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weakinteractionHi, and thanks for writing for me; also, sorry this has ended up going up after assignments went out -- the festive period turned into a bit of a scramble. I hope this letter is helpful if you find letters helpful, but if you prefer to go your own way, I'm very interested to see where that leads too (as long as it isn't into any of my DNWs, obviously). My AO3 name is weakinteraction -- same as this dreamwidth -- and I'm requesting fic or art for all of these fandoms.
General likes
I will be genuinely delighted to receive anything from a very wide range of different types of fanworks, and am equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale.
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
Fic likes: Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that fic-wise I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
Art likes: I do like use of light and shade in a picture, and interesting Easter-egg-y type stuff going on in the background (if there is one). I like little moments of intimacy: stolen kisses, hurt/comfort type stuff (but please not too much on the hurt front), that sort of thing. (I have no problem receiving NSFW art, fwiw.) But I'm also happy to see the characters in the ship in action rather than in an exclusively shippy context, if you feel that way inspired: an action scene that's a snapshot from an adventure, the characters in the middle of kicking ass (I'm particularly fond of having the two characters back-to-back in a versus the universe type way), goofy hijinks off-duty, etc. Portrayals of canon-divergent AU versions of the characters very, very welcome if the inspiration strikes you.
(I do realise that most of my specific prompts tend to run more in the direction of things that would most readily be seen as fic ideas, but I'm hoping they will provide some sort of inspiration even so.)
DNWs
Sex Education (TV)
Lily/Ola (DNW note: I am pretty confident that anything set during the canon timeline of their relationship wouldn't violate my under-16 DNW but if it turns out I'm wrong please set it later on and/or handwave appropriately.)
I love everything about these two, even all the angst in S3. I do have something of a preference for a happy or at least hopeful ending, though -- as indeed canon got to eventually. (Put it this way: if it hadn't, I would be requesting fix it here.) I am happy for you to include Lily's medical issues if it suits your fic.
Prompts: Getting involved in Moordale-typical shenanigans, whether related to themselves or their POV on getting dragged into other people's nonsense. Dealing with their families (we don't really see much interaction between Lily and Jakob in canon, for example). Lily's stories. Roleplay (whether related to them or not). And an out-there prompt -- moments after their last scene in canon, aliens actually do appear.
KotOR
Juhani/Female Revan (KotOR), Female Revan/Bastila Shan (KotOR), Juhani/Female Revan/Bastila Shan (KotOR), The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr (KotOR), Yuthura Ban/Female Revan (KOTOR), Atris/The Jedi Exile (KotOR) (this is the same list as on AO3, just re-ordered to make a bit more sense)
General Star Wars likes: I am always here for pilots and their ships, lightsabers, galactic politics/diplomacy and weird alien planets (either in-keeping-with-the-films single biome efforts, as the games go for, or ones that try to be more "realistic"). I tend to find that I can take or leave the intricacies of the internal bureaucracy of evil organisations like the Sith, but I am so here for the Dark Side in terms of fallen Jedi abusing the trust of their former friends and stuff like that so "X goes Dark Side" AUs (in terms of the KotOR games, taking the Dark Side ending) are very welcome. If you're going down the smutty route, any and all types of Force Sex are good with me.
I am up for whatever interpretation of how the game might have played out that you want to go for, including going fully down the Dark Side route if that's the way inspiration takes you -- I have played both of them far too many times with different alignments/character motivations I was RPing in my head even though none of the dialogue choices quite fit/etc.
One last thing before I get to each ship: feel free to strategically ignore anything a later game says about an earlier one (i.e. don't take KotOR II as gospel on what happened next if you're writing about the KotOR I characters, and feel free to ignore the MMORPG entirely -- I still haven't played it, though I have no objection if you do want to incorporate elements from it; I have osmosed a few things).
Juhani/Revan
"I will be your doom." - threat or promise? Do they end up saving each other from the Dark Side, or falling together? Or is it even worse than that? (I have, in all seriousness, considered doing a playthrough where Revan romances Juhani, but then turns at the Temple roof, but finds that she can't fight Juhani and so leaves herself open to being chopped down, and taking that as being the ending rather than reloading, just because I think it would be a neat way of inverting Juhani's initial introduction.)
