Jukebox 2021!

[shinyfakehard]

Dear creator,

Thank you so much for writing for me! I don’t want this letter to be too overbearing, since I think the brevity and ambiguous nature of songs is what makes them so much fun to try and flesh out, but if you’re looking for some extra inspiration, I hope this helps!

GENERAL

Likes: loyalty and group dynamics; competency at jobs and hobbies; mythical creatures and magic; smut; relationship messiness of all flavors: pining! jealousy! breaking up and making up! mismatched investment! Denial!

A/B/O • Accidentally Fell In Love With The Mission Target • Arranged Marriage • Temporary Amnesia • Break Up/Make Up • Childhood Friends • Enemies to Friends to Lovers (or any order therein) • Fake Dating/Fake Marriage Accidentally Turns Into Feelings • Falling For A Coworker/Teammate Is A Bad Idea • Found Families • Hidden/Mistake Identities • Highly Specific AUs • Loyalty Kink • Organized Crime • Regency • Rivals • Royals/Political Marriage Turns Into Feelings • Seemingly Unrequited Pining • Snowed-In Cabin/Isolated Together • Soulmates/soulbonds • Sports! • Supernatural Creatures

I’m very open to shipfic for any of these!

Art likes: I’m not very good at art-specific prompts, but I’ve found it very soothing in recent months. Generally, I like oversaturation, contrast, color blocking; tender moments (fingers brushing, kissing, holding hands, intense eye contact), atmosphere and settings; details and clutter. Bright, warm colors make me really happy. I also like environmental pieces and art that fleshes out the world—informational brochures, “photos,” postcards—and captures those quiet moments that are hard to capture with words.

A few examples, if you’d like: x | x | x | x | x

DNW: apocalypse, devastating natural disasters, complete dystopias - explicit underage sex (<15) - gender or sex swap, men being feminized or crossdressing - violent hate crimes or other extreme instances of bigotry, fighting isms as the main plot - heavy focus on IRL religions - incest treated as normal or culturally accepted, intergeneral incest - kidfic, unrequested pregnancy/parenthood - major character death, graphic injury, gore, body horror, serious illness, injuries resulting from sex, impact play (but wrestling, bruising, etc. with some soreness is all good) - slavery - unrequested poly

REQUESTS

Adam — Alex G

(I’m sorry that this is so much longer than the other ones; I already had this written out for another exchange, I promise it’s not favoritism or higher expectations!)

The Gay Bully is a trope that I can’t really blame anyone for being over, but I still love it and all the conflicting feelings and guilt and shame that comes with it. I’m fine with either the narrator and Adam developing some sort of relationship, for better or worse, or the narrator growing up and having to do some eternal work (and maybe failing at it).

And, while I obviously I do not expect you to look beyond what was nominated, requested, and offered, this song exists in my head as part one of the Gay Bully Duology, with Gnaw as Pt. 2, if you want a little more to build off of.

— First of all, whose POV? I spent awhile imagining both songs coming from the same guy, but there’s another great angle to Gay Bully being The Normal One, why can’t you just be Normal, Adam???? And Adam only taking so much bullshit

— Their relationship was… strained to begin with. Then their parents got married, and now they can’t get away from each other.

DNW clarifications

If you want to tackle them at the “canonical” age, which I’d be fully into, I’d like to say ages ~8-13 makes sense to me, but the “How much could one banana cost? Ten dollars?” quote (:() is essentially me when it comes to children, their approximate ages, and related developmental milestones. Mostly I just want them to at least start resembling adults, if that makes any sense? I’m not really looking for fluff about the joys and naivete of childhood.

The DNW about explicit extreme underage holds; I’m not really interested in the erotic while the characters are very young, but things played for drama or angst are good. Some things that I wouldn’t consider a violation for this fandom include: Totally Not Sexual Menacing, confusion and insecurity about puberty, off-screen COCSA and related fallout.

And of course none of this applies at all if you want to age them up and deal with their rocky childhood relationship from that perspective.

Age of Consent — New Order

I’ve read that the title isn’t actually related to the song, but it’s not a context I’m so willing to cast aside. I really like the idea about this being about a relationship falling apart, where the fact it’s technically illegal sure doesn’t help things but it’s far from the only problem. I’m fine with both the younger party being actually inadvisably young parter for an adult or it being a scenario where homophobic age of consent laws have added an extra pressure point.

CAROUSEL — Travis Scott

Frank Ocean in the third verse is what really caught my interest the first time I heard this song, and listening to it on repeat really just... well, evoked the Frank classic of people spiraling with too many drugs and not enough rest in the worstbest time of their life. So, more of them not being able to trust anyone but their wallet and maybe each other on a good day?

Danny — Hockey Dad

Ugh, this song is just so perfectly sour. Where did Danny get all that money? Why did he leave? Town too small? Were the narrator’s dreams for their life too small for him? What did the good days where they were both down in the dirt look like?

Diplomat’s Son — Vampire Weekend

Pining! Consummated sexual tension but lingering romantic tension! The general aura of being in a transitory time and not knowing where exactly things are going but still seeing things narrowing in on the horizon!

Jimmy Mack — Animal Collective

Motown without het washing is just an automatic charm to me. I’d love to read about Narrator being tempted hard—maybe Jimmy comes home and provides a thorough reminder of why he’s kept around, maybe they’re kind of into how much Narrator’s wanted, maybe they use the new guy as a proxy, maybe threesomes! I don’t want to get too weighed down by relationship negotiations, but the dynamic presented in the song is so much fun I’d love to see it played around with a bit.

Secret Life of Tigers — N.E.R.D.

In some ways it’s the oldest story in the books, but I really like the tension this song captures between Parents Who Just Aren’t With It, Man and how the kids who still live under them find ways to act out and grow beyond what their household can provide them, especially when it means being more loving—and also fucking partying, of course.

(The verse “You climbing up that sky ladder/You feel like AC when it's June/Your parents discriminate with the bathrooms/Do they know these girls are in your room?” kind of makes me want to see a trans girl successfully navigating this space; there may be assholes out there but they aren’t going to keep her from thriving.)

Trailer Trash — Modest Mouse

I remember hearing this song when I was young and just feeling Seen for the first time outside of, like, the country music “this is a great time, actually” echo chamber. I’d love more time spent on the bitterness and anxiety and desperately clinging to that half-step up (but also your home still being a part of you and the guilt of not always appreciating who and what was still there until you have to look back).