Dear Rule 63 Writer

[calliatra]

Dear Rule 63 Writer,

I am so excited that this exchange is finally happening! \o/
I hope you have just as much fun with this as I definitely will, and I hope you’ll find my letter at least a little bit helpful. I’m trying to keep it (reasonably) short and sweet, so here goes:

*

 

Quick Info:

I go by Calliatra everywhere. You can find me mainly on ao3 and tumblr. You can find my letters for previous exchanges here.
Anon commenting is enabled here, and of course you can also always contact me via mod anytime.

*

General Notes:

• I enjoy fics of any length. I love both first person and third person POV. Same goes for past and present tense. I’ll also very happily read more experimental things (drabble sequences, future tense, non-linear progression, script format, you name it)! …Just don’t go all Finnegans Wake, ‘k?


• Any and all prompts are only suggestions. If they don’t work for you, feel free to change or completely ignore them!


• You may notice I have more to say about some fandoms than others, but that honestly has nothing to do with how much I like them. I truly love all the fandoms and characters I requested here, and I’d be thrilled to receive a fic for any of them!


• For the sake of readability, I’m going to refer to characters mostly by their canon pronouns in this letter. That’s honestly the only reason. It’s not an indication of any preference of mine in terms of my requests or in terms of pronouns you could use in a fic.

* *

Do Not Want

• unhappy endings (I don’t need perfect fairy tale endings or anything, but I do like them to be at least hopeful.)


• any focus on death/grief/mourning, or any overwhelming angst in general (mentions are okay)


• gore, graphic violence, or intense suffering


• chronic illness


• humiliation or serious/public embarrassment (seriously, I have such an embarrassment squick, please spare me)


• imbalances of power in romantic relationships (anything from D/s to teacher/student)


• pregnancy or kidfic


• infidelity


• soulmates or any kind of true destiny


• PWP

* *

General Likes

• interactions between characters and closer looks at the dynamics of their relationship(s). Can be gen or shippy, I adore it either way, especially between characters who are at least to some degree fond of each other.


• subtlety. I love it when I have to read a fic twice to really understand everything that was implied.


• atmosphere! Anything that transports me deep into the feel of a different place or world.


• humor, especially wordplay and language-based humor.


• surprises!


• playing with tropes. Invert them, subvert them, deconstruct them, whatever – anything other than playing them straight is always a fantastic kind of surprise! (Though there are a good few that I really love seeing played straight, as well.)


• mysteries. Not just the traditional crime-related ones, but really any kind at all. I love being intrigued! And I adore it when all the pieces finally come together in the end.


• psychological stories: stories about conflicts between people or within them, and how they deal with those.


• communitcation. Whether it’s talking, texting, letter writing, hand signals, body language, or Morse code, I love it when characters communicate with each other. And I love it even more when they find innovative ways to do it.


• banter! It makes for such fun scenes and great character moments, I just adore it!


• Getting Together/First Time fics.Possibly my favorite thing in the world. I just really love that moment when all that tension finally gets resolved, and all the various ways that can happen!


• friends-to-lovers and slow burn relationships


• explorations of queer themes.I really love seeing queerness from the POV of different characters, in different times throughout history, and/or in other universes.


• a deliberate use of language.I absolutely adore it when language is used to set or match a specific tone, atmosphere, genre, POV, or anything like that! Or when it’s part of the plot somehow! I just… language. ♥


• Favorite Tropes (Etc): Undercover in a Gay Bar, Sharing a Bed, Power Outage, Body Swap, Murder Mystery. (See here for a longer and more detailed list.)

* *

 

Rule-63 Likes

• In “always a 63” settings, I like fics that look at how that character’s relationships would be different, or, if they’re the same, how other people’s perception of them is altered. It’s all about the character interactions for me! But I also always enjoy stories that experiment with how canon events might have gone differently due to the character’s gender and/or what changes would be necessary for the plot to take the same turns.


• In stories with someone “temporarily 63ed,” my favorite thing is seeing the characters struggle both with their changed body, and with the way people are now treating them differently. There’s the fact that their body was suddenly radically altered (usually against their will), and the way they probably have to learn how to physically function in it, but also the fact that they’re now being perceived and treated as the ‘wrong’ gender/sex in all kinds of probably unexpected ways. I just love explorations of how different characters would deal with that situation, and how that might change their perceptions of gender and sexuality, societal power structures, and maybe also their relationships with other people? And I love it even more when I also get to see the reactions of the people close to the swapped character, and how they might go through similar processes.

*

 

 

Rule-63 Dislikes

These aren’t hard DNWs, just things I don’t like seeing as particularly big parts of the story. (In small doses, I have no problem with them.)

