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Inter-High: Dear Author Letter
Hello, mystery creator!
Sports anime is my home, and as such this is one of my favorite exchanges. Whichever fandom(s) we've matched on, I'm very excited to see what you might create for me. Every character I've requested is one I really love within their series, and while I've specified ships I like between these characters, I will be equally happy whether I receive gen fic or ship fic. The way to my heart is definitely through giving these characters I love space to shine!
With sports anime, I tend to prefer more light-hearted content that's in keeping with the tone of the shows themselves. I love the themes of teamwork and friendship and competition, and I love seeing how characters push each other and grow together. For specific info on what I like and dislike seeing in stories, please read this post here.
If you read nothing else from my letter or my other links, however, please consider this: I would like for you to avoid any content with gratuitous angst for angst's sake, rape, abuse, physical assault, terminal or mental illnesses, homophobia as a plot device, jealousy as a plot device, pregnancy or child-rearing, and foot fetishes.
Outside of that, if you have a great idea for a fic about characters I've requested, feel free to ignore everything else I've said! Any story you're excited about writing is one I will be excited about reading.
But if you don't have an idea already, please read on while I talk about my interests with each of the fandoms I've requested. On the off-chance you love AUs, I do too! If you're interested in writing an AU fic, please consider reading this post where I talk about AUs I like and dislike, and things I enjoy seeing in different AUs. And while it's a long shot, I'm including a little section at the end of my letter for crossovers between my fandoms, because hope springs eternal and if you know both fandoms involved, perhaps you'll be inspired.
And with that all said, let's talk specifics.
Characters Requested: Kinjou, Imaizumi, Miki
Ships I Like: Kinjou/Imaizumi, Kinjou/Miki, Miki/Kinjou/Imaizumi as a poly V
Spoiler Policy: Anything and everything is fair game! I've watched the anime and read the manga scanlations, and while I don't deliberately keep up with text-only manga translations, I don't care about spoilers from them. I also love trivia.
AU Policy: Either way is fine! There's a lot that can be done (and hasn't been done) with these characters in a canon setting, but there are also so many AU possibilities.
Additional Notes: The only thing I ask you to avoid with this fandom is romo Imaizumi/Miki content, it's not really my thing. I'd also really love fic that includes all three of them, if you are so ambitious. I love stuff where two characters are a couple but the third is still an important presence in their life.
Optional Prompts:
-poly fic where Kinjou is with Imaizumi and also with Miki, I'd love this best of all, especially if there's focus on how Imaizumi and Miki feel about things and how they deal with jealousy or insecurity about their relationship, as well as how each relationship with Kinjou is different from the other.
-College fic! Kinjou having a long distance relationship with either Imaizumi or Miki where he's at Yonan and they're still in high school and how they make that work.
-Cohabitation! I love fic focusing on characters first starting to live together, figuring out each other's boundaries and quirks and things they're particular about with their living space, and just becoming more comfortable in each other's space. I'd love it with kinima or kinmiki.
-Future fic! Show me a story where Imaizumi or Miki has grown up and begun working at [profession] and how that interacts with their relationship with Kinjou. I'd also love to see Kinjou supporting either of them through something tough at work and then being supported in a different but equivocal way in return.
-AU fic! I'd love a sci-fi thing with robots most of all, gen or shipfic, Miki loving robotics the way she loves bikes would be wonderful. Bonus points for including all three of them. I'd also love anything where Kinjou is a stage magician and Miki or Imaizumi is his assistant, or a magical AU where he's an actual magician and Miki or Imaizumi is his apprentice. Or if you have other ideas for AUs, hit me with your best shot!
Characters Requested: Miyuki, Furuya, Tanba, Ryousuke, Shunshin, Kataoka, Rei
Ships I Like: Miyuki/Furuya, Miyuki/Tanba, Miyuki/Ryousuke, Miyuki/Shunshin, Miyuki/Kataoka, Miyuki/Rei, Tanba/Ryousuke, Kataoka/Rei, Tanba & Furuya, Tanba & Shunshin, Furuya & Shunshin, Furuya & Rei, Tanba & Ryousuke, Kataoka & Rei, Kataoka & Tanba
Spoiler Policy: I'm anime-only (and not entirely current, but should be by the time stories go live) and may eventually read the manga. I'd prefer not to have game spoilers, but any character-related spoilers (such as certain injuries) I've probably already learned about. Basically: I don't mind if you use manga-only content to enrich your story, but please don't write me a story entirely centered around a manga-only event I haven't seen.
AU Policy: Entirely welcome! I'd like them best with my romo ship suggestions, because for the most part those are the pairs where I've thought about them a lot in canon, and there is canon-centered fan content, so it'd be fun to expand beyond that. But if you have an AU idea for a more off-the-wall combination of these characters, go for it!