Prompts: Helping each other stay on the Light Side. Post-canon mission fic. Dark Side Revan turns Juhani at the Temple instead of killing her. And an oddly specific one: on one playthrough, I managed to get some shippy dialogue (by the standards of what Bioware managed to sneak in) with Juhani on board the Ebon Hawk towards the very end of the game that I'm fairly sure I've never seen before. However, despite having played my conversation choices just right in that regard, somehow along the way I messed up several important other conversations that ended in me failing to redeem other characters and having to kill them instead (Dustil, and worst of all when I got to the Star Forge, Bastila), which left it feeling like a rather bittersweet victory at best. So I'd be into a take on these two that looked at the cost of victory/the fragility of redemption/etc.
Bastila/Revan
What I find interesting about these two is their bond through Bastila having saved Revan's life, and how it pulls them together (against Bastila's better judgement given that she knows who Revan is all along, but also her devotion to Jedi beliefs about love being bad). And of course the mirroring of their arcs, with Bastila eventually going to the Dark Side as Revan did (but then coming back, if you play Light Side and choose the right dialogue options).
Prompts: Force bonds. Victory celebrations. "I would stand by your side gladly, as your lover and apprentice!"
Bastila/Juhani/Revan
To be honest, this is basically my default party for most of the game (unless my Revan is particularly short on skills, in which case Mission or T3 comes along), so it has kind of turned into an OT3 of mine by default. There's a lot of different directions you could take this, it seems to me: working through the rough edges of working together during the period covered by canon; LS post-canon based on the idea that they've all been through different redemption arcs; helping each other stay on the Light Side; or as noted above a post-canon DS take with Dark Lord Revan and her concubines. Or indeed anything else that inspires you.
Yuthura Ban/Revan
Yuthura is one of my favourite minor NPCs from the series, I like her combination of ruthlessness and vulnerability; she's clearly had a tough life and adapted to that, but responds to having someone actually interested in her for herself. Feel free to explore her backstory if the fancy takes you. I am very much up for any and all possible takes on the dynamics of this ship: amnesiac Revan as eager student of the Dark Side, post-Leviathan Revan as reborn Sith Lord who Yuthura is the first to swear allegiance to, Revan (with memories or without) redeeming Yuthura (esp. if Yuthura is simultaneously corrupting her), etc. One-off exception to my breathplay DNW here: something building on Yuthura's use of Force Choke is very welcome; it was very much a formative moment for the Revan on my most recently completed playthrough (and I'm still on Taris on the next one).
Prompts: Redemption. Fall. Treachery and double crossing. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Revan trying to redeem Yuthura while Yuthura tries to corrupt Revan. Amnesiac Revan going to the Sith Academy on Korriban straight after the Jedi Academy on Dantooine to decide for herself who's got the right idea. Revan going to Korriban after the Leviathan (and no one believing her; I find that hilarious even if it is for obvious plot purposes).
Exile/Visas
"My life is yours." But has Visas been saved by that, or has she just traded one Dark Lord for another? Visas bits I particularly like are her teaching Force Sight, everything that happens on the Ravager, and the quiet conversation before Malachor. Post-canon adventures (assuming Exile doesn't fulfil Kreia's prophecy of heading out to the Unknown Regions, or at least not immediately, or takes someone with her after all ...) also very welcome.
Prompts: Force Sight training leads to more. Sparring leading to learning about each other. Redeemed Visas learning to reconnect to the universe through her Force Bond to Exile. DS Exile taking full advantage of Visas's unwavering devotion.
Atris/Exile
I don't necessarily see this as actually leading to anything happening (though if you can make that work, I will eat it up with a spoon) but something exploring the complicated feelings they have towards each other would be fascinating. The game gives quite a bit of information about how she felt about Exile (particularly to those willing to work through Handmaiden's enormous dialogue trees) but also leaves a lot of questions about exactly what was going on there, especially from Exile's side; one of my favourite things about the game is the way it lets you react to things about your past and set your characterisation as you go, so feel free to take any interpretation that works for you.
Prompts: That's my lightsaber! Learning about each other through combat. The Sith holocrons see that Exile has gone DS and try to manipulate them into being master and apprentice. AU: Atris is so troubled by what happened in the Council chamber that she follows Exile out of civilised space.
