dear author letter (rare bears 2017 edition)
dear rare bears author,
hello! i'm a very new bruins fan and i got suckered into it because of prospects, which you can probably tell based on the ships in my sign-up. but hopefully if you're writing for me you are something of a prospect enthusiast as well :') thank you so much for signing up and writing for me! i'm sure i'll enjoy whatever it is you come up with.
general likes: i enjoy a lot of tropes, but the first things that come to mind are: team camaraderie/found families/families of choice, mutual pining, friends to lovers (and enemies to friends to lovers), magic incorporated in a mundane universe (i.e. urban fantasy, magical realism, et cetera), close-canon alternate realities of all kinds (basically what-if scenarios that tweak things about the world as we know it but stay in the canon universe, i.e. if one player wasn't a hockey player and the other still was), fake dating, woke up married. i love a good character study as much as any ship fic and i LOVE AUs. i love hitman/spies/espionage AUs, heist/conmen AUs, supernatural AUs where people are werewolves or vampires or shapeshifters or whatever, and when in doubt, set it in SPACE. I LOVE SPACE. i also love porn (preferably with a lot of feelings)!
general dislikes: i'm not a huge fan of most hard kinks (unless otherwise specified in the ship sections below), noncon/dubcon, terminal illness, self injury/mental illness/suicide, over-the-top angst, infidelity, and character death. basically relentlessly sad stuff! i am all about happy endings and people enjoying each other. BUT if it takes some angst to get there along the way, i am not opposed; i can also really get into melancholy/bittersweet relationships as long as the ending is hopeful!
on to the specific ships:
→→→ matt grzelcyk/ryan fitzgerald:
so matt and ryan were drafted a year after each other, matt in 2012 (3rd round) and ryan in 2013 (4th round). they've known each other since they were kids growing up in the boston area, and they were battle of comm ave rivals for three years in college; matt played for bu and graduated last may, and ryan is in his last season at bc. they've been to a handful of bruins dev camps together, and are both certified #tinies. matt's been playing with the pbruins for most of this season.
specific prompts:
1) sex bets, obviously.
2) casey fitzgerald (ryan's little brother by two years, also a boston college eagle) finds out his brother is dating/fucking a BU TERRIER and is suitably scandalized.
3) post beanpot sex! (bc beat bu in the title game last year, 1-0 in overtime.)
4) both of them develop feelings after what was supposed to be a summer fling, and it's hard to remember that they have to be #enemies during the season again.
5) a soulmark or name-on-wrist au could be very interesting for these two, imo ☺️
6) roommates fic next season! i can see ryan starting in providence first, and matt's already been there for a year, so maybe something about matt showing ryan the ropes of pro hockey and ryan begrudgingly accepting help and advice from THE ENEMY.
→→→ matt grzelcyk/charlie mcavoy:
charlie mcavoy is my boy and i love him so much. he was drafted by the bruins 14th overall in 2016 and is in his sophomore season at bu. he and matt were on a d-pair for most of last season and played beautiful hockey together; i'm very excited about the idea of them potentially being #reunited on the bruins one day. also, at one point matt's twitter handle was griznasty45 and charlie's instagram handle used to be chiznasty41, so, you know. #MFEO
specific prompts:
1) anything about hero worship! charlie's said a lot of nice things about matt mentoring him during the season they overlapped at bu, and matt's sung a lot of charlie's praises as well.
1b) praise kink would probably not go amiss here, any way you can swing it.
2) something about the size difference, because charlie has an extremely (hashtag) mature frame, and matt, as i mentioned before, is quite tiny.
3) anything about the future; the two of them playing together for the bruins, maybe being roommates when they both make the big team.
4) a story about charlie making the bruins before matt does would be really interesting, especially because i think the concept is highly plausible. is matt jealous? probably, but maybe he also wants to be supportive.
5) alternatively, maybe they make the team together next season!
6) secret virgin matt grzelcyk???
