coaldustcanary | Holly Poly 2021/2022 Dear Creator Letter (Reply)

Dear Creator:

Thanks for checking out my letter! I've included some general notes about my preferences up front, some detailed prompts and thoughts about each of my requested fandoms, and then a big list of "Things I Generally Like in Fic" at the very end. I am generally very easy to please and welcome just about any kind of gift you think I might like if my specific prompts don't grab you.

Please note that I'm very enthusiastic about all of my nominated ships, but some are ships I request in just about every exchange I participate in while others are totally new, so there are vastly differing amounts of prompts for some requests below.

Overall, I am open to fic or art of any rating, and including any AO3 Archive Warning if appropriate to the story. When prompting for romantic pairings or shippy content I'm happy to receive (but in no way require) explicit sexual content.

The Witcher (TV)
Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer
Geralt/Istredd/Yennefer

What I like about the canon: Very attractive people in an interesting fantasy setting taking themselves just seriously enough for the show to be a blast. I'm looking forward to S2 very much and will have consumed it by the time this exchange reveals; feel free to incorporate it into your work but also feel free to ignore it if you prefer.

Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer is my default OT3 for this fandom. Whenever there is a strong-but-vulnerable hero with a fierce female love interest AND a charismatic best friend/sidekick/friendly rival my mind immediately leaps to "but what if the love interest and the friend team up to absolutely wreck the hero?" and my imagination has not really left this general vicinity since I first watched the show. Please feel free to give me Yennefer and Jaskier teaming up somehow (not necessarily romantically, at least at first) and deciding the best thing for them and for Geralt is for them to share...Geralt. A few ideas:

Yennefer hears "Her Sweet Kiss" performed and takes it as a compliment (while maybe also hearing Jaskier's jealousy in it loud and clear) and seeks him out to see if he'll write more songs about her. They team up in a very entrepreneurial way and Geralt isn't sure if he's relieved that they're not sniping at one another constantly or very, very afraid. (Or maybe more than a little turned on?)

Post S1, Jaskier and Yennefer run into one another before either one sees Geralt again under whatever circumstances you can imagine. Maybe they help each other get ahead of some angry Nilfgardians, or recognize one another while trying to lay low, and they grudgingly team up, and decide to stay that way until they can find Geralt and his Child Surprise. (I quite like Ciri and she can feature heavily if you choose!)

Alternately, it looks like Yennefer spends time as a prisoner of Nilfgard per the teasers for S2 - maybe Jaskier *also* winds up as a prisoner and they have to team up to survive and help out when Geralt inevitably comes to rescue them!

Feel free to play with the notion of a single event told from different perspectives (Geralt, Yen, and Jaskier - and maybe Ciri, too?) or Ciri's outsider POV on the three of them (she's very clever and I would be intrigued to see how she sizes up both Yen and Jaskier).

Geralt/Istredd/Yennefer is super-intriguing to me. I've not read the books, but I've heard Istredd therein characterized as very jealous of Geralt/Yennefer and combative with Geralt. I'd much rather go with the more laid-back show characterization of Istredd, who seems to have largely moved on from his infatuation from Yennefer...but has he really? Ideas:

Sex magic of some kind that Yen and Istredd have to peform, and somehow Geralt's nature can power or amplify the magic.

Istredd gets curious about this Geralt dude and how he's managed to capture Yennefer's interest for so long, and he decides he needs to know more - much more - about him.

Geralt and Yennefer need some knowledge or magical item that Istredd possesses, and either he Needs to be Convinced to share, or drives a hard bargain.

Sex pollen or magic gone awry!

DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. (Temporary death or other characters believing character to be dead is great!) Mundane/No Magic AU. (Modern with magic is fine.)

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

I only saw this film for the first time in late 2018 and I fell for it (and three ridiculous spies and their complicated relationship) very hard. The film has beautiful people, beautiful cinematography, gorgeous costumes, and a perfect soundtrack. It combines multiple strains of classic tropey relationship development: enemies to colleagues to friends (to lovers?) for all three of them, plus the great fake engagement between Illya and Gaby, the rivals to friends competition and one-upmanship between Illya and Napoleon, and then multiple big damn rescues (Napoleon rescuing Illya from drowning, Illya rescuing Napoleon from the electric chair, and then Napoleon and Illya both rescuing Gaby from the Vinciguerras). And all of it against a fun, iconic 60s setting backdrop, serving to set up the idea of them working together as a team for the forseeable future.

Prompts:

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 fucking 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.

Five times fics - whether a time loop caused by a mad scientist's machine, or due to drug/exhaustion hallucinations the same scenario plays out different ways, or a bunch of different themed incidents on different missions - are always good!