Doctor Who (1963)
Tegan Jovanka/Nyssa of Traken (DW 1963), Melanie Bush/Ace McShane (DW 1963), Jo Grant/Liz Shaw (DW 1963)
Nyssa/Tegan
The relationship between these two is horribly underexplored in canon, even by the standards of the time -- their first meeting takes place in the middle of a crowded scene and we don't hear anything they say ... but they're getting along like a house on fire straight afterwards; they both have very personal reasons to despise the Master (especially Nyssa, since he's stolen her father's body and destroyed her entire planet, but murdering Auntie Vanessa must be significant for Tegan too), but every time he turns up during their run they just treat him as a generic recurring villain; almost immediately after they've met him the Doctor regnerates; and so on and so on. As such they definitely have the potential for wallowing in angst (as well as the aforementioned, there's Tegan's experiences with the Mara, and so on and so forth) but their interactions in canon (which generally ignores all those things) definitely lend themselves more towards fun fluffy romance, so feel free to go in whatever direction suits you.
Prompts: Shenanigans in the TARDIS (possibly with the TARDIS itself involved in its own way?). Learning more about one another's cultures. Mutual support during tough times. Mutual pining during the gap between seasons 19 and 20, or after Nyssa's departure. They somehow end up meeting again post-Terminus (from Nyssa's POV)/Resurrection (from Tegan's).
Mel/Ace
In their brief interaction in Dragonfire, they go very rapidly from antagonistic to friendly; perhaps a missing scene filling in what happened while they were waiting around to change? Otherwise, maybe an AU where Mel doesn't leave when Ace comes on board the TARDIS (or somehow Glitz ends up going with the Doctor and Ace and Mel run the new and improved Iceworld?), or something where they end up meeting up again later on would be great. They've both been caught in parallel universe shenanigans in the off-screen material; something playing around with multiple versions of them would be awesome.
Prompts: Mel thinks Ace is a little bit dangerous ... and she likes it. Anything on the lines of competence kink Ace's explosives expertise and Mel's computer programming skills.
Jo/Liz
This is one of those "never met in canon but there are so many possibilities" ships. I'm very happy for the Doctor and the UNIT supporting cast to appear if it's appropriate for your fic.
Prompts: UNIT Christmas parties. Jo ends up working with Liz somehow and Liz refuses to treat her as someone to pass her test tubes and tell her how brilliant she is. Liz needs rescuing and Jo's escapology skills come to the fore. AU where the Doctor never showed up and Liz is the Scientific Adviser with Jo as her assistant and they cling to each other as everything goes wrong (a la Turn Left or, more specifically relevant here, Big Finish's Sympathy for the Devil -- if you know that, feel free to use that specific universe).
Star Trek: Picard
Raffi/Seven
What I like with this ship is the sense that they've found one another after their lives becoming difficult and maybe they can at least cling on to each other as everything continues to explode around them but there's just the chance of something better.
Prompts: Anything with them finding out more about each other's backstory (including Voyager in Seven's case if you want to, or the time between her return to the Alpha Quadrant and Picard picking up with the Rangers and Bjayzl and so on). To what extent does Seven still think in Borg terms and how does that affect their relationship? A night out in Stardust City that goes better than last time (or perhaps equally badly but in a different way?) or similar downtime elsewhere in the Trek universe (Quark's? Risa?) Out there prompt: I've only seen the first S2 trailer but canon seems to be about to Go There with AUs in a way that I'm looking forward to, so anything playing around with alternate versions of them (whether inspired by the trailer or taking other possible divergences) would be awesome.
WicDiv
Eleanor Rigby | Lucifer/Laura Wilson | Persephone (WicDiv), Eleanor Rigby | Lucifer/Cassandra Igarashi | Urdr (WicDiv), Cassandra Igarashi | Urdr/Laura Wilson | Persephone (WicDiv) (the tag set uses the piped tags but I am very happy for you to use their purely human selves if it suits what you're doing to go into that point in the timeline; on the other hand, if you want to do something with these gods in an earlier recurrence that would be fine too)
I was obsessed with this comic for a long time and to a large extent, it still lives rent free in my head. I particularly love the sense of everything involving trade-offs and everyone being compromised in some way or another, but that not being a reason to give in to cynicism however tempting it might be. And also the snarky dialogue. I'm very happy for you to set this at any point along the timeline or use an AU to get the configuration of gods, mortals and circumstances that you want.
