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Yuletide Letter 2021
Hi writer! Sorry this is a bit late, I got all up in my head about it and then went a trifle overboard on prompts. But here is my letter! Feel free to ignore anything in this letter and write me what you want, I am an ODAO person!
Also I usually end up having at least one or two DNWs in my letter, and I am going to mention a few fandom-specific things I don't want, but I couldn't really come up with anything I definitively don't want at all this year. Anywhere my prompts take you - even if it's into the depths of the AO3 mandatory warnings, or the sort of kinks that are in 90% of DNW lists - I am willing to follow. (Don't take that as a challenge though, I am also all in for gen fluff in any of these fandoms.)
I'm also happy to get crossovers of any kind or fic in unusual or experimental formats, including IF! And I'm happy to get any sort of treats, including non-fic format, if someone is inspired.
If you've scrolled down my recent DW posts you might have the impression I am obsessed with enemy ships, but I am just in the middle of a three-month-long self-imposed posting challenge, I promise I am not actually obsessed with enemy ships and would be happy with lots of other kinds of shipping! Though scrolling down some of those recs posts would probably give you a better idea of my general likes than any list I attempted to come up with here.
Also I limited my character requests on a couple fandoms mostly because I wasn't sure I could come up with prompts for everyone, but if you want to write other characters, there aren't really any in these fandoms that I don't want!
Astielle is a free online serial novel by![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
unpretty. It's currently a WIP but it's actively updating and I highly recommend it! You can read it at unpretty.space.
Astielle has been my happy place the last few months, it’s just such a wonderful place to visit. It’s about Minnow, who is the latest incarnation of the Starlight Hero, destined to wield the Starlight Sword to protect the Sunlight Heir and slay the Moonlight King of Monsters. But Minnow wandered into the fairy wood as a young child and spend an unknown length of time as an ageless changeling before the Sunlight Heir dragged her back out into the world, and she’s in no hurry to fulfill any quests. If the Moonlight Monster is willing to wait, she’d rather take a few more decades to map the whole world, eat every food and find every flower first.
Karzarul the Moonlight Monster is in fact willing to wait. Because the version of the story that Minnow was taught was a little bit biased, and the Moonlight Monster has no interest in anything but living quietly with his monster family. And possibly dating the Starlight Hero, if she’s up for it? (She’s up for it, he’s cute and she likes them big.)
The Sunlight Heir is not happy about any of this, but at least it inspired him to finally escape the tower where he was held captive by his father the evil king. So now he’s a middle-aged sorcerer mooching off a Monster and a Hero, who has no skills except library research and anxiety attacks. And, apparently, accidentally dreamwalking to the Monster King’s dreams. And accidentally hitting on him. (Karzarul’s up for it. The heir’s cute. Minnow’s already fucking him. And he likes them awkward and domm-y.)
So I ship the canon OT3 really hard, and I would be up for anything with the canon OT3, or anything with Minnow or Leonas from before canon started. How did Minnow end up in the Faewild? What adventures did she have there? What adventures did she have before Karzarul showed up, learning how to be a human person in society and a hero? What about the story of Leonas finding his shield, or how he decided to go find Minnow, or having a fun adventure in the catacombs before he was free? Or did he find any friends in his bed-partners?
I also love the original three! I’d love something from their time from Vaelon or Lynette's POV. I also love all the non-nominated characters, so please write me about one of them if you have an idea you love. And I’d love anything about any of the previous trios or subsets of trio - an expansion/POV swap on what we saw of them in the flashbacks, or an AU where they were the trio that finally made it work without any of them getting murdered. (I have a special soft spot for Laurela and Gwenviel - angry baby sword lesbians ftw - but any of the other trios would be great.)
And I’d love worldbuilding! About Minnow the farmer’s role in the economy, or an outsider POV on the prince or the hero, or more versions of the myth cycles. And I’d love more worldbuilding for the monsters, too. I’d especially like anything about the smaller “faceless” monsters - what do the shimmerbats and slitherskins and rootboars get up to? How do they relate to the talking monsters? (Also if you want to write me Black Drakonis and the Sea Witch Pirate Queen teaming up to wreak devastation I will not complain.)
Since this is an ongoing serial, it's possible things will happen between assignments going out and your story going up that make a big difference. Feel free to ignore everything here as needed if canon events require it!
Rock Candy Mountain is my token "nobody else has even heard of this" fandom for this year. It's an Image Comics miniseries from a few years ago set in the years just after World War Two and in the waning days of the golden age of hobo culture. (It's about hobos. And the Devil. And magic. And love.) If you have Hoopla access through your public library, it's on Hoopla; it's probably accessible moste other places you can get Image comics that are in trade.
I love the mythology of hobo culture and I love that liminal period in the late 1940s where the war was over but the 1950s hadn’t quite started and history was catching its breath.
