Letter for raremaleslashex ficathon
Dear Creator,
thank you so much for writing this story for me. We clearly share at least some interests, and I'm thrilled to find out what you'll come up with.
DNW:
- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone - a great number of those I've nominated can be described as prickly jerks, among other things, and it would be ic for them to say something negative about people they canonically can't stand - but there's a difference between that and the narrative giving me the impression to go along with said opinions.
- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.
- Rape. Now, several of the pairings I nominated involve relationships with power differentials, or even canonical captive scenarios, and I'm not opposed to questionable consent per se to start with, but I really want both partners to, in the end, agree with what's going on. (Resentment at one partner for wanting him is fine, though.)
- non-canonical torture (several canons do include torture, and if you want to explore what that means for character x in their relationship with Y, absolutely, just don't add
Likes:
- flirting/seduction via wordplay and banter (doesn't work for all pairings, I know)
- for the darker push/pull dynamics: moments of tenderness and understanding in between the fighting/one upman shipping (without abandoning the anger)
- for the pairings that are gentler and harmonious by nature: making it clear each has their own life and agenda as well
- some humor amidst the angst (especially if the character in question displays it in canon)
The question of AUs: depends. "What if this key canon event did not happen?" can lead to great character and dynamics exploration, but I do want to recognize the characters. The majority of those I nominated are from historical canons, and the history is part of the fascination the canon has for me. (Though ironically one of the two non-historical canons has its very own canonical high school AU.) However, if you feel inspired to, say, write Frederick the Great, space lawyer, and manage to do it in a way that gives me gripping analogues to the historical situations: be my guest!
How much or how little sex: I'm cool with anything you feel comfortable with, from detailed sex to the proverbial fade out after a kiss. Or even no sex at all, as long as the story explores the emotional dynamics in a way that makes it clear what's going on there is love/passion.
Specific details for specific pairings:
Borgia: Faith and Fear:
Alessandro Farnese is possibly my favourite character in this version of the tale, and the moment in season 3 when he throws up his hands and says to Cesare: “I’ve tried to be your friend, I’ve tried to be your enemy, I’ve tried to be indifferent, I’ve tried to be just a business partner, but nothing ever works with you!"? Pure Gold. (During the show trial Julius II organized where Cesare is just the worst client ever and Alessandro is defending him.) So I'd love a story exploring their relationship at any point in canon - youthful bffs, enemies, political allies - and takes it that step further. Just as long as Alessandro isn't written as wide eyed Bambi to Cesare's Dark Fuck Prince. He's really not, even in the first season.
Moving on to the older generation, providing Rodrigo Borgia with a secretly gay ex Muslim Trusted Lieutenant, with their relationship dating from their youthful days in Spain was a great choice on the part of the show, and that Gacet even after their eventual breakup and his reclamation of his Muslim identity comes back to be with Rodrigo when the later dies just settles it. They're both experienced power players who rose together, and trust each other for the majority of canon unconditionally while being very familiar with each other's weaknesses. A story set pre canon (how did that relationship and trust form back in just pre completed reconquista Spain?) , during canon (any season, though preferably not during the drug plot in s2, I disliked that one), or Gacet looking back afterwards would be great.
The Bounty (1984)
Aka the one with the very intentional Bligh/Christian subtext. Make it main text, with the caveat that Bligh's canonical devotion to his wife should not be retconned away. Now I've always be intrigued by the backstory they had and which this film was the first one to bring up in dialogue, i.e. that Fletcher Christian had actually already sailed with Bligh, and was on the Bounty precisely because they were friends. (Which made the fallout all the more dramatic.) If your story uses that background, all the more power to you. Maybe something happened then and Bligh was in total denial about it afterwards? Or: this is one fandom where I'd be intrigued by a what if. Not just "what if the mutiny didn't happen" (because Bligh or Christian at any point make a different decision), but also "what if this version of Fletcher Christian does what several fictional Christians did before him, leaves Pitcairn and meets this version of Bligh again".
18th Century CE RPF
Aka the fandom that has eaten up my life in recent months. Write any of the pairings I requested, and I shall be over the moon. Any scenario, no matter how light or angsty. Fredersdorf/Fritz curtain fic when they get settled in Rheinsberg? Yay! That possible crisis starring a "handsome husar" they had in the year after Fritz became king? Go for it. How Heinrich and Lehndorff went from friends to friends with benefits for Heinrich but love-of-my-life for Lehndorff, with all the joy and heartache that happens once Lehndorff realises they'll never see their relationship the same way? Please do. Lehndorff getting mentored by his slight crush Peter Keith in how to deal with being in love with a Prince who is in love with other people but just a bit more than friends with you? Oh yes. And just because I don't have the nerve (yet) to write angry incesteous hate sex doesn't mean you shouldn't. And so forth.
