Darkest Night Letter
Dear Darkest Night writer,
Thank you for writing for me and having a look at this letter. I've got some general likes and dislikes listed - those are the important parts, really. They're followed by a list of kinks I like, should you feel inclined to write porn. I've tried to keep the fandom sections mostly focused on the tags I requested, but I've linked to other exchange letters - just in case you're looking for more general prompts for inspiration. For every fandom I've listed the tags I've requested, sometimes with an additional explanation if I thought that was necessary, sometimes with similar tags grouped together. Feel free to combine several of my requested tags or to combine them with any of my general likes, if that's where your fic takes you.
As a general rule, I enjoy all ratings. I'm always happy about porn, but it's not a must. I like shorter fics and plotty longfic. The fandoms are listed alphabetically. The length of the fandom-specific sections doesn't indicate an order of preference; I just had more ideas and prompts for some of them.
I use the same name on AO3 and tumblr as here.
Do Not Wants:
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Things I like to read about:
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Kinks I like to read about:
Specific darkfic likes:
For more villainous characters, I'm mostly interested in them doing awful things rather than in awful things happening to them. I generally like fucked up, weird, complicated relationships that shouldn't work but somehow do for the characters involved. Otherwise, I enjoy a good bit of whump and psychological suffering, but I don't enjoy completely dark endings - if one of my faves gets hurt a lot, I'd like him to get comforted afterwards to some degree, or at least to escape whatever bad situation he was in. I'm not interested in sad endings for characters I love.
Some of the following are already in the general likes list above, sorry for the repetition. You can take that to mean that I like these things a lot. ;)
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
Alexios/Brasidas
I mostly have protagonist!Alexios in mind for this (I see the appeal of Deimos!Alexios, but there's so little fic for this ship that I need to satisfy my protagonist!Alexios needs first ;)). I love his sense of humour, I love how cheerful and arrogant he is at times, I love that he likes to help people but will still tell them they're ridiculous dicks afterwards. I played him as fairly pro-Sparta and genuinely wanting to return home, which I think goes rather well with this ship anyway. I love his banter and his immediate connection with Brasidas (that warehouse fight! *heart eyes*), I love how much they just get each other and trust each other - even though Alexios really has reason enough to mistrust just about anyone he runs into. And since it's absolutely tragic the game didn't let us romance Brasidas, that's clearly what fic is for. :D As for Brasidas, I love how smart and cunning he is, how he thinks outside the box while still being a ruthless fighter when the situation calls for it, and how much he genuinely and openly cares about people who are important to him.
I'm up for setting this at any point during the game - around their first meetings in Korinth, when Alexios is in Sparta, or when they're working together later on - or post-game in a verse in which Brasidas didn't die. Because I'm in denial about that and damn historical accuracy. ;)
While I usually DNW unrequested ships, I'm fine with mentions of 1) Alexios's male canon hookups, 2) Brasidas being married (or widowed) because it's just unlikely that he wouldn't be, although I'd see that more as a practical arrangement than a marriage of love, 3) any erastes/eromenos-style relationships Brasidas might have been in, whether it's him currently having someone under his wing or still being good friends with the guy who, er, "mentored" him years ago. However, I wouldn't want any of those relationships to be more meaningful to them than each other, if that makes sense.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
Blitz (2011)
Tom Brant/Porter Nash
I adore the relationship between Nash and Brant, the banter and dickishness, but there's also a lot of respect and trust, and it's there pretty much from the start (I love how Brant just shows up at Nash's door to tell him about all his problems basically a day after they met). I'd love to see anything that explores how their relationship develops further after the movie or something exploring what was going on between them during the movie.
More general prompts in my F5K letter.
Requested freeforms:
Deus Ex
Adam Jensen/Jim Miller, Adam Jensen/Jim Miller/Francis Pritchard
Note:
I've played Human Revolution and Mankind Divided and I've read Black Light. I don't mind spoilers for any of the other games or comics or whatever else there is, but I'd prefer not to get a fic that requires me to be familiar with those parts of canon.
Adam's injuries prior to getting his augs are obviously exempt from my "no permanent injuries" DNW. However, I don't want anyone else to get their limbs ripped off or the like, and I don't want Adam's augs to get permanently disabled or destroyed.
I love Adam so much: that he's a genuinely good guy who wants to help people, that he's snarky and cheeky and irreverent, that (at least post-augs) he's pretty withdrawn and emotionally unavailable and has all these walls built around himself (and I really want someone to get past them). I like angst and suffering and Adam is a well of suffering, and I enjoy it while simultaneously wanting nice things to happen to him (after lots of beautiful suffering). As for Miller, I love that he has a temper and is impatient and often isn't particularly nice, but underneath that gruffness he cares about doing the right thing and he cares about his men. Similar with Pritchard: he's such a prickly jerk, but at the same time he's always ready to drop anything to help Adam. I'd also be happy to see any other TF29 or SI characters appear in the story. I'd especially love to see Sarif and Miller meet.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
Dragon Age
Cullen Rutherford/Dorian Pavus
Note:
I'm not particularly interested in the Inquisitor playing a big role in the fic, but I'm fine with appearances from pretty much any NPCs. If Hawke gets mentioned in any way, I'm very attached to purple/red male mage Hawke. And 100% okay with mentions of m!Hawke and Cullen having had an extremely ill-advised Thing back in Kirkwall that Cullen very much regrets.
