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we heard crimes often and softly ([personal profile] badritual) wrote2019-12-13 09:57 am

past_imperfect letter

Dear Creator,

I'm already looking forward to seeing what you come up with for this challenge! (I'll probably be copying and pasting some stuff from previous letters here. You can find past letters here and here if you're interested.)

If none of my ideas/prompts catch your attention, I'm totally fine with mixing and matching some of my tropes/likes/freeforms/etc. to come up with a story! I also may not have prompts for every pairing/fandom. If you need some ideas, feel free to reach out to me through the mods.

Table of Contents


  1. What I Love
  2. DNWs
  3. Stuff I Like
  4. Back to the Future
  5. Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms
  6. Marvel Cinematic Universe
  7. Pitch (TV 2016)
  8. Riverdale (TV 2017)
  9. Star Wars - All Media Types
  10. Supernatural

    What I Love: I'm currently really into gothic romance/gothic horror/horror of any stripe really. I also love ambiguous/happy for now/sad endings. I love things that make me think, and are not necessarily tied up with a neat pretty bow. But that's not to say I don't enjoy a happy ending!

    My main DNWs are listed below. Exceptions will be noted:

    DNWs:
    • extreme underage (preteens and younger)
    • domestic violence/abuse
    • violence against animals/animal death
    • A/B/O, BDSM, and kneeling 'verses (I don't mind if you include these kinks in fic but I'm not interested in universes structured around them, if that makes sense i.e. "kneeling is a common occurrence in Regency England" or "the rookie hockey player must submit to his team captain/dom as a rite of passage")
    • mpreg
    • watersports/scat
    • mundane AUs (especially mundane AUs of fantasy/sci-fi/supernatural/etc. universes)
    • vampire and werewolf AUs (of non-supernatural fandoms, perfectly fine with vampires and werewolves in supernatural settings)
    • I'd strongly prefer all Star Wars AUs remain set in the Star Wars universe

    Stuff I Like:
    • gothic/gothic romance/horror/ghost stories!!!
    • space gothic (think Event Horizon and the Alien series)
    • cosmic horror
    • body horror
    • monsters!!! sentient monsters!!! monsters that just wanna eat things!!! i like monsters!!!
    • bodyswap
    • time travel/time loops/time fuckery
    • pining
    • mind-games/manipulation
    • ghosts/hauntings/etc.
    • miscommunication (within reason)
    • poly/poly-v relationships
    • enemies to lovers
    • enemies to friends to lovers
    • unhealthy/codependent relationships
    • relationships with a power imbalance (i.e. mentor/pupil, priest/parishioner, older partner/younger partner, queen/subject, etc.)
    • characters facing/dealing with mortality (of their lives, their livelihoods, careers, etc.)
    • amnesiafic
    • epistolary/social media pastiche
    • future fic
    • casefic
    • ensemble fic
    • complicated relationships
    • power imbalances/power dynamics/power dynamics inverted
    • professional/career-related jealousy
    • small town AUs (small town in the suburban gothic sense, not cute, quaint villages and whatnot)

    Fic and fan art for all fandoms! I tend to leave all art details/decisions/etc. up to the artist, but if you'd like some guidance, prompts/scenarios/ideas, please send a message through the mod and I'll get back to you ASAP.

    Back to the Future

    Lorraine Baines McFly & Marty McFly
    Emmett "Doc" Brown & Marty McFly
    Lorraine Baines McFly/Biff Tannen
    Lorraine Baines McFly
    George McFly/Lorraine Baines McFly


    Freeforms: Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Loops Erase the Good Things You've Done
    Time Travel Fix-It - Seducing the Villain to Save the World/Timeline
    Time travel results in a friend becoming an enemy
    Time Travel Back - Character visits lost friend
    Time travel to save a friend or loved one
    Visit To The Past And Return To Present Results In Being Accidental Married to Rival/Enemy
    Married Selves From Future Try to Matchmake Present Selves

    Prompts/ideas:
    Lorraine Baines McFly & Marty McFly

         ◊ Main 1955 timeline. Lorraine travels into the future to visit her old friend Calvin Klein and finds out some Shocking News!
         ◊ Something set in the 1985 Biff'd tangent-timeline... Maybe Marty takes Lorraine with him, causing complications.
         ◊ Post-movies. Lorraine realizes Marty is Calvin Klein, which strains their relationship. The two time travel together as a form of mother-son bonding.

