YULETIIIIIIIIDE \o/
Oct. 26th, 2019 08:52 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I'm so glad you signed up for Yuletide, author! And please rest assured, if you don't care for long letters, that's completely okay—you don't need to read any of this if you don't want to. I have no DNWs for you to worry about, and I adore all of these fandoms and would be thrilled to receive whatever you'd like to give me in any of them. I've only written this to give you more to work with, if that's something you'd find useful. If you get bored or there's just too much, close this tab and don't look back! Forget this letter is even here! And have a great time writing me anything that strikes your fancy. :D
If you like optional details ... this may still be a little more than you were looking for, but feel free to skim! I promise there's no way you can miss anything genuinely crucial; I just like to talk a lot about my favorite tiny fandoms, and once I get going, I have trouble knowing where to stop. I've done my best to make this letter organized and easy to navigate, and I hope very much that I've succeeded. :D
You can find me at the AO3 under
Damkianna, and all my exchange letters (and actual posts with content, from once upon a time) are posted to LJ/DW at
damkianna/
damkianna. There's also some old Tumblr posts at
damkianna. My tastes really haven't changed much, so if there's a prompt in any of my previous letters for a fandom I've requested here that appeals to you, but I didn't repeat that prompt, by all means write it anyway! (And don't feel bound by any of my old DNWs, either.)
In General | The Big Country (1958) | Dark Matter (TV)
Hellboy (movies) | The Huntsman (movies) | Siren (TV)
If you don't want to just close this without looking at it at all, but it is Way Too Much, there is absolutely a bottom line: I meant every word of that first paragraph. Please write me whatever appeals to you the most and have a blast! Give me anything you're interested in giving me; there's nothing you need to avoid, and nothing you need to worry I won't enjoy. :D
I love gen and I love shipfic, I love navelgazing and I love adventures, I love deathfic and I love fluff; I love angst and feelings and messiness, and I love action and dialogue and worldbuilding! I'll admit I rarely manage to include prompts for all that stuff, but I'd be delighted to receive any of it—if you'd like to write a darker twist on a prompt I've given, or subvert a trope and deconstruct it, or give me the Worst Timeline AU where everything's gone wrong, DEFINITELY DO THAT. But! If you'd like to write me fluff, or the tropiest and most earnest fic of your heart, or a fix-it where everything is puppies and nothing hurts, DEFINITELY DO THAT. :D Whatever it is you love about the fandom and characters we matched on, whatever you've been itching to write about them—please please please let me see it! Whether it's tooth-rotting, weird, gory, kinky, scary, tragic ... GIVE IT TO ME. *grabby hands*
I'm 100% here for and would be stoked to be given any/all/any combination of:
• shipfic! Any kind of shipfic; I'm a chronic multishipper and I love m/m, m/f, f/f, nonbinary or genderless characters in ships, and poly of any configuration, and I'm here for age gaps, incest, and messy/dysfunctional/deeply twisted relationships, in addition to earnest, endearing, and unproblematic romances. :D By all means write me a fic about any ship you ship, and I'd be equally happy with 1k of all-out smut or 1k of pre-ship pining/shippy-if-you-squint/unrequited or even unacknowledged feelings.
• gen! I would adore fic about any of the characters I've requested on their own, or in groups or subgroups where friendship/platonic interaction/other kinds of relationships are involved. And here is your explicit permission: you do NOT need to include every character I requested in my gift! Any of them individually, or any subgroup that includes some but not all, plus or minus any other character in the canon, is a-okay with me. 1k of pre-canon adventures, missing scenes set at any point, or post-canon possibilities—friendship and found-family fics, 1k of introspection, a snippet of wherever you think they'll end up next ...
• free space! And by that I mean anything that fits on your personal metaphorical bingo card that I manage to fail to mention. Your own favorite premise or best-loved trope (sex pollen! Wingfic! Pretending to date for reasons! Accidental baby acquisition!), any kind of AU or AU-adjacent trope (soulmarks! It's all In Space! Canon divergence! Roleswaps!), or anything weird or uncommon you've always kind of wanted an excuse to try (future tense! Epistolary fic! Ten sequential drabbles! A THOUSAND WORDS OF POETRY). Ignore everything in this letter, decide what you'd like to do, and do it. :D
I like fluff and angst, sad endings and happy endings, tension and relief. I would love something precisely placed and canon-compliant just as much as OCs or a brand-new setting to explore, pre-canon blanks getting filled in or post-canon adventures that go whole new directions. I'm here for rare pairings of all stripes, alternate character interpretations or AU variations, and outsider POVs on ships or on people. 1k of any part of canon you like best (or want to rewrite or take somewhere other than where it went canonically, or think is weird or creepy or funny even though canon didn't seem to mean it that way) would be awesome. Second person! Interactive fiction! Rocks fall, everyone dies! ANYTHING. Write it for me, whatever it is, and have a great Yuletide. ♥
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I enjoy this movie a thoroughly ridiculous amount, and there are so many things about it that are my jam! Which definitely includes Jim and Steve, by themselves or together, and I'm here for anything you'd like to write me about either or both of them. :D I love Jim and his hard-earned calm, his competence and his stubbornness and all that hidden steel—anything about his backstory and his time at sea, how he met and fell for Pat, or his POV on the slow burn of his feelings for Julie, would be great. Or Steve, bless, in all his insecurity and kneejerk resentment and reluctant loyalty—1k of how he came to work for the Terrills, or whether he'd really want Pat if he got her, or how he starts to rethink things after Jim happens to him, would be wonderful!
And of course I'd love Jim/Steve, too, if you happen to ship it. :D Mid-movie half-acknowledged UST, or the tropiest post-canon get-together fic that lives in your heart—pre-slash where everything's understated and simmering away on a back burner, unspoken but full of potential, or angry porn where that midnight altercation goes in a totally different direction ... go wild!
This may be at risk of turning into one of my perennial Yuletide fandoms, oops, but I adore the movie so much, and am too greedy to not ask for it some more! :D I'm so weak for Jim's particular brand of quiet, staunch self-respect, how thoughtful and patient he is, at the same time that he's so stubborn in his own way, and won't veer from what he thinks is right or best even if it might make things a lot easier. And Steve's arc was so satisfying to me—I loved his irritation with Jim and how much he disliked Jim at first, how obvious it was that he just didn't know what to do with a man who relied so little on other people's good opinions or on "performing" manliness in expected ways; that he wants to fight Jim SO BADLY, and still ends up starting to see where Jim's coming from in time, however reluctantly. ♥
HELP I LOVE JIM SO MUCH. :D He's just so calmly and quietly sure of himself, so thoughtful and perceptive—and possibly a bit self-righteous and irritating now and then, bless, but it's so hard to hold it against him. I love that he's decided so clearly what should carry weight and what shouldn't, and that he cares so much about people at the same time that he cares so little about their opinions, and doesn't mind being thought of as a coward or a fool (why should he, after all, when he knows he isn't, and anyone who pays enough attention will know the same?). ♥ JIM ♥
• So I'd love pretty much anything you'd like to tell me about Jim!
:: Where did he grow up? When did he first go to sea, and why, and who was it who taught him navigation?
:: What happened to give him the perspective that he has on self-respect and proving oneself? Was there some specific incident—maybe aboard ship, or ashore on leave—where social pressure and trying to "be a man" ended badly, and taught him something? (Was he once a little more like Steve—maybe more than he wants to admit?)
:: When and how did he become a captain? What did he think the rest of his life was going to look like, before the events of the movie?
• And of course I'd be happy for you to write about his relationship with Pat, too!
:: How did it begin? How did they meet, and fall in love? What was it about each other that first caught their eye?
:: What was their separation like for Jim, when Pat first returned to her family but Jim was still back east?
:: Did he have a certain sense of foreboding about coming west and seeing her again—a niggling feeling that things might not work out? Or was he looking forward to learning more about where Pat came from, and understanding her better?
• I'd be delighted with anything about Jim set during the movie:
:: His romance with Julie was so lovely, and that wordless confessional moment between them in Blanco Canyon, g o d, MY HEART. So anything from Jim's first impressions of Julie to deeper feelings taking root, realizing she's been taken to relief at finding she's still alive ... totally on the table!
:: And Jim's POV on any part of canon, whether it's the "big country" in general when he arrives, or the Hannasseys/Ramón/the Terrills as he learns more about the situation—or, of course, Steve :D—would be fantastic.
:: Or! Any kind of missing scene you'd like to tackle that's Jim-centric would be awesome, too: alone on his ride, realizing he really can orient himself well before he's found by Steve; or a conversation with Pat or Julie, or even Henry Terrill, that we didn't see; or his relief when the standoff in the canyon is over.
• And post-movie Jim/Julie or gen of any kind would also be more than welcome!
:: I'd honestly be as happy to read about Jim (by himself, or with Julie) riding off and moving on to a new home, either out west or back east, far away from feuds and water rights ...
:: ... as about Jim (by himself, or with Julie) returning to Big Muddy and fixing the place up so it's a real ranch again (with actual details about ranching 100% optional; I know nothing about it, I won't notice if you fudge it! :D).
:: Or even further in the future—does he ever go to sea again? Does he marry Julie after all? 1k of Jim on his deathbed, thinking back, things he regrets (if only a little) and things he doesn't ... anything!
AND STEVE. :D I loved Steve's character arc so much—it's so easy to understand why he is the way he is, the rules he must be used to and the way he clearly perceives the world as working. And at the same time that it's understandable, it's so frustrating, because he's so rude and angry and difficult, and it's so unnecessary; he just doesn't know how else to act, and he's never had a reason to try to be different. But then Jim gives him one, even if he doesn't want it, and everything starts to change. :D His speech to the Major at the end! And then getting shot for him anyway! ;-; STEVE.
• So, point is: definitely here for 1k of any headcanon you might have about Steve's backstory!
:: Where's he from? How did he start working for the Terrills, and how did he end up foreman?
:: Was he sweet on Pat even before she went east? (Or might that have been more about Jim than it was about Pat, in some ways? :D)
:: Does he have any personal reasons to dislike the Hannasseys? (In typical feud fashion, was it "just because the Terrills do" at first, but then altercations resulted in personal grievances, and now it's A Thing?) Or is it all about the Terrills and his own stubborn loyalty?
• Or start a bit closer to the movie itself:
:: What does he think when Pat comes back? What does she or doesn't she tell him about Jim, before Jim arrives, and what does he think about it?
:: Pat and Julie have been friends for a long time, so Steve must know Julie—might they have talked to each other, about Pat or about this Jim of hers, before Jim arrived?
• And of course I'd be thrilled with 1k from Steve's perspective that's set during the movie, too!
:: Pre-slash of any kind at all—from only-if-you-squint to serious UST, from Steve in total denial to Steve grudgingly aware that he's got more than one reason to want to get up close and personal with Jim—would be awesome. :D
:: Something set during the early parts of the movie, where he's still resentful and dismissive of Jim? Or his POV during the search for Jim, and the resulting argument?
:: Or 1k of whatever he's thinking when he realizes it's Jim who's come into his room and woken him up, and the midnight fight? The moment Steve's understanding of Jim's philosophy began to change? The Blanco Canyon showdown, and getting shot?
• I'd love to read about whatever you think might happen to Steve after the movie:
:: If you'd like to write me the story where he dies of his bullet wound, regretful and too late to change what he did with his life, I will write you the best comment I can through my tears!
:: BUT feel free to let him live and tell me something else about him, too. :D What does he do—keep working for the Terrills, or move on?
:: Would he choose to take on Big Muddy himself, if Jim and Julie didn't? Fixing it up, at the same time that he's now conscious of a need to better himself, too?
:: Or maybe Jim and Julie stay? Julie has a line about how you'd need a good foreman to run a place like that—would they ask Steve to take on that role? (And would he accept, or refuse?)
And the pairing's getting its own batch of prompts, because I had a few too many to fit up there. :D By the way, please rest assured that while I'd appreciate Julie and/or Pat being treated kindly or at least understandingly, if they do appear in your story—you don't need to spend the beginning of a Jim/Steve fic explaining to me how Jim and Julie broke up, if you don't want to! I'm happy to take it as read, if you like, and roll with Jim/Steve at any point during or after the movie without blinking. (You definitely can if you want to; just don't feel obligated, is all. :D)
• As I've mentioned elsewhere, you should feel free to give me anything that's pre-slash or ship-if-you-squint, and don't worry one bit that it's not shippy "enough"!
:: Something where Steve's been hearing all about Jim from Pat, irritated and resentful about having to listen to her talk about this other man ... and then Jim shows up, andOH NO, HE'S HOT OH NO, HE'S EVEN WORSE THAN STEVE IMAGINED?
:: Or maybe Jim's the one who's heard a bit about Steve from Pat, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. And Steve's everything Jim's learned not to be, and he clearly doesn't understand Jim at all, but Jim just can't seem to stop trying to explain his perspective anyway—and he doesn't even know why it is that he'd like so much for Steve to pick up what he's putting down, but BOY WOULD HE. :D
• Or something a little later in the movie's events?
:: Honestly, 1k in either of their POVs that's 100% outwardly canon-compliant but full of their own perception of a lot of UST would be fantastic!
