pick the "You're on a path in the woods..." loop so often that the Construct starts breaking down somehow? Hell, in both "The Good Ending" and "Just as you once were nothing," the Long Quiet seems to just go back to being nothing, but what if various voices arise in those circumstances anyway and rebel from that nothingness somehow?
- Various fantasy AUs could be really fun! Just a straight-up D&D AU, whether it's a Forgotten Realms one, Eberron, or even something more out-there like Spelljammer or in one of the various Domains of Dread. Nimona AU. Changeling: The Lost AU (maybe they even are shards of one Changeling who got originally brought in!). Neverwhere AU. Fallen London AU. An AU involving Hanahaki (I really like versions where you can't just choose to remove your emotions, and even versions that are chronic and not deadly!), where one or both of them are cursed to transform into animals under certain circumstances (Ladyhawke-esque? Swan Princess-esque? Ranma 1/2-esque? pining or loneliness causes animal transformation?). Something based on a fairy tale!
- Other horror AUs! What if, instead of a Construct, they were trapped in a house (or castle, or forest, or village, or other location) that wants to consume them? Fatal Frame or Silent Hill AU. Annihilation AU. Something where they're trapped in a possibly-living place with alien, difficult to parse, and maybe even hostile architecture? (If you've read BLAME!, played NaissanceE, or watched that one Jacob Geller video you'll know what I mean.) Scary vampires? (Sexy vampires?) Or just in general, since the Princess Cold is associated with is the Spectre and Paranoid's is the Nightmare, and they both can become the Wraith, it feels fitting to have these two in a situation where they have to deal with ghosts! (I am also good with non-AU versions of pretty much any of these; what if they escape the Construct, post-"And? What happens next?" and have to deal with a place that works like any of the above?
- Scarlet Hollow or The Last Halloween AUs. I'd just love to see what those might look like!
- Modern AUs could be fun, whether mundane or not! I love bird people and ghosts and things still just being a thing, but I do not mind fully human AUs either. I am specifically into AUs with weird roommate situations (maybe they wound up as roommates or dormmates, or maybe Cold becomes roommates with one of the other voices and there's already an established habit of Paranoid comes over every so often to fall asleep sitting up on their couch because sometimes he can't fuckin sleep otherwise, due to not having a roommate or not feeling comfortable/safe with his or just periodically getting sexiled)... weird hobby group situations (maybe all the voices meet as part of one group even if some of them have to be dragged there)... and blind date situations (I admit I find the idea of any of the others basically staging an intervention for Cold because he won't stop fucking his exes despite the fact that it is violent hatesex and they are starting to get legitimate concerned he will get murdered very funny, but literally any setup would make me happy here!).
- And just in general, I love shippy stuff. Preening and/or huddling for warmth, if they're birdlike. (Hell, huddling for warmth if they're not.) Maybe even the two of them absently doing various mating ritual stuff without realizing they're doing it (preening, straightening up their living spaces before the other comes over, bringing the other food or little things they saw that made them think of them, mutual whistling or humming). H/C, rescues, protectiveness -- hell, I love the idea of them escaping into a horror world and trying to keep each other alive or one getting caught up by something dangerous, and I also love the idea of Paranoid just getting fucking stabbed in some fight against some thugs (maybe in part because Cold fights super carelessly and isn't even watching his own back well) and maybe even nearly dying and Cold having absolutely zero idea how to handle or respond to or express emotion even a little bit. Just... room sharing stuff! Bed sharing stuff! Cold startling the fuck out of Paranoid in the middle of the night! Paranoid having trouble in general with sleeping (night terrors, sleep paralysis, just overall insomnia or stress?) and/or over-preening, maybe Cold not knowing how to take good care of himself because he has a hard time figuring out how to care about things? The two of them on watch and talking quietly! Just weirdly intense moments between the two or weird little moments of domesticity or both. Almost kisses, almost touches, words or looks where it's hard to tell if the intensity is threatening or desirous but it's definitely a lot and it isn't exactly unwelcome... Hell, I am even into efforts by the others to get these two together, because some of them Would (and I bet some of them would even bet on it!); I maybe especially like this if maybe the two pretend it's working at first because they've caught onto the others' shit and want to show them a lesson but it becomes way less fake very quickly, LOL.
