ShipSwap Letter
Feb. 9th, 2015 10:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
linndechirDear ShipSwap Writer,
First of all, thank you for writing a fic for me! I'm happy that you ship at least one of my requested ships and I'm looking forward to whatever you're going to write for me. I've copied and pasted a lot from my Yuletide letter because my general preferences haven't really changed much in the last few months. I have a short list of general likes and dislikes followed by an overly long list of all kinds of tropes I enjoy, and then some more specific stuff about the ships I requested. Obviously I don't expect you to include everything I mention in this letter; I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be possible anyway. But I always prefer to err on the side of caution and write very long letters - that way you can hopefully find a few things in this letter that you also enjoy writing about, and ignore the rest. :)
I use the same name on AO3 and tumblr as here.
Things I like:
- I like first time fics and established relationships, I like porn as much as I like more subtle sexual tension, I like fluffy vanilla sex with cuddles and filthy smut (any rating is fine). I also adore plotty fics in which a bunch of other things happen to my ship as well, so if writing fics that are exclusively romance and/or porn isn't your thing, that's fine by me. As long as my ship is, in one way or another, the focus of the fic, I'm happy. Feel free to include other characters as well; I've mentioned who my other favourites are in the fandom-specific sections below.
- I also like: character studies, characters' thoughts and opinions on each other, their first meetings and first impressions (especially if we don't get to see the beginnings of their relationship in canon), background stories about a character's past, missing scenes from canon, plotty future/post-canon fics that explore where these characters are going, plotty what-if fics that explore what would have happened if a character had made a different choice, fics from a different POV than usual in canon, fics from an outside POV …
- I'm fine with dark themes (violence, angst, depression, whatever you need for the plot, I have no particular triggers), but I'd prefer if my fic wasn't completely tragic. A bit of hope would be nice, and I'd rather my favourite characters/ships get a happy or semi-happy ending, even if they have to go through terrible things before they get it.
Things I do not like:
- major character death, especially of my favourite characters, and completely tragic/dark endings
- crossovers and complete AUs (canon divergence is fine, but no high school AUs, coffee shop AUs etc.). The only exception: I like daemon fics a lot. (As in His Dark Materials daemons. Never mind if you're not familiar with or don't like the concept.)
- I'd rather not have any ship I didn't request included in my fic.
- genderbend fics of any kind, mpreg, A/B/O, characters being vampires/werewolves/anything but human (unless they already aren't human in canon, of course)
- I have a major pet peeve for phrases like "the blond one said this", "the taller man did that", "the soldier replied". Please use people's names and pronouns.
Other tropes and kinks I like:
Again, there's absolutely no need to include any of these, but if they generally fit into your fic and if they're things that you like to write about, I would love it if you included any of the following themes/tropes/kinks.
Non-sexual:
- themes like loyalty, codependency, obsession, trust, and commitment issues
- characters dealing with moral dilemmas, having to question their principles, or simply wanting to do things they think they shouldn't be doing. This can be anything from "doing this would shake my entire worldview" to "maybe I shouldn't screw my boss".
- intimacy, familiarity, people learning/knowing about each other's everyday habits/hang-ups
- difficulties to express feelings verbally and non-verbal expressions of affections
- age differences
- protectiveness/going ballistic when the other one is threatened
- hurt/comfort, taking care of each other
- other people assuming the two characters are a couple (especially when they aren't yet)
- sharing food/drinks/cigarettes/clothes
Sexual:
- clothes fetishisation (sex between a dressed and an undressed person; one of them having a thing for the other's clothes (tailored suits, uniforms, leather gloves/boots/jackets, silk shirts etc.); people dressing/undressing each other; someone casual cleans up nicely, someone who's always prim and proper looks dishevelled for once)
- asphyxiation/breathplay, touching/kissing/biting/petting the other's throat/neck, oversensitive necks, hickeys, marking
- characters losing control in bed (speechlessness, whimpering, moaning, shivering, begging)
- messiness (sweat, come play, dishevelled clothes, dishevelled hair, breathlessness etc.)
- first time sex (i.e. first time between the two characters; exploring each other's bodies, finding out slowly what the other one likes)
- small gestures of affection/casual touching/discreet PDA; accidental touching/stimulation
- seduction (sweet talking, dirty talk, teasing, eyefucking)
- sexual fantasies, daydreaming, masturbation, especially before the characters get together
- massages, backrubs, stroking the other's hair
- friction, frottage, intercrural (anal is fine, too, obviously)
- banter/teasing (during sex and otherwise)
- competence kink/admiration
- body worship, people being madly attracted to each other, getting distracted because they're staring at each other
- scars and their history
- hand fetish (strong/soft/rough/calloused/gentle hands, long fingers, handling guns/knives/cigarettes etc., kissing the other's wrists/fingers)
- beards and stubble (especially on people who are usually clean-shaven), beard burn on the other person's cheek/neck/thighs …
- voice/accent kink
- oral fixation (licking/biting one's lips, drinking from beer bottles, smoking)
- oral sex, rimming
- light bondage/restraints (pinning someone down, holding their wrists, holding their mouth shut with one hand, blindfolds), D/s overtones (ordering the other to undress, to kneel, to hold still etc.)
