PAST IMPERFECT EXCHANGE

[vagabonddawn]

Past Imperfect 2020 Exchange Letter

My prompts are a little scrambled between tags and characters, and are simply for ideas — don't feel locked into writing any of them specifically! If I haven't elaborated on a tag/character combo you're interested in, feel free to pick and choose or go off in your own direction!

General likes:

I love long fic but I'd also appreciate any kind of 'one scene of a larger plot' or setup scene, because these are all concepts that tend to sprawl!

• Canon divergences – characters making different decisions at critical points, small changes butterflying to bigger ones, people reacting to slightly changed circumstances, characters meeting earlier or differently.
• Time Travel – all kinds! Time Loops, Groundhog day, Peggy Sue, physical time travel, accidental or purposeful.
• Fix its – any kind of story that leads to characters being better off or happier (or more alive) than unfortunate canon events left them. Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies AU’s.
• Arranged marriage / marriage of convenience tropes, matchmaking services, political alliances.
• Mission fic/Casefic is great but so are Slice of Life fics and Outside POVs (the more bewildered and misunderstanding the better). Hurt/comfort is great, Canadian Shack/hypothermia/huddling’n’cuddling for warmth fic is great, secret identity tropes are great, found family and team-as-family tropes are excellent. Characters having positive and supportive (and snarky) friendships is amazing.
• Magical power mishaps – transformed into animals! De-aged! Can't move more than ten meters apart!

Shipping: my shipping bar is so low. I’m happy to read subtext into anything – if I’ve prompted a / relationship, I’ll read it that way, even if nothing overtly shippy happens. And, honestly, I would also be happy with a & reading (in a lot of places, I have both / and &); I just want characters to interact, or think about it other, or exist relative to each other!

DNW: On screen non-con (including rape roleplay and rape kink), tragic endings, Bad Guys Win,

Fandom Specific DNW: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu or ships including Luo Binghe

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陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)

I love mental time travel / peggy sue situations where characters get to fix situations that they regret — and there's a lot of things in this world that are worth changing! I'd also be down for physical time travel and having two copies of characters running around — or for Jin Ling to end up in the past before his birth!

I'm also a fan of outside POV of time travellers — where the audience know but the characters don't and just have to make wild guesses as to what's really going on.

CHARACTERS

• Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín (The Untamed) — I love Jiang Cheng and I love the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, from all three siblings right down to the random disciples that are willing to throw down with Wen Chao in the Cloud Recesses to the ones who'll rock up to Jiang Cheng and poke him in the stab wound. Jiang Cheng having a duty to and responsibility for his sect is definitely something that affects his choices, especially in a time travel scenario! For shipping I prefer Jiang Cheng with Wen Qing or Nie Huaisang but I'm open to other pairings (excluding with the juniors, thanks). I'm a huge fan of gen though, so gen is perfectly fine!

• Group: Jing Ling & Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín (The Untamed) — I love how it's very clear that the two of the love and trust each other, no matter how much shouting happens while they do it. I'd love Jin Ling getting himself into a time travel situation and just… expecting uncle to fix it because that's what uncle does, thanks.

• Group: Mò Xuányǔ & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn (The Untamed) — Admittedly Mo Xuanyu doesn't have a lot of canon characterisation but you have to admire his dedication in resurrecting the worst criminal in recent memory. I'd love to see him have to deal with the fact that the Yiling-Laouzu is less evil-terror and more Yiling-I'm-Your-Dad-Cool-Older-Brother-Now. I'm open to this being a / relationship as well!

• Group: Jiang Yanli/Nie Huaisang (The Untamed)
• Group: Jiang Yanli/Nie Mingjue (The Untamed) — My tiny rarepairs. There's not much more to this than I love the Jiangs and I love the Nies and I think they could be good for each other. Both Yanli and Huaisang are non-combat types, who prefer to avoid conflict (while worrying about those that do fight) and I think they would have a lot in common. Yanli and Mingjue are far more opposites, but respect the type of person that the other is. And teaming up might stop them getting tragically wrecked by the Jins! Maybe.

