Black is Beautiful 2021

[seinmit]

Finished!

Table of Contents

General Preferences
Art Preferences
Vid Preferences
DNWs
Opt-Ins
Black Panther
Captain America
Zeal & Ardor
Cyberpunk 2077
Watchmen
Creator's Choice

General Preferences

seinmit on ao3.

General Likes

• Dramatic, action-heavy plots full of badasses
• Angst and heightened drama
• H/C and whump
• Emotional growth and self-actualization
• Recovery from trauma
• Revealing dark secrets
• Struggling with duty and Terrible Purpose
• Philosophical complexity and big ideas; fic with a strong conceptual theme
• A deep sense of place, whether that be from world-building or historical research
• Grappling with political quandaries without a conclusion and full of complexity; coming away from a fic with the sense there are no perfect answers.
• Formal experiments: different tenses, documentation styles, nonlinear storytelling, drabble series.
• Fannish "magical realism" tropes/universes, especially when played straight, with world building: A/B/O, D/s verses, soul bonds, soul-marks, body swap, time loops, etc

Shippy Likes

• Us-against-the-world dynamics and co-dependency; Characters being the most important people in each other’s emotional life, whether from love or hate; Characters tearing the world apart for the sake of their lover; unhealthy levels of possessiveness
• Mpreg and pregnancy, done either for angst or fluff; mpreg in a universe without normal mpreg; mpreg played as body horror; surprise pregnancies greeted with joy; awe at pregnant partner; Male omega parents being referred to as mothers and female alpha parents being referred to as fathers.
• Coming out with a socially unacceptable relationship, facing social consequences and stigma; the ostracization is worth it because of love
• Outsider POV; the slow realization that couple is a couple and what that changes about the perceived dynamic.
• Rescuing one’s lover from danger.
• Quiet intimacy—knowing one’s lover better than anyone else in the world does; domestic comfort and creating a life for each other; close-contact revealing conflicts that previously hadn’t come up; discovering new things about the person you know best
• lovers solving problems together; badasses doing badass things together; comrades in arms and comrades in bed
• hate-ships and enemy-mine; Sex not solving problems; sex creating problems; unsolvable personality and politics conflicts; bad behavior as a form of flirting

Smut Likes

• porn with feelings; praise kink; kink discovery
• rough sex; hair pulling; insufficient lube/prep; quickies; marathon sex until it hurts
• dirty talk, especially demeaning or condescending (even if it is done with affection). "fuck hole" (and any variant of hole). Vaguely feminizing dirty talk, even if that's the only feminization involved. "Cunt." Accusations of sluttiness, laughter about how easily they're giving it up.
• D/s; restraints; characters getting off on their own submission; humiliation, loving or otherwise; objectification; feminization
• breeding and impregnation kink (with or without possible actual pregnancy
• comeplay; felching and playing with a comed-in hole; letting come dry on the body; rubbing it in; animalistic scent marking
• penetration; being so full it hurts but loving it; DP; object insertion; gaping
• knotting, heat sex, overwhelming desperation
• xeno/non-human sex; tentacles; being chemically aroused by an alien. Full-shift werewolf sex.
• bestiality, consensual or non. Especially with canids. (Mammals generally are good, non-mammals are less my thing.)
• mental manipulation; arousal that cannot be controlled or contained; sex-addiction
• 24/7 D/s, TPE, free use. Especially when enthusiastically wanted by the sub.
• ritualistic sex; religious ritual sex; sex-magic
• public sex; semi-public sex; unremarked upon public sex; secret public sex.

