coaldustcanary: Eleanor of Aquitane from The Lion In Winter (Default)
Dear Creator:

Thank you for checking out my letter! I am opening myself up to fic of any length and whatever you might wish to create in other requested mediums for this exchange. I am good with works of any rating and welcome (but in no way expect or require) sexual content for romantic/sexual ship prompts. Below you will find some brief comments on what I like about each requested fandom and character or ship as well as some prompts for each request, and then a huge list of general likes at the end. A few fandoms and ships have specific DNWs, those are listed with each fandom. Don't feel bound by my prompts in this letter if you think you have an idea for something I will like based on my big likes list or prompts I've made previously in other exchanges.

 

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Illya Kuryakin/Napoleon Solo/Gaby Teller
Worldbuilding

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/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.)

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!

Worldbuilding:

What is U.N.C.L.E like? How does it function? How does it get off the ground and what kind of politics does Waverly have to play to keep it functioning and to steal out the KGB's best and the CIA's finest right out from under their noses? What kind of rules does it have, and how much do any of the agents, including our trio, actually follow them?

Feel free to crib from the TV show canon as much or as little as you might want if you're familiar - I've seen the first season and bits of the rest and enjoy it immensely.

Art: Love art that riffs off any of my prompts above or general likes. Any and all styles welcome, and it need not be overtly shippy.

In-universe documents - mission reports (with or without notes by each team member and/or Waverly), debriefings, transcribed interviews, or whatever else you can come up with. Stolen intelligence? A report by an enemy (THRUSH?) agent on any of the trio or Waverly or UNCLE as a whole?

Academic reports: An academic article or review about UNCLE as an agency or any or all of the agents would be really interesting. This could be from any era, including modern.

DNW: Characters under 16 having sex. (References to past underage sex are fine.) Modern Mundane AUs. Permanent major character death. (Temporary death and/or believing another character is dead for a time is fine, though.) Total downer endings. Endgame Illya/Gaby or Illya/Napoleon without the third character involved. (Established Illya/Gaby that becomes Illya/Gaby/Napoleon is fine!)

Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)

Abigail Bellweather & Petra Bellweather
Abigail Bellweather
Sarah Alder
Worldbuilding


Worldbuilding prompts:

I'm really curious about the Imperatrix and the whole witch "breeding program" - and how the heck she specifically (unlike every other witch we see) is not under Alder's authority. How did that happen? How has she lost track of so many witch lines? Is this cultural myopia or is something specifically sinister going on with her or her office? Are there similar programs in other countries?

In general, I would love fic or in-universe reports about any tiny speck of alternate history implied by the setting and explored. For example, I can't find the interview now (will link it here if I find it) but I read something last year in which the show's creator offhandedly mentioned that Sarah Alder's first and closest companions after the Salem Accords were previously enslaved witches, and seemed to strongly imply that most of High Atlantic society descends from former slaves, which is pretty fascinating! What would that have meant for society, both army and civilian? 

What is up with The Cession? Are Native American/American Indian witches exempt from the Salem Accords? It seems to be something of a safe haven for witches who aren't entirely enthused about army life and a lot of Dodgers. The casual news report in Ojibwe was very interesting, too!

Sarah Alder

What are all these 80+ military campaigns that Alder's been involved in about? Obviously the Spree have been a big part for the past 20 years, but before that? Were they all witch rebels, or have non-witches fought witches in large numbers? Does every country have a witch army, now? How has Alder dealt with them over the years?

Abigail Bellweather (& Petra Bellweather)

Abigail is my favorite of the trio, though I love them all very much, but her angst over living up to familial expectations and figuring out how to make her own way in the world has been a compelling story. I really enjoy her complicated relationship with her mother (and grandmother, and three dads, and Charvel) and would love any kind of exploration of those bonds, Bellweather family expectations/goals for leadership, and what might be next for her as she stakes out her own special project.

(Side note: I like Adil, and I'm fine with Abigail/Adil being a background component of the fic, but I would prefer that it not be the focus of any story.)

