![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
FFFX Dear Author Letter
Jul. 31st, 2020 08:45 pmHi FFFX Author or Artist:
Thanks for taking a look at my letter! I hope these prompts inspire you, if you're so inclined. Alternately, check out my big list of beloved tropes at the end of the letter if you want to take things in a different direction. As a rule, I have no hard content-related DNWs (though I have setting-related DNWs for each fandom, below), and I welcome works of all ratings and with any warning, as appropriate. I very much enjoy and appreciate explicit sexual content in romantic/sexual relationship fics, but it's not necessary.
Fandoms
Ladyhawke (1985)
Group: Etienne Navarre/Isabeau d'Anjou/Philippe Gaston (Ladyhawke)
What I like about this canon/fandom: I unironically love every silly minute of this film and the totally 80s soundtrack. The story of star-crossed lovers helped in their quest to defeat the curse hanging over their heads by the most unlikely of thieves is charming, and the notion that the lovers grew as fond of their friend as one another, in the end, makes me very happy.
Prompts:
The Turnabout: Post-film, Philippe goes his own way, perhaps promising to visit Navarre and Isabeau in the future, but not wanting to be in the way of the reunited lovers. Unfortunately, Philippe gets caught up in his own unfortunate circumstances - perhaps something magic-infused, perhaps a curse turning him into a *literal* mouse to match his nickname. Navarre and Isabeau might be the only ones who can help him, or who would believe his story at all.
The Right Kind of Help: A three-way soulmate AU. In the film it's Philippe's clever mix of half truths and inspiration that keep Isabeau and Navarre from losing heart in their quest. It seems like they have been cursed for years and not making much headway in trying to break the curse, even though Navarre is sure he knows how. Maybe that's because they specifically needed Philippe as their missing "piece" as their soulmate just as much as they are each other's, and they realize that along the way. How might that have changed the way things played out?
DNW: Modern AU. Keep the fantasy-medieval setting please!
XXX
The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)
Group: Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo/Gaby Teller (The Man From U.N.C.L.E 2015)
Prompts:
The casefic get-together: I want to see them negotiating their professional and the personal relationships at the same time against the backdrop of spy games of any kind. They're all "I work best alone" types, but now they're partners - how do they manage it? Deepening bonds via any of my preferred situational tropes or hurt/comfort scenarios would be great.
The duo to a trio: The film obviously sets up the Illya/Gaby several almost-kisses as blooming sexual tension, while Napoleon seems highly amused by their budding romance. A story in which Napoleon is somewhere between a matchmaker and a meddling thorn in their side while trying to ignore his own growing feelings for the other two would be wonderful.
Us against the world: What would happen, down the line, if after a few years of working for U.N.C.L.E and falling into a solid relationship as a trio either Napoleon or Illya or both were called back to their home agencies? Or, worse yet, Napoleon's deal is reneged upon and he ends up back in prison, or Illya's suspected of too much fraternizing with the enemy and is sent to a gulag. How might Gaby fight to get them back or how might they all work their way back to one another and/or U.N.C.L.E?
DNW: Modern AUs. (I'm not fussed about major attention to every 60s-era detail, and funky, hand-wavy spy gadget tech is totally fine, but I like the Cold War-era setting.)
Alternately, for this fandom feel free to check out my past letters and prompts for this fandom since it's a perennial request for me: anything there is fair game!
XXX
Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Group: Sarah Alder & Original Historical Witch Soldier(s) (M:FS)
Original Witch Character (Motherland: Fort Salem)
Sarah Alder (Motherland: Fort Salem)
Other: Worldbuilding (M:FS)
What I like about this canon/fandom: I think the worldbuilding for this show is fascinating...and full of holes screaming for further development. The alternate history is both intriguing and frustrating in its inconsistencies. At the same time, the total focus on female characters, including complex leaders like Sarah Alder, Petra Bellweather, Anacostia Quartermaine, Izadora, and even President Wade is really unique.
While I like all of the younger protagonists on the show and would be happy to have them featured, my main interest is in the older characters. I'm also game for focusing on an original witch in either the present day or at any point in history - such as during the Revolutionary era, any of the history-divergent world wars that are suggested to have happened, or really anything.
Prompts:
The Leader Alone: What does leadership really mean for Sarah Alder? She strikes me as a complex, gray character who makes what she thinks are good choices for all, but that may only be good choices for her and her power. How did the first Biddies come to sacrifice themselves for her? How did she choose the first soldiers to serve with her, like Abigail's Bellweather ancestor? How did other nations besides the US develop their own witch militaries, and what relationships does she have with leaders, witch and non-witch, military and civilian, in other places?