- I also, just in general, love porn stuff. I would be happy with that too. I feel like these two could get weird and intense with things! I also feel like Cold is a masochist, but I could see that being true of both of them potentially. I am into struggles, choking, scratching/clawing, manhandling, knifeplay, abruptly making out after they've had to stab some thugs to death or kill a monster, overwhelming stuff, getting either of them to the point that they'd beg... I also like stuff that is strangely soft but still kind of intense/desperate, maybe just in general because they are that kind of people, maybe out of loneliness or stress, maybe because something just happened or almost happened. I am also good with any genitalia you give either of them, whether it's penises, vaginas, both (with clits or without), cloacas, or something weirder!
- As a final note, for this particular canon and ship, I opt into gore so long as it's recovered from/resurrected from/impossibly healed, body horror, and even permanent injury if it fits into your story! (Someone losing a hand or an eye jumps out to me especially.) I also opt into noncon/dubcon specifically if it is not between Cold/Paranoid; if it's done to either or both of them by a third party, if one of them has to watch/can't help or helps the other through it in the aftermath, I am totally into that! (I find the Nightmare doing that shit particularly hot, but some totally new third party out in the real world would also be great!)
Canon-Specific DNWs
General DNWs
General Likes
Porn Likes
The Last Halloween (Webcomic) - Doctor Fugue/Robert
Slay the Princess (Visual Novel) - Voice of the Cold/Voice of the Paranoid
General DNWs
- noncon/dubcon (unless otherwise requested!)
- smut with characters under 16
- gore or permanent injury (unless otherwise stated)
- permanent character death (unless otherwise stated)
- infidelity
- 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
- 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)
- unnecessary use of safewords or stoplight symbols (if the characters are kinking on it that's a fine reason)
- feederism, weight gain, inflation, pregnancy (mentions of OCs being pregnant are fine; breeding kink without any possibility of pregnancy is great!)
- scat, watersports, vomit kink (someone throwing up not in a kink context is fine)
- vore, bestiality, somnophilia, 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!
- fic rated from G through E!
- 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
- intense relationships and general intensity
- redemption arcs, gray morality, general complexity, lighter takes on villains & villain redemption both
- hurt/comfort
- 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!)
- I really do love age gaps tbh; especially I find older characters hot & also love when the other characters do
- 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)
- 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
- mutually enjoyed/kinked-on breeding kink dirty talk when actual pregnancy is outright impossible and does not happen
- 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
- porn is always welcome!
The Last Halloween (Webcomic)
Doctor Fugue/Robert
[Where you can find the comic: Here!
Book 1 is by far the most pertinent; that's 7 chapters/about 114 pages.]
For Doctor Fugue/Robert, this takes a little bit of explaining, since their interactions are minor and not particularly significant. But the more I thought about them individually, I liked what their slight interplay does say about them and how the shapes of their arcs kinda work together.
Doctor Fugue is undead, a doctor and supernatural (mad) scientist, a Victorian-ish ghost. One who haunts the church and can't leave. He employs what he thinks of as a little group of undead children to help him graverob bodies for his raising-the-dead experiments (as well as upgrading/replacing Jangles's various bits). He's a big faker; Robert flat-out says he's not a good doctor, which is proven very correct when Mona comes back. He not only hands a ten year old a magic weapon he knows nothing about and sends her and the other "kids" out with completely incorrect information, he's apparently sent multiple "group[s] of untrained misfits to their deaths without actually nowing what was going on," to the point that Charon's chewed him out about it at least once before. Fugue shoves a magic sickle into Mona's hands and pushes her out the door with a few undead "child" chaperones during the Apocalypse so that she can go take care of it; this is a whole bunch of terrible decisions all in a clump, made worse by him not understanding the situation and actually sending them on a wild goose chase in the end. Mona has to chop up and even kill multiple monsters, nearly dying more than once and actually losing an arm to the ordeal, something she makes clear to Fugue that she'll never forgive him for (which he finds fair). His whole arc seems to involve him getting a huge dose of guilt for once in his unlife, realizing just how badly he fucked this little group up, seeming to have a change of heart about the "playing Dr. Frankenstein" thing and trying in some small ways to start to make amends.
