Rare Ship Swap Letter, 2015
Hello, lovely fellow Rare Ship Swap person! I’m really happy that we’ve been matched. You obviously have excellent taste, since you’ve offered one of my fandoms. ;) But seriously, I’m really excited to see what you create. You’re awesome. ♥
Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. ( More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)
Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually - feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.
On to the fandoms and ships!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The West Wing
Ships: C. J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang, C. J. Cregg/Nancy McNally
The West Wing may just be my favourite television show of all time. I know it’s over-idealistic, and unrealistic at times, and is (like most shows) vastly underrepresented in women and minority characters. But I love the writing and the heart, and the female characters it does have are some of my favourite of any show. Take C. J. She’s the absolute best, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. And Evelyn Baker Lang? Season 5 mostly sucked, but she is by far and away the best part of it. I want her to be Chief Justice so badly. And Nancy McNally? She’s super-competent and funny and badass, and I completely adore her.
What kind of fic do I want? Oh god. Anything, really, but that’s super unhelpful. I wonder what Evelyn’s confirmation process looked like, and how she and C.J. might have bonded? Or how might Nancy have helped C. J. adjust to being Chief of Staff? Or maybe during that whole episode where C.J.’s dealing with the “lesbian rumours”, maybe Nancy comes by to talk and share her own story? I can think of millions of ways that either of these two ships might have fallen in love. :) I love all that friends-to-lovers and slow-burn falling-in-love stuff, I’ll eat it up with a spoon.
Or maybe you don’t really write romance or sex, and want to do established relationship! I adore established-relationship. Or maybe you want to write future-fic! Maybe C.J. actually stayed in DC and ended up eventually falling in love with Evelyn, and now they’re married and Evelyn’s Chief Justice and C.J.’s writing her memoirs, and maybe at the end C.J. begins to wonder if she shouldn’t get back in the game (or not!) Or maybe you want to write a fusion with real life where C.J. and Evelyn have Ruth and Elena and Sonia over for dinner (or C.J. and Nancy have Hillary and Jill Biden over).
Just like in all my other sections, I like adventures and plotty fic just as much as I like romance and fluff. And vice versa. I just really love these characters, so have fun. :)
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Ship: Phryne Fisher/Elizabeth MacMillan
I love this canon, and the best parts about it are Phryne, Mac, and Dot. I’m asking for Phryne/Mac here, because I love their dynamic and I totally, totally ship them. Mac is completely my type, and I adore Phryne's personality. Whether you want to write a mystery for the two of them to solve, or porn in which they never leave their bed, or friends-to-lovers in which Phryne gradually realizes that Mac’s the one she’s been in love with all along, or established relationship with tons of flirting and banter… I’m up for it. (No unresolved angst or darkfic, please.)
I love pretty much all the background recurring characters as well, so feel free to have them wander in and out as necessary. Oh, and if you wanted to tell a story about the two of them from an outside POV (Dot, perhaps? Mr Butler? (I adore Mr Butler.) Aunt Prudence? Burt or Cec?), I love outside POVs. Or maybe they have to go undercover as a couple to a secret lesbian nightclub to solve a case? Or maybe you want to talk about period sex toys? I feel like there are loads and loads of options for fics. :) Have fun!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Ships: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall
I love the world of Harry Potter, all its complications and richness and dark corners. I particularly love its minor characters, and the little glimpses we get into their broader lives. From Susan Bones to Madam Hooch to Parvati Patil, I always wonder how everything looked from their eyes, and what it was like growing up in the Hogwarts of Harry Potter’s days, when you weren’t Harry Potter yourself (or one of his mates).
For this exchange, I’ve highlighted three ships in particular: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, and Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall. I love all three of them desperately. Even from the little we see of Madam Hooch and Professor Sprout, they have such distinct personalities! And Professor McGonagall is of course simply fabulous. I love the way they were portrayed in the films - helped by the fact that I utterly adore each of their actresses - but I also love them in the books. (I don’t know any of the expanded canon that I vaguely know exists somewhere, perhaps in Pottermore? But feel free to work it in if it lends itself to your story, just maybe note it in your notes and point me in its direction so I can understand what’s going on, lol.)