→→→ jakob forsbacka-karlsson/charlie mcavoy:
another bu terrier ship, surprise, surprise. jfk is also a sophomore at bu, with the fine distinction of being called "the next patrice bergeron" by matt during a beanpot interview last season. (i wouldn't be opposed to you tossing matt into this request as well, whether as an ot3 or just, you know, present.) anyway, jfk and charlie are in the same class and there's a lot of speculation that one or both of them might turn pro after this season of ncaa hockey ends for them.
specific prompts:
1) any dumb college shenanigans, honestly. for most of these requests there's a lot you could do to incorporate the assorted cast of characters that is boston college hockey, whether that be coaches or teammates or anyone else, and i think jfk and charlie are a really good ship for that.
2) perhaps some fwb situation that turns into more?
3) navigating the nhl together next year! maybe one or both of them keep getting sent up and down, and the constant state of flux is very frustrating.
4) or maybe they both decide to stay another year and make the nhl wait again.
5) i always love world juniors fic tbh, and charlie and jfk both went to finland last year for the 2016 tournament. jfk obviously played for team sweden, and charlie played for the US; they met in the bronze medal game and charlie and the american boys prevailed. that could be really fraught, or maybe they had sex bets. or both!
→→→ anders bjork/charlie mcavoy:
anders! i love anders. he is a sweet boy; so is charlie. they have the capacity to be very soft with each other, imo. they were both at the ntdp together, and they were both on last year's bronze-winning world juniors team! and anders plays for notre dame, a school which, until the end of this season, is still a part of hockey east, so they've seen each other at least twice a season for the past two years. there is ALSO a lot of speculation that anders will turn pro after the college hockey season wraps up.
specific prompts:
1) sorry for being a broken record, but i love "rookies navigating the nhl together" stories a lot. so, yes, that.
2) anything set at the ntdp! anders is a year older (he's a junior at notre dame) but i do believe they overlapped because charlie played up during his u17 year.
3) something social media based would be good for them i think, they're always up in each others' instagram comments.
4) wjc fic from last year! soft hotel room kisses in helsinki! victory sex after winning bronze! the world is your oyster.
that's about all i can think of right now; i'll be sure to update this letter with anything else if it comes to me. hopefully this isn't too hard to work with! sorry for all the niche pairings, lmao, but if you aren't familiar with any of these guys maybe having to write a story about them will help you get to know (and fall in love with???) them. thanks again for doing this for me, i'm so excited to see the final product! ♥
love,
gdgdbaby
hello! i'm a very new bruins fan and i got suckered into it because of prospects, which you can probably tell based on the ships in my sign-up. but hopefully if you're writing for me you are something of a prospect enthusiast as well :') thank you so much for signing up and writing for me! i'm sure i'll enjoy whatever it is you come up with.
general likes: i enjoy a lot of tropes, but the first things that come to mind are: team camaraderie/found families/families of choice, mutual pining, friends to lovers (and enemies to friends to lovers), magic incorporated in a mundane universe (i.e. urban fantasy, magical realism, et cetera), close-canon alternate realities of all kinds (basically what-if scenarios that tweak things about the world as we know it but stay in the canon universe, i.e. if one player wasn't a hockey player and the other still was), fake dating, woke up married. i love a good character study as much as any ship fic and i LOVE AUs. i love hitman/spies/espionage AUs, heist/conmen AUs, supernatural AUs where people are werewolves or vampires or shapeshifters or whatever, and when in doubt, set it in SPACE. I LOVE SPACE. i also love porn (preferably with a lot of feelings)!
general dislikes: i'm not a huge fan of most hard kinks (unless otherwise specified in the ship sections below), noncon/dubcon, terminal illness, self injury/mental illness/suicide, over-the-top angst, infidelity, and character death. basically relentlessly sad stuff! i am all about happy endings and people enjoying each other. BUT if it takes some angst to get there along the way, i am not opposed; i can also really get into melancholy/bittersweet relationships as long as the ending is hopeful!
on to the specific ships:
→→→ matt grzelcyk/ryan fitzgerald:
so matt and ryan were drafted a year after each other, matt in 2012 (3rd round) and ryan in 2013 (4th round). they've known each other since they were kids growing up in the boston area, and they were battle of comm ave rivals for three years in college; matt played for bu and graduated last may, and ryan is in his last season at bc. they've been to a handful of bruins dev camps together, and are both certified #tinies. matt's been playing with the pbruins for most of this season.
specific prompts:
1) sex bets, obviously.
