Danmei Exchange Letter (2022)

[millepertuis]

Dear Creator,

Nice to meet you! Danmei has pretty much taken over my life for a few years now, so this should be a very fun exchange for me, and I hope for you as well!
First of all, know that the optional details are very much optional and not meant to be any kind of guideline. Aside from DNWs, you can go in any direction you like and I'll be absolutely delighted. You can take inspiration in any part of this letter if you're looking for it, or go your own way if you've got something in mind!

I'm very much looking forward to your gift, and I hope you have fun writing!


GENERAL LIKES:

canon/canon divergence settings, character/relationship studies, unreliable narrators, mutual obsession!!, codependency, identity porn, domesticity, found families, best friends in love, antagonists in love, slow build, competence porn

on the more light-hearted side of things, i love banter and silly antics and domesticity and i love all the usual cliché tropes (mutual pining, mistaken to be dating, fake relationship, accidental relationship, accidental marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, soulbonding, bed-sharing, temporary amnesia, mistaken identity shenanigans, etc.)

on the more serious side of things: loyalty kink!!, king and lionheart dynamics!, people on a mission, morally gray characters, amoral characters, righteous characters, where do you put the line and what do you believe in and what are you willing to compromise on and what are you wiling to sacrifice, just the different ways people relate to right and wrong and guilt and responsibility and all that jazz; time travel shenanigans; unhealthy dynamics as long as they're recognized as such by the text if not by the characters; characters who aren't quite there yet—there being a healthy dynamic or being good or happiness—but want to work together or push each other towards it

GENERAL DISLIKES:

outright PWPs, modern AUs, unhappy or generally depressing endings, character bashing, rape/non-con*, major (permanent) character deaths, unrequited love, cheating, nominated characters being romantically or sexually involved with people outside of the ships requested
*i don’t mind dubious consent or consent play within the ships requested

• THE SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM; luo binghe/shen yuan | shen qingqiu

i love these dummies. i love how much they want to take care of each other, and how badly they fail at it on occasion. i love the unreliable narrator-ness of it all, how luo binghe wants to be in a romance novel and shen yuan is convinced he's in a revenge thriller. how much they struggle to see and understand each other, how luo binghe can't quite make sense of shen qingqiu's behavior without knowledge of the system and transmigration, how shen yuan is blinded by his knowledge of the original novel as well as by his own guilt--and i love how much they know and love each other despite all this. i love how much their world revolve around each other. i love that fearsome demon overlord luo binghe's greatest aspiration in life is to be his shizun's housewife. i love that the only thing in the world stronger than shen yuan's powers of denial is his absolute weakness to luo binghe being even slightly unhappy. i absolutely adore that not only did luo binghe take his shishu's "be pathetic" advice and ran with it, but that the most nonsensical piece of love advice to be ever uttered actually does work on shen yuan perfectly. i love these dummies!!

things i'd love to see: canon divergence, unreliable narrator(s), mutual obsession

or potential tropes: forced proximity, accidental/purposeful soul-bonding, accidental/forced/arranged marriage, temporary amnesia

or potential prompts:
→ any no system AU, what does it look like?? at what point does sqq realize his white sheep wants to fuck him, and possibly how long have they been married by then?
→ any post-abyss alternate reunion, maybe tianlang-jun got out early and is waging war against cultivators, and luo binghe shows up offering an alliance in exchange for a) his shizun’s hand in marriage b) his shizun wrapped up in an immortal cable bow c) absolutely nothing, but he’ll sure take the opportunity to tearfully glare at shizun the whole time!
→ anything about shen yuan being rabidly obsessed with luo binghe pre-transmigration
→ anything about demon culture and/or luo binghe's unique position as the child of a demon and a cultivator who was raised without knowing a single thing about his demon heritage
→ shixiong shen yuan! that's it, that's the tweet
→ the one with body-sharing where shen yuan ends up in luo binghe's body directly when he first transmigrates, or at any of his other 'deaths'
→ the one where shen qingqiu can’t escape from the water prison / stays as luo binghe’s human battery for a while / stays captive longer after surrendering to stop luo binghe from invading the sect
→ the one where idk shang qinghua or even a shen qingqiu who transmigrated earlier saved luo binghe’s parents and he grew up as a demon prince, but still ended up shen qingqiu’s disciple
→ temporary amnesia at any point canon or post-canon : shen yuan transmigrates into shen qingqiu with no memories? luo binghe forgets his husband? plantzun wakes up with no memories of his previous transmigration and boy, wouldn’t it be nice to get a glimpse of the protagonist…?
→ post-canon luo binghe gets deaged to a) white sheep who can’t believe his luck b) traumatized freshly post-abyss black-bellied sheep who definitely can’t believe his luck c) thoroughly blackened sheep who was in the process of capturing plantzun and is /extremely/ suspicious of his luck