Additional Notes: I will take literally any combination of these characters and love fic about it, they're a mostly-complete list of my favorite characters in daiya. Furuya/Miyuki and Kataoka/Miyuki are the ships I ship the hardest, but I'd also really love Tanba/Ryousuke in particular because it's so hard to come by. If you'd like to write gen fic, or AU fic, and feel you can do three or four characters justice, rather than one or two, I'd love that. I love ensemble fic, but I still prefer when one character is "the main character" and when the cast isn't made so large that each character doesn't get space to shine.
Optional Prompts:
-Any of my Miyuki ships, fic where Miyuki's commitment or intimacy issues are putting a strain on the relationship and measures need to be taken to make the relationship work.
-Furuya & Tanba, I'd love to see more of Tanba trying to mentor Furuya and set a good example for him, I'd love to see Furuya finding reason to look up to Tanba. I'm also not opposed to seeing them kiss, though it'd probably be delightfully awkward.
-Furuya & Shunshin, Shunshin seems really disdaining of Furuya's pitching during their early game, and he's the "precision machine." I'd love to see him taking another look at Furuya sometime later and being remarkably insightful and just... Seeing a contrast between them, or Shunshin seeing more to Furuya.
-Furuya & Rei, Furuya really benefits from external encouragement and I'd love to see Rei providing him additional support, having nice words for him, just making him glow and feel appreciated. I love to see Rei acting as a mentor.
-Tanba & Shunshin, I'd love to see something addressing how each of their high school baseball careers is over, and any regrets they might have about the fact. Tanba because it took him so long to become a proper ace and he still missed out on a lot of the opportunity to do that, Shunshin because differences in the school schedules between countries cut his time short.
-Ryousuke/Tanba, I just want Ryousuke affectionately giving Tanba a hard time, and Tanba having no idea how to handle that, or whether he should make more of it. It's cliche but I love the "boy pulling a girl's pigtails" angle on Ryousuke starting a relationship.
-Kataoka/Miyuki, where Kataoka begins coaching at a different school, or even Seidou again, several years down the line, and where Miyuki becomes either a recruiter or an assistant coach at the school where Kataoka is working sometime after his graduation. I want to see them learning to work together and then learning to build a relationship together.
-Miyuki/Tanba, Tanba outright states he dislikes Miyuki, and is really resistant to working with him. Miyuki, predictably, sees that as a challenge. I want to see the same thing, but translated into a romantic context. Alternatively: give me lowkey hatesex. Tanba might not like Miyuki, but his dick doesn't agree with him. It's complicated.
-Ryousuke/Miyuki, I want Ryousuke to give Miyuki a hard time. With any Miyuki/pitcher ship, I feel like Miyuki can usually maintain the upper hand and knows where he stands. I want to see Ryousuke throwing him off balance just to do it, I want Ryousuke and Miyuki in a relationship where Miyuki can't quite catch his breath, where that makes him a little uncomfortable but also excites him.
-Miyuki/Shunshin, I just want them to be together!! My requirements for content are so low because there's so little but I love how calculated they both are, Miyuki is a puppetmaster and Shunshin is a precise machine, I want them sizing each other up and liking what they see and carefully navigating some sort of courtship where they slowly, eventually, negotiate a relationship together.
-Miyuki/Furuya, weeps openly this one is probably my OTP and I want EVERYTHING. Of all my ships this is the one I'd most love to see an AU for, if you like AUs and furumiyu please look at my AU post and like, I'll take anything. What I love best with them is the push-pull, how Furuya needs Miyuki as a catcher but Miyuki wants to control him as a pitcher, how sometimes that's straightforward and simple and Miyuki knows exactly how to do it, but other times Furuya is immovable and manages to surprise Miyuki. I love them.
Characters Requested: Ogata, Akira
Ships I Like: Ogata/Akira
Spoiler Policy: I've read the manga and done multiple rewatches of the anime, any and everything is fair game.
AU Policy: Love them! There's not a huge amount of canon content for these two so I'd love that just as well, but AUs are great.
Additional Notes: I'm most interested in fic about a relationship between Ogata and Akira, be it platonic mentorship or a romantic/sexual relationship, but if you'd prefer to write character study fic that focuses on only one of them, that can also be of interest to me.
Optional Prompts:
-Fic where Akira finally takes one of Ogata's titles from him, and how that affects their (platonic or romantic) relationship.
-Fic where as Akira gets older, reaches the age of majority, becomes legally able to drink, etc, he begins spending more and more time at Ogata's apartment and tacitly relies on him for advice. Show me where this trajectory of interaction would go.
-Fic where Akira is in a polyamorous relationship with Ogata and with Hikaru (optional: Ogata and Hikaru are involved as well, though doing it as a V is equally welcome) exploring how that relationship works. Show me how they managed to get together, which relationship came first and how the second was broached, how they handle jealousy, how being with Ogata is different from being with Hikaru, all of it. I always ask for this and have yet to receive it but hope springs eternal. I love polyamory.
-Cohabitation fic because I'm always weak to this. Show me Ogata and Akira moving in together and learning how to exist in each other's space. They're probably both incredibly particular about their living space so I can only imagine There Are Some Hurdles.
