cypher | AU Exchange 2021

Thank you for coming to check out my letter! I hope you find something here inspiring. My letter includes my signup information and some scattershot suggestions for how ships and tags might interact—they're not comprehensive by any means, so if you have some other idea that I didn't suggest here, please still feel free to combine as you see fit! Also, in general, feel free to combine tags; a lot of the sex-focused tags, especially, could be just as easily folded into an AU setting as the canon one. Most importantly, have fun!

laylah

General Preferences
.hack//GU
Dragalia Lost
Granblue Fantasy: angelpile
Granblue Fantasy: adventurefriends
Genshin Impact
Onmyoji: Mt. Oe Drink & Fight Club
Onmyoji: bad power issues

General Preferences

Fic Likes: sex, both kinky and vanilla; attention to power dynamics; canon-typical levels & types of violence; xeno; incorporating game mechanics; emotional connections and reconnections; hurt/comfort that focuses on the comfort; happy/hopeful endings unless otherwise specified, even for villains

Art Likes: kisses; hands; significant touches like cradling someone's face in one hand; scars, bruises, post-battle bandaging up; attractively bloodied noses; alternate costumes or trading outfits, including "what they'd wear in x AU"; candlelight/firelight/other distinct light sources; characters cuddling or leaning on each other; characters visibly enjoying sex; single illustrations; comics/doujinshi; pages of shippy doodles

DNW: gen of requested ships; death of requested characters; pregnancy/birth/children; gender dysphoria; unrequested noncon, past rape or rape recovery plotlines; scat/vomit/force-feeding; issuefic; medical kink; completely mundane AUs; soulmate/soulmark, "mate for life," or similar predestined relationship tropes

.hack//GU

Ships: Endrance & Macha, Endrance/Haseo, Haseo & Skeith
Tags: All: One Character Is A Demon That The Other Character(s) Summons, ALL: Ajin: Demi-Human Fusion, ALL: Youkai AU, ALL: Edo Era AU, ALL: Soul Eater AU

In general, I'm really interested in how having these avatars translates from one setting to another, and also if you'd rather a player & avatar relationship be player/avatar instead, you're totally welcome.

Summoned Demon: I love what this dynamic does for both power and trust—the demon summoned because of their innate power, the summoner holding power over them; both sides here because they have something to gain, because they're looking to use the other... And how does that make things complicated when there's attraction on one side or both? Visually I would just love to see how you did a demon design for one of these guys, and I'm absolutely a xeno fiend so feel free to play with that as much as you want to.

Ajin fusion: players as ajin and avatars as their black ghosts! I'd love to see how much either of them wanted to develop their black ghost and treat it as a person, and/or how they handled their own qualified immortality. Translating their troubles in the World into a raw Ajin backstory would also be fascinating! Just let them support each other in that messy world.

Soul Eater AU: players as meisters with avatars as weapons? Or you could take the player/player ship and *then* what happens? Who's wielding who? What kind of adventures do they have? How do they learn to trust each other enough to resonate and maximize their power?

Youkai AU and Edo Era AU go together really nicely, I think! Picture firebrand ronin Haseo in search of justice & elegant swordsman Endrance writing poetry in isolation, and the beautiful strange creatures they can summon into battle....

Dragalia Lost

Ships: Alberius/Midgardsormr, Audric/Parallel Zodiark, Euden/Leonidas, Chelle/Leonidas, Alex/Leonidas, Harle/Zethia, Chelle/Leif, Chelle/Euden/Leonidas, Cat Sith/Chelle, Leonidas/Mars
Tags: ALL: Ritual Sex Required To Save The World, ALL: One Specific Demographic Has Heat Cycles, ALL: Erastes/Eromenos Relationship Model is Common/Socially Acceptable, ALL: Hentai AU, ALL: High-class Brothel AU, ALL: Magic Powers Boosted By Sex

Erastes/eromenos relationships between dragons and their pactbound humans, what if. Royals learning the virtues of statecraft and and rule from their chosen draconic teachers, who also initiate them into sex. Implying that this happens as a rule, or focusing on pairs that didn't make it into the tagset (Thor/Valyx? Emile's desperate quest to get a dragon to take him on and not just bang him and leave?), are welcome and rad.

Most of these AUs are just horny stuff that draws on one or more themes that I really like: consensual sex for impersonal reasons, sex compulsions, and wallowing in sexual luxury. Consensual and dubiously consensual are both welcome in horny AUs; if there's a power imbalance between a human and a dragon, I'd rather the dragon have the upper hand. or claw. Blending a horny AU with the game's existing plot is neat, and so is tossing the plot to the winds and just getting people really hot together.