As for ideas - goodness, I don’t even know where to start! Friends-to-lovers and first-times are two of my favourite tropes, so I’d love to see any of the duos becoming close and falling in love. Or perhaps you’d like to write a study of the academic system at Hogwarts, as written by Minerva, as Pomona tends happily to their balcony garden and comes in to bestow a kiss to the top of Minerva’s hair. Or maybe you’d be interested in a faculty game of Quidditch, with Madam Hooch sending the Quaffle through on many an occasion, but her partner Pomona catching the Snitch for the other team and waving saucily. Or perhaps you’re of a grimmer mind, and would want to write something about Hooch and McGonagall lying in bed together, listening to the thunder rage outside and holding each other close against the looming darkness. Or maybe you want to write porn.
I am exceedingly easy to please here, dear writer! :) Do Madam Hooch and Pomona laugh about the antics of their students? Does Minerva sigh over their attempts at handwriting, and summon her partner (who has better eyesight) to help her out? Do Minerva and Madam Hooch go to Diagon Alley together, parting to go separately to look at broomsticks and books, and then meet up again for a beverage and a pastry (does Diagon Alley do coffee? I’m not sure.) Did Pomona and Madam Hooch fall in love as prefects from different houses - did Pomona grow special plants to present to her new girlfriend - did Madam Hooch (who must’ve been called Rolanda back then, though it seems odd to think of her as anything other than Madam Hooch!) take Pomona up on broomsticks to the top of a hill to watch the sun set?
Eeee. This is all off the top of my head, so please don’t feel like you have to write one of these ideas! I would really love anything with one of these ships. They’re all of them awesome. And so are you, for volunteering to write one of them! ♥
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
Okay, hopefully I’ve stayed relatively concise, while still giving you enough info and ideas! If you still want more, do check out my other fandoms for ideas that could carry over, and/or my past letters. A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters.)
Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy writing! ♥ ♥ ♥
Things I love: adventures, falling in love (especially when the characters don’t realise that’s what they’re doing), unreliable narrators, slow build, characters with plans, characters with plans that go wrong, characters in love who have difficulty making the first move (particularly if the person they're pining for is in love with them too and having similar troubles), epistolary fic, teasing, snark, established relationships (particularly the old-marriedness and cosy bits), kissing, thorough kissing, worldbuilding, magic, working through problems, laughter and derailments and affection during sex, cuddling, domesticity, happy endings. ( More porn likes, if that’s your thing.)
Dislikes and squicks: character-bashing (I adore all the characters I’ve nominated), gore, scat, torture, bestiality, under-age sex, incest, non-con. Also, I’m a vegan. This isn’t a big deal usually - feel free to have people eating cheeseburgers in the background or whatever. It’s only a squick for me if the eating of animals is graphic, dwelt on at length, and/or raw.
On to the fandoms and ships!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER ONE:
The West Wing
Ships: C. J. Cregg/Evelyn Baker Lang, C. J. Cregg/Nancy McNally
The West Wing may just be my favourite television show of all time. I know it’s over-idealistic, and unrealistic at times, and is (like most shows) vastly underrepresented in women and minority characters. But I love the writing and the heart, and the female characters it does have are some of my favourite of any show. Take C. J. She’s the absolute best, and I’ll fight anyone who says otherwise. And Evelyn Baker Lang? Season 5 mostly sucked, but she is by far and away the best part of it. I want her to be Chief Justice so badly. And Nancy McNally? She’s super-competent and funny and badass, and I completely adore her.
What kind of fic do I want? Oh god. Anything, really, but that’s super unhelpful. I wonder what Evelyn’s confirmation process looked like, and how she and C.J. might have bonded? Or how might Nancy have helped C. J. adjust to being Chief of Staff? Or maybe during that whole episode where C.J.’s dealing with the “lesbian rumours”, maybe Nancy comes by to talk and share her own story? I can think of millions of ways that either of these two ships might have fallen in love. :) I love all that friends-to-lovers and slow-burn falling-in-love stuff, I’ll eat it up with a spoon.
Or maybe you don’t really write romance or sex, and want to do established relationship! I adore established-relationship. Or maybe you want to write future-fic! Maybe C.J. actually stayed in DC and ended up eventually falling in love with Evelyn, and now they’re married and Evelyn’s Chief Justice and C.J.’s writing her memoirs, and maybe at the end C.J. begins to wonder if she shouldn’t get back in the game (or not!) Or maybe you want to write a fusion with real life where C.J. and Evelyn have Ruth and Elena and Sonia over for dinner (or C.J. and Nancy have Hillary and Jill Biden over).