Pregnancy Likes

• Male characters being secure in their gender identity but finding joy and comfort in specifically being “mom”/being in the “feminine” role.
• Complicated feelings about unplanned pregnancy, including discussion of abortion. Self-destructive behavior specifically because of the pregnancy. Punishing self/fetus for whatever fucked-up internal reasons apply
• Fertility issues, miscarriages, angst about wanting to be pregnant. This is particularly good when the character is in some sense ambivalent about their ability to get pregnant (e.g, if they got the requisite parts through noncon medical experimentation.)
• Mpreg as abnormal, only possible because of non-con medical experimentation, magic, etc. In an A/B/O universe, I especially like when there has been some sort of forced designation change in for the purposes of pregnancy.
• Being “bred” for one’s genes/superpowers. Coopting that ability for self-determination, even if the bad guys were the reason.
• Bodies changing, softening, spreading, getting sensitive, tingling, hurting—basically any specific body changes. I love unpleasant pregnancy symptoms, too.
• Over-investing in pregnancy/baby as the hope for the future...and that going badly, because even if you’re pregnant, you’re still you.
• Body worship by partner that is framed in terms of seeing what is happening to the partner because of the baby, regardless of whether or not the baby was their’s. Fetishizing the ability to get pregnant and impregnating them. Getting off on fertility/virility.
• This is a weird one to phrase, but bodily fluids as Powerful—this applies to both lactation and come, both of them are liquids that Do Things (feed baby and make baby respectively) and leaning into that is hot.
• Painful or drawn out births. Medical emergencies. Really, really badly timed births. Getting hurt while pregnant. Anal births.

Darkfic/Horror-y Likes

• kidnapping, torture, one’s fate being outside of your control
• unspeakable power, eldritch or godly or similar
• self-sacrifice for partner; watching your partner sacrificing themselves for you.
• existential horror; mindbreak; being totally broken down and accepting one’s status as an object; grooming, manipulation, gaslighting
• sinister authority figures taking advantage of power
• bad ends, bittersweet ends, hopeful ends, as long as there is some sort of arc to the fic.
• horror that occurs after some sort of reveal--someone wasn't who they seemed or something was radically distorted.
• ghost stories and urban legends; spooky forests and abandoned ruins; murderous creatures and haunted houses. Creepy rural locations and places a little "outside" the normal sphere. Smelling something wrong in the psychosphere.
• the dangers of ambition, finding out that there are things more important than knowledge and power
• madness, self-mutiliation, orgiastic rituals, canibalism.

Art Likes

General Art Likes

• In traditional media (and digital media that's reflecting it): brushstrokes, the uneven edges of watercolor, smudging out of graphite--the things that show hands have touched this art. Watercolor and the things it is good at--which can be in other media! Specifically: translucent colors, granulated colors, and dreamy washes.
• Stark, super clean digital media, too, really clean linework. Inking that uses a variety of weights and widths. Really dark & stark inking that draws a harsh contrast with color or white.
• Completely uninked drawings, where color blocks out the figure by itself. Inking with colors instead of black.
• Limited color palettes, strange color palettes. Using unusual hues for shadows and highlights. Colors picked for mood more than realism.
• Monochromatic pieces, monochrome except for one accent color.
• Odd and cartooney proportions. Characters with faces that are much more about conveying their emotion than any actual human anatomy.
• For more realistic styles: eyes and faces and all the emotion they can convey--give me big, beseeching eyes and I'll always be happy.
• Poses with a lot of movement, bodies intertwined with one another, things ripping or moving.
• an edge of humor, incongruous details, little things that you only notice on a second glance.

Porny Art Likes

• Any level of pornographicness--throbbing cocks to suggestive poses.
• fluids--sweat, come, glistening pussys
• Desperation in expressions. Super flushed faces.
• Body hair and physical imperfections.
• poses that bring home power disparities and vulnerability. Holding the throat, kneeling, pain.

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Vid Likes

Music Likes

In my own time, I mostly listen to hip hop, but I like all sorts of music. I love music with a good beat and interesting lyrics. Most of my favorites are in a minor key and have a dark, distorted element to them. In terms of music to vid, I love incongruous song choices and finding new music through vids. I like when the lyrics make sense of the video and reveal something interesting about the themes/characters involved. Sometimes when music is a little bit too on the nose it can be a bit much for me--I like unexpected choices.

Hip-hop can be really tricky to vid to, but if you can pull it off I'll be so delighted.

Random artists that I'd love to see in a vid, if any of them inspire you: Zeal & Ardor, XTC, Barns Courtney, BROCKHAMPTON.

If you're curious about my taste in music, here are a few illustrative spotify playlists. You shouldn't feel at all bound by them--I love vids in part because I get to discover some new music, but these are a good snapshot of my taste.

