chacusha | Dear Creator letter for Press Start 2022

I'm

DNWs

Character bashing.
Pregnancy; kidfic / original child characters.
Trans headcanons.
Feces, urine, or cannibalism.
For non-con, very bleak endings like mindbreak or permanent damage.

General likes

Friendly sparring between warrior characters, and fight scenes more generally.
AUs of all kinds (canon divergence, coffee shop, whatever).
Contrasts and opposites.
Character or relationship study.
Psychodrama / characters working out their Issues (maybe with help from another character!).
Writing style and art style experimentation, if that's your thing. Any POV and unusual formats (epistolary, in-universe documents, etc.) are all fine with me.
All ratings from G to E. Blood/violence/injury is fine. Explicit sex is fine.
All genres: fluff, crack, darkfic, angst, smut, etc.
Romance likes:
- Silly/light-hearted love triangle drama.
  More tl;dr details for those curious
  I like a variety of love triangle elements in fiction -- sometimes when it's for drama, and certainly when it's for comic relief. Probably my favorite type for humor purposes is two people (or chains of people) interested in someone else who is oblivious/uninterested, or (if you can pull it off) a perfect love loop where A likes B who likes C who likes A (or generalize it to larger groups) -- it takes a bit of work but I love the neat symmetry of everyone being involved but thwarted. From a more drama angle, I adore love chains or two people in a relationship and one outside, for the pining. I like feelings of jealousy, especially if it prompts a character to confess when they otherwise wouldn't. However, I don't like when the narrative treats the character who inspires jealousy as clearly evil or having done something wrong by doing that. The only other things I tend to be iffy about re: love triangles is if a character pingpongs between relationships with multiple partners/switches between being warm and cold toward someone multiple times (if the character is consistently loving toward both or has a consistent preference for one, or if the whole arc of the story is focused on going from one to the other as the big change, no issue for me), or if the love triangle makes a character become villainous. But if it feels right for the characters, feel free to include whatever love triangle dynamics you like.
- Flirtation, crushes, pining, blushing.
- Puppy love (proto-crushes between young characters).
- Protectiveness/putting oneself in danger in order to protect someone else/bodyguard crush/rescue romance.
Sex with feelings -- positive or negative (or conflicted!).
Awkwardness / awkward tension.
Close platonic relationships.
Incorporation of game mechanics in fanworks/worldbuilding.
5 things / 5+1 format.

Art likes

Costume design / putting character in outfits of your own making/interpretation.
Bright colors. Saturated pastel colors like in Impressionist art. Limited palette drawings.
Cute art and chibis.
Ink drawings or black and white art.
Stylized art. I especially like art nouveau.
Symmetry/mirroring. Two characters facing away from each other, for example. Or one right-side up and the other upside-down.
Gratuitous visual symbolism.
Characters sparring, especially if they look like they're enjoying themselves.
References to memes.
Hurt-comfort scenarios, like one character injured and the other one worried/distraught.
Flowers.
Characters with super dramatic / brooding expressions on their faces.

Bravely Default (Video Game) & Related Fandoms

Alternis Dim/Edea Lee

This is my OTP, which I always want more content for! To summarize what draws me to this pairing: pining, puppy love, loyalty and devotion, awkward marriage proposals, two-person love triangle! I like this pairing both as one-sided pining on Alternis's part and also requited.

Some prompts:

Anything pre-, during-, or post-canon that explores Alternis and Edea's relationship.
Canon divergence AU where Alternis turns against the Duchy and joins the Crystal Crew at some point.
I like Alternis's super awkward blurted-out proposals, and am so curious how he and Edea dealt with the fallout of them.
Modern setting AUs: Alternis and Ringabel as twin brothers. Or superhero/spy AU where Alternis is the superhero/secret agent persona of Ringabel (or Ringabel is the civilian persona for Alternis).
I feel like the setup of Bravely Default is also pretty great for time loop shenanigans, and Alternis is a pretty good person to experience them? For example, every loop ending with Edea dying. Or Alternis, by looping, gets more insight into why Edea isn't interested in him, for example.
Any setup that allows Alternis's protectiveness/loyalty kink to shine would be great. His Dark Knight skillset is great for situations where he bleeds himself dry to get out of a tough situation, and he and Edea both instinctively protect the weak and defenseless.
Mistaken identity or identity issues dubcon where Alternis disguises himself as or is mistaken for Ringabel.
Edea and Alternis hanging out between BD and BS and Edea being weirded out by little Ringabel-like aspects of his mannerisms.
Alternis taking care of Edea when she's sick (or something) and pining as he does so.

