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

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

What I like about canon: 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!)

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. I just want them all to have antics together! The one S6 episode where Emma interacted with them both in the Underworld was such a let down when there was so much potential there!

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/soulmates 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.

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

Ladyhawke (1985)
Isabeau d'Anjou/Philippe Gaston/Etienne Navarre

What I like about canon: 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:
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?

As an extension of what occurs in the film, Philippe as a "go between" having moments (romantic, tender, sexy, kinky) with Isabeau and Navarre individually as the cursed lovers use him to physically send messages to one another (with or without Philippe's embelishments!)

Post-canon: Isabeau and Philippe have to team up to rescue Navarre from some threat against which their combined wit and way with words is most effective.

DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. (Temporary death or other characters believing character to be dead is great!) Modern mundane AU. (Alternate setting AUs - sci fi, alternate fantasy, period aus at least 30 years old, modern with magic - are 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, 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
coaldustcanary: Eleanor of Aquitane from The Lion In Winter (Default)
 Hi there,

Thanks for checking out my letter. This is my first year participating in Holly Poly, though I have several OT3s both in my currently active fandoms and in longstanding fandoms of my heart. 

General Preferences: I am overall open to receiving fic or art of any rating, including violent or sexually explicit content. I am OK with any AO3 required warning if appropriate to the fic or art.

Prompts for each of my ships below. Note that some prompts are re-purposed from past signups, especially for some of my perennial requests. Even if I've received fic based on those prompts before, repeating it here definitely means I still want more content based on those prompts!

At the end of the letter is a big list of prompted likes and preferences - do feel free to ignore my fandom-specific prompts and dive into one of those likes if it gives you any ideas.

Fandoms in alphabetical order:

Ladyhawke (1985)
Etienne Navarre/Isabeau d'Anjou/Philippe Gaston


What happens after the film? I don't buy that Philippe goes off on his own with Imperius and leaves the Great Lovers to their reunion...at least not permanently. I really like the idea that Navarre and Isabeau realize something is missing after a time relishing their freedom from the curse, and seek out their most loyal of friends eventually. 

The three of them spending a winter together, or huddling up against miserable weather, is also very charming for either fic or art.

DNW: modern setting (more explicit fantasy setting or magic besides the curse - like soulmates or the like - is fine)

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


My primary fandom home these days is MUNCLE movie fandom, and I never tire of these three getting together and figuring out their professional and personal partnerships all at once. Mission fic is great, but so is slice-of-life downtime off the job - maybe something set around a winter holiday like New Year's Day, or Solo conning his partners into appreciation of a "Western" Christmas tradition.

Huddling for warmth/only one bed/staving off hypothermia/snowed in stuff is my catnip. Declarations of feelings due to serious injury or hurt/comfort scenarios, too.

I am open to lots of ways for them to be a trio, but I'm particularly fond of Napoleon Solo, "womanizing" self-absorbed criminal, selflessly trying to avoid getting in the way of Gaby and Illya's relationship despite his feelings for both of them (because as much as he appreciates himself, he doesn't think he'd be any good for them, and besides, they don't feel that way about him) or even trying to set them up and failing miserably. Because they both want him, too.

DNW: non-spy AU. (though canon divergence where they end up retiring together or casefic where they're undercover doing something else is fine! also adding magic or making the setting weirder a la magical realism is good, I just want them to be 60s cold war spies, too.)

(You can see all of my past letters requesting this fandom under the tag MUNCLE 2015, feel free to go with anything.)

Motherland: Fort Salem (TV)
Sarah Alder/Biddies
Anacostia Quartermaine/Petra Bellweather/Sarah Alder


For Alder/Biddies: what is the general's relationship like with them? How intimate must it be for her very life to be sustained by their sacrifice! How do they perform magic together? What does it feel like, and how does it connect them?

For Anacostia/Petra/Alder, I'm thinking power-play magic involving intense rituals - maybe sex, too? Perhaps the most advanced battle magics require deep intimacy, or at least performing it, whether or not there are emotions involved.

DNW: No Magic AU.

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


I remain really, really mad about what happened to Milah. It was extremely unfair. What might have happened if she'd returned from the Underworld with Killian and Emma? (Like, besides kicking Rumple's ass six ways from Sunday.)

Alternately, an Enchanted Forest AU where princess Emma ends up in a relationship with a pair of dastardly pirates would be fantastic!

DNW: Modern AU.

Valdemar Series - Mercedes Lackey  
Dirk/Kris/Talia (Valdemar)


Feel free to go canon divergence with this--somehow the three of them get together prior to Talia and Kris's ill-fated journey to Hardorn somehow. Maybe Dirk wasn't off mentoring Skif and got sent their way while Talia and Kris were on circuit and the separate complicated things between Talia and Kris and Talia and Dirk get pulled into the light abruptly.

Alternately, fix-it: Kris doesn't die, Dirk somehow Fetches both Kris and Talia back from Hardorn, and then pulls a noble sacrifice because he wants to leave his Best Friend and Epic Crush to their perfect love, not realizing the relationship is much more complicated than that (and they need him, too).

DNW: Modern AU.

The Witcher (TV)
Geralt of Rivia/Jaskier/Yennefer of Vengerberg (Witcher TV)

At some point post-S1, Ciri has a Mom and Two Dads who somehow get over their interpersonal strife for her sake. (Honestly, an outsider's perspective from Ciri would be great.)

I am always game for fic where Yennefer and Jaskier team up to lovingly top the hell out of Geralt because someone needs to take care of the big idiot so the other two bury the hatchet to see that it gets done.

Alternately, Geralt is confused, scared, and a liiiitle aroused when Jaskier and Yennefer end up teaming up without him for some reason.

DNW: None (This is the fandom I am open to Modern AUs for if you're interested.)


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
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 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

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

Hi 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)


What I like about this canon/fandom: While I feel passionately that this film was utterly robbed of a sequel, it's two hours of beautifully shot, fast-paced fun with snappy dialogue that slaps a few classic tropes - fake engaged, enemies teaming up as reluctant partners against a common enemy, competitive one-upsmanship, spy-vs-spy shenanigans - on top of a trio of spies who veer wildly between highly competent and utterly useless and can't stop snarking at and saving one another.  And just when these three idiots heave a sigh of relief at the end of the film, knowing that these awkward feelings for one another that have been growing over the past few days of fighting fascists can finally be put aside once they go their separate ways, they find out they're working together for the indefinite future because Alexander Waverly is a genius and a troll. I'm always asking what happens next for these three.

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
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 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
 

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