The comic is about the hobo Jackson, who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for a promise that no one man can beat him in a fight. Now that the war’s over, the Devil is hunting him down; it's not going well because “no one man can beat him in a fight” also applies to the Devil. And the Devil’s not great at teamwork. Luckily, Jackson, for all he’s an antisocial sonofabitch, is absolutely capable of assembling a dream team to pull off a heist to beat the Devil and get to heaven. With the aid of some magical artifacts he stole from Hitler during the war. That Babs Bardoux of the FBI is also hunting him down to retrieve.
I requested “Any” so I am going to talk the characters I nommed but I would be delighted at anything in the canon setting! Also it’s ripe for crossovers with other fandoms that involve magic during WWII or in the US just after or that involve hobo culture or that involve characters finding their own version of Heaven, and I always love a good crossover.
Pomona Slim - I’d love something about what he gets up to post-canon, with some new confidence and a lot of knowledge of the world he didn’t have at the start. Does he keep up his connections in the hobo world? What does that look like for him? What will he get up to as a gay man in the 1950s US with the Devil’s own word that loving who he loves will never damn him? Or maybe the Devil realizes there’s all these pure souls he’s missing out on the chance to corrupt because they think they’re already damned, and teams up with Pomona Slim to start a gay liberation movement? He’s inherited Jackson’s book with the magic arrows; where does it point him?
Babs Bardoux - I deeply appreciate that canon felt no need to explain how a black woman became an assistant director of the FBI in the 1940s. She did it, and fuck you. But I also want to know! Does she have some kind of major dirt on Hoover? Did she sell her soul to the Devil? Did she sell her soul to the Devil in exchange for some kind of major dirt on Hoover? Did she get some dirt on Hoover for some other reason but decided while she had it she might as well get herself a job? Is she just that good? Also, canon begs the question of whether Bardoux could beat Jackson in a fight - because he is far too smart to test that - but if you can figure out a way to make it happen I want to see it. Also it’s pretty much canon that Babs Bardoux has met Indiana Jones and I would love to see that meeting and how badly Indy loses. And also like. Anything about Babs Bardoux.
Black Dahlia is a delight. How did she come to run a hobo fighting ring in the middle of nowhere? Is that her full-time job or does she have like, a secret identity as the town’s demure spinster schoolteacher or a bubbly homemaker? I’d love to see anything with her interacting with any of the fighters or running her business or who she sleeps with or just, how she is a part of the hobo world. And why did she really ban Jackson from the ring? What was their relationship like when they first met? Did she ever sell her soul to the Devil? (If she did I bet she won it back somehow.)
Jackson - His story in the comic is really very complete but I’d love something that fills in more backstory. What else did he get up to in the war? What led to him thinking summoning the Devil was both possible and a good idea? What happened while he was learning to use the book? What other tricks and traps did he use to stay ahead of the Devil before he met Pomona Slim? (I’d love something with any of the characters using any of the many folktales about people outwitting the Devil.) And is he really happy in Heaven or does he find more evil to punch there?
Casablanca is a movie. It's a classic movie. If you haven't watched it, you really should.
I am really intrigued by Rick and Victor’s relationship in this movie. It’s so complicated? And itchy? And constrained by circumstances? Rick is jealous of Laszlo, but one gets the impression it’s not so much what he has as who is ; Laszlo is the sort of person Rick thinks he could have been, if he’d been good enough, he wants to be him (or second best, be with him, if that’s the sort of thing you ship.)
Meanwhile Laszlo seems to be trying very hard to like Rick. Because he admires Rick, because he knows via Ilsa that Rick is a hero as much as he is, but also because Rick already managed to get free in the way Laszlo is still trying to. And also because he made Laszlo’s wife happy when couldn’t. But Rick is trying very hard to be unlikeable. And also he is jealous of Rick for all those reasons. And he’s jealous of Rick because of his relationship with Ilsa. (and he’s jealous of Ilsa because of her relationship with Rick. Even if you don’t ship them. Ilsa got to be happy, even for a little bit, and he's still working on getting there again.)
So it’s all really complicated in really interesting ways! For fic I would love anything that sees the two of them interact more. Can you finagle the timeline that they were on a mission together before Rick ever met Ilsa? Do they meet again somewhere after the war, by chance or on purpose or because they’re both moving in the same circles? Is there a scene between them during the movie timeline that we don’t see?
I’d also love a new scene of Rick and Ilsa talking about Victor, or Victor and Ilsa talking about Rick. Or Victor and Ilsa having sex about Rick.
And if you’re into shipfic, I would love shipfic between these two (as long as it doesn’t involve devaluing either of their relationships with Ilsa.) Any of the above scenarios with a ship element added would be great, whether that's a sex scene or just preshippy acknowledgement of something there!