- sex on tables/sofas/against walls etc. (sex in beds is great too)
- sleep-related themes (sharing a bed, falling asleep on the other's shoulder, waking the other, having dreams about each other, comforting the other after nightmares etc.)
About my fandoms:
Rivers of London
Thomas Nightingale/Peter Grant
(Mostly c&p from my Yuletide letter. I did receive absolutely wonderful Rivers of London fics for Yuletide last year, but I'm still very much in love with this ship and always happy to read more fic about them. :))
I really love the setting of these books, I'm incredibly fond of many of the characters, I'm crazy about Peter and Nightingale's relationship, and I really love Peter's narration style (the self-deprecation, the irony, the pop culture references, his love for London and for architecture). I love worldbuilding for this fandom, especially anything related to the history of the Folly (because I love the Folly a lot), and Peter's admiration (fanboycrush) for Nightingale, I like it when Peter and Nightingale are both being emotionally constipated and not very good at talking about their feelings and probably misunderstanding each other quite a bit (although I would like if they figured things out eventually and got a happy ending), and I'd love anything dealing with Nightingale's very probable PTSD and depression and loneliness (and how having Peter with him helps at least somewhat).
I also like many other characters in the books and wouldn't mind at all if they appeared in the fic. This goes especially for Seawoll (love the guy more than is probably healthy and am massively intrigued by his visceral, extremely personal dislike for Nightingale), Stephanopoulos, Dr Walid, Guleed, Kumar, Postmartin, Frank Caffrey, and really anyone who has anything to do with the Met or the Folly. I'm not all that interested in the Rivers (but I do like Oberon), and while I like Lesley just fine, I'd prefer if the fic wasn't half about her (although I'm perfectly fine with her appearing/getting mentioned).
A few prompt ideas, feel free to use and combine these in any way that works for you:
- any sort of first time/get together fic. I think it's obvious that they care about each other a lot, but they're both not the most emotionally available people and they're both very aware of the hierarchical differences between them, so I'd be extremely interested to see how they would ever move from their friendly, but professional relationship to a romantic one. I could see it happening after one of them was hurt/abducted/almost killed/otherwise in danger and the other had to acknowledge his feelings, but I'd also be happy to see other scenarios. (One little caveat: I'm not a huge fan of the "they got drunk (or there was sex pollen or a sex spell) and fucked and now they have to deal with the consequences" trope.)
- anything domestic. I want to see all the details about their life together. Their breakfast conversations. Their Latin lessons. Exasperated Nightingale trying to teach Peter something while Peter gets distracted. Peter showing Nightingale weird shit on the internet and Nightingale being all "you are not serious, this is not a thing people do". Nightingale telling Peter about stuff people used to do when Nightingale was young and Peter thinks Nightingale is pulling his leg. Playful banter over a beer at the pub. Comfortable silences while Nightingale watches rugby in the coach house and Peter sits next to him reading stuff on the internet. I have a thing for how easily they settle into each other's lives and routines, how they get used to each other's habits and how they become such a central part of each other's lives.
- I have a soft spot for Nightingale saving Peter when Peter is in danger. I'd especially like to see the fall-out from this: Nightingale being shaken after almost losing the last person he has left in the world, maybe getting a little emotional (for his standards) but trying not to show it; Peter realising just how much Nightingale cares about him and so on. If you'd rather have Peter save Nightingale for once, that'd be interesting, too.
- I'm very fascinated by Nightingale's past. Either flashbacks or Nightingale telling Peter about his past, about previous cases he worked, about his family or friends or colleagues, about his time at Casterbrook, about what the Folly used to be like before the war, about his life after the war etc.
- if you like to write plotty longfic, I'd love to see them work a case in the style of the books. If you combine this with any of the stuff above, all the better. Ghosts? Werewolves? Demons? Horrible murders? Someone is mindcontroling powerful people? A weird magical disease breaks out? Secret books or other dangerous items get stolen? Someone tried to break into the Folly? Something from Nightingales's past comes back to haunt him? The Faceless Man made his next move? I'd also be intrigued by any combination of supernatural and modern elements (the internet/TV equivalent of the Rivers, any supernatural being using the internet for supernatural crimes, industrialised magic, ghost hackers, cyberpunk demons, whatever you can come up with – anything that will require Nightingale's knowledge of the supernatural and Peter's knowledge of the modern world).
- this is slightly cracky and I have no idea what you'd have to do to make this work (visions? dreams? weird time travel accident?), but I'd love for Peter to see the pre-war Folly somehow, and maybe see (meet?) pre-war Nightingale and his friends; do what you want with this. I'd even go for a total AU in which Peter was born in the early 20th century and becomes Nightingale's apprentice in the 20s/30s and everyone at the Folly is scandalised because Peter isn't white and the Folly was kind of a wealthy white guy club, and Nightingale doesn't really care because he's fond of Peter.