Personal to me: Spotify-created "On Repeat, Release Radar.

Fandom related playlists I like and/or made: bucky barnes sad boi hour, end of the line | stucky, favorite son | steve rogers

Playlists I just really reliably like: Spilled Ink, Anti-Pop, Lorem, Internet People, Swagger, Southern Gothic.

Vid Likes

:

• Shippy vids, character vids, thematic vids
• vids that reveal new, interesting things and recontextualize canon.
• tight cutting and a strong use of the beat.
• surprising images
• additional material cut within the canon.

I don't generally like heavy effects or color-correction, but I've liked that in the past so it isn't a hard no. I've liked vids that both use dialogue and don't, but I probably prefer those that don't in general. I like vids that have narrative and those that are just thematically linked images, but I prefer there to be some sort of arc.
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DNWs

DNW

• scat
• formalized ageplay, especially non-sexual—"littles."
• all the way through
• children being called "pups"
• the phrase "big black cock" and pornified race-play
• first-person POV, unless in epistolary, journals, or other written document.
• asexual characters in relationships with sexual characters, past or present or even mentioned.
• things going into urethras
• setting-change AUs, unless otherwise specified.

Art DNWs

• characters drawn prepubescent
• chibi characters in sexualized situations

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Opt-Ins

Basically anything that is not a DNW I am willing and happy to receive, but I wanted to make a specific point to opt-in to the following things. This list should not, in any way, be taken as a "please write me this" list, but if you find yourself writing a fic that includes elements of any of the following, you can soothe your mind with this. The only thing I ask is that you warn/tag liberally.

• In-narrative racism/homophobia/sexism/biphobia/classism/ableism etc. You shouldn't feel the need to go out of your way to put it in, but if it makes sense for the story or the character, feel free to include it. That includes slurs, upsetting imagery, and anything of that nature.
• Any lyrics in vids are fine (including no vocals, explicit language, and slurs). Any music genre is fine.
• Gore, non-con, generally upsetting things about consent and agency, and torture.
• Incest and underage, as appropriate for the request
• Cannibalism, necrophilia, bestiality as appropriate for the fic, character, and request
• Character death, physical and mental illnesses, and permanent disability.
• Body image issues, eating disorders, self-harm, suicide and suicide attempts.
• Any and all "magical realism" tropes, whether or not they fit the canon: time travel, soul bonds, soul mates.
• Past relationships and unrequested canon and non-canon ships.
• Infidelity, breakup fic, poly among requested characters (unless otherwise specified.

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Black Panther

Erik Killmonger: Erik is one of my favorite characters in the MCU. I am fascinated by all parts of his life story. What was his time at MIT and Annapolis like? How the fuck did an orphaned kid from Oakland end up graduating from MIT at age 19? What was his time in the military like? Tell me about his assassination adventures and the fucked up shit he did for the US government. It would particularly cool to put him in a ghost story of some type—I think his POV would be a great one when paired with the supernatural. I’m fascinated by the intersection of his rage and the love he has for Black people, his father, and himself. I’m interested in the question of his many names and what they mean to him, how he code-switches and what that looks like. Feel free to lean into the political themes of his story.

For vids, I think there's so much to do with different themes we see in the movies. I would love things that demonstrate his heartbreaking mix of power, vulnerability, and rage. I would love songs that reveal something specific about his struggle. I find the way MBJ moves in this role fascinating -- you can see so much tension in his shoulders and his almost studied prowl. I want everything.

Vids of him and T'Challa are also amazing. Their back and forth, with all the parallels and struggles and intense staring, is perfectly structured for a vid. I'd love something to a song that could draw out a unique or unexpected connection between them.

Doing a vid of either Erik/Bucky or Erik & his mom would be seriously hardmode, given that Erik/Bucky never interact and his mom isn't pictured in the films. If you could construct something, that would be really cool! I really enjoy vids that make a graceful use of different canons, and marvel when things like color matching and other editing work really make it seem like they came from the same place.

Specific DNWs: Please keep the fic roughly canon compliant with the basic arc of Erik backstory. Specific DNW of Erik being raised in Wakanda. It can go AU in the specifics of timeline and when he and T’Challa first interact, but I’d like for him to keep his general plan to conquer Wakanda.