2) casey fitzgerald (ryan's little brother by two years, also a boston college eagle) finds out his brother is dating/fucking a BU TERRIER and is suitably scandalized.
3) post beanpot sex! (bc beat bu in the title game last year, 1-0 in overtime.)
4) both of them develop feelings after what was supposed to be a summer fling, and it's hard to remember that they have to be #enemies during the season again.
5) a soulmark or name-on-wrist au could be very interesting for these two, imo ☺️
6) roommates fic next season! i can see ryan starting in providence first, and matt's already been there for a year, so maybe something about matt showing ryan the ropes of pro hockey and ryan begrudgingly accepting help and advice from THE ENEMY.
→→→ matt grzelcyk/charlie mcavoy:
charlie mcavoy is my boy and i love him so much. he was drafted by the bruins 14th overall in 2016 and is in his sophomore season at bu. he and matt were on a d-pair for most of last season and played beautiful hockey together; i'm very excited about the idea of them potentially being #reunited on the bruins one day. also, at one point matt's twitter handle was griznasty45 and charlie's instagram handle used to be chiznasty41, so, you know. #MFEO
specific prompts:
1) anything about hero worship! charlie's said a lot of nice things about matt mentoring him during the season they overlapped at bu, and matt's sung a lot of charlie's praises as well.
1b) praise kink would probably not go amiss here, any way you can swing it.
2) something about the size difference, because charlie has an extremely (hashtag) mature frame, and matt, as i mentioned before, is quite tiny.
3) anything about the future; the two of them playing together for the bruins, maybe being roommates when they both make the big team.
4) a story about charlie making the bruins before matt does would be really interesting, especially because i think the concept is highly plausible. is matt jealous? probably, but maybe he also wants to be supportive.
5) alternatively, maybe they make the team together next season!
6) secret virgin matt grzelcyk???
→→→ jakob forsbacka-karlsson/charlie mcavoy:
another bu terrier ship, surprise, surprise. jfk is also a sophomore at bu, with the fine distinction of being called "the next patrice bergeron" by matt during a beanpot interview last season. (i wouldn't be opposed to you tossing matt into this request as well, whether as an ot3 or just, you know, present.) anyway, jfk and charlie are in the same class and there's a lot of speculation that one or both of them might turn pro after this season of ncaa hockey ends for them.
specific prompts:
1) any dumb college shenanigans, honestly. for most of these requests there's a lot you could do to incorporate the assorted cast of characters that is boston college hockey, whether that be coaches or teammates or anyone else, and i think jfk and charlie are a really good ship for that.
2) perhaps some fwb situation that turns into more?
3) navigating the nhl together next year! maybe one or both of them keep getting sent up and down, and the constant state of flux is very frustrating.
4) or maybe they both decide to stay another year and make the nhl wait again.
5) i always love world juniors fic tbh, and charlie and jfk both went to finland last year for the 2016 tournament. jfk obviously played for team sweden, and charlie played for the US; they met in the bronze medal game and charlie and the american boys prevailed. that could be really fraught, or maybe they had sex bets. or both!
→→→ anders bjork/charlie mcavoy:
anders! i love anders. he is a sweet boy; so is charlie. they have the capacity to be very soft with each other, imo. they were both at the ntdp together, and they were both on last year's bronze-winning world juniors team! and anders plays for notre dame, a school which, until the end of this season, is still a part of hockey east, so they've seen each other at least twice a season for the past two years. there is ALSO a lot of speculation that anders will turn pro after the college hockey season wraps up.
specific prompts:
1) sorry for being a broken record, but i love "rookies navigating the nhl together" stories a lot. so, yes, that.
2) anything set at the ntdp! anders is a year older (he's a junior at notre dame) but i do believe they overlapped because charlie played up during his u17 year.
3) something social media based would be good for them i think, they're always up in each others' instagram comments.
4) wjc fic from last year! soft hotel room kisses in helsinki! victory sex after winning bronze! the world is your oyster.
that's about all i can think of right now; i'll be sure to update this letter with anything else if it comes to me. hopefully this isn't too hard to work with! sorry for all the niche pairings, lmao, but if you aren't familiar with any of these guys maybe having to write a story about them will help you get to know (and fall in love with???) them. thanks again for doing this for me, i'm so excited to see the final product! ♥
love,
gdgdbaby