Trick or Treat Letter 2019
Dear Trick or Treater,
Thank you so much for writing/drawing one of these fandoms! I love all the characters requested here, so if you already have something in mind and want to go ahead and write or draw that, I’m really open for anywhere you’d like to go with them. But as always, I love getting a chance to flail about the things I’ve requested, so if you’d like a non-exhaustive guide to what I love about these characters and some of the things I’d like to see in fic or art, here is my letter. I really hope there’s something here that inspires you, and that you have an amazing exchange (and Halloween)!
General
General Likes: fic and art of all ratings, all POVs/tenses, characters from everywhere on the moral spectrum, fairytale vibes, supernatural elements, introspection and character studies, distinctive settings and worldbuilding, mythology, literary references and allusions, symbolism, complicated or ambiguous relationships, characters going to hell and back for each other (literally or figuratively), emotional hurt/comfort, hidden depths and dimensions (as both a character thing and a worldbuilding thing), love stories of all kinds, slow burns and slow builds, little details, hopeful endings (even for unconventional values of hopeful).
Smut Likes: first times, oral sex (especially cunnilingus and face-sitting), dirty talk and dialogue, bondage, non-lifestyle D/s, blindfolds, sensation play, hair-touching, holding hands during sex, wrists pinned to things, ordinarily restrained or composed characters letting go, intimacy, vulnerability, emotional intensity of all kinds, touch starvation, edging, body worship, kissing, lingerie and other beautiful clothes, slow undressing scenes.
DNWs: non-canon character death (unless otherwise requested), rape/noncon as the main focus (although references to canon events are fine), pregnancy/non-canon kids, explicit content for characters under 16 (or under 18 for art), omegaverse, onscreen animal harm, ace/aro/trans/non-binary headcanons, humiliation kink.
Black Swan (2010)
Trick, Treat, Fic, Art
Lily, Nina Sayers
Nina breaks my heart with her all her pink, pent-up desperation and earnestness. I also love how Lily stays so beguilingly warm and easy and generous, even when she's caught up in all the jagged horror of the movie. Their tentative attraction to each other in the middle of Nina's breakdown is so moving to me, and I love how they contrast one another as two different faces of the Black Swan. I'd really love to see any fic or art that explored them more: as dancers, as swans, or as girlfriends. (Optional ships: Lily/Nina.)
- Trick: Anything where Lily can see the winged, red-eyed body horror of Nina's transformation into the Black Swan. I love the transformation as a kind of dream or hallucination that Lily could be drawn into during an encounter where she's drunk or high, but would also be totally delighted by any kind of were-swan/monster girl situation where Nina's transformation is completely real and literal, and Lily watches the metamorphosis.
- Treat: Fic or art of Nina and Lily dancing together. On stage, in the ballet studio, at a club, in their apartment... I just love all the potential for feelings and touches and poses, and would really like to see any look at this.
- Trick: The darker side of Lily's experience dancing as Odette and Odile. I'd love to see art of her in costume or on stage, or fic that explores how she feels about the role. Does she ever have a surreal, fractious transformation into the Black Swan like Nina? Or is it the vulnerability of Odette that haunts her?
- Treat: Lily has sex with Nina and makes it as affectionate and relaxed and openly filthy as she can. I love how badly Lily wants to see Nina have some pleasure in her life, and would also really like to see any kind of porn for them that includes praise kink, or sex toys, or orgasm control, or unexpected tenderness.
- Trick: Any kind of interlude late in rehearsals or during the performance of Swan Lake where Nina makes some kind of aggressive, thrilling, unpredictable move on Lily as part of her transformation (maybe during their scene at rehearsal after the sex hallucination, or when Lily visits Nina in her dressing room between acts?).
- Treat: Nina in recovery, reconciling the darkness and fragility of Odette and Odile within herself.
The Favourite (2018)
Trick, Treat, Fic, Art
Abigail Hill Masham, Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough
Abigail is so fascinating to me as a wide-eyed, wary ingenue-schemer. Sarah is also just endlessly delightful to watch as the dark star to Abigail's rising star, so arch and indomitable and aware of her own dashingness. I adore everything about the (literally!) poisonous intimacy they fall into as cousins and rivals at court, and it would be incredible to see more of either of them, in fic or art. (Optional ships: Abigail/Sarah.)
- Trick: Abigail as a witch or a changeling. I love how she works her way into court with herbs and poison, and all the slightly fairy-like imagery of her out in the woods. I would be extremely here for any kind of magical realism take on her as something a little bit otherworldly.
- Treat: Abigail sets out to seduce Sarah when she arrives at court. I'd love to see anything where Abigail takes advantage of Sarah's love for the weak and makes herself as graceful and accommodating and vulnerable for Sarah as she can, and Sarah take advantage of that in turn.
- Trick: Abigail at a ball, either getting lost in the heady, nightmarish rush of the dance itself, or standing aside, observing and plotting and feeling the whole weight of court crashing down on her.
- Treat: Scenes from Sarah's time at court, where she has the chance to revel in the jewels and the horses and the balls, and the hundreds of people she can verbally savage there.
- Trick: Sarah really did pass through hell during her poisoning, and comes back from the brothel as a vengeful demon lover to Abigail. Or, less supernaturally: blisteringly resentful Abigail/Sarah wallsex after Sarah walks in on the recital, scarred and filthy and determined to unsettle Abigail.
- Treat: Scenes for Abigail/Sarah that play around with costumes and scenery: blindfolds and lace, sex or kisses by candlelight, outdoor trysts...
- Trick: Sarah dies after her fall in the woods, and haunts them as some kind of revenant or restless spirit. Does she become more feral and aggressive and bandit-like as time passes away from society?