Mephilia Venus & Sage Yulyana

My favorite underrated characters and underrated relationship. I like the background fact that Yulyana trained Mephilia pre-canon. I like how the Conjurer asterisk is like an upgraded version of the Summoner asterisk. I'm a big fan of Final Fantasy job class systems and would love to see the two of them in looks inspired (say) by Final Fantasy III's Evoker and Summoner (or Sage) jobs. I think their contrasting characters (tall rage-filled beautiful woman vs. genial frumpy old pervy man) make a great visual contrast and make their interactions possibly quite funny. I would love to see anything that highlights the way student takes after teacher, any snapshot of Mephilia's training, anything about how Mephilia or Yulyana feel about the other, or something where they keep in touch after Mephilia's training is done since it seems like they maybe communicate regularly with each other between BD and BS. Maybe something where Mephilia has a problem and gets some advice from Yulyana?

If you want to go a bit darker, one of my pet headcanons is that part of the reason why Mephilia is so crazy during the BD timeline (like, in addition to the exposure to toxic chemicals and also dealing with Suleiman's death which she kind of blames Einheria for but can't accept those feelings of resentment) is because she had to deal with constant sexual harassment from Yulyana and it was extremely stressful. There's certainly room for a fucked-up version of that master/student relationship, if you want to go that way!

I like Yulyana a lot as a character but I also recognize he is terrible (and meanwhile, the game kind of downplays how bad his bad traits are/plays those traits off for laughs). So I'm happy if you want to lean into his terribleness or, alternatively, handwave his bad characteristics and make him more of a harmless old man, or make him a flawed/complicated character where he can be genuinely kind and genuinely hurtful.

Crossover Fandom

Edward Chris von Muir (Final Fantasy IV) & Gilbert (Legend of Mana) & Orpheus Tragoidia (Bravely Default II)

This is my spoony bard request. 😋 I love the character type of the mildly irritating and/or somewhat useless bard. Just having them all together in a piece of art, or them having a cracky conversation in a fic (sharing love woes?), or a tribute to the character archetype in a vid would be great. Feel free to go shippy between the characters or to swap some of them out with a similar character type. I'm also a fan of (the obvious Edward parody) Eduardo from Final Fantasy Dimensions but felt he was just a bit too niche to include in the nominated tag.

Final Fantasy Tactics

Rapha Galthena & Marach Galthena

My favorite two characters in the game! I always felt quite sorry for them and so stubbornly kept them in my party in the original PSX game, despite their lackluster skillset. I've requested and gotten some really lovely stuff for them in the past but I am greedy and will do it again. I like their magic abilities and would appreciate any sort of worldbuilding (including visual) for their magic; I like opposites and contrasts and the heaven/hell thing and high faith/low brave/low faith/high brave thing they've got going on is great for that; fleshing out their backstory or giving them a little adventure mid-canon would be fun. Or I'd love to see something where they're trying out a new jobclass (either art where they've got a new costume on, or fic where they're learning a new job).

Princess Maker 2

General thoughts on this game: I really loved the graphics/art style of this game -- it's so charming! And I love how many possible endings there are. It's kind of exhilarating how Olive can end up in so many different professions and have an ending as dreamy as marrying a charming prince and as dark as marrying Satan. Some of the looks are just so great too (so iddy??) -- some of my favorites: Crime Boss, High General, Mason, Royal Concubine. (Feel free to name the daughter something other than Olive if you like.)

Olive/Anita
Olive/Patricia

Little me shipped Olive with her rivals, especially these two. In general, I have a soft spot for rivalries that start out mean/antagonistic and develop over the years into the most glowing respect for each other.

