Hetswap Dear Author Letter

[weakinteraction]

Thank you very much for writing for me! My AO3 name is weakinteraction -- exactly the same as this dreamwidth account.

The fandoms I'm requesting fic for are: TNG, DS9, Doctor Who, Jupiter Ascending, Pride and Prejudice, and Spooks - all the ships are canon or very-near-canon, now that I look at the list (this tends to be the way my het shipping rolls, come to think of it; I get sold on a canon pairing somewhere along the line, usually if it's very slow burn with lots of pining, and that's it, I will forever be shipping it).


I am trying something a bit different with this letter, in that I'm hiving off the smut-related bits from the rest. Please don't take this as some sort of secret preference for receiving smut; I am definitely open to all ratings. What I'm aiming for is that if you're not interested in creating stuff at the higher end of the scale, you can skip those sections easily.

General likes:

• First of all, I do genuinely like all sorts of different stuff. As long as you avoid my DNWs, I'm sure I'll love it. If you have your own ideas for the pairing we've matched on, please don't feel beholden to follow any of the stuff I've put in this letter.
  
• I like many different types of fic, from humorous vignettes to angsty character studies to twisty plotty casefic to PWP, and all points in between.
  
• Plots/tropes-wise, I am particularly fond of (amongst many others) case/mission fic (especially competence porn), loyalty kink, trapped in a confined space together, and time travel/canon-divergent-AU shenanigans
  
• I'm definitely not wedded to the idea of hearts and flowers forever shmoopiness being the only way to write a ship. Any sort of interaction between the two (or more) that's broadly in character will work for me. Feel free to write snarking at each other, all sorts of complicated dynamics, Mr/Ms Right Now not Mr/Ms Right type stuff. I'd like a broadly positive outlook overall, rather than outright hatesex or anything, but they don't have to stay together forever at the end of the fic. Or indeed have got together yet during it; every one of these pairings I've requested is one where I'd be up for some full-on pre-get-together pining. As long as the ~feelings~ are there (and reciprocated, even if the viewpoint character doesn't know that), I'm fine with it. I really like ships where they want to be together but there are Reasons why not. (That aren't just miscommunication issues.)
  
• I'm always up for non-standard formats, anything from epistolary or verse through to stories presented through documentary evidence, 1st/2nd person, present/future tense, interactive fiction, etc. etc. Basically, 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.)
  

Smut-related likes:

• I like smut, and I do really quite like kink, if you're up for going to the high end of the ratings and it's the sort of thing that you like as well. (Non-kinky sex is fine too!) I like lots of kinks (but please avoid my DNWs from the list below), but am particularly fond of bondage, impact play (I have a slight preference for implements over hand spanking), orgasm control and role play, especially involving OTT costumes.
  
• When it comes to kink with D/s dynamics, I have a very, very slight preference for seeing it from the sub's point of view, but honestly go with whatever you want. (For what it's worth, I *don't* have any particularly strong feelings about who tops and who bottoms in most of these pairings; I default to assuming everyone's a switch so what's going on in any particular scenario isn't necessarily the way it always is, if that makes sense.)
  
• In terms of consent, I will generally assume that anything going on is consensual unless you make it clear otherwise (but please don't! -- see DNWs); i.e. no need for long kink negotiation scenes etc. (at the same time I'm not averse to these, especially for pairings where it would be in character for the dom to be wanting to have covered all their bases, but don't feel you have to include them)
  
• And while I'm on this topic, here is my letter from last year's Smut Swap, which goes into even more detail along these lines.
  

General DNWs:

• extremely fluffy fluff so that essentially all that happens is the characters exchange endearments you'd never hear them use in canon
  
• character bashing (these are all canons where I like the rest of the characters too)
  
• any kind of AU apart from canon-divergent
  
• pregnancy/kidfic (I don't mind occasional appearances by canonical children, but please don't focus on them to the exclusion of all else)
  
• major character death (exceptions: deaths that happened in canon, but even then I'd prefer not to have a huge focus on characters grieving afterwards or similar; or deaths happening offscreen if a lot of time has passed since the time the character was around in canon, i.e. you don't have to make everyone immortal if you're writing futurefic)
  

Smut-related DNWs:

• non-con/dubcon (as far as the fandoms involved here go)
  
• as far as porn goes, I am generally fine with most stuff; the only things I'd ask you to avoid are breathplay, watersports, bloodplay, vore, scat, and emetophilia.
  