Robert, on the other hand, is posing as an undead, a doll cursed to life by voodoo. Until he tells Mona and Shirley, literally no one in the group including Fugue knows that he's a monster, not undead at all, and is also immortal (or what they call immortal) due to killing his human several decades prior; he claims to be an undead to avoid the attention of the Phagocyte. He's around 117 years old, if not a bit older, and he's often the closest thing the group has to a straight-man; he keeps his own secrets, even when it would be really helpful to share, because he rarely feels invested in others, and he doesn't tend to personally lend much of a hand, especially not to save people. He's calm and soft-spoken, good with normal human adults, and very calmly makes threats when called for as well (and sometimes even commits violence against his undead "friends," such as sewing Ringley's mouth shut, though they don't seem to mind). He, and let me state this again, killed his own human, Gene, decades before the canon starts, and tells the story at one point about how they had been one another's dearest friends and Robert had ruined Gene's entire life thoroughly until Gene had asked Robert to kill him. He says that it was and is his nature. He shows that this may not be as true as he thought.
Robert goes along on the save-the-world quest to keep everyone on track and give them even a tiny chance, but he saves Mona's life once and then tells her he'll never do it again so she'd better learn to save herself. Mona does learn, however, despite him keeping a lot of information back and outright lying at times, and he becomes more attached and invested in the outcome of their mission. It even gets to the point that he eventually fully opens up, becomes somewhat more reassuring (and even open to affectionate touch, which was Not a thing for him at first), sort of steps into a mentor role to Mona, and promptly sacrifices his own life to give her a fighting chance. His own arc involves him actually becoming attached to the situation and its people for once, to the point of purposefully sacrificing his life to give Mona a chance to survive and succeed (on what is, unbeknownst to them, a fool's errand), even admitting his own origins and past and coming face-to-face with the fact, for the first time, that maybe his nature as a monster is something he can choose to act counter to.
...So Fugue sends Mona, Robert, and the others off on a pointless quest that gets one of them killed and nearly kills two more of them, and is having to live with that fuck-up (figuratively speaking). He's obviously hit pretty hard by Robert's death and Mona's hatred of him, and comes to regret his choices and the results they had on the others, actually swearing off using corpses to make more undead for a while as he decides to use one of the fresh corpses to save Shirley's life instead. And by the end of Book One Fugue still hasn't even been made aware that Robert was a monster the whole time and has sort of... fused with the magic sickle that's supernaturally bonded to Mona. Overall, the canon, or at least Book 1, is a very interesting set of characters and relationships who are all affected and shaken badly by the general situation but also by the lies told and secrets kept, primarily by Fugue but also arguably by Robert, and the idea of two of them together really intrigues me.
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas for prompts than the ones listed below, I've asked for this ship in freeform exchanges a few times now!
- Playlist Exchange 2022 (songs as inspiration)
- Hurt/Comfort Exchange 2023 (a lot of rambling about H/C stuff)
- Monster Smash Exchange 2023 (prompts that lean into monster/undead stuff)
- Flash Flood Exchange 2023 (bodily fluids, in this case mostly ejaculate and blood)
- Something set pre-canon could be interesting, though it might be harder to make it shippy! Robert obviously met Fugue after Gene was dead and he'd started claiming to be undead/a cursed doll. What might their early dynamic have been like? How did he even start doing jobs for Fugue; how did they think about each other at the start and how did they come to think about each other over time? (This could be fun for little snapshots of their relationship over time, whether in a 5+1 format or something else!)
- Something set post-canon somehow would be great; you could handwave a world where monsters and undead are now the undisputed main people on Earth, or one or both are dying out because they actually did need humans, or maybe humans have made a comeback, or maybe there's even an uneasy peace now! I am okay with Robert either having survived the situation with Ba'al or having been brought back from the dead somehow, or even being around as a spirit himself. What is the new normal for everyone, and/or for these two specifically?
- Something set post-Book 1 but maybe during or before Book 2 could be a lot of fun... I'll admit, I particularly love scenarios where Fugue brings Robert back to life, either because Mona actually goes to him for help (is Robert still alive on some level because he's merged with her sickle? ...is she now unaging/immortal herself, do they have a weird bond now?) or because Fugue just feels immensely guilty and is trying to make as much right as possible. Fugue does know rituals to raise the dead, after all! I would be happy with Robert back in his own healed body somehow, in a different but identical (or near-identical) body, in a different doll-ish body, as a ghost/spirit himself, or maybe even in a human (or human-looking) body (especially if you lean into how disquieting someone who isn't used to things like "facial expressions" or "blinking" could be in a human body!). I could also be very happy with an AU where Robert didn't die to Ba'al!