DNW: Characters under 16 having sex. (References to past events are fine.) Modern Mundane AU. Permanent major character death. (Temporary death and/or believing another character is dead for a time is fine, though.) Total downer endings. Focus on Raelle/Scylla. (References/background existence of the relationship is fine, and the presence of either or both characters in the fanwork is also very welcome.)

John Wick (Movies)

Worldbuilding

These films are somehow exactly what would happen if you measured out a hearty few cups of my fascination for detailed "hidden world" worldbuilding, stirred in my heart-eyes love for Keanu Reeves, baked it up as a cake, and then frosted it with extremely sexy gratuitous violence and topped it with a puppy. These movies are just so freaking fun that they never get old for me.

Prompts:

Worldbuilding! Feel free to give me something from John's past or future that showcases how weird and wonderful the assassin-world of the films might be, set anywhere you think might be interesting. I'm always curious about what Continental Hotels other than New York and Rome might look like, how the various supporting figures (Charon, the Sommelier, the various other contacts for weapons, money, armor, resources, and the like that John comes into contact with) fit into the world or came to be there in the first place.

I'm also really intrigued by the use of metaphor/code, such as the exchange between John and the Sommelier in Rome about wine that was not at all about wine. The very blurry line between the "hidden world" and the "real world" - at no time during either film any of the more public acts of violence particularly shocking to onlookers - they certainly try to get out of the way, and there are muffled shrieks a time or two, but how is it that all of this happens with absolutely no intervention by the authorities? (Certainly Jimmy is in the know, but are all law enforcement? Are the films set in a universe where there's general awareness and acceptance that conflict between the powers that be are handled via assassination? Could there be magic involved? Sometimes I wonder when watching the films if there's some kind of power inherent in being an assassin who's a member of the underground world that allows them to hide in plain sight...)

Anything that digs into the notion of The High Table further is interesting, too. Implied textual evidence in the films suggests that only major organized crime institutions/families have claim to a seat at it - how did they get them in the first place, and how did those disparate families/groups ever agree to such a thing? There's a subtle implication, too, that the High Table is a very "old world" institution and that the "new world" doesn't have much power - why not, when so much organized crime came to the Americas alongside immigrants, including John himself?

Art: Of any character, OC, or significant location from the films would be welcome. Graphic violence is OK, but please nothing sexually explicit.

In-universe documents: Records kept in the book of blood oaths, a police report by Jimmy or another cop "in the know", other records kept by the High Table



DNW: Characters under 16 having sex. (References to past underage sex are fine.) Setting change AUs with the exception of adding magic or creeping horror elements to the canon setting. Canon divergence is also fine. Animal death. (Do not kill the dog, please. Major Character Death is fine for this fandom otherwise.)

Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey

Worldbuilding

With the announcement that the Valdemar books are being adapted for television, I've been feeling very nostalgic for this world. Valdemar was my first real fandom - I recieved Mercedes Lackey fan club newsletters in the mid 90s - and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the setting, despite (or perhaps because of) all it's melodrama and silliness.

Prompts: I'm mostly interested in stories that poke at expectations and understandings of the world presented in the book without going really grim-dark. Outsider's perspective on Valdemar and the Heralds. I particularly enjoyed Alberich, Kerowyn, and other non-Herald's more clear-eyed view the strengths and weaknesses of Valdemar's systems.

On the flip side, from the inside, what about a story about a member of the Valdemaran royal family who isn't Chosen, either due to a lack of Gift or the Companions deciding that they had some more important purpose in a different role?

The books imply that prospective Monarch's Own sometimes have "unbonded Choosings" and only *really* Bond with the Grove Born Companion when they take office. (When Jisa is a child in the Last Herald-Mage books Vanyel implies this could be her future, and it's not clear if it didn't happen for political (keeping her out of the line of succession) or practical (Randale wouldn't live long, anyway) reasons.) But... what would that be like, and in what circumstances might it happen? How would the "temporary Companion" feel about it?

Similarly, what happens when an adult Herald is tapped as the next Monarch's Own? Was their bond with their existing Companion not real? Would the Companions argue about it?