• incest and under-16s having sex (none of these pairings are anywhere near fitting the bill for either of these, but please no background incest pairings or revealing characters to have been related all along or anything like that)

General Trek notes: '90s Trek is my main nostalgia fandom at the moment, thanks to reruns, and all my feels about my main pairings have come rushing back, so I used up a third of my slots on it. In general, I like Trek's optimism about humanity's future. In general, "casefic"-type stuff is fine for any of these five pairings; I've given a few prompts along those lines for some of them but they'd work equally well elsewhere. I don't actively follow the continuation in the books -- I've picked up a few here and there at times if they appeared at my local library -- but I'm vaguely aware of goings on there, so if you want to use elements from it, go ahead.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

Beverly Crusher/Jean-Luc Picard

I can still remember the first time I saw Arsenal of Freedom (in my head it was one long P/C h/c fest and I was a bit surprised on rerun to discover that the total running time devoted to it is about as much as to the saucer separation sequence); I started actively shipping this then and have never looked back. I like all their little rituals and dancing around each other; I like the angsty backstory about Jack; I like the stuff about how she's the only one can relieve him of duty.

General prompts: Getting Jean-Luc to have his medical, away mission, shore leave, enjoying seeing the other getting excited about science/archaeology/etc., misadventures on the holodeck (I really like pulp detective stuff so I always really enjoyed the Dixon Hill bits, but any other holodeck shenanigans of any type are always welcome).

Smutty prompts: dancing turning into "dancing", having a side-bet on poker night (post-All-Good-Things obviously), holodeck roleplay of one flavour or another

William Riker/Deanna Troi

I actually really like these two as a portrayal of people being fine with having broken up, but I also really like the fact that they did eventually got back together. I'm fine with backstory stuff set while they were together back on Betazed, or stuff set during/after TNG.

General prompts: Betazoid vs human cultural differences (either between the two of them, or Deanna as the child of two different heritages), doing snarky crew evaluations on each other, Will helping Deanna deal with the after-effects of one or another of the hundreds of times she gets possessed

Smutty prompts: telepathic sex, Wild West roleplay (entirely influenced by Fistful of Datas, fwiw), getting each other hot under the collar at some tedious diplomatic function

Leah Brahms/Geordi La Forge

I'm kind of envisaging something set in the future timeline of All Good Things here, but if you want to go in a different direction, go for it. I would love some exploration of how they got from the whole "Geordi fell in love with a hologram" thing to being together irl, but if you just want to assume that and get on with other stuff that's fine too.

General prompts: getting swept up in Doing Engineering and losing track of the time, being very methodical about Being In A Relationship (like, I imagine them scheduling times to check in with each other about how things are going, even after years), Leah teasing All Good Things future Geordi about him mining their life for his novels

Smutty prompts: trying new things (and maybe as above, being very methodical about it), anything related to Geordi seeing things differently (e.g. he can tell when Leah's aroused because she's glowing in infrared or something)

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Miles O'Brien/Keiko O'Brien

I like the way that the show did a very long term arc about two people who love each other finding ways to make it work even when life is difficult.

General prompts: exploration of how they dealt with the LDR phase of their relationship when Keiko was working on Bajor, h/c-y stuff following on from any of the many O'Brien whump episodes (or in the other direction after that time Keiko got possessed by a pah wraith), finally getting a chance to unwind on the Promenade/at Quark's/on a runabout trip somewhere/etc.

Smutty prompts: role play of any variety (I just really picture them being into this for some reason), make up sex after some argument, and this is very specific but there are several of the Bashir-O'Brien stupid-rivalry episodes where Keiko seems to be getting quite into Miles being so competitive - anything based around geeing him up beforehand/celebrating a victory afterwards would be great

Kira Nerys/Odo

I like how complicated the history between these two is, even though the show often glossed over it. If you want to explore some of the gnarlier aspects of it (esp. Occupation-related stuff), feel free.