:: But by all means, feel free to let that visit Jim makes to Steve's room end differently—whether that's a single furious impulsive kiss that takes them both a bit by surprise, or higher-rated territory! (Dubcon would be more than okay here, whether you think Steve might want to ~teach Jim a lesson, and then that impulse goes sideways on him; or maybe Jim might start something, trying to get through to Steve, that Steve ... isn't willing to let on that he's dying for, even if he is.)
:: And I should mention as a side note that it makes a lot of sense to me for Steve—who's clearly pretty hung up on how men "ought" to be/what makes a man a "real" man—to have some internalized homophobia/biphobia, and/or be very uncomfortable with his own response to Jim. If that's something you're interested in exploring, I would be there for it! If not, no worries; you definitely don't have to include period-appropriate homophobia on either of their parts if you don't want to. Whatever works for you!
• And of course post-canon would be great, too. :D
:: I love h/c so much, and I would read a thousand different takes on Jim involved in Steve's recovery from his gunshot wound! TEN THOUSAND. Does Jim find him immediately afterward, injured, and bandage him up long enough to get him out of Blanco to a bed? Or does Steve make it up and away with someone else's help, and hole up somewhere ... but Jim tracks him down and won't stop checking in on him?
:: Or something set a little further off: what if they met again after a few years? Steve helping Pat run the Terrill place, maybe, and Jim passing through; or Steve having had to go east for ~reasons (business stuff for Pat?) and running into Jim there?
:: Or what if Jim does stick around and takes on Big Muddy alone? I'm also weak for accidental domesticity, and I'd adore something where Steve starts showing up more and more often, with tools Jim needs or a little gruffly offered advice, or just as an extra pair of hands ... and it's stupid to make him ride out when he'll just be coming back the next day ... and suddenly he's sort of living there too. :D
• Or basically anything else you're interested in writing me!
:: By all means, trap them together in bad weather, make them huddle for warmth; invent a sex pollen plant that grows only in the soil of Big Muddy, and Steve realizes nobody warned Jim about it; give me the AU where there was some kind of outrageous mixup, and the bride Steve mail-ordered from back east ... is a quiet-spoken man who doesn't seem half as angry about the mistake as he should be. :D
:: What if Steve had gotten lucky and found Jim sooner, and they'd had a chance to talk a little more on the ride back? Or if Steve had, without Jim noticing, come back early enough to catch Jim on Old Thunder?
::What if this were IN SPACE and the Terrills and Hannasseys owned competing mining outfits working the same asteroid belt? WHAT IF STEVE AND JIM SOULBONDED BY ACCIDENT. WHAT IF EVERYONE WERE WEREWOLVES. My hand to god, go as tropey or as AU as your heart desires—you really can't go wrong with anything as long as it's got that antagonism and tension, that potential for deeper understanding, and Jim and Steve in the middle of it. :D
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This is definitely an unusual combination of characters, and please rest assured you aren't going to need to get them all in the same fic to make me happy. :D I'd be delighted to read about any combination of them, or any one of them on their own. Misaki's past, training for the royal guard and navigating the imperial court, plotting and maneuvering and always on her guard? Nyx with the Seers, and how she ended up in prison where the crew found her? YES. Three trying to escape from Alt!Portia, post-S3, and make his way back to the ship? Two—or Rebecca, or Portia, during whatever part of her past you'd like to focus on; or figuring out what comes next as just Two, after freeing herself from that alien? BY ALL MEANS.
I loved this show so much, and I love the whole ensemble! So if at least one of my requested characters is featured somehow, then you're good. Any and every other member of the main crew is welcome, as are any of your favorite background characters (Dr. Shaw? Devon? Teku? Hiro? John Anders? Sarah? Truffault?), or anything else you happen to ship. And I'd be happy to receive fic about any canonical character deaths, or deathfic for anyone who was still alive when S3 ended—though of course AUs where everything turns out better or 1k of fix-it fic would be fantastic, too! :D
I miss this show so much, and I'm always so thrilled to revisit the universe and the characters in fic. :D There are so many things I love about Dark Matter, I can guarantee you I will like anything you want to throw at me—darkfic about Misaki ruining people's lives (including her own)? Fluff about Two and Nyx tentatively flirting with each other? Horror about how the alien rift felt to Three, and what their influence is like? Yes and yes and yes. Whatever tone or genre you want to aim for, heist shenanigans or galactic politics, found family feels or desperation in the face of unstoppable alien invasion, this is 100% the canon for it, and I'm looking forward to it!
OH MISAKI. I was interested in Misaki basically the very first time she appeared on screen, without even knowing who she was, and that didn't change at all as I got to know her better. :D Which, she is definitely violent and manipulative and unkind, and you don't need to pretend she isn't! I love the contrast between the face she sometimes presents (cool, pragmatic, reasonable, loyal) and the things she does when she has the chance (hold endless resentful grudges, pine but like in an angry way, kill people, plan a coup), and I'd adore anything you'd like to write me about her! The things she wants and what she'll do to get them, how unapologetic she is about it, the lines she crosses without looking back ... YES PLEASE.
• Backstory! Totally here for your headcanons about Zairon, or anything about a younger Misaki growing up in the imperial court. :D
:: 1k about her childhood? Any direction you'd like to take it, from court intrigue involving her family that a young Misaki only just starts to understand ... to other weirdly adorable pranks Ryo might have played on her when they were companions as children!
:: Her early training? Her time in the imperial guard, and how she managed to rise into position as captain after Four killed Akita?
:: Her perspective on the dowager empress, or on Ryo's father's death and Ryo's exile, or how her rivalry with Teku began?
• Or, of course, anything about Misaki set during canon would be fantastic. :D
:: What was it like in the imperial court when Hiro was emperor, and she was captain of his guard? How did she feel about him? Did she ever think about trying to orchestrate a coup against him?
:: What was she thinking or feeling when Ryo was captured, and to what degree was she expecting what happened in the throne room? (Did she want all the Seers dead, or was she surprised by that part?)
:: Or! Please feel free to give me the most excruciating thousand words you can generate about what it was like for her to overhear that conversation between Nyx and Ryo, and developing her plans to eliminate Nyx. ;-;
:: Or anything about the moment when Ryo discovered that she'd succeeded? The planning and execution of the coup, that fight with Two—the moment Misaki realized she wasn't going to win it?
• Obviously futurefic about Misaki requires a little footwork; I'm totally here for AUs where she didn't die, or a Misaki from another part of the canonical multiverse, or *waves hands* a synthetic model with (most of) Misaki's memories loaded into her!
:: I'd love "fix-it" from her perspective where Ryo can in fact be convinced to make her empress! Or where her coup succeeds, and she takes command of Zairon's forces in the war against Pyr, and starts fighting it her way. (Was she right to think she could do better than Ryo? Or was she wrong?)
:: BUT I'd also love fix-it from everyone else's perspective—where the android shows up earlier, maybe, and she and Nyx together are able to beat Misaki and take her prisoner? As a bargaining chip to use against Ryo, even?
:: Or diverge from canon anywhere else you like! If Ryo had succeeded in keeping and duplicating the blink drive, and Zairon's fleets utterly wrecked Pyr and rolled unstoppably through the galaxy—would Misaki ever have a reason to regret her decisions?
:: Or if she'd gone looking for Ryo earlier, and tracked Four down, and ended up on the Raza—joined the crew, purely because it served her purpose, and gotten to know them?
• And shipfic with Misaki involved would be more than welcome. :D Anything from UST to hatesex would be great, and I'd be delighted to receive Misaki/Nyx, Misaki/Three, or Misaki/Two (along with Misaki/Ryo, whether one-sided or reciprocated, or Misaki/anybody else, for that matter).
:: If Nyx had managed to win her fight with Misaki—might Misaki have (however unwillingly) admired her for it? If Misaki were imprisoned on the Raza afterward, what else could that admiration have turned into? :D
:: Would Three be up for a round of hatesex? (Does he share his alternate counterpart's enjoyment of being hit and/or choked during sex? Because in that case Misaki would pretty definitely indulge him ... *waggles eyebrows*)
:: In a universe where she didn't kill Nyx, or hadn't yet—could Two have ended up grudgingly reaching out to her (trying anything/everything to get the blink drive back from Ryo, maybe)?
:: Would Six try to redeem her? (Oh, Six. :D) Or just end up calmly talking about the "right thing" at her while she insulted him?
:: Or, venturing a bit sideways—might she ever have tried to seduce Hiro to make him easier to manipulate, while Ryo was gone?
:: I don't know how it would happen, but for the record 1k of the android observing Misaki and trying to work out her reasoning for the things she does, in her blandly patient android way, would be A++. :D
NYX. ♥ I loved Nyx so much, and I was so bummed when she died—which is to say I'd be just as pleased with deathfic that takes me right back to the moment I realized what had happened on my screen (;-;) as I would be with a fix-it! And for the record, post-S2 fic of Two hallucinating her some more, or encountering a Nyx from another universe (who perhaps had a different—better? or worse?—relationship with her own Portia) would be fantastic, too. :D
• Or, of course, death doesn't need to come into it at all, if you'd like to write something set pre-canon! Plus or minus Milo, too, or Nyx's parents/other OC Seers, if you've got headcanons. :D
:: The first time Nyx was placed in the Seers' machinery and understood what she'd be used for—what is it like to be part of their linked-up hive-mind, being fed foundational data and delivering projections?
:: The first time it occurred to her that she could escape? (How did she manage to plan it without any of the other Seers predicting it? Or maybe she messed up the first couple times, more predictable than she should have been?)
:: Or how she ended up in prison, and who she might have met there before the crew showed up? (Did she want to be there, thinking the Seers wouldn't predict it? Or was it an accident she saw coming a little too late?)
• By all means set something during the show, while she's still alive:
:: Meeting Two and Three and Four in prison! What did she think of them when they first arrived? Was she already intending to escape and they just made it easier, or had she been planning to stay where she was, at least until she learned they had a ship and might be useful to her?
:: And then once she got out with them—was Milo the first thing on her mind? Did she feel any guilt for not explaining what she was really after, or was Milo just too important for her to even consider taking the risk?
:: Basically anything from her perspective about being on the Raza, getting used to a new ship and new people when she'd been raised on the Seers' vessel her whole life, the moment she really started to feel like crew or think of it as home ...
:: Or anything with a slightly wider scope! Her POV on Four taking his memories back, how painful that was, or on Zairon and Pyr, the corporations (was she fed data, with the Seers, that means she's better informed about the galaxy than the rest of the crew?), whatever odds she's calculated about the various conflicts. Anything!
• But feel free to make me cry if you want to, too:
:: Nyx's POV on Eos 7 and their odds of success, the lead-in to the fight with Misaki and the moment she realized she'd lose! ;-; Two can't stop hallucinating her, a lot further into S3 than we were shown! ;-;
:: Or—if she'd accepted Ryo's offer to make her empress, would she have survived it? Presumably there'd be plenty of new enemies at court, but could she have found a way (or, reluctantly, used enough Shadow) to see them coming and survive?
:: Could she have changed the course of the conflict with Pyr, or the uprising/Misaki's coup attempt? Could she have even seen the "black ships" coming, if she'd had the right data?
:: Or, of course, if the android had reached the bridge in time to help her—or the android had been on the bridge instead, when Misaki arrived, and it had been Nyx who'd confronted Ryo in the engine room?
• And I'd be thrilled with any shipfic you'd like to write involving Nyx! I talked a little about some prompts for Misaki/Nyx in Misaki's section, but there's plenty more options:
:: Nyx/Two? I would absolutely love any tropey thing you'd like to write here about them rescuing each other, or trapped on a planet and huddling for warmth, or sex-pollened, or dumped sideways into a different alternate universe where they're married! ANYTHING. :D
:: Nyx/Three? Three offers to be her sparring partner after Ryo's left, and Nyx kicks his ass but totally appreciates the gesture! Whenever Three gets drunk he starts telling Nyx how pretty she is in relentless earnest detail! :D (Nyx/Two/Three: ALSO AN A++ CHOICE.)
:: Nyx/Devon? I hugely enjoyed Devon's ridiculous angsty doctor backstory, so if emotional h/c is your thing, feel free to indulge! (Could Nyx have caught some extra bit of information that gave her a flash of vision about the attack that killed him—could she have found him in time to save him?)
:: Nyx/Four and/or Nyx/Ryo would be wonderful, in any direction you'd like to take it; anything from her POV on how they came together and how it fell apart, as wrenching as you'd like to get ... or give me 1k of the AU where Four decides not to take back Ryo's memories.
:: Nyx/Six—early in S2, was she maybe easier to talk to than anyone from the S1 crew, for Six? Did he repay the favor by listening to her talk about Milo?
:: Nyx/android! Nyx was sort of part of a machine once, and she's got a gift for calculation; they have more common ground than it might appear, and I'd love to see them explore it a little. :D
Three! :D I was really not expecting to love Three as much as I did, because he can be such an ass ... but he's an ass with a heart of gold, and he cares so much about people even when he's trying to pretend not to, and he tries so hard even when the odds are against him. OH THREE. ♥ His amazing angsty backstory with his parents' deaths and Tanner and Sarah, as Marcus Boone, is just the cherry on top! I love how thoroughly all-in he gets about the crew, to the extent that he's SO ANGRY with Six for having betrayed them, and his relationship with Five is just *kisses fingertips* PERFECTION. So, yeah. Anything you'd like to write me about Three, I will adore!
