Fandom 5k Dear Author letter

[weakinteraction]

Hi! Thanks for writing for me. I've kept my requests fairly focused for this exchange, so I've structured each section as a general bit about what I like about the fandom/character/pairing, followed by prompts for each of the genre tags I've selected. I know we're not guaranteed to match on genres, so I'm hoping the first bit of that will be enough to go on if it ends up that that didn't work out. I've split out the smut-related bits of the general likes and DNWs for ease of skipping. (But I have requested the "Smut" genre tag for all my requests, including the solo character one.) This letter is very largely composed of cut and paste from previous requests in other exchanges; apologies if any sections feel lop-sided as a result. Please don't read anything into that sort of thing -- I would be genuinely thrilled with a 5k+ fic for all of these requests.


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. (And in a week or so, this year's Smut Swap letter will be up, though I doubt there'll be that much difference.)
  

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 unless I've requested the Angst genre tag, 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:

• violent non-con (I'm fine with sf/fantasy type noncon like mind control for pairings it would suit, or dubcon of various stripes)
  
• 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)

Marvel Secret Wars Battleworlds

Requested groups/characters: God Emperor Doom, God Emperor Doom & Sheriff Strange & Molecule Man, God Emperor Doom/Sheriff Strange, God Emperor Doom/Susan Storm & Valeria & Franklin

Canon-style plot: Anything digging into life on Battleworld. Obviously the plot of canon is the story of how it all comes to an end and is replaced (and I'd be very happy with something exploring some particular aspect of that in more detail), but there are moments showing the more normal operation of things (especially in the tie-in titles where Doom is basically a literal deus ex machina to wrap things up when they've run out of issues). Something dealing with disputes between the barons, or the Thors on patrol, or the Foundation out and about discovering things would be great.

Character Development: Something digging in to the interiority of any of the characters in any of the groups would be great (e.g. how Stephen views working with Doom to save everything, how Susan sees her role, Valeria or Franklin's take on things), but I'd be particularly interested in how Doom experiences being a god. He has the arrogance to believe he's destined for it, but just about enough self-awareness to reflect on it, too.

Interpersonal Drama: Within some or all of the trio running Battleworld or within Doom and his "family", I'm thinking. What compromises do people make to keep things smooth with God Emperor Doom? Although they're not in the same group here, if you are interested in the rivalry going on between Valeria's science-based approach and Stephen's magic-based one, that'd be great too.

Mystery/Procedural: This blurs into my "canon style plot" prompts, but one character or another getting to the bottom of a problem somewhere on Battleworld would be good. Stephen working with the Thors, Valeria working with the Foundation, Susan running around behind the scenes to try to make sure things don't have to go a certain way ... Even better if multiple people are working on something from multiple angles and have to work together uncomfortably.

Smut: I am equally into Victor/Stephen and Victor/Susan for this. In both cases, I'm interested in the fucked-up dynamics of it. For Victor/Stephen in particular, the idea that Stephen ceded power to Doom when he turned away from taking on the powers for himself, and for Victor/Susan the inherent dubconiness of her memories being inaccurate. Or maybe come at it from another angle, and there are times when Victor does just need to unwind from the pressures of being a God Emperor?

Worldbuilding: Well, they literally build a patchwork world, so any exploration of that would be awesome. The early stages seem to have been particularly challenging from the hints in canon, but what exactly went on? How much editing of people's memories does Stephen have to do? How does Owen's "channelling" of the Beyonders' power work? Exactly what are the limits on Doom's powers? Do the not-Richards-any-more family ever get any strange memories? (If you want a lot more in this vein, I did request this for worldbuildingex.)



WicDiv

Requested groups/characters: Baal/Inanna, Baphomet/Morrigan, Ananke, Original God From A Previous Recurrence (NB I love or love-to-hate everyone in canon and ship widely; feel free to include any other characters or pairings of your choice, even to the point of ignoring all these completely; I only wish there had been more nom slots)

Spoilers-wise, I am up to date and plan to remain so.

I love the epic scope combined with very plausibly fucked-up people muddling through. I love the exploration of the nature of celebrity and fandom and creativity etc. I am more than a bit obsessed with the idea of previous recurrences so if you want to play with that in any way, shape or form then go for it, from having people have occasional weird memories to setting the entire story during your favourite historical period to some sort of epic love story across multiple reincarnations.

Angst: Ample scope for this in all directions, as far as I can see, especially for the ships but even for Ananke. Even assuming she is lying about all the details, she does lead a very lonely existence the majority of the time. A fic that wallows around in one or more characters' feelings about the horrible unfairness of everything would be great. (In particular, I would be absolutely fine with Baal grieving for Inanna/dealing with how they left things, hence my adjustment of my usual major character death bafflegab above.)

Smut: What exactly is it like when gods fuck? Is there liberal use and abuse of their various powers? What's the balance between their one-off human selves and the endlessly-reincarnated gods in terms of what happens? For both ships, I'd also be interested in little moments of vulnerability afterwards (particularly on the parts of Baal and Morrigan, probably inadequately attempting to cover them up).