FREEFORMS

• Accidental Time Travel — Generic tag is generic but I do love people seizing an unexpected opportunity that they'd never have expected!
• Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together — Technically Wen Qing and Wen Ning are enemies of the rest of the main characters in the past, or Wei Wuxian ends up as pretty much everyone's enemy...
• Character Undoes An Important Historical Event On Purpose — I'm really interested in unfolding canon divergences and I'd love to see, say, a time travelling Jiang Cheng change the Lotus Pier massacre, or not be caught by the Wen and stop Wei Wuxian from being thrown into the Burial Mounds or… well. Anything. Or Mo Xuanyu with his even further removed information trying to stop Wei Wuxian ending up ostracised and setting off a different chain of events. (I'd rather this not end up being a Darker Timeline / even worse result but it doesn't need to be perfect either!)
• Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel — Outsider POV is great and pretty much as the tag says.
• Time Loop — Generic tag again but also I love all permutations of this. I'd rather the final loop not be dark/result in mindbreak/ be totally hopeless, but I'm up for angst in the middle.
• Time Travel Fix-It — The classic. Whether accidental or purposeful, I love fix it's. All these characters have tragedies happen and all of them would go about trying to stop it in different ways. Yes, I would love Jiang Yanli trying to change the future with only a) soup b) kindness.
• Time Travelling Character is Wildly Overpowered — Jiang Cheng from the future winding up in the / prior to the Sunshot Campaign and absolutely kicking ass? Nie Mingjue from the end of the Sunshot Campaign ending up at the start of the campaign and being even better at stomping on the Wen army? Wei Wuxian and his whole… everything? Nie Huaisang… okay he isn't overpowered so much as surprisingly informed and ruthless but I'd count it.

I'm happy to have additional worldbuilding details taken from the novel/donghua but I'm solely interested in Untamed plot and characterisation.

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人渣反派自救系统 - 墨香铜臭 | The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù

Fandom Specific DNW: Luo Binghe/Shen Qingqiu or ships including Luo Binghe

CHARACTERS

• Liǔ Qīnggē (SVSSS) — I love how straightforward and reliable LQG is and I'd be fascinated to see what kind of thought process he'd go through if he wound up time travelling. I don't think the 'keep quiet and play along' routine is his style! Also he definitely has much more limited information about the causes of the Plot than the transmigrators. I ship SQQ/LQG but I'm open to other pairings (except LQG/LBH) so feel free! I'm a huge fan of gen though, so gen is perfectly fine!
• Group: Shěn Yuán | Shěn Qīngqiū/Liǔ Qīnggē (SVSSS) — These two have such a great back and forth and got surprisingly close five years of trying to retrieve a body!!! And I'd be happy to see either of them as the time traveller! Or LQG might suspect that SQQ is once the possibility is introduced, and have to be learn about a totally different impossible thing.

FREEFORMS

• Accidental Time Travel — Generic tag is generic but I do love people seizing an unexpected opportunity that they'd never have expected!
• Character Has Control of Mental Time Travel and Uses It to Save Scum — This is kinda perfect for SQQ and his system but I also considered that LQG would have it and just never use it… until SQQ died.
• Character Undoes An Important Historical Event On Purpose — In as much as any of the events of the novel can be considered 'historical'... or perhaps, interfering in the Tianlang-Jun sealing? That would definitely mean that the unstable half-demon wouldn't end up being their responsibility, right?
• Peggy Sue — Generic but classic!
• Time Loop — this definitely seems like a trope that Airplane-bro would have written into PIDW at least once. I do love SQQ stumbling over abandoned wife plots and stupid tropes and being irate at them.

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Dreaming of Sunshine — Silver Queen

I love the Garden's AU's if you're part of the DoS fandom, either any of the existing ones or a totally new world on the concept! I'd also love fresh new takes so don't feel limited either!

CHARACTERS

• Group: Shikako Nara & Sasuke Uchiha (DoS) — Admittedly I chose these two in combination with the Time Heist Tag because nothing is more Team Red than casually hopping through time because the item you were told to steal has already been destroyed.
• Kakashi Hatake (DoS) — Kakashi has so much tragedy in his life! Let him fix things!
• Kankurou (DoS) — I would love to see Kankurou time traveling. Maybe a mission associated with Team 7 (because of course it is) either from canon or totally new… Gelel seems the obvious choice but any of the three chunin exams would also be great.
• Shikako Nara (DoS) — As the protagonist this is absolutely a thing that would happen to her. Also her experience isn't that different to a peggy sue so it'd be nice for her to have some skills to go with it!
• Senju Tsunade (DoS) — In terms of characters who are personally and politically powerful and connected at all points in the timeline… Tsunade is basically the best choice to be a hilariously overpowered time traveller. (I would also take this as a straight Naruto fanfic, DoS ignored).
• Group: Zabuza Momochi & Haku (DoS) — Look. I would love a time travelling Zabuza to go looking for Haku because that's his kid he's worried Haku is a good soldier, only to discover that Haku isn't yet an orphan and he now also has to deal with civilian Hyoton users.
• Group: Zabuza Momochi/Mei Terumi (DoS) — I ship them and the version where one has time travelled is bound to be both fraught and hilarious. They're running separate rebellions to overthrow Yagura! Politics, trust issues, whatever romance actually looks like in Hidden Mist!