• By all means dive into his pre-canon backstory at any point you'd like:
:: With Tanner and his gang? Did he believe what Tanner told him about what happened to his parents, or not? Did he get suspicious over time?
:: Please feel free to delve more deeply into what it was like for him, getting left behind on that planet and ending up in Sarah's house, the grudging process of falling for her and of realizing that it had happened!
:: Or, of course, tell me all about how Marcus Boone ended up on Portia Lin's ship! How did he convince Portia to take him on? Did he get Sarah's stasis pod on board without anyone knowing, or did he have to tell Portia about her?
:: Was he actually planning to activate that beacon Tanner'd given him, or was he hiding it because he wanted to stay on the Raza and get as far away from Tanner as he could? What did he think of the rest of the crew before they lost their memories?
• Or anything set during the show, in any season, would be fantastic. :D
:: S1 Three, still all suspicious and douchey, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, who he is, and whether he can trust anyone? Fuckbuddies with Two, or trying to work out what One's deal is?
:: Or S2 Three—his reaction to the S1 finale and to prison, to the realization that it was Six and not One that he couldn't trust? Aaaaaanything in his POV about the episode where Tanner shows up, YES PLEASE, or being trapped on the shuttle with Six? :D
:: Or, of course, S3! Anything about what it's like to realize that the alien blob that was in him is only the beginning? His interactions with Sarah's preserved consciousness? 1k of scenes we didn't see from the time loop episode?
• And I'm 100% here for futurefic or AUs that are focused on Three, too:
:: His perspective on the events of the final episode would honestly be great. What happens to him, on that shuttle with Portia—does he escape, or can he convince her to go back, or does he just have to cooperate with her until he can come up with some more options?
:: If he did manage to meet up with the rest of the crew again, somehow or other—would they be able to rescue Six from the far side of that rift? (Could Three sense him somehow, given Three's weird connection to the aliens?)
:: Would they have to hurry to warn the corporations, or Zairon, or the independent colonies, about the aliens? Or would they already be faced with an army of possessed synthetics coming out of the woodwork? (No need to go epic, I swear; 1k setting up these scenarios from Three's POV would be fantastic. :D)
:: Or maybe the aliens would be able to reach out to Three and take him over remotely, to force him to serve as an intermediary? (I'm as up for body horror and creepy ambiguous endings as I am for the crew figuring out how to break the aliens' hold and rescue him. JUST SO YOU KNOW.)
:: Or! Give me 1k of the AU where he took Marcus Boone's memories back, instead of Four taking Ryo's? Where he and One managed to realize it wasn't either of them who was the problem, and successfully stopped Six from contacting the GA? Where he rejoined Tanner's gang after all—and then regretted it?
• And I ship Three with pretty much anybody and everybody—I talked a bit about Misaki/Three and Nyx/Three already, but if I manage to leave any OTHER Three ship you'd like to write off this list, pretend I didn't and go for it!
:: Totally here for any and all fuckbuddies-friends-loyalty kink combination for Three and Two! I love that they banged first and realized exactly how much they cared about and could rely on each other after, and I'd adore any tropey thing about Two rescuing Three, or more pretending to be married, or Three trying to throw himself on a grenade for Two. ♥
:: And also very much here for Three ships involving other characters I didn't request! Three/One? ABSOLUTELY. Please feel free to give me all kinds of words of them saving each other's lives/resenting each other, partly for being so annoyingly attractive/being trapped together in small spaces. Or Three's terrible angsty mourning feelings, after One's death! ;-; (Three/One/Two? Definitely on the table!)
:: Three/GA officers! I loved his weird quasi-enemy-mine thing with Kierken and am totally here for more confrontations, or saving each other and escaping Eos 7—and that episode where he was stuck on that planet with John Anders, and they saved each other and also Three had to lie on top of him for like a whole minute, and it was amazing. :D
:: Three/Four? Three admired his badassery so much in S1, and it must have been as weird for him as it was for anyone when Four became Ryo and left them—give me all the UST and sparring where Three loses abominably, or all the angsty could-have-beens!
:: Three/Six! I love love love this relationship, especially in all its thorniness during and after S2; please feel free to trap them in a shuttle again, or make them pretend to be married for a job, or save each other and/or get hurt trying to protect each other. :D (Three/Two/Six? ALSO ON THE TABLE)
:: Three/Sarah? I'd enjoy something set in their joint backstory, before Sarah even really knows who Three is, just as much as something full of longing and tentative reconnection set when she wakes up again, or while she's in the computer—or post-canon where Three encounters her in her new android body!
:: Or Three/the android! I love how his attitude toward the android changes over time, the transition from "that robot" to "our robot"—anything where he discovers he's a lot more protective of her and of her personhood than he'd expected, or he got himself hurt and she's looking after him in the infirmary? Or even something where he's so gravely injured somehow that Shaw agrees to build him an android body, and the android's got to help him get used to it?
AND TWO. I don't even have the words to summarize all the things I love about Two; she's so badass and physically unstoppable in so many ways, so terse and self-contained most of the time, and yet she cares about everything so much, and takes on so much responsibility, and tries so hard to do the right thing. ♥ TWO. I love how stone-cold she can be—just shooting Corso in the head like that, goddamn—and I love how sensitive and uncertain she can be—when she thinks Five is afraid of her, or when even she doesn't know how her neck healed so fast. IN CONCLUSION, I'm so here for anything you'd like to tell me about Two. :D
• S3 was such a goldmine of Two backstory—I'd be thrilled with any part of it that you're interested in exploring!
:: Her POV on her time as Rebecca in the Dwarf Star facility? The earliest beginnings of her relationship with Dr. Shaw? Her escape, and trying to find her way to Dr. Shaw's apartment after? From creepy to fluffy, anywhere in between, or both at once!
:: Or tell me about the aftermath: leaving the planet with Dr. Shaw, and finding that facility; the early stages of turning it into a shelter for androids, and the tragedy of Dr. Shaw's illness, Rebecca having to watch its progression until Shaw went into stasis—FEEL FREE TO TEAR MY HEART OUT. ;-;
:: Or Portia! How exactly did Rebecca transition into Portia? Where did she get the Raza? How'd she get in business with Tabor? How strange was it for her, seeing the android with Shaw's face every day? (If you've got any headcanon about her daughter, or any of the other stuff Ryo revealed—if it was even true—by all means tell me about it!)
:: We saw how Das ended up on the Raza, but not anybody else! Did they join up, or did Portia recruit them? What did she think of each of them? Why didn't she kill "Griffin" the moment she suspected him? Did she have any suspicions about "Corso"?
• Or tell me anything about Two from anywhere during the show—and I love missing scenes, episode tags, and canon-compliance, but if you want to just write 1k of the beginning of a con job from *waves hands* somewhere in S1, that's a-okay too. :D
:: S1 Two, still not quite sure what she is, concealing her already-healed injuries ... did she have any hypotheses about what she might turn out to be or why? Or was she just trying not to think about it, until Dwarf Star and Rook made it impossible?
:: Or dealing with all the change and loss and struggle in S2—One's death, shooting Corso for it, her nanites failing her (do the upgraded ones feel any different to her?), Four leaving them ...
:: Or, of course, S3! Losing Nyx, Six taking his leave temporarily, adding on Adrian and Solara, jumping through time, discovering SO MUCH about her origins at last, casting that deciding vote on Ryo's fate—and that's not even getting into the whole, you know, alien invasion thing. :D
• And of course AUs and futurefic are more than welcome, too!
:: If she'd managed to realize that doctor had an alien in her, and fought her off in time—could she have contacted the crew and saved Six?
:: Or tell me what you think happens next: how does the crew reunite, save each other and themselves and start trying to work out where to go from here?
:: What might have happened if she'd decided not to execute Ryo, but rather to wipe him again?
:: Or if (to help her access the strongbox? Because she doesn't know what to do with whatever's inside?) she decided to take back Portia's imprint, to look for her daughter ...
• Plus, of course, I ship Two with pretty much everybody. :D I discussed Misaki/Two, Nyx/Two, and Three/Two above, but that still leaves all kinds of options:
:: Two/One! Anything that covers any part of their S1 relationship would be wonderful; and fix-it for One's death is absolutely welcome, as is 1k of Two all stonefaced and vengeful and coolly shooting Jace Corso in the head. (One/Two/Three? ALSO VERY MUCH WELCOME.)
:: Two/Six! Post-canon, could having had an alien in her let her sense Six on the other side of that rift—or even give them some kind of mental connection? Or anything set during S2/S3, with Six trying to prove himself to her and Two choosing to trust him again, Six leaving the ship and then coming back, would be great!
:: Two/Four? Especially going all sorts of complicated and prickly, with Ryo taking the blink drive like that and Two demonstrating her willingness to kill him for the rest of the crew? *______*
:: Two/android? Rebecca/Shaw? Portia/android? All three at various points? GO WILD. :D I loved Rebecca and Shaw's story and would be thrilled to have it explored, just as much as I love Two and the android deciding that whoever they're based off of or used to be, they're their own selves now with their own relationship. ♥
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These movies are so delightful, and I'll never get tired of them; they're so funny and so fun, so creepy in places and yet so earnest, and the aesthetics are so thoroughly my jam. I would watch these teams of misfits look out for each other and do their best to save the world together all day long, and the sense of magic, wonder, fear, and love is one hell of a cherry on top. I'm only requesting Nuala, but I love the first movie just as much as the second—if you'd like to bring John back from Antarctica, I would be thrilled to see him! Or feel free to focus on the second movie and write me 1k of Johann's observations of Nuala. :D Ensemble fic about the BPRD with Nuala involved, pre-canon fic about Nuala and the elves, AU where she leaves with the rest of the team as they make their own way post-canon ... anything!
Seriously, if you wanted to just do 1k of worldbuilding about the elven court and Nuala's place in it, that would be AMAZING. Or—her perspective on Nuada's sudden return, feeling everything he's feeling even as he kills their father in front of her? Meeting Abe and the BPRD team, in all their mismatched and delightful glory? Or, of course, the discovery of the Golden Army, and the moment she realized what would have to happen for Nuada to be defeated? Shipfic would be fantastic, and please rest assured I'm equally here for obsessive fixated Nuala/Nuada, the fluffiest sweetest Nuala/Abe in the world, Nuala/HB or Nuala/Liz or any sort of team polygon that includes her—whatever strikes your fancy!
Hellboy for me is just—it's like a HUG. A big weird eldritch hug with too many hands, possibly, but still. :D I love all the characters so much, and all of their relationships with each other, the good and the bad and the ugly; the times when they're kind to each other and the times when they struggle to understand or to be understood, the moments that are sweet and the moments that are awkward. ♥ And the world itself, everything that's strange and lovely and potentially lethal hiding just underneath the surface of it, fighting horrors from legend in subway tunnels and mourning the death of a magical tree in the middle of an intersection. Plus I'm always weak for teams of people who care about each other facing down darkness way out of their league. ♥ SO YEAH. HELLBOY'S GREAT, THE END.
And of all the things I enjoyed about Golden Army, I particularly loved Nuala! She's just so interesting to me on so many levels—that she's this seemingly gentle, ethereal elf-princess, but in the end also the one foe Nuada didn't plan for and can't defeat; and where all else failed, every other safeguard toppled, she managed to keep her piece of the crown away from him and save the world ... which is to say the human world, a world that didn't know she existed and which she had no reason to value. There's just SO MUCH to explore there, and I'd love a thousand words focusing on just about any element of Nuala's character you like!
• Pre-canon, there's room to do all kinds of worldbuilding, if that's something you've got an interest in:
:: What was the world like when Nuala was a girl? Who was her mother? (Or do elves just grow new elves like trees?) With more magic than humans, and the elves ascendant—what was the court of the elves like then, and how did she spend her time?
:: What adventures might she have gone on? Did she (and Nuada, if you'd like to include him) ever travel to visit other clans, or other creatures' courts?
:: Is there any particular reason why she might like humans more than Nuada does? Did she know any, back then, or befriend one once?
:: She was presumably around when the Army was created, and when Nuada was exiled—what did she think of it all? What was the experience of Nuada's exile like, through their link?
:: Seriously, any headcanon you have or worldbuilding you want to indulge in about Clan Bethmoora, or other clans and intra-/inter-clan alliances and politicking, would be wonderful!
• Or tell me anything you like about Nuala or her perspective on events during the span of the movie!
:: I absolutely loved the tropey amazingness of her psychic abilities and her bond with Nuada, so anything from her POV that incorporates that and her being on the run from him (presumably trying not to think or feel anything that would lead him to her) would be wonderful!
:: Her POV on Nuada's return and her father's death—mixed feelings, I'm sure! Was she glad to see him? Torn between his sense of triumph and/or conviction and her own fear and mourning?