A few fandom-specific Do-Not-Wants:
- I firmly headcanon Nightingale as gay (and not repressed about it), so please nothing about Nightingale being attracted to women.
- I'm fine with Peter briefly mentioning his attraction to other people the way he does in canon, if it's necessary for the plot/narration, but I'd rather not get a fic in which Peter constantly goes on about being into Lesley/Beverley/etc.
- I like the plot twist at the end of Broken Homes for what it is.I've seen theories about Lesley having been undercover or having secret plans to bring down the Faceless Man or having been mind-controlled, but I'd prefer not to have those as a part of my gift.
- I've read Foxglove Summer, so no worries about spoilers. However I really didn't like the whole Peter/Beverley part of it, so if we could just ignore that ever happened, I'll be much happier.
The Raven Cycle
I mostly love these books for the characters. My absolute favourite is Ronan (how original of me) - I'd especially love to find out more about his family history, the whole greywaren thing, and the beginnings of his friendship with Gansey. There's so much in canon that's only hinted at about Ronan and I'd love any fic that fleshes this out. The same really goes for all of the characters I requested: I find Gansey intriguing with his incredibly obsessive personality, his need to take care of his friends and especially of Ronan, his desperate need to belong somewhere, the clash between everything he appears to be and everything he really is. I've also grown incredibly fond of Declan over the last few months, because for all his superficial charm and control freak tendencies, he truly cares about his family and tries in his own messed up way to keep them together, and at the same time he doesn't really have anyone who takes care of him, anyone who wonders if he maybe needs help to deal with his grief. And Niall is just a gigantic mystery looming over both Declan and Ronan - I have no idea what to think of him, and I'd love to know more (although I really don't like any interpretations of Niall as outright abusive - he was by all accounts pretty strange and he had some weird ideas about raising his children, but I don't think he beat or mistreated them).
I also like Adam, Blue, and Noah, so if you want to include them in the fic, that's fine by me. However, I'm really not a fan of both Blue/Gansey and Ronan/Adam. Both ships just don't work for me, and while I can deal with them in canon, I have no interest in reading about them in fanfic, not even briefly mentioned. I think Blue/Adam is cute, though, or Blue/Noah, so if you want to include that in the background, I don't mind. And for what it's worth I ship Declan/Adam, but I don't think anyone except me is into that. ;) Oh, and I find Kavinsky pretty interesting with his one-sided thing for Ronan (and, okay, Ronan totally having the hots for him despite the fact that he doesn't really like him), so you can include him, too, if you like.
Richard Gansey III/Ronan Lynch
Pretty much my main ship and endgame OTP for this fandom. It's just so obvious how important they are to each other, and all that loyalty and codependence and barely being able to be apart stuff really appeals to me. I don't mind a bit of an unhealthy obsession angle with these two because that's how they are in canon, completely incapable of NOT being together. But I also think they're happy with each other, no matter how codependent and obsessed they are.
Oh, and while I talk a lot about their friendship in my prompts, I still want explicitly shippy fic about them. I do like their friendship, but I'd like to get shipfic for a ship exchange, not gen or pre-slash. Obviously it doesn't have to be porn, but I'd like there to be no ambiguity that it's a romantic/sexual relationship.
A few prompts, feel free to use these in any way that works for you:
- any fic about the beginnings of their friendship: how Gansey befriended Ronan, what Ronan was like before his father died etc. If you include Gansey meeting Ronan's family for the first time, that'd be amazing. I'd also love to see how and when exactly that friendship developed into something more, well, shippy.
- anything set around the time of Niall's death: Ronan's immediate reaction, how he changed afterwards, how Gansey felt about the whole thing, when exactly Ronan moved into Monmouth etc. Again, if you want to include Declan in this as well, I'd love that.
- getting together fic! I always love those. I'd especially be interested to see if/how their relationship changes once sex becomes a part of it, and how exactly that happened. I'm good with any scenario for this - Ronan being in denial about being in love with his best friend and Gansey going for it, Gansey being a bit repressed and Ronan going for it, slow UST build-up until they just can't stay away from each other ... Whatever works for you.
- outside POVs or reactions to their relationship. From the rest of the gang, from Kavinsky, from Declan and Matthew, from Gansey's family ... Bonus if people already assumed they were together even before they were.
- I'm always here for plotty fics that continue the canon storyline, just with less of the true love and Blue/Gansey stuff that I don't like about canon. ;)
- oh, and something a bit specific: I would LOVE a fic set right after the substance party in The Dream Thieves and that whole "dream me the world" conversation, anything that explores the whole idea of how "wild" Gansey looked that night, the "Gansey Ronan liked best". Car racing? Wild animalistic outdoors sex in Cabeswater? Wild car sex? Possessive angry Gansey who doesn't like the way Kavinsky and Ronan are looking at each other?Kavinsky being really disappointed that he's not the one who gets to have car sex with Ronan. ;)
- generally, this ship is made for D/s, so if you want to write something kinky in that direction, go for it.