I am also very OT3 Rick/Victor/Ilsa. I love that this is a movie about a love triangle where making them poly doesn’t solve anything, because there are still only two letters of transit, and somebody still has to choose. There are places in the movie where you could insert a threesome sex scene and not much else would change. If you would like to write me that threesome sex scene, I would love it. If you would like to write me the OT3 after the war, I am also there for that. If you’d like to write me an alternate movie ending where they don’t actually have the threesome but they make promises for after the war, or the alternate movie ending where it isn't just Rick who stays, or where Renault magics up a third letter somehow, that is also good.
And honestly if you got through all that and nothing sparks, I would also love anything else in this fandom - Rick and Renault (or Rick/Renault), anything at all with Sam (or Rick/Sam), anything from the POV of any of the other people we see in Casablanca, it would all be good.
The Boxcar Children is a children's book series that is very nearly 100 years old and apparently still going? It has gone on pause several times in that period, however. When I got to know it there were only 19 books, the ones actually by Warner, so I'm treating the fandom nomination as just for them. I re-read the first half of them recently when copies fell into my hands (I am still slowly getting through the second half from the library) and hadn't realized just how foundational they were to me as a child. I still kind of think I want to be them when I grow up. The books are so full of useful things that I internalized - not just that you should run away to live by yourself in the woods any time you get a chance, or useful things like the proper ratios to mix the concrete you have stolen from a construction site, but things like the fact that we should feed the world on seaweed-based protein, that uranium ore is fun to play with and the more clicks from the geiger counter the better, and how to deal with an abusive boss at your retail job.
Re-reading as an adult, though, the way the books stay at a child's level but make it very clear there is grown-up stuff happening all around that they just aren't telling you about was very striking. There's Henry's college life, there's Jessie's... everything, there's all the adults they meet in their travels, and of course Grandfather Alden. And there's the way people hear the Alden name and react in all sorts of ways, and the kids buck up and and are determined to make their own way, but we never get the details on *why* people react to the Alden name in all sorts of ways.
So I'd love a fic that pulls on any of those sorts of threads, or the many ones I put in my sign-up. But I'd also love a canon-typical fic where they go on an adventure! Or one where one of the kids gets to have an adventure of their own, separate from the others.
Also, if you are inclined - and if you are not, feel free to forget you saw this - I would be up for Henry/Jessie. Because part of the way this canon is uneasy about the kids' growing up is that Henry and Jessie get.. weird vibes for awhile. And kind of Flowers in the Attic. (I mean they literally decorate the attic with flowers.) So if you want the story where they feel isolated from people their own age by their experiences but also isolated within their family but also they don't want to stop just playing house for their younger siblings, and so they turn to each other to explore what growing up means, I am up for that. (But I refuse to believe Henry and Jessie would not be practical and do their research, so if you go there, please no pregnancy risks or scares, they would be careful.)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval English poem about a couple who live way out in the country so when they want to pick up a third to spice up their sex life, they have to get fairly elaborate about it. (Maybe, on balance, a little bit too elaborate.) It is very public domain, and there are a lot of translations online that should be readable in a few hours.
There was a recent movie but between not going to theaters lately and hearing that it didn't really lean hard on what I like in this fandom, I haven't seen it. However, please don't let that stop you from facecasting Dev Patel as Gawain in the poem too!
There has been some really good fic written in this fandom that uses the canon form, and also some really good fic that leans hard on the celtic/mystical/neopagan interpretations of parts of the poem (like the movie did). If your heart's set on that, I will enjoy it, I'm not going to DNW, but I'll admit that when I read through the fic recently I just really want some good ol' standard fanfic for this one, about a hardworking knight who tries to be honorable in a weird, weird world full of marvels, and a country knight and his wife who got a visit from the King's sister, who offered to set up a Christmas revel for them, and they were like, hey, why not, there's that weird old fairy mound in the back forty that would make good set dressing. I'd love a story about that, or about what Gawain's life was like that year when he had the beheading hanging over him, or really any what-ifs in a world where Gawain made different choices in the story.
(Or if you want to write me IF for it. Gawain has a lot of hard choices to make, this would be a really good fandom for IF, whether it goes slightly mystical and surreal or not. Alliterative verse IF even.)
Anyway, if you want the OT3, I too want the OT3. Please make it consensual though, or at least dubcon of the "wanted it all along but needed a nudge to admit it" kind. I really enjoy how happy Gawain is to give up all control in the sex games, please play with that? (Even if it involves playing with which of them has the control.) Also if you really want to do a maiden/mother/crone thing with the Lady and Morgana, it's pretty clear who is the Maiden here (it's Gawain.)