(I'm going to prompt for all of these together because for whatever reason (OK, it's because it's WicDiv) what I get when trying to come up with prompts for these pairings is more by way of moods rather than specific plot ideas.)
Prompts: The truth being more devastating than any lie. Unexpected ways to resolve conflicts. The uses and abuses of powers. Resonances with events in previous recurrences. Working out what comes next.
Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Svetlana Sergievsky/Florence Vassy (Chess)
Although we get much less of Svetlana's POV than Florence's, one of the things I like most about Chess is that it does flesh everyone out and give them reasons to behave in the way they do. (In terms of versions, I do prefer the two-tournaments structure to the way the plot works in the first Broadway run.)
Prompts: AU where their duet isn't "I Know Him So Well" so much as "Oh, I Get It Now". Something exploring the constraints Sveltana has had to live with, and possibly how they contrast with Florence's early childhood experiences. Post-canon fic where they end up meeting up for some reason or another (for what it's worth, the fact that Chess was written so close to the end of the Cold War but at a time when people had no idea that that was going to happen in that way, so soon, really intrigues me). Role reversal AU where Svetlana and Florence are playing for the championship, Freddie is Florence's second and Anatoly's at home (this probably doesn't technically count as a strict canon divergence AU, so consider this prompt a one-off exception to my DNW on that front). Overelaborate chess metaphors.
General likes
I will be genuinely delighted to receive anything from a very wide range of different types of fanworks, and am equally happy with ratings anywhere on the scale.
Tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of time travel, canon-divergent AUs, people with issues relating to identity (in the sense of things like secret identities and amnesia) and telepathy. In terms of relationship dynamics, I like all sorts of things but particularly: friends-to-lovers, friends-with-benefits, enemies-to-lovers, lovers-to-enemies(-who-are-maybe-occasionally-still-lovers-against-their-better-judgement), loyalty kink, and you-and-me-against-the-universe sorts of situations. Many (but not quite all) of my favourite characters share traits of being competent and getting on with their jobs/vocations/whatever, particularly in the sense of Doing The Right Thing over their strong personal preferences to do the opposite and/or against a general angsty background.
Fic likes: Overall, I am honestly very easy to please; I genuinely like pretty much all types of fic, from humorous vignettes, to angsty introspection, to twisty plotty adventure stories, casefic, slice of life, and all points in between. I do want to make a positive point of the fact that fic-wise I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolatory or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, IF, etc. etc. Again, if it works for what you want to do, I'll lap it up. (This is not to say that I don't enjoy reading third person, past tense, because I definitely do! I just don't want you to be put off doing other things if your inspiration takes you in that direction.)
Art likes: I do like use of light and shade in a picture, and interesting Easter-egg-y type stuff going on in the background (if there is one). I like little moments of intimacy: stolen kisses, hurt/comfort type stuff (but please not too much on the hurt front), that sort of thing. (I have no problem receiving NSFW art, fwiw.) But I'm also happy to see the characters in the ship in action rather than in an exclusively shippy context, if you feel that way inspired: an action scene that's a snapshot from an adventure, the characters in the middle of kicking ass (I'm particularly fond of having the two characters back-to-back in a versus the universe type way), goofy hijinks off-duty, etc. Portrayals of canon-divergent AU versions of the characters very, very welcome if the inspiration strikes you.
(I do realise that most of my specific prompts tend to run more in the direction of things that would most readily be seen as fic ideas, but I'm hoping they will provide some sort of inspiration even so.)
DNWs
- character or ship bashing (in particular, where there are conflicting canon ships for these characters, quietly ignoring them/AU-ing them away/handwaving everyone as being happily poly are all far preferable to me to devoting large chunks of the fic to demonstrating that the canon love interest is The Worst and breaking them up; I would also prefer it if you avoid characters in the ship comparing themselves to canon love interests, either favourably or unfavourably)
- non-canon-divergent AUs like coffee shops, A/B/O, etc. (canon-divergent ones, on the other hand, are a big yes as mentioned above, and I'm OK with mundane-style AUs if they do actually exist in canon -- e.g. the Normal Again universe from Buffy)
- pregnancy/kidfic (i.e. fic focused on the requested characters caring for children, whether theirs or anyone else's - it's OK for there to be brief mentions of any canon children, though)
- watersports/scat/emetophilia/bloodplay/breathplay/vore
- incest
- underage (which I define as people under 16 having sex; I'm OK with reference to sexual activity at younger ages where it would be in-character, but don't want to see it depicted directly within the story)
Sex Education (TV)
Lily/Ola (DNW note: I am pretty confident that anything set during the canon timeline of their relationship wouldn't violate my under-16 DNW but if it turns out I'm wrong please set it later on and/or handwave appropriately.)
