DEAR RARE PAIRS WRITER
Hi there. Thanks for matching with me on a fandom I love! These pairings are all far too small, so new fic is going to be an absolute delight, whichever you choose to write.
I've mostly cobbled this letter together from exchanges I've participated in in the past -- if I haven't received fic for a given request yet then I still desperately want it, and if I have been lucky then I still want more of it!
Let your own muse be your guide, and please feel free to work with the spirit rather than the letter of any prompts, or to use anything I suggest to set the mood rather than dictate a plot. I don't want to cramp your style too much, so please just take this as a wish list that you can mix and match from as suits you. Hopefully I've given you somewhere to start.
General Likes:
• found family/families of choice
• friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, enemies to friends to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers
• characters knowing each other really well
• size/strength difference even when it's only a bit or especially if it's surprising
• first times
• reconciliations after rifts
• breakups followed by makeups
• loyalty
• you and me against the world
• identity porn
• fork in the road AUs
General Dislikes:
• infidelity
• non-con
• major character death
• unasked for kinks
• mundane AUs
• bdsm
• obliviousness/drawn out pining/misunderstandings
• parental incest or any related kink
Some General Comments about Fic:
My greatest loves in fan fiction - and in canon, to be honest - are character development and relationships. I do enjoy well-plotted stories, of course, but I get a lot of emotional satisfaction out of seeing the plot show me new things about characters that I love. My favourite tropes tend to centre round things like found family, undying loyalty, you and me against the world vows, nemeses turned sworn comrades, reconciliations after rifts, and identity porn.
I dislike mundane AUs, so please keep the characters in their own settings and retain their own backstories and abilities/powers. Also, please, no non-con, no infidelity, no unasked for kinks. I do enjoy reading explicit sex scenes in fic, though as a general rule as part of character development rather than pure PWP, so if you enjoy writing them please go ahead. If you prefer lower ratings then super intense feelings and emotions tickle my id just as well.
I have a basic preference for third person narration, and also for a fairly tight POV, rather than an omniscient narrator. That’s not a hard and fast rule though, so don’t feel bound by it if it doesn’t suit the story you want to tell.
*****
DCU (Comics)
Apollo/Midnighter
I've just recently read the latest run of Midnighter and the Midnighter and Apollo mini, and I loved them both, which is such a great welcome home after being largely disappointed in what Stormwatch did to The Authority. I'd really love just about anything set in the new continuity. First meetings, first times, first time back together after the breakup... It's all pretty open to interpretation, and just crying out for fic. Whatever story you want to tell would be very welcome.
We never really find out enough about either Apollo or Midnighter, or their previous lives, in any continuity. Feel free to mix and match or cherry pick from existing canon, or come up with something new, as far as backstory goes.
With all our reboots we've never seen the get together play out in full - the closest was in Stormwatch, but even then things were a bit confused by the end. Or, of course, the second get together, the reconciliation after the break up, if you prefer.
Are there wedding bells in the future? Comfortable "old marrieds" several years down the track? Are they perfectly happy with the way things are, thank you very much? Is someone gearing up to propose?
I am absolutely here for some wall breaking superpowered sex too, if you're so inclined. Please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Marvel (Comics)
Julio Richter/Shatterstar
Rictor and Shatterstar’s relationship was always central to both of their characters, and yet at the same time it got pretty short shrift as far as actual plot went. I’d dearly love to see it fleshed out and explored. How much longer can Rictor put up with Shatterstar’s ideas about open relationships? Is that actually what Shatterstar really wanted, or was it all a misunderstanding? Does he even know, finally, what he does want? They’ve broken up several times in the past, are they going to make it this time and stay together? (Spoiler: I hope so. I love a bit of angst along the rocky path to true love, but would prefer an ultimately happy ending. I love break ups that end in make ups though. And make up sex…)
With the end of Vol 3, the boys are essentially in comic book limbo, so I’d like to know where to from here? What do they do after Mojoworld? Do they stay there to fight the good fight? Do they go on dimension hopping adventures? Do they come back to Earth and try to settle down? (For a value of settling down that these two crazy kids are capable of achieving, which I somehow imagine involves sudden sword fights through the newly renovated apartment.)