Declan Lynch/Ronan Lynch
Yuletide made me ship these two, although I'm surprised that I didn't already ship them before. Tragic complicated brother relationships are my thing. Any fic that explores how much these two still care about each other, but are completely incapable of expressing it in sensible ways or dealing with their bottled up issues would be great. I generally find Declan very interesting and would love to see something about this relationship that's also sympathetic to his point of view, not only Ronan's. Can be more on the level of complicated, uncomfortable UST (as long as they're both aware of it being UST), but I'd also be interested in a fic in which they actually act on it. If you want to combine this in any way with Ronan/Gansey or Ronan/Niall, I'm all for that.
A few ideas:
- anything about how their relationship changed with Niall's death. How close were they before? Was Declan ever bitter about Ronan being Niall's favourite? Or were they especially close since Niall was often gone for a long time? Also, in which regards do they maybe remind each other of their father after his death? I can imagine that especially Ronan would hate those moments when Declan looks or sounds or behaves like Niall.
- something dealing with Declan's own grief for his father and how he kind of bottled it up because he felt like he had to take care of his family instead of feeling sorry for himself; maybe combined with some bitterness about Ronan behaving like he's the only one who lost someone
- if you can get them to make up in any way, even a little bit, that would be beautiful.
- once they can return to the Barns, I'd love to see Declan actually going there. To reminisce, to get old family pictures, to see his mother if she's still there ... and if Ronan happens to be there, well. Go from there.
- I'd love to see either of them getting protective about the other (because only a Lynch can beat up a Lynch, right?)
- quick, guilty, shameful, we'll-never-talk-about-this sex of any kind with desperate clinging to each other before they go back to not being able to have a civilised conversation
Niall Lynch/Ronan Lynch
Kind of my wildcard ship here because I'm not exactly sure how you'd make this work, but if you offered to write this, dear author, I figure you might have an idea. ;) I'm generally interested in Niall's relationship with Ronan (if you can build in his relationship with Declan on the side, all the better) - how much did he tell/teach Ronan about his dreaming abilities? He must have been rather secretive considering how little Ronan seems to know about them. And how does the whole religious angle play into that? Because I'm pretty sure Ronan wouldn't be so incredibly Catholic if his father hadn't been as well. I'm not really sure I have prompts for this ship, not because I want it any less than the other ships, but because I'm really here for anything (as long as it's consensual and mostly happy for everyone involved; again, not really fond of interpretations of Niall as abusive and horrible). Weird codependent father-and-his-favourite-son stuff? Freaky dream sex in shared dreams? Like with Declan/Ronan, I'd be good with complicated UST or with something more explicit. I'm really open to most things for this ship, so surprise me. And again, if you want to combine this ship with one or both of my other ships for Ronan, that'd also be welcome. Also, I'm all for daddy kink with these two, obviously. I only didn't put it in my general likes because I don't think it works for most other ships I've requested, but obviously it's very welcome for this ship.
The Silmarillion
Fëanor/Fingolfin
And another messed up complicated brother ship! There's just so much going on between them, so much resentment and anger and repressed love and grudging respect, it's a beautiful mess. Not to mention that they'd be an absolute force of nature if they ever reconciled, so I'm very intrigued by anything that explores moments during which they were NOT trying to kill each other. ;)
For side ships/characters: I also really love Fëanor's sons (all of them, and Amras is not dead), so if they appear as well in your fic, that's a bonus. (For that matter, I also ship all eight Fëanorians with each other, if you want to include any of that. I kind of ship Fëanor with a lot of people.) I like Fingon as well, although I'm not all that fond of Fingon/Maedhros.
A few prompts/ideas:
- I'm mostly interested in AUs in which Fëanor survives. Anything about him and Fingolfin meeting again once Fingolfin arrives in Middle-earth - the additional issues they'd have after the burning of the ships at Losgar, the fact that they'd both know at that point that they need to work together to fight Morgoth, how they'd somehow try to reconcile despite everything that's still between them. Ideally they'd manage to grow closer again, but you can make this however messy and complicated you like. They are both incredibly proud and stubborn.
- if that kind of AU is not your thing, I'm also good with any fic set during their time in Valinor. Their first time, or one of the rare times that they actually got along well and did something fun together and were relatively friendly to each other, or some time when they had a huge fight and snapped and snarled at each other and ended up having rough hate sex, or just anything set during your usual Finwean family madness.
- steampunk AU! I know I said I don't like AUs, but this is the one exception. Mostly ties in with my first prompt, though, because I do think that realistically, if Fëanor had lived, he would have invented a lot more than just swords and bows and arrows to fight Morgoth. So if you want to write steampunk elves in Middle-earth for me, I will love you forever.
- other than that: really anything that uses some of the tropes I listed at the beginning of this letter is great. First time fics? Perfect. Loyalty and trust issues? Great. Awkward hurt/comfort? Always. Inability to express their emotions properly, so they end up arguing or having sex in inappropriate places or snapping pointlessly at each other? Yes please. Slowly growing intimacy? Yessss. Outside POVs? Also yes.
As always, this letter ended up being embarrassingly long, but like I said, all of this is just supposed to give you ideas. I hope you find a few things you like in all this rambling, a prompt you'd like to write or tropes that appeal to you. I love all of these ships and I'm always here for more fic about them, so I'm sure I will enjoy whatever you write for me.