If you need some inspiring quotes from historical sources, do check out what we've collected at
rheinsberg, handily tagged by person.
Farscape
The rewatch I'm currently doing has reminded me again how fond I am of this wonderfully crazy show. John/Scorpius is one of my favourite relatonships in it, not least because Crichton the genre fan is absolutely aware of the the subtext. Now this is admittedly one of the trickiest scenarios to turn main text without going for a rape scenario (which I don't want, see above), given all the invasive things Scorpius does to John already in canon. Then again, they share a kid (if you can call Harvey that) and each other's brains in oh so many ways at various points, so really, "it happens in one of their minds or both" is an absolutely valid choice here. If you can pull it off otherwise, again PLEASE not in a rape situation (and yes, a blackmail a la "I'll kill everyone if you don't..." would count as same), I'm all the more impressed.
The Last Kingdom
The Uthred and Alfred relationship in its prickly complexity pushed all my buttons in this show, so anything focusing on it would be most welcome. As an idea: road trip at any point in canon complete with mutual snark, emotional power games and one or both having to be under cover. Canon gives us this situation for Alfred near the end of s1, but how about a trip for a three ways negotiation between Saxons, Danes and Normans where they both need to pretend to be someone else en route during the nebulous time mid s2?
Lost
It's been many years, but whenever I recall lost I also recall the Ben Linus/John Locke dynamic being one of the things I adored in it from the time "Henry" showed up in s2 till them getting their very own high school AU so they could live out a different scenario in s6. Also I still feel disgruntled Smokey dared to hijack Locke's appearance. Aaaanyway: give me these two at any point in canon, though please with Locke as Locke, not the episodes where Smokey is pretending to be him. The instinctive understanding, the manipulation, the jealousy, the mutual loneliness, the snark, the fact that Locke got over Ben killing him twice - there's so much good there. And if you don't want to put the emphasis on angst, then there is that high school scenario with both of them as teachers to explore a bit longer than canon did. This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1397537.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
thank you so much for writing this story for me. We clearly share at least some interests, and I'm thrilled to find out what you'll come up with.
DNW:
- bashing of canon pairings or characters in general. By which I don't mean the characters have to like each and everyone - a great number of those I've nominated can be described as prickly jerks, among other things, and it would be ic for them to say something negative about people they canonically can't stand - but there's a difference between that and the narrative giving me the impression to go along with said opinions.
- Alpha/Beta/Omega scenarios, watersports, infantilisation. Really not my thing, sorry.
- Rape. Now, several of the pairings I nominated involve relationships with power differentials, or even canonical captive scenarios, and I'm not opposed to questionable consent per se to start with, but I really want both partners to, in the end, agree with what's going on. (Resentment at one partner for wanting him is fine, though.)
- non-canonical torture (several canons do include torture, and if you want to explore what that means for character x in their relationship with Y, absolutely, just don't add
Likes:
- flirting/seduction via wordplay and banter (doesn't work for all pairings, I know)
- for the darker push/pull dynamics: moments of tenderness and understanding in between the fighting/one upman shipping (without abandoning the anger)
- for the pairings that are gentler and harmonious by nature: making it clear each has their own life and agenda as well
- some humor amidst the angst (especially if the character in question displays it in canon)
The question of AUs: depends. "What if this key canon event did not happen?" can lead to great character and dynamics exploration, but I do want to recognize the characters. The majority of those I nominated are from historical canons, and the history is part of the fascination the canon has for me. (Though ironically one of the two non-historical canons has its very own canonical high school AU.) However, if you feel inspired to, say, write Frederick the Great, space lawyer, and manage to do it in a way that gives me gripping analogues to the historical situations: be my guest!
How much or how little sex: I'm cool with anything you feel comfortable with, from detailed sex to the proverbial fade out after a kiss. Or even no sex at all, as long as the story explores the emotional dynamics in a way that makes it clear what's going on there is love/passion.
Specific details for specific pairings:
Borgia: Faith and Fear:
Alessandro Farnese is possibly my favourite character in this version of the tale, and the moment in season 3 when he throws up his hands and says to Cesare: “I’ve tried to be your friend, I’ve tried to be your enemy, I’ve tried to be indifferent, I’ve tried to be just a business partner, but nothing ever works with you!"? Pure Gold. (During the show trial Julius II organized where Cesare is just the worst client ever and Alessandro is defending him.) So I'd love a story exploring their relationship at any point in canon - youthful bffs, enemies, political allies - and takes it that step further. Just as long as Alessandro isn't written as wide eyed Bambi to Cesare's Dark Fuck Prince. He's really not, even in the first season.
