Pine4Pine letter 2021 (Complete)

[coaldustcanary]

Dear Creator: Thanks for checking out my letter! In general I am open to fic of any rating and with any AO3 content warning. Note that if you think there's a fic concept that doesn't precisely align with a requested freeform but does include pining and you have reason to think I'd dig it based on my general likes, please go ahead and go with what inspires you.

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015) | Game of Thrones (TV) | The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011) | General Likes and Preferences

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)
Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo/Gaby Teller

• A and B are together but pine for C to join them
• A B and C pine obliviously for each other
• A attributes B & C's flirting to cultural differences
• Character A knows B pines for C but provides emotional support and companionship
• Character A pining silently so Characters B & C won't feel guilty for not returning their affections
• Character A pining for B believes B/C relationship would be better for B and encourages it
• Character C Pines For Characters A & B Who Are Together - Leads to Polyamory
• Pining while trapped together
• Pining while stuck in a time loop
• Pining while tending someone's wounds
• Pining while sharing a bed
• Trying to Ignore Feelings While Forced to Work in Close Quarters With Person of Their Affection
• Pining silently due to worry it will ruin working relationship
• Undercover as a Couple While Pining
• Rescue Mission while Pining
• Sex While Pining - Something Made Them Do It
• Pining while imprisoned

I really love my three favorite ridiculous spies as lovers and/or found family, saving the world from fascism and pulling each other out of trouble just as much as they drag each other into it. Note that while I prompted my two go-to pining arrangements--everybody pining, and Napoleon pining for established (or what he believes to be established) Gaby/Illya--I'm also very happy to receive a gift where Illya and/or Gaby is the one pining. I live for tropey setups that push them into intimate situations and "oh. oh." realizations about how they feel about one another. Injuries in the line of duty, snowbound in a cabin, hurt/comfort, self-sacrifice (particularly when Napoleon Solo, Mr. Supposedly Always Looking Out For #1, does something very stupid and dangerous to save one or both of his partners, though I like this trope for any of the three of them), big damn rescues (just like in the movie!), truth serum or other drugs, sharing a bed, etc. I particularly enjoy when they're trying very hard to focus on the extremely important world-saving case and/or punching Nazis but they keep getting distracted by how incredibly inconvenient their attraction to/affection for their partners has become.

Dubcon scenarios like sex pollen, bad guys make them do it, having to have sex to keep their cover with one another or others are always interesting and welcome, especially if it leads to major angst and heightens the intensity of the pining. Napoleon being extremely blasé about sex-for-the-job (even when it's only marginally consensual) in ways that unsettle his partners is a favorite trope of mine. (His slightly-strained insistence that he tried exhausting Victoria, presumably via marathon sex, in the film and his "womanizer" diagnosis hints at a lot that I'm curious about.)

Undercover antics - I love the notion of the three of them all doing a mission with different covers (that might know each other or not) and having to play a dynamic that brings up feelings they're trying to ignore. For example, on a future mission it's Napoleon and Gaby playing at being engaged or married, and Illya "realizes" they're perfect for one another and tries (miserably) to "back off" much to his partners' confusion.

Napoleon does his best to matchmake Illya and Gaby and catches extremely inconvenient feelings for them both. Pining leads to cross-cultural communication issues and misunderstandings.

Any two of the three have to team up to rescue the third while trying to manage their feelings.

One of the trio gets blackmailed - perhaps with evidence of their pining - and tries to deal with the problem alone while agonizing over it all the while. (I could particularly see this being the sort of thing Illya would do.)

Wound tending, assisting with grooming like shaving or hair washing (for undercover work, or due to injury), and other close-quarters while pining tropes are definitely welcome.