I love everything about these two, even all the angst in S3. I do have something of a preference for a happy or at least hopeful ending, though -- as indeed canon got to eventually. (Put it this way: if it hadn't, I would be requesting fix it here.) I am happy for you to include Lily's medical issues if it suits your fic.
Prompts: Getting involved in Moordale-typical shenanigans, whether related to themselves or their POV on getting dragged into other people's nonsense. Dealing with their families (we don't really see much interaction between Lily and Jakob in canon, for example). Lily's stories. Roleplay (whether related to them or not). And an out-there prompt -- moments after their last scene in canon, aliens actually do appear.
KotOR
Juhani/Female Revan (KotOR), Female Revan/Bastila Shan (KotOR), Juhani/Female Revan/Bastila Shan (KotOR), The Jedi Exile/Visas Marr (KotOR), Yuthura Ban/Female Revan (KOTOR), Atris/The Jedi Exile (KotOR) (this is the same list as on AO3, just re-ordered to make a bit more sense)
General Star Wars likes: I am always here for pilots and their ships, lightsabers, galactic politics/diplomacy and weird alien planets (either in-keeping-with-the-films single biome efforts, as the games go for, or ones that try to be more "realistic"). I tend to find that I can take or leave the intricacies of the internal bureaucracy of evil organisations like the Sith, but I am so here for the Dark Side in terms of fallen Jedi abusing the trust of their former friends and stuff like that so "X goes Dark Side" AUs (in terms of the KotOR games, taking the Dark Side ending) are very welcome. If you're going down the smutty route, any and all types of Force Sex are good with me.
I am up for whatever interpretation of how the game might have played out that you want to go for, including going fully down the Dark Side route if that's the way inspiration takes you -- I have played both of them far too many times with different alignments/character motivations I was RPing in my head even though none of the dialogue choices quite fit/etc.
One last thing before I get to each ship: feel free to strategically ignore anything a later game says about an earlier one (i.e. don't take KotOR II as gospel on what happened next if you're writing about the KotOR I characters, and feel free to ignore the MMORPG entirely -- I still haven't played it, though I have no objection if you do want to incorporate elements from it; I have osmosed a few things).
Juhani/Revan
"I will be your doom." - threat or promise? Do they end up saving each other from the Dark Side, or falling together? Or is it even worse than that? (I have, in all seriousness, considered doing a playthrough where Revan romances Juhani, but then turns at the Temple roof, but finds that she can't fight Juhani and so leaves herself open to being chopped down, and taking that as being the ending rather than reloading, just because I think it would be a neat way of inverting Juhani's initial introduction.)
Prompts: Helping each other stay on the Light Side. Post-canon mission fic. Dark Side Revan turns Juhani at the Temple instead of killing her. And an oddly specific one: on one playthrough, I managed to get some shippy dialogue (by the standards of what Bioware managed to sneak in) with Juhani on board the Ebon Hawk towards the very end of the game that I'm fairly sure I've never seen before. However, despite having played my conversation choices just right in that regard, somehow along the way I messed up several important other conversations that ended in me failing to redeem other characters and having to kill them instead (Dustil, and worst of all when I got to the Star Forge, Bastila), which left it feeling like a rather bittersweet victory at best. So I'd be into a take on these two that looked at the cost of victory/the fragility of redemption/etc.
Bastila/Revan
What I find interesting about these two is their bond through Bastila having saved Revan's life, and how it pulls them together (against Bastila's better judgement given that she knows who Revan is all along, but also her devotion to Jedi beliefs about love being bad). And of course the mirroring of their arcs, with Bastila eventually going to the Dark Side as Revan did (but then coming back, if you play Light Side and choose the right dialogue options).
Prompts: Force bonds. Victory celebrations. "I would stand by your side gladly, as your lover and apprentice!"