That said, I do love the histrionics and drama of their young days, so if the whim takes you, I'd enjoy fic set in earlier continuities they've shared too. First times, and all those break ups and makeups on the road to the final one.
We’re talking about mutants/extra-dimensional beings/superheroes here, so a bit of wall slamming, furniture breaking, Olympic style stamina and fortitude wouldn’t go astray in any sex scenes... I don't have a Smut Swap letter for this pairing, unfortunately, but a relevant list of kinks would include:
• superpower sex
• anal sex
• barebacking
• first time
• make up/reconciliation sex
• rough sex
• sleepy sex/morning sex
• sex after fighting/battle
• manhandling/shows of athleticism during sex
• marathon sex
• multiple sex positions
Fast and the Furious Series
Brian O'Conner/Letty Ortiz/Dominic Toretto/Mia Toretto
This relationship is somewhat unique in my heart in that I started out in the fandom ages ago as a slash OTP shipper, but over time I have fallen so deeply for the foursome. I love their little family so much, and seeing it thrive in fic makes me very happy, especially now that we won't be seeing it on screen anymore.
My favourite films in the series are probably The Fast and the Furious, Fast Five, and Furious 7. I didn't enjoy Fate of the Furious as much for various reasons, so please ignore it for the purposes of this fic.
So where to after eight movies??? I'd love to know more about everyone, but I feel like Dom's maybe the one we know best, so more focus on the others would be great. We never get Brian's backstory except that one talk about his father. What's Letty's version of Dom's tall tale about their meet cute? How does Mia really feel about being the responsible one who keeps the home fires burning? We hear a lot about Dom and gravity, but what's it really like, being the three planets orbitting Dom's sun?
Anything you write me exploring this relationship, at any point in the series, would be fantastic. I have a lot of love in my heart for Furious 7 for how beautifully it built a happy ending in less than ideal circumstances. Dom, Brian, Letty, and Mia as a family are one of the great loves of my fannish life, and I love what the film gave us with the building of Brian and Mia’s young family, and its revelations about Dom and Letty. So if you want to explore that happy ending, I'd love something set after this movie. (No sad endings here please!) Is Dom ever going to settle down? What is retirement going to look like? How does everyone balance their new lives and responsibilities? Are there going to be kids for Letty? Does Brian (sneakily? accidentally?) become head of the family simply by virtue of being a much more experienced dad?
By contrast, Mia and Letty get pretty short shrift in most fic set in the early days, and in the first few movies too, to be honest. If you want to mix things up and set a foursome fic at this point in the timeline, please do go for it. I would love to see how it turns out. (If the answer is bittersweetly then that's cool -- the timeline fixes itself in this case.) How does the foursome (start to) come together? How does Brian's betrayal affect it? Does it break it, or does strength of numbers somehow manage to bring about a different ending?
I can never get enough of the worldbuilding potential and relationship exploration of the sedoretu. In this case I sort of imagine Mia and Letty as childhood friends (I know the first film especially is slightly wonky on relative ages) and from the moment Letty catches Dom’s eye, the two girls are on the lookout for their perfect fourth. When Brian appears on the scene it’s not just Dom who falls like a tonne of bricks at first sight... On the other hand, if you’d rather write a more “traditional” foursome that puts itself together in “our” universe then that’d be just as welcome. Maybe a threesome born out of mourning Letty and trying to rebuild that becomes a foursome when she finds her way home?
If you enjoy writing AUs, I do have one madcap idea for one, an exception to my usual preferences. My friends and I often used to joke that Faster and Furiouser Fifteen would be set in space. So give me all the wacky space adventures of outlaw Dom and interstellar agent Brian, with the girls, and maybe the gang too, along for the ride.
Just one caveat: I don’t want to see any kind of third wheel issues. No cheating, no reluctant sharing, no painful negotiations, just a wholehearted enthusiasm from everyone. They all love each other, and couldn’t possibly be happy without each other.