Just like in all my other sections, I like adventures and plotty fic just as much as I like romance and fluff. And vice versa. I just really love these characters, so have fun. :)
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER TWO:
Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries
Ship: Phryne Fisher/Elizabeth MacMillan
I love this canon, and the best parts about it are Phryne, Mac, and Dot. I’m asking for Phryne/Mac here, because I love their dynamic and I totally, totally ship them. Mac is completely my type, and I adore Phryne's personality. Whether you want to write a mystery for the two of them to solve, or porn in which they never leave their bed, or friends-to-lovers in which Phryne gradually realizes that Mac’s the one she’s been in love with all along, or established relationship with tons of flirting and banter… I’m up for it. (No unresolved angst or darkfic, please.)
I love pretty much all the background recurring characters as well, so feel free to have them wander in and out as necessary. Oh, and if you wanted to tell a story about the two of them from an outside POV (Dot, perhaps? Mr Butler? (I adore Mr Butler.) Aunt Prudence? Burt or Cec?), I love outside POVs. Or maybe they have to go undercover as a couple to a secret lesbian nightclub to solve a case? Or maybe you want to talk about period sex toys? I feel like there are loads and loads of options for fics. :) Have fun!
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
FANDOM NUMBER THREE:
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Ships: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall
I love the world of Harry Potter, all its complications and richness and dark corners. I particularly love its minor characters, and the little glimpses we get into their broader lives. From Susan Bones to Madam Hooch to Parvati Patil, I always wonder how everything looked from their eyes, and what it was like growing up in the Hogwarts of Harry Potter’s days, when you weren’t Harry Potter yourself (or one of his mates).
For this exchange, I’ve highlighted three ships in particular: Madam Hooch/Pomona Sprout, Minerva McGonagall/Pomona Sprout, and Madam Hooch/Minerva McGonagall. I love all three of them desperately. Even from the little we see of Madam Hooch and Professor Sprout, they have such distinct personalities! And Professor McGonagall is of course simply fabulous. I love the way they were portrayed in the films - helped by the fact that I utterly adore each of their actresses - but I also love them in the books. (I don’t know any of the expanded canon that I vaguely know exists somewhere, perhaps in Pottermore? But feel free to work it in if it lends itself to your story, just maybe note it in your notes and point me in its direction so I can understand what’s going on, lol.)
As for ideas - goodness, I don’t even know where to start! Friends-to-lovers and first-times are two of my favourite tropes, so I’d love to see any of the duos becoming close and falling in love. Or perhaps you’d like to write a study of the academic system at Hogwarts, as written by Minerva, as Pomona tends happily to their balcony garden and comes in to bestow a kiss to the top of Minerva’s hair. Or maybe you’d be interested in a faculty game of Quidditch, with Madam Hooch sending the Quaffle through on many an occasion, but her partner Pomona catching the Snitch for the other team and waving saucily. Or perhaps you’re of a grimmer mind, and would want to write something about Hooch and McGonagall lying in bed together, listening to the thunder rage outside and holding each other close against the looming darkness. Or maybe you want to write porn.
I am exceedingly easy to please here, dear writer! :) Do Madam Hooch and Pomona laugh about the antics of their students? Does Minerva sigh over their attempts at handwriting, and summon her partner (who has better eyesight) to help her out? Do Minerva and Madam Hooch go to Diagon Alley together, parting to go separately to look at broomsticks and books, and then meet up again for a beverage and a pastry (does Diagon Alley do coffee? I’m not sure.) Did Pomona and Madam Hooch fall in love as prefects from different houses - did Pomona grow special plants to present to her new girlfriend - did Madam Hooch (who must’ve been called Rolanda back then, though it seems odd to think of her as anything other than Madam Hooch!) take Pomona up on broomsticks to the top of a hill to watch the sun set?
Eeee. This is all off the top of my head, so please don’t feel like you have to write one of these ideas! I would really love anything with one of these ships. They’re all of them awesome. And so are you, for volunteering to write one of them! ♥
♥ ♥ ♥
~//~
Okay, hopefully I’ve stayed relatively concise, while still giving you enough info and ideas! If you still want more, do check out my other fandoms for ideas that could carry over, and/or my past letters. A lot of my beloved tropes and plotbunnies are panfandom (with variations, of course, for the different beloved characters.)
Thank you again for offering to write one of these fandoms, dear writer! I know I’ll love your fic. Happy writing! ♥ ♥ ♥