    Emmett "Doc" Brown & Marty McFly
         ◊ A time travel mishap results in Marty and Doc becoming enemies.
         ◊ Post-movies. Marty must find Doc, who's lost in time or stuck in a particular time period.
         ◊ Post-movies. Marty and Doc get trapped in a time loop together.

    Lorraine Baines McFly/Biff Tannen
         ◊ Lorraine must seduce Biff to save the world/timeline.
         ◊ AU. Lorraine's visit to the past and return to the present result in her being accidentally married to Biff.

    George McFly/Lorraine Baines McFly
         ◊ 1985 tangent-timeline. Lorraine time travels to the past to save George.
         ◊ Time traveling George and Lorraine try to matchmake themselves, with amusing results.

    Lorraine Baines McFly
         ◊ Lorraine gets caught in a time loop that starts erasing the good things she's done.
         ◊ 1955 AU. Lorraine convinces Doc to send her into the future.
         ◊ Lorraine accidentally (or deliberately) stomps on a butterfly, leading to her life changing completely.
         ◊ Lorraine runs into past and future versions of herself—and this time, the space-time continuum does start to unravel. Can it be fixed?

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms

    Christine Daaé/Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Raoul de Chagny
    Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Madame Giry
    Carlotta Giudicelli/Christine Daaé
    Christine Daaé/Erik | The Phantom of the Opera
    Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Raoul de Chagny


    Freeforms: Butterfly Effect - Character Tries to Prevent Other Character's Death
    Character Invents Time Travel to Save Dead Loved One
    Character meets a younger version of their love interest
    Character's Health Worsens the More They Time Travel
    Communicating Across Time
    Communicating with the Past/Future Through Letters
    Falling in Love With a Person Who Must Return To Their Time Period of Origin
    Fixing the Timeline Requires Saving An Enemy
    Time Travel Fix-It - Seducing the Villain to Save the World/Timeline
    Visit To The Past And Return To Present Results In Being Accidental Married to Rival/Enemy

    Prompts/ideas:
    Christine Daaé/Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Raoul de Chagny

         ◊ Christine and Raoul meddle with time travel to prevent Erik's death.
         ◊ To save the world/timeline, Christine and Raoul must save Erik.
         ◊ Raoul and Christine try to use time travel to prevent Erik's death.

    Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Madame Giry
         ◊ Erik communicates with Madame Giry across time, through letters.
         ◊ An older, post-canon Madame Giry falls in love with a younger time traveling version of Erik.
         ◊ Erik's health worsens the more he time travels to visit Madame Giry.

    Carlotta Giudicelli/Christine Daaé
         ◊ To fix the timeline, Christine must rescue Carlotta.
         ◊ A visit to the past and return to the present result in an accidental marriage between Christine and Carlotta.
         ◊ When Christine realizes the mirror in her dressing room offers glimpses of her future, she thinks it'll show her her future with Raoul...but the mirror shows her Carlotta instead.

    Christine Daaé/Erik | The Phantom of the Opera
         ◊ When Erik dies, Christine travels back in time to try and save him.
         ◊ Post-book/musical/etc. Christine meets a younger version of Erik, either through Christine time traveling to the past or a young Erik time traveling to present day or the future.
         ◊ Erik stomps on some butterflies while time traveling, resulting in Christine choosing him over Raoul. But the happy ending Erik thought he wanted comes with a steep price he might not be willing to pay.
         ◊ Post-canon AU. Christine takes the mirror from her dressing room with her when she leaves with Raoul. After Raoul's death, she brings the mirror out and soon realizes it can transport her to the past. But the mirror sends her back to Erik, not Raoul.

    Erik | The Phantom of the Opera/Raoul de Chagny
         ◊ To fix the timeline, Raoul must recuse Erik.
         ◊ Raoul must seduce Erik to fix the timeline.
         ◊ Erik and Raoul wind up accidentally married after some time travel shenanigans.

