firebatvillain

Dear May Day Exchange Creator,

Thanks for writing - I’m really excited for this exchange. I hope you’re excited as well! I’m FireBatVillain on Ao3 and Tumblr.

The stuff I’m including in this letter is optional, but I hope you consider them as you work. Whatever you make, I’ll appreciate it regardless, and I look forward to whatever comes. Prompts are just suggestions.

Things I like:

Happy stories, bittersweet stories, and stories that end with a spark of hope even if they are angry or sad. I like good communication, wordplay, honor, pointless heroism or love even if it won’t succeed. Probably one of my favorite ideas in fiction is the idea of heroism in the face of hopelessness, and love even if things seem sad.

I'm a fan of explorations of fandom meta, and I've often enjoyed canon-compliant off-screen fics that explore things! Some of my favorite stories of all time fit into the category of "AU - Canon Divergence" and I would say I am a common fan of "what if things were different in X way" type AUs. I do not usually enjoy modern or mundane AUs that much, but I've liked a few.

I like fics that have a lot of frantic energy about them, or with a focus on change. I am a fan of fics that are about characters being ruthless in pursuit of an ideal, and giving something up or even becoming worse as a result, because of how much they value their goal.

Things I don’t like / DNWs:

My DNWs are mpreg, authorial monarchist apologia, vivid descriptions of needles, and extreme underage.

Regarding the monarchism thing: I’m okay with characters in a feudal or monarchist setting, and even protags who are monarchs, and even these characters triumphing as monarchs as long as the story itself isn’t apologia for monarchism. Characters who like monarchism, who think of themselves as good kings, who want to restore the throne, etc - all good by me. Strahd in Curse of Strahd, or Moriarty in A Study in Emerald, etc are excellent characters and enjoy works about them. I just would prefer not to read a work where the final moral of the story is that democracy is bad and we should all be ruled by a single person with absolute unchecked power, as presented by the author.

Some other notes:

Unrequested characters, ships, and ideas are A-OK with me, as is explicit content. Please feel free to use whatever prompts you like and don’t feel constrained by my suggestions here. I do not mind darkfic.

Requested Fandoms:

Request 1:A Study in Emerald - Neil Gaiman - Irene Adler & Sherlock Holmes, Sherlock Holmes & John Watson

I consider A Study in Emerald to have tremendous potential for fanworks (and it is, itself, a fanwork, as a crossover between the Cthulhu Mythos and Sherlock Holmes). I've enjoyed a lot of ASiE fics in the category of "a take on a classic story in this world" but I've also enjoyed when writers have gone their own route or tried to explore the aftermath of run-up to A Study in Emerald itself. The idea of a world haunted and ruled by the Great Old Ones, and the story of the Restorationists, fighting their power with only the tools of humanity in this dark alternate 1880s, is a lot of fun

Here's a few prompts if you're looking for something to inspire you.

• Irene Adler is a fellow Restorationist who crosses paths with Sherlock Holmes after a scandal - or a killing of a noble, and they work together to kill again.
• Sherlock Holmes investigates a hostile high society woman, Irene Adler, but finds she gets the best of him in a battle of wits.
• Holmes and Watson hunt for an eldritch treasure that could be crucial to the Restorationist cause, but are racing against royalist forces.
• Holmes and Watson are approached by another Restorationist who has the key to killing a famous noble, but before they can follow up, the Restorationist is captured by the police, raising the stakes.

 

Request 2: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia - All Might

One of the most gripping things for me in the first 2.5 seasons of this show as All Might - I loved his arc. I found it very compelling to watch/read about a fading hero using the last dregs of his power and the myth of his invincibility to protect the world until the next generation could rise up to protect it on their own. We rarely get to see what's going on inside him, but the way he eventually learns to trust the next generation, and pass the torch to them, is just one aspect of this character I found gripping. I'd love to see anything focused on him.

• A story set in the aftermath of the first time All Might defeated All For One, when he's in recovery or as he tries to be a hero again now that he's wounded.
• How things might have gone differently for All Might, and how he might have changed as a person or what he might have done, if he had went with Togata Mirio as his successor.
• All Might, after the Kamino Arc, finds some time to be just himself and not a hero, pursuing additional hobbies, or finding a way to help more in an administrative role.
• All Might's experience of teaching at UA during the first couple of seasons, and how being a teacher changes him and what the experience is like for him.

 

Request 3: Dungeons & Dragons - Ireena Kolyana, Ismark Kolyanovich, Strahd von Zarovich - various "&" combinations

I recently had the joy of running the entirety of the Curse of Strahd campaign for my group of players, and I found reading and DMing the module to be quite enjoyable. In the end, in our campaign, Strahd was defeated, and Ireena was able to lead a normal life. One thing I particularly found interesting was a period of time when I thought I'd have only two players, and prepared for them to play as Ireena and Ismark. I found the heroism and determination of these two characters to be interesting. And as for Strahd, I found his mixture of toxic possessiveness, but also despair and hopelessness (trapped in a demiplane that reflects his own flaws!) to be a lot of fun to RP as a GM. I'm guessing you have some ideas in mind if you offered this, so I'll toss up a couple of prompts, but please feel free to write what you had in mind.

• Ismark and Ireena set out west from the Village of Barovia alone - without travelers from behind the Demiplane to help them, to get Ireena away to somewhere further from the castle.
• Strahd, frustrated after so many reincarnations of his "beloved" somehow being doomed, begins trying more and more insane things to woo Ireena.
• Ismark and Ireena begin digging into Strahd's history after discovering a diary he once wrote in the walled city of Krezk.
• Ireena delves into the Amber Temple, in search of a power that would allow her to resist her unwanted suitor.

Request 4: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling - Draco Malfoy & Ron Weasley, Draco Malfoy/Ron Weasley

Okay, I know what you're thinking. "Wow, I regret offering 'any' relationship for Harry Potter" - no, hear me out! This is awesome! If you think about it, isn't there way more dynamic chemistry, whether romantic or just rivalryish/friendish, between Draco and Ron, than between basically any two characters in canon? Sure, Draco nominally is rivals with Harry and is bloodist against Hermione, but who else has a rivalry on the tier that their dads get into a fight in a bookstore! There's good stuff here, whether it's as unexpected friends, or enemies who find their passion is more like love! Here are some prompts to get you started...

• Draco and Ron get into what is nominally a competition to impress a romantic interest, but it turns out they're more into competing with each other than actually winning anyone's affection, and in the process, they realize they have a lot in common!
• Draco and Ron keep running into each other and social events that they can't avoid, and are repeatedly embarrassed by their fathers, who they have to keep bailing out of embarrassing and bad situations.
• Draco and Ron end up as part of the same, gasp, group project! They hate this! But for some reason, maybe they need to get along for some reason? Or maybe one of them is sabotaging it, biting his own nose to spite his face.
• It's the wild west and Draco is an outlaw who just rode into Sheriff Weasley's town. But why is there something so entrancing about this devilishly charming fellow who has two wand holsters and is known to be the quickest draw in the west? Is it the 5,000 galleon bounty on his head, or is it something more?

–

Thanks for reading this!

Hopefully this gives you some ideas. Aside from the DNWs, these are all just suggestions that will hopefully inspire you. I am sure I will like whatever you write. 

Thank you.