FREEFORMS

• Accidental Time Travel — Generic tag is generic but I do love people seizing an unexpected opportunity that they'd never have expected!
• Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together — Enemies becoming friends is basically a theme of this story, and I love it so much, especially in this case, when there's zero natural development because time travel.
• Character Undoes An Important Historical Event On Purpose — Fixing anything in this timeline involves a certain amount of historical event erasure. Tsunade punching Hanzo before he can give the Sanin their title? Kakashi fixing… any of his life? Zabuza successfully assassinating the Mizukage?
• Outsider POV Of Strange Events Caused By Time Travel — Outsider POV is great and pretty much as the tag says.
• Time Loop — Generic tag again but also I love all permutations of this. I'd rather the final loop not be dark/result in mindbreak/ be totally hopeless, but I'm up for angst in the middle.
• Time Travel Heist — Nothing is more Team Red than casually hopping through time because the item you were told to steal has already been destroyed.
• Time Traveler Must Pretend To Be Identical Looking Family Member — I do love the sheer audacity of this. The Nara staring people dead in the eye and insisting their clan head has always had two daughters named Shikako. Kakashi doing it and people being legitimately confused if it's true or a shadow clone. Tsunade utilising her ultimate genjutsu to be any age she feels like.
• Time Traveler's Suspicious Actions Get Them In Trouble With The One(s) They’re Trying To Help — Ninja are suspicious! Time travel is not believable! Believe it!
• Time Travelling Character is Wildly Overpowered — Things can be difficult even for overpowered characters in this world but I would love for Tsunade to go back to any point in time and demonstrate that she is, actually, terrifying. Or Shikako, or any of the others.
• Trying To Change The Timeline By Saving Someone — There are so many characters who should be saved! Fan favourite mentions: Shisui, Sakumo, Kimimaro, Yahiko, Dan, Nawaki, the entire Uchiha clan,

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그 악녀를 조심하세요! | Beware of the Villainess! (Webcomic)

Beware of the Villainess!"

CHARACTERS

• Melissa Podebrat (BotV) — She's a great protagonist! I feel like if she ended up meeting another version of herself, they would probably get along, much to everyone else's dismay!
• Group: Melissa Podebrat & Duke Podebrat (BotV) — Melissa is such an unreliable narrator about their relationship! He lets her do whatever she wants! And decorates his entire office pink and flees the country if she's upset!
• Group: Melissa Podebrat & Yuri Elizabeth (BotV) — Yuri Elizabeth seems to have some kind of time loop / relive your life thing going on, so something that looks at that could be neat! How she feels about the fact that things are changing through no action of her own — or maybe thinking of which small action might have caused it.
• Nine Forton (BotV) — sad loyal werewolf boy with a tragic backstory. What isn't to love?

FREEFORMS

• Character Has Control of Mental Time Travel and Uses It to Save Scum — would Melissa do this? Most definitely yes. Is this what got Yuri into trouble?
• Character Saves Their Younger Self from Trauma — I was mostly thinking of Nine for this because small Nine was adorable and very saddening and someone should rescue him.
• Time Loop — Generic tag again but also I love all permutations of this. I'd rather the final loop not be dark/result in mindbreak/ be totally hopeless, but I'm up for angst in the middle.
• Time Travel Fix-It — The classic. Whether accidental or purposeful, I love fix it's.
• Time Traveler Must Pretend To Be Identical Looking Family Member — I do love the sheer audacity of this. Like, Nine being from a reclusive werewolf clan might get away with it and Yuri is adopted but Melissa? Yes, there are two of her. Yes they are both named Melissa. No, you may not ask questions.
• Trying To Change The Timeline By Preemptively Killing Someone — *cough* I mean, Melissa did jump to assassinating the prince as her first solution. What if…

For art - I like the style of the webcomic and think that Melissa's outfits are incredible so anything that has her dressed in neat clothes is sure to be a winner. I'm... really not sure how to prompt art for a time travel aspect, but I would still welcome it!