Game of Thrones (TV)
Yara Greyjoy/Daenerys Targaryen

• Character pines for someone they think is dead
• Character pines for someone who is dead
• Starcrossed Lovers
• Physical Intimacy While Pining
• A pines for B while B swears fealty to A
• Pining while away at sea
• Pining While Riding Behind Love Interest on a Horse/Motorcycle
• Pining while sharing a bath
• Pining while sparring
• Pining while stuck in a time loop
• Still-Pining Character Raises/Looks After Child of a Deceased Love Interest

I really like the idea of Yara pining for Dany and What Might Have been. I'm perfectly OK with Dany being dead and staying dead, but Yara's yearning spurring her to come up with ways to revive her, or creating some kind of canon divergence to save her are very excellent as well. I liked that they challenged one another and saw one another as equals, but also were able to let down their guard and crack a few flirty jokes with one another during their first meeting. They're both so intense, and while Yara often plays at humor and has a certain performative disdain for serious feelings, I love imagining her absolutely wrecked by Dany.

Any kind of canon divergence that has Yara as Dany's right hand woman or that plays on concepts of loyalty (heck yeah loyalty kink) and sworn oaths is very sexy.

Alternately, Yara as Dany's teacher in all things hand-to-hand combat leading to a lot of close physical proximity would be great. Either attending the other in a bath, perhaps when recovering from injury or magic bringing Dany back to life.

Note that for the "Still-Pining Character Raises/Looks After Child of a Deceased Love Interest" any kind of canon divergence where Dany does have a child is fine; the identity of the father can be anyone you like. Alternately, it could be Drogon. (Honestly, the idea of Yara pining for Dany while trying to "look after" Drogon would be really interesting, whatever that might mean!)

The Eagle | The Eagle of the Ninth (2011)
Marcus Flavius Aquila/Esca Mac Cunoval

• A attributes B's flirting to cultural differences
• Character expects to be hurt because their pining was revealed
• Pined-for character reveals feelings to pining character while not quite lucid (hurt/drunk/etc.)
• Pining character reveals their feelings while not quite lucid (hurt/drunk/etc.)
• Pining while being shaved
• Pining while having wounds tended
• Pining while imprisoned
• Pining While Riding Behind Love Interest on a Horse/Motorcycle
• Pining while stranded in the wilderness
• Pining while tending someone's wounds
• Pining while trapped together
• Pining while sharing a bath
• Pining While Sleeping on Love Interest's Bed

Ah, these two. The whole movie is really just about their intense eye contact (or sometimes the significant lack thereof) and inexplicably all-encompassing willingness to do anything for the other and it's honestly a delight. I don't have a preference between a during-canon, post-canon, canon-divergent, or totally AU setting. I really like the notion of either or both of them being in intense circumstances (from pain or sickness or drink or drugs) and unwillingly admitting to Feelings. With the interaction of the power dynamic (even after Esca is no longer officially Marcus's slave) this could be really fascinating (and potentially terrifying) for them both. I also am always here for "well here we are, we're really physically close for totally normal and necessary reasons" while absolutely overcome with strong feelings and agonizing certainty they're not requited. (But they are, obvs.) To me this really fits with the way they kind of constantly dance between extreme softness for one another and anger right on the edge of violence.

Also totally here for the slightly comedic "cultural misunderstandings" trope. (Feel free to totally make shit up, I'm not expecting historical accuracy, here!)

