you taught me victory's sweet, even deep in the cheap seats

Dear creator,

Thanks so much for making something for me. I am requesting fic for all these canons.

General likes: works of all ratings, darker themes (literally and narratively), dubcon, fraught and complicated relationships, pining (mutual or one sided, pining while fucking/FWB), proxy fucking, arranged marriages/characters forced into a relationship for whatever reason, battle couples, competence kink, fealty/loyalty kink, complicated feelings about heirs/inheritance, slice of life, large or small-scale worldbuilding, sadism/masochism, trans characters, noir elements, historical details, secret relationships, family drama/dynamics, courtly politics or organizational politics, physical or emotional hurt/comfort, breathplay, unequal power dynamics

DNWs: unrequested fusions or crossovers, modern AUs for historical, fantasy or sci-fi canons

Fandom specific thoughts/prompts:

The Silmarillion - Fingolfin/Maglor

I love thinking about these two together - maybe as a secret in Valinor (one sided or otherwise), both knowing they shouldn't but being unable to resist, maybe after the arrival in Beleriand when Maglor is king. What are their interactions like? Do they trust one another? I'm down for any take on their relationship from sweeter to angsty to politicking and maneuvering and manipulation. Or afterwards, after the Feanorians are dispossessed - how might they come together?

A couple ideas for directions you could go in:

Maglor & Fingolfin have an established relationship (how established is up to you) when Maedhros is rescued. How do they deal with the aftermath of that, Maedhros’ recovery, and the transfer of power/Maedhros’ choice to yield the crown to Fingolfin?

Maglor and Fingolfin during the Long Peace, especially as things get closer to the Dagor Bragollach - does Maglor have any correspondence with Fingolfin during this time, and is there any hint of Fingolfin reaching a breaking point prior to the battle? Do they see one another? I’m interested in any kind of weird dynamic they have going on around Maedhros and Fingon, if you’re interested in exploring that - do they feel it necessary to keep their relationship a secret?

The Goblin Emperor - Csevet/OMC

Csevet is my favorite character in TGE and I am desperate to know more about his backstory and/or his life at court when he isn't devoting himself to his work/keeping the imperial apparatus afloat. I would be interested to see pretty much anything you come up with, including the identity of his partner - what is Csevet's romantic/sexual life like, either as he is coming up through the courier ranks or at court? Does he have difficulty reconciling the two once he is in his role as Maia's secretary? I really like the idea of marnis people flocking to the courier fleet as a means of upward mobility and am always eager to read more takes on courier and marnis culture and the intersection of the two.

I'm very much good with an angsty vibe - I definitely see Csevet as devoted to his work above all, especially after beginning to work for Maia, and I would expect a degree of tension there especially if his partner isn't the same way. Is Csevet in love? Does he fall out of love/does his partner fall out of love with him? Is Csevet joining the emperor's staff akin to taking a job across the country without talking to your spouse about it? Does his partner get jealous of the emperor and feel ridiculous about it, despite being unable to stop?

Also very much on board for just Csevet's one night stands in between secretarial tasks, sex as stress relief, old courier friends taking it upon themselves to loosen Csevet up. OR, a noble/high ranking client from the past showing up at court and throwing Csevet for a loop could be a lot of fun.

Succession - Kendall/Roman

God, these two. I love both of them and I love their dynamic so obviously I would like to see it even more twisted. Make this as grim and dark as you like.

I imagine their relationship as something that evolves and devolves over many years, perhaps to the point that neither is quite sure how it began. I imagine lots of claustrophobia and an us against the world type camaraderie amongst the three younger Roys - how would that feed into a relationship between Kendall and Roman? In a lot of ways, as with the Roys' grossest excesses, it might seem inevitable to both of them.

I would be thrilled with something set at any point - I was recently rewatching S1 and I was horrified anew at Roman at Tom's bachelor party asking Connor about the dog crate thing, and Connor's easy explanation that it was something Roman had asked for. What other moments like that have happened between Kendall and Roman, and how do they each see them? I love the dynamics around Kendall's substance use, too, and how for all Roman's dysfunction he seems not to struggle with substances or mental health quite the same way Kendall does. In those moments where Kendall is really struggling there seems to be a kind of role reversal there, with Roman as the more stable sibling - what was that like when Kendall was getting sober the "first" time, pre-s1?

It's that time again! Yay! I am really excited that we matched on one of these fandoms and I can't wait to see what you write. I always feel like I'm not the greatest at actual prompts but I do like to ramble about things that grab me about these canons, so please feel free to run in any direction that grabs you.