I love how much of a guilt- and PTSD-ridden mess Cullen is, that mixture of anger and fucked-up-ness on the one side and the sweetness on the other. I love how passionate Dorian is while still so often hiding his feelings behind his wit and some jokes. I love that their respective issues are a great recipe for intimacy issues and misunderstandings. I'm really into the idea of them being friends who stumble into bed together and have mindblowing kinky sex, and then they both catch feelings while both being convinced that the other one couldn't possibly be interested in an actual relationship (Dorian because he thinks he can't have a loving relationship with a man, Cullen because he thinks he's too much of a mess to inflict on anyone). But I'm also interested in different takes on how they might get together - if you'd rather write long pining while they flirt casually but think the other one isn't actually interested, I'd gladly read that, too.
I'm always up for post-canon fic set in Tevinter (Cullen being there as Inquisition ambassador or the like). And I'm always here for Halward still being alive just for the sake of more angst and issues, though I'm not interested in him just being a cardboard villain.
More general prompts in my F5K letter.
Requested freeforms:
Fallout: New Vegas
Caesar/Arcade Gannon, Lucius/Arcade Gannon
I'm not entirely sure why I have such a craving for Legion fic because I don't even find them that much fun in-game, but maybe that's why I desperately need fic - because the game leaves so many questions open about them and so many gaps to be filled. That and I find characters who are horrible people entertaining. Feel free to go dark and fucked up with these assholes, that's what they're there for, although I'd enjoy it if there was a bit more to them than just doing everything for the evulz. We do get a good look at what goes on in Caesar's head in the game, but the same can hardly be said for Lucius, so I'd enjoy fic that gives him a bit more depth. (I like not-necessarily-a-horrible-person-at-heart-just-devoted-to-a-horrible-system!Lucius, but not going-to-desert-the-Legion-first-chance-he-gets!Lucius.)
I'd also enjoy the hell out of some Legion worldbuilding. It doesn't even have to be focused solely in any one of these characters, although I would still like them to show up. I'd love to see more about growing up in the Legion, what life is like back in the Eastern territories, what everyday life is like, what the Mojave would look like if the Legion wins at the end of the game (Caesar wants his Rome - let him have it and show me what he does with it), expanding on worldviews, political/military discussions among the Legion higher-ups, to what extent people like Lucius or Vulpes believe all that Son of Mars stuff, things like education and language use (I'm always here for language geekery like which things they use Latin for and if maybe Latin becomes increasingly a lingua franca when you assimilate a bunch of tribes that speak different English dialects ...)
No happy ending is required for this request (and I certainly don't expect anyone to be in love here). However, I'd still prefer if there was more to the fic than just unrelenting misery, and most of my DNWs like no character death and no mutilation etc. still apply - I don't want to read about Arcade's canon death, for example. I'm totally okay with killing off Caesar, though, as long as you somehow get Lanius out of the way first so someone slightly less batshit like Lucius can take over.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
Fast and the Furious
Deckard Shaw/Owen Shaw
Note:
I was not happy with what canon did with them in recent movies, so I'd prefer if we could just ignore that. I'm not interested in the watered down version of them where Owen was just manipulated by Cypher and Deckard is secretly not all that bad and also likes babies. And now there's a random sister or something like that? I don't care. I want to read about them being the unrepenting, murderous fucks we got in F&F 6 and 7 because I'm into this ship for us-against-the-world villains who don't care about anyone else, not secret good guys with a nice big family.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Chris Mannix/Marquis Warren
I love their initial antagonism, I love that they have every reason to hate and despise each other, and yet they still end up working together and trusting each other. I love that for all his hatred, Mannix almost seems to admire Warren from the start and is surprisingly respectful towards him at times ('please, Major, let me shoot that ugly bastard' comes to mind).
There is so much potential for their relationship if they survive, so I'd love to read any fic in which they do survive (somehow, I don't care how medically implausible it is) and maybe partner up as bounty hunters or see each other every time Warren shows up with new bounties (if we assume that Mannix actually is the new sheriff of Red Rock). And they're the weirdest, most mismatched pair of sort-of-friends ever and constantly confuse people around them, and they grow closer without ever entirely getting over their antagonism and their disagreements, probably switching between 'aw, I'm starting to like him' and 'I'm going to murder him if he doesn't shut his goddamn mouth' twice per conversation. And eventually they end up sleeping with each other. Maybe because they share a bed/blankets in the next cold winter and that leads to more? Maybe because they're angry at each other and fighting about something and that leads to more? Maybe one of them gets injured again and the other takes care of him and there's some gentler affection going on? (Please let's pretend Warren only got shot in the upper thigh or, idk, got one ball shot off and the rest is still intact.)
I usually love switching for all my ships, but I figure that any kind of sexual encounter between them would have Warren in charge, simply because there's no way Warren would ever let any man, let alone a white man, top him in any way. Plus, Mannix clearly has a bit of a submissive streak and is so very eager to please. I'm okay with both rougher, more antagonistic interpretations of their relationship and with gentler stuff that focuses more on their shared experiences and how much they owe each other. Or ideally a combination of both. :D
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
Kraken - China Miéville
Dane Parnell/Billy Harrow
I love Dane and Billy's relationship: how quickly they start trusting each other, how well they work together despite being such different people, Dane teaching Billy about the world of magic and weird shit, saving each other's life, and of course the size kink is a bonus. I find the worldbuilding and the general weirdness of this book fascinating and would love more of that, and I'm also really interested in Dane's whole kraken faith. (I'm much less into body horror than Miéville is, though, so I'd appreciate fic that goes less hard on that. Feel free to break out the tentacles for porn, but I don't need detailed descriptions of people being turned into radios or having their teeth slammed into their throats.)
Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of how the book ended, so if you write post-canon fic, I'd very much like for 1) Dane to live, 2) Billy not to be Billy 2.0 after beaming, but just Billy, 3) people not to forget half the plot of the book because that's one of my least favourite tropes. How you make these things happen is totally up to you. Or just handwave all of it, I don't even care.
More general prompts in my AU-Ex letter.