If you are interested in writing smut please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for last year's Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Will Hunting/Chuckie Sullivan
I love this film so much, and more than anything I adore Will and Chuckie's relationship. Chuckie's part in the movie is comparatively small, but he speaks a thousand words with every grin, smirk, and glare, and I am an absolute sucker for his brand of love and loyalty combined with straight talking and the ability to give a shove where required. It seems very obvious, without much exposition, that he and Will have known each other forever, and always been there for each other through thick and thin. He's also a big enough person to let Will go - heck, make him go - though of course I am selfishly asking you to undo that somehow and get them back together. Sorry, not sorry.
Sean summed it up well when Lambeau was complaining about Will's choice to hang out with a "retarded gorilla" and he responded, "That retarded gorilla would take a bat to your head if he asked him to." [We've come quite some way in understanding inappropriate slurs since 1997 but I think the sentiment is still clear.] Likewise when one of the other boys hesitates about getting into a fight to support Will, and Chuckie says something to the effect, "When I'm done with them I'm coming for you." It's like catnip to my love of found family, "you and me against the world" friendships, and undying loyalty in the face of all common sense.
Anyway, there is so little fic available featuring these two that pretty much anything you can come up with would be very welcome indeed. I would love any sort of fic where Will and Chuckie are together, whether they get together before, during, or after the film. I'd prefer for them not to break up, though I'm more than happy for them to make up or get back together after a separation. I'd prefer Skylar be dealt with as briefly and respectfully as possible, whether via off screen break up or simple, time honoured, assuming that's been dealt with and moving forward.
I guess my major question is: where to from the end of the movie? What happens next? Given that Chuckie was so set on Will leaving, and more importantly not wasting his gifts and opportunities, it seems like he wouldn't accept Will just giving up on California and coming home to the same old same old. So what changes? Does Chuckie follow him out there? Does Will come home but to a new life in Boston? Can Will help Chuckie realise a few dreams of his own? What kind of life can they build together? Is it, by choice or necessity, a closeted life? When and how does that change?
That brings me to one of the other things that intrigues me, namely how much the world has and hasn't changed between 1997 and 2017. [I can't believe this film will be twenty years old this year! Where did the time go???] So I'm interested in that too. If you want to set your fic in 1997 or shortly thereafter, great; if you want to look in at what the guys are doing now, that'd also be awesome. Please, please, don't write them as having not spoken or seen each other for huge chunks of time in those intervening years though, I can't bear that thought.
Oh, if you do want to go early? Underage is fine, though I'd prefer it if we stick with 16+.
If you are interested in writing smut for this pairing you are a hero indeed, so please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Takers (2010)
Gordon Cozier/John Rahway
Honesty compels me to agree that this movie is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but I love it a lot anyway. The protagonists are handsome and charming and impeccably dressed. They all seem to love each other a lot, and any one of them would risk his life for the rest. There is honour among thieves. They pull off brilliantly planned, flawlessly executed heists. Until the last one. I still shake my fist at the screen when Ghost appears, and demand to know why they trust him. Oh, well. So goes the world.
We know next to nothing about anybody's backstory, with the obvious exception of Gordon's childhood with Naomi in the Caribbean, so there's a totally blank slate to work with there, but I thought the film did a good job of setting up Gordon and John's friendship especially, and they do basically drive off into the sunset together at the end, so I'd love any kind of fic that explores their relationship, whether before, during, or after the film.
Where and when and how did Gordon and John meet? Where did they pick up their unique skill sets? Why are they so loyal to each other? How did they put the gang together? Do the rest of the guys know about their relationship, or is that just one more secret in a life chock full of them? Where do they go after the movie ends? Do they make it to a well-earned retirement on some tropical island, or are they on the run somewhere? I'd love anything along these lines, be it prequel or sequel.
Lastly, I think there is one explicit fic for this pairing (not counting Paul Walker crossovers) so if you want to be the person to change that it'd be pretty fantastic. :D
Top Gun (1986)
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
This section of my letter is probably going to be shorter or rougher than the others, I'm afraid, but only because it's a new addition to my wishlist so I haven't been honing the request forever and a day. Please don't think for a second it indicates lack of enthusiasm!