-First time fic. I want to see them have sex, I want to see them officially navigating the change in status from a mentoring relationship, even one that has become romantic, to an overtly sexual relationship. I want to see power dynamics. I want to see it work.
Characters Requested: Chihaya, Oe, Sumire
Ships I Like: Chihaya/Oe, Oe/Sumire, Chihaya/Oe/Sumire, Chihaya & Sumire
Spoiler Policy: I'm anime-only. I'd prefer for specific manga-only spoilers to be avoided, but for instance, I believe the manga revealed Taichi, Chihaya, and Arata's future careers at one point? So any character-related spoilers like that are fair game and I don't mind if they're worked into fic.
AU Policy: Equal opportunity here! I'd love to see how these relationships would work in canon, but I'd be equally delighted to read an AU that allows the best aspects of these characters to shine in different ways from canon.
Additional Notes: I'm equally interested in gen fic about any combination of these characters as I am in shipfic between any of them. The ships I've listed are my PREFERENCES, more or less in order, but you can't really go wrong any way you want to slice it with these three.
Optional Prompts:
-Oe and Sumire giving each other a makeover. I want to see Oe helping Sumire with traditional clothes, and Sumire doing Oe's makeup in a new and different way.
-Poly fic. It was an offhand comment at first but actually I'd love to see a Chihaya/Oe/Sumire triad and how they make it work and how each bar of the relationship is different from the others.
-Future fic. Show me what they choose to do with their lives professionally (any combination of them) and how they juggle university and/or a career with seeing each other and maintaining their relationships.
-First date fic. Any of the possible couples. I want to see where they choose to go, is it awkward, is it a disaster, does Chihaya steamroller everything? Do they hold hands, do they have a first kiss? I'm weak to ladies being sweet to each other.
-Poly first date. Basically same as the other prompt except with the additional question of "how off the rails does it go if these three people all try to have a date together?"
-Historical AUs. I don't usually like period AUs but this is one of the fandoms where I can like it: if you have the background for this and are feeling it, PLEASE PLEASE. Give me these ladies in the Heian area or honestly any other historical period in Japan that you're familiar with, stuff like "a princess and her handmaiden" makes me weak.
Characters Requested: Smile, Dragon, Demon
Ships I Like: Smile & Coach Koizumi, Smile & Dragon, Smile & Demon, Dragon & Demon, Dragon & Yurie, Demon & Peco
Spoiler Policy: There's a manga, I guess? I'm familiar with the anime, and would probably prefer fic that sticks to the scope of the anime because it's all I know.
AU Policy: My interest is low; I would most prefer canon-based fic, although there are a few specific AU ideas I would really love to see.
Additional Notes: With this fandom, I'm most interested in fic that's "like the canon, except more of it." I'm not really interested in shipfic, or seeing the characters kiss. If you plan to write for this fandom and have your own idea, go for it, otherwise my prompts will be more "my opinion on each possible pair of characters I'm interested in seeing talk."
Optional Prompts:
-Smile & Coach Koizumi: I love everything about their relationship. I love how the coach frames it as a romance, I love that his wife finds that charming, I love that he wants to light a fire in Smile and genuinely seems to care about Smile enjoying his life. I want to see more of that, and would love to see Smile visiting with the coach and his wife after the interhigh, or in a totally different direction, I find it really interesting that the coach tries to figure out whether Smile could do what he couldn't, target the weakness of a player who is his friend, and I'd love fic that incorporates this in some way.
-Smile & Dragon: I'm most interested in Dragon's interest in Smile, especially how hard he tried to recruit Smile to Kaio and how Smile wasn't even tempted, and in how Dragon actually enjoys the match he ends up playing against Smile and how finally losing is almost freeing to him. Anything expanding on the themes here or translating them into another context would be great.
-Dragon & Demon: I love the way Demon looks up to Dragon, more or less as a goal he never expects to reach, an ideal worth aspiring to but never achieving. I'd like to see this explored, or on the flipside, I'd really like to see more of how Dragon feels about this, with some focus on his own difficulties with ping pong.
-Demon & Peco: I love them as rivals, I love that they motivate each other and keep each other from giving up, and I really love the scene where they're both burnt out but Demon motivates Peco to renew his investment in ping pong. I'd love to see anything expanding on this, anything with them staying in each other's lives, and with these two, if you want to make it romantic, I'd enjoy it, but would definitely prefer it shown more as a partnership than as anything really sappy.
-Demon & Smile: The thing I find most interesting here is that Smile is the opposite of Demon, he has all the natural talent but no real love of the game, whereas Demon clearly loves ping pong and works so hard to be good at it, and it still isn't enough to make up for a lack of talent. I also love that as much as Smile represents this, Demon still seems to view Peco as more of a challenge. I'd love fic that does something with this.
-Dragon/Yurie: I know this can make people uncomfortable, it's the incest relationship. But there's definitely something going on in canon (she watches him exercise, and bathe, and they have what is pretty much a Christmas date together, a time commonly for couples) and I'd like to see more of it. I don't think Dragon gives Yurie the attention she needs in whatever strange relationship they have and I'd love to see them trying to navigate the different things each of them needs from the other. Also I'd like to see them fucking and all the ways in which that is a complicated mess.