:: And I'd love to read anything about her flight from the court, meeting Abe, the BPRD, Hellboy and the Army and the duel ... the burden on her, knowing what's at stake and that her people are fading, but also her sweetness and curiosity about the BPRD library and Abe and all these new things. :D
:: Or, of course, break my heart! I'd guessed pretty early on what might happen to her, but oh, man, her resolve and bravery at the end there just KILLED me. ;-; Feel free to twist the knife!
• But naturally I'd also be thrilled if you felt like writing a bit of fix-it—or an AU where things turn out differently, if not necessarily better:
:: Could her link with Nuada have been broken at just the right moment, so she didn't have to die when he did? Or replaced by a link with Abe?
:: She presumably experienced all Nuada's training with weapons, through the link—and of course she's the one person he wouldn't want to deal a serious wound to. Could she have dueled him herself? Or secured all the pieces of the crown and won control of the Army? (Not necessarily a fix-it, depending on how you think she would use it once she had it; are good intentions enough, in that scenario?)
:: Or could something (like, say, Liz's fire) have destroyed her piece of the crown, so Nuada could never have completed it?
:: Or go the other way: what if Nuada had succeeded before she'd even had a chance to stop him? What would that future look like, for her and for everyone else?
• And of course I ship ALL THE THINGS, so if you'd like to write me shipfic that includes Nuala, have at it. :D
:: I'd absolutely love 1k of Nuala/Abe, fleshing out their understated canonical romance a bit more, with missing scenes or more conversation. Or! Some kind of *waves hands* tropey AU—like, the BPRD decides to try to forge an alliance with the elves to stop Nuada before he gets started = arranged marriage between an agent and an elven princess? :D?
:: Or Nuala/Nuada! I'm here for this in any flavor you like: I read their connection as genuinely profound and meaningful to both of them, and Nuada's affection for her as at least some degree of sincere ... but of course that easily tips over into obsession, possessiveness, and manipulation, considering what he's canonically like. Sweet, creepy, or both at once—go for it!
:: Nuala/HB? In a handwavy AU where Nuala lives and remains a guest of the BPRD ... HB is a prince! Maybe a curse or spell or something ends up requiring him to marry a princess? :D
:: Nuala/Liz? Honestly I'd be thrilled with 1k of missing scene where they get to talk a little, with only the barest shippy undertones! Or if Liz were, say, turned into a dragon, might a princess be the only one who could approach her safely?
:: And if you wanted to let Nuala survive and run away with the rest of the team at the end of Golden Army, and get swept up in some grand team Nuala/Abe/HB/Liz(/John) romance, that would be AMAZING. :D
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I'm always easy for fairytale adaptations, and especially fairytale adaptations with Charlize Theron in them. :D And, for the record, you don't need to have watched a single minute of Winter's War to write me a Ravenna story—whether it's SWatH canon only, or set in between movies with some vague references to WW but no more, or during/after WW, I'm there for it! I just love the feel of the canon overall, this shadowed and dangerous fairytale world that still nevertheless can be won over by goodness, by kindness and by love, in the end.
And I adore Ravenna in particular for her unapologetic awfulness, her ambition and her cruelty and her pain, and how compelling she is despite all of it (or maybe because of it). So! I'd be thrilled with anything you'd like to write me about Ravenna. Her childhood with her siblings? Other kingdoms she's toppled, on her way through the world? Her POV from SWatH on losing Finn, or disguising herself as Will and kissing Snow White? Or her POV from WW on the space within the mirror, on tormenting Snow White from inside it or stepping back out of it in Freya's throne room? And shipfic is more than welcome, too—Ravenna/Snow White, Ravenna/Freya or Ravenna/Finn or magical incest OT3, Ravenna/Sara, or anything else that floats your boat!
There are so many things about these movies that I like—the aesthetics! The fairytale framework! The weird and sometimes inexplicable magic that you have to keep an eye out for if you want to not die!—but despite all that competition, one of the big things that keeps me rewatching them is DEFINITELY Ravenna. Everything about her, her anger and her magnetism and her whole gleaming murderous raven-feathered aesthetic, the slow smug way she smiles to herself while people die around her, is fantastic and awful and I love it. :D
SO YEAH. By all means, write me anything you like about Ravenna! And while I would be delighted by an AU where she manages to find herself a genuine happy ending (perhaps despite herself, and no doubt it would take her time to recognize it for what it is), please don't feel any need to soften her or smooth down her sharp edges. There's a lot about Ravenna that's vicious and petty and unkind, however much she may legitimately have been wronged in her turn, and I'm 100% on board with her making bad decisions, doing bad things, and believing herself to be justified and even the aggrieved party when that's not what's happening at all. :D
• Backstory! There's all kinds of places you could go pre-canon, whether you want to use Winter's War or not, and I'd love a story about any part of it:
:: Ravenna's youth with Finn and/or Freya—how they related to each other and connected to each other, the circumstances of Ravenna's first use of magic or first killing (or both, if they were the same moment) ...
:: And if you like to worldbuild, by all means feel free to fill in some blanks! Where is the Duchy of Blackwood? What other kings and queens has Ravenna destroyed? Where did she get that mirror, and when?
:: Is she ruling in absentia anywhere, other countries or empires—what stories follow her, what do other nations' people say about her? (Even a five-things fic: five names Ravenna's been given in other lands, and one she earned?)
• Or! Something set during either movie, or between them. :D
:: Her perspective on basically any part of SWatH, or a missing scene, would be wonderful! How does King Magnus's kingdom compare—does she miss others she once ruled? People, places, art and music and books that once existed, dances no one else remembers the steps to (except maybe Finn)?
:: Does she truly hate Snow White, or is she almost relieved to be run through, to have the long exhausting march of "too many lives" end?
:: Between movies—what is it like inside the mirror, looking out at Snow White from it? What does she do, or say, to drive Snow White so close to the edge?
:: What is it like in Winter's War, to step out of the mirror again and be almost alive, to be reunited Freya at last (and then watch her die)?
• Or AU me any way you like!
:: Ignore Winter's War completely; what might have happened if Snow White had spared Ravenna instead, at the end?
:: Or use the mirror thing but no more—if Snow White had realized Ravenna was in there, and found a way to get her out? If Ravenna had succeeded in tricking her, driving her slowly mad?
:: Or! What if Freya had come down from the north herself to get the mirror? Or sent a still-enchanted Sara for it? What if Snow White had insisted on escorting it north herself?
• And of course I'm all over Ravenna shipfic. :D
:: Ravenna/Finn, Ravenna/the huntsman, or Ravenna/William are all a-okay by me! I loved the codependence and mental connection between Ravenna and Finn, so anything leaning on that would be wonderful; and 1k of Ravenna being SUPER CREEPY or 1k of the beginning of sincere slow burn Ravenna/huntsman or Ravenna/William would be great—where she's captured either of them, perhaps, and tries to make them love her? Fails? Or succeeds? (Disguises herself as Snow White in the attempt?)
:: As you may have inferred, incest is totally fine with me and I would love Ravenna/Freya—the whole spectrum from Ravenna insisting they can only trust each other and manipulating Freya to sincere affection (or both at once) is absolutely open to you. :D Could Ravenna have tired of disposable kings a little earlier, and chosen to install Freya as her eternal silver sister-queen instead?
:: Or, as ever, Ravenna/Snow White! In absolutely any flavor: canonical obsessiveness tinged with UST, or 1k of any sort of AU or your favorite f/f trope—could Ravenna, queen of some other kingdom, have come to Magnus asking for his daughter's hand? (With the threat of a black glass army at her back if he didn't agree?) Or might Queen Snow White, faced with a magical problem, have no option but to retrieve Ravenna from the lands of the dead, and ask for her help?
:: And of course if you'd like to AU things so that Ravenna and Sara meet—in a universe where it was Eric/the canonical huntsman who was taken by Freya, and Sara who roamed the world thinking he was dead and getting hired to hunt down princesses ... :D
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I love this show and everything about it! The drama of it all is so breakneck sometimes, bless—and yet there's so much genuine beauty in it, too, in the possibility of connection between people who are so different from each other, and all the wonder and earnest warmth and loyalty. And Ryn! I adore Ryn; I think the show did a fantastic job in general portraying mermaids as complex predators who are genuinely dangerous, and then with Ryn in particular, and all her curiosity and confusion and intensity, the things she understands and the things she doesn't, what she loves about land and what she loves about the ocean—and the inevitable conflict because she can't stay in two places at once.
So! I would very much enjoy anything you'd like to write me about Ryn. :D I'd love pre-canon fic that delves into mermaid worldbuilding just as much as a missing scene from your favorite episode, or a thousand words of the most glorious interspecies OT3 smut that lives in your heart! Tell me more about Ryn and Donna, sisters hunting together—Cami's birth and childhood in the ocean, with her mother and aunt looking out for her. Or Ryn's perspective on anything during the show, from the first time she met Ben and Maddie to cooperating with the military or meeting the hybrid community in S2? Or post-canon, whatever you think might happen next when S3 starts! And I'm 100% here for Ben/Maddie/Ryn (including a focus on Ben/Ryn or Maddie/Ryn, with acknowledgment of the OT3 in the background) ... but I'd also be down with Ryn/Katrina, Ryn/Levi or Ryn/Eliza or Ryn/her new mate dude, or anything else you're interested in!
I wasn't necessarily expecting to like this show as much as I did—I heard about it and figured I'd give it a try? And then suddenly I was invested! And I couldn't stop watching it! And then I ran out of episodes, and didn't know what to do with myself. :D The characters are just so engaging, and the way the world has gotten gradually bigger, the conflicts not just between mermaids and humans but between different mermaids with different ideas about what's best, and different humans who want different things for and from them, IT'S ALL SO VERY MUCH MY JAM. Especially with the very simple truth of Ben and Maddie and Ryn at the heart of it: that they care about each other, and want to help each other, and want to be together. ♥
AND RYN, help, I love her so much! She's such a fascinating study in contrasts—the unhesitating violence she's used to as a mermaid and a hunter vs her undeniable love for and genuine tenderness with Ben and Maddie; that she looks so small and harmless and is such an unbelievably powerful predator; how little she says, especially in the first season, and how few words she uses to do it, and yet how much she expresses, and how clear a sense there is that she comes from somewhere where things work very differently. She takes on so much responsibility, and tries SO HARD to keep everyone safe and happy and provided for—even when it means letting herself be experimented on. ♥ RYN ♥
• So! I'd love anything you'd like to tell me about Ryn that's set before the show, with as much or as little mermaid worldbuilding as you like! (And I realize the name thing complicates matters; feel free to use "Ryn" even though technically she wouldn't have adopted it yet, or invent a mermaid name of your own devising. :D)
:: What was the ocean like when she was young? How old is she—who were her parents, if she knows? (Was that first mermaid in the breeding grounds her mother?)
:: Where else has she been, in the ocean? Does the clan migrate? Who taught her to hunt—was she good at it right away, or did it take time to master? Who was in charge before Katrina? (Have Katrina and Ryn been at odds before?)
:: Did she have friends or companions besides Donna, or any other siblings? Had she ever been on land before? Her POV on Donna's capture, or the moment she realized Donna was gone and decided she had to follow!
:: And anything at all you'd like to tell me about mermaid packs/clans/tribes, their interactions with each other, caves full of ancient healing songs or how they choose their burial grounds, negotiating for the right to pass through another group's territorial waters, how they've handled any previous human intrusions—it's all very much welcome!
• Or! Give me something focused on Ryn somewhere during canon:
:: Right from the beginning—picking her name, trying to understand where she is and figure out how to find her sister? Meeting Ben and Maddie, and Helen, and learning how to talk, and how to navigate this strange world she's found herself in?
:: Or a little later? Mid-S1, her POV on reuniting with Donna or being stuck at the police station until Maddie shows up; or on the overfishing bringing her back (did she have weirdly mixed feelings about having a problem she could seek Ben and Maddie's help with? :D). The fight with Katrina! Realizing her song could hurt Ben! ANYTHING.
:: Or, of course, S2! The tension of trying to keep everyone safe while they're hiding together in the cabin in the woods? Singing her song to Maddie, once Maddie's got the headphones and she's allowed to (or later, without them)? Making the agreement to let herself be studied, once she realizes it could help Ben's mother?
:: And by all means go right up to the end of the season: anything about the hybrid community or mermaid mating practices, the struggle to handle the effects of the stem cell procedure and her own instincts! Dinner at Ben's parents' house—or Ian's death and the aftermath, however you think that might play out in S3!
• And I'd also be delighted to receive something set much further post-canon, or going AU in basically any direction!
:: Futurefic where Ben and Maddie and Ryn live together, blissfully happy, with the healthy merbabies no one stole from Ryn ever, on an oceanfront property where they swim together every day would be just as welcome as something speculating on the next set of problems you think they might face (conflict with Bryan and his splinter group—stealing back Ryn's baby, once it's born? More issues with the military, now that they've burned a bridge there by stealing the embryos?)
:: If you'd like to explore the AU we were handed in the S2 finale, except not Ben's imagination this time, I would LOVE that. :D Tell me all about Ryn and Ben and Maddie on the run, trying to steer clear of the military lockdown and keep Ryn safe!