Anyway, Top Gun is one of those films that reminds me how great it was to be a kid in the eighties, at least when you were spending your long, hot summers at the movie theatre, rather than worrying about the Cold War or anything like that. ;-p I think I owe a good deal of my love for Navy dress whites to the graduation scene, too.
We really don't know much about any of the characters, so anything you choose to draw out and explore would be grand. There's more to Maverick than just a chip on his shoulder about his dad and his rejection from the Academy. There must be way more to Ice than just perfect flying. Feel free to make up any sort of backstory you want, or to move forward from the end of the movie in any direction you like. Do they stay at Top Gun? Do they (soon or eventually) return to combat status? How does their newfound and hard won friendship blossom into something more?
I'm here for all the classic military tropes from internalised homophobia to keeping things on the absolute d-low. I almost typed DADT, but of course that's still seven years in the future at the point the movie was made! If you don't want to deal with historical homophobia you don't have to, but please do keep the relationship under wraps, I find anachronistic attitudes to homosexuality really jarring in period fic. (At this point I'm chuckling ruefully at the thought that the smash hits of my childhood are now period pieces.)
If you enjoy writing explicit fic then please feel free to do so, it will be gratefully received. I have very few specific preferences because there just isn't enough in existence to have built up any clear ideas. Blatantly stealing from another section, a few things I do generally like include:
• anal sex
• barebacking
• first time
• make up/reconciliation sex
• rough sex
• sleepy sex/morning sex
• sex after fighting/battle
• manhandling/shows of athleticism during sex
• marathon sex
• multiple sex positions
One last thought: My two favourites of the few fics that are available for this pairing are both told from Maverick's point of view, so it'd be interesting to see something from Ice's. Not remotely necessary, though, if it doesn't flow easily.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.
I've mostly cobbled this letter together from exchanges I've participated in in the past -- if I haven't received fic for a given request yet then I still desperately want it, and if I have been lucky then I still want more of it!
Let your own muse be your guide, and please feel free to work with the spirit rather than the letter of any prompts, or to use anything I suggest to set the mood rather than dictate a plot. I don't want to cramp your style too much, so please just take this as a wish list that you can mix and match from as suits you. Hopefully I've given you somewhere to start.
General Likes:
• found family/families of choice
• friends to lovers, enemies to lovers, enemies to friends to lovers, friends to enemies to lovers
• characters knowing each other really well
• size/strength difference even when it's only a bit or especially if it's surprising
• first times
• reconciliations after rifts
• breakups followed by makeups
• loyalty
• you and me against the world
• identity porn
• fork in the road AUs
General Dislikes:
• infidelity
• non-con
• major character death
• unasked for kinks
• mundane AUs
• bdsm
• obliviousness/drawn out pining/misunderstandings
• parental incest or any related kink
Some General Comments about Fic:
My greatest loves in fan fiction - and in canon, to be honest - are character development and relationships. I do enjoy well-plotted stories, of course, but I get a lot of emotional satisfaction out of seeing the plot show me new things about characters that I love. My favourite tropes tend to centre round things like found family, undying loyalty, you and me against the world vows, nemeses turned sworn comrades, reconciliations after rifts, and identity porn.
I dislike mundane AUs, so please keep the characters in their own settings and retain their own backstories and abilities/powers. Also, please, no non-con, no infidelity, no unasked for kinks. I do enjoy reading explicit sex scenes in fic, though as a general rule as part of character development rather than pure PWP, so if you enjoy writing them please go ahead. If you prefer lower ratings then super intense feelings and emotions tickle my id just as well.
I have a basic preference for third person narration, and also for a fairly tight POV, rather than an omniscient narrator. That’s not a hard and fast rule though, so don’t feel bound by it if it doesn’t suit the story you want to tell.