Thanks again!
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linndechir
First of all, thank you for writing a fic for me! I'm happy that you ship at least one of my requested ships and I'm looking forward to whatever you're going to write for me. I've copied and pasted a lot from my Yuletide letter because my general preferences haven't really changed much in the last few months. I have a short list of general likes and dislikes followed by an overly long list of all kinds of tropes I enjoy, and then some more specific stuff about the ships I requested. Obviously I don't expect you to include everything I mention in this letter; I'm pretty sure that wouldn't be possible anyway. But I always prefer to err on the side of caution and write very long letters - that way you can hopefully find a few things in this letter that you also enjoy writing about, and ignore the rest. :)
I use the same name on AO3 and tumblr as here.
Things I like:
- I like first time fics and established relationships, I like porn as much as I like more subtle sexual tension, I like fluffy vanilla sex with cuddles and filthy smut (any rating is fine). I also adore plotty fics in which a bunch of other things happen to my ship as well, so if writing fics that are exclusively romance and/or porn isn't your thing, that's fine by me. As long as my ship is, in one way or another, the focus of the fic, I'm happy. Feel free to include other characters as well; I've mentioned who my other favourites are in the fandom-specific sections below.
- I also like: character studies, characters' thoughts and opinions on each other, their first meetings and first impressions (especially if we don't get to see the beginnings of their relationship in canon), background stories about a character's past, missing scenes from canon, plotty future/post-canon fics that explore where these characters are going, plotty what-if fics that explore what would have happened if a character had made a different choice, fics from a different POV than usual in canon, fics from an outside POV …
- I'm fine with dark themes (violence, angst, depression, whatever you need for the plot, I have no particular triggers), but I'd prefer if my fic wasn't completely tragic. A bit of hope would be nice, and I'd rather my favourite characters/ships get a happy or semi-happy ending, even if they have to go through terrible things before they get it.
Things I do not like:
- major character death, especially of my favourite characters, and completely tragic/dark endings
- crossovers and complete AUs (canon divergence is fine, but no high school AUs, coffee shop AUs etc.). The only exception: I like daemon fics a lot. (As in His Dark Materials daemons. Never mind if you're not familiar with or don't like the concept.)
- I'd rather not have any ship I didn't request included in my fic.
- genderbend fics of any kind, mpreg, A/B/O, characters being vampires/werewolves/anything but human (unless they already aren't human in canon, of course)
- I have a major pet peeve for phrases like "the blond one said this", "the taller man did that", "the soldier replied". Please use people's names and pronouns.
Other tropes and kinks I like:
Again, there's absolutely no need to include any of these, but if they generally fit into your fic and if they're things that you like to write about, I would love it if you included any of the following themes/tropes/kinks.
Non-sexual:
- themes like loyalty, codependency, obsession, trust, and commitment issues
- characters dealing with moral dilemmas, having to question their principles, or simply wanting to do things they think they shouldn't be doing. This can be anything from "doing this would shake my entire worldview" to "maybe I shouldn't screw my boss".
- intimacy, familiarity, people learning/knowing about each other's everyday habits/hang-ups
- difficulties to express feelings verbally and non-verbal expressions of affections
- age differences
- protectiveness/going ballistic when the other one is threatened
- hurt/comfort, taking care of each other
- other people assuming the two characters are a couple (especially when they aren't yet)
- sharing food/drinks/cigarettes/clothes
Sexual:
- clothes fetishisation (sex between a dressed and an undressed person; one of them having a thing for the other's clothes (tailored suits, uniforms, leather gloves/boots/jackets, silk shirts etc.); people dressing/undressing each other; someone casual cleans up nicely, someone who's always prim and proper looks dishevelled for once)
- asphyxiation/breathplay, touching/kissing/biting/petting the other's throat/neck, oversensitive necks, hickeys, marking
- characters losing control in bed (speechlessness, whimpering, moaning, shivering, begging)
- messiness (sweat, come play, dishevelled clothes, dishevelled hair, breathlessness etc.)
- first time sex (i.e. first time between the two characters; exploring each other's bodies, finding out slowly what the other one likes)
- small gestures of affection/casual touching/discreet PDA; accidental touching/stimulation
- seduction (sweet talking, dirty talk, teasing, eyefucking)
- sexual fantasies, daydreaming, masturbation, especially before the characters get together
- massages, backrubs, stroking the other's hair
- friction, frottage, intercrural (anal is fine, too, obviously)
- banter/teasing (during sex and otherwise)
- competence kink/admiration
- body worship, people being madly attracted to each other, getting distracted because they're staring at each other
- scars and their history
- hand fetish (strong/soft/rough/calloused/gentle hands, long fingers, handling guns/knives/cigarettes etc., kissing the other's wrists/fingers)
- beards and stubble (especially on people who are usually clean-shaven), beard burn on the other person's cheek/neck/thighs …
- voice/accent kink
- oral fixation (licking/biting one's lips, drinking from beer bottles, smoking)
- oral sex, rimming
- light bondage/restraints (pinning someone down, holding their wrists, holding their mouth shut with one hand, blindfolds), D/s overtones (ordering the other to undress, to kneel, to hold still etc.)