Granblue Fantasy: angelpile

angelpile ships: Belial/Lucifer/Lucilius, Belial/Lucifer, Belial/Lucilius, Lucifer/Lucilius, Lucifer/Sandalphon
Tags:GBF: Lucifer and Lucilius Share a Body after Resurrection, GBF: The Astrals won the war, ALL: Erastes/Eromenos Relationship Model is Common/Socially Acceptable, All: Soulbond - Accidental/Involuntary, ALL: Soulbond Requires Physical Proximity, ALL: Modern setting with canon's magic/supernatural features intact, ALL: In-universe coffeeshop AU, ALL: Hentai AU

I called this set "angelpile" and if you want to combine any of these ships into a probably-emotionally-complicated polycule, go for it; you're also welcome to add Sariel to any combination (I only left him out because I've gotten more Belial/Sariel than I have other angel combos).

Fandom-specific DNW for this request: narrative presenting the Astrals as basically good. A character might think so and that's fine, and I don't need any specific focus on The Astrals Did Bad Things To Everyone, just... don't actively present their imperialist colonizing dehumanizing-everyone-nearby deal as noble.

2 Lucis 1 Body: This is just so great and I'd like to see how any of these relationships is affected by it, not least the relationship between Faa and Feru themselves. But just. the push-pull between the two of them in their interactions with any of the people orbiting them, the other party trying to figure out how to cope with addressing them both at any given time, their vastly different agendas... If you want to trace out how this would change the latter part of 000, please do, and if you want to handwave the world not ending so you can focus more on emotional problems, that's great too. It's just such a cool idea.

Astrals Win: I don't really know what this should look like! But I hope you'd like to explore the idea, with Cilius being so unorthodox among Astrals and the early primal beasts, some of the Astrals' strongest weapons, being his creations. What happens to the army, and the genius who designed them, after the war is over? And honestly if it's just an excuse for slapping modern uniforms on some angels, that's juuuust fine.

Soulbond Stuff: I've thought most about this with Belial/Lucifer but you'd get interesting mileage out of it with a variety of people in pre-rebellion Canaan. So many secrets being kept, all these agendas rubbing up against each other, and suddenly two people are unable to leave each other's side and there's all this emotional bleed and if they can't get away the other's going to figure them out—or you know focus entirely on the tropey need to be in proximity and/or banging, that is also very, very tasty. (Porque no los dos)

Hentai AU: Look, Belial would have a blast. I'm just sayin. Fuck moonlords into submission! debate philosophy with their junk! Trap dungeons they have to jizz their way out of! Banging the entire Astral High Council to get permission for the next stage of Cilius' research project! I'm simple. Confront any of the problems they need to tackle as something to be solved with implausible sex. Also, any of these characters having nonstandard junk (and especially angels having both) is rad, whether or not you're doing something hentai-flavored otherwise.

Granblue Fantasy: adventurefriends

adventurefriends ships: Albert/Yurius (Granblue Fantasy), Cain/Reinhardtzar (Granblue Fantasy), Heles/Naoise/Seruel (Granblue Fantasy), Lancelot/Siegfried (Granblue Fantasy), Lancelot/Vane (Granblue Fantasy)
Tags: ALL: Rock Band AU, ALL: Characters Run Off to a Farm Together Instead, ALL: Building a settlement on a frontier planet, ALL: Circus/Traveling Carnival AU, ALL: Modern setting with canon's magic/supernatural features intact, All: One Character Is A Demon That The Other Character(s) Summons, ALL: Prison AU, ALL: Hentai AU

Rock Band AU: Everything about the rock band life fills me with delight; I am sitting here thinking about the smell of warm amplifiers and being happy. I like the grungy "playing little clubs" version just as much as being a megastar who can trash hotel rooms and take their pick of groupies. Maybe one of your ship isn't even in the band, and is the roadie (read: the guy who owns a van) or a fan who keeps showing up every weekend. I'm here for the thrill (and the love) of performing, the way music feels when it's bone-rattlingly loud, smudgy eyeliner, backstage quickies....

Farm / Frontier Planet: These hit the same specific happy place for me, the competence kink of characters leaving "civilization" behind and building themselves a life through hard work, dedication, and taking care of each other. Adapt canon focus however you'd like for your ship—Siegfried probably forages surprisingly tasty wild plants from the nearby woods, whereas Yurius is trying to set up a new vineyard, that kind of thing, and "settling a deserted island" is a perfectly good substitute setting. If you have interests that overlap with this and want to nerd out about them, please feel free; I would be totally here for, e.g., a fic about the characters trying to figure out if the weird local fantasy sheep have fleece that would make good yarn (and how they can dye it).

