withinadream

Thank you for writing or drawing for me! I’m within_a_dream on AO3, and I have a tag of previous letters if you’d like to scope out things I’ve requested previously.

I've requested fic and art for all songs/canons. I've tried to give fic-suitable prompts and art-suitable prompts, but I am not an artist so art prompts are a little harder for me. If the fic prompts grab you as an artist (or the art prompts grab you as a fic-writer), go wild!

My only DNW is pregnancy/childbirth. I'd rather not see pregnant characters in art, and in fic I'd prefer that pregnancy not be the focus of the story (mentioning that a character got pregnant is fine, an arc entirely focused on getting pregnant or coping with the pregnancy will squick me).

Fic Likes

My favorite genres are Westerns, fantasy, horror, and historical fiction

Supernatural elements (especially ghosts, fairies, or changelings)

Any POV and tense, especially unconventional ones

The Comes Back Wrong trope

Unreliable narrators

Kidfic (especially characters formally or informally adopting older children)

Art likes

My favorite genres are Westerns, fantasy, horror, and historical

Fancy clothes and costumes

Injuries, blood, bruises

Ghosts or other supernatural creatures that don’t look quite human

Any art styles or mediums

I like any (or no) relationship configurations--m/m, f/f, m/f, poly, gen, and everything else are all good by me! I've got no preferences for point of view and tense, either. I am fine with all levels of violence/gore, sex, and commonly-triggering materials (rape, abuse, etc). Feel free to include nonbinary and trans characters, and since someone asked last year, I am totally down to receive interactive fiction as a gift! As long as you don't include my DNW, I am very easy to please!

Frozen Man- James Taylor (song)
Lyrics, Song

Taylor was inspired to write the song after seeing a National Geographic issue with a photo of John Torrington's corpse, and that in turn is how I found the song, as I have a ridiculous fascination with preserved corpses of all varieties. (Fair warning, if you google Torrington, lots of pictures of his exhumed body come up.) But the main thing that interests me about the song is the narrator's return to life, cobbled together and thawed out after what should have been his death. This hits me right in my love of the "comes back wrong" trope, as well as my love for time-travel stories in which people from the past get to explore our present.
I'd love a work that takes the backstory Taylor grants the frozen man in his song, one that draws on Torrington's life and death, or one that disregards both to come up with a different story entirely. The part of the story that grabs me is the death and resurrection, and I'd love to see anywhere that that takes you.

Art-wise, I'd love to see the details of what this thawing and medical intervention did to the Frozen Man, or any of the scenes from the song (I especially love the lyrics where he visits his grave, and sees the graves of his family).

Furnace Room Lullaby- Neko Case (song)

Lyrics, Song

I love me a good murder ballad, and this song is so atmospheric and eerie, with plenty of room for interpretation in the lyrics. I love the imagery of the narrator drawn down to the basement, and the heartbeat that echoes all night. Is the narrator being haunted by guilt, or by the ghost of the murder victim? What led to the crime? I'd love a fic that fleshes out the relationship between the narrator and the person she sings to, and explores what happened between them, and/or one that plays with the guilt the narrator feels (whether you take the heartbeats and hauntings described as figurative or literal). In art, I'd love to see something that captures the claustrophobic and dark sound of the song, and/or some visualization of all the imagery the song employs.

The Ghost of Genova Heights- Stars (song)

Lyrics, Song

My favorite part of the song is the contrast between the suburban setting and the supernatural haunting. Where and how did the ghost die, and how did he end up back in Genova Heights? The lyrics (Genova Heights are hard to leave) suggested to me that something about the suburb draws in souls, or the sameness of the neighborhood keeps ghosts locked inside it, but I'm down for wherever the song takes you.

I also love the imagery of the ghostly communications:

He taps upon the glass when I'm asleep
So now I keep my window closed at night
S.O.S. in Morse code when the wind blows...

I'd love to see these in your gift, in art especially.

I'd also love to see more of the relationship between the ghost and the narrator. Are they lovers? Friends? Siblings? How does the narrator feel about the haunting?

(This absolutely isn't a requirement, but all of In Our Bedroom After The War is great, and if you love the album as much as I do, feel free to work in details from the other songs)

Take Me To The Riot- Stars (song) I'm fascinated by the relationship between the narrator and the "you" he addresses. Some of my favorite lines:

You sprung me, I'm grateful
I love when you tell me not to speak
I owe you but I know you
You'll have me back but it's gonna take a week

What's their relationship? What kind of riots is the narrator atttending? I’ve always pictured them as politically-motivated (which is probably colored by the context of the rest of the album), but the lyrics make it sound like the narrator and the other rioters are treating them more like a party. What holds the narrator and the person he addresses together even though they seem to hate him? I picture the setting as a futuristic dystopia and/or sci-fi setting, but that's not mandatory.

Art-wise, the lyrics paint an evocative picture of the city and its residents, and I’d love to see something exploring the contrast between the energy of the riots and the weariness in some of the song lyrics. I’d love to see the “slick girls and sick boys”, the person with the empty eyes and face used to lying, or a riot in action.

(This absolutely isn't a requirement, but all of In Our Bedroom After The War is great, and if you love the album as much as I do, feel free to work in details from the other songs)

What's He Building?- Tom Waits (song)

I just want a horror story or atmospheric horror art to go along with this song. I can see two directions you could take it, fic-wise:

1) The man the narrator speaks about is building something horrible

2) The narrator and the others in the neighborhood turn against the man, only to find out he's done nothing wrong

I picture this as taking place in a small town, either in the 50s or so, or in a place that still feels trapped in the past.

For art, there are so many details given in the song, and I'd love to see how you fit them into an illustration that captures the eerie tone of the song. I'd love to see what the outside of this man's house looks like, what his workshop looks like, or both!

Beautiful Trauma - P!nk (music video)

Video, lyrics

This music video is balls-to-the-wall wild, and I wanted fanworks for it from the moment a friend sent it to me. I love everything about it--the gleeful satire of 50s sitcom aesthetics, the crossdressing, the most fun portrayal of kink I've ever seen in a music video, the floofy skirts! The credits name the characters as Fred and Ginger, but feel free to choose other names.

I loved Ginger's little household failures like ironing a hole in Fred's shirt and burning her pastry, women who are failboats at housework are very endearing to me. The cross-dressing was probably my favorite part, if you want to take it as crossdressing or gender play during sex, as Fred being nonbinary or transfeminine (and/or Ginger being nonbinary/transmasculine), or as something else, I'd love to see more of it in art or fic! I also really loved the kink scene, and should you want to write or draw me Fred, Ginger, and their friend having the time of their lives goofing around with BDSM, I would love it.

Especially in art, I love the color palette of the video and would love to see something similar to it in your gift.

Bloody Shirt – To Kill A King (song)

Lyrics, Song

I love the long and complicated relationship between the narrator and the "you" he’s singing to that the song sketches out, and I’d love anything that explores the exasperation the narrator sings with and the long history the subject has of doing things that require the narrator to bail them out. You’re welcome to interpret the relationship as romantic, friends, siblings, or anything else. I love the "This town is only gonna get worse/eat you" line, and I’d love to see something with a strong sense of setting that delves into exactly what’s so bad about the town.

I also love the imagery of the "you" laying in bed next to the narrator with blood on themselves and their heart racing.