- sex on tables/sofas/against walls etc. (sex in beds is great too)
- sleep-related themes (sharing a bed, falling asleep on the other's shoulder, waking the other, having dreams about each other, comforting the other after nightmares etc.)
About my fandoms:
Rivers of London
Thomas Nightingale/Peter Grant
(Mostly c&p from my Yuletide letter. I did receive absolutely wonderful Rivers of London fics for Yuletide last year, but I'm still very much in love with this ship and always happy to read more fic about them. :))
I really love the setting of these books, I'm incredibly fond of many of the characters, I'm crazy about Peter and Nightingale's relationship, and I really love Peter's narration style (the self-deprecation, the irony, the pop culture references, his love for London and for architecture). I love worldbuilding for this fandom, especially anything related to the history of the Folly (because I love the Folly a lot), and Peter's admiration (fanboycrush) for Nightingale, I like it when Peter and Nightingale are both being emotionally constipated and not very good at talking about their feelings and probably misunderstanding each other quite a bit (although I would like if they figured things out eventually and got a happy ending), and I'd love anything dealing with Nightingale's very probable PTSD and depression and loneliness (and how having Peter with him helps at least somewhat).
I also like many other characters in the books and wouldn't mind at all if they appeared in the fic. This goes especially for Seawoll (love the guy more than is probably healthy and am massively intrigued by his visceral, extremely personal dislike for Nightingale), Stephanopoulos, Dr Walid, Guleed, Kumar, Postmartin, Frank Caffrey, and really anyone who has anything to do with the Met or the Folly. I'm not all that interested in the Rivers (but I do like Oberon), and while I like Lesley just fine, I'd prefer if the fic wasn't half about her (although I'm perfectly fine with her appearing/getting mentioned).
A few prompt ideas, feel free to use and combine these in any way that works for you:
- any sort of first time/get together fic. I think it's obvious that they care about each other a lot, but they're both not the most emotionally available people and they're both very aware of the hierarchical differences between them, so I'd be extremely interested to see how they would ever move from their friendly, but professional relationship to a romantic one. I could see it happening after one of them was hurt/abducted/almost killed/otherwise in danger and the other had to acknowledge his feelings, but I'd also be happy to see other scenarios. (One little caveat: I'm not a huge fan of the "they got drunk (or there was sex pollen or a sex spell) and fucked and now they have to deal with the consequences" trope.)
- anything domestic. I want to see all the details about their life together. Their breakfast conversations. Their Latin lessons. Exasperated Nightingale trying to teach Peter something while Peter gets distracted. Peter showing Nightingale weird shit on the internet and Nightingale being all "you are not serious, this is not a thing people do". Nightingale telling Peter about stuff people used to do when Nightingale was young and Peter thinks Nightingale is pulling his leg. Playful banter over a beer at the pub. Comfortable silences while Nightingale watches rugby in the coach house and Peter sits next to him reading stuff on the internet. I have a thing for how easily they settle into each other's lives and routines, how they get used to each other's habits and how they become such a central part of each other's lives.
- I have a soft spot for Nightingale saving Peter when Peter is in danger. I'd especially like to see the fall-out from this: Nightingale being shaken after almost losing the last person he has left in the world, maybe getting a little emotional (for his standards) but trying not to show it; Peter realising just how much Nightingale cares about him and so on. If you'd rather have Peter save Nightingale for once, that'd be interesting, too.
- I'm very fascinated by Nightingale's past. Either flashbacks or Nightingale telling Peter about his past, about previous cases he worked, about his family or friends or colleagues, about his time at Casterbrook, about what the Folly used to be like before the war, about his life after the war etc.
- if you like to write plotty longfic, I'd love to see them work a case in the style of the books. If you combine this with any of the stuff above, all the better. Ghosts? Werewolves? Demons? Horrible murders? Someone is mindcontroling powerful people? A weird magical disease breaks out? Secret books or other dangerous items get stolen? Someone tried to break into the Folly? Something from Nightingales's past comes back to haunt him? The Faceless Man made his next move? I'd also be intrigued by any combination of supernatural and modern elements (the internet/TV equivalent of the Rivers, any supernatural being using the internet for supernatural crimes, industrialised magic, ghost hackers, cyberpunk demons, whatever you can come up with – anything that will require Nightingale's knowledge of the supernatural and Peter's knowledge of the modern world).
- this is slightly cracky and I have no idea what you'd have to do to make this work (visions? dreams? weird time travel accident?), but I'd love for Peter to see the pre-war Folly somehow, and maybe see (meet?) pre-war Nightingale and his friends; do what you want with this. I'd even go for a total AU in which Peter was born in the early 20th century and becomes Nightingale's apprentice in the 20s/30s and everyone at the Folly is scandalised because Peter isn't white and the Folly was kind of a wealthy white guy club, and Nightingale doesn't really care because he's fond of Peter.