Requested freeforms:
Mass Effect
Male Shepard/Garrus Vakarian, Male Shepard/James Vega
Because I'm very frustrated the games didn't let me romance the characters I wanted to romance most. I adore Shepard's relationship with both Garrus and James so much: that undying loyalty, will-follow-you-to-the-end-of-the-galaxy friendship he has with Garrus, and how much renegade Shepard enables Garrus's darker impulses and how much they just get each other; and that more complicated relationship with James, the fact that James massively hero-worshipped Shepard before meeting him, and then babysat him for six months when Shepard was at his lowest, and then in ME3 he really feels like one of the people who keep Shepard grounded, who are aware that he's human and that this war is taking a toll on him, that his hero is fallible.
I strongly prefer renegade Shepard (who is nicer to his companions/friends) - ruthless and efficient, the end justifies the means, snarky and intimidating, willing to do whatever needs to be done, no matter the cost to himself or to others. Should it come up, I really prefer him sabotaging the genophage cure for that reason because Shepard having to kill two of his friends to do what he thinks is right is such a horrifically great moment in the games. I picked the Spacer/Ruthless backgrounds and vanguard as his class, but I'm not fixated on that, if you want to use something else. Ending-wise, I think for fic a handwavey "the Crucible destroyed the Reapers without destroying the geth, and Shepard is alive" works best. I'd also be super interested in a variation of the Control ending, though, in which Shepard doesn't die while uploading part of himself into a God-AI, simply because the mindfuck of co-existing with an all-powerful AI version of yourself must be incredible.
I'm very attached to his default looks and name, so please no custom Shepards. I love pretty much all the other companions and am happy to read about them. My other faves are Zaeed, Legion, Miranda, Jack, Cortez, Mordin, Joker, Grunt, Samara, Traynor.
All my prompts are basically "please whump Shepard", with lots of angry and/or stoic suffering. And then Garrus or James (or both of them) can be there for him.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
Vampyr
Jonathan Reid/Geoffrey McCullum
This ship has so many things I love! Antagonism and profound distrust and grudging respect and so much potential to work together reluctantly and grow closer ... I'm easy. :D I did a Not Even Once playthrough and ended up being incredibly frustrated by the game's morality system, where letting awful people go free or saving their life is apparently always the best choice, and I realised that I much prefer a version of Jonathan who's generally a good person and wants to help others, but who can also be rather ruthless and is very willing to get his hands dirty when he thinks someone deserves it. I love that he and Geoffrey are both stubborn people who tend to think they're always right, and I love how much they'll probably always butt heads even once they're closer.
I didn't enjoy the forced romance, so I'd prefer if we could pretend that Jonathan and Elisabeth were simply friends (and tbh thematically I prefer the ending in which she chooses to die to the one where he saves her with the power of love or somesuch). I'd also prefer if Swansea didn't show up (unless it's before his possible in-game death, of course) because I have a hard time justifying turning him in-game. I also prefer Jonathan not turning Geoffrey in-game, simply because I find it more interesting if they have some time to get to know each other better while Geoffrey is still human, but I'm totally up for him turning Geoffrey later on.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
And that's it! I hope that something in my letter inspires you, dear author, and that you find a prompt you'll enjoy writing. I'm very much looking forward to reading what you'll come up with, and I hope you'll also receive a wonderful gift! :D
Thanks!
linndechir This entry was originally posted at https://linndechir.dreamwidth.org/68952.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
Thank you for writing for me and having a look at this letter. I've got some general likes and dislikes listed - those are the important parts, really. They're followed by a list of kinks I like, should you feel inclined to write porn. I've tried to keep the fandom sections mostly focused on the tags I requested, but I've linked to other exchange letters - just in case you're looking for more general prompts for inspiration. For every fandom I've listed the tags I've requested, sometimes with an additional explanation if I thought that was necessary, sometimes with similar tags grouped together. Feel free to combine several of my requested tags or to combine them with any of my general likes, if that's where your fic takes you.
As a general rule, I enjoy all ratings. I'm always happy about porn, but it's not a must. I like shorter fics and plotty longfic. The fandoms are listed alphabetically. The length of the fandom-specific sections doesn't indicate an order of preference; I just had more ideas and prompts for some of them.
I use the same name on AO3 and tumblr as here.
Do Not Wants:
- character death of characters I like (random side characters or antagonists dying is fine)
- serious illnesses, permanent injuries (blood and wounds that will heal again are fine)
- completely tragic/bleak endings
- animal death/cruelty
- genderbend of any kind, mpreg, A/B/O, characters being werewolves/vampires/anything than what they are in canon
- non-canon gender identities/sexual orientations (e.g. writing characters as trans or asexual), except for writing characters as gay or bi
- unrequested ships (including canon ships)
- unrequested crossovers or fusions
- complete AUs (canon divergence is fine, but no high school AUs, coffee shop AUs, in space AUs, groundhog day AUs etc.)
- permanently unrequited love or permanent breakups for my ships (this doesn't apply to my FNV request)
- unnecessary epithets, please use characters' names/pronouns unless their name isn't known to the POV character (or unless the characters think of each other by e.g. their title rather than their name)
- 1st and 2nd person fic
- for porn: detailed kink negotiation, safewords for scenes that don't involve consent play (and even then I'm not really into safewords); scat, watersports, coming in pants, crossdressing, feminisation, body modification, infantilisation (daddy kink and calling characters "boy/girl" is fine)
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Things I like to read about:
- first time/getting together: slow burn, pining, UST finally getting resolved, but also antagonistic hate sex or casual hookups that are only later followed by feelings (emotional pining while already having sex is great)
- friends with benefits who think the other one can't possibly be in love with them/want a serious relationship
- developing relationships: relationship conflicts after the characters got together, trying to figure out how to make things work, some things maybe not working at first, temporary breakups, basically anything that doesn't assume that first time sex -> perfect relationship
- porn, especially porn with feelings/porn that says something about their relationship (see list below for kinks I like)
- enemies to lovers, partners to lovers
- reluctant allies grudgingly starting to like each other
- non-verbal expressions of affection, unusual romantic gestures that fit the characters
- familiarity, intimacy, characters getting to know each other better (their habits, their hangups etc.)