Prompts:

Anita is great for sparring with sexual tension, and Patricia is great for ballroom dancing in fancy dresses with sexual tension. The inherent homoeroticism of swordplay and competitive dancing.
Either of them meets Olive outside of classes/competitions and they hang out together and it's... actually nice?
Create your own marriage ending for one of these two.
A moment when the rival ends up coming to Olive's aid/standing up for her.

Olive/Dragon Youth

Yeah, so I am a sucker for puppy love and bashful marriage proposals, so immediately fell in love with the Dragon Youth. The fact that the Dragon Youth appears in dragon and human forms is great for hidden identity/Beauty and the Beast style plotlines too.

Prompts:

Hanging out as kids/teens and becoming friends/developing affection for each other.
Dragon Youth trying and failing to spit out his feelings for Olive.
Post-canon: What life is like being married to a dragon?

Olive/Lucifon

The fact that the main character can consort with the devil is idtastic goodness for me. And just look at this wedding dress??

Why did Lucifon take an interest in Olive? Expand on this!
Demon orgy in the desert or something.
Post-canon: What is it like being married to the Prince of Darkness? Does she enjoy it? Or does she come to regret it?
Hades and Persephone fusion?

Soulcalibur / Soul Calibur

Note: More info about this canon and my thoughts on it in my Yuletide letter.

General thoughts on this series: This request is great for costume porn because of all the characters' looks that can change pretty dramatically each game and SC's Rule of Cool approach to its costumes.

Hilde von Krone/Gerhilde

Mm so I really love warrior princess + her loyal knight lieutenant. I loved whenever Gerhilde appeared in Hilde's SCVI story. And the series has certainly played with the notion that there is something sapphic to their relationship before.

Prompts:

Battle couple / having each other's back on the battlefield.
Gerhilde helping Hilde put on her armor. Maybe... with pining??!? I am a simple woman with simple desires.
Sparring? Sparring.
Just anything where Hilde has to call off her dog (Gerhilde being a bit defensive of Hilde's honor).
One of them takes a hit for the other + wound tending.

Hong Yun-seong/Seong Mi-na

To summarize what draws me to this pairing: Playful, teasing, mentor/mentee relationship.

Prompts:

Snapshots of Mi-na and Yun-seong's relationship growing up. How did their relationship change over time as they grew older?
A take on Yun-seong where his obsession with besting Hwang stems from his feelings for Mi-na -- e.g. wanting to impress her, be Han-myeong's heir, feeling romantic rivalry with Hwang, etc. (And maybe he finally does get his duel with Hwang?)
These two have a very joke-y, prank-filled relationship, but I'd love to see them have a serious heart-to-heart talk as well. Like, I think Yun-seong could have some angst about never being able to live up to Hwang's example, and Mi-na could have some angst about her father and growing up, and wasting her life away with useless rebellions.
Mi-na and Yun-seong traveling together and encountering monster of the week or some kind of challenge they have to tackle together.
Duels, sparring, something involving the dynamic of Mi-na being Yun-seong's mentor/coach.
Romance developing on the way home from the hunt for Soul Edge. Tropes like "there was only one bed" are appreciated.
Getting up to shenanigans together, like making bets with each other, daring each other into doing something stupid, pranks that go wrong, etc. (I'd love to see a strip poker game (or something similar) between these two.)

Hwang Seong-gyeong/Wilhelm von Krone

I wasn't at all expecting their surprisingly flirty/bantery meetcute. ("But you haven't yet used your spear. I feel insulted." -- things that make you go hmm.) I think both of these characters are quite cool and I honestly would love to see literally anything with them. Having a meal together, doing superhero shit together, kissing, whatever.

Isabella "Ivy" Valentine/Zasalamel

This started out as kind of a crack pairing because in Ivy's Tales of Souls mode in SCIII, she can encounter some version of Zasalamel 4 times and I was like, "Dude, Zasalamel, quit stalking Ivy." But you know what? These two are intellectual loners who dabble in sorcery and they're vaguely good-aligned when push comes to shove but they're quite cold in demeanor and morally grey so I think they're actually a good match for each other!

Prompts:

Ivy reading Zasalamel's ancient texts on Soulcalibur he wrote ages ago and wanting to meet the author. And then actually meeting the author!
Ivy and Zasalamel interacting a lot because he has a special place in his plans for her or she has a special place in her plans for him (for reasons, IDK).
Ivy and Zasalamel duelling or sparring.
Character study on what it's like for Zasalamel to be immortal -- maybe Ivy asking/picking his brain about it because she's curious?
Ivy and Zasalamel dating or hooking up when they can even though they live busy, dangerous lives.