*****
DCU (Comics)
Apollo/Midnighter
I've just recently read the latest run of Midnighter and the Midnighter and Apollo mini, and I loved them both, which is such a great welcome home after being largely disappointed in what Stormwatch did to The Authority. I'd really love just about anything set in the new continuity. First meetings, first times, first time back together after the breakup... It's all pretty open to interpretation, and just crying out for fic. Whatever story you want to tell would be very welcome.
We never really find out enough about either Apollo or Midnighter, or their previous lives, in any continuity. Feel free to mix and match or cherry pick from existing canon, or come up with something new, as far as backstory goes.
With all our reboots we've never seen the get together play out in full - the closest was in Stormwatch, but even then things were a bit confused by the end. Or, of course, the second get together, the reconciliation after the break up, if you prefer.
Are there wedding bells in the future? Comfortable "old marrieds" several years down the track? Are they perfectly happy with the way things are, thank you very much? Is someone gearing up to propose?
I am absolutely here for some wall breaking superpowered sex too, if you're so inclined. Please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Marvel (Comics)
Julio Richter/Shatterstar
Rictor and Shatterstar’s relationship was always central to both of their characters, and yet at the same time it got pretty short shrift as far as actual plot went. I’d dearly love to see it fleshed out and explored. How much longer can Rictor put up with Shatterstar’s ideas about open relationships? Is that actually what Shatterstar really wanted, or was it all a misunderstanding? Does he even know, finally, what he does want? They’ve broken up several times in the past, are they going to make it this time and stay together? (Spoiler: I hope so. I love a bit of angst along the rocky path to true love, but would prefer an ultimately happy ending. I love break ups that end in make ups though. And make up sex…)
With the end of Vol 3, the boys are essentially in comic book limbo, so I’d like to know where to from here? What do they do after Mojoworld? Do they stay there to fight the good fight? Do they go on dimension hopping adventures? Do they come back to Earth and try to settle down? (For a value of settling down that these two crazy kids are capable of achieving, which I somehow imagine involves sudden sword fights through the newly renovated apartment.)
That said, I do love the histrionics and drama of their young days, so if the whim takes you, I'd enjoy fic set in earlier continuities they've shared too. First times, and all those break ups and makeups on the road to the final one.
We’re talking about mutants/extra-dimensional beings/superheroes here, so a bit of wall slamming, furniture breaking, Olympic style stamina and fortitude wouldn’t go astray in any sex scenes... I don't have a Smut Swap letter for this pairing, unfortunately, but a relevant list of kinks would include:
• superpower sex
• anal sex
• barebacking
• first time
• make up/reconciliation sex
• rough sex
• sleepy sex/morning sex
• sex after fighting/battle
• manhandling/shows of athleticism during sex
• marathon sex
• multiple sex positions
Fast and the Furious Series
Brian O'Conner/Letty Ortiz/Dominic Toretto/Mia Toretto
This relationship is somewhat unique in my heart in that I started out in the fandom ages ago as a slash OTP shipper, but over time I have fallen so deeply for the foursome. I love their little family so much, and seeing it thrive in fic makes me very happy, especially now that we won't be seeing it on screen anymore.
My favourite films in the series are probably The Fast and the Furious, Fast Five, and Furious 7. I didn't enjoy Fate of the Furious as much for various reasons, so please ignore it for the purposes of this fic.
So where to after eight movies??? I'd love to know more about everyone, but I feel like Dom's maybe the one we know best, so more focus on the others would be great. We never get Brian's backstory except that one talk about his father. What's Letty's version of Dom's tall tale about their meet cute? How does Mia really feel about being the responsible one who keeps the home fires burning? We hear a lot about Dom and gravity, but what's it really like, being the three planets orbitting Dom's sun?
Anything you write me exploring this relationship, at any point in the series, would be fantastic. I have a lot of love in my heart for Furious 7 for how beautifully it built a happy ending in less than ideal circumstances. Dom, Brian, Letty, and Mia as a family are one of the great loves of my fannish life, and I love what the film gave us with the building of Brian and Mia’s young family, and its revelations about Dom and Letty. So if you want to explore that happy ending, I'd love something set after this movie. (No sad endings here please!) Is Dom ever going to settle down? What is retirement going to look like? How does everyone balance their new lives and responsibilities? Are there going to be kids for Letty? Does Brian (sneakily? accidentally?) become head of the family simply by virtue of being a much more experienced dad?