:: Or—what if Ryn had been the one caught by the military, not Donna? Could she have escaped, and met Maddie and/or Ben while trying to find her way back to the water? (If you like h/c and trauma recovery stories, BY ALL MEANS INDULGE YOURSELF. \o/)
:: Or venture further afield! What if Ryn and Maddie and Ben were all merpeople? What if Maddie and Ben had become marine biologists with convenient military clearance, and had been called in as consultants on a very unusual project? What if mermaids had conquered humanity a long time ago, and humans were considered dull brutes to be used for minor labor and boring tasks—but Ryn found herself weirdly drawn to a couple of them? :D
• And I ship Ben/Maddie/Ryn, but also lots of other things!
:: I'm here for Ryn/basically anybody—Ryn/any mermaid (including Donna, or even Cami, if mermaid incest is your jam :D), Ryn/Nicole Martinez (with all the messiness of Nicole's deceptions baked in), Ryn/Xander or Ryn having an adventurous night with Calvin and Janine ... Seriously, whatever Ryn ship you ship, I would love to read about it!
:: And you should feel free to focus in on Ryn/Ben or Ryn/Maddie, though I'd like for the existence or at least possibility of the threesome to be acknowledged one way or another! (Also, totally okay to add someone else in, Levi or Eliza or Xander, and make it a square or beyond—or to elaborate on that mermaid mating party at the cabin, and let Ben and Maddie join in instead of awkwardly supervising from outside in the cold. :D)
:: More of Ryn's dreams, about either one of them? Ryn having kissed Maddie at the Siren's Song, or how it felt singing to Ben, or being weird and possessive about either of them. Fluff about mermaid courting gifts; angst where Ryn knows she's not supposed to drag either of them into the water to bite them too hard and hit them with her tail, but has no idea what she should do ...
:: BUT I would also be very glad to receive Ben/Maddie/Ryn, never fear! :D Set very early on, with just hints of UST and inappropriate kissing starting to happen? YES PLEASE. Maddie or Ben thinking about Ryn ~too much, and feeling weird and guilty for it, only to accidentally let it slip and discover they're not alone? ABSOLUTELY.
:: And I'm very much into anything that focuses specifically on the things Ben and Maddie learn in S2 about mermaid mating. Finding themselves helplessly kinking on Mermaid Things: on biting, on throat-grabbing, on glowing Ryn and the whole idea of mating season? (I'd be a sucker for any kind of angst based on Ben and Maddie's totally legitimate bad reaction to the surprise choking during the stress-hormone incident—with Ryn assuming that that means she can't let any of her mermaid instincts off the chain with them, that it would be Wrong and Bad even if it's also what she wants the most sometimes ...)
:: Or take it anywhere else you want to go—M or E-rated fic would be awesome, and if you'd like to get into the details of either Ryn exploring her land body some more, OR Ryn fucking people in water with loving xenobiological descriptions of how that works when she's shifted? GO FOR IT. I'm totally here for anything from adorable threesome dates with a teasing fade-to-black to "turns out alpha mermaids can impregnate human dudes AND human ladies, if they've sung to them and then fuck them in water". :D
back to top
With any luck, you aren't looking at this because you actually staggered through that entire essay, but rather because you decided to scroll to the bottom on a whim to see how long this sucker really was. :D BUT, just in case: I am very sorry about all this, and also you are great for being willing to soldier through my rambling. ♥ Thank you so much for bearing with me, and I hope you have a fantastic Yuletide!
If you like optional details ... this may still be a little more than you were looking for, but feel free to skim! I promise there's no way you can miss anything genuinely crucial; I just like to talk a lot about my favorite tiny fandoms, and once I get going, I have trouble knowing where to stop. I've done my best to make this letter organized and easy to navigate, and I hope very much that I've succeeded. :D
You can find me at the AO3 under
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In General
If you don't want to just close this without looking at it at all, but it is Way Too Much, there is absolutely a bottom line: I meant every word of that first paragraph. Please write me whatever appeals to you the most and have a blast! Give me anything you're interested in giving me; there's nothing you need to avoid, and nothing you need to worry I won't enjoy. :D
I love gen and I love shipfic, I love navelgazing and I love adventures, I love deathfic and I love fluff; I love angst and feelings and messiness, and I love action and dialogue and worldbuilding! I'll admit I rarely manage to include prompts for all that stuff, but I'd be delighted to receive any of it—if you'd like to write a darker twist on a prompt I've given, or subvert a trope and deconstruct it, or give me the Worst Timeline AU where everything's gone wrong, DEFINITELY DO THAT. But! If you'd like to write me fluff, or the tropiest and most earnest fic of your heart, or a fix-it where everything is puppies and nothing hurts, DEFINITELY DO THAT. :D Whatever it is you love about the fandom and characters we matched on, whatever you've been itching to write about them—please please please let me see it! Whether it's tooth-rotting, weird, gory, kinky, scary, tragic ... GIVE IT TO ME. *grabby hands*
I'm 100% here for and would be stoked to be given any/all/any combination of:
• shipfic! Any kind of shipfic; I'm a chronic multishipper and I love m/m, m/f, f/f, nonbinary or genderless characters in ships, and poly of any configuration, and I'm here for age gaps, incest, and messy/dysfunctional/deeply twisted relationships, in addition to earnest, endearing, and unproblematic romances. :D By all means write me a fic about any ship you ship, and I'd be equally happy with 1k of all-out smut or 1k of pre-ship pining/shippy-if-you-squint/unrequited or even unacknowledged feelings.
• gen! I would adore fic about any of the characters I've requested on their own, or in groups or subgroups where friendship/platonic interaction/other kinds of relationships are involved. And here is your explicit permission: you do NOT need to include every character I requested in my gift! Any of them individually, or any subgroup that includes some but not all, plus or minus any other character in the canon, is a-okay with me. 1k of pre-canon adventures, missing scenes set at any point, or post-canon possibilities—friendship and found-family fics, 1k of introspection, a snippet of wherever you think they'll end up next ...
• free space! And by that I mean anything that fits on your personal metaphorical bingo card that I manage to fail to mention. Your own favorite premise or best-loved trope (sex pollen! Wingfic! Pretending to date for reasons! Accidental baby acquisition!), any kind of AU or AU-adjacent trope (soulmarks! It's all In Space! Canon divergence! Roleswaps!), or anything weird or uncommon you've always kind of wanted an excuse to try (future tense! Epistolary fic! Ten sequential drabbles! A THOUSAND WORDS OF POETRY). Ignore everything in this letter, decide what you'd like to do, and do it. :D
I like fluff and angst, sad endings and happy endings, tension and relief. I would love something precisely placed and canon-compliant just as much as OCs or a brand-new setting to explore, pre-canon blanks getting filled in or post-canon adventures that go whole new directions. I'm here for rare pairings of all stripes, alternate character interpretations or AU variations, and outsider POVs on ships or on people. 1k of any part of canon you like best (or want to rewrite or take somewhere other than where it went canonically, or think is weird or creepy or funny even though canon didn't seem to mean it that way) would be awesome. Second person! Interactive fiction! Rocks fall, everyone dies! ANYTHING. Write it for me, whatever it is, and have a great Yuletide. ♥
The Big Country (1958)
Any (James McKay, Steve Leech)
I enjoy this movie a thoroughly ridiculous amount, and there are so many things about it that are my jam! Which definitely includes Jim and Steve, by themselves or together, and I'm here for anything you'd like to write me about either or both of them. :D I love Jim and his hard-earned calm, his competence and his stubbornness and all that hidden steel—anything about his backstory and his time at sea, how he met and fell for Pat, or his POV on the slow burn of his feelings for Julie, would be great. Or Steve, bless, in all his insecurity and kneejerk resentment and reluctant loyalty—1k of how he came to work for the Terrills, or whether he'd really want Pat if he got her, or how he starts to rethink things after Jim happens to him, would be wonderful!
And of course I'd love Jim/Steve, too, if you happen to ship it. :D Mid-movie half-acknowledged UST, or the tropiest post-canon get-together fic that lives in your heart—pre-slash where everything's understated and simmering away on a back burner, unspoken but full of potential, or angry porn where that midnight altercation goes in a totally different direction ... go wild!
This may be at risk of turning into one of my perennial Yuletide fandoms, oops, but I adore the movie so much, and am too greedy to not ask for it some more! :D I'm so weak for Jim's particular brand of quiet, staunch self-respect, how thoughtful and patient he is, at the same time that he's so stubborn in his own way, and won't veer from what he thinks is right or best even if it might make things a lot easier. And Steve's arc was so satisfying to me—I loved his irritation with Jim and how much he disliked Jim at first, how obvious it was that he just didn't know what to do with a man who relied so little on other people's good opinions or on "performing" manliness in expected ways; that he wants to fight Jim SO BADLY, and still ends up starting to see where Jim's coming from in time, however reluctantly. ♥
James McKay
HELP I LOVE JIM SO MUCH. :D He's just so calmly and quietly sure of himself, so thoughtful and perceptive—and possibly a bit self-righteous and irritating now and then, bless, but it's so hard to hold it against him. I love that he's decided so clearly what should carry weight and what shouldn't, and that he cares so much about people at the same time that he cares so little about their opinions, and doesn't mind being thought of as a coward or a fool (why should he, after all, when he knows he isn't, and anyone who pays enough attention will know the same?). ♥ JIM ♥
• So I'd love pretty much anything you'd like to tell me about Jim!
:: Where did he grow up? When did he first go to sea, and why, and who was it who taught him navigation?
:: What happened to give him the perspective that he has on self-respect and proving oneself? Was there some specific incident—maybe aboard ship, or ashore on leave—where social pressure and trying to "be a man" ended badly, and taught him something? (Was he once a little more like Steve—maybe more than he wants to admit?)
:: When and how did he become a captain? What did he think the rest of his life was going to look like, before the events of the movie?
• And of course I'd be happy for you to write about his relationship with Pat, too!
:: How did it begin? How did they meet, and fall in love? What was it about each other that first caught their eye?
:: What was their separation like for Jim, when Pat first returned to her family but Jim was still back east?
:: Did he have a certain sense of foreboding about coming west and seeing her again—a niggling feeling that things might not work out? Or was he looking forward to learning more about where Pat came from, and understanding her better?
• I'd be delighted with anything about Jim set during the movie:
:: His romance with Julie was so lovely, and that wordless confessional moment between them in Blanco Canyon, g o d, MY HEART. So anything from Jim's first impressions of Julie to deeper feelings taking root, realizing she's been taken to relief at finding she's still alive ... totally on the table!
:: And Jim's POV on any part of canon, whether it's the "big country" in general when he arrives, or the Hannasseys/Ramón/the Terrills as he learns more about the situation—or, of course, Steve :D—would be fantastic.
:: Or! Any kind of missing scene you'd like to tackle that's Jim-centric would be awesome, too: alone on his ride, realizing he really can orient himself well before he's found by Steve; or a conversation with Pat or Julie, or even Henry Terrill, that we didn't see; or his relief when the standoff in the canyon is over.
• And post-movie Jim/Julie or gen of any kind would also be more than welcome!
:: I'd honestly be as happy to read about Jim (by himself, or with Julie) riding off and moving on to a new home, either out west or back east, far away from feuds and water rights ...
:: ... as about Jim (by himself, or with Julie) returning to Big Muddy and fixing the place up so it's a real ranch again (with actual details about ranching 100% optional; I know nothing about it, I won't notice if you fudge it! :D).
:: Or even further in the future—does he ever go to sea again? Does he marry Julie after all? 1k of Jim on his deathbed, thinking back, things he regrets (if only a little) and things he doesn't ... anything!
Steve Leech
AND STEVE. :D I loved Steve's character arc so much—it's so easy to understand why he is the way he is, the rules he must be used to and the way he clearly perceives the world as working. And at the same time that it's understandable, it's so frustrating, because he's so rude and angry and difficult, and it's so unnecessary; he just doesn't know how else to act, and he's never had a reason to try to be different. But then Jim gives him one, even if he doesn't want it, and everything starts to change. :D His speech to the Major at the end! And then getting shot for him anyway! ;-; STEVE.
• So, point is: definitely here for 1k of any headcanon you might have about Steve's backstory!
:: Where's he from? How did he start working for the Terrills, and how did he end up foreman?
:: Was he sweet on Pat even before she went east? (Or might that have been more about Jim than it was about Pat, in some ways? :D)
:: Does he have any personal reasons to dislike the Hannasseys? (In typical feud fashion, was it "just because the Terrills do" at first, but then altercations resulted in personal grievances, and now it's A Thing?) Or is it all about the Terrills and his own stubborn loyalty?
• Or start a bit closer to the movie itself:
:: What does he think when Pat comes back? What does she or doesn't she tell him about Jim, before Jim arrives, and what does he think about it?
:: Pat and Julie have been friends for a long time, so Steve must know Julie—might they have talked to each other, about Pat or about this Jim of hers, before Jim arrived?
• And of course I'd be thrilled with 1k from Steve's perspective that's set during the movie, too!
:: Pre-slash of any kind at all—from only-if-you-squint to serious UST, from Steve in total denial to Steve grudgingly aware that he's got more than one reason to want to get up close and personal with Jim—would be awesome. :D
:: Something set during the early parts of the movie, where he's still resentful and dismissive of Jim? Or his POV during the search for Jim, and the resulting argument?