- pre-canon/background stories, first meetings/first impressions (especially if we didn't see those in canon)
- post-canon fic
- canon divergence
- casefic
- moral dilemmas, characters having to question/go against their principles, situations in which there is no clear right or wrong
- loyalty, devotion, trust, but also trust/commitment issues
- obsessive, codependent, complicated relationships
- unhealthy relationships that should be a trainwreck, but work for the characters involved
- obsessive/intense family relationships
- us-against-the-world
- villains/sociopaths in love, bad guys who would literally burn down the rest of the world for each other
- jealousy, possessiveness
- age differences
- misunderstandings (as long as there's a good reason for them)
- competence, characters being smart and skilled and good at what they do; characters with different skill sets complementing each other
- hurt/comfort (after injuries/exhaustion, not so much with illness)
- angst: self-doubts, guilt, shame, internalised homophobia, nightmares, fears, self-destructive tendencies, alcohol abuse ...
- period-typical attitudes towards sex, sexuality, class, morality, religion etc. (I obviously don't expect 100% historical accuracy, but I like reading about characters from different societies having different values and principles from our own - this also applies to fictional societies)
- infidelity (not between my requested ships, but one half of my ship cheating on their previous partner with the other half of my ship)
- meaningful name uses (e.g. characters who always call each other by their last name or title switching to using first names)
- outside POVs, different POVs than in canon (more "usual" POVs are great, too)
- sleep-related themes: waking each other from nightmares, falling asleep on each other's shoulder etc.
- soulbonds (but no soulmates, please)
- undercover as enemies (undercover as a couple is fun, too, as long as it actually fits the setting/characters, like spies or cops)
- I like darker elements (violence, murder, noncon/dubcon, manipulation, depression, whatever fits your plot and isn't on my DNW list), but I'd prefer a happy or semi-happy ending. Feel free to make me bawl my eyes out, but please cheer me up again afterwards.
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Kinks I like to read about:
- anal, blowjobs, fingering, intercrural, frottage, rimming & felching are all great
- asphyxiation/choking/breathplay (this is my kink holy grail that makes everything else hotter to me; even just throat-touching without choking is great)
- switching
- biting, bruising, marking; possessive sex
- rough/angry sex, hate sex, fighting/sparring leading to sex, adrenaline-fuelled post-battle and "thank fuck we/you're alive" sex
- dressed sex, dressed/naked, clothes kink (suits, uniforms, gloves, boots etc.), neat characters being dishevelled for once, casual characters cleaning up nicely
- D/s (I prefer casually developing kink to minutely negotiated, formalised BDSM; if anything under-negotiated kink is a plus for me)
- kink discovery/exploration
- strength kink; body worship; men's body hair (on chest, arms, thighs, butt; not so much on back and shoulders)
- stubble/beard burn
- hand kink; fisting; finger sucking
- large/thick cocks (not absurdly huge, but bigger than average); size kink
- bondage: leather cuffs, ropes, restraints, chains, collars
- face slapping, spanking, flogging, riding crops
- gun play, knife play, blood play
- consent play
- dirty talk (both the praising and the humiliating/condescending kind), voice/accent kink
- praise kink
- banter, teasing
- hard, desperate kissing with lots of biting
- barebacking (including the ill-advised, unplanned, unnegotiated we-really-shouldn't-have-done-that-but-it-was-so-hot kind - I'm not into serious STD scares, though; if there is an "oh fuck, what did we just do?" aftermath, please have both characters be certain that they're clean)
- come play (licking come off fingers/skin, felching, feeding each other come, kissing after blowjobs/felching ...)
- come as lube, spit as lube (especially the top spitting on the bottom's ass)
- messiness (sweat, come play, dishevelled hair/clothes)
- overstimulation; characters being overwhelmed, begging for more, becoming speechless ...
- shaving (face or body), especially with straight razors/knives
- sex on tables, against walls, on the floor, on a chair, in the shower ... (sex in beds is great, too)
- masturbation/fantasising about the other before getting together
- incest kink (i.e. characters who are related kinking on it)
- competence kink, admiration
- kneeling, hand kissing, physical expressions of loyalty/fealty
- scars and their history
- oral fixation (while smoking, drinking, talking ...)
- sharing cigarettes, clothes, food ...
- shame in sexual desires (whether about being attracted to another man at all, being attracted to this specific person for whatever reason, wanting to bottom, wanting to suck dick, wanting to hurt their partner, wanting to be hurt by their partner ...)
Specific darkfic likes:
For more villainous characters, I'm mostly interested in them doing awful things rather than in awful things happening to them. I generally like fucked up, weird, complicated relationships that shouldn't work but somehow do for the characters involved. Otherwise, I enjoy a good bit of whump and psychological suffering, but I don't enjoy completely dark endings - if one of my faves gets hurt a lot, I'd like him to get comforted afterwards to some degree, or at least to escape whatever bad situation he was in. I'm not interested in sad endings for characters I love.