If you did want to go a bit farther weird and mystical with the Green Knight, the poem sets of a strong parallel between the Knight's hunt and the Lady's seduction, and I'd love something where he is there for both - either he and the Lady can ride on each other's perceptions, or he is both of them at once, and bilocating somehow.
Agent of Asgard is a Marvel series from a few years back in which a reborn Loki is trying to trip his way to redemption, or a least to a loophole way out of damnation. (...I did not realize this comic had basically the same plot as the other one I requested. Ooops? Crossover?) It's just, unfairly good? And it stands alone pretty well for a Marvel series. (It should aslo be on Hoopla.) It ties in somewhat to Loki's previous storylines in Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers - which are also wayy above par in quality - but you should be able to pick up enough just from Agent of Asgard and feel free to write as if this is a standalone canon.
I am probably going to have a shorter prompt for this fandom but I promise I do not want it any less! I just. Really like everything about it. But also there weren't as many characters in the tagset so I am going to try to stay more concise. I would love stuff about unnominated characters if you would like! Especially Sigurd and Lorelei, who are great. I would love for Loki and Sigurd to get stuck in any or all of the ridiculous slash trope cliches in whatever way is most inconvenient and embarassing for them.
I used he/him pronouns for Loki in the signup but I love how gleefully genderfluid Loki is in this canon (please write me Trixie fic!) and use whatever pronouns you would like as long as you keep Loki genderfluid. (I feel like the God of Stories is going to be even more genderfluid than their predecessor, so please run with that one if you write post-canon.)
There are a ton of places in canon where you could step in an expand something further, which I would love, and post-canon is just a world of possibilities. Also I've just learned some more about the canon backstory of Verity's family, so if you are interested in digging into Marvel lore, I'd love something with Verity learning about, or coming to terms with that. Also Jane got to be Thor, so I'd love to see a story where Verity gets to be Loki, somehow or other!
Anyway this is really just me spitballing prompt ideas because I want them all. Also Loki is the God of Fanfic now, so feel free to just go super meta and break literally all the walls, Loki has created a terrible slash on the internet and does Yuletide every year.
Also I usually end up having at least one or two DNWs in my letter, and I am going to mention a few fandom-specific things I don't want, but I couldn't really come up with anything I definitively don't want at all this year. Anywhere my prompts take you - even if it's into the depths of the AO3 mandatory warnings, or the sort of kinks that are in 90% of DNW lists - I am willing to follow. (Don't take that as a challenge though, I am also all in for gen fluff in any of these fandoms.)
I'm also happy to get crossovers of any kind or fic in unusual or experimental formats, including IF! And I'm happy to get any sort of treats, including non-fic format, if someone is inspired.
If you've scrolled down my recent DW posts you might have the impression I am obsessed with enemy ships, but I am just in the middle of a three-month-long self-imposed posting challenge, I promise I am not actually obsessed with enemy ships and would be happy with lots of other kinds of shipping! Though scrolling down some of those recs posts would probably give you a better idea of my general likes than any list I attempted to come up with here.
Also I limited my character requests on a couple fandoms mostly because I wasn't sure I could come up with prompts for everyone, but if you want to write other characters, there aren't really any in these fandoms that I don't want!
Request 1 by melannen
Fandom:Astielle - Kitty Unpretty
I love everything about this fandom and would love anything you write me. More OT3? Leonas learns to make a tree? Minnow sings? Karzarul tells a true story? Something from Minnow and/or Leonas's life before canon, or even before they met each other? Something from one of the earlier trios? (An AU where one of the earlier trios made it work?) Something from Lynette or Vaelon's POV? Violet gets to meet Kavid and/or Valeria (both of which I'm sure would go well!) The Life of Phil? A closer look at the Taurils or the Impyrs or the lives of the monsters when Karzarul isn't around? Something about the role of the "faceless" monsters - what do shimmerbats get up to in their spare time? The story of how Black Drakonis rescued the Sea Witch Pirate Queen and they teamed up? Minnow's tax returns? Literally anything from the POV of the Fairy King? I want all of everything.
Astielle is a free online serial novel by
Astielle has been my happy place the last few months, it’s just such a wonderful place to visit. It’s about Minnow, who is the latest incarnation of the Starlight Hero, destined to wield the Starlight Sword to protect the Sunlight Heir and slay the Moonlight King of Monsters. But Minnow wandered into the fairy wood as a young child and spend an unknown length of time as an ageless changeling before the Sunlight Heir dragged her back out into the world, and she’s in no hurry to fulfill any quests. If the Moonlight Monster is willing to wait, she’d rather take a few more decades to map the whole world, eat every food and find every flower first.
Karzarul the Moonlight Monster is in fact willing to wait. Because the version of the story that Minnow was taught was a little bit biased, and the Moonlight Monster has no interest in anything but living quietly with his monster family. And possibly dating the Starlight Hero, if she’s up for it? (She’s up for it, he’s cute and she likes them big.)