:: Or 1k of whatever he's thinking when he realizes it's Jim who's come into his room and woken him up, and the midnight fight? The moment Steve's understanding of Jim's philosophy began to change? The Blanco Canyon showdown, and getting shot?
• I'd love to read about whatever you think might happen to Steve after the movie:
:: If you'd like to write me the story where he dies of his bullet wound, regretful and too late to change what he did with his life, I will write you the best comment I can through my tears!
:: BUT feel free to let him live and tell me something else about him, too. :D What does he do—keep working for the Terrills, or move on?
:: Would he choose to take on Big Muddy himself, if Jim and Julie didn't? Fixing it up, at the same time that he's now conscious of a need to better himself, too?
:: Or maybe Jim and Julie stay? Julie has a line about how you'd need a good foreman to run a place like that—would they ask Steve to take on that role? (And would he accept, or refuse?)
Jim/Steve
And the pairing's getting its own batch of prompts, because I had a few too many to fit up there. :D By the way, please rest assured that while I'd appreciate Julie and/or Pat being treated kindly or at least understandingly, if they do appear in your story—you don't need to spend the beginning of a Jim/Steve fic explaining to me how Jim and Julie broke up, if you don't want to! I'm happy to take it as read, if you like, and roll with Jim/Steve at any point during or after the movie without blinking. (You definitely can if you want to; just don't feel obligated, is all. :D)
• As I've mentioned elsewhere, you should feel free to give me anything that's pre-slash or ship-if-you-squint, and don't worry one bit that it's not shippy "enough"!
:: Something where Steve's been hearing all about Jim from Pat, irritated and resentful about having to listen to her talk about this other man ... and then Jim shows up, and
:: Or maybe Jim's the one who's heard a bit about Steve from Pat, and wasn't quite sure what to expect. And Steve's everything Jim's learned not to be, and he clearly doesn't understand Jim at all, but Jim just can't seem to stop trying to explain his perspective anyway—and he doesn't even know why it is that he'd like so much for Steve to pick up what he's putting down, but BOY WOULD HE. :D
• Or something a little later in the movie's events?
:: Honestly, 1k in either of their POVs that's 100% outwardly canon-compliant but full of their own perception of a lot of UST would be fantastic!
:: But by all means, feel free to let that visit Jim makes to Steve's room end differently—whether that's a single furious impulsive kiss that takes them both a bit by surprise, or higher-rated territory! (Dubcon would be more than okay here, whether you think Steve might want to ~teach Jim a lesson, and then that impulse goes sideways on him; or maybe Jim might start something, trying to get through to Steve, that Steve ... isn't willing to let on that he's dying for, even if he is.)
:: And I should mention as a side note that it makes a lot of sense to me for Steve—who's clearly pretty hung up on how men "ought" to be/what makes a man a "real" man—to have some internalized homophobia/biphobia, and/or be very uncomfortable with his own response to Jim. If that's something you're interested in exploring, I would be there for it! If not, no worries; you definitely don't have to include period-appropriate homophobia on either of their parts if you don't want to. Whatever works for you!
• And of course post-canon would be great, too. :D
:: I love h/c so much, and I would read a thousand different takes on Jim involved in Steve's recovery from his gunshot wound! TEN THOUSAND. Does Jim find him immediately afterward, injured, and bandage him up long enough to get him out of Blanco to a bed? Or does Steve make it up and away with someone else's help, and hole up somewhere ... but Jim tracks him down and won't stop checking in on him?
:: Or something set a little further off: what if they met again after a few years? Steve helping Pat run the Terrill place, maybe, and Jim passing through; or Steve having had to go east for ~reasons (business stuff for Pat?) and running into Jim there?
:: Or what if Jim does stick around and takes on Big Muddy alone? I'm also weak for accidental domesticity, and I'd adore something where Steve starts showing up more and more often, with tools Jim needs or a little gruffly offered advice, or just as an extra pair of hands ... and it's stupid to make him ride out when he'll just be coming back the next day ... and suddenly he's sort of living there too. :D
• Or basically anything else you're interested in writing me!
:: By all means, trap them together in bad weather, make them huddle for warmth; invent a sex pollen plant that grows only in the soil of Big Muddy, and Steve realizes nobody warned Jim about it; give me the AU where there was some kind of outrageous mixup, and the bride Steve mail-ordered from back east ... is a quiet-spoken man who doesn't seem half as angry about the mistake as he should be. :D
:: What if Steve had gotten lucky and found Jim sooner, and they'd had a chance to talk a little more on the ride back? Or if Steve had, without Jim noticing, come back early enough to catch Jim on Old Thunder?
::What if this were IN SPACE and the Terrills and Hannasseys owned competing mining outfits working the same asteroid belt? WHAT IF STEVE AND JIM SOULBONDED BY ACCIDENT. WHAT IF EVERYONE WERE WEREWOLVES. My hand to god, go as tropey or as AU as your heart desires—you really can't go wrong with anything as long as it's got that antagonism and tension, that potential for deeper understanding, and Jim and Steve in the middle of it. :D
Dark Matter (TV)
Misaki Han-Shireikan, Nyx Harper, Three, Two
This is definitely an unusual combination of characters, and please rest assured you aren't going to need to get them all in the same fic to make me happy. :D I'd be delighted to read about any combination of them, or any one of them on their own. Misaki's past, training for the royal guard and navigating the imperial court, plotting and maneuvering and always on her guard? Nyx with the Seers, and how she ended up in prison where the crew found her? YES. Three trying to escape from Alt!Portia, post-S3, and make his way back to the ship? Two—or Rebecca, or Portia, during whatever part of her past you'd like to focus on; or figuring out what comes next as just Two, after freeing herself from that alien? BY ALL MEANS.
I loved this show so much, and I love the whole ensemble! So if at least one of my requested characters is featured somehow, then you're good. Any and every other member of the main crew is welcome, as are any of your favorite background characters (Dr. Shaw? Devon? Teku? Hiro? John Anders? Sarah? Truffault?), or anything else you happen to ship. And I'd be happy to receive fic about any canonical character deaths, or deathfic for anyone who was still alive when S3 ended—though of course AUs where everything turns out better or 1k of fix-it fic would be fantastic, too! :D
I miss this show so much, and I'm always so thrilled to revisit the universe and the characters in fic. :D There are so many things I love about Dark Matter, I can guarantee you I will like anything you want to throw at me—darkfic about Misaki ruining people's lives (including her own)? Fluff about Two and Nyx tentatively flirting with each other? Horror about how the alien rift felt to Three, and what their influence is like? Yes and yes and yes. Whatever tone or genre you want to aim for, heist shenanigans or galactic politics, found family feels or desperation in the face of unstoppable alien invasion, this is 100% the canon for it, and I'm looking forward to it!
Misaki Han-Shireikan
OH MISAKI. I was interested in Misaki basically the very first time she appeared on screen, without even knowing who she was, and that didn't change at all as I got to know her better. :D Which, she is definitely violent and manipulative and unkind, and you don't need to pretend she isn't! I love the contrast between the face she sometimes presents (cool, pragmatic, reasonable, loyal) and the things she does when she has the chance (hold endless resentful grudges, pine but like in an angry way, kill people, plan a coup), and I'd adore anything you'd like to write me about her! The things she wants and what she'll do to get them, how unapologetic she is about it, the lines she crosses without looking back ... YES PLEASE.
• Backstory! Totally here for your headcanons about Zairon, or anything about a younger Misaki growing up in the imperial court. :D
:: 1k about her childhood? Any direction you'd like to take it, from court intrigue involving her family that a young Misaki only just starts to understand ... to other weirdly adorable pranks Ryo might have played on her when they were companions as children!
:: Her early training? Her time in the imperial guard, and how she managed to rise into position as captain after Four killed Akita?
:: Her perspective on the dowager empress, or on Ryo's father's death and Ryo's exile, or how her rivalry with Teku began?
• Or, of course, anything about Misaki set during canon would be fantastic. :D
:: What was it like in the imperial court when Hiro was emperor, and she was captain of his guard? How did she feel about him? Did she ever think about trying to orchestrate a coup against him?
:: What was she thinking or feeling when Ryo was captured, and to what degree was she expecting what happened in the throne room? (Did she want all the Seers dead, or was she surprised by that part?)
:: Or! Please feel free to give me the most excruciating thousand words you can generate about what it was like for her to overhear that conversation between Nyx and Ryo, and developing her plans to eliminate Nyx. ;-;
:: Or anything about the moment when Ryo discovered that she'd succeeded? The planning and execution of the coup, that fight with Two—the moment Misaki realized she wasn't going to win it?
• Obviously futurefic about Misaki requires a little footwork; I'm totally here for AUs where she didn't die, or a Misaki from another part of the canonical multiverse, or *waves hands* a synthetic model with (most of) Misaki's memories loaded into her!
:: I'd love "fix-it" from her perspective where Ryo can in fact be convinced to make her empress! Or where her coup succeeds, and she takes command of Zairon's forces in the war against Pyr, and starts fighting it her way. (Was she right to think she could do better than Ryo? Or was she wrong?)
:: BUT I'd also love fix-it from everyone else's perspective—where the android shows up earlier, maybe, and she and Nyx together are able to beat Misaki and take her prisoner? As a bargaining chip to use against Ryo, even?
:: Or diverge from canon anywhere else you like! If Ryo had succeeded in keeping and duplicating the blink drive, and Zairon's fleets utterly wrecked Pyr and rolled unstoppably through the galaxy—would Misaki ever have a reason to regret her decisions?
:: Or if she'd gone looking for Ryo earlier, and tracked Four down, and ended up on the Raza—joined the crew, purely because it served her purpose, and gotten to know them?
• And shipfic with Misaki involved would be more than welcome. :D Anything from UST to hatesex would be great, and I'd be delighted to receive Misaki/Nyx, Misaki/Three, or Misaki/Two (along with Misaki/Ryo, whether one-sided or reciprocated, or Misaki/anybody else, for that matter).
:: If Nyx had managed to win her fight with Misaki—might Misaki have (however unwillingly) admired her for it? If Misaki were imprisoned on the Raza afterward, what else could that admiration have turned into? :D
:: Would Three be up for a round of hatesex? (Does he share his alternate counterpart's enjoyment of being hit and/or choked during sex? Because in that case Misaki would pretty definitely indulge him ... *waggles eyebrows*)
:: In a universe where she didn't kill Nyx, or hadn't yet—could Two have ended up grudgingly reaching out to her (trying anything/everything to get the blink drive back from Ryo, maybe)?
:: Would Six try to redeem her? (Oh, Six. :D) Or just end up calmly talking about the "right thing" at her while she insulted him?
:: Or, venturing a bit sideways—might she ever have tried to seduce Hiro to make him easier to manipulate, while Ryo was gone?
:: I don't know how it would happen, but for the record 1k of the android observing Misaki and trying to work out her reasoning for the things she does, in her blandly patient android way, would be A++. :D
Nyx Harper
NYX. ♥ I loved Nyx so much, and I was so bummed when she died—which is to say I'd be just as pleased with deathfic that takes me right back to the moment I realized what had happened on my screen (;-;) as I would be with a fix-it! And for the record, post-S2 fic of Two hallucinating her some more, or encountering a Nyx from another universe (who perhaps had a different—better? or worse?—relationship with her own Portia) would be fantastic, too. :D
• Or, of course, death doesn't need to come into it at all, if you'd like to write something set pre-canon! Plus or minus Milo, too, or Nyx's parents/other OC Seers, if you've got headcanons. :D
:: The first time Nyx was placed in the Seers' machinery and understood what she'd be used for—what is it like to be part of their linked-up hive-mind, being fed foundational data and delivering projections?
:: The first time it occurred to her that she could escape? (How did she manage to plan it without any of the other Seers predicting it? Or maybe she messed up the first couple times, more predictable than she should have been?)
:: Or how she ended up in prison, and who she might have met there before the crew showed up? (Did she want to be there, thinking the Seers wouldn't predict it? Or was it an accident she saw coming a little too late?)
• By all means set something during the show, while she's still alive:
:: Meeting Two and Three and Four in prison! What did she think of them when they first arrived? Was she already intending to escape and they just made it easier, or had she been planning to stay where she was, at least until she learned they had a ship and might be useful to her?
:: And then once she got out with them—was Milo the first thing on her mind? Did she feel any guilt for not explaining what she was really after, or was Milo just too important for her to even consider taking the risk?
:: Basically anything from her perspective about being on the Raza, getting used to a new ship and new people when she'd been raised on the Seers' vessel her whole life, the moment she really started to feel like crew or think of it as home ...
:: Or anything with a slightly wider scope! Her POV on Four taking his memories back, how painful that was, or on Zairon and Pyr, the corporations (was she fed data, with the Seers, that means she's better informed about the galaxy than the rest of the crew?), whatever odds she's calculated about the various conflicts. Anything!