By contrast, Mia and Letty get pretty short shrift in most fic set in the early days, and in the first few movies too, to be honest. If you want to mix things up and set a foursome fic at this point in the timeline, please do go for it. I would love to see how it turns out. (If the answer is bittersweetly then that's cool -- the timeline fixes itself in this case.) How does the foursome (start to) come together? How does Brian's betrayal affect it? Does it break it, or does strength of numbers somehow manage to bring about a different ending?
I can never get enough of the worldbuilding potential and relationship exploration of the sedoretu. In this case I sort of imagine Mia and Letty as childhood friends (I know the first film especially is slightly wonky on relative ages) and from the moment Letty catches Dom’s eye, the two girls are on the lookout for their perfect fourth. When Brian appears on the scene it’s not just Dom who falls like a tonne of bricks at first sight... On the other hand, if you’d rather write a more “traditional” foursome that puts itself together in “our” universe then that’d be just as welcome. Maybe a threesome born out of mourning Letty and trying to rebuild that becomes a foursome when she finds her way home?
If you enjoy writing AUs, I do have one madcap idea for one, an exception to my usual preferences. My friends and I often used to joke that Faster and Furiouser Fifteen would be set in space. So give me all the wacky space adventures of outlaw Dom and interstellar agent Brian, with the girls, and maybe the gang too, along for the ride.
Just one caveat: I don’t want to see any kind of third wheel issues. No cheating, no reluctant sharing, no painful negotiations, just a wholehearted enthusiasm from everyone. They all love each other, and couldn’t possibly be happy without each other.
If you are interested in writing smut please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for last year's Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Good Will Hunting (1997)
Will Hunting/Chuckie Sullivan
I love this film so much, and more than anything I adore Will and Chuckie's relationship. Chuckie's part in the movie is comparatively small, but he speaks a thousand words with every grin, smirk, and glare, and I am an absolute sucker for his brand of love and loyalty combined with straight talking and the ability to give a shove where required. It seems very obvious, without much exposition, that he and Will have known each other forever, and always been there for each other through thick and thin. He's also a big enough person to let Will go - heck, make him go - though of course I am selfishly asking you to undo that somehow and get them back together. Sorry, not sorry.
Sean summed it up well when Lambeau was complaining about Will's choice to hang out with a "retarded gorilla" and he responded, "That retarded gorilla would take a bat to your head if he asked him to." [We've come quite some way in understanding inappropriate slurs since 1997 but I think the sentiment is still clear.] Likewise when one of the other boys hesitates about getting into a fight to support Will, and Chuckie says something to the effect, "When I'm done with them I'm coming for you." It's like catnip to my love of found family, "you and me against the world" friendships, and undying loyalty in the face of all common sense.
Anyway, there is so little fic available featuring these two that pretty much anything you can come up with would be very welcome indeed. I would love any sort of fic where Will and Chuckie are together, whether they get together before, during, or after the film. I'd prefer for them not to break up, though I'm more than happy for them to make up or get back together after a separation. I'd prefer Skylar be dealt with as briefly and respectfully as possible, whether via off screen break up or simple, time honoured, assuming that's been dealt with and moving forward.
I guess my major question is: where to from the end of the movie? What happens next? Given that Chuckie was so set on Will leaving, and more importantly not wasting his gifts and opportunities, it seems like he wouldn't accept Will just giving up on California and coming home to the same old same old. So what changes? Does Chuckie follow him out there? Does Will come home but to a new life in Boston? Can Will help Chuckie realise a few dreams of his own? What kind of life can they build together? Is it, by choice or necessity, a closeted life? When and how does that change?