Matchmaker, Matchmaker: "Matrimonialist" appears to be a title and perhaps even a specific military rank - we see Sgt. Tansey on the show seem to lead both the Beltane ritual and Charvel Bellweather's marriage ceremony. With witchcraft ability being inherited and implied to come from extra-human physical development (per the ability of the Fort Salem witches to identify murder victims as witch-descendants by autopsying their vocal chords) it stands to reason that maintaining family lines is extremely significant. At the same time, there's enough witches who slip through the cracks that there were dozens of Bellweather-related victims previously unknown to the military. If there's a role that's equivalent to something between an archivist, matchmaker, and priestess devoted to keeping the family lines known and marrying well, what would that be like? What social and cultural norms would grow up around that - we see glimpses of some interesting worldbuilding around pregnancy in combat (considered an admirable thing, perhaps lucky for the baby?) and pagan-flavored temporary, contract-like marriages. Any exploration of this would be fantastic!
A Good Soldier: For the Original Character prompts, what is it like to be a "regular" soldier in the all-witch US military? We see cadets, and we see the top brass, but what's life like for the average witch? Besides for injury or risk to a particular family line, are their other reasons a witch might be able to leave the service? Is there a retirement age, or is it a lifetime obligation? What's life like for those somewhere between the High Atlantic upper echelons of society and, say, Raelle's disdained, rural, and Christian-flavored witchcraft. How does the rest of the US, or even the world, react to your average witch? How has witchcraft and the resulting alternate history flavored modern American society?
DNW: No Magic AU. Primary focus on a non-witch character, though non-witch supporting characters or glimpses of their views are very welcome.
XXX
Valdemar series - Mercedes Lackey
Group: Kethry & Tarma shena Tale'sedrin (Valdemar series)
What I like about this fandom: The Valdemar books were my first fandom (I was a member of the official fan club back when that meant a monthly paper newsletter came in the mail) and I remain extremely nostalgic about the books. In particular, Tarma and Kethry's Oathbound/The Oathbreakers duology and all of their short stories are some of my favorites. I would adore a work exploring one of their adventures as mercenaries (either just as a duo or part of Idra's Sunhawks mercenary company) in the vein of the short stories. Alternately, the huge gap between the end of The Oathbreakers and when they appear again in By The Sword decades later to help Kerowyn always has me curious.
Prompts:
Oathsisters against the world: Tell me a story about one of their early adventures trying to make their way in the world as oathbound sisters. Maybe Need pulled them into a complicated situation, as usual, and they're having to defend a wronged woman in dire circumstances. Maybe they have to take a job for money out of desperation and it ends up being much more complicated than advertised-how do they make it through?
The School Years: Post The Oathbreakers, Tarma and Kethry (and Jadrek) found a school where they train royal children, baby mages, wannabe mercenaries, and others, while they also start repopulating Tarma's clan. What were those years like - wrangling students and their own children, making nice with their noble neighbors, and figuring out how to settle down, for whatever that means? Tarma and Kethry (with Jadrek) scandalizing the neighbors sounds a treat.
The Dhorisha Plains Years: At other times, when they weren't schooling young royals, they were living on the Plains reviving Tale'sedrin. Five of Kethry's children became the heart of the clan - what were they like? How did they make the decision to join the clan (and what prompted Jendar and Lenore not to? We're told for Jendar it was because he wanted to be a non-shaman mage, and Kethry thinks Lenore as the baby might have felt neglected, but was that really the case?) Alternately, I'm pretty sure in By the Sword Tarma claims they had 7 children, but only 6 are ever named in various books/short stories. Is there a Kethry/Jadrek kid That Must Not Be Named for some reason?
DNW: Modern AUs.
XXX
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)
- 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"
- 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
The thing I really like the most about h/c and whump is the intimacy of it all. The deeply intimate nature of caring for another person in h/c, and/or the headspace/emotional rollercoaster of pain 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. Torture that leads to chronic injury/pain, mild-to-moderate debilitation over time or permanently, or psychological trauma are the sorts of things I want to see for this kind of hurt. 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
- characters forced to watch others being hurt
Comfort Preferences:
- hair touching/running fingers through hair
- helping others with personal care - hair washing, injury tending, etc
- small acts of intimacy/care - preparing food, standing guard while the hurt one sleeps, etc
- 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. This can lead to a positive outcome - admitting feelings, strengthening a relationship after such a difficult experience - or a negative outcome - angst, the end of a relationship/partnership, tragedy - or something ambiguous.
- 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 - I tend to prefer getting together over established relationship unless otherwise requested
- 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 - friends grieving the loss of a mutual friend or loved one or getting over a shared bad experience
- Dominance/submission (if it's f/m I generally prefer the female character be dominant unless otherwise requested)
- sex between platonic friends
- competence kink
- threesomes
- loyalty kink