The Sunlight Heir is not happy about any of this, but at least it inspired him to finally escape the tower where he was held captive by his father the evil king. So now he’s a middle-aged sorcerer mooching off a Monster and a Hero, who has no skills except library research and anxiety attacks. And, apparently, accidentally dreamwalking to the Monster King’s dreams. And accidentally hitting on him. (Karzarul’s up for it. The heir’s cute. Minnow’s already fucking him. And he likes them awkward and domm-y.)
So I ship the canon OT3 really hard, and I would be up for anything with the canon OT3, or anything with Minnow or Leonas from before canon started. How did Minnow end up in the Faewild? What adventures did she have there? What adventures did she have before Karzarul showed up, learning how to be a human person in society and a hero? What about the story of Leonas finding his shield, or how he decided to go find Minnow, or having a fun adventure in the catacombs before he was free? Or did he find any friends in his bed-partners?
I also love the original three! I’d love something from their time from Vaelon or Lynette's POV. I also love all the non-nominated characters, so please write me about one of them if you have an idea you love. And I’d love anything about any of the previous trios or subsets of trio - an expansion/POV swap on what we saw of them in the flashbacks, or an AU where they were the trio that finally made it work without any of them getting murdered. (I have a special soft spot for Laurela and Gwenviel - angry baby sword lesbians ftw - but any of the other trios would be great.)
And I’d love worldbuilding! About Minnow the farmer’s role in the economy, or an outsider POV on the prince or the hero, or more versions of the myth cycles. And I’d love more worldbuilding for the monsters, too. I’d especially like anything about the smaller “faceless” monsters - what do the shimmerbats and slitherskins and rootboars get up to? How do they relate to the talking monsters? (Also if you want to write me Black Drakonis and the Sea Witch Pirate Queen teaming up to wreak devastation I will not complain.)
Since this is an ongoing serial, it's possible things will happen between assignments going out and your story going up that make a big difference. Feel free to ignore everything here as needed if canon events require it!
Request 2
Rock Candy Mountain (Comics)
I love this period in time and really enjoyed the characters in the comic! Black Orchid is a great character and I'd love anything about her, backstory or life or the first time she met Jackson. Babs is also a great character! How did she end up in the FBI, and has she handled other cases like this one? Could she beat Jackson one-on-one in a fight? What lengths would he go to to avoid finding out? And I love that Pomona Slim is going into the 1950s with a new self-confidence and the Devil's own promise that being who is won't damn him to hell - what does he do with everything he's learned? And I'd love any kind of pre-series backstory on Jackson; how he knew how to make the deal; his early days with Black Orchid; how he learned to use the book; how he learned to navigate hobo culture himself.
Rock Candy Mountain is my token "nobody else has even heard of this" fandom for this year. It's an Image Comics miniseries from a few years ago set in the years just after World War Two and in the waning days of the golden age of hobo culture. (It's about hobos. And the Devil. And magic. And love.) If you have Hoopla access through your public library, it's on Hoopla; it's probably accessible moste other places you can get Image comics that are in trade.
I love the mythology of hobo culture and I love that liminal period in the late 1940s where the war was over but the 1950s hadn’t quite started and history was catching its breath.
The comic is about the hobo Jackson, who sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for a promise that no one man can beat him in a fight. Now that the war’s over, the Devil is hunting him down; it's not going well because “no one man can beat him in a fight” also applies to the Devil. And the Devil’s not great at teamwork. Luckily, Jackson, for all he’s an antisocial sonofabitch, is absolutely capable of assembling a dream team to pull off a heist to beat the Devil and get to heaven. With the aid of some magical artifacts he stole from Hitler during the war. That Babs Bardoux of the FBI is also hunting him down to retrieve.
I requested “Any” so I am going to talk the characters I nommed but I would be delighted at anything in the canon setting! Also it’s ripe for crossovers with other fandoms that involve magic during WWII or in the US just after or that involve hobo culture or that involve characters finding their own version of Heaven, and I always love a good crossover.
Pomona Slim - I’d love something about what he gets up to post-canon, with some new confidence and a lot of knowledge of the world he didn’t have at the start. Does he keep up his connections in the hobo world? What does that look like for him? What will he get up to as a gay man in the 1950s US with the Devil’s own word that loving who he loves will never damn him? Or maybe the Devil realizes there’s all these pure souls he’s missing out on the chance to corrupt because they think they’re already damned, and teams up with Pomona Slim to start a gay liberation movement? He’s inherited Jackson’s book with the magic arrows; where does it point him?