• But feel free to make me cry if you want to, too:
:: Nyx's POV on Eos 7 and their odds of success, the lead-in to the fight with Misaki and the moment she realized she'd lose! ;-; Two can't stop hallucinating her, a lot further into S3 than we were shown! ;-;
:: Or—if she'd accepted Ryo's offer to make her empress, would she have survived it? Presumably there'd be plenty of new enemies at court, but could she have found a way (or, reluctantly, used enough Shadow) to see them coming and survive?
:: Could she have changed the course of the conflict with Pyr, or the uprising/Misaki's coup attempt? Could she have even seen the "black ships" coming, if she'd had the right data?
:: Or, of course, if the android had reached the bridge in time to help her—or the android had been on the bridge instead, when Misaki arrived, and it had been Nyx who'd confronted Ryo in the engine room?
• And I'd be thrilled with any shipfic you'd like to write involving Nyx! I talked a little about some prompts for Misaki/Nyx in Misaki's section, but there's plenty more options:
:: Nyx/Two? I would absolutely love any tropey thing you'd like to write here about them rescuing each other, or trapped on a planet and huddling for warmth, or sex-pollened, or dumped sideways into a different alternate universe where they're married! ANYTHING. :D
:: Nyx/Three? Three offers to be her sparring partner after Ryo's left, and Nyx kicks his ass but totally appreciates the gesture! Whenever Three gets drunk he starts telling Nyx how pretty she is in relentless earnest detail! :D (Nyx/Two/Three: ALSO AN A++ CHOICE.)
:: Nyx/Devon? I hugely enjoyed Devon's ridiculous angsty doctor backstory, so if emotional h/c is your thing, feel free to indulge! (Could Nyx have caught some extra bit of information that gave her a flash of vision about the attack that killed him—could she have found him in time to save him?)
:: Nyx/Four and/or Nyx/Ryo would be wonderful, in any direction you'd like to take it; anything from her POV on how they came together and how it fell apart, as wrenching as you'd like to get ... or give me 1k of the AU where Four decides not to take back Ryo's memories.
:: Nyx/Six—early in S2, was she maybe easier to talk to than anyone from the S1 crew, for Six? Did he repay the favor by listening to her talk about Milo?
:: Nyx/android! Nyx was sort of part of a machine once, and she's got a gift for calculation; they have more common ground than it might appear, and I'd love to see them explore it a little. :D
Three
Three! :D I was really not expecting to love Three as much as I did, because he can be such an ass ... but he's an ass with a heart of gold, and he cares so much about people even when he's trying to pretend not to, and he tries so hard even when the odds are against him. OH THREE. ♥ His amazing angsty backstory with his parents' deaths and Tanner and Sarah, as Marcus Boone, is just the cherry on top! I love how thoroughly all-in he gets about the crew, to the extent that he's SO ANGRY with Six for having betrayed them, and his relationship with Five is just *kisses fingertips* PERFECTION. So, yeah. Anything you'd like to write me about Three, I will adore!
• By all means dive into his pre-canon backstory at any point you'd like:
:: With Tanner and his gang? Did he believe what Tanner told him about what happened to his parents, or not? Did he get suspicious over time?
:: Please feel free to delve more deeply into what it was like for him, getting left behind on that planet and ending up in Sarah's house, the grudging process of falling for her and of realizing that it had happened!
:: Or, of course, tell me all about how Marcus Boone ended up on Portia Lin's ship! How did he convince Portia to take him on? Did he get Sarah's stasis pod on board without anyone knowing, or did he have to tell Portia about her?
:: Was he actually planning to activate that beacon Tanner'd given him, or was he hiding it because he wanted to stay on the Raza and get as far away from Tanner as he could? What did he think of the rest of the crew before they lost their memories?
• Or anything set during the show, in any season, would be fantastic. :D
:: S1 Three, still all suspicious and douchey, trying to figure out what the hell is going on, who he is, and whether he can trust anyone? Fuckbuddies with Two, or trying to work out what One's deal is?
:: Or S2 Three—his reaction to the S1 finale and to prison, to the realization that it was Six and not One that he couldn't trust? Aaaaaanything in his POV about the episode where Tanner shows up, YES PLEASE, or being trapped on the shuttle with Six? :D
:: Or, of course, S3! Anything about what it's like to realize that the alien blob that was in him is only the beginning? His interactions with Sarah's preserved consciousness? 1k of scenes we didn't see from the time loop episode?
• And I'm 100% here for futurefic or AUs that are focused on Three, too:
:: His perspective on the events of the final episode would honestly be great. What happens to him, on that shuttle with Portia—does he escape, or can he convince her to go back, or does he just have to cooperate with her until he can come up with some more options?
:: If he did manage to meet up with the rest of the crew again, somehow or other—would they be able to rescue Six from the far side of that rift? (Could Three sense him somehow, given Three's weird connection to the aliens?)
:: Would they have to hurry to warn the corporations, or Zairon, or the independent colonies, about the aliens? Or would they already be faced with an army of possessed synthetics coming out of the woodwork? (No need to go epic, I swear; 1k setting up these scenarios from Three's POV would be fantastic. :D)
:: Or maybe the aliens would be able to reach out to Three and take him over remotely, to force him to serve as an intermediary? (I'm as up for body horror and creepy ambiguous endings as I am for the crew figuring out how to break the aliens' hold and rescue him. JUST SO YOU KNOW.)
:: Or! Give me 1k of the AU where he took Marcus Boone's memories back, instead of Four taking Ryo's? Where he and One managed to realize it wasn't either of them who was the problem, and successfully stopped Six from contacting the GA? Where he rejoined Tanner's gang after all—and then regretted it?
• And I ship Three with pretty much anybody and everybody—I talked a bit about Misaki/Three and Nyx/Three already, but if I manage to leave any OTHER Three ship you'd like to write off this list, pretend I didn't and go for it!
:: Totally here for any and all fuckbuddies-friends-loyalty kink combination for Three and Two! I love that they banged first and realized exactly how much they cared about and could rely on each other after, and I'd adore any tropey thing about Two rescuing Three, or more pretending to be married, or Three trying to throw himself on a grenade for Two. ♥
:: And also very much here for Three ships involving other characters I didn't request! Three/One? ABSOLUTELY. Please feel free to give me all kinds of words of them saving each other's lives/resenting each other, partly for being so annoyingly attractive/being trapped together in small spaces. Or Three's terrible angsty mourning feelings, after One's death! ;-; (Three/One/Two? Definitely on the table!)
:: Three/GA officers! I loved his weird quasi-enemy-mine thing with Kierken and am totally here for more confrontations, or saving each other and escaping Eos 7—and that episode where he was stuck on that planet with John Anders, and they saved each other and also Three had to lie on top of him for like a whole minute, and it was amazing. :D
:: Three/Four? Three admired his badassery so much in S1, and it must have been as weird for him as it was for anyone when Four became Ryo and left them—give me all the UST and sparring where Three loses abominably, or all the angsty could-have-beens!
:: Three/Six! I love love love this relationship, especially in all its thorniness during and after S2; please feel free to trap them in a shuttle again, or make them pretend to be married for a job, or save each other and/or get hurt trying to protect each other. :D (Three/Two/Six? ALSO ON THE TABLE)
:: Three/Sarah? I'd enjoy something set in their joint backstory, before Sarah even really knows who Three is, just as much as something full of longing and tentative reconnection set when she wakes up again, or while she's in the computer—or post-canon where Three encounters her in her new android body!
:: Or Three/the android! I love how his attitude toward the android changes over time, the transition from "that robot" to "our robot"—anything where he discovers he's a lot more protective of her and of her personhood than he'd expected, or he got himself hurt and she's looking after him in the infirmary? Or even something where he's so gravely injured somehow that Shaw agrees to build him an android body, and the android's got to help him get used to it?
Two
AND TWO. I don't even have the words to summarize all the things I love about Two; she's so badass and physically unstoppable in so many ways, so terse and self-contained most of the time, and yet she cares about everything so much, and takes on so much responsibility, and tries so hard to do the right thing. ♥ TWO. I love how stone-cold she can be—just shooting Corso in the head like that, goddamn—and I love how sensitive and uncertain she can be—when she thinks Five is afraid of her, or when even she doesn't know how her neck healed so fast. IN CONCLUSION, I'm so here for anything you'd like to tell me about Two. :D
• S3 was such a goldmine of Two backstory—I'd be thrilled with any part of it that you're interested in exploring!
:: Her POV on her time as Rebecca in the Dwarf Star facility? The earliest beginnings of her relationship with Dr. Shaw? Her escape, and trying to find her way to Dr. Shaw's apartment after? From creepy to fluffy, anywhere in between, or both at once!
:: Or tell me about the aftermath: leaving the planet with Dr. Shaw, and finding that facility; the early stages of turning it into a shelter for androids, and the tragedy of Dr. Shaw's illness, Rebecca having to watch its progression until Shaw went into stasis—FEEL FREE TO TEAR MY HEART OUT. ;-;
:: Or Portia! How exactly did Rebecca transition into Portia? Where did she get the Raza? How'd she get in business with Tabor? How strange was it for her, seeing the android with Shaw's face every day? (If you've got any headcanon about her daughter, or any of the other stuff Ryo revealed—if it was even true—by all means tell me about it!)
:: We saw how Das ended up on the Raza, but not anybody else! Did they join up, or did Portia recruit them? What did she think of each of them? Why didn't she kill "Griffin" the moment she suspected him? Did she have any suspicions about "Corso"?
• Or tell me anything about Two from anywhere during the show—and I love missing scenes, episode tags, and canon-compliance, but if you want to just write 1k of the beginning of a con job from *waves hands* somewhere in S1, that's a-okay too. :D
:: S1 Two, still not quite sure what she is, concealing her already-healed injuries ... did she have any hypotheses about what she might turn out to be or why? Or was she just trying not to think about it, until Dwarf Star and Rook made it impossible?
:: Or dealing with all the change and loss and struggle in S2—One's death, shooting Corso for it, her nanites failing her (do the upgraded ones feel any different to her?), Four leaving them ...
:: Or, of course, S3! Losing Nyx, Six taking his leave temporarily, adding on Adrian and Solara, jumping through time, discovering SO MUCH about her origins at last, casting that deciding vote on Ryo's fate—and that's not even getting into the whole, you know, alien invasion thing. :D
• And of course AUs and futurefic are more than welcome, too!
:: If she'd managed to realize that doctor had an alien in her, and fought her off in time—could she have contacted the crew and saved Six?
:: Or tell me what you think happens next: how does the crew reunite, save each other and themselves and start trying to work out where to go from here?
:: What might have happened if she'd decided not to execute Ryo, but rather to wipe him again?
:: Or if (to help her access the strongbox? Because she doesn't know what to do with whatever's inside?) she decided to take back Portia's imprint, to look for her daughter ...
• Plus, of course, I ship Two with pretty much everybody. :D I discussed Misaki/Two, Nyx/Two, and Three/Two above, but that still leaves all kinds of options:
:: Two/One! Anything that covers any part of their S1 relationship would be wonderful; and fix-it for One's death is absolutely welcome, as is 1k of Two all stonefaced and vengeful and coolly shooting Jace Corso in the head. (One/Two/Three? ALSO VERY MUCH WELCOME.)
:: Two/Six! Post-canon, could having had an alien in her let her sense Six on the other side of that rift—or even give them some kind of mental connection? Or anything set during S2/S3, with Six trying to prove himself to her and Two choosing to trust him again, Six leaving the ship and then coming back, would be great!
:: Two/Four? Especially going all sorts of complicated and prickly, with Ryo taking the blink drive like that and Two demonstrating her willingness to kill him for the rest of the crew? *______*
:: Two/android? Rebecca/Shaw? Portia/android? All three at various points? GO WILD. :D I loved Rebecca and Shaw's story and would be thrilled to have it explored, just as much as I love Two and the android deciding that whoever they're based off of or used to be, they're their own selves now with their own relationship. ♥
Hellboy (movies)
Nuala
These movies are so delightful, and I'll never get tired of them; they're so funny and so fun, so creepy in places and yet so earnest, and the aesthetics are so thoroughly my jam. I would watch these teams of misfits look out for each other and do their best to save the world together all day long, and the sense of magic, wonder, fear, and love is one hell of a cherry on top. I'm only requesting Nuala, but I love the first movie just as much as the second—if you'd like to bring John back from Antarctica, I would be thrilled to see him! Or feel free to focus on the second movie and write me 1k of Johann's observations of Nuala. :D Ensemble fic about the BPRD with Nuala involved, pre-canon fic about Nuala and the elves, AU where she leaves with the rest of the team as they make their own way post-canon ... anything!
Seriously, if you wanted to just do 1k of worldbuilding about the elven court and Nuala's place in it, that would be AMAZING. Or—her perspective on Nuada's sudden return, feeling everything he's feeling even as he kills their father in front of her? Meeting Abe and the BPRD team, in all their mismatched and delightful glory? Or, of course, the discovery of the Golden Army, and the moment she realized what would have to happen for Nuada to be defeated? Shipfic would be fantastic, and please rest assured I'm equally here for obsessive fixated Nuala/Nuada, the fluffiest sweetest Nuala/Abe in the world, Nuala/HB or Nuala/Liz or any sort of team polygon that includes her—whatever strikes your fancy!