Group: Erik Killmonger & Erik Killmonger's Mother:We know almost nothing about her, not even her name. I'd love to know more. Did she know about Wakanda? What did she go to prison for? What was her effect on Erik? We know a lot about his emotional attachment to his dad, give me more about his mom. Because we know so little about her, I really don't have much to say -- I could see fascinating things in a ton of different directions and I'm really curious to see what inspires you here.

One specific thing is that I'd love to read about a supernatural encounter set in inner-city Black Oakland, with Killmonger as a child or Killmonger's mom. I think ghost stories are mostly set in some vague white americana, and it would be cool to have a more specific take on them. If you don't want to set it in Oakland, but are inspired by the idea of Black ghost stories, I've always thought there must be some really good supernatural ghost stories/horror stories set in/around the Dismal Swamp, which isn't that far from Annapolis.

Group: Erik Killmonger/T'Challa: I love, love, love this ship, but I want it done in a kind of twisted way. I want them to have an unhealthy relationship where they at least start out not very good for each other. I am totally fine with a happy ending, where they end up having grown into a functional couple, but I’m fine with it not ending that way, too. I would like both of them to remain reasonably authentic to their canon selves. This means I do not want T’Challa to be a pure villain — I want him to have good intentions and to be trying hard, but unable to deal with the way Erik refuses his worldview and makes him feel. I want Erik to be bitter and angry and prone to lashing out. I want you to take his politics seriously. They can grow to have affection for each other, but it should be hard-won.

I love the two of them because their structural positions put them at odds and they have all these intersections of sympathy and anger. I see them as a complicated, somewhat angry ship, where they’re pushing on each other and challenging each other to be better people and sometimes accidentally making each other worse. They’re both drawn to each other and fascinated by each other and yet, I think Erik genuinely kinda hates T’Challa. I love Erik’s rage, it’s my favorite part about him. I'd love to see how it becomes love or attachment.

The basic prompt I would like is T’Challa saving Erik against his will and the outcomes of that. He could save him in a bunch of different ways — ignoring his wishes and rushing him to medical help, time travel, wish on the Tesseract, whatever. Erik could come back normal or Come Back Wrong. There could be time loops where T’Challa tries a million different ways to avert Erik’s death and none of them work.

And, then when Erik survives, they could end up fucking from some sort of magical realism device like sex pollen or just as an unhealthy, angry coping mechanism. I just want to explore the fucked-up dynamic here.

Some assorted random prompts:

• Erik's resurrection is traumatic and difficult, which means he has to recovery for a significant amount of time. He's weak, nearly helpless, and he is extremely badtempered about any attempt to help them.
• Bast brings Erik back to life to teach T'Challa a lesson/bring balance to the Force, so to spea.
• T'Challa has to venture into the ancestral plane and bring Erik back, like an old legend.
• However T'Challa brings Erik back gives them a soulbond that they didn't expect.
• They are soulmates with each other, which brings new resonance to Erik revealing his name as N'Jadaka.
• T'Challa marries Erik in order to prevent him from being punished for his crimes against Wakanda.

Group: James "Bucky" Barnes/Erik Killmonger: I love the idea of them as a ship. I love their parallels—shared history of dehumanization, assassin background—and I love the very strong divergences, in that there’s a really important difference between being dehumanized by 400 years of Western civilization and being dehumanized by a magic chair. The only person Erik ever was is this, rage and humor grown up together like intertwined vines. I love that difference between the two of them, what it means for recovery—what does recovery even look like, if you’re Erik? What does it mean to heal trauma, when the trauma is (in part) the history of anti-Blackness?

I love how they’d inevitably butt heads. Bucky, as we see him in Wakanda, has worked really hard to find peace for himself and in his own life. He knows there’ll be a fight, but he seems to be looking for a way to avoid fights, generally. That’s very different than Erik and it is not something that Erik would easily understand. The thing I love about it is that Bucky and Erik can help each other see something true on the other’s experiences and help each other move to a place where they can see past their trauma to a future.

