Dear author,
I am an idiot and didn't finish up my letter before assignments were out because I didn't realise this exchange was so amazingly quick that assignments would literally go out overnight! But look, it's finally here (and I got to slack off studying for my practice exams tomorrow to write it)!
I've basically done this on a fandom-by-fandom basis. Some of the stuff I say across different fandoms gets repeated. Also, if you want to take a prompt from one fandom and apply it to another, that's probably totally fine (like, say, for instance, if you wanted to write a treat which was Halloween-themed with trick-or-treaters and costumes or something, I'd be down with that for any fandom - even though I didn't write it out for all of them).
In terms of 'do not wants', I've only got a couple:
- Non-con
-Mpreg
- A/B/O
Have fun and feel free to hit me up via the mod if you want to get approval over something out-there that you want to write. Or, y'know, have fun and do it anyway. (:
Hockey RPF
Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Jamie Benn, Tyler Seguin
Something terrible happened to me recently and I got sucked into a whirlwind of hockey rpf fic and it was beautiful and it changed me and now my co-workers say to me, “wow, you really know a lot about hockey” and I have a really hard time explaining to them why given that hockey is not remotely big where I'm from.
I ended up here because Sid/Geno is basically perfection and then I started getting into other ships (like Benn/Seguin) and my life is so great right now. Anyway, obviously I expect you to write about both the Pens and the Stars unless you really want to; and also it doesn't have to be shippy as this isn't a ship-based exchange! Also, you're totally welcome and encouraged to include other players from their respective teams, etc, in the fic because I have a lot of love for so many guys in hockey right now.
I tried, when I was picking fandoms for this exchange, to pick ones where I thought both tricks and treats would be really fun. With that in mind, here are some vague ideas of the sort of things I'd love to see (unless you have better ideas)!
Treats:
cute hockey player domesticity (maybe they move in together by accident or just enjoy hanging out after a game;
team antics;
my beautiful ships getting together;
coming out fic (possibly involving adorable You Can Play videos);
winning the Stanley Cup together
ALL THE GOOD THINGS.
Tricks: One thing I've been consistently impressed by in this fandom is the high calibre of fic with interesting/subtle magic-realism style bursts of magic or hilariously well-conceived crack fic based on the interference of the hockey gods in the lives of hockey players. If you wanted to bring in a weird and supernatural element like that, then I'd definitely be into that. Or you can just be super cruel and have one of these boys get injured. (Tyler gets a puck to the ear and becomes psychic rather than concussed for a while and it makes things kind of complicated, Geno takes a bad hit in a game and Sid freaks out. That sort of thing.)
Batman (comics)
Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne
I love these two idiots and their issues. How could I not?
This is a ship that I have shipped for a ridiculously long time - since before I even knew what a ship was, honestly - and there are so many things that I love about it. I also love it as a complicated platonic relationship about how Dick admires Bruce but dreads becoming him and Bruce is incredibly proud of Dick but also bad at dealing with their differences, you know, all that great canon material. Ugh. So great.
Fic in this fandom can never go wrong for me when it deals with their (perhaps uneasy) reunion after Dick has left to strike out on his own as Nightwing. There is something incredible in the stretch and pull of their new relationship with each other, whether it is focussed on navigating past bitterness or acknowledgement of a desire which could not be addressed when Dick was Bruce's dependent and sidekick. I'm happy with this occurring at any point in any version of canon or in a canon-based AU if the many versions of the truth DC have offered are not enough for you. Dick as Nightwing or Dick after he's taken up the cowl or any other idea you've got for this, I am certainly on-board with.
I'm also more than happy with snapshots of how they work together in any and all capacities. Outsider POV could be glorious for this.
Things I'd be super into treats-wise:
Batfamily downtime at the Manor (totally down for other members of the Batfamily tagging along);
Bruce and Dick actually being nice to one another (somewhat novel in canon, I'd say);
teamwork! (Fighting crime or elsewhere);
Bruce acknowledging how much he cares about Dick (in any capacity or situation),
cute shippy stuff.
Tricks-wise:
villains creating massive dilemmas;
Batman Begins-style fear/other toxins wreaking havok;
one of them not being able to save the other from injury (or fears about that);
crushing levels of angst (because that's pretty much a given with Bruce, right?)
Worth mentioning, too, that I know that Tim/Kon is a really popular ship in fandom and I am fine with having them appear. References to canon ships are also good with me and there aren't any other characters I'm particularly for or against, though I'd obviously want to focus on Bruce and Dick.
Pacific Rim
Hercules Hansen, Chuck Hansen
The brilliant thing about these two is that they are basically made for this kind of exchange. It's easy to envision a trick which is about them fighting each other or taking on the kaiju or about the drift gone wrong. But, on the other hand, just think how much they care about each other (without ever being able to say it aloud) and all the tenderness and domesticity that comes with that.
So, dear author, write me everything going wrong or everything going right.
Treats-wise, I always love happy endings for these two - a world where Chuck lives and they go off and find new lives. I'd be all for their continuing to be Jaeger pilots in a world where the kaiju are still out there or come back but I am equally really interested in seeing them renegotiate their relationship without the drift (given that they'd finally have to actually talk about things). Since I ship them, I would be very up for first-time fic where they find the only way to regain the symbiosis which has become the core of both of them is through touch.
Tricks-wise, as I've said above, I think this could obviously go the fighting each other or taking on the kaiju route. I also think it'd be interesting to put the drift in the mix as a complicating factor. If you want to go the supernatural route, maybe when Chuck “dies” at the end of the movie, he haunts Herc through the drift or some other way and Herc is convinced he's still alive (and hopefully he actually is). I also think a good trick for these two could easily just be an exploration of the incredible seething ball of angst that they are.
Rivers of London
Peter Grant, Thomas Nightingale
I feel as though Rivers of London is the fandom this exchange was made for. Given that canon itself is a wonderful mix of warm humour and supernatural terrors.
I should probably start off by saying that, like everything else on this list, I do ship Nightingale/Peter but, as this is a non-ship-based exchange, it's okay if you don't and you want to write genfic! With that in mind, feel free to ignore any shippy nuances in how I've worded my requests.
Treats-wise, I would love to see:
cosy time at the Folly and Peter adjusting to it being something like an actual home (and a lot better than police digs, obviously)
Peter being awesomely competent (and kind of surprised about it), Nightingale being proud of him (and maybe even showing it)
Maybe actual adorable trick-or-treating antics at the Folly (Peter irresponsibly making things a little bit magical or Molly freaking out the kids by smiling at them)
Tricks-wise:
creepy cases and spooky goings-on (weird old houses, ghosts, all the magic fun stuff this fandom is basically an open invite for)
magic gone wrong (maybe with a little hurt/comfort thrown in for good measure)
One thing I think could end up being either a trick or treat depending on how it was done is something to do with the magical backwards-ageing which has hit Nightingale and other practitioners in canon. I've always wanted to write a sort of ridiculous future fic about the implications of the whole backwards-ageing thing on Peter and Nightingale's relationship. I have this image of Peter looking in a mirror one day and realising that Nightingale looks younger than him now. I can see this ending up kind of crushing if it only goes the one way but, on the other hand, maybe Peter ages backwards, too, after a while. Maybe they keep ageing back and forth for centuries.
Happy halloween!
outboxed