Babs Bardoux - I deeply appreciate that canon felt no need to explain how a black woman became an assistant director of the FBI in the 1940s. She did it, and fuck you. But I also want to know! Does she have some kind of major dirt on Hoover? Did she sell her soul to the Devil? Did she sell her soul to the Devil in exchange for some kind of major dirt on Hoover? Did she get some dirt on Hoover for some other reason but decided while she had it she might as well get herself a job? Is she just that good? Also, canon begs the question of whether Bardoux could beat Jackson in a fight - because he is far too smart to test that - but if you can figure out a way to make it happen I want to see it. Also it’s pretty much canon that Babs Bardoux has met Indiana Jones and I would love to see that meeting and how badly Indy loses. And also like. Anything about Babs Bardoux.
Black Dahlia is a delight. How did she come to run a hobo fighting ring in the middle of nowhere? Is that her full-time job or does she have like, a secret identity as the town’s demure spinster schoolteacher or a bubbly homemaker? I’d love to see anything with her interacting with any of the fighters or running her business or who she sleeps with or just, how she is a part of the hobo world. And why did she really ban Jackson from the ring? What was their relationship like when they first met? Did she ever sell her soul to the Devil? (If she did I bet she won it back somehow.)
Jackson - His story in the comic is really very complete but I’d love something that fills in more backstory. What else did he get up to in the war? What led to him thinking summoning the Devil was both possible and a good idea? What happened while he was learning to use the book? What other tricks and traps did he use to stay ahead of the Devil before he met Pomona Slim? (I’d love something with any of the characters using any of the many folktales about people outwitting the Devil.) And is he really happy in Heaven or does he find more evil to punch there?
Request 3 by melannen
Fandom:Casablanca (1942)
Rick BlaineVictor Laszlo (Casablanca 1942)
Rick and Laszlo's interactions always fascinated me in this movie - there is so much between them, and it makes things so complicated. I would love something that explores the tensions between them, gen or slash, during the movie, or after the movie or evenshoehorned into their pasts before Ilsa. Ilsa will always be between them, but so will their respective experiences in the war and the different ways they dealt with it. And if you want to do Rick/Ilsa/Victor I would also love that! I love that this is a movie where making the love triangle poly doesn't fix anything because there are still only two letters of transit.
Casablanca is a movie. It's a classic movie. If you haven't watched it, you really should.
I am really intrigued by Rick and Victor’s relationship in this movie. It’s so complicated? And itchy? And constrained by circumstances? Rick is jealous of Laszlo, but one gets the impression it’s not so much what he has as who is ; Laszlo is the sort of person Rick thinks he could have been, if he’d been good enough, he wants to be him (or second best, be with him, if that’s the sort of thing you ship.)
Meanwhile Laszlo seems to be trying very hard to like Rick. Because he admires Rick, because he knows via Ilsa that Rick is a hero as much as he is, but also because Rick already managed to get free in the way Laszlo is still trying to. And also because he made Laszlo’s wife happy when couldn’t. But Rick is trying very hard to be unlikeable. And also he is jealous of Rick for all those reasons. And he’s jealous of Rick because of his relationship with Ilsa. (and he’s jealous of Ilsa because of her relationship with Rick. Even if you don’t ship them. Ilsa got to be happy, even for a little bit, and he's still working on getting there again.)
So it’s all really complicated in really interesting ways! For fic I would love anything that sees the two of them interact more. Can you finagle the timeline that they were on a mission together before Rick ever met Ilsa? Do they meet again somewhere after the war, by chance or on purpose or because they’re both moving in the same circles? Is there a scene between them during the movie timeline that we don’t see?
I’d also love a new scene of Rick and Ilsa talking about Victor, or Victor and Ilsa talking about Rick. Or Victor and Ilsa having sex about Rick.
And if you’re into shipfic, I would love shipfic between these two (as long as it doesn’t involve devaluing either of their relationships with Ilsa.) Any of the above scenarios with a ship element added would be great, whether that's a sex scene or just preshippy acknowledgement of something there!
I am also very OT3 Rick/Victor/Ilsa. I love that this is a movie about a love triangle where making them poly doesn’t solve anything, because there are still only two letters of transit, and somebody still has to choose. There are places in the movie where you could insert a threesome sex scene and not much else would change. If you would like to write me that threesome sex scene, I would love it. If you would like to write me the OT3 after the war, I am also there for that. If you’d like to write me an alternate movie ending where they don’t actually have the threesome but they make promises for after the war, or the alternate movie ending where it isn't just Rick who stays, or where Renault magics up a third letter somehow, that is also good.
And honestly if you got through all that and nothing sparks, I would also love anything else in this fandom - Rick and Renault (or Rick/Renault), anything at all with Sam (or Rick/Sam), anything from the POV of any of the other people we see in Casablanca, it would all be good.