AO3: jouissant

Some general likes: any tense, any rating, any POV, banter, darkfic, bittersweet endings, messed up relationships and/or obsessive relationships, slice of life, canon divergence AUs, historical AUs, noir AUs, magical realism/magical elements, creepiness, angst, humor, loyalty kink, hurt/comfort, (esp physical hurt).

DNWs: coffeeshop or high school AUs, curtainfic, fusions or crossovers with other fandoms unless specified

Fandoms:

The Americans

Elizabeth Jennings

I adore this show and I love Elizabeth the most, in all her sometimes prickly, sometimes icy, sometimes (always!!) hot glory. What consistently gets me with her is the theme of identity, of the irony of somebody with such a strong sense of political and national identity dealing with both the necessity of subsuming it in 90% of her daily life (in terms of their cover as the Jenningses and her various undercover operations) and with the shifting identities of her children and of Philip. I loved the hand gesture/ritual she taught Paige and how it showed the, like, machinery and reinforcement of her identity construction. I'd love to see more moments like that, of Elizabeth's sense of herself, if she exists to herself outside of the mission and what that means.

Motherhood as a challenge to personal identity is always fascinating to me too, so seeing where the decision to have children (obviously mandated by the Center) fit in earlier in their mission could be interesting to explore. I'm here for some darkness here; I love the anecdote from Gregory early on where he tells Philip about Elizabeth showing up on his doorstep right before Paige was born--how did she imagine things playing out with their children, how did she feel about having Philip's kids specifically?

I adore her relationship with Philip (even when the love between them is on the ebb side of its ebb and flow) and any interaction you included between them would be great. I love missionfic, honeypot scenarios, their ridiculous disguises, the way Elizabeth uses her sexuality and how things differ in the field vs. in their own bed--like the night she wanted to sleep with "Clark" and the mess that was. Their bedroom as this almost sacred space the kids aren't allowed in, all the interactions we see there, how often we see Elizabeth in the bathroom, taking off makeup, shedding the day. When does she think she's the most herself and how does Philip fit into that after all these years?

Star Trek: Discovery

Michael Burnham

I was tentatively looking forward to this as a bigtime Trekkie and holy shit it has not disappointed so far, although of course at this point we're only 3 episodes in and my ship has been sunk in fine style. But Michael is absolutely My Kind of Character and I was in love from the very first scene, and I cannot wait to see where the rest of the season takes her. With that said please don't worry about getting jossed and feel free to incorporate evolving canon as you see fit.

At this point her backstory has been sketched in broad strokes, but I see a ton of room for filling out the little details: her struggles on Vulcan, her relationships with Sarek and Amanda (!!) the decision to join Starfleet and her evolving relationship with Philippa (because holy shit they Loved Each Other). How does Michael get from the pseudo-Vulcan recruit we see in that flashback of her initial entry onto the ship to the XO bantering with her captain in the very first shot of the series? Again, missionfic is amazing here, as are Michael's relationships with her crewmates, especially Philippa and Saru. I absolutely ship her with Philippa and I'm really into the power differential/mentor-mentee dynamic there, so if you wanted to play that up in a sexual and/or romantic context I would be totally here for it.

Following our timeskip into the present, I'm interested in the Discovery's project and its attendant horrors, and Michael's juggling her emerging knowledge of that with getting along on board on a daily basis- I love Silvia Tilly and their nascent bonding and the tension of her relationship with Saru, especially now that he outranks her (in her old position as first officer!). I know this is all over the place but anything that gets Michael interacting with another character and showing me a little more of what makes her tick would thrill me. I loved the last scene of ep 3 with the old school book- what are some other little things that bring Michael comfort and small moments of pleasure after the events on the Shenzhou? Does she have difficulty allowing herself those things again? Does she really believe her sentence is deserved?

Also I can't hear someone refer to someone else as their "ward" and not be all eyes emoji about it, and like...Sarek telling Michael to behave? I'm fine. Honestly write me a messed up pseudo-incestuous hookup or ongoing relationship between them and I will eat it up with a spoon. Does Amanda know about it? Is Amanda into it? Does it have something to do with pon farr??? Infidelity is also my jam so however you want to handle that is fine with me.

I would prefer characters from other iterations of Trek not appear here unless they also have a role in Discovery. Easter eggs or passing mentions are fine but I really don't want a story revolving around, say, Michael babysitting young Spock.