• THE SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM; original luo binghe/original shen qingqiu

i really enjoy terrible people who are obsessed with each other as a ship dynamic, i-hate-you-but-i-can't-live-without-you. while the obsession is mostly on bingge's side in canon, shen jiu's own brand of devotion is pretty extreme, and he feels like someone who very badly wants to be needed, which can pave the way for such an interesting dynamic between them, imo. canon takes it..... pretty...... far, so i'd be very happy with some canon divergence here, if only because lugging around a torso just seems awkward (things you'd never thought you'd write.....).


things i'd love to see: canon divergence, mutual obsession, awful people in love..... everyone having most if not all of their limbs

or potential tropes: forced proximity, accidental/purposeful soul-bonding, accidental/forced/arranged marriage, temporary amnesia

or potential prompts:
→ any scenario where they’re stuck with each other without being able to kill each other
→ also anything about demon culture and/or luo binghe's unique position as the child of a demon and a cultivator who was raised without knowing a single thing about his demon heritage
→ the one where bingge is never exposed as a demon and stays in qing jing peak
→ the one where [handwaves plot] bingge needs his evil shizun as a) war strategist b) political advisor c) empress
→ the one where they're both reborn
→ the one where bingge's parents never died and he grew up as a demon lord
→ the one where they accidentally/purposefully soul-bond a) pre-abyss b) when bingge is conquering the realms c) when shen jiu is his prisoner and now neither of them can hurt the other
→ the one where shen jiu was also poisoned by without a cure
→ the one where bingge meets bingqiu earlier in his own timeline
→ the one where bingge doesn't meet bingqiu earlier but decides to bring his own shizun back after meeting them
→ the hdm au where shen jiu's daemon is kind to bingge and shen jiu hates it

• THE SCUM VILLAIN'S SELF-SAVING SYSTEM; original luo binghe/shen yuan | shen qingqiu

it's just too upsetting if bingge doesn't get a happy ending!! i can't really bear to break up bingqiu, so i'd love to see bingge find a shen yuan who never transmigrated, or who transmigrated directly further into PIDW. this ship just has everything i love about bingqiu but even more extreme: a distrustful, amoral demon lord whose trauma and abandonment issues have left him with the impossible need to have someone utterly and absolutely devoted to him, and the one (1) person in any world who'd be like, yeah, okay! and who might even give bonus points if bingge just atticwifes him as long as he doesn't have to admit he's into any of it.
basically, if i had to meme about it
bingge: send me a soulmate who's ready to be as obsessed with me as i'd be with them, and whose greatest wish in life is to be kind to me, and who would just be into it if i emotionally manipulated them instead of talking about 'communication' and 'boundaries'
[cuts to shen yuan, currently insulting someone's mother on the internet because they think being pushed into the abyss was good for luo binghe's character development]

things i'd love to see: transmigration/reverse transmigration, unreliable narrator(s), mutual obsession, fealty/loyalty/worship kink

or potential tropes: accidental/forced/arranged marriage or any wife plot, cohabitation, bed-sharing

or potential prompts:
→ shen yuan transmigrates into pidw canon/post-canon, either as shen qingqiu / a wife / any random person
→ post-extra bingge goes looking for his own shen yuan and ends up in the modern world, an irresistible protagonist halo meets an immovable repressed nerd
→ bingge is summoned by shen yuan’s luo binghe shrine, or possibly by shen yuan very platonically making out with his luo binghe poster / body pillow
→ basically any comedy of errors where bingge has to deal with a) the modern world b) shen yuan’s very unconscious devotion and attraction to him paired with his utter obliviousness/repression
→ freshly transmigrated shen yuan isn’t going to make any waves! he’s just going to become a minister to get rid of the more treacherous members of the court! stop a couple of assassination plots! maybe hint (respectfully!) at putting some order in the harem, wait, what do you mean, he’s now the empress?!
→ canon only instead of bingmei it’s a reborn bingge who has all his PIDW memories (this would be, you understand, a parallel universe to canon, bingqiu are still very happy somewhere)
→ bingge learns his soulmate has finally been born in this world! surprise, it’s a transmigrated nerd!
→ minding-his-own-business, transmigrated shen yuan gets embroiled into a wife plot
→ also anything about demon culture and/or luo binghe's unique position as the child of a demon and a cultivator who was raised without knowing a single thing about his demon heritage
→ also anything about shen yuan being rabidly obsessed with luo binghe pre-transmigration