A few fandom-specific Do-Not-Wants:
- I firmly headcanon Nightingale as gay (and not repressed about it), so please nothing about Nightingale being attracted to women.
- I'm fine with Peter briefly mentioning his attraction to other people the way he does in canon, if it's necessary for the plot/narration, but I'd rather not get a fic in which Peter constantly goes on about being into Lesley/Beverley/etc.
- I like the plot twist at the end of Broken Homes for what it is.
- I've read Foxglove Summer, so no worries about spoilers. However I really didn't like the whole Peter/Beverley part of it, so if we could just ignore that ever happened, I'll be much happier.
The Raven Cycle
I mostly love these books for the characters. My absolute favourite is Ronan (how original of me) - I'd especially love to find out more about his family history, the whole greywaren thing, and the beginnings of his friendship with Gansey. There's so much in canon that's only hinted at about Ronan and I'd love any fic that fleshes this out. The same really goes for all of the characters I requested: I find Gansey intriguing with his incredibly obsessive personality, his need to take care of his friends and especially of Ronan, his desperate need to belong somewhere, the clash between everything he appears to be and everything he really is. I've also grown incredibly fond of Declan over the last few months, because for all his superficial charm and control freak tendencies, he truly cares about his family and tries in his own messed up way to keep them together, and at the same time he doesn't really have anyone who takes care of him, anyone who wonders if he maybe needs help to deal with his grief. And Niall is just a gigantic mystery looming over both Declan and Ronan - I have no idea what to think of him, and I'd love to know more (although I really don't like any interpretations of Niall as outright abusive - he was by all accounts pretty strange and he had some weird ideas about raising his children, but I don't think he beat or mistreated them).
I also like Adam, Blue, and Noah, so if you want to include them in the fic, that's fine by me. However, I'm really not a fan of both Blue/Gansey and Ronan/Adam. Both ships just don't work for me, and while I can deal with them in canon, I have no interest in reading about them in fanfic, not even briefly mentioned. I think Blue/Adam is cute, though, or Blue/Noah, so if you want to include that in the background, I don't mind. And for what it's worth I ship Declan/Adam, but I don't think anyone except me is into that. ;) Oh, and I find Kavinsky pretty interesting with his one-sided thing for Ronan (and, okay, Ronan totally having the hots for him despite the fact that he doesn't really like him), so you can include him, too, if you like.
Richard Gansey III/Ronan Lynch
Pretty much my main ship and endgame OTP for this fandom. It's just so obvious how important they are to each other, and all that loyalty and codependence and barely being able to be apart stuff really appeals to me. I don't mind a bit of an unhealthy obsession angle with these two because that's how they are in canon, completely incapable of NOT being together. But I also think they're happy with each other, no matter how codependent and obsessed they are.
Oh, and while I talk a lot about their friendship in my prompts, I still want explicitly shippy fic about them. I do like their friendship, but I'd like to get shipfic for a ship exchange, not gen or pre-slash. Obviously it doesn't have to be porn, but I'd like there to be no ambiguity that it's a romantic/sexual relationship.
A few prompts, feel free to use these in any way that works for you:
- any fic about the beginnings of their friendship: how Gansey befriended Ronan, what Ronan was like before his father died etc. If you include Gansey meeting Ronan's family for the first time, that'd be amazing. I'd also love to see how and when exactly that friendship developed into something more, well, shippy.
- anything set around the time of Niall's death: Ronan's immediate reaction, how he changed afterwards, how Gansey felt about the whole thing, when exactly Ronan moved into Monmouth etc. Again, if you want to include Declan in this as well, I'd love that.
- getting together fic! I always love those. I'd especially be interested to see if/how their relationship changes once sex becomes a part of it, and how exactly that happened. I'm good with any scenario for this - Ronan being in denial about being in love with his best friend and Gansey going for it, Gansey being a bit repressed and Ronan going for it, slow UST build-up until they just can't stay away from each other ... Whatever works for you.
- outside POVs or reactions to their relationship. From the rest of the gang, from Kavinsky, from Declan and Matthew, from Gansey's family ... Bonus if people already assumed they were together even before they were.
- I'm always here for plotty fics that continue the canon storyline, just with less of the true love and Blue/Gansey stuff that I don't like about canon. ;)
- oh, and something a bit specific: I would LOVE a fic set right after the substance party in The Dream Thieves and that whole "dream me the world" conversation, anything that explores the whole idea of how "wild" Gansey looked that night, the "Gansey Ronan liked best". Car racing? Wild animalistic outdoors sex in Cabeswater? Wild car sex? Possessive angry Gansey who doesn't like the way Kavinsky and Ronan are looking at each other?
- generally, this ship is made for D/s, so if you want to write something kinky in that direction, go for it.