In general I'm curious about Companion interpersonal interaction. They are definitely implied to have human-like conflicts and prejudices. How does that play out? Do they chastise one another for breaking the rules? How?

For what it's worth, besides Alberich and Kerowyn some of my favorite characters are Talia and Dirk, Kris, Selenay, and Skif. From Vanyel's time, I am fond of him, Savil, as well as Randale, Shavri, and Jisa. But any characters not in my DNWs are fair game, as are OCs both from within and outside of Valdemar.

Sun/Shadow:

Link to the lyrics of all of the Sun & Shadow music here: http://www.goldenboughmusic.com/music/SunShadow/SunShadow.htm
 
The legend within the story, the one that Lackey swore she'd never actually write about - but I'm intrigued. We know that "officially" Sun and Shadow were cursed, eventually found magic to undo the curse but instead used it to free an heir of Valdemar from an evil mage and lost their chance to beat the curse, and were eventually chosen by Companions to become Heralds, which then (because Companion Magic, presumably) caused them to be freed from the curse.
 
But...is that really how it went down?
 
In addition to a direct take on the legend, I would also be game for any fic in the Valdemar setting that touches on the ballads themselves and doesn't directly include the prompted characters - a Bard character working on their own variation of the legend in song or poetry, an archivist trying to find the real history in the legend, a pair of starcrossed lovers somewhere else in the universe of the books relating to the great tragic love of Sun and Shadow.
 
I'd also be interested in a very meta take involving "Herald-Archivist Myste" (Mercedes Lackey's extremely transparent self-insert, gods love her) writing about (critiquing?) the ballads and the history if that's your interest.

Art: Love art that riffs off any of my prompts above or general likes. Any and all styles welcome, and it need not be overtly shippy.

In-universe documents/academic reports: Anything by Collegium researchers, Herald scholars (or Archivists), Bards, out-Kingdom mages or scholars traveling in Valdemar (or working off second and third-hand reports...), etc, would be great!

DNW: Characters under 16 having sex. (References to past underage sex are fine.) Focus on any of the characters from the books where Mags or his children are protagonists. I have not read these books (Collegium Chronicles/Family of Spies) so I'm not interested in any extension of their stories. However, the founding of the Collegia is of interest to me, so focus on a story in that time period with Original Characters is fine! (Mention of canonical characters from the Mags books is fine.) 

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, etc)
  • 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 some consideration for the seriousness of the hurt, but I do not expect medical accuracy)

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
coaldustcanary: Eleanor of Aquitane from The Lion In Winter (Default)
Dear Creator:

Thank you for checking out my letter! I am requesting both fic and comics, and am open to a single 10k fic or two 5k fics, as well as a single 10 page comic or two 5 page comics at your discretion. I am good with works of any rating and welcome (but in no way expect or require) sexual content for romantic/sexual ship prompts. Below you will find some brief comments on what I like about each requested fandom and character or ship as well as some prompts for each request, and then a huge list of general likes at the end. A few fandoms and ships have specific DNWs, those are listed with each fandom. Don't feel bound by my prompts in this letter if you think you have an idea for something I will like based on my big likes list or prompts I've made previously in other exchanges.

Please don't take the relative length of each section below as a comment on my enthusiasm for any particular fandom or ship - two of the requested ships are ones I very frequently request in a variety of exchanges, while others are newer to me so I don't have quite as many prompts, but I am very excited about all of these possible options!
 
 

The Man From U.N.C.L.E (2015)

Illya Kuryakin/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/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.)

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!

Fandom specific DNW: Modern Mundane AUs. Permanent major character death. (Temporary death and/or believing another character is dead for a time is fine, though.) Total downer endings. Endgame Illya/Gaby or Illya/Napoleon without the third character involved. (Established Illya/Gaby that becomes Illya/Gaby/Napoleon is fine!)