• THE SLEUTH OF THE MING DYNASTY; sui zhou/tang fan/wang zhi

i looooove these three. i love how wang zhi lives in a court intrigue palace drama, while tang fan's in a cooking show with a side of murder mystery and sui zhou's in a post-war psychological show slash romcom.
and i love every side of this triangle. i love how tang fan and sui zhou move in together and adopt a daughter and a goat within like, five minutes of their acquaintance. i love how tang fan and wang zhi understand each other and work so well off each other. i love sui zhou and wang zhi's relationship, how they sometimes grapple with their conflicting loyalties and codes of honor but still grow to have this quiet understanding and trust between them.
every instance of tang fan being in danger was A+++
sui zhou: we should immediately do everything in our power to rescue him!
wang zhi: i'm definitely not going to do anything to jeopardize the current socio-political situation.... but i'm going to look away five minutes while you do your thing and/or actually help you if you make it impossible for me not to, i guess

things i'd love to see: canon/canon divergence settings, loyalty kink!!, domesticity, shenanigans, conflicting moralities

or potential tropes: fake relationship/undercover as a couple, cohabitation, mistaken to be dating

or potential prompts:
→ any getting together fic where nothing bad happens and there are found family feelings and sui zhou cooks, probably
→ case shenanigans? tang fan crossdresses, wang zhi schemes, sui zhou satisfies his loyalty/service kinks
→ case shenanigans: the fake dating version? wang zhi plays the corrupt, lustful official, this is boy toy 1 and boy toy 2
→ the one where tang fan is In Danger, Again, and there is possibly Conflict between sui zhou and wang zhi on how to rescue him, and then they do rescue him/he rescues himself but the Conflict has not Resolved? they will need to Communicate?
→ the one where wang zhi needs help on a case post-canon
→ the one where wang zhi needs help on a lot of cases post-canon and maybe he's just Lonely, Actually?
→ the one where the emperor and imperial consort wan can tell from wang zhi's perfectly neutral letters that he's Wretchedly Lonely, Actually and decide to scheme/matchmake

• TIAN GUAN CI FU; quan yizhen/yin yu

i'm just gonna use my yuletide letter.... from way back, just know i am as wildly in love with this ship as i was when i wrote it, if not more:

I absolutely loved these two and their dynamic. I don't think I can speak coherently about Yin Yu's last scene. I just went to reread it while writing this and I'm just as overwhelmed as before. So he's petty and jealous, so what? So he resents and hates Yizhen, so what? He wanted to be kind if he couldn't be powerful but he couldn't be that either. God!! I just, have a lot of emotions.

I'd just love anything exploring their relationship, Yin Yu's pride and resentment and Quan Yizhen's absolute worship of him, how despite everything Yin Yu liked him, when they were just two disciples of the same sect, liked taking care of him, liked that Quan Yizhen only cared for him, up until his inferioriy complex soured even that. It doesn't need to be romantic if you're not into that, but if you are, yes please.

I'd be happy with any canon or canon divergent setting, be it back before Yin Yu fell, or while he was running away from Quan Yizhen (feel free to lean into the comical aspect of it if you want), or some post-canon fix-it. Maybe they get magically stuck or stranded together at some point and are forced to deal with each other. Maybe their relationship wasn't quite entirely platonic during or pre-canon. Maybe uh, fixing the post-canon situation involves some marriage ritual or dual cultivation, I'm ready to blame Airplane-bro for it if you are.

Most of all I just want them to be happy, or to be consciously working towards happiness.

things i'd love to see: canon divergence, mutual obsession, yin yu experiencing Feelings

or potential tropes: forced proximity, accidental/purposeful soul-bonding, accidental/forced/arranged marriage, temporary amnesia, practice kissing, bed-sharing, F I X - I T

potential prompts:
→ pre-, mid- or post-canon comedy of errors while quan yizhen chases after yin yu
→ the one where they had a thing pre-ascension and/or when they were both gods
→ the one where bringing yin yu back requires some marriage ritual or dual cultivation
→ the one where there's an accidental proximity curse/soul-bond/pregnancy/etc. and it severely derails yin yu's running away plans
→ the one where [handwaves plot] heavenly officials want to send a sacrifice, ahem, bride to curry favor with the ghosts and quan yizhen volunteers. yin yu did Not ask for this, but hua cheng says it’s his problem now
→ basically any scenario where yin yu has to stay there and Feel Things