- Treat: Fic or art for the period in history where Abigail retired to the countryside after Anne's death: walks in the woods, quiet mornings, reflectiveness, finding a balance between power and peace on her own terms. (I'd also love a post-movie Abigail/Sarah take on this, coming to some kind of bitter truce or playing out more twisty power games together in retirement.)
Mulholland Drive (2001)
Trick, Fic, Art
Camilla Rhodes
Rita is so haunting as the most openly noir-like character in the movie, always troubled and on the run from herself. I'd love to see anything that explores her some more: lost and wandering around Hollywood at night after her car crash as Rita, or getting lost in a Hollywood babylon as Camilla. (Optional ships: Diane/Camilla, Betty/Rita.)
- Trick: Any scenes from Rita's dreams-within-dreams, or an extended look at her walk away from the car wreck. I'd love to see anything that explores what it's like for Rita in these dark, borderline states, and what she could see there. Finding the body of Camilla as she stumbles down Mulholland Drive? Distorted dreams of her life as Camilla?
- Trick: Camilla at Club Silencio. I'm really fascinated by Rita's dream of Silencio, and would love to see anything where she went there in her life as Camilla, either as a real but otherworldly club in Hollywood or as part of a dream world. Did she go there for some casual hedonism and get drawn into the darker, emotional side of the show? Was she dragged up on stage there? Did she go there on the night of her death?
- Trick: Rita and Camilla encounter one another on the shortcut to Mulholland Drive.
- Trick: Any kind of character study for Camilla. How does she experience the Hollywood of the movie, and the balance of fame and darkness? Is Rita somebody who she would like to be, or who she thinks of herself as? Is the Gilda poster part of her dream of herself, an identification with other fatalistic noir heroines?
Twin Peaks
Trick, Treat, Fic, Art
Audrey Horne, Laura Palmer
Audrey is just so luminous and touching with her determination, and her dreaminess, and her yearning. I also love all the sad complexities of Laura, with her light and her courage and self-annihilation all bound up together. I'm fascinated by the sad, shivery kind of missed connection they have with each other, and I love both of them as two different embodiments of the woman of Cooper's dreams: the romance that Audrey and Cooper have as noir misfits, and how Laura and Cooper's relationship flickers between a fever dream and a myth of devotion. I would always love to see more fic or art for them, in any combination. (Optional ships: Audrey/Cooper, Audrey/Laura, Laura/Cooper, Audrey/Laura/Cooper.)
- Trick: Laura in any of the show's otherworldly spaces: the Black Lodge, or Odessa, or with Senorita Dido and the Fireman. A portrait of Laura with one of the Venus statues? A homecoming kiss from Senorita Dido? What it means for Laura to be a "cousin" to a Lodge entity and also connected to the living, dreaming Laura and the dead Laura and the Laura who is alive as Carrie Page? Art of Carrie out in the bleak, flat desert, or riding a white horse? A day in the life at Judy's?
- Treat: Laura in the woods or in the mountains, finding peace in her connection to the lakes, and trees, and rocks, and mist.
- Trick: Any take on Audrey and the supernatural. Visiting the Black Lodge in dreams or while she was drugged at One-Eyed Jack's? Fic or art of Audrey having an out-of-body experience while she's dancing, or where her dream soul wanders?
- Treat: Literally any little scene where Audrey does something she loves. Art of her putting her records on, or smoking a cigarette at her window or under the stars? Having the most perfect martini of her life after she breaks free in s3?
- Trick: Laura/Audrey or Audrey/Cooper that explores their brushes with the seamier side of life in Twin Peaks, with lots of headiness and decadence and beautiful connections in awful places. An AU where Laura took Audrey to the Pink Room, or where Audrey followed Laura to One-Eyed Jack's one night? During night they're both undercover at One-Eyed Jack's, Audrey and Cooper are pushed into some kind of situation where Audrey is asked/ordered to dominate or seduce Cooper?
- Treat: Times when Audrey and Laura genuinely managed to connect with each other or look out for each other -- listening to records together, dancing in Ben's office, snowy ski holiday kisses, or moments where Laura was drawn into Audrey's world as a respite from her double life.
- Trick: Fic or art for any kind of three-way Audrey/Cooper/Laura encounter set in any of the show's otherworlds -- kisses on the shores of the purple sea, or scratchy records and threesomes at the Fireman's, or even some kind of White Lodge encounter.
- Treat: Achy, post-s3 Audrey/Cooper or Laura/Cooper. For Laura/Cooper, I'd love any little moment from a slow burn -- taking long drives or walks together, sharing beds in Lynchean motels, holding hands, coming to terms with their weird intimacy and what to do about it. If Laura kissed Cooper out in the woods, or in the car, or in a motel somewhere, would Cooper be as eagerly yielding as he was before? For Audrey/Cooper, I'd love a focus on reunion, or a first time after twenty-five years of separation. Does it start out desperate or tentative? Are either of them nervous to actually make love after all this time, until they're overcome with the romance of it all?
- Trick: Some surreal, heady Black Lodge romance for Audrey/Cooper, or Laura/Cooper, or Audrey/Laura/Cooper. An AU where Audrey can rescue Cooper from the Black Lodge if she can take some kind of romantic or erotic possession of him? Kisses or dances between the curtains? Laura finally gets Cooper to go down on her right there on the chevron floor? Dreams where Audrey is reunited with her two first loves?
- Treat: Any kind of unabashedly romantic art for Audrey/Cooper or fic for small romantic scenes -- kisses, slow dancing, undressing each other, talking over Hollywood conspiracies and solving mysteries as they fall asleep together.