Circus/Carnival: The same thrill of performing from the rock band AU, but with even more sparkles and death-defying stunts and more emphasis on being here one week and gone the next. Costumes! Pushing bodies to their limits! Trusting each other deeply with dangerous stunts! Possibly not trusting townies at all (or being trusted by the townies in return). Dark backstories that led them to join up and leave town? "Ordinary" non-magical versions and spooky magic these-performers-are-inhuman versions of the trope are both rad.

Summoned Demon: I love what this dynamic does for both power and trust—the demon summoned because of their innate power, the summoner holding power over them; both sides here because they have something to gain, because they're looking to use the other... And how does that make things complicated when there's attraction on one side or both? Visually I would just love to see how you did a demon design for one of these hotties, and I'm absolutely a xeno fiend so feel free to play with that as much as you want to.

Prison AU: I tend to be in this for the claustrophobic feel that there isn't a safe place and there isn't a way out, and the characters have to find coping strategies for that. For these ships I'd like something where they wind up being part of each other's coping strategy, probably as cellmates—maybe starting wary of each other due to whatever rumors there are about the other's crimes and in-prison behavior, but coming around to trust the other as someone who's got their back in an ugly place.

Hentai AU: Combined with other things or on its own. Yurius already has tentacles. Siegfried already stopped an army by himself that time and I'd be here for the version where he did it with his dick. Monsterfucking (including transformations), cursed or drugged or otherwise compelled to bang, addictive sex fluids, improbable insertions, everyone getting off to it. Good shit.

Genshin Impact

Ships: Ajax/Skirk, Bennett/Tartaglia, Aether/Tartaglia, Tartaglia/Lumine
Tags: ALL: Warlord/War prize, ALL: Sky Pirates/Skyfarers AU, ALL: Rock Band AU, ALL: Circus/Traveling Carnival AU, All: One Character Is A Demon That The Other Character(s) Summons, ALL: Sex Tournament, ALL: Hentai AU

I love this troublemaker and in general I just really want him to have a good time. I care a huge amount about the way he can be a dangerous violent fight-fiend but also a friendly sweetheart who takes care of the people who matter to him, and that he has no internal dissonance about these facets.

Fandom-specific DNW: Tartaglia/Zhongli, including background, past, or mentions.

Warlord/War Prize: but kind of soft? Victorious Tartaglia goading the captured hero of a conquered land into giving him a good fight, urging them to fight harder and get stronger and see if they can one day defeat him and win their freedom back. (in the meantime, hot banging.) OTOH, Skirk is probably a lot less soft even if her motives are ultimately similar, trying to turn the pretty boy she seized into a warrior she can deploy against future enemies.

Sky Pirates/Skyfarers: This just looks like such fun! Adventures on airships! Discovering islands in the sky that were on nobody's maps, and exploring them to find strange ruins! High-stakes ship-to-ship combat, maybe with glider wings to make the pirates nimble in the air! Climbing up the rigging to get their bearings by the stars, and hiding out in the crows' nest or tucked down in the on-deck ballast for a snuggle. Just give me some of that fun adventuring spirit.

Rock Band AU: Everything about the rock band life fills me with delight; I am sitting here thinking about the smell of amplifiers and being happy. I like the grungy "playing little clubs" version just as much as being a megastar who can trash hotel rooms and take their pick of groupies. Maybe one of your ship isn't even in the band, and is the roadie (read: the guy who owns a van) or a fan who keeps showing up every weekend. I'm here for the thrill (and the love) of performing, the way music feels when it's bone-rattlingly loud, smudgy eyeliner, backstage quickies....

Summoned Demon: I love what this dynamic does for both power and trust—the demon summoned because of their innate power, the summoner holding power over them; both sides here because they have something to gain, because they're looking to use the other... And how does that make things complicated when there's attraction on one side or both? Visually I would just love to see how you did a demon design for one of these hotties, and I'm absolutely a xeno fiend so feel free to play with that as much as you want to. Skirk as the demon with Ajax, please; I have a slight preference for Tartaglia as the demon with the others, but I'd be happy to have you show me how cool the reverse would be.

Sex Tournament: It's just fighting to be the strongest with your pants off! I'm here for any point in the tournament life cycle, from training to a debut match to some hyped-up rivalry to defending a championship. Likewise, the characters might be pitted against each other in a match, or maybe one of them's coaching, or they're on a team for a pairs competition, or one person in a group of three is commentating a match, or they're a star competitor and excited fan, or... Yes.

Hentai AU: Combined with other things or on its own. Monsterfucking (including transformations), cursed or drugged or otherwise compelled to bang, addictive sex fluids, improbable insertions, everyone getting off to it. Good shit.