-Dragon & His Family: I'm so interested in the complicated web of Dragon's family and in his complex about living up to the expectations of the men who have raised him. I'd love to read fic that chews on that.
-Yakuza AU starring Dragon: This is basically the "show me fic about Dragon relating to his family" prompt except with more violence. I think their complicated familial relationships would translate SO WELL into being a yakuza family and I'd love to see that depicted. Bonus points for Dragon/Yurie being a (fucked up) thing in the context, but not required.
-Future fic starring anyone: the end of the anime shows what everyone does after high school and I'd love fic that follows any of my nominated characters into their future life, or which looks at how they maintain relationships with their friends they know through ping pong in that adult life.
Like I said at the start of my letter, I'm aware everything I say here is a long shot. Chances are we only have one fandom in common, and that's fine! But if you're reading this section: thank you, it's not often that I get the chance to propose wacky crossovers between sports series, and just the possibility that you're considering these is really great.
My rule for myself with crossover requests is that each of these will include one fandom and one character from my signup, because all you are required to write for me is a story that includes that much. The other fandoms will be ones included in IHX, but which I may not have requested, and the other characters may be ones that weren't nominated, but are from these fandoms. This way, if you were to write one of these prompts, it WILL fulfill what's required of you as a participant in this exchange writing for me.
-Chihayafuru & Daiya no Ace :: Oe & Kataoka :: It's canon trivia that the subject Kataoka teaches at Seidou, in addition to being the baseball coach, is classical Japanese literature. I'd really love to see him discussing poetry with Oe, or coming to Oe's family's store to be fitted for traditional Japanese clothing, or coming to a karuta competition because he likes the poetry, only to end up talking with Oe (or Chihaya, or Taichi, or the entire team if you're feeling ambitious). I just love the thought of Kataoka enjoying karuta because it's relevant to his career and because he likes the poetry.
-Daiya no Ace & Kuroko no Basuke :: Miyuki & Kise :: This request is literally just "I want my favorite daiya to meet my favorite crayon." But the possibilities are also so INTERESTING? What if Kise uses perfect copy to get good at baseball for a casual game, what if pitcher Kise, what if Miyuki figuring out how to handle this new pitcher who doesn't really get the game at all? What would Miyuki find interesting about Kise, show me Miyuki trying to figure him out. Bring in Kise's modeling. You could write me a fic about Kise slowly convincing Miyuki to let him do his makeup like Kise does for photoshoots and I would eat that up with a spoon. Also if you want them to kiss I am totally down.
-Ping Pong & Hikaru no Go :: Demon & Akira, or Mitani, or Kishimoto :: I'm most interested in Demon meeting Mitani or Kishimoto, because I feel like each of these characters has had to deal with the reality of being an "ordinary person" who managed to improve at ping pong/go through hard work, despite not having the natural talent of other people (Smile and Peco, or Hikaru and Akira) they met through their sport. I really want fic that addresses this, especially if it does it after the characters have graduated or are in the process of graduating high school, for the chance to look at what this kind of person would like to do with their life. I also think Demon meeting Akira would be interesting, because Akira is sort of the go equivalent of Dragon (they each went to their universe's Kaio, they each were the prodigy at their school), and I want to see what Demon makes of him.
-Daiya no Ace & Haikyuu :: Miyuki & Oikawa :: I only want this if you can make it sting. Miyuki and Oikawa are both manipulators, they each study people and their sport in pursuit of victory, and I want to see something where they sense that the other is their kind of person. I want them digging into each other and trying to figure the other out, but taking care because it's so obvious the other person has similar weak points and if they press too hard, they might end up cut in return. I am entirely welcoming of fic that's shippy rather than gen, if you want 'em to kiss, I too want them to kiss. Welcome to the weird cross-fandom crackpair of my heart.
-Daiya no Ace & Haikyuu :: Furuya & Kageyama :: Fandom makes a lot of jokes about the similar black-haired kids across each sports series, but that isn't quite what I want. I want the AU where Furuya and Kageyama live near each other and their mothers are friends who are each So Proud Of Their Kid and pick out his clothes and baby him, because I have this headcanon about both of them. I'm not even all that interested in Furuya and Kageyama being friends, in fact I would prefer that they aren't, but I'd love to see their relationships with their teammates at their respective schools through their mothers' eyes, as each of them finally makes friends in high school and finds a place to belong.
-Daiya no Ace & Yowamushi Pedal :: Miyuki & Arakita :: Arakita was a pitcher. Miyuki really, really loves handling egotistical pitchers. I want to see what happens when you put them together. I'm fine with fic that's gen or fic that becomes shippy, and I'd also be fine with an AU where Arakita DOESN'T injure himself, remains a pitcher, and meets Miyuki that way. I just really want to see what they make of each other, Miyuki picking at Arakita, Arakita probably snapping back and sizing Miyuki up in turn.
