TransTide 2024

[dauntlessshadowice]

 What is TransTide?

Since trans headcanons and the portrayal of trans characters can be personal for many people, writers might be nervous to write trans headcanons without invitation. This mini challenge is for people to signal that they would love to receive trans headcanons, as well as to showcase their requested fandoms with canon trans characters.

Note that this exchange is open to nonbinary characters as well.

How do I participate?

• Leave a comment on this post linking your letter and/or listing your requested fandoms and characters if you 1) requested canonical trans characters, 2) are happy to receive a gift where your writer headcanons one or several of the characters as trans.
• Feel free to add any likes and DNWs.
• Make sure to include your ao3 name!
• If you post a fic for Yuletide with one or more trans characters, tag it with TransTide so people can find it easily.

Comments

[shadaras]

Shadaras
Letter link!

Click to View Likes and DNWs

GENERAL LIKES
Trans, nonbinary, aro, and ace characters | Characters being in communities | Established relationships | Complicated relationships | Polyamory | Friends with Benefits | Exes Being Friends | Compassion and kindness | Protectiveness | Hurt/Comfort (physical and emotional) | Displays of skill | Politics, puzzle-solving, and mysteries | Casefic/Missionfic | Monsters | Fight scenes | Teamwork | Teaching/mentorship | Loyalty, fealty, devotion | Trauma and recovery | Sacrifice and Earned Tragedy (inc. tragic/bittersweet endings) | Grief/Mourning | Physicality and body appreciation (fat/scars/muscles/disablities/etc) | Food/cooking as an expression of love | Dancing | Cuddling/Snuggling | Platonic Intimacy | Meaningful touch | Playing Games | Wingfic | The environment/nature/a sense of place | Any genre: horror, humor, adventure, domestic fluff, etc. | Atypical narrative structures and POV: 1st person, 2nd person, epistolary, poetry, nonlinear, in-world texts, etc.

WORLDBUILDING LIKES
Rituals, religion, and spirituality | Culture clashes | Politics (both within and between groups) | Magic/advanced tech being integrated into everyday life | Architecture and accessibility | Recorded history vs lived experiences | Exploration of educational systems (especially for children) | Dance, art, crafting, music, and other creative acts | Communities and their idiosyncracies | The natural world (flora, fauna, ecosystems, etc.) and people's interactions with it

KINK/SEX LIKES
Non-Sexual Kink | Communication | Un(der)negotiated Kink | Leather | Dom/sub (control/power dynamics) | Bondage/Shibari | Impact Play | Sensation play | Kissing | Biting, scratching, hair-pulling | Oral Sex (esp. cunnilingus) | Nipple Play | Clothing Kink (inc. dressing/undressing) | (Partially) Clothed Sex | Hand/finger kink | Vaginal Fisting | Knifeplay | Danger Kink | Fighting as Foreplay | Fucking Against Walls/Windows | Xeno/Non-Human Sex | Non-Penetrative Sex | Outdoor Sex | Semi-Public Sex | Exhibitionism/Voyeurism | Masturbation | Sex Toys | Magic (or the equivalent) | Multiple orgasms | Edging and overstimulation | Foreplay and aftercare

DNWs
Unrequested permanent non-canonical death of requested characters | Stories focused on abusive relationships | Unrequested sexual/romantic teacher-student relationships | Suicide/self-harm (if canonical: mentions are fine) | Characters not being able to breathe | Mind Control | Sickfic (minor illness/symptoms okay) | Noncon/Rape (dubcon okay) | Unrequested Incest | Teenagers (~under 18) having sex with adults (~over 21) | Underage sex (younger than 16) | Age/family-based kinks (daddy kink, ageplay, etc.) | Spanking | Explicitly Described Anal Sex (inc. rimming) | Vomit, scat, piss (mentions in nonsexual/sfw contexts okay)

I am happy to see ANY character I request be trans. If you're concerned that the specific trans thing you're doing might not be wanted, check through the mods, but I'm pretty certain I'll respond with "oooh YES!"

Click to view Trans-Specific Likes

Easy version: Keep their canon gender but make them trans that gender! Or declare them nonbinary, with their canon gender being their asab, and use they/them pronouns for them. Then change as much or as little of their presentation makes sense to you! (presentation =/= gender, after all...)

If you'd like to take a canonically male character and make them transfemme, or a canonically female character and make them transmasc, go for it! I'm excited to see how that changes things!

I like characters being casually trans without the story being About Their Transness. (Things like "we should talk about how to have enjoyable sex/kink and one relevant aspect is your transness" or the like are fine; the point is the sex/kink in that case.) I'm not particularly interested in dysphoria being central to a trans character's experience, but I'm fine with it existing so long as your work doesn't wallow in it.

On that note: Include as much/little physical transition as you're interested in! I am into both "I have had enough physical transition that I pass as cis" and "I see no reason to change my body; the social elements are all that matter to me", or anything in between. I also love "I have both a cock and a cunt" and other genderfuck options! Pick whatever makes sense to you for the character(s) and work you wish to create!

Similarly, please use the words for body features (inc. genitalia) that make sense to you for the character(s) you're writing. When in doubt, err on the side of the words being gender-affirming (transmasc characters having dicks/cocks/chests, transfemme characters having cunts/clits/breasts) or clinically descriptive (e.g., vagina, penis). DNW "boypussy"/"bussy" and "click".

When writing kink/sex, you're welcome to show trans characters having PiV sex (I particularly want to see it for trans characters who have had bottom surgery or a magical/sci-fi equivalent!), and also all my general kink/sex likes/dnws apply. I just really want trans characters to have enjoyable sex and kink lives!
Trans-specific kink/sex like: consensual feminization of transmasc characters/masculinization of transfemme characters. aka, gender as kink!

Pronoun-wise, I really love seeing characters use multiple names and pronoun sets, especially when they use different names/pronouns in different contexts/with different people! (I also do not require trans characters to have deadnames. tbh I like it when they don't?) I'm also fine with neopronouns in settings/contexts where they make sense (preferences: ey/em/eir, ve/ver, xie/xir and variations).

Nonbinary characters who use he/him and/or she/her pronouns are welcome, as are agender characters who use it/its. I also really like he/him lesbians! Which isn't precisely trans but is highly related.

ART NOTES: Yes all of the above still applies, yes I want to see surgical scars (especially keyhole/periareolar top surgery!), yes I am here for trans characters having sex, yes I like seeing any amount/stage of transition, yes I'm here for trans characters whose transness is only visible via an author's note saying "btw they're trans."

Craft Universe - Max Gladstone
Any (Caleb Altemoc, Kai Pohala, Tara Abernathy, Worldbuilding (Craft Universe))
[Kai is canonically trans! I'd prefer she stay trans the way she is in-universe.]

西出玉门 | Parallel World | West Out of Yumen (TV)
Chang Dong (Parallel World), Worldbuilding (Parallel World | West Out of Yumen), Ye Liuxi

沙海 | Tomb of the Sea (TV)
Li Cu (Sha Hai), Su Nan (Sha Hai)

Witch King - Martha Wells
Arnsterath (Witch King), Kaiisteron (Witch King)
[The relationships these two have with gender and embodiment is trans-adjacent in canon, tbh, and I would love to see that explored!]

Oathsworn (Podcast)
Any (Azar born of Draknor (Oathsworn), Dorado the Adamant (Oathsworn), Waloot (Oathsworn), Worldbuilding (Oathsworn))

鬓边不是海棠红 | Winter Begonia (TV)
Any (Chen Renxiang, Cheng Fengtai, Fan Xiang'er, Shang Xirui)