Onmyoji: Mt. Oe Drink & Fight Club

Mt Oe drink & fight club: Hoshiguma Douji/Ibaraki Douji/Shuten Douji, Ibaraki Douji/Onikri/Shuten Douji, Ibaraki Douji/Shuten Douji
Tags: ALL: Sex Tournament, ALL: Rock Band AU, ALL: Mad Max AU, ALL: Circus/Traveling Carnival AU, ALL: Magic Powers Boosted By Sex, ALL: Modern setting with canon's magic/supernatural features intact, ALL: Hentai AU

Best friends, maybe with one of their other friends along, being rowdy problems and having a good time!

Sex Tournament: It's just fighting to be the strongest with your pants off! I'm here for any point in the tournament life cycle, from training to a debut match to some hyped-up rivalry to defending a championship. Likewise, the characters might be pitted against each other in a match, or maybe one of them's coaching, or they're on a team for a pairs competition, or one person in a group of three (Hoshiguma, I'm talking about Hoshiguma) is commentating a match, or they're a star competitor and excited fan, or... Yes.

Modern Setting: This is mostly here because I've been on pixiv and there are some fabulous pictures of like, Ibaraki on a motorcycle in the moonlight, or the Mt. Oe gang kitted out to go surfing, still being obviously, visibly oni, and I love it. If you've got something similar up your sleeve, show me :3

Hentai AU: Combined with other things or on its own. You remember that time Ibaraki Douji and Shuten Douji fucked an entire invading army into submission to keep Mt. Oe safe? Good times. Or the time it turned out that drinking potent demon-force-infused come would help Onikiri recover his strength after escaping the Minamotos' binding seal! Monsterfucking (including transformations), cursed or drugged or otherwise compelled to bang, addictive sex fluids, improbable insertions, everyone getting off to it. Good shit.

Onmyoji: bad power things

bad power things ships: Asura/Garuda, Minamoto no Yorimitsu/Onikiri, Minamoto no Yorimitsu/Orochi
Tags:ALL: Warlord/War prize, ALL: Magic Powers Boosted By Sex, ALL: Sex Slave AU, ALL: Modern setting with canon's magic/supernatural features intact, ALL: Prison AU

Request-specific DNW: inverting canon power dynamics. I'm asking for these ones because I want to dig into the bad situations we already had in canon, with AU twists.

What about Taishakuten? I'm not requesting him here but it's absolutely fine to mention Asura's feelings for him in any Asura/Garuda fic, and to have Asura and Taishakuten currently in a relationship in any situation where Asura can still be mean to Garuda on the side.

Warlord/War Prize: Because they have the power, they have the right, and they will keep these prize warriors to demonstrate that! Asura's forces, whether the Wings or a demon army, rout the Goldwing Ravens, and when their leader begs for his life, promising to be useful, Asura supposes he might enjoy keeping such a pretty bird at the foot of his throne... Yorimitsu thinks of Onikiri as a triumph, an enemy turned into an obedient weapon, something he can use to infuriate the demon armies and indulge himself in private as well. Resurrected Orochi lays claim to the man who tried so hard to stop him and instead made his triumph possible; he's probably very fond of putting Yorimitsu on display so he can be entertained by all that humiliation and anger.

Magic Powers Boosted by Sex: Combines well with either the one above or the one below! Character with power using his subordinate as a "battery," boosting his own power through requiring another powerful (but not *as* powerful) being to provide sex.

Sex Slave: I'm up for both "like canon, except the subordinate character is forced to provide sex whenever ordered" and for further-ranging AUs where the slave is expected to be a sex slave and nothing more. In that second case, all the luxury/dehumanizing framing and elements are tasty! The slave expected to wear revealing clothing or none at all, pretty decorative jewelry, marking by the master whether piercing or branding or something magical, collars especially to chain the slave to the foot of the master's throne, plugs for the master's convenience, specific commands the slave is expected to obey, the slave being offered to/shared with the master's guests or companions....

Prison AU: I tend to be in this for the claustrophobic feel that there isn't a safe place and there isn't a way out, and the characters have to find coping strategies for that. For these ships I expect the more powerful character has set himself up as one of the dangerous guys to watch out for in prison, and the other is trying to ally himself with that power for protection. You trade the currency you have, right? Messy desperation, uncomfortable sex, and clawing at scraps of dignity in a place that doesn't allow much of that for anyone. Acknowledging the limits to the bigger badass' power (he's still stuck in prison, after all) also good, whether that's a moment of shared vulnerability/empathy or a dangerous "you saw his weakness, better pretend really hard that you didn't" thing. ...Unearthly or supernatural elements to the prison itself are also quite welcome.