Some of the following are already in the general likes list above, sorry for the repetition. You can take that to mean that I like these things a lot. ;)
- codependency, obsessive relationships, us-against-the-world, people who would (and do) kill for each other
- possessiveness, jealousy, marking, branding, stalking, voyeurism
- power imbalances, emotional manipulation, corruption
- sociopaths/villains in love
- violence kink, post-battle sex
- shame, guilt, including things like internalised homophobia or people feeling guilty for their sadistic or masochistic tendencies
- hate sex, arguments/fights leading to rough/angry/violent sex
- gunplay, knifeplay, bloodplay, breathplay
- people losing control in bed (and hurting their partner more than they intended)
- wounds and blood and scars (but no permanent injuries like amputated limbs or that sort of thing)
- nightmares, PTSD, depression, unhealthy coping mechanisms, self-destructive tendencies, alcohol/drug abuse (but please with a plot or something else going on as well; I don't want characters just sitting around feeling sad and thinking about how sad they are and telling other characters how sad they are)
- non-con/violence, people willingly suffering rape/torture to protect someone else, post-rape/torture recovery, hurt/comfort, exhaustion, tough characters insisting they're fine when they really aren't
- for supernatural canons: dark/blood magic, magic as something terrifying, ghosts, supernatural dreams ...
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey
Alexios/Brasidas
I mostly have protagonist!Alexios in mind for this (I see the appeal of Deimos!Alexios, but there's so little fic for this ship that I need to satisfy my protagonist!Alexios needs first ;)). I love his sense of humour, I love how cheerful and arrogant he is at times, I love that he likes to help people but will still tell them they're ridiculous dicks afterwards. I played him as fairly pro-Sparta and genuinely wanting to return home, which I think goes rather well with this ship anyway. I love his banter and his immediate connection with Brasidas (that warehouse fight! *heart eyes*), I love how much they just get each other and trust each other - even though Alexios really has reason enough to mistrust just about anyone he runs into. And since it's absolutely tragic the game didn't let us romance Brasidas, that's clearly what fic is for. :D As for Brasidas, I love how smart and cunning he is, how he thinks outside the box while still being a ruthless fighter when the situation calls for it, and how much he genuinely and openly cares about people who are important to him.
I'm up for setting this at any point during the game - around their first meetings in Korinth, when Alexios is in Sparta, or when they're working together later on - or post-game in a verse in which Brasidas didn't die. Because I'm in denial about that and damn historical accuracy. ;)
While I usually DNW unrequested ships, I'm fine with mentions of 1) Alexios's male canon hookups, 2) Brasidas being married (or widowed) because it's just unlikely that he wouldn't be, although I'd see that more as a practical arrangement than a marriage of love, 3) any erastes/eromenos-style relationships Brasidas might have been in, whether it's him currently having someone under his wing or still being good friends with the guy who, er, "mentored" him years ago. However, I wouldn't want any of those relationships to be more meaningful to them than each other, if that makes sense.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Afterlife/Underworld Rescue: especially if this is a Greek mythology are real AU and the Isu aren't involved
- Badass in Distress: I'd especially like to see Alexios be the one in need of help
- Forced Soulbond: especially if it's the Greek gods messing with Alexios
- Hurt/Comfort
- Internalized Homophobia / Period-Typical Homophobia / Shame in Sexual Desires
- Jealousy / Possessive Behavior: either of them being jealous would be great
- Rough Sex
- Trapped Together In The Afterlife: maybe as a variation of the Underworld Rescue trope? Alexios goes to save Brasidas, but things go wrong and now they're trapped and need to find a way out
Blitz (2011)
Tom Brant/Porter Nash
I adore the relationship between Nash and Brant, the banter and dickishness, but there's also a lot of respect and trust, and it's there pretty much from the start (I love how Brant just shows up at Nash's door to tell him about all his problems basically a day after they met). I'd love to see anything that explores how their relationship develops further after the movie or something exploring what was going on between them during the movie.
More general prompts in my F5K letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Character Enthusiastically Consents To Dark/Dangerous Activity: whether that's something work-related or personal
- Character Is Hiding Aftereffects of Trauma
- Codependency: especially if they both wonder how the hell this is the person they ended up with, and how nobody else really gets them that well
- Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane: like very ill-advised unplanned barebacking? or really anything else they shouldn't be doing
- Drunk Sex: or generally anything related to Brant's drinking problem
- Internalized Homophobia / Shame in Sexual Desires
- Jealousy / Possessive Behavior
- Loneliness
- Mistaken for Being in a Relationship: I have a feeling Brant wouldn't react well to that
Deus Ex
Adam Jensen/Jim Miller, Adam Jensen/Jim Miller/Francis Pritchard
Note:
I've played Human Revolution and Mankind Divided and I've read Black Light. I don't mind spoilers for any of the other games or comics or whatever else there is, but I'd prefer not to get a fic that requires me to be familiar with those parts of canon.
Adam's injuries prior to getting his augs are obviously exempt from my "no permanent injuries" DNW. However, I don't want anyone else to get their limbs ripped off or the like, and I don't want Adam's augs to get permanently disabled or destroyed.
I love Adam so much: that he's a genuinely good guy who wants to help people, that he's snarky and cheeky and irreverent, that (at least post-augs) he's pretty withdrawn and emotionally unavailable and has all these walls built around himself (and I really want someone to get past them). I like angst and suffering and Adam is a well of suffering, and I enjoy it while simultaneously wanting nice things to happen to him (after lots of beautiful suffering). As for Miller, I love that he has a temper and is impatient and often isn't particularly nice, but underneath that gruffness he cares about doing the right thing and he cares about his men. Similar with Pritchard: he's such a prickly jerk, but at the same time he's always ready to drop anything to help Adam. I'd also be happy to see any other TF29 or SI characters appear in the story. I'd especially love to see Sarif and Miller meet.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Badass in Distress
- Character Is Hiding Aftereffects of Trauma: that's Adam's whole MO, right?