Bastila/Juhani/Revan
To be honest, this is basically my default party for most of the game (unless my Revan is particularly short on skills, in which case Mission or T3 comes along), so it has kind of turned into an OT3 of mine by default. There's a lot of different directions you could take this, it seems to me: working through the rough edges of working together during the period covered by canon; LS post-canon based on the idea that they've all been through different redemption arcs; helping each other stay on the Light Side; or as noted above a post-canon DS take with Dark Lord Revan and her concubines. Or indeed anything else that inspires you.
Yuthura Ban/Revan
Yuthura is one of my favourite minor NPCs from the series, I like her combination of ruthlessness and vulnerability; she's clearly had a tough life and adapted to that, but responds to having someone actually interested in her for herself. Feel free to explore her backstory if the fancy takes you. I am very much up for any and all possible takes on the dynamics of this ship: amnesiac Revan as eager student of the Dark Side, post-Leviathan Revan as reborn Sith Lord who Yuthura is the first to swear allegiance to, Revan (with memories or without) redeeming Yuthura (esp. if Yuthura is simultaneously corrupting her), etc. One-off exception to my breathplay DNW here: something building on Yuthura's use of Force Choke is very welcome; it was very much a formative moment for the Revan on my most recently completed playthrough (and I'm still on Taris on the next one).
Prompts: Redemption. Fall. Treachery and double crossing. Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Revan trying to redeem Yuthura while Yuthura tries to corrupt Revan. Amnesiac Revan going to the Sith Academy on Korriban straight after the Jedi Academy on Dantooine to decide for herself who's got the right idea. Revan going to Korriban after the Leviathan (and no one believing her; I find that hilarious even if it is for obvious plot purposes).
Exile/Visas
"My life is yours." But has Visas been saved by that, or has she just traded one Dark Lord for another? Visas bits I particularly like are her teaching Force Sight, everything that happens on the Ravager, and the quiet conversation before Malachor. Post-canon adventures (assuming Exile doesn't fulfil Kreia's prophecy of heading out to the Unknown Regions, or at least not immediately, or takes someone with her after all ...) also very welcome.
Prompts: Force Sight training leads to more. Sparring leading to learning about each other. Redeemed Visas learning to reconnect to the universe through her Force Bond to Exile. DS Exile taking full advantage of Visas's unwavering devotion.
Atris/Exile
I don't necessarily see this as actually leading to anything happening (though if you can make that work, I will eat it up with a spoon) but something exploring the complicated feelings they have towards each other would be fascinating. The game gives quite a bit of information about how she felt about Exile (particularly to those willing to work through Handmaiden's enormous dialogue trees) but also leaves a lot of questions about exactly what was going on there, especially from Exile's side; one of my favourite things about the game is the way it lets you react to things about your past and set your characterisation as you go, so feel free to take any interpretation that works for you.
Prompts: That's my lightsaber! Learning about each other through combat. The Sith holocrons see that Exile has gone DS and try to manipulate them into being master and apprentice. AU: Atris is so troubled by what happened in the Council chamber that she follows Exile out of civilised space.
Doctor Who (1963)
Tegan Jovanka/Nyssa of Traken (DW 1963), Melanie Bush/Ace McShane (DW 1963), Jo Grant/Liz Shaw (DW 1963)
Nyssa/Tegan
The relationship between these two is horribly underexplored in canon, even by the standards of the time -- their first meeting takes place in the middle of a crowded scene and we don't hear anything they say ... but they're getting along like a house on fire straight afterwards; they both have very personal reasons to despise the Master (especially Nyssa, since he's stolen her father's body and destroyed her entire planet, but murdering Auntie Vanessa must be significant for Tegan too), but every time he turns up during their run they just treat him as a generic recurring villain; almost immediately after they've met him the Doctor regnerates; and so on and so on. As such they definitely have the potential for wallowing in angst (as well as the aforementioned, there's Tegan's experiences with the Mara, and so on and so forth) but their interactions in canon (which generally ignores all those things) definitely lend themselves more towards fun fluffy romance, so feel free to go in whatever direction suits you.
Prompts: Shenanigans in the TARDIS (possibly with the TARDIS itself involved in its own way?). Learning more about one another's cultures. Mutual support during tough times. Mutual pining during the gap between seasons 19 and 20, or after Nyssa's departure. They somehow end up meeting again post-Terminus (from Nyssa's POV)/Resurrection (from Tegan's).