That brings me to one of the other things that intrigues me, namely how much the world has and hasn't changed between 1997 and 2017. [I can't believe this film will be twenty years old this year! Where did the time go???] So I'm interested in that too. If you want to set your fic in 1997 or shortly thereafter, great; if you want to look in at what the guys are doing now, that'd also be awesome. Please, please, don't write them as having not spoken or seen each other for huge chunks of time in those intervening years though, I can't bear that thought.
Oh, if you do want to go early? Underage is fine, though I'd prefer it if we stick with 16+.
If you are interested in writing smut for this pairing you are a hero indeed, so please feel free to check out the relevant section of my letter for Smut Swap where I waxed somewhat lyrical on the subject.
Takers (2010)
Gordon Cozier/John Rahway
Honesty compels me to agree that this movie is not exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but I love it a lot anyway. The protagonists are handsome and charming and impeccably dressed. They all seem to love each other a lot, and any one of them would risk his life for the rest. There is honour among thieves. They pull off brilliantly planned, flawlessly executed heists. Until the last one. I still shake my fist at the screen when Ghost appears, and demand to know why they trust him. Oh, well. So goes the world.
We know next to nothing about anybody's backstory, with the obvious exception of Gordon's childhood with Naomi in the Caribbean, so there's a totally blank slate to work with there, but I thought the film did a good job of setting up Gordon and John's friendship especially, and they do basically drive off into the sunset together at the end, so I'd love any kind of fic that explores their relationship, whether before, during, or after the film.
Where and when and how did Gordon and John meet? Where did they pick up their unique skill sets? Why are they so loyal to each other? How did they put the gang together? Do the rest of the guys know about their relationship, or is that just one more secret in a life chock full of them? Where do they go after the movie ends? Do they make it to a well-earned retirement on some tropical island, or are they on the run somewhere? I'd love anything along these lines, be it prequel or sequel.
Lastly, I think there is one explicit fic for this pairing (not counting Paul Walker crossovers) so if you want to be the person to change that it'd be pretty fantastic. :D
Top Gun (1986)
Tom "Iceman" Kazansky/Pete "Maverick" Mitchell
This section of my letter is probably going to be shorter or rougher than the others, I'm afraid, but only because it's a new addition to my wishlist so I haven't been honing the request forever and a day. Please don't think for a second it indicates lack of enthusiasm!
Anyway, Top Gun is one of those films that reminds me how great it was to be a kid in the eighties, at least when you were spending your long, hot summers at the movie theatre, rather than worrying about the Cold War or anything like that. ;-p I think I owe a good deal of my love for Navy dress whites to the graduation scene, too.
We really don't know much about any of the characters, so anything you choose to draw out and explore would be grand. There's more to Maverick than just a chip on his shoulder about his dad and his rejection from the Academy. There must be way more to Ice than just perfect flying. Feel free to make up any sort of backstory you want, or to move forward from the end of the movie in any direction you like. Do they stay at Top Gun? Do they (soon or eventually) return to combat status? How does their newfound and hard won friendship blossom into something more?
I'm here for all the classic military tropes from internalised homophobia to keeping things on the absolute d-low. I almost typed DADT, but of course that's still seven years in the future at the point the movie was made! If you don't want to deal with historical homophobia you don't have to, but please do keep the relationship under wraps, I find anachronistic attitudes to homosexuality really jarring in period fic. (At this point I'm chuckling ruefully at the thought that the smash hits of my childhood are now period pieces.)
If you enjoy writing explicit fic then please feel free to do so, it will be gratefully received. I have very few specific preferences because there just isn't enough in existence to have built up any clear ideas. Blatantly stealing from another section, a few things I do generally like include:
• anal sex
• barebacking
• first time
• make up/reconciliation sex
• rough sex
• sleepy sex/morning sex
• sex after fighting/battle
• manhandling/shows of athleticism during sex
• marathon sex
• multiple sex positions
One last thought: My two favourites of the few fics that are available for this pairing are both told from Maverick's point of view, so it'd be interesting to see something from Ice's. Not remotely necessary, though, if it doesn't flow easily.
Thanks very much in advance, and I can't wait to see what you come up with.