Request 4 by melannen
Fandom:The Boxcar Children - Gertrude Chandler Warner
I am only familiar with the first 19 books in this series, the ones by the original author, so please use or ignore the newer stuff as you prefer!
-James Alden: it is a mystery that has bothered me since I was tiny that all of Grandfather Alden's family hated him, and we never get details on why. How did we go from a man whose son and sister both cut him off to the lovable Grandfather in the books? And what about Joe's parents, or Grandfather's wife, who we never hear anything about? I'd love anything in Grandfather's POV, showing all the grown-up stuff he's getting up to bewteen the kids' adventures, too!
-Alice Wells Alden: I was starstruck in my recent read when I got to Dashing Lady Archaeologist, who I had forgotten about entirely, and she is so great. I would love any kind of Dashing Lady Archaeologist adventures, with or without the niblings and husband along.
-The kids: it always stood out in the Boxcar Children books that the kids actually got older (at least for awhile!) so that by Book 7 Henry is already in college, Jessie is getting there if not already, and even Violet is becoming very grown-up. The books are told for a child's POV straight through, but I'd love something about Henry or Jessie going from college back to family adventures, or their (or Violet's) growing-up during the series in ways the kids' POV won't cover. I'd also love anything about the kids' role as public figures - people recognize them for awhile, there must have been a lot of media coverage early on, how did they handle that? or that has them deal more directly with historical/cultural events in the long and vague 1920s-1970s period they're growing up in.
The Boxcar Children is a children's book series that is very nearly 100 years old and apparently still going? It has gone on pause several times in that period, however. When I got to know it there were only 19 books, the ones actually by Warner, so I'm treating the fandom nomination as just for them. I re-read the first half of them recently when copies fell into my hands (I am still slowly getting through the second half from the library) and hadn't realized just how foundational they were to me as a child. I still kind of think I want to be them when I grow up. The books are so full of useful things that I internalized - not just that you should run away to live by yourself in the woods any time you get a chance, or useful things like the proper ratios to mix the concrete you have stolen from a construction site, but things like the fact that we should feed the world on seaweed-based protein, that uranium ore is fun to play with and the more clicks from the geiger counter the better, and how to deal with an abusive boss at your retail job.
Re-reading as an adult, though, the way the books stay at a child's level but make it very clear there is grown-up stuff happening all around that they just aren't telling you about was very striking. There's Henry's college life, there's Jessie's... everything, there's all the adults they meet in their travels, and of course Grandfather Alden. And there's the way people hear the Alden name and react in all sorts of ways, and the kids buck up and and are determined to make their own way, but we never get the details on *why* people react to the Alden name in all sorts of ways.
So I'd love a fic that pulls on any of those sorts of threads, or the many ones I put in my sign-up. But I'd also love a canon-typical fic where they go on an adventure! Or one where one of the kids gets to have an adventure of their own, separate from the others.
Also, if you are inclined - and if you are not, feel free to forget you saw this - I would be up for Henry/Jessie. Because part of the way this canon is uneasy about the kids' growing up is that Henry and Jessie get.. weird vibes for awhile. And kind of Flowers in the Attic. (I mean they literally decorate the attic with flowers.) So if you want the story where they feel isolated from people their own age by their experiences but also isolated within their family but also they don't want to stop just playing house for their younger siblings, and so they turn to each other to explore what growing up means, I am up for that. (But I refuse to believe Henry and Jessie would not be practical and do their research, so if you go there, please no pregnancy risks or scares, they would be careful.)
Request 5 by melannen
Fandom:Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
Look, this fandom needs Gawain/Bertilak/Lady, and the movie didn't provide. Luckily the poem is still there for us. I enjoy how joyfully kinky all three of them are about the game in the poem. And while there are certainly a lot of things the poem could be metaphorically about I do like the version where it's all about Gawain coming to terms with his sexuality. I'd love the story where Gawain gets more than kisses, and shares them willingly; I'd love the story where he stays after New Year's, or comes back to visit later, and offers to play a game like that without the beheading stakes.
If you don't ship it, or can't make writing it work, I'd love more about how it came about that this whole game was set up, or what Arthur's court thought about the whole thing. I've also always wondered how the game would have come out if the knight who took up the challenge (either Gawain or somebody else!) had decided it was dishonorable to kill an unarmed man, no matter the challenge, and just wounded him instead of cutting his head off, like Bertilak did later. How would he have swung that in front of Arthur's court? How would Bertilak have managed his dramatic reveal with his head still on? How would the rematch a year later happen?
(I know there are a lot of Green Knight interpretations that lean heavily into the mysticism and Celtic paganism, and while I do like that stuff, for fanfic I'd prefer something that stays (relatively) down-to-earth about all the weird stuff, like the poem does, and that sticks mostly to the poem and to Arthurian sources of around the same age.)