Sword of Mana

Note: More info about this canon and my thoughts on it in my Yuletide letter. Feel free to mix and match Sword of Mana canon/designs and Final Fantasy Adventure canon/designs as you like.

Dark Lord & Julius
Dark Lord/Julius

I've always been really fascinated by these two characters and their relationship. When and how did they meet? How did Julius come to be such a close adviser to Dark Lord? Do they trust each other, despite the secrets Julius keeps? What does each think of the other? Are they merely useful to each other or is there genuine closeness/intimacy to their relationship? Do they bond over something they share in common? Are they banging? These are things I wonder.

Heroine/Julius

I'm a big fan of the "I have you now, my pretty" vibes going on with Julius regarding the heroine. I also especially like the way that Julius as the reincarnation of Vandole and the heroine as the daughter of the woman Vandole loved is very replacement goldfish too. These two also have great scenes together -- would love to see any of those illustrated.

Heroine | Fuji
Amanda
Willy

And these are my favorite characters. Some ideas:

Heroine: Would love to see things like what it was like between the destruction of her village and the start of the game. An interaction between her and an elemental spirit. Any character study, or art in your style. I like her design! A conversation between her and a villain.

Amanda: Amanda is just a very cool character who seems like she's had a full life with a lot going on, but you never really get to know her. Would love to see something like how she ended up as a gladiator, her time as a gladiator, her relationship with Lester, her feelings for the hero, parallels with Medusa, etc.

Willy: Willy is my fave because he is so upbeat and cheerful despite having a terrible life. Would really love to see more of his bros relationship with the hero or Amanda, him getting to spend more time with the heroine before the end, just him getting to punch things, IDK.

(See my Yuletide letter for various shippy and gen prompts too.)

Trials of Mana

General thoughts on this game: I like the relatively young cast -- I think the characters in this game are adorable teenagers. I like how much pathos is in each of these characters' storylines. This game is also GREAT for costume porn because the characters get cool classchange looks, plus a lot of outfits that are mainly tiny pixel art, and I'd love to see more detailed renditions/imaginings of those outfits. I also love "six-member party AU" (where all six of the main characters are traveling together, somehow), if you want to play around with something with that setup.

Charlotte & Kevin
Charlotte/Kevin

I like this duo, both platonic and romantic! They are cute, they and their storyline tend to be a bit overlooked in fandom, and they both are weird and kind of otherworldly in their own ways.

Prompts:

Anything exploring one or both of their feelings toward being half-human, half-elf/beastman.
Someone tries to make Kevin feel bad for being a beastman, and Charlotte goes feral on his behalf.
Anything featuring Charlotte and Kevin's "Someone will die" (<- Charlotte) "--of FUN!" (<- Kevin) dynamic.
Kevin does something nice for Charlotte and her heart starts to go dokidoki and she's like "No! I like Heath! ><"
Post-canon: They meet again as adults quite a few years later and have an "Oh no they're hot" moment.
Post-canon: Arranged marriage between them (for peace reasons? IDK).
In general, I am very here for anything related to the strained relationship between Wendel and Ferolia and how that affects Charlotte and Kevin's relationship.

Hawkeye/Riesz

Aahh I love these two! Hawkeye's flirtatiousness meeting Riesz's intense never-been-kissed energy. They're cute, okay? They're cute.

Prompts:

Riesz having a romantic daydream about Hawkeye and then blushing all red about it.
Hawkeye trying to flirt with or ask Riesz out and Riesz's brain shutting down/going into panic mode.
Other party member(s) get tired of Hawkeye and Riesz not getting together and try to set them up.
Hawkeye and Riesz bonding post-canon while rebuilding.
I also love the idea of Riesz and Hawkeye sleeping together sometime on their journey and then, like, not addressing it until much much later. Kind of like Valda and Richard vibes? IDK.
I also have a lot of prompts specifically on the pining potential of this ship over here, if that helps (obviously there doesn't need to be pining in this ship).