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Marvel Cinematic Universe

    Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers
    James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
    Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers


    Freeforms: A travels backward to prevent B's torture & mind break
    Trying To Figure Out When A Time-Stranded Character Is In Order To Rescue Them
    Character's Health Worsens the More They Time Travel
    Time Loop - Looping Character Keeps Dying
    Time Loop - POV character doesn't know it's a time loop but non-POV character does
    Time Loop - Becomes Creepier with Every Loop
    Time Loop Deleting Characters/Events Each Cycle
    Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Both Characters Stuck in Loop
    Stuck in the wrong decade
    Time travel results in a friend becoming an enemy
    Time Travel Back - Character visits lost friend
    Star-Crossed Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only To Come To Worse Ends Every Time
    Time Travel to Fix Problems Caused By Previous Time Travel
    Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Escape By Incredibly Absurd Means

    Prompts/ideas:
    Bucky Barnes & Steve Rogers

         ◊ Bucky and Steve get stuck in a time loop together.
         ◊ Bucky and Steve must time travel to fix problems caused by their previous time travel.
         ◊ Endgame AU. Bucky visits Steve in the past.
         ◊ Time travel results in Steve and Bucky becoming enemies.
         ◊ The time loop they're stuck in becomes creepier with every loop.
         ◊ Bucky doesn't know they're in a time loop but Steve does. (Or vice versa.)
         ◊ Steve travels back to prevent Bucky's torture and mind break.

    James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson
         ◊ Bucky and Sam escape the time loop they're stuck in by incredibly absurd means
         ◊ Both Sam and Bucky get stuck in a time loop.
         ◊ The time loop they're stuck in becomes creepier with every loop.
         ◊ When Sam gets stranded in time, Bucky goes to rescue him.
         ◊

    Peggy Carter/Steve Rogers
         ◊ Steve and Peggy keep changing fate only to come to worse ends every time. (HEA not necessary, but if you can make an HEA out of this, go for it!)
         ◊ The time loop they're stuck in becomes creepier with every loop.
         ◊ Peggy knows they're in a time loop but Steve doesn't.
         ◊ Endgame AU. Instead of staying in the past, Steve brings Peggy back with him.
         ◊ Captain America AU. Peggy is the one who gets frozen and reawakens 70 years later.
         ◊ Endgame AU. Time traveling Steve stays with 1970s Peggy.

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Pitch (TV 2016)

    Ginny Baker/Mike Lawson

    Freeforms: Time Travel to Fix Problems Caused By Previous Time Travel
    Time Travel - Altering past events leads to unintended negative consequences in the present
    Time Loop - Becomes Creepier with Every Loop
    Time Loop - POV character doesn't know it's a time loop but non-POV character does
    Time Loop - Loop only broken by confession of feelings
    Everyone Gets One Chance to Change The Past

    Prompts/ideas:
         ◊ An older Ginny time travels back to try and prevent her season ending injury.
         ◊ Ginny doesn't know it's a time loop but Mike does.
         ◊ The time loop becomes creepier with every loop.
         ◊ Ginny gets her one chance to change the past, so she decides to try and save her father. Is she successful?
         ◊ Ginny tries to alter the past and get that no hitter, but things go awry.
         ◊ A young Mike time travels to the present day, where he meets Ginny.

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Riverdale (TV 2017)

    Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge
    Hiram Lodge & Veronica Lodge
    FP Jones II/Veronica Lodge
    FP Jones II/Hermione Lodge


    Freeforms: Visit To The Past And Return To Present Results In Being Accidental Married to Unexpected Person
    Time Travel To Past To Deliberately Stomp On Butterflies Just To See What Happens
    Character Travels Back to a Traumatic Experience in Someone Else's Past
    Time Travel Back - Younger character travels to older character's childhood
    Time Loop - Ends when the looper does the thing they least want
    Time Loop - Becomes Creepier with Every Loop
    Time Loop - POV character doesn't know it's a time loop but non-POV character does
    Stuck in the wrong decade
    Peggy Sue - Character Makes Things Worse
    Character's Health Worsens the More They Time Travel
    Star-Crossed Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only To Come To Worse Ends Every Time
    Trying To Figure Out When A Time-Stranded Character Is In Order To Rescue Them
    Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel
    Character Learns the Hard Way That Time Travel Isn't A Thing to Be Messed With

    Prompts/ideas:
    Jughead Jones/Veronica Lodge

         ◊ Jughead travels to the future to find out that he and Veronica are together. Curious as to what happened to end his relationship with Betty/start his relationship with Veronica, he sticks around to investigate.
         ◊ Veronica and Jughead get zapped into the past or the future together, and end up growing closer as a result.
         ◊ Veronica and Jughead get zapped into the past or the future together and get stuck.