General prompts: having to deal with a situation in a more Starfleet-y way than either of them really wants to, getting mixed up in Bajoran religion/politics/religious politics, adventures in the Gamma Quadrant (up to you whether to have Odo being a Founder being a thing or not)

Smutty prompts: Odo taking a while to get the hang of why solids enjoy this so much, someone (probably Dax, maybe Quark?) drags them to the holosuite and they enjoy themselves despite themselves - leading to role-playing fun in private later, inventive use of Odo's shapeshifting abilities

Crossover Fandom (but secretly it's Doctor Who, really)

Eighth Doctor/River Song

This is one of those "I'd never really thought of this and then I saw it in the tag set and YES PLEASE" requests. I am years behind on Big Finish so I haven't actually heard the River Song stuff yet but I am mostly spoiled so don't worry about that.

I am in general happy with handwaving away the idea that Silence in the Library was their first meeting from the Doctor's POV thanks to changes in the timeline somewhere (especially given that River certainly has pictures of all of them by the time she meets Twelve), rather than having to contort things around preserving that. On the other hand, I love identity porn, and Eight losing his memory all the time is one of my favourite in-joke things (it's got to be intentional by now, right?) so if you want to invoke either or both of those, go for it. Feel free to do the later BFA flavour of Eight or the earlier more-TVM-influenced one if you want.

General prompts: archaeological shenanigans, River meeting Eight's companions/reacting to his TARDIS, River being somehow involved in whatever was going on just before he regenerated in Night of the Doctor (either an adventure before he appeared on Cass's ship, or River infiltrating the Sisterhood of Karn to keep an eye on things, or something)

Smutty prompts: misuse of sonic technology, any and all bondage (given both canonical handcuffs and how much time people spend tied up in Doctor Who in general), impact on their sex life of meeting out of order (e.g. them both being the one to show each other something they turn out to both enjoy in a sort of Ouroborous loop of sexual techniques)

Jupiter Ascending

Jupiter Jones/Caine Wise

I really, really like Jupiter's transition from "What? There are aliens?" to "OK, I'm a space princess, let's do this", and the whole dynamic between her and Caine really does it for me on the loyalty kink front. I would be equally happy with something set on Earth or out in space. If you do want to go into space, feel free to play around with worldbuilding; this film really does it for me on that front in terms of leaving a lot of questions to be answered, but with a sense that there's some sort of general aesthetic going on behind it, even if not an outright completely coherent plan.

General prompts: the complexities hiding who Caine really is from Jupiter's family, Caine backstory stuff (e.g. that whole thing about him seeming to have a compulsion to attack entitleds -- why doesn't it seem to affect him when it comes to Jupiter?), fixing all the injustice in the galaxy (stopping the harvests is just the start)

Smutty prompts: Jupiter has to persuade Caine it's OK to be a bit rougher (this is probably the only pairing I've requested where I think there's probably a he-submits-to-her dynamic more often than not, but I can see a lot of topping from the bottom going on within that), anything related to Caine's new wings and/or flying, what Caine being a lycantant means for their sex life

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen

Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy

I like the snark, I like all the mutual pining, I like the fact that Lady Catherine doesn't like it.

General prompts: going on holiday, Elizabeth settling into being mistress of Pemberley, dealing with visitors (esp. family, from very welcome family members to really rather unwelcome ones)

Smutty prompts: wedding night, Elizabeth settling into being Mistress of Pemberley, exercise that brightens Elizabeth's fine eyes

Spooks | MI-5

Ruth Evershed/Harry Pearce

This ship really does it for me on the pining, loyalty, and "we want to be together but there are so many reasons why not of varying levels of difficulty" fronts.

My no character death DNW applies to Ruth, fwiw; please either set before her death, or go AU.

General prompts: anything caseficcy especially if they're on opposite sides of some argument about how best to proceed, mutual pining set any time really, backstory exploration for either/both of them

Smutty prompts: we-might-die type scenarios, tentative first time, exploring new things (especially if it comes on the back of confessing fantasies they each had pre-get-together)