- What about a scenario where Robert and Fugue (and any of the other characters, like Shirley or even Mona's parent?) are traveling with Mona on her quest? This could be fun! Why did they go? Did monsters find their town, maybe trying to hunt down the monster slayer? How do they escape unharmed from that situation? (Rescues or H/C?) How would Fugue get free of that church? He apparently can't leave... Would destroying the place somehow free him from it, especially if one of them carries along a piece of the church with them? Any part of this could be fun, including any of the previous scenarios, quiet conversations in the night, searching for the Phagocyte, risking traversing the Shadow Dimension, taking out dangerous monsters, traversing potentially-dangerous but arguably neutral towns... or what if they find the hospital where the Phagocyte is at and come face to face with the gods? (Or if Tick-Tock loops the hospital hallways and won't let them into the room and Robert not only realizes what's happening but that the gods must be there and actually goes "I think we need to leave immediately"...)
- Maybe something set in an alternate universe where the monster apocalypse didn't happen at all! How much Robert and Fugue grow closer without that character development... Or how might they develop the same or similarly without that apocalypse, what would have to happen?
- I do also ship Robert and Gene, but even without that, can I just say that I love the concept of Robert being literally or figuratively haunted by Gene. This has come up before but really. Gene or one of his relatives or past loves literally coming back as an angry, dangerous ghost or other type of undead? A living relative or old friend/flame of Gene's tipping the Phagocyte off towards Robert somehow?
- An AU where everyone knew Robert was a monster from the start, or Robert only came through into the world when the monster apocalypse starts (with Gene being alive/maybe even a child in the current time, or the monster apocalypse happening back them instead)? Or an AU where Robert is actually undead, a cursed doll, and Fugue is a monster that might resemble an unhinged mad scientist ghost?
- I love scenarios where these two bond over having similar character arcs, whether they actually talk about it or not. Not really caring at first but suddenly being hit with attachment that's strong enough to hurt (or maybe even kill), keeping secrets that are responsible for really harming the people around you that you've come to care about maybe a little too late... They're both sort of growing and changing as people when they probably hadn't thought it possible and hadn't even been at all interested before, so that could be a very fun dynamic to play with!
- I also love scenarios where Fugue finds out Robert is a monster and is kinda fascinated by it! Does it make him look at Robert in a new light? He was basically sending off "weird undead children" to do random shit for him and then eventually maybe get killed, and now this "weird undead child" isn't undead and has never even been a child, and maybe he has so many questions (for the sake of future slideshows)... I also find it funny that even after Book 1 Fugue never found out that Robert was a monster, so him finding out when it comes time to resurrect him, or even after Robert's been back to life for a while could be pretty funny too!
- Just in general I love shippy stuff for them and porn stuff, especially if it's weird or complicated! Forgiveness but wariness/forgiving but not forgetting? Judging but also deeply understanding each other? Willing to let the other get hurt until some invisible switch flips and they absolutely are not willing to let that happen at all? Awkwardly learning how to care about someone and actually show it? Possession as sexy (or as basically sex)? Weird genitalia or sex that doesn't have to do with genitalia at all? Weird intimacy either romantic or sexual or both or some third thing they're not sure about naming, it's all fun!
- As a final note, for this particular canon and ship, I opt into gore so long as it's recovered from/resurrected from/impossibly healed (and how could one even harm a ghost?), body horror, and permanent injury (maybe Robert is also missing an arm like Mona, since one of his is wrapped around the sickle now... and again, how might one injure a ghost at all?). I also opt into permanent character death in two very specific ways: the fact that, well, Fugue is a ghost (but I do not want him permanently going to the afterlife!), and I am also fine with Robert staying dead (or rather undead) so long as he becomes a ghost about it!
Canon-Specific DNWs
- a strong focus on Fugue's sexism (I'd prefer for him to be capable of at least a bit of growth there; bringing it up somewhat in the context of internalized homophobia is fine)
- Fugue being entirely unrepentant post Book 1, actually
- Mona easily and completely forgiving Fugue unless otherwise requested
- implications that Robert and Gene never loved each other, especially that Robert never loved Gene, if that character comes up
- Halloween, spooky, and outright horror stuff works especially well for this canon!