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a medieval English poem about a couple who live way out in the country so when they want to pick up a third to spice up their sex life, they have to get fairly elaborate about it. (Maybe, on balance, a little bit too elaborate.) It is very public domain, and there are a lot of translations online that should be readable in a few hours.
There was a recent movie but between not going to theaters lately and hearing that it didn't really lean hard on what I like in this fandom, I haven't seen it. However, please don't let that stop you from facecasting Dev Patel as Gawain in the poem too!
There has been some really good fic written in this fandom that uses the canon form, and also some really good fic that leans hard on the celtic/mystical/neopagan interpretations of parts of the poem (like the movie did). If your heart's set on that, I will enjoy it, I'm not going to DNW, but I'll admit that when I read through the fic recently I just really want some good ol' standard fanfic for this one, about a hardworking knight who tries to be honorable in a weird, weird world full of marvels, and a country knight and his wife who got a visit from the King's sister, who offered to set up a Christmas revel for them, and they were like, hey, why not, there's that weird old fairy mound in the back forty that would make good set dressing. I'd love a story about that, or about what Gawain's life was like that year when he had the beheading hanging over him, or really any what-ifs in a world where Gawain made different choices in the story.
(Or if you want to write me IF for it. Gawain has a lot of hard choices to make, this would be a really good fandom for IF, whether it goes slightly mystical and surreal or not. Alliterative verse IF even.)
Anyway, if you want the OT3, I too want the OT3. Please make it consensual though, or at least dubcon of the "wanted it all along but needed a nudge to admit it" kind. I really enjoy how happy Gawain is to give up all control in the sex games, please play with that? (Even if it involves playing with which of them has the control.) Also if you really want to do a maiden/mother/crone thing with the Lady and Morgana, it's pretty clear who is the Maiden here (it's Gawain.)
If you did want to go a bit farther weird and mystical with the Green Knight, the poem sets of a strong parallel between the Knight's hunt and the Lady's seduction, and I'd love something where he is there for both - either he and the Lady can ride on each other's perceptions, or he is both of them at once, and bilocating somehow.
Request 6 by melannen
Fandom:Loki: Agent of Asgard
Loki (Agent of Asgard)
I love everything about this series - it is my favorite Marvel series hands down. I'd like any story about the new Loki, post-series, exploring his new role and his new powers. The idea of a god of stories redefining himself though his stories just works really well for me (and it would work really well in a heavily meta fanfic, if you like that sort of thing.) I'd also love resolution of the messes he'd left all his relationships in. I love his relationships with Sigurd and Verity and Lorelei and Hela and Thor (and also Ms. Marvel and Squirrel Girl, if you're so inclined.) (I have read the post-canon miniseries, but feel free to ignore them if you so desire.)
Agent of Asgard is a Marvel series from a few years back in which a reborn Loki is trying to trip his way to redemption, or a least to a loophole way out of damnation. (...I did not realize this comic had basically the same plot as the other one I requested. Ooops? Crossover?) It's just, unfairly good? And it stands alone pretty well for a Marvel series. (It should aslo be on Hoopla.) It ties in somewhat to Loki's previous storylines in Journey into Mystery and Young Avengers - which are also wayy above par in quality - but you should be able to pick up enough just from Agent of Asgard and feel free to write as if this is a standalone canon.
I am probably going to have a shorter prompt for this fandom but I promise I do not want it any less! I just. Really like everything about it. But also there weren't as many characters in the tagset so I am going to try to stay more concise. I would love stuff about unnominated characters if you would like! Especially Sigurd and Lorelei, who are great. I would love for Loki and Sigurd to get stuck in any or all of the ridiculous slash trope cliches in whatever way is most inconvenient and embarassing for them.
I used he/him pronouns for Loki in the signup but I love how gleefully genderfluid Loki is in this canon (please write me Trixie fic!) and use whatever pronouns you would like as long as you keep Loki genderfluid. (I feel like the God of Stories is going to be even more genderfluid than their predecessor, so please run with that one if you write post-canon.)
There are a ton of places in canon where you could step in an expand something further, which I would love, and post-canon is just a world of possibilities. Also I've just learned some more about the canon backstory of Verity's family, so if you are interested in digging into Marvel lore, I'd love something with Verity learning about, or coming to terms with that. Also Jane got to be Thor, so I'd love to see a story where Verity gets to be Loki, somehow or other!
Anyway this is really just me spitballing prompt ideas because I want them all. Also Loki is the God of Fanfic now, so feel free to just go super meta and break literally all the walls, Loki has created a terrible slash on the internet and does Yuletide every year.
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YEAH)
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Yuletide person, I will still love you if you don't write me OT3, I am not great at writing ship on command either, but also, why is there not already a giant pile of OT3 for this fandom.