- Enduring Pain to Protect Another / Forced to have sex to keep their cover / Handler comforts honeypot after traumatic mission / Posing as sex slave takes a bad turn: the "Adam being undercover (with or without Jim or Frank) goes wrong" prompts
- Hurt/Comfort
- Infidelity: what if Jim's marriage wasn't completely over yet by the time he fall for Adam? I'm so here for guilty attraction and trying to resist each other and eventually stumbling into bed and promising themselves they won't do it again afterwards (but they do)
- Jealousy: whether it's Adam worrying that Jim isn't serious about him and would like a more "normal" relationship again, or jealousy inside an Adam/Frank/Jim threeway arrangement they're still figuring out
- Loneliness
- Mistaken for Being in a Relationship
- Touch-Starved: Adam especially
- Violating Moral Principles For A Loved One
Dragon Age
Cullen Rutherford/Dorian Pavus
Note:
I'm not particularly interested in the Inquisitor playing a big role in the fic, but I'm fine with appearances from pretty much any NPCs. If Hawke gets mentioned in any way, I'm very attached to purple/red male mage Hawke. And 100% okay with mentions of m!Hawke and Cullen having had an extremely ill-advised Thing back in Kirkwall that Cullen very much regrets.
I love how much of a guilt- and PTSD-ridden mess Cullen is, that mixture of anger and fucked-up-ness on the one side and the sweetness on the other. I love how passionate Dorian is while still so often hiding his feelings behind his wit and some jokes. I love that their respective issues are a great recipe for intimacy issues and misunderstandings. I'm really into the idea of them being friends who stumble into bed together and have mindblowing kinky sex, and then they both catch feelings while both being convinced that the other one couldn't possibly be interested in an actual relationship (Dorian because he thinks he can't have a loving relationship with a man, Cullen because he thinks he's too much of a mess to inflict on anyone). But I'm also interested in different takes on how they might get together - if you'd rather write long pining while they flirt casually but think the other one isn't actually interested, I'd gladly read that, too.
I'm always up for post-canon fic set in Tevinter (Cullen being there as Inquisition ambassador or the like). And I'm always here for Halward still being alive just for the sake of more angst and issues, though I'm not interested in him just being a cardboard villain.
More general prompts in my F5K letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Asking For Rough Sex As Unhealthy Coping Mechanism / Choked Until Almost Dead / Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane / Rough Sex / Shame in Sexual Desires: I love the idea of them having very rough, kinky sex, and Cullen having some Issues about sleeping with a mage that make him occasionally rougher than he should be, and Dorian generally being into it, but sometimes it goes a bit too far ...
- Blood Magic / Violating Moral Principles For A Loved One: like Dorian using blood magic to save Cullen's life?
- Character Is Hiding Aftereffects of Trauma
- Drug Withdrawal: Cullen's lyrium addiction and Dorian doing his best to help him through it
- Forced Soulbond: especially if it's before they get together or while they're still FWBs who think the other one isn't interested in anything more serious
- Guilt
- Hurt/Comfort
- Loneliness
- Possessive Behavior
- Sex Magic
- Touch-Starved
Fallout: New Vegas
Caesar/Arcade Gannon, Lucius/Arcade Gannon
I'm not entirely sure why I have such a craving for Legion fic because I don't even find them that much fun in-game, but maybe that's why I desperately need fic - because the game leaves so many questions open about them and so many gaps to be filled. That and I find characters who are horrible people entertaining. Feel free to go dark and fucked up with these assholes, that's what they're there for, although I'd enjoy it if there was a bit more to them than just doing everything for the evulz. We do get a good look at what goes on in Caesar's head in the game, but the same can hardly be said for Lucius, so I'd enjoy fic that gives him a bit more depth. (I like not-necessarily-a-horrible-person-at-heart-just-devoted-to-a-horrible-system!Lucius, but not going-to-desert-the-Legion-first-chance-he-gets!Lucius.)
I'd also enjoy the hell out of some Legion worldbuilding. It doesn't even have to be focused solely in any one of these characters, although I would still like them to show up. I'd love to see more about growing up in the Legion, what life is like back in the Eastern territories, what everyday life is like, what the Mojave would look like if the Legion wins at the end of the game (Caesar wants his Rome - let him have it and show me what he does with it), expanding on worldviews, political/military discussions among the Legion higher-ups, to what extent people like Lucius or Vulpes believe all that Son of Mars stuff, things like education and language use (I'm always here for language geekery like which things they use Latin for and if maybe Latin becomes increasingly a lingua franca when you assimilate a bunch of tribes that speak different English dialects ...)