Sports anime is my home, and as such this is one of my favorite exchanges. Whichever fandom(s) we've matched on, I'm very excited to see what you might create for me. Every character I've requested is one I really love within their series, and while I've specified ships I like between these characters, I will be equally happy whether I receive gen fic or ship fic. The way to my heart is definitely through giving these characters I love space to shine!
With sports anime, I tend to prefer more light-hearted content that's in keeping with the tone of the shows themselves. I love the themes of teamwork and friendship and competition, and I love seeing how characters push each other and grow together. For specific info on what I like and dislike seeing in stories, please read this post here.
If you read nothing else from my letter or my other links, however, please consider this: I would like for you to avoid any content with gratuitous angst for angst's sake, rape, abuse, physical assault, terminal or mental illnesses, homophobia as a plot device, jealousy as a plot device, pregnancy or child-rearing, and foot fetishes.
Outside of that, if you have a great idea for a fic about characters I've requested, feel free to ignore everything else I've said! Any story you're excited about writing is one I will be excited about reading.
But if you don't have an idea already, please read on while I talk about my interests with each of the fandoms I've requested. On the off-chance you love AUs, I do too! If you're interested in writing an AU fic, please consider reading this post where I talk about AUs I like and dislike, and things I enjoy seeing in different AUs. And while it's a long shot, I'm including a little section at the end of my letter for crossovers between my fandoms, because hope springs eternal and if you know both fandoms involved, perhaps you'll be inspired.
And with that all said, let's talk specifics.
Yowamushi Pedal
Characters Requested: Kinjou, Imaizumi, Miki
Ships I Like: Kinjou/Imaizumi, Kinjou/Miki, Miki/Kinjou/Imaizumi as a poly V
Spoiler Policy: Anything and everything is fair game! I've watched the anime and read the manga scanlations, and while I don't deliberately keep up with text-only manga translations, I don't care about spoilers from them. I also love trivia.
AU Policy: Either way is fine! There's a lot that can be done (and hasn't been done) with these characters in a canon setting, but there are also so many AU possibilities.
Additional Notes: The only thing I ask you to avoid with this fandom is romo Imaizumi/Miki content, it's not really my thing. I'd also really love fic that includes all three of them, if you are so ambitious. I love stuff where two characters are a couple but the third is still an important presence in their life.
Optional Prompts:
-poly fic where Kinjou is with Imaizumi and also with Miki, I'd love this best of all, especially if there's focus on how Imaizumi and Miki feel about things and how they deal with jealousy or insecurity about their relationship, as well as how each relationship with Kinjou is different from the other.
-College fic! Kinjou having a long distance relationship with either Imaizumi or Miki where he's at Yonan and they're still in high school and how they make that work.
-Cohabitation! I love fic focusing on characters first starting to live together, figuring out each other's boundaries and quirks and things they're particular about with their living space, and just becoming more comfortable in each other's space. I'd love it with kinima or kinmiki.
-Future fic! Show me a story where Imaizumi or Miki has grown up and begun working at [profession] and how that interacts with their relationship with Kinjou. I'd also love to see Kinjou supporting either of them through something tough at work and then being supported in a different but equivocal way in return.
-AU fic! I'd love a sci-fi thing with robots most of all, gen or shipfic, Miki loving robotics the way she loves bikes would be wonderful. Bonus points for including all three of them. I'd also love anything where Kinjou is a stage magician and Miki or Imaizumi is his assistant, or a magical AU where he's an actual magician and Miki or Imaizumi is his apprentice. Or if you have other ideas for AUs, hit me with your best shot!
Daiya no Ace
Characters Requested: Miyuki, Furuya, Tanba, Ryousuke, Shunshin, Kataoka, Rei
Ships I Like: Miyuki/Furuya, Miyuki/Tanba, Miyuki/Ryousuke, Miyuki/Shunshin, Miyuki/Kataoka, Miyuki/Rei, Tanba/Ryousuke, Kataoka/Rei, Tanba & Furuya, Tanba & Shunshin, Furuya & Shunshin, Furuya & Rei, Tanba & Ryousuke, Kataoka & Rei, Kataoka & Tanba
Spoiler Policy: I'm anime-only (and not entirely current, but should be by the time stories go live) and may eventually read the manga. I'd prefer not to have game spoilers, but any character-related spoilers (such as certain injuries) I've probably already learned about. Basically: I don't mind if you use manga-only content to enrich your story, but please don't write me a story entirely centered around a manga-only event I haven't seen.
AU Policy: Entirely welcome! I'd like them best with my romo ship suggestions, because for the most part those are the pairs where I've thought about them a lot in canon, and there is canon-centered fan content, so it'd be fun to expand beyond that. But if you have an AU idea for a more off-the-wall combination of these characters, go for it!
Additional Notes: I will take literally any combination of these characters and love fic about it, they're a mostly-complete list of my favorite characters in daiya. Furuya/Miyuki and Kataoka/Miyuki are the ships I ship the hardest, but I'd also really love Tanba/Ryousuke in particular because it's so hard to come by. If you'd like to write gen fic, or AU fic, and feel you can do three or four characters justice, rather than one or two, I'd love that. I love ensemble fic, but I still prefer when one character is "the main character" and when the cast isn't made so large that each character doesn't get space to shine.