Specific Prompts

• Recovering together in Wakanda, and all the frictions that would entail. I could see a big issue being that Erik doesn't think he needs recovery and that Bucky is uncertain about how much, if any, to push. Maybe there is some plot contrivance that pushes Erik to need to hide out with Bucky. Maybe Bucky even, deeply uncertainly, helps Erik break out of T'Challa's prison or hides him out with the goats.
• Interactions between the Winter Soldier and Killmonger, while he was at the CIA. I bet Erik would be fascinated by this white guy who is treated so thoroguhly as an object by his handlers. I bet it would be entirely and completely unsurprised that HYDRA is at the core of the US government. Honestly, I could see him finding it grotesque in a way that is interestingly different than most fics that deal with Bucky recovering. From the perspective of someone who had to gruelingly maintain what he could of his humanity in the context of his own dehumanization, Bucky’s childlike obedience could be seen as horrifying.
• I love the idea of him seeing Bucky and having this moment of irrationality (from the perspective of his grand plan to take over Wakanda) and going rogue to break Bucky out—and then maybe kinda hating Bucky for that, a little. Because Bucky ruined everything by being so docile and easy to hurt. And being confused at himself, because the utilitarian calculus doesn’t make sense.
• Erik activating Bucky during his coup of Wakanda and dealing the aftermath of that. It wouldn't surprise me at all if he figured out/knew the code words and when he found out there is a famous assassin chilling in Wakanda's cryo tubes, I could see him taking advantage of that. And, of course, Bucky would be furious/shattered to his core.
• Maybe Bucky and Erik get married in an arranged thing as a condition for Erik being let free after the events of Black Panther.
• Anything from my Unusual Bearings letter. Feel like getting Bucky pregnant? I love it. I think it would really fuck with Erik, too.
• I also talk about them both a ton in my Little Black Dress letter, if you want that inspiration.
• I think being forced together in marriage would be a really interesting way of sparking the interaction that might lead to a lot of personal growth for them both. I could definitely imagine Erik refusing to accept anything but execution, if T'Challa saves him, and the Bucky coming up with another path and offering it. That would be a really interesting moment if Erik is stubbornly set on death and Bucky talks him into trying out a different way of life. I like the idea of Bucky navigating between any expectations T'Challa has about keeping an eye on Erik and a basic loyalty toward Erik himself, a sense that he doesn't deserve to be spied on. Maybe Erik doesn't get to agree, but the Wakandans arrange the marriage amongst themselves because T'Challa really doesn't want to kill them.

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Captain America

I love Sam Wilson. I love the contradictions in his character. He very much presents himself as on top of his shit. He's a caretaker, he supports people, he tells it like it is. He has been through the mud and now he's well-adjusted... or so he presents to the world. At the same time, we have flashes of both his past trauma with Riley (feel free to make him a romantic ex or not, up to you) and the general lunacy that has him running off with Steve at the literal drop of a hat. He's also a guy who signed up to fly experimental gear, and test pilots are adrenaline junkies. But he was the medic who did it! I just find all of this so fascinating and I love the way he's clearly building a person and putting it toward the world.

Sam/Bucky: My love of Sam/Bucky is rooted in them supporting each other past the events of Endgame, so I really would like this fic to be Endgame compliant. Shit went down, the world is radically different, Steve abandoned them both, and they slowly grow to love and support each other. I ship it because I feel like Bucky brings out the immaturity and playfulness in Sam in a way few other people in canon do--and same with with Bucky, Bucky cracks wise with Sam. They bicker, but in a way that (imo) can be read to show a comfort with each other, or at least, in Civil War, a compatibility. I like that Sam has experience dealing with people with trauma, but I would love especially that Bucky brings out the less professional side of him, the side with feelings, who is over-committed, who can't keep his clinical cool. Or Sam tries to keep his clinical distance, to the detriment of their relationship, and Bucky refuses to have it and forces him to admit that he has feelings too.

I'm so excited about the new TV show, so if you have ideas riffing on what we already know about it, feel free to go for it. How does Sam develop Steve's legacy? How does he struggle with the shield? I want to know it all.