Mel/Ace
In their brief interaction in Dragonfire, they go very rapidly from antagonistic to friendly; perhaps a missing scene filling in what happened while they were waiting around to change? Otherwise, maybe an AU where Mel doesn't leave when Ace comes on board the TARDIS (or somehow Glitz ends up going with the Doctor and Ace and Mel run the new and improved Iceworld?), or something where they end up meeting up again later on would be great. They've both been caught in parallel universe shenanigans in the off-screen material; something playing around with multiple versions of them would be awesome.
Prompts: Mel thinks Ace is a little bit dangerous ... and she likes it. Anything on the lines of competence kink Ace's explosives expertise and Mel's computer programming skills.
Jo/Liz
This is one of those "never met in canon but there are so many possibilities" ships. I'm very happy for the Doctor and the UNIT supporting cast to appear if it's appropriate for your fic.
Prompts: UNIT Christmas parties. Jo ends up working with Liz somehow and Liz refuses to treat her as someone to pass her test tubes and tell her how brilliant she is. Liz needs rescuing and Jo's escapology skills come to the fore. AU where the Doctor never showed up and Liz is the Scientific Adviser with Jo as her assistant and they cling to each other as everything goes wrong (a la Turn Left or, more specifically relevant here, Big Finish's Sympathy for the Devil -- if you know that, feel free to use that specific universe).
Star Trek: Picard
Raffi/Seven
What I like with this ship is the sense that they've found one another after their lives becoming difficult and maybe they can at least cling on to each other as everything continues to explode around them but there's just the chance of something better.
Prompts: Anything with them finding out more about each other's backstory (including Voyager in Seven's case if you want to, or the time between her return to the Alpha Quadrant and Picard picking up with the Rangers and Bjayzl and so on). To what extent does Seven still think in Borg terms and how does that affect their relationship? A night out in Stardust City that goes better than last time (or perhaps equally badly but in a different way?) or similar downtime elsewhere in the Trek universe (Quark's? Risa?) Out there prompt: I've only seen the first S2 trailer but canon seems to be about to Go There with AUs in a way that I'm looking forward to, so anything playing around with alternate versions of them (whether inspired by the trailer or taking other possible divergences) would be awesome.
WicDiv
Eleanor Rigby | Lucifer/Laura Wilson | Persephone (WicDiv), Eleanor Rigby | Lucifer/Cassandra Igarashi | Urdr (WicDiv), Cassandra Igarashi | Urdr/Laura Wilson | Persephone (WicDiv) (the tag set uses the piped tags but I am very happy for you to use their purely human selves if it suits what you're doing to go into that point in the timeline; on the other hand, if you want to do something with these gods in an earlier recurrence that would be fine too)
I was obsessed with this comic for a long time and to a large extent, it still lives rent free in my head. I particularly love the sense of everything involving trade-offs and everyone being compromised in some way or another, but that not being a reason to give in to cynicism however tempting it might be. And also the snarky dialogue. I'm very happy for you to set this at any point along the timeline or use an AU to get the configuration of gods, mortals and circumstances that you want.
(I'm going to prompt for all of these together because for whatever reason (OK, it's because it's WicDiv) what I get when trying to come up with prompts for these pairings is more by way of moods rather than specific plot ideas.)
Prompts: The truth being more devastating than any lie. Unexpected ways to resolve conflicts. The uses and abuses of powers. Resonances with events in previous recurrences. Working out what comes next.
Chess - Rice/Ulvaeus/Andersson
Svetlana Sergievsky/Florence Vassy (Chess)
Although we get much less of Svetlana's POV than Florence's, one of the things I like most about Chess is that it does flesh everyone out and give them reasons to behave in the way they do. (In terms of versions, I do prefer the two-tournaments structure to the way the plot works in the first Broadway run.)
Prompts: AU where their duet isn't "I Know Him So Well" so much as "Oh, I Get It Now". Something exploring the constraints Sveltana has had to live with, and possibly how they contrast with Florence's early childhood experiences. Post-canon fic where they end up meeting up for some reason or another (for what it's worth, the fact that Chess was written so close to the end of the Cold War but at a time when people had no idea that that was going to happen in that way, so soon, really intrigues me). Role reversal AU where Svetlana and Florence are playing for the championship, Freddie is Florence's second and Anatoly's at home (this probably doesn't technically count as a strict canon divergence AU, so consider this prompt a one-off exception to my DNW on that front). Overelaborate chess metaphors.