    Hiram Lodge & Veronica Lodge
         ◊ Veronica travels back in the past to find out what made her father the man he is today.
         ◊ Young Hiram travels to present day Riverdale and meets Veronica.

    FP Jones II/Veronica Lodge
         ◊ Veronica ends up in the past, and on the radar of high school heartthrob FP Jones.
         ◊ A young FP ends up in present day Riverdale, where he encounters Veronica.

    FP Jones II/Hermione Lodge
         ◊ FP and Hermione travel back in time together to confront their shared past that they've hidden from everyone.
         ◊ A young FP and Hermione travel to present day, which deepens their friendship into something more.

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Star Wars - All Media Types

    Finn/Poe Dameron
    Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker
    Ahsoka Tano & Ahsoka Tano
    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano & Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
    Ahsoka Tano/Darth Vader
    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
    Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
    Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker


    Freeforms: Time Travel - Altering past events leads to unintended negative consequences in the present
    Fixing the Timeline Requires Saving An Enemy
    Time Travel To Past To Deliberately Stomp On Butterflies Just To See What Happens
    Future Character Deliberately Tells Past Character Their Fate to Change History
    Star-Crossed Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only To Come To Worse Ends Every Time
    Trying To Change The Timeline By Preemptively Killing Someone
    Time Travel Back - Younger character travels to older character's childhood
    Time Travel Fix-It - Seducing the Villain to Save the World/Timeline
    Time Traveler Sends Someone Into the Future to Save Them From a Horrible Fate
    Character Invents Time Travel to Save Dead Loved One
    Visit To The Past And Return To Present Results In Being Accidental Married to Love Interest

    Prompts/ideas:
    Finn/Poe Dameron

         ◊ Finn travels to Poe's childhood.
         ◊ A visit to the past and return to the present results in an accidental marriage.
         ◊ Poe sends Finn into the future to protect him from a horrible fate.
         ◊ Poe and Finn travel back in time to prevent Shara Bey's death, and realize it's connected to Finn's own past.

    Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano & Anakin Skywalker
         ◊ ANH era Obi-Wan gets sent back to the Clone Wars era.
         ◊ The three of them get frozen a la Futurama and are woken up years in the future.
         ◊ Mortis shenanigans! The three of them end up time traveling together on Mortis, somehow. Something with a gothic atmosphere would be great.

    Ahsoka Tano & Ahsoka Tano
         ◊ An attempt by Ahsoka to alter the past leads to negative consequences...for Ahsoka.
         ◊ Ahsoka travels to the past and encounters her teenage self.
         ◊ A teenage Clone Wars era Ahsoka travels to the future and meets her Rebels era self.
         ◊ Too much time travel results in multiples of Ahsoka.
         ◊ Ahsoka tries to undo Anakin's fall through time travel but ends up making things worse.

    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano & Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
         ◊ Clone Wars era Anakin and Ahsoka time travel to Malachor, to bear witness to Rebels era Ahsoka and Vader's saber battle.

    Ahsoka Tano/Darth Vader
         ◊ Ahsoka attempts to seduce Vader to save the world/timeline.
         ◊ Vader travels forward in time and finds Ahsoka during ROTJ.
         ◊ Ahsoka tries to undo Anakin's fall through time travel but ends up making things worse.

    Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
         ◊ Any of the above prompts interpreted platonically/non-romantically.

    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano & Darth Vader
         ◊ Rebels era Ahsoka and Vader travel together to Anakin's childhood.
         ◊ Clone Wars era Anakin travels to the Rebels timeline where he encounters Ahsoka and Vader.
         ◊ Time traveling Anakin is trapped together with an Ahsoka and Vader from another timeline/dimension.

    Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
         ◊ Ahsoka travels back to Anakin's childhood.
         ◊ An adult Ahsoka tries to change the timeline by traveling back to kill Anakin.
         ◊ Clone Wars Anakin and Rebels Ahsoka come unstuck in time and must help the other get back to the proper timeline (without Ahsoka revealing to Anakin his future and thus tearing a hole in the fabric of space-time).
         ◊ Time traveling Ahsoka deliberately tells Anakin what becomes of him in an attempt to avert the future, but things don't go how she expected them to.

    Obi-Wan Kenobi/Anakin Skywalker
         ◊ After their climactic battle on Mustafar, Obi-Wan travels back in time to try and figure out where things went wrong and save Anakin. But some futures can't be averted.
         ◊ Obi-Wan time travels at the moment of his death in A New Hope. He ends up back on Mustafar, with a chance to rewrite their battle.
         ◊ When Anakin dies in ROTJ, he becomes unstuck in time, his Force ghost being sent back to the past to observe his own mistakes. While watching his past as a passive observer, Anakin slowly falls in love with his former master. He can't change his past—and, therefore, his future—can he?

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Supernatural

    Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester
    Rowena MacLeod/Sam Winchester
    Castiel & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
    Castiel/Dean Winchester


    Freeforms: Star-Crossed Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only To Come To Worse Ends Every Time
    Time Loop - POV character doesn't know it's a time loop but non-POV character does
    Visit To The Past And Return To Present Results In Being Accidental Married to Love Interest
    Falling in love with past version of enemy changes things when character returns to the present
    Character's Health Worsens the More They Time Travel
    Time Loop/Groundhog Day - Loops Erase the Good Things You've Done
    Stuck in the wrong decade
    Time Travel To Past To Deliberately Stomp On Butterflies Just To See What Happens
    Time Travel to Fix Problems Caused By Previous Time Travel
    Butterfly Effect - Character Tries to Prevent Other Character's Death
    Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone
    Time travel to save a friend or loved one

    Prompts/ideas:
    Eileen Leahy/Sam Winchester

         ◊ Sam travels back in time to prevent Eileen's death.
         ◊ Sam travels back in time to change the timeline and save Eileen.
         ◊ Sam doesn't know he and Eileen are trapped in a time loop, but Eileen does.
         ◊ Sam starts having prophetic dreams of the future, which involve Eileen's death. He decides to change the future by tinkering with the past...but is he successful?

    Rowena MacLeod/Sam Winchester
         ◊ Sam falling in love with a past version of Rowena changes things when he returns to the present.
         ◊ Sam travels back in time to change the timeline and save Rowena.
         ◊ Sam and Rowena keep changing fate only to come to worse ends every time.

    Castiel & Dean Winchester & Sam Winchester
         ◊ TFW get thrown into the past. Then Dean stomps on some butterflies to see what'll happen and things start going wrong.
         ◊ TFW must time travel to fix problems caused by their previous time travel.
         ◊ Time loops erase the good things TFW has done.
         ◊ TFW get stuck in the wrong decade. The decade they get stuck in is up to the author.

    Castiel/Dean Winchester
         ◊ Star-Cross'd Lovers Keep Changing Fate Only to Come to Worse Ends Every Time.
         ◊ Dean doesn't know they're trapped in a time loop but Cas does.
         ◊ Cas zaps both Dean and himself into the past or the future to save them from immediate death.
         ◊ Cas and Dean get trapped in a time loop and the only thing that will end it is [incredibly absurd thing].
         ◊ Destiel Peggy Sue AU.
         ◊ Dean's health worsens the more he time travels. Can Cas help?
         ◊ At the time of his death at the end of in S12, Cas is zapped into the future where he encounters a very different Dean than the one he knows.
         ◊ Dean time travels to save Cas (either from a canonical demise or something of the author's creation). Whether or not he's successful is solely up to you!

    Return to the Table of Contents

    Once again, I'd like to stress that my prompts/ideas are only suggestions! Don't feel constrained by them! Mix and match as you please, or come up with something completely on your own without my input. They're just meant as a guide.

    You can check out my other dear author letters here for a better idea of the kind of tropes I like! If you need any clarification please contact the mods (or reach out to me, if permitted).

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