Game of Thrones (TV)

Oberyn Martell/Ellaria Sand/Sansa Stark

Game of Thrones was a very strange fandom experience for me: I've been a fan of the ASOIAF books since not long after A Game of Thrones was published in the late 90s, so it was a trip to see it all play out with a big budget on HBO. In particular, I really enjoyed the casting of Indira Varma as Ellaria and Pedro Pascal as Oberyn immensely and they went from characters of whom I was fond to beloved favorites, even knowing exactly where their plotline was headed, alas. I am intrigued by the idea of crossing the fascinating (and sadly underdeveloped) Dorne setting with Sansa's journey toward political acumen and "playing the game" as well. I can see a lot of different ways to set up this relationship - please choose whichever you find the most interesting!

Prompts:

I am a huge fan of butterfly effect canon divergence for the intricate Westeros setting, especially considering how many seemingly "minor" things end up causing a cascading effect in the political and martial conflicts in the series. Joffrey's death and Sansa's flight from King's Landing is a fascinating place to play with the notion of alternate outcomes - what if Oberyn and Ellaria's plan to make war on the Lannisters saw them deciding that stealing Sansa out from under the Lions' noses to be a more interesting play than getting involved in Tyrion's trial? I could particularly see Ellaria trying to convince Oberyn to play a longer game, and being more interested in what having Sansa with them in Dorne could allow them to accomplish.

I'm also interested in other setups to get Sansa to Dorne or at least involved in Dornish circles - might a desperate Ned (who perhaps discovered the Lannister plot before a formal Sansa/Joffrey betrothal announcement) or a King Robb in need of allies betroth Sansa to Oberyn in order to bring House Martell on as allies against the Lannister threat? Or, in a slightly altered timeline, might Hand of the King Tyrion have sent Sansa as a companion to Myrcella in Dorne to get her away from the capitol and potential threats? (I'm fine with her being married to Tyrion still in this setup, and her becoming a paramour to Ellaria and Oberyn anyway.)

I'm interested in what Sansa would make of Dornish customs and culture, and how she might relate to Oberyn and Ellaria's daughters. I don't expect she would be Shocked and Apalled at the differences, and I'd like it to be more than "Sansa is Girly and Repressed while Dornish Women are Liberated," but Sunspear seems to be a very different sort of court to King's Landing (or even Winterfell) and I'm wondering how she would fare there with her particular strengths and weaknesses. 

Whether as a wife or as a paramour to Oberyn, Sansa being taught about sex and intimacy by Ellaria could be fun. Particularly as a wife, having a legitimate child might be seen as one way to make sure the bond between the North and Dorne is secure, especially given that Sansa might be considered Robb's heir at certain points in the timeline - trying to have a child, or dealing with pregnancy and childbirth might be another interesting angle.

I would be open to a lot of AUs in semi-canon or canon divergent settings - soulmates (any two of the three are soulmates, or all three of them are together), daemons, magic (magic is common in Westeros, or nobility have magic related to their sigils or their historic seats, or the events of the series lead to characters gaining magic) or other vaguely supernatural additions to Westeros are all great.

DNW: Modern Mundane AU. Permanent major character death. (Temporary death and/or believing another character is dead for a time is fine, though.) Total downer endings. (Bittersweet is fine.) Explicitly depicting Sansa as younger than 16. (I am fine with her relative youth compared to Oberyn and Ellaria to be brought up in the narrative, especially given that they have children together her age, but feel free to handwave or vague-up the timeline as necessary to say she's at least late teens at minimum.)


The Witcher (TV)

Geralt/Jaskier/Yennefer

Note for this fandom on new canon: Season 2 of The Witcher will premier on Netflix during the long writing period for this exchange. Please feel free to incorporate S2 in your work if you wish, but also feel free to ignore it entirely. I will definitely have consumed S2 by the time this exchange reveals.

I did not initially watch The Witcher with particularly high expectations - fun medieval-set swords and sorcery and Henry Cavill's ass in leather pants seemed like it would be a fun, non-serious return on investment of my time. I really ended up finding it an engaging world, and I love Geralt's relationships with both Yennefer and Jaskier immensely. I am fine with the relationship depicted as hinging on Geralt with Jaskier and Yennefer being "frenemies" rather than lovers, but I also like when Jaskier and Yennefer have a relationship as well.

Prompts:

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!
 