Declan Lynch/Ronan Lynch
Yuletide made me ship these two, although I'm surprised that I didn't already ship them before. Tragic complicated brother relationships are my thing. Any fic that explores how much these two still care about each other, but are completely incapable of expressing it in sensible ways or dealing with their bottled up issues would be great. I generally find Declan very interesting and would love to see something about this relationship that's also sympathetic to his point of view, not only Ronan's. Can be more on the level of complicated, uncomfortable UST (as long as they're both aware of it being UST), but I'd also be interested in a fic in which they actually act on it. If you want to combine this in any way with Ronan/Gansey or Ronan/Niall, I'm all for that.
A few ideas:
- anything about how their relationship changed with Niall's death. How close were they before? Was Declan ever bitter about Ronan being Niall's favourite? Or were they especially close since Niall was often gone for a long time? Also, in which regards do they maybe remind each other of their father after his death? I can imagine that especially Ronan would hate those moments when Declan looks or sounds or behaves like Niall.
- something dealing with Declan's own grief for his father and how he kind of bottled it up because he felt like he had to take care of his family instead of feeling sorry for himself; maybe combined with some bitterness about Ronan behaving like he's the only one who lost someone
- if you can get them to make up in any way, even a little bit, that would be beautiful.
- once they can return to the Barns, I'd love to see Declan actually going there. To reminisce, to get old family pictures, to see his mother if she's still there ... and if Ronan happens to be there, well. Go from there.
- I'd love to see either of them getting protective about the other (because only a Lynch can beat up a Lynch, right?)
- quick, guilty, shameful, we'll-never-talk-about-this sex of any kind with desperate clinging to each other before they go back to not being able to have a civilised conversation
Niall Lynch/Ronan Lynch
Kind of my wildcard ship here because I'm not exactly sure how you'd make this work, but if you offered to write this, dear author, I figure you might have an idea. ;) I'm generally interested in Niall's relationship with Ronan (if you can build in his relationship with Declan on the side, all the better) - how much did he tell/teach Ronan about his dreaming abilities? He must have been rather secretive considering how little Ronan seems to know about them. And how does the whole religious angle play into that? Because I'm pretty sure Ronan wouldn't be so incredibly Catholic if his father hadn't been as well. I'm not really sure I have prompts for this ship, not because I want it any less than the other ships, but because I'm really here for anything (as long as it's consensual and mostly happy for everyone involved; again, not really fond of interpretations of Niall as abusive and horrible). Weird codependent father-and-his-favourite-son stuff? Freaky dream sex in shared dreams? Like with Declan/Ronan, I'd be good with complicated UST or with something more explicit. I'm really open to most things for this ship, so surprise me. And again, if you want to combine this ship with one or both of my other ships for Ronan, that'd also be welcome. Also, I'm all for daddy kink with these two, obviously. I only didn't put it in my general likes because I don't think it works for most other ships I've requested, but obviously it's very welcome for this ship.
The Silmarillion
Fëanor/Fingolfin
And another messed up complicated brother ship! There's just so much going on between them, so much resentment and anger and repressed love and grudging respect, it's a beautiful mess. Not to mention that they'd be an absolute force of nature if they ever reconciled, so I'm very intrigued by anything that explores moments during which they were NOT trying to kill each other. ;)
For side ships/characters: I also really love Fëanor's sons (all of them, and Amras is not dead), so if they appear as well in your fic, that's a bonus. (For that matter, I also ship all eight Fëanorians with each other, if you want to include any of that. I kind of ship Fëanor with a lot of people.) I like Fingon as well, although I'm not all that fond of Fingon/Maedhros.
A few prompts/ideas:
- I'm mostly interested in AUs in which Fëanor survives. Anything about him and Fingolfin meeting again once Fingolfin arrives in Middle-earth - the additional issues they'd have after the burning of the ships at Losgar, the fact that they'd both know at that point that they need to work together to fight Morgoth, how they'd somehow try to reconcile despite everything that's still between them. Ideally they'd manage to grow closer again, but you can make this however messy and complicated you like. They are both incredibly proud and stubborn.
- if that kind of AU is not your thing, I'm also good with any fic set during their time in Valinor. Their first time, or one of the rare times that they actually got along well and did something fun together and were relatively friendly to each other, or some time when they had a huge fight and snapped and snarled at each other and ended up having rough hate sex, or just anything set during your usual Finwean family madness.
- steampunk AU! I know I said I don't like AUs, but this is the one exception. Mostly ties in with my first prompt, though, because I do think that realistically, if Fëanor had lived, he would have invented a lot more than just swords and bows and arrows to fight Morgoth. So if you want to write steampunk elves in Middle-earth for me, I will love you forever.
- other than that: really anything that uses some of the tropes I listed at the beginning of this letter is great. First time fics? Perfect. Loyalty and trust issues? Great. Awkward hurt/comfort? Always. Inability to express their emotions properly, so they end up arguing or having sex in inappropriate places or snapping pointlessly at each other? Yes please. Slowly growing intimacy? Yessss. Outside POVs? Also yes.
As always, this letter ended up being embarrassingly long, but like I said, all of this is just supposed to give you ideas. I hope you find a few things you like in all this rambling, a prompt you'd like to write or tropes that appeal to you. I love all of these ships and I'm always here for more fic about them, so I'm sure I will enjoy whatever you write for me.
Thanks again!
linndechir