I also love both of them in their position as being left behind by Steve. I have... a lot of feelings about Steve's choice to go back in time in Endgame and I imagine Bucky and Sam both do too. Maybe they both were in love with him, maybe only one of them, maybe neither--either way, they were his friends, and now he's gone. Maybe even they had a poly-ish threesome thing going along. (Any permutation of Steve-feelings is welcome!).

Which leads nicely to...

Sam/Bucky/Steve: I'm most interested in the soapy/angsty potential of this threesome, but I love happy threesome endings and wistful unresolved endings alike. Feel free to make it a love triangle and not a proper threesome, if that's what's inspires you. There are so many layers of soapiness--maybe Sam/Steve were together when Bucky came back, and then there's angst about Steve's murder ex-boyfriend and what that means for Sam/Steve. Maybe Bucky and Sam fall in bickering love, despite both of them hesitating to act on their feelings for Steve because he feels untouchable. Maybe Bucky and Sam were both pining for Steve, and then he leaves after Endgame and they have to deal with that. I love the juicy melodrama.

(One note about these prompts and Steve is that if there's a bunch of angsting about Steve leaving them, there's a risk it turns into incredibly anti-Steve/cartoonishly asshole Steve. And like, it would be perfectly emotionally realistic and healthy for the two of them to end up resenting him quite a bit. I just want to say that I'd prefer for the narrative to make Steve reasonably sympathetic and to put a little thought into why he'd make the choice to leave. I'm fine with the reason being something like homophobia, internalized or otherwise, though, as long as he isn't treated like a horrible villain.)

Sam/Bucky prompts (in addition to above):

• Bucky and Sam spent that five years together in the Soul Stone. Maybe, at least--canon gave us basically nothing on what being blipped was like. Go without however you will. Were they metaphysically aware of each other somehow? Was it like The Good Place, where they were in a weird town? Maybe they didn't have any consciousness, but now they wake up in a totally fucked up world.
• Bucky is in danger and needs to be rescued -- Sam has to go rescue him and it makes him realize how much he cares about Bucky. (Or vice versa!)
• Sam is seriously injured on a mission and Bucky ignores orders to leave him and proceed with whatever needs to be done. Instead, he stays around to protect him.
• Sam volunteers for torture by the bad guys to spare Bucky any more suffering.
• Bucky gets brainwashed again and forgets Sam--Sam is crushed by this, but has to hide his suffering to rescue Bucky
• Sam has literal wings that he's been hiding -- Bucky walks in on him and is awed by how beautiful they are
• After Sam and Bucky start sleeping together, Bucky gets pregnant -- neither of them realized that HYDRA had messed around that much with Bucky's insides.
• Sam and Bucky start off just being fuck buddies, but slowly grow to fall in ~love.
• Sam and Bucky fall in love while both pining for/mourning for Steve.

Sam/Bucky/Steve:

• Nobody realized Bucky was pregnant with Steve's baby before Steve goes back in endgame. Sam steps up to help him out with the whole thing and then they fall in love.
• Either Sam/Steve or Steve/Bucky were together before the snap, but everyone Snapped comes back with a soulbond and Sam/Bucky comes back soulbonded together. They have to painfully negotiate the move into a threesome.
• Sam/Steve are together before Bucky reappears -- they go hunting for him after the events of TWS and there's a lot of angst/uncertainty about what's going to happen with the relationship.
• Sam and Bucky fall in love while Steve watches and pines for them both.

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Zeal & Ardor

I am obsessed with this band. Zeal & Ardor is a metal group that fuses Black roots music with Scandinavian Black metal in order to create this fascinating alternate universe, where the enslaved people of the American south turned to Satanism instead of God. The way Manuel Gagneux (the frontman and writer of it all) talks about it is totally fascinating. He references things like Satanism's philosophical mindset of self-empowerment, the parallels between the forceable Christianization of Norway and the American South, the pageantry of religious imagery and the way it can become sinister when inverted, and the way that Christianity has been deployed to oppress American Black people.

Some interesting interviews with the frontman Gagneux: here, here, here, and here. There are many others, but those are some of my favorites.

And oh yeah: the music is dope as fuck. They recently released a new EP, but the world building is mostly in their first two albums "Devil is Fine" and "Stranger Fruit."