Canon divergence with a comic edge: Yennefer finds out about "Her Sweet Kiss" sometime before the events of episode 6...and takes it as a compliment. So much so that she seeks out Jaskier to write more songs about her. Geralt is Confused and Concerned (and maybe a little turned on...)
 
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).

I'm very open to just about every kind of AU besides modern & mundane - modern with magic is fine, alternate magical systems are intriguing, other fantasy and sci fi settings are very welcome (sudden idea - Valdemar setting, if you're familiar - Geralt as a Herald and Roach as a Companion, Jaskier as a Bard with the Gift, Yennefer as an out-Kingdom mage or Herald-Mage), or whatever quirky idea seems interesting to you.

If there's sexual content in the fic, I am particularly fond of Geralt getting taken care of and being topped lovingly by either or both of the others, as well as banter and general lightheartedness.

DNW: Modern Mundane AU. Permanent major character death. (Temporary death and/or believing another character is dead for a time is fine, though.) Total downer endings.

John Wick (Movies)

John Wick & John Wick's Unnamed Dog
or
John Wick

These films are somehow exactly what would happen if you measured out a hearty few cups of my fascination for detailed "hidden world" worldbuilding, stirred in my heart-eyes love for Keanu Reeves, baked it up as a cake, and then frosted it with extremely sexy gratuitous violence and topped it with a puppy. These movies are just so freaking fun that they never get old for me. Because my primary fascination with the fandom is through John Wick as a character moving through a complex world and how that world itself bends around him, I'm prompting the solo character and gen ship (because puppy). But! I also ship him with literally everyone he meets in all three films and am fine with a gift that includes shippy content as well. (Some of my favorites include Gianna, Cassian, and/or Charon, but when I say everyone I mean it.)

Prompts:

Worldbuilding! Feel free to give me something from John's past or future that showcases how weird and wonderful the assassin-world of the films might be, set anywhere you think might be interesting. I'm always curious about what Continental Hotels other than New York and Rome might look like, how the various supporting figures (Charon, the Sommelier, the various other contacts for weapons, money, armor, resources, and the like that John comes into contact with) fit into the world or came to be there in the first place.

I'm also really intrigued by the use of metaphor/code, such as the exchange between John and the Sommelier in Rome about wine that was not at all about wine. The very blurry line between the "hidden world" and the "real world" - at no time during either film any of the more public acts of violence particularly shocking to onlookers - they certainly try to get out of the way, and there are muffled shrieks a time or two, but how is it that all of this happens with absolutely no intervention by the authorities? (Certainly Jimmy is in the know, but are all law enforcement? Are the films set in a universe where there's general awareness and acceptance that conflict between the powers that be are handled via assassination? Could there be magic involved? Sometimes I wonder when watching the films if there's some kind of power inherent in being an assassin who's a member of the underground world that allows them to hide in plain sight...)

Anything that digs into the notion of The High Table further is interesting, too. Implied textual evidence in the films suggests that only major organized crime institutions/families have claim to a seat at it - how did they get them in the first place, and how did those disparate families/groups ever agree to such a thing? There's a subtle implication, too, that the High Table is a very "old world" institution and that the "new world" doesn't have much power - why not, when so much organized crime came to the Americas alongside immigrants, including John himself?

"Be seeing you, John" from Viggo Tarasov and "Be seeing you, John" signed by Ares at their deaths - while this was likely just a more reserved "see you in hell" sort of send-off...what if it wasn't? What if John is haunted by the ghosts of all his kills? Besides Viggo and Ares, Gianna and Santino's ghosts might be particularly difficult to deal with for him.

Fandom-specific DNWs: Setting change AUs with the exception of adding magic or creeping horror elements to the canon setting. Canon divergence is also fine. Animal death. (Do not kill the dog, please. Major Character Death is fine for this fandom otherwise.)

Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey

Worldbuilding

With the announcement that the Valdemar books are being adapted for television, I've been feeling very nostalgic for this world. Valdemar was my first real fandom - I recieved Mercedes Lackey fan club newsletters in the mid 90s - and it will always hold a special place in my heart. I love the setting, despite (or perhaps because of) all it's melodrama and silliness.