Optional Prompts:
-Any of my Miyuki ships, fic where Miyuki's commitment or intimacy issues are putting a strain on the relationship and measures need to be taken to make the relationship work.
-Furuya & Tanba, I'd love to see more of Tanba trying to mentor Furuya and set a good example for him, I'd love to see Furuya finding reason to look up to Tanba. I'm also not opposed to seeing them kiss, though it'd probably be delightfully awkward.
-Furuya & Shunshin, Shunshin seems really disdaining of Furuya's pitching during their early game, and he's the "precision machine." I'd love to see him taking another look at Furuya sometime later and being remarkably insightful and just... Seeing a contrast between them, or Shunshin seeing more to Furuya.
-Furuya & Rei, Furuya really benefits from external encouragement and I'd love to see Rei providing him additional support, having nice words for him, just making him glow and feel appreciated. I love to see Rei acting as a mentor.
-Tanba & Shunshin, I'd love to see something addressing how each of their high school baseball careers is over, and any regrets they might have about the fact. Tanba because it took him so long to become a proper ace and he still missed out on a lot of the opportunity to do that, Shunshin because differences in the school schedules between countries cut his time short.
-Ryousuke/Tanba, I just want Ryousuke affectionately giving Tanba a hard time, and Tanba having no idea how to handle that, or whether he should make more of it. It's cliche but I love the "boy pulling a girl's pigtails" angle on Ryousuke starting a relationship.
-Kataoka/Miyuki, where Kataoka begins coaching at a different school, or even Seidou again, several years down the line, and where Miyuki becomes either a recruiter or an assistant coach at the school where Kataoka is working sometime after his graduation. I want to see them learning to work together and then learning to build a relationship together.
-Miyuki/Tanba, Tanba outright states he dislikes Miyuki, and is really resistant to working with him. Miyuki, predictably, sees that as a challenge. I want to see the same thing, but translated into a romantic context. Alternatively: give me lowkey hatesex. Tanba might not like Miyuki, but his dick doesn't agree with him. It's complicated.
-Ryousuke/Miyuki, I want Ryousuke to give Miyuki a hard time. With any Miyuki/pitcher ship, I feel like Miyuki can usually maintain the upper hand and knows where he stands. I want to see Ryousuke throwing him off balance just to do it, I want Ryousuke and Miyuki in a relationship where Miyuki can't quite catch his breath, where that makes him a little uncomfortable but also excites him.
-Miyuki/Shunshin, I just want them to be together!! My requirements for content are so low because there's so little but I love how calculated they both are, Miyuki is a puppetmaster and Shunshin is a precise machine, I want them sizing each other up and liking what they see and carefully navigating some sort of courtship where they slowly, eventually, negotiate a relationship together.
-Miyuki/Furuya, weeps openly this one is probably my OTP and I want EVERYTHING. Of all my ships this is the one I'd most love to see an AU for, if you like AUs and furumiyu please look at my AU post and like, I'll take anything. What I love best with them is the push-pull, how Furuya needs Miyuki as a catcher but Miyuki wants to control him as a pitcher, how sometimes that's straightforward and simple and Miyuki knows exactly how to do it, but other times Furuya is immovable and manages to surprise Miyuki. I love them.
Hikaru no Go
Characters Requested: Ogata, Akira
Ships I Like: Ogata/Akira
Spoiler Policy: I've read the manga and done multiple rewatches of the anime, any and everything is fair game.
AU Policy: Love them! There's not a huge amount of canon content for these two so I'd love that just as well, but AUs are great.
Additional Notes: I'm most interested in fic about a relationship between Ogata and Akira, be it platonic mentorship or a romantic/sexual relationship, but if you'd prefer to write character study fic that focuses on only one of them, that can also be of interest to me.
Optional Prompts:
-Fic where Akira finally takes one of Ogata's titles from him, and how that affects their (platonic or romantic) relationship.
-Fic where as Akira gets older, reaches the age of majority, becomes legally able to drink, etc, he begins spending more and more time at Ogata's apartment and tacitly relies on him for advice. Show me where this trajectory of interaction would go.
-Fic where Akira is in a polyamorous relationship with Ogata and with Hikaru (optional: Ogata and Hikaru are involved as well, though doing it as a V is equally welcome) exploring how that relationship works. Show me how they managed to get together, which relationship came first and how the second was broached, how they handle jealousy, how being with Ogata is different from being with Hikaru, all of it. I always ask for this and have yet to receive it but hope springs eternal. I love polyamory.
-Cohabitation fic because I'm always weak to this. Show me Ogata and Akira moving in together and learning how to exist in each other's space. They're probably both incredibly particular about their living space so I can only imagine There Are Some Hurdles.
-First time fic. I want to see them have sex, I want to see them officially navigating the change in status from a mentoring relationship, even one that has become romantic, to an overtly sexual relationship. I want to see power dynamics. I want to see it work.
