Dear author: MXTX Exchange

[corbae]

Hello, author!

I can’t wait to read the story you come up with. This post has my general likes & dislikes and some additional information & prompts for each request. I hope it's useful!

I am corbae on DW and Ao3. You can see my public bookmarks on my Ao3.

General Likes

My top 5 tropes in the Ultimate Fanfic Trope Showdown were found families, soulmate marks, arranged marriage, sex pollen, and hurt/comfort; take from that what you will.

I have a particular weakness for stories that ache. I unabashedly love worms!fic ("go into the garden and eat worms"), where the POV character feels isolated and alone and unappreciated but eventually realizes that they're loved—IMO it pairs especially well with found families and h/c.

Some other things I love include:

• Urban fantasy and fairy tales, especially with symbolic magic


• Characters with prickly outsides and marshmallow insides


• Belligerent Sexual Tension


• Enemies to lovers


• Loyalty kink

I've listed a lot of tropes here; I enjoy them when done traditionally or when inverted/subverted. I read across all ratings and genres. I generally prefer happy or ambiguous endings to unhappy ones.

General Dislikes

No modern-without-magic/cultivation AUs, please! Futuristic/space AUs without magic/cultivation are welcome.

I have a ~thing about torture of or permanent harm to hands, and would appreciate it if you avoided going into any detail if your story includes something like that.

Here's a bit more about my requests, in no particular order:

Scum Villain's Self Saving System — Shen Yuan/Luo Binghe

Shen Yuan's journey to truly caring about the people around him and realizing that it's not just a novel. Binghe’s stickiness and care for Shizun. How perfect this novel is as a pastiche.

Some of my favorite tropes for this pairing are soulmate marks, court intrigue, A/B/O, and case fic.

Please no rape/non-consent between Shen Yuan and Luo Binghe (dubcon is fine), underage with characters under 16, or permanent character death of Shen Yuan or Luo Binghe (ending before one of their canonical resurrections is fine).

• What if Shen Yuan transmigrated earlier? Later?


• Someone tries to overthrow Binghe


• Someone tries to assassinate one or both of them


• Binghe is raised as a heavenly demon prince and meets Shen Yuan as a young adult


• Five times Binghe spied on Shizun


• Shen Yuan gets caught in a terrible wife plot and rescues himself


• Shen Yuan gets caught in a terrible wife plot and Binghe rescues him

Scum Villain's Self-Saving System — Original Shen Qingqiu/Original Luo Binghe

I like the potential in this pairing for things to not be completely terrible. I think it's interesting when they're forced confront each other's pasts and motivations and become better people together.

Some of my favorite tropes for this pairing are soulmate marks, court intrigue, time travel fix-it, enemies to lovers, and shared dreams.

Please no permanent character death of Shen Jiu or Luo Binghe (it's fine if your fic ends before Luo Binghe's canonical reappearance from the abyss). I'm also not a big fan of super woobified Shen Jiu.

Prompts

• What if Shen Jiu found baby Luo Binghe in a piece of bamboo?


• What if SQQ time traveled to before "things went wrong" (however he defines that) or otherwise had a chance to live his life over again? What if Bingge did?


• What if Bingge and SQQ were forced to rely on each other/cooperate to get out of a bad situation?


• Shen Jiu was friends with Su Xiyan and promised her to look after Binghe

Mo Dao Zu Shi — Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian

Everything about this pairing is as though it was made for me specifically.

Some of my favorite tropes for this pairing are soulmate marks, time travel fix-it, arranged marriages, A/B/O, and case fic.

Please no permanent character death of WWX or LWJ (it's fine if your fic ends before WWX's canonical reappearance). Also, please no rape/noncon between WWX and LWJ outside of fantasies or roleplay.

• They have an arranged marriage and it fixes things


• They have an arranged marriage and it doesn't fix things


• Groundhog Day AU


• A quiet day of married life


• WWX gradually finds a home and place in Gusu Lan


• LWJ goes to live in the Burial Mounds with WWX and the Wens


• Cultivation adventures! Helping the common people!


• More of WWX learning how to follow his moral code without terrible consequences (and with LWJ by his side)


• Kinky married adventures

Mo Dao Zu Shi — Lan Jingyi/Lan Yuan

Sizhui is the Best Boy and Jingyi is hilarious. I love how they are so clearly close friends who grew up together; that dynamic is excellent.

I'm also into permutations of this pairing that include other juniors (Jingyi/Sizhui/Jin Ling, Jingyi/Sizhui/Zizhen, juniors OT4) so if you're inspired to write one of those please feel free.

Please no permanent character death of Jingyi, Sizhui, WWX, or LWJ.

• Growing up together, both outsiders in their own ways


• Who confessed first? How? When?


• Growing into themselves after the events of the novel


• What if Sizhui was raised by WWX?


• Sizhui has always kept a vegetable garden


• Night hunt adventures!

Thank you again for your story! I truly love these canons and the pairings I requested and can’t wait to see what you come up with, whether or not it’s based on one of my prompts.