Prompts: I'm mostly interested in stories that poke at expectations and understandings of the world presented in the book without going really grim-dark. Outsider's perspective on Valdemar and the Heralds. I particularly enjoyed Alberich, Kerowyn, and other non-Herald's more clear-eyed view the strengths and weaknesses of Valdemar's systems.

On the flip side, from the inside, what about a story about a member of the Valdemaran royal family who isn't Chosen, either due to a lack of Gift or the Companions deciding that they had some more important purpose in a different role?

The books imply that prospective Monarch's Own sometimes have "unbonded Choosings" and only *really* Bond with the Grove Born Companion when they take office. (When Jisa is a child in the Last Herald-Mage books Vanyel implies this could be her future, and it's not clear if it didn't happen for political (keeping her out of the line of succession) or practical (Randale wouldn't live long, anyway) reasons.) But... what would that be like, and in what circumstances might it happen? How would the "temporary Companion" feel about it?

Similarly, what happens when an adult Herald is tapped as the next Monarch's Own? Was their bond with their existing Companion not real? Would the Companions argue about it?

In general I'm curious about Companion interpersonal interaction. They are definitely implied to have human-like conflicts and prejudices. How does that play out? Do they chastise one another for breaking the rules? How?

For what it's worth, besides Alberich and Kerowyn some of my favorite characters are Talia and Dirk, Kris, Selenay, and Skif. From Vanyel's time, I am fond of him, Savil, as well as Randale, Shavri, and Jisa. But any characters not in my DNWs are fair game, as are OCs both from within and outside of Valdemar.

DNW: Focus on any of the characters from the books where Mags or his children are protagonists. I have not read these books (Collegium Chronicles/Family of Spies) so I'm not interested in any extension of their stories. However, the founding of the Collegia is of interest to me, so focus on a story in that time period with Original Characters is fine! (Mention of canonical characters from the Mags books is fine.) Characters under 16 having sex.

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
coaldustcanary: Cersei from Game of Thrones (wine)
Hi folks. Thanks for checking out my letter. This year I'm requesting both fic and art, as well as both tricks and treats for all fandoms. I don't really distinguish prompts below as either tricks or treats - feel free to take any prompt in either a more fun/fluffy/positive/sexy or angsty/grim/dark/horror direction as you please. I love supernatural themes-ghosts, werewolves, witches, vampires, etc. as well. Below the list of fandoms is a big list of trope and kink likes - if nothing else, feel free to pick a character and a trope or kink and go for it.

Fandom: Africa - Toto (Song)

I unironically truly love this song. I'm game for any takes on the lyrics that you might choose to pursue, though I'm particularly partial to the theory espoused in this Twitter thread: https://twitter.com/hradzka/status/954767458769883136 (Text of the thread below)

"gonna take a lot to drag me away from you / there's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do"
 
so why is the singer not with her now?
 
This is my theory of Toto's "Africa:"
 
in Toto's "Africa," why is the speaker in Africa in the first place?
 
Answer: he is "hoping to find some long-forgotten words or ancient melodies."
 
He is a student of the occult.

Why has the singer of Toto's "Africa" gone to Africa, leaving his love, in order to hunt up obscure folklore? He tells you: "I seek to cure what's deep inside / frightened of this thing that I've become."
 
ie, he's a goddamn werewolf

"wild dogs cry out in the night / as they grow restless, longing for some solitary company"
 
those aren't dogs

Why does he bless the rains down in Africa? Because the cloud cover blocks the moon.

tl;dr: Toto's "Africa" is about a lovesick werewolf in Africa seeking out ancient lore to find a cure for his unfortunate condition.

Fandom: John Wick (Movies)
Characters: Gianna D'Anonio, Cassian, John Wick


I love the "hidden underworld" motif, and the arcane ways of the assassin's world. The Continental and its rules, blood oaths and Herculean task challenges, and the idea of moving in and out of a shadowy other-world as John does over the course of the films. Everything is so over-the-top and yet the dialogue is so understated - I love that.
 
