Original Works Opportunity 2022

 To my assigned author:

Thanks for signing up!  This is my first time doing Original Works Opportunity -- I've done the Yuletide fanfic exchange before, but I've never written original fiction to someone else's spec before, or had someone else do it for me.  So this is rather exciting!  I hope that my prompts can give you interesting ideas without constraining you too much.  If I've put in too much detail, feel free to ignore some of it to go with your own ideas!  If you can go for the general feel I'm indicating, I don't care too much if the specifics are all different.

General DNWs: underage below about 16, graphic violence, incest, noncon/dubcon, futanari (trans is okay), cheating, loss of body parts, hopeless situations, 'grossout' situations or kinks, ABO, PWP.

• Queen Who Thought She Was Widowed/Her First Wife Back From the Dead/Her Second Wife (F/F/F)
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I was highly amused the moment I saw this tag, and knew I wanted a story based on it.  I picture it as being light-hearted and maybe even comedic, though not without real emotions.  The first wife is probably who it's all going to hinge on -- why was she thought dead, and what happens when she shows she's not?  You can go with whatever feels right for you, but my first thought is that she was an adventurer-queen (or princess-consort?  Titles can be tough) who got in over her head at some point while out saving the realm.  Maybe she got into trouble and had to spend years making her way back from a distant land.  Or maybe she really did die -- but she's enough of a hero that she managed to fight her way out of the underworld to get back to her beloved's side!  She could be a bit of a 'herbo' -- cheerful, enthusiastic, strong, loving, devoted, but not incredibly bright.

 

Then there's the queen and the second wife.  How did this come about?  Was there a love triangle while the first wife was alive, that was resolved in the second wife's favor when she 'died?'  Was she there to comfort the queen after she lost her wife, and love blossomed from there?  Or was it a purely political engagement at first, which the queen reluctantly entered to protect the realm, only to find love growing with her new wife?  I picture the queen as a sensible, practical, intelligent type, in contrast to her first wife, but I have less of an idea for the second wife -- go with whatever works for the story.

 

And, of course, the meat of the story is what happens when the first wife gets back.  I'm actually picturing an overblown scene where the first wife bursts into the bedchambers in the middle of the night, cheerfully announcing that she's back (and maybe bringing a monster head or other trophy with her), only to be surprised to see the other two in bed together.  But anything suitably humorous and/or awkward could do.  And what then?  Maybe the queen scrambles to find legal precedent to establish which of her marriages is still valid (and finds that it's actually both).  Maybe the first wife challenges the second wife to a series of contests for the queen's hand.  Or, conversely, maybe the first wife decides the only proper thing to do is to elaborately romance the second wife, as well, so they can all be together!

 

Whatever the case, the story should end happily.  A three-way marriage at the end would be great, but it could also work with any pair of the three living happily ever after while the third falls for another girl.  Just make it light, make it wholesome, and make it funny if that works for you!

 

SFW preferred over smut, but do whatever feels best for you.  I don't at all mind romance or flirtiness or making out or the like, as long as it supports the emotions and the humor.

• Female Time Traveler/Female Time Traveler & Pet Tyrannosaur (Mixed Gen & Ship)

One of my RP characters has a pet baby dinosaur, so I was naturally interested in this prompt.  There's a lot of potential with a couple of characters trying to wrangle a dinosaur!

 

My basic image is the classic 'can we keep him?' scene.  With dinosaurs.  I can imagine one time traveler wanting to adopt this adorable baby dinosaur she found, and her girlfriend/wife trying to shoot it down out of practicality (where would we keep it, adopting wild animals is trouble, who's going to walk it, etc.).  Bonus points for a discussion on whether time travel even works in a manner such that it's okay to take an animal out of its native era.

 

The tyrannosaur itself I'd like to see as adorably enthusiastic, a little aggressive, and not too bright.  It could be a tiny baby, or big enough to try to eat their time machine. ('No!  Drop it!  Bad dino!')  And surprisingly affectionate to at least the time traveller who wants to adopt it, and probably the practical one, too.

 

Exactly what the time travelers are doing in the Cretaceous in the first place, and what the circumstances are that led to them being there, are entirely up to you.  A little world-building established around the heroines would be fun -- are they researchers, explorers, heroes on some sort of a mission, or just there for a vacation?  What's the time they come from like?

 

Probably should be SFW -- having a dinosaur around can kill the mood, I'm sure.

• Leader of Revolution in Cyberpunk World/Powerful Businesswoman Who Is Seduced To Her Side (F/F)

Modern times being what they are, the idea of an uprising against the rich and powerful is an unfortunately tempting one.  Cyberpunk has always been a genre that's about exaggerating the flaws of the modern world and showing them off in stark relief, and if you look back to the early parts of the genre there's sadly very little exaggeration left in them.  So I'd like this to be a very political story -- if that's not your sort of thing, I don't mind you picking one of my other prompts.  I want to see modern political problems having only gotten worse, and the way people are fighting back against it.  You don't have to go into horrible detail, but the setting just feels like it should have massive wealth inequality, voter suppression, legalized sexism and racism and homo/transphobia, union busting, ignored climate change, all the things that the powerful use to divide and keep down the underclass while empowering themselves.