I'm interested in all aspects of this. I would adore some juicy world building of this universe, whether taken strictly historical or with the supernatural being real. What was the moment where the Church of Satan took hold in the 1600s? How did that change the history of enslavement and then later struggles for liberation? How are Satanic spirituals treated in modern life? Was there struggle between Christianity and Satanism? What does the Civil Rights Movement look like if there's this deep tradition of Satanism?

And in a totally different tone, gimme some fun demon possession. Give me a Satan delighted to be worshiped and the way enslaved people could deploy Dark magic to punish the wicked. I would love any genre that explores this world building, from horror to romance (falling in love over Occult rituals?) to a history textbook pastiche.

For art, there's so much amazing imagery potential here. I'd love things that combined traditional religious art with Satanist theme and Black bodies. I'd love things that take Black art traditions and add Satan to them. Or New Agey takes on Aleister Crowley style Satanism, with Blackness as central. Black Satan Worshippers from any point in American history: please give me.

For vids, I know this is kinda hard mode -- there just isn't all that much footage of them around. I would love anything, though. Do you want to cut me a music video for one of their songs using live footage and stock footage? Do you want to make me a fanvid of another canon where you cast whoever? Do you want to do something else dope I can't think of right now? I am Here. For. It.

This is the request that forced me to actually write a real letter because I had too much to say, so detailed prompts (as well as general preferences) are in the link above.

Satanic worshiper tag I'm requesting as a catchall if you're inspired by anything else they've ever done, but the specific tags I requested are:

Group: The Black Demon/Devil from Devil is Fine Music Video (Zeal & Ardor) (Devil is Fine, music video) I'd be super into something horny here -- did the person in chains in the video pray to the devil and get his powers through sexual congress? But it doesn't have to be horny. It can also be just about the way that the chained up person appeals to satan and gets empowered from his "piety" -- and escapes his chains.

The Narrator of Don't You Dare (Don't You Dare, live) Who is the narrator talking to? Who is he threatening? Why is morning never going to come and what can the person he's speaking to not look away from? Is the narrator a enslaved person capturing and forcing someone to be part of his occult ritual? The sample from Aleister Crowley talks about human sacrifice, just saying....

The Killer from What's a Killer Like You Gonna Do Here? (What's a Killer like you gonna do here?, audio only) Is the speaker the devil talking to one of his new acolytes who just killed someone in Satan's name? Or anything. Honestly, I'm just here for ruthless killers.

The "You" of You Ain't Coming Back (You Ain't Coming Back, audio only) This one is a bit more mournful/angsty. The lyrics are resonant with the suffering that the music talks about, but it is still has an element of self-empowerment, a type of embittered hope that can push through the flames. Who is speaking? And who is the you that has to let go, that can't ever be safe?

The Narrator of Built on Ashes(Built on Ashes, audio only) This is one of the songs that almost swings romantic for me, in an embittered, painful. The phrase that it repeats most over and over is "they are never going to help us" and "you are bound to die alone" but at the same time, there's affection and community in it -- the narrator calls someone darling, he speaks of "us," he talks about building a home together. In that context, and in context of some of the things that Gagneux has said about Satanism and self-empowerment, I really see this as a doubled meaning -- you are bound to die alone/no one is going to help you, but at the same time, there is a way to make a life in this world, to take ownership of yourself and carve out something, despite everything. I love that. This is my fight song, ngl.

Narrator of Blood in the River(Blood in the River, live, song starts 1:35) This song demands some juicy world building. I want to know all about the Black Satanic priests that chant "a good god is a dead one/a good god is a dead one." And I'd love to know about that promise -- "the riverbed will run red with the blood of the saints and the blood of the holy."


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Cyberpunk 2077

I wanted so much more about the Voodoo Boys than we got in the game. I loved the glimpse we got of their hierarchy and values and total dominance of the cyberworld. I love the implications of the battle with Netwatch and Brigitte's search for Al. I really would like any kind of story here -- worldbuilding, shippy (I'm open to any pairing with a canon character) or casefic style exploration of a dramatic element.

Night City is such a cool world and I'd love to see more about how Pacifica works.