- Ringley's dad/Mona's parent as a background ship is super cool; feel free to give them names (and/or surnames) or not
- Fugue helping Mona resurrect Robert (probably partly out of guilt)
- AU where Robert didn't die against Ba'al
- forgiveness, second chances, trying again somehow
- post-canon (or post-Book 1) fic in general
- Robert still being alive in Mona's sickle and being able to be brought back and/or show up as a ghost that way
- the sickle thing, if that idea is used, meaning that Mona is now immortal and also not aging (oops)
- Fugue finding out super belatedly that Robert is a monster, like possibly even 1-3 years after Book 1 (but less time than that is also good)
- protectiveness of any of the requested characters towards any of the others
- Fugue eventually being forgiven, at least mostly, at least by most of the characters
- Mona softening a bit on Fugue but still not forgiving him (like, noticing he's trying hard and maybe feeling sorry for him, maybe he makes her feel more tired than angry now)
- nonhuman characters, particularly monsters, being ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about gender
- trans headcanons in general! like I said, I like to imagine especially monster (rather than undead) characters being ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ about gender, so an interpretation of Robert not actually having anything like human gender would be cool; I can imagine him having absolutely no preferred pronouns and just going with whatever anybody calls him, but feel free to go with whatever! Fugue figuring out some odd gender stuff himself could also be interesting (nonbinary?), but maybe he was also a trans man all the way back when he was alive and mad scienced himself a transition, or his ghost shows up as the way he sees himself? (just not a trans woman for him, please!) other characters being trans if they're included could also be fun and I encourage it. and of course trans headcanons aren't obligatory!
- nicknames! pet names! names in general! Fugue just calls Robert by name, and I don't think he would accept a nickname (from anyone but Gene) frankly, and he calls Fugue "Doctor Fugue" pretty constantly. what might make him shorten that to Fugue? or does Fugue have a first name (or can he not recall)? and of course Mona and Shirley are just called Mona and Shirley; under what circumstances might a nickname be used on them? (or come from them? would Robert be fine with Mona calling him a nickname?) and if you could sell me on an endearment being used by either Fugue or Robert I would LOVE it!
- for horror stuff specifically, if you go that route, feel free to kill off OCs but not any canon characters that didn't die in canon; psychological and cosmic horror, but body horror can be great, as can ghosts and other monsters, isolated horror, and characters just telling scary stories, and I'm fine for gore and injury for this particular canon, though not exactly perma-death (obviously Dr. Fugue is perma-dead, but like, also a ghost about it, and ghosts don't count for me)
- ...I am also open to unusual takes on smut, since Robert is a living doll and Fugue is a ghost; how might either of them sexually interact with a human or with each other? can Fugue still get aroused and/or orgasm? how/why? does Robert not have genitalia but have some other erogenous places, and/or not get aroused or orgasm like humans but still have something sort of analagous, or does he pick up on others' feelings and emotions in a sort of psychic-ish stimulation? or feel free to go full unusual xeno; I do not mind and would be into it!
- ...finally I also just want to note that I love invisible people (or, well... ghosts, as Robert points out, but Fugue's still invisible besides his clothes and bandages!). and also Fugue's all leg. legs for days. I like these things.
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 - Pertinent part is at 26:15-28:09 (A New Dawn ending)
Watching all of the above pertinent parts would take about 4 hours and 7 minutes, but you can easily knock it down to about 1 hour and 14 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 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; I have a guide for getting the most pertinent routes for this ship here. 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!
(Finally, I didn't request any other ships involving these two specifically because I really want fic where their relationship is the focus. That said, I am open to several other ships including them with that caveat: If you feel like writing Cold/Contrarian/Paranoid, Cold/Contrarian/Hero/Paranoid, or Cold/Hunted/Paranoid; Cold/Paranoid also with Nightmare, Spectre, or Wraith, whether or not Hero and/or the Long Quiet are also involved; or a fic where the voices are in general a polycule, go nuts!)
Links to Previous Letters
If you want more ideas for prompts than what's below, I've asked for this ship in a freeform exchange once before, though it was a very specific one:
- Flash Flood Exchange 2023 (bodily fluids, in this case with prompts for ejaculate, blood, and tears)
Honestly, as long as these two are into each other -- especially if there is a weird intensity to it to any degree -- I will be into it! But for some more specific ideas if you want to pull anything from any of these:
- Something set during the game somehow. As I said, I didn't request any poly ships with these two because I definitely want the focus to be on them. This can mean they somehow wind up interacting one-on-one alone during the events of the game -- maybe having to deal with a Princess or stuck in the Long Quiet together, either in one body or somehow separate? -- or I would be totally open to them in another path with the Protagonist and Voice of the Hero also around (maybe Chapter III: The Wraith, maybe an alternate Chapter III; feel free to veer off from canon here!).