Chihayafuru
Characters Requested: Chihaya, Oe, Sumire
Ships I Like: Chihaya/Oe, Oe/Sumire, Chihaya/Oe/Sumire, Chihaya & Sumire
Spoiler Policy: I'm anime-only. I'd prefer for specific manga-only spoilers to be avoided, but for instance, I believe the manga revealed Taichi, Chihaya, and Arata's future careers at one point? So any character-related spoilers like that are fair game and I don't mind if they're worked into fic.
AU Policy: Equal opportunity here! I'd love to see how these relationships would work in canon, but I'd be equally delighted to read an AU that allows the best aspects of these characters to shine in different ways from canon.
Additional Notes: I'm equally interested in gen fic about any combination of these characters as I am in shipfic between any of them. The ships I've listed are my PREFERENCES, more or less in order, but you can't really go wrong any way you want to slice it with these three.
Optional Prompts:
-Oe and Sumire giving each other a makeover. I want to see Oe helping Sumire with traditional clothes, and Sumire doing Oe's makeup in a new and different way.
-Poly fic. It was an offhand comment at first but actually I'd love to see a Chihaya/Oe/Sumire triad and how they make it work and how each bar of the relationship is different from the others.
-Future fic. Show me what they choose to do with their lives professionally (any combination of them) and how they juggle university and/or a career with seeing each other and maintaining their relationships.
-First date fic. Any of the possible couples. I want to see where they choose to go, is it awkward, is it a disaster, does Chihaya steamroller everything? Do they hold hands, do they have a first kiss? I'm weak to ladies being sweet to each other.
-Poly first date. Basically same as the other prompt except with the additional question of "how off the rails does it go if these three people all try to have a date together?"
-Historical AUs. I don't usually like period AUs but this is one of the fandoms where I can like it: if you have the background for this and are feeling it, PLEASE PLEASE. Give me these ladies in the Heian area or honestly any other historical period in Japan that you're familiar with, stuff like "a princess and her handmaiden" makes me weak.
Ping Pong: The Animation
Characters Requested: Smile, Dragon, Demon
Ships I Like: Smile & Coach Koizumi, Smile & Dragon, Smile & Demon, Dragon & Demon, Dragon & Yurie, Demon & Peco
Spoiler Policy: There's a manga, I guess? I'm familiar with the anime, and would probably prefer fic that sticks to the scope of the anime because it's all I know.
AU Policy: My interest is low; I would most prefer canon-based fic, although there are a few specific AU ideas I would really love to see.
Additional Notes: With this fandom, I'm most interested in fic that's "like the canon, except more of it." I'm not really interested in shipfic, or seeing the characters kiss. If you plan to write for this fandom and have your own idea, go for it, otherwise my prompts will be more "my opinion on each possible pair of characters I'm interested in seeing talk."
Optional Prompts:
-Smile & Coach Koizumi: I love everything about their relationship. I love how the coach frames it as a romance, I love that his wife finds that charming, I love that he wants to light a fire in Smile and genuinely seems to care about Smile enjoying his life. I want to see more of that, and would love to see Smile visiting with the coach and his wife after the interhigh, or in a totally different direction, I find it really interesting that the coach tries to figure out whether Smile could do what he couldn't, target the weakness of a player who is his friend, and I'd love fic that incorporates this in some way.
-Smile & Dragon: I'm most interested in Dragon's interest in Smile, especially how hard he tried to recruit Smile to Kaio and how Smile wasn't even tempted, and in how Dragon actually enjoys the match he ends up playing against Smile and how finally losing is almost freeing to him. Anything expanding on the themes here or translating them into another context would be great.
-Dragon & Demon: I love the way Demon looks up to Dragon, more or less as a goal he never expects to reach, an ideal worth aspiring to but never achieving. I'd like to see this explored, or on the flipside, I'd really like to see more of how Dragon feels about this, with some focus on his own difficulties with ping pong.
-Demon & Peco: I love them as rivals, I love that they motivate each other and keep each other from giving up, and I really love the scene where they're both burnt out but Demon motivates Peco to renew his investment in ping pong. I'd love to see anything expanding on this, anything with them staying in each other's lives, and with these two, if you want to make it romantic, I'd enjoy it, but would definitely prefer it shown more as a partnership than as anything really sappy.
-Demon & Smile: The thing I find most interesting here is that Smile is the opposite of Demon, he has all the natural talent but no real love of the game, whereas Demon clearly loves ping pong and works so hard to be good at it, and it still isn't enough to make up for a lack of talent. I also love that as much as Smile represents this, Demon still seems to view Peco as more of a challenge. I'd love fic that does something with this.
-Dragon/Yurie: I know this can make people uncomfortable, it's the incest relationship. But there's definitely something going on in canon (she watches him exercise, and bathe, and they have what is pretty much a Christmas date together, a time commonly for couples) and I'd like to see more of it. I don't think Dragon gives Yurie the attention she needs in whatever strange relationship they have and I'd love to see them trying to navigate the different things each of them needs from the other. Also I'd like to see them fucking and all the ways in which that is a complicated mess.