For art, I think there's so much cool stuff you could do here. I'm particularly into the idea of dramatic portraits, or stuff playing with the visual style of the religious ceremony and art we saw in the game -- that scene was among the most visually striking for me and I'd love an image of that.

Some Assorted Prompts:

• Honestly, anything you want. There's so little out there that I'm easy.
• Brigitte and Placide being badasses and solving problems that the VDB run into.
• Brigite hunting for the secrets of the Old Net
• Placide, very large man that he is, with an adorable tiny child.
• Explorations of the ways that Haitian or Dominican culture has changed into what we see in 2077
• The Voodoo Boys subtly manipulating the Corps with their Net prowess
• Cool metaphysical explorations--visually or in words--of what the Old Net is like, and what it's like to be part of it.
• Anything exploring that gorgeous religious ceremony and what it means for the VDB

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Watchmen

These prompts will be very spoilery for late in the show, so avoid if you want to watch and you haven't yet

I am completely obsessed with the backstory reveal and what it means about Calvin, and what their relationship was like, and what it means to fall in love and raise children with someone who experiences the world in the way that Calvin does/did. It was such an amazing choice to have Dr Manhattan take his shape, and I loved how it interacted with all the themes of the show about how history exists in the present and that we carry our pasts around with us. Angela carries her past in her body, but Jon as Calvin experiences it as a single moment, undifferentiated.

You can go any number of directions with this and I'll be all in. I'd love some metaphysical weirdness that really digs into the temporal/metaphysical reality of Calvin. I'd also love a romance that takes seriously what it means to fall in love with someone you know you're going to love, that you are destined to love. One of the most romantic concepts for me is choosing to love someone before you actually do, or out of something more considered than a fleeting passion, and it's so weird to imagine choosing to love someone because you know that you will love them -- or, in a different way, digging into what it means to know someone as a stranger and as the person you'll love.

I'm also obsessed with Calvin and Angela as parents. I loved the way that Calvin calmly explains death and how that moment reveals that even though he's lost his memories, he's the same person. I adore Angela's camaraderie with Topher and how she raises him, and how much Topher respects her even when he lashes out.

I'm also fascinated by what happens after Calvin's death. Did the egg work? How does she adjust to having powers? Is Calvin truly gone, or does he persist in the universe in some way that can affect his family. What becomes of Angela in his absence? I bet you could do all sorts of cool things here -- maybe his consciousness continues on in her. Maybe they essentially merge, and it is as horror or as sweet as you want.

For this request, I am happy with any point in the canon timeline. Pre-canon, during canon, or after canon. Cal can come back to life or stay dead. Strict compliance to canon or AU. Anything, anything, anything.

Prompts

:

• More unexpected life lessons from Cal that reveal his background as Dr Manhattan, a la the "nothing exists after you die" conversation. I love what that means for him as a parent.
• Extended philosophical mediation on the nature of time and mortality thinly disguised as a fic.
• Angela coming into her own with her powers and trying to hide it from her kids, until Topher calls her on it.
• Topher trying to step up and be the 'man of the house' after Cal dies and Angela having all kinds of feelings about that.
• The early days of Angela/Cal--what did that dinner that Angela agreed to in canon look like? When did she really start to believe him?
• The early days after Cal lost his memory of is old self. Did Angela miss that old Dr Manhattan-Cal, even though he chose to do it for her? Did she ever regret it?
• The egg gets Angela pregnant. Cal didn't expect that and Angela never wanted her own biological kids, so this is a hard thing to grapple with
• Very weird, too coincidental things happen--Cal lives on from beyond the grave.
• Pretty much anything that inspires you! This is such a tiny fandom, I'm eager for it all.

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Creator's Choice

I'd love any and all vids/art of your faves! Feel free to use any canon, whether or not you think I know it. I would also be really into vids/art of real people for this purpose (with the exception of no real people in sexual situations or cast in the "Black Villain" tag). I'm most familiar with Western live-action canons, but feel free to expand my horizon!

My letter has a bunch of art and vid preferences, if you're interested.

Specific DNWs: Please no real people in sexual situations, though I am happy for real people art/vids otherwise. Please no real people for the "fave Black villain tag."

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