Worldbuilding: This is another one I requested for worldbuildingex but the short version is that any and all speculation about what's really going on in WicDiv would be absolutely fantastic from my POV. But especially previous recurrences, as noted above.



DS9

Requested character: Jadzia Dax

Dax is one of my all-time favourite characters. I am particularly fascinated with the old-young thing she's got going on. All the different versions of Dax seem to have a lot of joie de vivre and openness to new experiences (even Curzon late in his life, from the way they talk about him), in contrast to many common takes on what it would be like to live for a long time. I know it's specifically Jadzia in the tag set, but I'm definitely fine with it if you want to go for another host, either from the past or the future. Also, if you want to play around with stuff like zhian'taras, orb experiences, and the like, then by all means go for it.

AU - Canon Divergence: Not necessarily Jadzia-lives (though I'm open to that if you want to do it), but there are all sorts of other scenarios: what if Jadzia never goes to DS9 but ends up assigned elsewhere in Starfleet (e.g. the Enterprise-D, Voyager, the Academy, ambassador to the Klingons)? What if she gets recruited into the Temporal Cold War? (What if Dax already was, centuries ago, but Jadzia only becomes aware of it when some agent from it does something to trigger a buried memory or something? It seems to me that Trill symbionts would be particularly well-placed to be involved, now that I think of it.) What if Jadzia was never joined (say, Curzon got his way in refusing her application) and the Dax symbiont went elsewhere? What if the Dominion War went badly and she ended up part of a resistance movement somewhere? Or anything else you can think of.

Character Development: Either from the point of view of Jadzia herself (how do things feel different pre- and post- joining?) or the Dax symbiont, living through various different lives. Maybe something like a 5+1 fic of five (or some other number) times Jadzia met someone who Dax had met before in a previous host (whether canonical, e.g. Benjamin, Lenara, or OCs), plus one time she met someone who would be important to a future host?

Humor: Anything capturing the fun end of canon would be lovely. Quark somehow getting her mixed up in a dodgy deal, holosuite-gone-wrong scenarios, whoops my previous host left me a fine mess to sort out, etc.

Mystery/Procedural: Basically: Dax doing Science, yes please. Feel free to invent as much technobabble as you want. Anything from coming across a strange phenomenon on a trip to the Gamma Quadrant to a race against time to find out what's making DS9 completely unsafe for habitation this week.

Smut: It might seem odd to be requesting this tag with a character rather than a pairing, but I genuinely do ship Dax with absolutely everyone so whatever ship you want to go with is fine with me; the main thing I would want is for Dax to be enjoying herself immensely along the way. My headcanon is very definitely that she'll try anything once/has an active policy of trying new things (in particular, Dax seems to me from hints in canon to be quite into the idea of experiencing different species' approach to sex; I think it can be argued that this is at least partially coming from the symbiont).

Worldbuilding: Either Trill-related in particular or any other aspect of the Trek universe in general. I wasn't originally going to request this here but then writing that bit about the Temporal Cold War made me think about the fact that the Dax symbiont is older than the Federation ... (If you're reading through the whole letter rather than skipping to certain fandoms, it will be very little surprise at this point to see a link to the Trek section of my worldbuildingex letter. It's TNG there, but a lot of the ideas could well apply.)



TNG

Requested ship: 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.

Angst: Wallow around in their mutual angst over Jack (I am fine with a focus on character death here), have them angst about each other when one of them is in danger on a mission, have them angst about whether they should get together (I'm absolutely fine with a fic that's entirely mutual pining, for what it's worth; that would still count as satisfyingly shippy to me), or any other source of angst.

AU - Canon Divergence: So many different directions this could go; these next bits are only suggestions, feel free to dream up your own ideas. What if Beverly never went to Starfleet Medical? Or what if she never comes back from Starfleet Medical and it's years before they meet again? (After Generations, maybe? Or when the Enterprise returns to Earth post-Borg? Or does Beverly not being on board mean Jean-Luc can't break through the Borg's control in time? See "Angst", above.) What if they do get together much earlier than canon generally allows for? (e.g. post-Attached?) What if the Conspiracy aliens are way more successful than in canon and they end up on the run from an alien-bug-controlled Starfleet? Or what if they start hopping between all sorts of different timelines? (Q-mediated? I haven't requested him but I'm delighted to see him in the tag set.) I am also into Beverly/Jack/Jean-Luc in a Jack-doesn't-die AU, if you're interested in that.

Established Relationship: I would love any sort of portrait of them getting on with life together and basically being their awesome selves from canon, but happier.

Getting Together: Basically: How do they finally get over the (mostly self-imposed) hurdles in their way? What do their friends think? Can the reality live up to years of pent-up hopes?

Smut: Dancing turning into "dancing". Having a side-bet on poker night (post-All-Good-Things obviously). Holodeck roleplay of one flavour or another (I do love the Dixon Hill episodes, for what it's worth).