Prompts:
I would be very pleased to receive straight-up worldbuilding in this setting - please feel free to barely mention any requested character and tell me a story about how you perceive the details of the world. An outsider's POV would be fascinating - either a true outsider to the setting, or someone who works for the Assassins but isn't actually one, perhaps. How did they perceive the events of any film, especially Gianna and/or Santino's deaths and what it means for the future that John flouted the rules so explicitly? How did they perceive - and how do they talk about - the events of John's Task that allowed him to leave their world years ago?
 
I would also love fic that explores the past that John and Gianna are strongly implied to share. Were they lovers? What was that like? Their hands are metaphorically - and sometimes literally - dripping with blood, the both of them, and while the John of the films seems to be ambivalent about aspects of his past, Gianna seems to be totally unashamed. Has it always been that way?
 
Alternately, an entirely morbid canon divergence fic in which Gianna requests (demands? draws on old promises to compel?) a final fling with John "for old time's sake" before he kills her could be both highly creepy and very hot - dubcon and/or femdom themes welcome. Could still end with Gianna's death or be ambiguous or go entirely AU somehow...

What about how Cassian and Gianna came to meet? What was their relationship like? Or what brought Cassian into the assassin's world? Or what happened to him after John Wick 2?
 
Fandom: The Man from UNCLE (2015)
Characters: Illya Kuryakin, Gaby Teller, Napoleon Solo

I've become really enamored of this silly movie in the past year. For what it's worth I ship the three of them together as an OT3 and also any pairing among them. I also really, really am fond of them as friends and teammates with a more gen take on their relationships. I'm prompting more general group things, mostly, but feel free to narrow the focus to any individual character.

Anything where any one of the trio rescue the others (just as the movie emphasizes Napoleon saving Illya, then Illya saving Napoleon, then both of the boys saving Gaby) going in all Big Damn Hero and taking the risk for the team is always fun. (Doesn't have to have a happy ending, either.)

Glimpses of AU/canon divergence where they don't all get claimed by Waverly to work together as a team at the end, or never cooperate in the first place, and are playing spy vs. spy games against each other.

A RED movies AU - "retired, extremely dangerous" former agents being pursued by the CIA and/or KGB at the end of the Cold War. Circa 1991, when the Berlin Wall came down, Illya and Napoleon would be in their early 60s and Gaby in her 50s per the dates on their film credit dossiers. What if the agencies that had reluctantly played along with UNCLE during the Cold War decided it was too dangerous to have agents like those running around, even retired?

A supernatural AU - they're none of them quite human, and that's what explains their ability to be such successful (and ridiculous) spies.

How did Illya become so clued in to fashion? What's his relationship with his mother like?

Is Solo's mother really the only one who calls him Napoleon? Is that even his real name?

What were the literal years Gaby spent waiting to be approached by the people who kidnapped her father like? How does she grieve his loss after the events of the film?

General trope preferences (these are in no particular order, may not apply to all fandoms/characters/pairings and include both plot tropes and sexual acts - but feel free to run with one if you're inspired): 

hurt/comfort (physical and/or emotional), whump, soulmates (and soulmate subversion, and soulmates played dark), sex pollen, fuck or die, dubcon (especially when both/all parties are consenting only under duress due to outside circumstances), bondage, canon divergence/"what if" AUs, first time sex (both first time sex ever and first time for a particular pairing), sex magic, pegging, praise kink, sharing a bed, huddling for warmth, falling asleep on someone, cuddling, spooning, competitive sex games (who can make the other orgasm the fastest, who can resist orgasm the longest, who can successfully finish a task while the other partner tries to get them off or tries to entice them into sex, etc), begging for/during sex, sex as an emotional outlet in the wake of tragedy, battle couples/trios, alternate magical system AUs, Dominance/submission with Dominant female/submissive male or Dominant female/submissive female (situational, prefer not to read lifestyle/24-7 D/s stuff), sex between platonic friends, future fic and "next gen" fic about children of canonical characters, ghosts, communicating with the dead (via magic or weird science), enemies to lovers, threesomes, werewolves (preferably not A/B/O-style)

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