Moving on to the older generation, providing Rodrigo Borgia with a secretly gay ex Muslim Trusted Lieutenant, with their relationship dating from their youthful days in Spain was a great choice on the part of the show, and that Gacet even after their eventual breakup and his reclamation of his Muslim identity comes back to be with Rodrigo when the later dies just settles it. They're both experienced power players who rose together, and trust each other for the majority of canon unconditionally while being very familiar with each other's weaknesses. A story set pre canon (how did that relationship and trust form back in just pre completed reconquista Spain?) , during canon (any season, though preferably not during the drug plot in s2, I disliked that one), or Gacet looking back afterwards would be great.
The Bounty (1984)
Aka the one with the very intentional Bligh/Christian subtext. Make it main text, with the caveat that Bligh's canonical devotion to his wife should not be retconned away. Now I've always be intrigued by the backstory they had and which this film was the first one to bring up in dialogue, i.e. that Fletcher Christian had actually already sailed with Bligh, and was on the Bounty precisely because they were friends. (Which made the fallout all the more dramatic.) If your story uses that background, all the more power to you. Maybe something happened then and Bligh was in total denial about it afterwards? Or: this is one fandom where I'd be intrigued by a what if. Not just "what if the mutiny didn't happen" (because Bligh or Christian at any point make a different decision), but also "what if this version of Fletcher Christian does what several fictional Christians did before him, leaves Pitcairn and meets this version of Bligh again".
18th Century CE RPF
Aka the fandom that has eaten up my life in recent months. Write any of the pairings I requested, and I shall be over the moon. Any scenario, no matter how light or angsty. Fredersdorf/Fritz curtain fic when they get settled in Rheinsberg? Yay! That possible crisis starring a "handsome husar" they had in the year after Fritz became king? Go for it. How Heinrich and Lehndorff went from friends to friends with benefits for Heinrich but love-of-my-life for Lehndorff, with all the joy and heartache that happens once Lehndorff realises they'll never see their relationship the same way? Please do. Lehndorff getting mentored by his slight crush Peter Keith in how to deal with being in love with a Prince who is in love with other people but just a bit more than friends with you? Oh yes. And just because I don't have the nerve (yet) to write angry incesteous hate sex doesn't mean you shouldn't. And so forth.
If you need some inspiring quotes from historical sources, do check out what we've collected at
rheinsberg, handily tagged by person.
Farscape
The rewatch I'm currently doing has reminded me again how fond I am of this wonderfully crazy show. John/Scorpius is one of my favourite relatonships in it, not least because Crichton the genre fan is absolutely aware of the the subtext. Now this is admittedly one of the trickiest scenarios to turn main text without going for a rape scenario (which I don't want, see above), given all the invasive things Scorpius does to John already in canon. Then again, they share a kid (if you can call Harvey that) and each other's brains in oh so many ways at various points, so really, "it happens in one of their minds or both" is an absolutely valid choice here. If you can pull it off otherwise, again PLEASE not in a rape situation (and yes, a blackmail a la "I'll kill everyone if you don't..." would count as same), I'm all the more impressed.
The Last Kingdom
The Uthred and Alfred relationship in its prickly complexity pushed all my buttons in this show, so anything focusing on it would be most welcome. As an idea: road trip at any point in canon complete with mutual snark, emotional power games and one or both having to be under cover. Canon gives us this situation for Alfred near the end of s1, but how about a trip for a three ways negotiation between Saxons, Danes and Normans where they both need to pretend to be someone else en route during the nebulous time mid s2?
Lost
It's been many years, but whenever I recall lost I also recall the Ben Linus/John Locke dynamic being one of the things I adored in it from the time "Henry" showed up in s2 till them getting their very own high school AU so they could live out a different scenario in s6. Also I still feel disgruntled Smokey dared to hijack Locke's appearance. Aaaanyway: give me these two at any point in canon, though please with Locke as Locke, not the episodes where Smokey is pretending to be him. The instinctive understanding, the manipulation, the jealousy, the mutual loneliness, the snark, the fact that Locke got over Ben killing him twice - there's so much good there. And if you don't want to put the emphasis on angst, then there is that high school scenario with both of them as teachers to explore a bit longer than canon did. This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1397537.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.