Life (TV)

Charlie Crews, Dani Reese

love this show a whole lot and I wanted so many more seasons of these two. I love both Charlie and Dani, their various personal struggles and coping mechanisms, some more successful than others. I love the dark streak that's there in both of them: Dani's addiction, Charlie's past and his complicated relationship with violence. I think they both have something of a self-destructive impulse they're both fighting much of the time. And of course their odd couple/unlikely partners thing, Dani as the straight man/foil to Charlie's damaged weirdo and the moments when she's perfectly self-aware about that dynamic and plays with it.

I love casefic, but let's be real, the best thing about partners in a police procedural is all the forced proximity and mortal peril. Stakeouts, shared motel rooms, being stuck out in the middle of nowhere for reasons...it's all gold. Any trope that fits well here is fair game: Undercover as a couple! Undercover pretending to be enemies. Being forced to hurt your partner/forced to watch someone else hurt your partner. Hurt/comfort. Patching each other up physically or emotionally etc. etc. Shootouts. Charlie beating the shit out of a suspect Pelican Bay-style. Charlie rambling philosophically at said suspect.

If you don't ship it romantically, that's totally cool, and I think any of these scenarios with a platonic spin would make me just as happy. I love this show best when these two are bouncing off each other, so any way you accomplish that is awesome.

It's that time again! Yay! I am really excited that we matched on one of these fandoms and I can't wait to see what you write.

AO3: jouissant

Some general likes: any tense, any rating, any POV, banter, darkfic, bittersweet endings, messed up relationships and/or obsessive relationships, slice of life, canon divergence AUs, historical AUs, noir AUs, magical realism/magical elements, angst, humor, loyalty kink

DNWs: pregnancy, coffeeshop or high school AUs, fusions or crossovers with other fandoms unless specified


The Baker (2007) (Milo Shakespeare, Bjorn)

I saw this a few months back and I honestly haven't been so taken with anything in a long time. It's a such a weird and ridiculous little movie but there's so much to love about it and if you haven't seen it I highly recommend checking it out.

Featuring Damian Lewis as a reluctant assassin trying to quit the business by posing as a baker in a tiny Welsh town, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau as his obsessed ex-something, gratuitous scenery porn and baking montages, mistaken identities, wacky neighbors, attempted murder, fencing, and a sweet, awkward love story. The US release is titled Assassin in Love if you need to hunt it down.

I would love to see some backstory for these two. Did they have a fling or a relationship? What started it and/or ended it? What was their working relationship like-- were they partners or was there always an element of rivalry/oneupmanship at play? WHAT HAPPENED IN AMSTERDAM?

Alternately, tell me about their relationship post-canon. Does Bjorn come into the bakery? How do Milo and Rhiannon interact with him? Can two ex-assassins who once tried to kill each other with fencing swords really be just friends?


Mr. Robot (Elliot Alderson, Edward Alderson|Mr. Robot, Darlene Alderson, Tyrell Wellick)


This show is the best show and has quickly become my obsession. There's so much going on and I love all of the characters so much, as well as the mood of the show in general. I would prefer not to receive an AU for this fandom with the exception of canon-divergence AUs. Other than that please feel free to go all out with darkfic, mindfuckery, incest, dub or noncon, character death/injury/vomiting and sweating/terrible things befalling woobie Elliot. I'm here for that. Or you know, plotty gen! I'm dividing the prompts...shippily, for lack of a better word, but honestly the way canon shows us these characters interacting is amazing and gen in the tone of canon would be more than welcome.

I'm also fine with any combination of the nominated characters appearing in the story, so please don't feel that you need to fit all 4 of them in.

Elliot/Mr. Robot

Honestly, the intersection and interplay of these two is catnip to me, so feel free to interpret that in any way that suits you. I love how we're gradually coming to see what Mr. Robot is for Elliot, and anything expanding on that would be amazing. How did the Mr. Robot persona come about, exactly? Did it have something to do with Elliot being locked in the server room? Tell me how Mr. Robot thinks, how he operates, how he's different from Elliot, what he does when Elliot's not there.

On the more prurient side of things, how precisely did Mr. Robot get Elliot through his withdrawal in the motel? We know he takes punches for Elliot and is present during the attempted gang rape in jail, but how else might he have gotten Elliot through it if it had actually gone down? Mr. Robot variously hurting and comforting Elliot (preferably via sex) is my jam.

Tyrell/Elliot

The revelation in 2 x 11 that Tyrell wasn't dead and had been planning Stage 2 with Elliot all along made me ship it when I had been kind of meh before. On a general level, though, I can't get away from the thought that they've had all these interactions that Elliot doesn't remember but that are significant to Tyrell. What were those like? How did Tyrell and Mr. Robot interact during those planning stages? Did they have some sort of relationship that Elliot now has no memory of, or has Tyrell's obsession with Elliot always been entirely one-sided? If you feel like it, how would an Elliot/Tyrell/Mr. Robot threesome work?