-Dragon & His Family: I'm so interested in the complicated web of Dragon's family and in his complex about living up to the expectations of the men who have raised him. I'd love to read fic that chews on that.
-Yakuza AU starring Dragon: This is basically the "show me fic about Dragon relating to his family" prompt except with more violence. I think their complicated familial relationships would translate SO WELL into being a yakuza family and I'd love to see that depicted. Bonus points for Dragon/Yurie being a (fucked up) thing in the context, but not required.
-Future fic starring anyone: the end of the anime shows what everyone does after high school and I'd love fic that follows any of my nominated characters into their future life, or which looks at how they maintain relationships with their friends they know through ping pong in that adult life.
Crossover Possibilities
Like I said at the start of my letter, I'm aware everything I say here is a long shot. Chances are we only have one fandom in common, and that's fine! But if you're reading this section: thank you, it's not often that I get the chance to propose wacky crossovers between sports series, and just the possibility that you're considering these is really great.
My rule for myself with crossover requests is that each of these will include one fandom and one character from my signup, because all you are required to write for me is a story that includes that much. The other fandoms will be ones included in IHX, but which I may not have requested, and the other characters may be ones that weren't nominated, but are from these fandoms. This way, if you were to write one of these prompts, it WILL fulfill what's required of you as a participant in this exchange writing for me.
-Chihayafuru & Daiya no Ace :: Oe & Kataoka :: It's canon trivia that the subject Kataoka teaches at Seidou, in addition to being the baseball coach, is classical Japanese literature. I'd really love to see him discussing poetry with Oe, or coming to Oe's family's store to be fitted for traditional Japanese clothing, or coming to a karuta competition because he likes the poetry, only to end up talking with Oe (or Chihaya, or Taichi, or the entire team if you're feeling ambitious). I just love the thought of Kataoka enjoying karuta because it's relevant to his career and because he likes the poetry.
-Daiya no Ace & Kuroko no Basuke :: Miyuki & Kise :: This request is literally just "I want my favorite daiya to meet my favorite crayon." But the possibilities are also so INTERESTING? What if Kise uses perfect copy to get good at baseball for a casual game, what if pitcher Kise, what if Miyuki figuring out how to handle this new pitcher who doesn't really get the game at all? What would Miyuki find interesting about Kise, show me Miyuki trying to figure him out. Bring in Kise's modeling. You could write me a fic about Kise slowly convincing Miyuki to let him do his makeup like Kise does for photoshoots and I would eat that up with a spoon. Also if you want them to kiss I am totally down.
-Ping Pong & Hikaru no Go :: Demon & Akira, or Mitani, or Kishimoto :: I'm most interested in Demon meeting Mitani or Kishimoto, because I feel like each of these characters has had to deal with the reality of being an "ordinary person" who managed to improve at ping pong/go through hard work, despite not having the natural talent of other people (Smile and Peco, or Hikaru and Akira) they met through their sport. I really want fic that addresses this, especially if it does it after the characters have graduated or are in the process of graduating high school, for the chance to look at what this kind of person would like to do with their life. I also think Demon meeting Akira would be interesting, because Akira is sort of the go equivalent of Dragon (they each went to their universe's Kaio, they each were the prodigy at their school), and I want to see what Demon makes of him.
-Daiya no Ace & Haikyuu :: Miyuki & Oikawa :: I only want this if you can make it sting. Miyuki and Oikawa are both manipulators, they each study people and their sport in pursuit of victory, and I want to see something where they sense that the other is their kind of person. I want them digging into each other and trying to figure the other out, but taking care because it's so obvious the other person has similar weak points and if they press too hard, they might end up cut in return. I am entirely welcoming of fic that's shippy rather than gen, if you want 'em to kiss, I too want them to kiss. Welcome to the weird cross-fandom crackpair of my heart.
-Daiya no Ace & Haikyuu :: Furuya & Kageyama :: Fandom makes a lot of jokes about the similar black-haired kids across each sports series, but that isn't quite what I want. I want the AU where Furuya and Kageyama live near each other and their mothers are friends who are each So Proud Of Their Kid and pick out his clothes and baby him, because I have this headcanon about both of them. I'm not even all that interested in Furuya and Kageyama being friends, in fact I would prefer that they aren't, but I'd love to see their relationships with their teammates at their respective schools through their mothers' eyes, as each of them finally makes friends in high school and finds a place to belong.
-Daiya no Ace & Yowamushi Pedal :: Miyuki & Arakita :: Arakita was a pitcher. Miyuki really, really loves handling egotistical pitchers. I want to see what happens when you put them together. I'm fine with fic that's gen or fic that becomes shippy, and I'd also be fine with an AU where Arakita DOESN'T injure himself, remains a pitcher, and meets Miyuki that way. I just really want to see what they make of each other, Miyuki picking at Arakita, Arakita probably snapping back and sizing Miyuki up in turn.