 

There should definitely be an enemies-to-lovers element to this, I think.  The businesswoman starts out fully invested in the world as it is (or else she would never have gotten to be powerful and wealthy), and only through her conflicts with the revolutionary does she start to see how the status quo is harming everyone, even the people nominally on top.  Being seduced to the side of the revolution shouldn't just be about how charming and attractive the revolutionary leader is (though there absolutely should be some of that too), but about genuinely coming to believe in a cause, and regretting the damage she's done in her life.

 

The revolutionary leader, I think, should whole-heartedly believe in making the world a better place, but exactly how she goes about that is up to you.  Depending on the setting and the challenges she's up against, it could make sense for her to be a hacker, an underground journalist, a musician playing outlawed music, a saboteur, or an all-out military leader.  Or all of the above!  She could meet the businesswoman coincidentally, or as part of an operation (such as breaking in to corporate headquarters to sabotage something or steal documents), or even directly target her (taking her hostage, maybe?).  Her attitude to the businesswoman at the start can be just about anything -- does she view her as an enemy not worth trying to reach out to, or does she think anyone can be convinced?  Are there any ulterior motives in getting together with her -- does she think having an asset on the inside is valuable, and is that stronger than her genuine emotions?

 

The setting can be classic chrome-and-leather-jackets-and-mirrorshades cyberpunk, or something based on more modern aesthetics.  Interesting tech and gadgets are a good thing, but the human connections have always been an important part of the genre, and more so here.

 

SFW preferred over smut, but go with whatever works for you.  Gritty, grungy romance and passion are classic elements of the genre, and getting a little dirty is totally acceptable.

• Civilian identity of Superhero/Civilian identity of Supervillain (F/F)

One thing I've been thinking about of late is the whole 'villains act, heroes react' paradigm for certain types of stories.  Essentially, the villains are the ones who want to change the status quo, and the heroes are the ones who want to protect it.  That's got its advantages -- in a long-running series, it means the world will never change too much from the one outside the reader's window, and it prevents the writers from having to think too much about how certain developments would realistically change the world (the whole 'Reed Richards is useless' bit where superhero technology never trickles down to everyday use).

 

In a world where the status quo is considered good or at least comfortable, it's defensible.  But when the status quo isn't great for a lot of people, what then?  Or what if the writers start wanting to write villains with depth and sympathetic motivations, and so give them ideals people can relate to?  Then, suddenly, it gets harder to frame the one wanting to change things as the bad guy.  When Poison Ivy is fighting to stop logging in the Amazon Rainforest, and Batman is trying to stop her, doesn't Ivy start looking like the hero here?  And so the writers have to add on 'oh, and Ivy's doing it by poisoning people/mind-controlling people/trying to slaughter the whole human race' in order to make Batman the good guy again.  But that leads to the uncomfortable position that 'only a villain who wants to kill people would ever try to actually make the world a better place.'  The people with morals never try to change things, and the people who try to change things have villainy tacked on.

 

It'd be interesting to grapple with this a bit from inside a superhero universe.  You could be as political as you like about an issue that's important to you, or just make it a general 'trying to make the world better' angle, but either way, I'm picturing the heroine and the villainess meeting in their secret identities in some context where they get to talk about their ideas of making the world better -- maybe working at a charity, maybe some sort of campus activism club, maybe at a political rally, or maybe just a blind date where they get to talking about serious things.  The heroine is passionate about helping the world, but feels like the system works, that gradual progress is significant, that generally if people of good will keep on working hard, things will improve.  And the villainess is passionate about the same things, but thinks that the system is broken, and that more radical activism is important, trying to break down the power structures that are keeping things stuck in a bad status quo.  (Perhaps each finds the other's traits attractive -- the villainess envies the heroine's optimism and pure heart, while the heroine is smitten with the villainess's passion and drive.)  They can't agree, but it gets each of them thinking -- and then, when they eventually meet up in their powered identities, what happens then?  What happens when the villainess sees the heroine's optimism, and the heroine sees the villainess's passionate desire to improve things?  Do they keep fighting, or find a way to team up?  Is the villainess really going too far in her actions, or are the worst of her 'misdeeds' overhyped by media invested in the status quo?  Would the heroine eventually decide that the status quo needs to be improved, not just protected -- and if she did, how would the rest of the world react?
 

You can keep this primarily focused on the secret identities, or give the super identities equal time, your choice.  SFW preferred over smut, as usual, but also as usual I'm fine with wherever the story ends up taking you.