- As an extra potential thing that sort of fits with the above: in the AMA for the game's release, Tony Howard-Arias noted that while the game was still in development, they had an idea where during the Shifting Mound fight, you would have to go back and resolve the final story beats with each vessel you'd collected, meaning finishing the fights with some. Voice of the Hero also says that the other voices are still out there mixed up with Her. So what about a scenario where Cold and Paranoid are stuck with the Wraith and having to deal with her in that context? Or one is stuck dealing with one Princess and the other actually shows up to help, having dealt with their own Princess already -- maybe the Spectre was much less unpleasant and Cold shows up to help free Paranoid and Opportunist from the Wild or help Paranoid kill the Apotheosis (I, uh, doubt Broken would be helping), or Paranoid managed to flee the Nightmare and is actually able to help Cold and Skeptic get away from the Grey?
- Something set after the "And? What happens next?" ending (either the default version or the Stranger version, doesn't matter!). Are the voices stuck in what remains of the construct now? Are they formless, all in one body again, or able to have separate forms? Or do they get to go out into actual reality... And what would actual reality even look like? You could go with a lot of things here, medieval fantasy, Basically Just D&D, modern/urban fantasy, futuristic, a blend of medieval and futuristic like Nimona, outright post-apocalyptic or even post-apocalyptic horror... I would love even little snapshots of a situation in any of those worlds! Them exploring, dealing with dangers, helping one another, rescues or H/C, quiet moments of intimacy, getting used to having their own individual bodies if they do... Are they mortal now? Are they demigods?
- In general, if you play with bodysharing, I kind of love the idea that Paranoid could just straight-up grab their shared body's hindbrain and stop Cold from doing something dangerous by either literally shutting that shit down or making him actually experience a panic attack without being able to shut it out! Hell, in an even more general sense, I love the idea that Paranoid can maybe manually make Cold feel things -- however you interpret that.
- Something set after one of the game's other endings! In "A new and unending dawn" they're all with the Long Quiet; can they interact in there, or do they split off and become their own little gods of this new world without death? In "A new and unending dawn, and everyone hates you," Paranoid seems hurt/betrayed/furious and Cold doesn't seem to care... How do they deal with things in that case? (Given how vast the Long Quiet is, I do not necessarily count them being in the Long Quiet in the "new and unending dawn" endings to be the same as bodysharing with him or with any of the others. I feel like it could get weird in there, no reason they can't have some privacy.) What if the Long Quiet and the Shifting Mound pick the "You're on a path in the woods..." loop so often that the Construct starts breaking down somehow? Hell, in both "The Good Ending" and "Just as you once were nothing," the Long Quiet seems to just go back to being nothing, but what if various voices arise in those circumstances anyway and rebel from that nothingness somehow?
- Various fantasy AUs could be really fun! Just a straight-up D&D AU, whether it's a Forgotten Realms one, Eberron, or even something more out-there like Spelljammer or in one of the various Domains of Dread. Nimona AU. Changeling: The Lost AU (maybe they even are shards of one Changeling who got originally brought in!). Neverwhere AU. Fallen London AU. An AU involving Hanahaki (I really like versions where you can't just choose to remove your emotions, and even versions that are chronic and not deadly!), where one or both of them are cursed to transform into animals under certain circumstances (Ladyhawke-esque? Swan Princess-esque? Ranma 1/2-esque? pining or loneliness causes animal transformation?). Something based on a fairy tale!
- Other horror AUs! What if, instead of a Construct, they were trapped in a house (or castle, or forest, or village, or other location) that wants to consume them? Fatal Frame or Silent Hill AU. Annihilation AU. Something where they're trapped in a possibly-living place with alien, difficult to parse, and maybe even hostile architecture? (If you've read BLAME!, played NaissanceE, or watched that one Jacob Geller video you'll know what I mean.) Scary vampires? (Sexy vampires?) Or just in general, since the Princess Cold is associated with is the Spectre and Paranoid's is the Nightmare, and they both can become the Wraith, it feels fitting to have these two in a situation where they have to deal with ghosts! (I am also good with non-AU versions of pretty much any of these; what if they escape the Construct, post-"And? What happens next?" and have to deal with a place that works like any of the above?
- Scarlet Hollow or The Last Halloween AUs. I'd just love to see what those might look like!