No happy ending is required for this request (and I certainly don't expect anyone to be in love here). However, I'd still prefer if there was more to the fic than just unrelenting misery, and most of my DNWs like no character death and no mutilation etc. still apply - I don't want to read about Arcade's canon death, for example. I'm totally okay with killing off Caesar, though, as long as you somehow get Lanius out of the way first so someone slightly less batshit like Lucius can take over.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Captivity
- casual/dismissive cruelty
- Dependent on Enemy for Survival: anything would be good, but one scenario I'd love to see would be Arcade and Lucius stranded somewhere in the Mojave together and having to work together despite hating each other's guts
- Ethical Dilemmas / Guilt / Moral Dilemmas: any look at what's going on in Arcade's head with regard to prioritising his own survival even if that means helping the Legion
- Forced to enjoy it
- Heroes Lose
- Loneliness
- One character forces the others to have sex in front of them / Rape By Proxy: I'm thinking Caesar making Lucius rape Arcade here
- Rape as an Assertion of Dominance / rape as punishment / Rape to humiliate the victim
- Sexual Relationship as Unhealthy Coping Mechanism / Shame in Sexual Desires / Touch-Starved: part of Arcade guiltily enjoying it because it's the only kind of physical touch he gets; if you want to write something consensual (or rather dubcon-y in a Stockholm Syndrome way), I'd prefer Lucius/Arcade to Caesar/Arcade for that
Fast and the Furious
Deckard Shaw/Owen Shaw
Note:
I was not happy with what canon did with them in recent movies, so I'd prefer if we could just ignore that. I'm not interested in the watered down version of them where Owen was just manipulated by Cypher and Deckard is secretly not all that bad and also likes babies. And now there's a random sister or something like that? I don't care. I want to read about them being the unrepenting, murderous fucks we got in F&F 6 and 7 because I'm into this ship for us-against-the-world villains who don't care about anyone else, not secret good guys with a nice big family.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Arousal from Killing - Sexual / Sex in the Blood of their Enemies: I love them both getting off on how competent and badass the other one is and on each other's ruthlessness
- Character only cares about themself and one other
- Codependency
- Consensual But Not Safe Or Sane: bloodplay, knifeplay, gunplay, you name it
- Dubious consent due to victim's unconditional loyalty to the person demanding sex / Emotional Manipulation: I love Owen cheerfully manipulating Deckard and Deckard being perfectly okay with it
- Jealousy Leading to Murder / Possessive Behavior / Stalking / Voyeurism: I'll never get tired of variations of them murdering other people their brother fucks
- Knifeplay
- Military Kink
- Mistaken for Being in a Relationship: they'd probably find it hilarious
- Obsession
- Rough Sex
- Terrible People in Love
The Hateful Eight (2015)
Chris Mannix/Marquis Warren
I love their initial antagonism, I love that they have every reason to hate and despise each other, and yet they still end up working together and trusting each other. I love that for all his hatred, Mannix almost seems to admire Warren from the start and is surprisingly respectful towards him at times ('please, Major, let me shoot that ugly bastard' comes to mind).
There is so much potential for their relationship if they survive, so I'd love to read any fic in which they do survive (somehow, I don't care how medically implausible it is) and maybe partner up as bounty hunters or see each other every time Warren shows up with new bounties (if we assume that Mannix actually is the new sheriff of Red Rock). And they're the weirdest, most mismatched pair of sort-of-friends ever and constantly confuse people around them, and they grow closer without ever entirely getting over their antagonism and their disagreements, probably switching between 'aw, I'm starting to like him' and 'I'm going to murder him if he doesn't shut his goddamn mouth' twice per conversation. And eventually they end up sleeping with each other. Maybe because they share a bed/blankets in the next cold winter and that leads to more? Maybe because they're angry at each other and fighting about something and that leads to more? Maybe one of them gets injured again and the other takes care of him and there's some gentler affection going on? (Please let's pretend Warren only got shot in the upper thigh or, idk, got one ball shot off and the rest is still intact.)
I usually love switching for all my ships, but I figure that any kind of sexual encounter between them would have Warren in charge, simply because there's no way Warren would ever let any man, let alone a white man, top him in any way. Plus, Mannix clearly has a bit of a submissive streak and is so very eager to please. I'm okay with both rougher, more antagonistic interpretations of their relationship and with gentler stuff that focuses more on their shared experiences and how much they owe each other. Or ideally a combination of both. :D
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Arousal from Killing - Sexual / Sex in the Blood of their Enemies
- Badass in Distress: I like them saving each other, and I especially like Mannix being a lot more competent than he looks
- Character only cares about themself and one other: and you bet they're both surprised they care about anyone else at all
- Dependent on Enemy for Survival
- Knifeplay
- Military Kink: Mannix and Warren's Union uniform ...
- Rough Sex
- Shame in Sexual Desires
- Trapped Together In The Afterlife: whether they die at the end of the movie or die together years later - I'd love them to be trapped together and kind of mad that they're still not rid of each other even after dying ... and then working together to get out of there
Kraken - China Miéville
Dane Parnell/Billy Harrow
I love Dane and Billy's relationship: how quickly they start trusting each other, how well they work together despite being such different people, Dane teaching Billy about the world of magic and weird shit, saving each other's life, and of course the size kink is a bonus. I find the worldbuilding and the general weirdness of this book fascinating and would love more of that, and I'm also really interested in Dane's whole kraken faith. (I'm much less into body horror than Miéville is, though, so I'd appreciate fic that goes less hard on that. Feel free to break out the tentacles for porn, but I don't need detailed descriptions of people being turned into radios or having their teeth slammed into their throats.)
Unfortunately I wasn't a big fan of how the book ended, so if you write post-canon fic, I'd very much like for 1) Dane to live, 2) Billy not to be Billy 2.0 after beaming, but just Billy, 3) people not to forget half the plot of the book because that's one of my least favourite tropes. How you make these things happen is totally up to you. Or just handwave all of it, I don't even care.
More general prompts in my AU-Ex letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Badass in Distress
- Character Is Hiding Aftereffects of Trauma
- Characters bond in traumatic circumstances
- Dreams bleeding into reality
- Exhaustion
- Forced Soulbond: maybe as a consequence of whatever happens to save Dane's life?
- Forced to rape victim to spare them from a worse fate / Hurt by Possessed/Mind-Controlled Loved One(s): for both of these I'd prefer if Dane was the one having to hurt Billy
- Hurt/Comfort
- Losing Control Over Powers: maybe Dane with his kraken powers?
- Possessive Behavior: I'd be up for either of them having a possessive streak
- Resurrection: maybe Billy sets out to resurrect Dane, maybe Dane comes back thanks to his kraken powers or whatnot
- Sex Magic
Mass Effect
Male Shepard/Garrus Vakarian, Male Shepard/James Vega
Because I'm very frustrated the games didn't let me romance the characters I wanted to romance most. I adore Shepard's relationship with both Garrus and James so much: that undying loyalty, will-follow-you-to-the-end-of-the-galaxy friendship he has with Garrus, and how much renegade Shepard enables Garrus's darker impulses and how much they just get each other; and that more complicated relationship with James, the fact that James massively hero-worshipped Shepard before meeting him, and then babysat him for six months when Shepard was at his lowest, and then in ME3 he really feels like one of the people who keep Shepard grounded, who are aware that he's human and that this war is taking a toll on him, that his hero is fallible.