I'm also really interested in Tyrell on his own- his backstory, his relationship with Joanna, his relationship with his father. He seems by turns extremely cold and calculating and also like...a wreck, for lack of a better word. What's that vacillation about? What brings it about, besides Elliot?


Darlene Alderson

I adore Darlene, and her developing storyline was my favorite part of season 2. I love how scrappy she is and her toughness and the way she keeps it together after 5/9 as everyone is panicking around her right up until she's in the interrogation room with Dom. I'd love something set during that time frame, maybe when they're headquartered in Susan Jacob's house and she's the fearless leader. I particularly love her friendship with Trenton, who's also nominated, so something involving the two of them would be awesome. Or, how does she feel about Cisco, really? Her moment by the pool with Susan had me screaming...something following on from that and her feelings about killing her would be really cool too.

I also really love what we've seen of her relationship with Elliot and I'd like to see it through her eyes- tell me more about their childhood from Darlene's POV- besides Careful Massacre of the Bourgeoisie, what else did they bond over? Was Darlene's story about being kidnapped true?

If you're really feeling the darkness/mindfuckery, allow me to submit the fact that Elliot kissing her when he couldn't remember who she was really did it for me, so make of that what you will.

Imperial Radch series--Ann Leckie (Awn Elming, Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen|Breq)

My absolute favorite element of these books is the insight we get into the AI/ancillary experience, in particular through Breq-as-One Esk Nineteen. I love how much of that experience revolved around and was communicated through her relationship with Lieutenant Awn, and the mutual respect/loyalty/love they shared. I mean, that loyalty and Breq's desire to atone inspired her quest for the gun over decades and kept her going when she'd lost everything, especially her identity as Justice of Toren.

I'd love to see a fic exploring that relationship further, whether it's something set prior to the incident on Shis'urna, something during that time period, or Breq reflecting after the destruction of the ship. How does One Esk's intimate knowledge of Awn affect their relationship? How does it affect Awn's relationship with Skaaiat? Tell me about the progression of One Esk's loyalty up to the point of shooting Awn, tell me more about the technical or physiological aspects of how One Esk reads Awn, tell me a story about a relationship between the two of them, tell me more about ancillary sex, or about Awn as a hapless baby lieutenant and One Esk looking after her and having her back.

Life (TV) (Charlie Crews, Dani Reese)

This show. I love this show a whole lot and I wanted so many more seasons of these two. I love both Charlie and Dani, their various personal struggles and coping mechanisms, some more successful than others. I love the dark streak that's there in both of them: Dani's addiction, Charlie's past and his complicated relationship with violence. I think they both have something of a self-destructive impulse they're both fighting much of the time. And of course their odd couple/unlikely partners thing, Dani as the straight man/foil to Charlie's damaged weirdo and the moments when she's perfectly self-aware about that dynamic and plays with it.

I love casefic, but let's be real, if you ship it the best thing about partners in a police procedural is all the forced proximity and mortal peril. Stakeouts, shared motel rooms, being stuck out in the middle of nowhere for reasons...it's all gold. Any trope that fits well here is fair game: Undercover as a couple! Undercover pretending to be enemies. Being forced to hurt your partner/forced to watch someone else hurt your partner. Hurt/comfort. Patching each other up physically or emotionally etc. etc. Shootouts. Charlie beating the shit out of a suspect Pelican Bay-style. Charlie rambling philosophically at said suspect.

If you don't ship it romantically, that's totally cool, and I think any of these scenarios with a platonic spin would make me just as happy. I love this show best when these two are bouncing off each other, so any way you accomplish that is awesome.

If you, like me, are a fan of ridiculous Life/Standoff crossover shipping shenanigans and want to team Charlie and Matt up, you have my blessing. Any of the police procedural partner tropes I talked about above would definitely apply there too.

Yay! I loved this fest the first time I did it and am excited to be part of this round. Just some general things I like: banter, creepy stuff/horror, bittersweetness, space, darker themes, angst (resolved or not), obsessive and/or codependent relationships, gallows humor, magical realism, magical creatures, friendships, m/m, m/f, f/f, threesomes and moresomes, fic of any rating. I don't know, every time I try to come up with lists of what I like seems more random than the last. I'm really easy to please, honestly.