• In “always a 63” fics:
  
  
  
  • Lengthy descriptions of how exactly a character performs things related to this gender. (I don’t need to know the entirety of, say, Toni Stark’s make-up routine and dress selection process, y’know? A little of that is absolutely welcome, but please don’t make it a main focus.)
  
  
  • Het ships that would have been slash or femslash if the characters were their canon genders.
  
  


• In “temporarily 63ed” fics:
  
  
  
  • The characters instantly identifying as the sex/gender they/their bodies were swapped to.
  
  
  • Someone having to experience menstruation for the first time.
  
  

* * *

Community

Request: Fic; F!Jeff Winger & None; Always a 63, Temporarily 63ed; General Audiences

 

Thoughts:
So, Jeff. In general, I like him as the sarcastic leader, but I also like seeing his genuine, unfiltered thoughts. It’s always great to see him vacillate, whether it’s between being good or going evil, or just between participating in a ridiculous activity or being above it.

For a Rule 63 story, well, a big part of both Jeff’s backstory and his position at Greendale is that he has all the privilege/“luck” and confidence of a straight cis (etc.) man. And I’d really like to see what happens when you take some of that away. To what degree would/could he still be the Jeff we know? What ways would he find to be himself despite the circumstances? How would it change his perspective on the world?


Prompts:

• What might have been different about the pilot episode if Jeff had always been a woman?


• How would a magical sex swap have affected Jeff, and everyone else, if it happened somewhere in season 1, or season 3, or season 6?


• What does this change about, or how does it affect, Jeff and Britta’s relationship and interactions?


• How does the rest of Greendale take to this version of Jeff?


• “Five Times…”

Fandom-Specific Preferences:

• You’re welcome to gender-/sex-swap any of the other characters in similar ways to Jeff if you feel like it!


• For an “always a 63ed” story, I’m totally open to Jeff being a trans woman.


• For a “temporarily 63ed” swap, feel free to handwave the science/magic/whatever that causes it, if that kind of worldbuilding isn’t your kind of thing. (Though of course it’s more than welcome if it is your thing!)


• For this exchange, I’d prefer gen or canon relationships here only. (With the exception that background Troy/Abed is welcome if you happen to feel like including it. They will always be canon in my heart.)

* * *

 

Lord Peter Wimsey

Request: Fic; M!Harriet Vane/Lord Peter, F!Lord Peter/Harriet Vane; Always a 63; General Audiences

Thoughts:
These two are so great. I love them both individually, I really, really liked their relationship and the way it played out in canon, and now I’d really love to see some Rule 63 AU takes on that! So, what if this time, homophobia is an additional – or maybe even the main? – obstacle to their relationship? How would it affect them, and how would they get around it in the end? And in what ways, big and small, would being a man change Harriet’s life, or being a woman change Peter’s? How would that, in turn, affect their relationship? There’s just so much to explore, and I’m interested in ALL of it!

Prompts:

• How is solving crimes, separately or together, different for them in this configuration?


• What does their happy ending look like?


• The Dowager Duchess of Denver gets involved.


• Maybe they find themselves lost, somewhere in-between.


• “Five Times…”

Fandom-Specific Preferences:

• Any other canon ships are welcome if you want to include them.


• Feel free to “63” one or more other characters as well, if you feel like it.

* * *

 

Starsky & Hutch

Request: Fic; F!Hutch/Starsky, F!Starsky/Hutch, Temporarily 63ed; General Audiences; Explicit

 

Thoughts:
Ugh, I love these two so much. They’re my favorite partnership in all the canons I’ve ever known, and that’s saying quite a lot. I love the way they love and trust and rely on each other, the way they can have fun together, the way they can fight furiously and still make up later, and really just the way their relationship is so nearly unshakably solid that it can come back from anything.

For a Rule 63 story, my favorite scenario would probably be one where the temporary sex swap in some way leads to them getting together, but if that’s not your thing, I’d also be pretty curious what effect a swap like that might have in an established relationship. Or just generally how it might affect their approach to the rest of the world.

Prompts:

• So… who gets swapped? When? How do they both react, and what do they do about the rest of the world?


• What if the swap happens during season 4? How would it interact with all the tension and unhappiness in the air?


• Or, what if it happens post-Sweet Revenge? How does the way their lives have already been changed affect the way they react to this?


• They need someone’s help to deal with this situation, clearly. Who to they get? Huggy? Dobey? Sweet Alice? Kathy Marshall?


• “Five Things…”

Fandom-Specific Preferences:

• I’d prefer if Starsky or Hutch were the only character “63ed”


• Starsky and Hutch addressing each other by first names always sounds kinda weird to me, so I'd prefer it if you stuck to canon names and nicknames. (This does not apply if they’re undercover/hiding their identities/etc., of course.)


• Feel free to handwave the magic/science/whatever that makes the swap happen.