General Likes and Preferences

Setting tropes and AU premises I love

• canon divergence/"what if" AUs - I love butterfly effect, "change one thing" AUs especially!
• soulmates and soul bonds - and soulmate subversion, and soulmates played dark or strange - feel free to play it straight but I also love characters choosing someone(s) other than a soulmate, or the notion of soulmates being as much trouble as they are a joy. The worldbuilding would be wild in a world where soulmates are A Thing - I love exploring the effects of that, and the ambiguous bits of such an AU.
• battle couples/trios - ties neatly into competency kink and loyalty kink sexual likes, but non-sexual love and romance among folks who fight together is A+ also
• magical aus (give non-magical characters/canons magic - telepathy, mind magic, arcane magic, spellcasting. Though many of the canons I tend to like have magic of some kind, feel free to go on a worldbuilding dive into what any of my non-magical canon requests might look like if magic was real.)
• alternate magical system AUs (keep the canon magic, but make it different somehow)
• fairy tale AUs
• time loops/Groundhog Day premise (via magic or weird science or no explanation whatsoever)
• undercover antics and/or identity porn - undercover fake married, partners or lovers undercover as enemies, or characters having overlapping complex arrangements of fake identities are all good
• future fic and "next gen" fic (about children of canonical characters as older teens or adults)
• ghosts, communicating with the dead (via magic or weird science)
• enemies to lovers
• werewolves and other were-creatures/animal shapeshifters - tying into magical AUs, I like "everyone's a werewolf" or some kind of magical critter AUs, or just one particular character being "other". Mixing and matching - werewolf and vampire, or werewolf and magical creature hunter, for example, is also a lot of fun.
• sharing a bed (sexual, romantic, or platonic) - enforced intimacy!
• huddling for warmth - more enforced intimacy!
• trapped in a cabin in a blizzard - are you seeing the trend about enforced intimacy?!
• Hurt/Comfort - see the whole section on this trope below

Hurt/Comfort & Whump favorites (note that the "comfort" can be sexual, romantic, or platonic)
The thing I really like the most about h/c and whump is the intimacy of it all. The caring for another person in h/c, and/or the traumatic headspace/emotional rollercoaster of pain and angst the whumped character goes through are absolutely my personal catnip.

Hurt and Whump Preferences:

• torture - I'm generally interested in the emotions and sensory elements more than the gore here. Exhaustion, pain, lingering emotional/mental trauma and mild-to-moderate long-term physical effects are my preferences. I'm less interested in super-severe injury, amputation, or mindbreak-levels of torture.
• sleep deprivation/exhaustion
• noble self-sacrifice - risking harm or death (by performing a noble last stand, or being a distraction, or playing the honeypot, or offering yourself up for torture/assault) to spare others punishment or to allow them to escape
• drugging
• hallucinations
• forced to watch others being hurt

Comfort Preferences:

• hair touching/running fingers through hair
• helping others with personal care - hair washing, shaving, injury tending
• small acts of intimacy/care - preparing food, standing guard while the hurt one sleeps, sharpening the hurt one's edged weapons or cleaning their guns
• sex (with reasonable consideration for the seriousness of the hurt!)

Sex tropes I love

• dubcon - specifically in situations when both/all parties are consenting under duress due to outside forces, such as "sex pollen", "bad guys made them do it", or character(s) consenting to spare another character from having to do so. I like all kinds of outcomes from this plot - the somewhat positive outcomes of admitting hidden feelings or strengthening a relationship after such a difficult experience; a more tragic or negative outcome such as the end of a relationship/partnership, or tragedy; or something ambiguously between the two - I'm happy with any direction unless otherwise requested in my DNWs for a particular fandom/character/ship.
• bondage - particularly of stoic or restrained characters getting tied up and absolutely wrecked
• first time sex - both first time sex ever or first time performing a particular sex act for a character if there's a reasonable characterization of said character as inexperienced, and also first time sex with a particular partner
• sex magic
• pegging (both f/m and f/f)
• praise kink - particularly of stoic and/or damaged characters unused to and undone by praise
• casual physical intimacy between partners - falling asleep on partner's shoulder, cuddling, spooning, etc., especially of characters not used to casual physical intimacy becoming comfortable with it - this could include both characters who have lots of casual sex but not much casual cuddling, or characters who are touch starved or anything in between
• begging during sex ("please!")
• sex as an emotional outlet in the wake of tragedy or grief, such as friends grieving the loss of a mutual friend or loved one or getting over a shared bad experience
• Dominance/submission (though I prefer it NOT be formalized BDSM, such as negotiating safewords and "Master/sir" address, etc. Also, if it's f/m I generally prefer the female character be dominant unless otherwise requested. For my various gender composition OT3+ ships I either don't care or will specify in the prompts.)
• sex between platonic friends
• competence kink
• threesomes
• loyalty kink
• oral sex and manual stimulation, both as a precursor to vaginal or anal sex, and as its own thing