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 either differs from the one they share or reinforces 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 in the process.

As an UNCLE agent Gaby will be traveling outside of Germany for likely only the second meaningful time in her life post-film; she's also significantly younger and less experienced than Illya and Napoleon per their end-of-film dossiers. Despite getting one over on the CIA's best and the KGB's finest in the film, perhaps she has uncertainty about choosing the spy's life (maybe Illya and/or Napoleon even grimly encourage her to get out while she can) and she has to actively decide to stay with UNCLE (and her partners) when given the opportunity to do something different.

Any two of the three have to team up to rescue the third. (Doing a "three times" variation of this including scenarios where each pair has to save the third would be fun.)

Wild AU premises that seem interesting: supernatural elements, magical realism, a world where magic is known and they all have it, or space opera/sci-fi settings all sound like fun.

One of the trio gets blackmailed - perhaps with evidence of their unconventional relationship, or even just their feelings for one another - and tries to deal with the problem alone. (I could particularly see this being the sort of thing Illya would do, but again, any of them would fit here.)

Post-retirement future fic - what might they get up to once they're too old to be in the field? What if injuries take one or more of them out of the game even earlier? What if they end up being pulled back to their respective agencies but only meet again by chance 10, 15, or 20 years post-movie?

Illya/Napoleon and Illya/Gaby are the main ships of the fandom besides the trio, but I find Gaby/Napoleon really intriguing - a fic where they believe Illya to be dead, or he's somehow out of their reach (a prisoner, gravely injured, on a mission that they can't interfere in without huge risk) and they hook up out of grief or fear or even in anger would be interesting. (And then they go rescue Illya, right?)

I do very much enjoy them getting up to sexcapades in any context. Feel free to totally ignore my headcanons, but when it comes to sex my thoughts are:

Illya has incredible sub energy and a praise kink the approximate size of the sun.
Napoleon is both really full of himself and confident in bed but isn't entirely comfortable with sex that has anything to do with feelings.
Gaby can be incredibly aggressive and likes to be in charge (she tackled Illya to the ground, after all) but has a hard time letting her guard down and being in the moment.

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 for these three (or any two of the three, as long as the overall/end ship is the trio) especially if it leads to major angst. 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.)

Speaking of Victoria, if you're inspired to write any kind of "case fic" I think she is a fabulous villain and would love anything with her as the antagonist of the piece, trying to get her revenge on Napoleon and/or the trio!

DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. (Temporary death or other characters believing character to be dead is great!) Modern mundane AU.

Once Upon a Time (TV)
Captain Hook | Killian Jones/Milah/Emma Swan

What I like about the canon: A ridiculous show, but one with so much narrative potential that sometimes got used to good effect but was often squandered. I liked the canon Hook/Emma romance well enough, but felt that the show mishandled a lot of things, but none so badly as Milah's death and lack of happy ending.

Prompts:

I am always game for Enchanted Forest AUs where pirates Killian and Milah deal with Princess Emma, whether kidnapping her for ransom, dealing with her as a stowaway, or planning to deliver her to the Evil Queen. Role swaps or reversals in this setting would also be very welcome!

Canon Divergence options where Milah ends up in Storybrooke would be wonderful - she could be there from the start somehow (Rumple didn't kill her, just trapped her somehow?) or have come back during one of the various re-applications of the Curse. I would love her and Emma becoming friends and bonding over shared experiences; I think they could have been amazing together.

Killian and Emma somehow manage to bring Milah back to life or at least rescue her from the River of Souls via unintentional sex magic.

Soulbond AU. Milah and Killian were soulmates. When he realizes Emma is also his soulmate, he thinks he's the luckiest man in any world there is. When, in the Underworld, Emma and Milah realize they're soulmates as well, things become both more clear and a lot more confusing.

A Song of Ice and Fire - George R.R. Martin
Stannis Baratheon/Salladhor Saan/Davos Seaworth
Stannis Baratheon/Oberyn Martell/Davos Seaworth

Why I like this canon: Book-verse Stannis/Davos has been one of my immediate "damn, these two and the loyalty" insta-OTPs since I first read the books. Their dynamic is so fascinating, I love the idea of other characters being pulled into their orbit and seeing how it affects them as well as the character pulled in their wake. Please note that while I also prompt Game of Thrones ships, I want book-canon characterization/appearance for these characters. I'm also fine with Stannis's and Davos's wives existing as in canon, or being dead, or just not mentioned, but would prefer they not play significant roles in the fic.