I strongly prefer renegade Shepard (who is nicer to his companions/friends) - ruthless and efficient, the end justifies the means, snarky and intimidating, willing to do whatever needs to be done, no matter the cost to himself or to others. Should it come up, I really prefer him sabotaging the genophage cure for that reason because Shepard having to kill two of his friends to do what he thinks is right is such a horrifically great moment in the games. I picked the Spacer/Ruthless backgrounds and vanguard as his class, but I'm not fixated on that, if you want to use something else. Ending-wise, I think for fic a handwavey "the Crucible destroyed the Reapers without destroying the geth, and Shepard is alive" works best. I'd also be super interested in a variation of the Control ending, though, in which Shepard doesn't die while uploading part of himself into a God-AI, simply because the mindfuck of co-existing with an all-powerful AI version of yourself must be incredible.
I'm very attached to his default looks and name, so please no custom Shepards. I love pretty much all the other companions and am happy to read about them. My other faves are Zaeed, Legion, Miranda, Jack, Cortez, Mordin, Joker, Grunt, Samara, Traynor.
All my prompts are basically "please whump Shepard", with lots of angry and/or stoic suffering. And then Garrus or James (or both of them) can be there for him.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Aftermath of Torture
- almost died: whether post-ME3 or in any other life-or-death situation - could also be Garrus or James almost dying and Shepard not handling it well
- Badass in Distress
- Character Is Haunted By Bad Things They Had To Do For A Good Cause / Difficult Choices in time of war: I love renegade Shepard making hard choices that he knows are right but that still break him a little, bit by bit, especially having to kill Mordin and Wrex.
- Enduring Pain to Protect Another
- Exhaustion
- Faking Recovery So Others Will Stop Worrying About You: because Shepard is the embodiment of "I'm totally fine"
- Hurting a Character for the Effects on Another Character
- Rape as part of military training: whether as part of Alliance Special Force training or special Spectre training; maybe Shepard is still traumatised from it and it comes up when he gets together with Garrus or James; maybe he gets mad when he thinks Garrus is trying to go for Spectre training again or James is signing up for some special N7 "interrogation course" because Shepard has been through that and has no intention of letting it happen to them
Vampyr
Jonathan Reid/Geoffrey McCullum
This ship has so many things I love! Antagonism and profound distrust and grudging respect and so much potential to work together reluctantly and grow closer ... I'm easy. :D I did a Not Even Once playthrough and ended up being incredibly frustrated by the game's morality system, where letting awful people go free or saving their life is apparently always the best choice, and I realised that I much prefer a version of Jonathan who's generally a good person and wants to help others, but who can also be rather ruthless and is very willing to get his hands dirty when he thinks someone deserves it. I love that he and Geoffrey are both stubborn people who tend to think they're always right, and I love how much they'll probably always butt heads even once they're closer.
I didn't enjoy the forced romance, so I'd prefer if we could pretend that Jonathan and Elisabeth were simply friends (and tbh thematically I prefer the ending in which she chooses to die to the one where he saves her with the power of love or somesuch). I'd also prefer if Swansea didn't show up (unless it's before his possible in-game death, of course) because I have a hard time justifying turning him in-game. I also prefer Jonathan not turning Geoffrey in-game, simply because I find it more interesting if they have some time to get to know each other better while Geoffrey is still human, but I'm totally up for him turning Geoffrey later on.
More general prompts in my RMSE letter.
Requested freeforms:
- Badass in Distress
- Becoming The Thing That You Most Hate/Fear / Character Turned Into Vampire: I'd love for Jonathan to turn McCullum later on (either to save his life or because McCullum wanted to be turned), and McCullum
- Blood Drinking / Blood Kink: I mean, obviously :D
- Dependent on Enemy for Survival
- Experiencing Another's Pain Through Psychic Bond / Forced Soulbond: whether it's the telepathy caused by Jonathan turning McCullum or a completely different kind of soulbond
- Hurt/Comfort
- Internalized Homophobia / Shame in Sexual Desires: that's the whole point of Catholic characters, right? ;)
- Jealousy Leading to Murder: okay, they're both decent enough people that they wouldn't kill somebody only out of jealousy, but I'd like there to be an element of it - Jonathan meets another Ekon he actually quite likes and McCullum is jealous (and eventually it turns out that Ekon is a piece of shit so McCullum can go and kill him now), or maybe another Ekon gets way too interested in McCullum and of course Jonathan is just trying to protect him (but also he hates anyone else looking at McCullum like that)
- Knifeplay
- Loneliness
- Mind reader takes advantage of shameful kinks: Jonathan after turning McCullum? there were some things he didn't know about him before ...
- Possessive Behavior
- Rough Sex to Stave Off Other Violent Urges: Jonathan wants to bite and drain McCullum. Fucking him hard is a good way to distract himself from that.
- Sex in the Blood of their Enemies: probably after they're both vampires. probably.
- Stalking: McCullum stalking Jonathan to see if he's really a good person like he claims?
- Touch-Starved
And that's it! I hope that something in my letter inspires you, dear author, and that you find a prompt you'll enjoy writing. I'm very much looking forward to reading what you'll come up with, and I hope you'll also receive a wonderful gift! :D
Thanks!
linndechir This entry was originally posted at https://linndechir.dreamwidth.org/68952.html. Please comment there using OpenID.