AO3: jouissant

Requesting fic for all of these. I don't know, I'm just going to ramble about these songs. Please feel free to run in any direction they pull you--half the fun for me is seeing how different people interpret them.

This Tornado Loves You--Neko Case

There's so much violence and obsession in this song, and maybe some delusion, too. Who is the singer? A murderer, a villain, a literal storm? Who do they want and why? What drove them to this point? There's obviously history here, and in the moments when she's singing about their past there's a real innocence there to me--tell me their backstory or tell me about who they are to each other, or about how things end up. Is this other person impressed by the carnage, or horrified?

The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest-- Bob Dylan

This song sounds like a fable to me-- like something told to kids to warn them off. Like okay, Frankie gets tempted into a whorehouse or whatever, but we all know he's really there for his good friend Judas Priest. So what's their deal? Is Judas Priest some kind of demon tempting Frankie to sin? Was he an innocent once who was corrupted along the way and is now bent on tempting his companion? Is this all bullshit, and did they grow old happily together somewhere, and shake their heads at how wrong the history books got it? This is such a Tragic Gay moral panic kind of story to me and I am all about any way to you want to take that or turn it on its head.

I Love You, Honeybear--Father John Misty

Everything is doomed, and nothing will be spared--but I love you, Honeybear.

A couple wrapped up in each other while the world burns--are they the instigators? Are they exempt somehow? Are they in denial? Do they just not care? What kind of apocalypse is this, anyway? Literal or metaporical? How right are they that they'll make it out together?

Rusholme Ruffians--The Smiths

This song paints such a picture for me- the last night of the fair, and people are out looking for love, for money, for sex, for all of the above. Who's the narrator? Who or what is he looking for tonight? I mean, his faith in love is STILL DEVOUT even if he walks home alone, and also he wants you to scratch his name on your arm with a fountain pen...this dude has a lot going on. He sounds in love with love to me, for better or for worse. This is why The Smiths will always appeal to my inner lovesick teenager; this song has always had a life-or-death vibe to me in the way that young love tends to feel. Does he have a relationship with any of the people he sings about at the fair? The schoolgirl, the greasy-haired speedway operator, the boy who's stabbed? Or is one of these people him, and he's telling a story about himself?

First off, thanks for signing up and offering these songs! I'm really excited about this fest and think the concept is really cool, so I'm looking forward to pretty much anything. I don't tend to come up with very concrete narrative ideas from songs outside of what's explicitly there in the lyrics, so please feel free to take any prompts very loosely or just go to town writing original fic inspired by the song in some way. I say this in all my dear author letters, but I really want to read the story you want to write, and that matters way more to me than anything I suggest here. Especially with this fest, I'm really looking forward to being taken in a totally random direction with my assignment, so I want to emphasize that kind of open ended-ness in my letter. I like slash, femslash, het and gen fic, all ratings. I have very few squicks, and can be sold on pretty much anything narrative-wise.

General thematic likes: worldbuildy stuff, in spaaaaace, dystopias, creepiness, horror elements, totally weird & out of left field stuff, slice of life, historical fiction, romance, melancholy or dark fic as long as there's hope in there somewhere.

Dislikes: lots of explicit gore or violence, though aftermath or discussion of such is fine. Totally gratuitous non-con, although again it's all in the handling.

The songs!

Cemetery Gates, The Smiths: I get this image of friends who are also academic or artistic rivals in some way, because of the narrator chiding the second person for plagiarizing. Adults or teenagers or younger kids, it's all good. Why are they in the cemetery? Are they ~deep, emo teenagers who hang out in graveyards? Are they ghosts?


Hairdresser on Fire, Morrissey: The story behind this song is fascinating to me- it just seems like such an off the wall thing to write about. I would love to read a story that just takes the lyrics and plays them straight: A hairdresser with powers-what are they exactly? Is this a world where this kind of power is common, or are they hiding it? "Can you squeeze me into an empty page in your diary/and supernaturally change me?/I've got faith in you."


Razzle-Dazzle Rose, Camera Obscura: So Razzle-Dazzle Rose is a Crayola crayon color, which I know because I was really into the massive package of Crayolas as a child. Anyway. Maybe because of that, I get kind of a coming of age/childhood friendships evolving vibe from this song. Femslash for this one might be really awesome.

Off To The Races, Lana Del Ray: There's so much going on here, man. You could go play with the Old Hollywood vibe, write about a struggling actress who thinks she has it all figured out, treat her as an unreliable narrator, write her as actual Lolita/Dolores Haze all grown up...this song pleases me immensely, so you can seriously just go nuts with it and I'm sure I'll love it.