- Modern AUs could be fun, whether mundane or not! I love bird people and ghosts and things still just being a thing, but I do not mind fully human AUs either. I am specifically into AUs with weird roommate situations (maybe they wound up as roommates or dormmates, or maybe Cold becomes roommates with one of the other voices and there's already an established habit of Paranoid comes over every so often to fall asleep sitting up on their couch because sometimes he can't fuckin sleep otherwise, due to not having a roommate or not feeling comfortable/safe with his or just periodically getting sexiled)... weird hobby group situations (maybe all the voices meet as part of one group even if some of them have to be dragged there)... and blind date situations (I admit I find the idea of any of the others basically staging an intervention for Cold because he won't stop fucking his exes despite the fact that it is violent hatesex and they are starting to get legitimate concerned he will get murdered very funny, but literally any setup would make me happy here!).
- And just in general, I love shippy stuff. Preening and/or huddling for warmth, if they're birdlike. (Hell, huddling for warmth if they're not.) Maybe even the two of them absently doing various mating ritual stuff without realizing they're doing it (preening, straightening up their living spaces before the other comes over, bringing the other food or little things they saw that made them think of them, mutual whistling or humming). H/C, rescues, protectiveness -- hell, I love the idea of them escaping into a horror world and trying to keep each other alive or one getting caught up by something dangerous, and I also love the idea of Paranoid just getting fucking stabbed in some fight against some thugs (maybe in part because Cold fights super carelessly and isn't even watching his own back well) and maybe even nearly dying and Cold having absolutely zero idea how to handle or respond to or express emotion even a little bit. Just... room sharing stuff! Bed sharing stuff! Cold startling the fuck out of Paranoid in the middle of the night! Paranoid having trouble in general with sleeping (night terrors, sleep paralysis, just overall insomnia or stress?) and/or over-preening, maybe Cold not knowing how to take good care of himself because he has a hard time figuring out how to care about things? The two of them on watch and talking quietly! Just weirdly intense moments between the two or weird little moments of domesticity or both. Almost kisses, almost touches, words or looks where it's hard to tell if the intensity is threatening or desirous but it's definitely a lot and it isn't exactly unwelcome... Hell, I am even into efforts by the others to get these two together, because some of them Would (and I bet some of them would even bet on it!); I maybe especially like this if maybe the two pretend it's working at first because they've caught onto the others' shit and want to show them a lesson but it becomes way less fake very quickly, LOL.
- I also, just in general, love porn stuff. I would be happy with that too. I feel like these two could get weird and intense with things! I also feel like Cold is a masochist, but I could see that being true of both of them potentially. I am into struggles, choking, scratching/clawing, manhandling, knifeplay, abruptly making out after they've had to stab some thugs to death or kill a monster, overwhelming stuff, getting either of them to the point that they'd beg... I also like stuff that is strangely soft but still kind of intense/desperate, maybe just in general because they are that kind of people, maybe out of loneliness or stress, maybe because something just happened or almost happened. I am also good with any genitalia you give either of them, whether it's penises, vaginas, both (with clits or without), cloacas, or something weirder!
- As a final note, for this particular canon and ship, I opt into gore so long as it's recovered from/resurrected from/impossibly healed, body horror, and even permanent injury if it fits into your story! (Someone losing a hand or an eye jumps out to me especially.) I also opt into noncon/dubcon specifically if it is not between Cold/Paranoid; if it's done to either or both of them by a third party, if one of them has to watch/can't help or helps the other through it in the aftermath, I am totally into that! (I find the Nightmare doing that shit particularly hot, but some totally new third party out in the real world would also be great!)
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 it's in the context of a poly situation where everyone involved is into it
- poly fic where there isn't a lot of focus on these two
- non-canon background pairings I'm good with are Voice of the Broken/Voice of the Hunted, Voice of the Broken/Voice of the Hunted/Voice of the Stubborn, Voice of the Broken/Voice of the Smitten, Voice of the Broken/Voice of the Stubborn, Voice of the Contrarian/Voice of the Hero, Voice of the Hunted/Voice of the Opportunist, Voice of the Hunted/Voice of the Stubborn, Voice of the Opportunist/Voice of the Skeptic, Voice of the Skeptic/Voice of the Smitten, and/or literally any vessel/vessel shipping if any of them show up!
- 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
- 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
- I am also cool with more human (or human-looking) forms and even some human AUs!
- 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
- 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?
- 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!