For Stannis/Salladhor/Davos, I really like the idea of Davos being pulled between these two men, the prince and the pirate, and his long-standing affection and loyalty to each as a man in the middle. I also think Stannis complains about Salla being a consummate pirate in his dealings, but also despite his stiff-necked opinions on such things, has an appreciation for Salla's cleverness and loyalty to Davos.

I could really see Salla being a "trusted third" brought into the bedroom of Stannis and Davos to fulfill a fantasy, or what one or both of them believe is a fantasy the other has.

I like Stannis as King canon divergence, with Davos as his Hand and Salla as his Master of Ships, with talk of governance or war turning to something else entirely as passions flame high!

For Stannis/Oberyn/Davos, I want Oberyn brazenly seducing Stannis, Davos, or both. Maybe he's surprised when seducing one inspires the jealousy of the other, or maybe that was his intention all along - either way he's fine with it, why choose one or the other when both is just as good?

I'm also open to a Westeros where same-sex marriage is a thing (and am really interested in any worldbuilding details around such arrangements, such as kinship issues, inheritance, fostering, and adoption, etc) and Stannis and Oberyn are engaged or married, but Stannis still carries a torch for his loyal knight Davos. Maybe three-way marraiges are even allowed, but Davos's low birth is a problem for the Seven Kingdoms as a whole even if both Stannis and Oberyn don't share that opinion. Maybe Oberyn encourages his husband to go for it, if he can watch, or potentially participate.

DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. (Temporary death or other characters believing character to be dead is great!) Modern mundane AU.

Game of Thrones (TV)
Tyrion Lannister/Jon Snow/Daenerys Targaryen
Tyrion Lannister/Sansa Stark/Margaery Tyrell

I've been thinking a lot about Tyrion lately, so both of these ships just jumped out at me. As a long-time fan of the books, the show in turns satisfied me deeply and made me want to throw things. Dinklage's Tyrion was one of the highlights for me, despite the mess the final season turned into. I'm interested in a lot of different approaches to these ships.

For Tyrion/Jon/Dany I really loved how much Tyrion and Jon seemed to truly be in awe of Dany...until they weren't. I respect the actors, but the writing never sold me on the "well, now we have to kill her, she's beyond saving". Well, what if they'd tried? I don't really feel like they did anything but make sad faces and lecture the woman, while pulling the very shit she was worried about behind her back. Sigh. Show me something of that loyalty, those feelings, that seemed to be between these three early on but got washed out so easily.

Alternately, I am definitely interested in a Dany back from the dead somehow who is caught between her desire for vengeance and those feelings still.

I'm very interested in canon divergence where Viserion isn't taken by the White Walkers and Tyrion becomes a dragonrider. Jon and Tyrion as Dany's husbands a la Aegon, Visenya, and Rhaenys would be a lot of fun.

For Tyrion/Sansa/Margaery a hundred different canon divergence options suggest themselves. I love options where Sansa and Tyrion remain married (whether happily or very unhappily or - best yet - somewhere between the two) and Margaery becomes part of their relationship. In a canon divergence where Joffrey lives just long enough for Margaery to get pregnant and become Queen Regnant for her infant child and Tyrion isn't framed for Joffrey's murder, the three of them becoming a King's Landing Power Throuple would be a fascinating political intrigue and I'm very much here for it!

Alternately, Sansa and Tyrion both end up hiding in Highgarden in a canon divergence, and Margaery ends up becoming close to them both. I really like the notion of Margaery following up on her implication that Tyrion is far from the worst sort of husband Sansa might have with her own sort of admiration for the man. Maybe she helps Sansa see what's worth respecting, if not loving, in him.

But for these ships I'm really, really open for whatever strikes your fancy - surprise me!

DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. (Temporary death or other characters believing character to be dead is great! Dany coming back from the dead is also A-OK!) Modern mundane AU.

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
daemon AUs (or any other "sentient animal companion" magic settings - Valdemar's Companions, Chronicles of the Cheysuli's lir, the "Animalled" of Beukes' Zoo City, witch familiars, and the like. even if it's not a setting where I know the canon I will probably be into it if it involves talking or psychic animals)
time loops/Groundhog Day premise (via magic or weird science or no explanation whatsoever - I'm fine with situations where only one character in the ship is looping or a ship loops together, either is good)
undercover antics and/or identity porn - undercover fake married, friends/partners/lovers having to pretend to be enemies for the job or politics, 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 and 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 necessity of physical proximity when caring for another person in h/c, and/or the traumatic headspace/emotional rollercoaster of pain and angst the whumped character (and also often the caregiver) 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 some consideration for the seriousness of the hurt, but I do not expect medical accuracy. The stab victim can still have a little blow job, as a treat!)

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 fingering/handjobs, both as a precursor to vaginal or anal sex, and as its own thing