Hellboy for me is just—it's like a HUG. A big weird eldritch hug with too many hands, possibly, but still. :D I love all the characters so much, and all of their relationships with each other, the good and the bad and the ugly; the times when they're kind to each other and the times when they struggle to understand or to be understood, the moments that are sweet and the moments that are awkward. ♥ And the world itself, everything that's strange and lovely and potentially lethal hiding just underneath the surface of it, fighting horrors from legend in subway tunnels and mourning the death of a magical tree in the middle of an intersection. Plus I'm always weak for teams of people who care about each other facing down darkness way out of their league. ♥ SO YEAH. HELLBOY'S GREAT, THE END.
Nuala
And of all the things I enjoyed about Golden Army, I particularly loved Nuala! She's just so interesting to me on so many levels—that she's this seemingly gentle, ethereal elf-princess, but in the end also the one foe Nuada didn't plan for and can't defeat; and where all else failed, every other safeguard toppled, she managed to keep her piece of the crown away from him and save the world ... which is to say the human world, a world that didn't know she existed and which she had no reason to value. There's just SO MUCH to explore there, and I'd love a thousand words focusing on just about any element of Nuala's character you like!
• Pre-canon, there's room to do all kinds of worldbuilding, if that's something you've got an interest in:
:: What was the world like when Nuala was a girl? Who was her mother? (Or do elves just grow new elves like trees?) With more magic than humans, and the elves ascendant—what was the court of the elves like then, and how did she spend her time?
:: What adventures might she have gone on? Did she (and Nuada, if you'd like to include him) ever travel to visit other clans, or other creatures' courts?
:: Is there any particular reason why she might like humans more than Nuada does? Did she know any, back then, or befriend one once?
:: She was presumably around when the Army was created, and when Nuada was exiled—what did she think of it all? What was the experience of Nuada's exile like, through their link?
:: Seriously, any headcanon you have or worldbuilding you want to indulge in about Clan Bethmoora, or other clans and intra-/inter-clan alliances and politicking, would be wonderful!
• Or tell me anything you like about Nuala or her perspective on events during the span of the movie!
:: I absolutely loved the tropey amazingness of her psychic abilities and her bond with Nuada, so anything from her POV that incorporates that and her being on the run from him (presumably trying not to think or feel anything that would lead him to her) would be wonderful!
:: Her POV on Nuada's return and her father's death—mixed feelings, I'm sure! Was she glad to see him? Torn between his sense of triumph and/or conviction and her own fear and mourning?
:: And I'd love to read anything about her flight from the court, meeting Abe, the BPRD, Hellboy and the Army and the duel ... the burden on her, knowing what's at stake and that her people are fading, but also her sweetness and curiosity about the BPRD library and Abe and all these new things. :D
:: Or, of course, break my heart! I'd guessed pretty early on what might happen to her, but oh, man, her resolve and bravery at the end there just KILLED me. ;-; Feel free to twist the knife!
• But naturally I'd also be thrilled if you felt like writing a bit of fix-it—or an AU where things turn out differently, if not necessarily better:
:: Could her link with Nuada have been broken at just the right moment, so she didn't have to die when he did? Or replaced by a link with Abe?
:: She presumably experienced all Nuada's training with weapons, through the link—and of course she's the one person he wouldn't want to deal a serious wound to. Could she have dueled him herself? Or secured all the pieces of the crown and won control of the Army? (Not necessarily a fix-it, depending on how you think she would use it once she had it; are good intentions enough, in that scenario?)
:: Or could something (like, say, Liz's fire) have destroyed her piece of the crown, so Nuada could never have completed it?
:: Or go the other way: what if Nuada had succeeded before she'd even had a chance to stop him? What would that future look like, for her and for everyone else?
• And of course I ship ALL THE THINGS, so if you'd like to write me shipfic that includes Nuala, have at it. :D
:: I'd absolutely love 1k of Nuala/Abe, fleshing out their understated canonical romance a bit more, with missing scenes or more conversation. Or! Some kind of *waves hands* tropey AU—like, the BPRD decides to try to forge an alliance with the elves to stop Nuada before he gets started = arranged marriage between an agent and an elven princess? :D?
:: Or Nuala/Nuada! I'm here for this in any flavor you like: I read their connection as genuinely profound and meaningful to both of them, and Nuada's affection for her as at least some degree of sincere ... but of course that easily tips over into obsession, possessiveness, and manipulation, considering what he's canonically like. Sweet, creepy, or both at once—go for it!
:: Nuala/HB? In a handwavy AU where Nuala lives and remains a guest of the BPRD ... HB is a prince! Maybe a curse or spell or something ends up requiring him to marry a princess? :D
:: Nuala/Liz? Honestly I'd be thrilled with 1k of missing scene where they get to talk a little, with only the barest shippy undertones! Or if Liz were, say, turned into a dragon, might a princess be the only one who could approach her safely?
:: And if you wanted to let Nuala survive and run away with the rest of the team at the end of Golden Army, and get swept up in some grand team Nuala/Abe/HB/Liz(/John) romance, that would be AMAZING. :D
The Huntsman (movies)
Ravenna
I'm always easy for fairytale adaptations, and especially fairytale adaptations with Charlize Theron in them. :D And, for the record, you don't need to have watched a single minute of Winter's War to write me a Ravenna story—whether it's SWatH canon only, or set in between movies with some vague references to WW but no more, or during/after WW, I'm there for it! I just love the feel of the canon overall, this shadowed and dangerous fairytale world that still nevertheless can be won over by goodness, by kindness and by love, in the end.
And I adore Ravenna in particular for her unapologetic awfulness, her ambition and her cruelty and her pain, and how compelling she is despite all of it (or maybe because of it). So! I'd be thrilled with anything you'd like to write me about Ravenna. Her childhood with her siblings? Other kingdoms she's toppled, on her way through the world? Her POV from SWatH on losing Finn, or disguising herself as Will and kissing Snow White? Or her POV from WW on the space within the mirror, on tormenting Snow White from inside it or stepping back out of it in Freya's throne room? And shipfic is more than welcome, too—Ravenna/Snow White, Ravenna/Freya or Ravenna/Finn or magical incest OT3, Ravenna/Sara, or anything else that floats your boat!
There are so many things about these movies that I like—the aesthetics! The fairytale framework! The weird and sometimes inexplicable magic that you have to keep an eye out for if you want to not die!—but despite all that competition, one of the big things that keeps me rewatching them is DEFINITELY Ravenna. Everything about her, her anger and her magnetism and her whole gleaming murderous raven-feathered aesthetic, the slow smug way she smiles to herself while people die around her, is fantastic and awful and I love it. :D
Ravenna
SO YEAH. By all means, write me anything you like about Ravenna! And while I would be delighted by an AU where she manages to find herself a genuine happy ending (perhaps despite herself, and no doubt it would take her time to recognize it for what it is), please don't feel any need to soften her or smooth down her sharp edges. There's a lot about Ravenna that's vicious and petty and unkind, however much she may legitimately have been wronged in her turn, and I'm 100% on board with her making bad decisions, doing bad things, and believing herself to be justified and even the aggrieved party when that's not what's happening at all. :D
• Backstory! There's all kinds of places you could go pre-canon, whether you want to use Winter's War or not, and I'd love a story about any part of it:
:: Ravenna's youth with Finn and/or Freya—how they related to each other and connected to each other, the circumstances of Ravenna's first use of magic or first killing (or both, if they were the same moment) ...
:: And if you like to worldbuild, by all means feel free to fill in some blanks! Where is the Duchy of Blackwood? What other kings and queens has Ravenna destroyed? Where did she get that mirror, and when?
:: Is she ruling in absentia anywhere, other countries or empires—what stories follow her, what do other nations' people say about her? (Even a five-things fic: five names Ravenna's been given in other lands, and one she earned?)
• Or! Something set during either movie, or between them. :D
:: Her perspective on basically any part of SWatH, or a missing scene, would be wonderful! How does King Magnus's kingdom compare—does she miss others she once ruled? People, places, art and music and books that once existed, dances no one else remembers the steps to (except maybe Finn)?
:: Does she truly hate Snow White, or is she almost relieved to be run through, to have the long exhausting march of "too many lives" end?
:: Between movies—what is it like inside the mirror, looking out at Snow White from it? What does she do, or say, to drive Snow White so close to the edge?
:: What is it like in Winter's War, to step out of the mirror again and be almost alive, to be reunited Freya at last (and then watch her die)?
• Or AU me any way you like!
:: Ignore Winter's War completely; what might have happened if Snow White had spared Ravenna instead, at the end?
:: Or use the mirror thing but no more—if Snow White had realized Ravenna was in there, and found a way to get her out? If Ravenna had succeeded in tricking her, driving her slowly mad?
:: Or! What if Freya had come down from the north herself to get the mirror? Or sent a still-enchanted Sara for it? What if Snow White had insisted on escorting it north herself?
• And of course I'm all over Ravenna shipfic. :D
:: Ravenna/Finn, Ravenna/the huntsman, or Ravenna/William are all a-okay by me! I loved the codependence and mental connection between Ravenna and Finn, so anything leaning on that would be wonderful; and 1k of Ravenna being SUPER CREEPY or 1k of the beginning of sincere slow burn Ravenna/huntsman or Ravenna/William would be great—where she's captured either of them, perhaps, and tries to make them love her? Fails? Or succeeds? (Disguises herself as Snow White in the attempt?)
:: As you may have inferred, incest is totally fine with me and I would love Ravenna/Freya—the whole spectrum from Ravenna insisting they can only trust each other and manipulating Freya to sincere affection (or both at once) is absolutely open to you. :D Could Ravenna have tired of disposable kings a little earlier, and chosen to install Freya as her eternal silver sister-queen instead?
:: Or, as ever, Ravenna/Snow White! In absolutely any flavor: canonical obsessiveness tinged with UST, or 1k of any sort of AU or your favorite f/f trope—could Ravenna, queen of some other kingdom, have come to Magnus asking for his daughter's hand? (With the threat of a black glass army at her back if he didn't agree?) Or might Queen Snow White, faced with a magical problem, have no option but to retrieve Ravenna from the lands of the dead, and ask for her help?
:: And of course if you'd like to AU things so that Ravenna and Sara meet—in a universe where it was Eric/the canonical huntsman who was taken by Freya, and Sara who roamed the world thinking he was dead and getting hired to hunt down princesses ... :D
Siren (TV)
Ryn
I love this show and everything about it! The drama of it all is so breakneck sometimes, bless—and yet there's so much genuine beauty in it, too, in the possibility of connection between people who are so different from each other, and all the wonder and earnest warmth and loyalty. And Ryn! I adore Ryn; I think the show did a fantastic job in general portraying mermaids as complex predators who are genuinely dangerous, and then with Ryn in particular, and all her curiosity and confusion and intensity, the things she understands and the things she doesn't, what she loves about land and what she loves about the ocean—and the inevitable conflict because she can't stay in two places at once.
So! I would very much enjoy anything you'd like to write me about Ryn. :D I'd love pre-canon fic that delves into mermaid worldbuilding just as much as a missing scene from your favorite episode, or a thousand words of the most glorious interspecies OT3 smut that lives in your heart! Tell me more about Ryn and Donna, sisters hunting together—Cami's birth and childhood in the ocean, with her mother and aunt looking out for her. Or Ryn's perspective on anything during the show, from the first time she met Ben and Maddie to cooperating with the military or meeting the hybrid community in S2? Or post-canon, whatever you think might happen next when S3 starts! And I'm 100% here for Ben/Maddie/Ryn (including a focus on Ben/Ryn or Maddie/Ryn, with acknowledgment of the OT3 in the background) ... but I'd also be down with Ryn/Katrina, Ryn/Levi or Ryn/Eliza or Ryn/her new mate dude, or anything else you're interested in!
I wasn't necessarily expecting to like this show as much as I did—I heard about it and figured I'd give it a try? And then suddenly I was invested! And I couldn't stop watching it! And then I ran out of episodes, and didn't know what to do with myself. :D The characters are just so engaging, and the way the world has gotten gradually bigger, the conflicts not just between mermaids and humans but between different mermaids with different ideas about what's best, and different humans who want different things for and from them, IT'S ALL SO VERY MUCH MY JAM. Especially with the very simple truth of Ben and Maddie and Ryn at the heart of it: that they care about each other, and want to help each other, and want to be together. ♥
Ryn
AND RYN, help, I love her so much! She's such a fascinating study in contrasts—the unhesitating violence she's used to as a mermaid and a hunter vs her undeniable love for and genuine tenderness with Ben and Maddie; that she looks so small and harmless and is such an unbelievably powerful predator; how little she says, especially in the first season, and how few words she uses to do it, and yet how much she expresses, and how clear a sense there is that she comes from somewhere where things work very differently. She takes on so much responsibility, and tries SO HARD to keep everyone safe and happy and provided for—even when it means letting herself be experimented on. ♥ RYN ♥
• So! I'd love anything you'd like to tell me about Ryn that's set before the show, with as much or as little mermaid worldbuilding as you like! (And I realize the name thing complicates matters; feel free to use "Ryn" even though technically she wouldn't have adopted it yet, or invent a mermaid name of your own devising. :D)
:: What was the ocean like when she was young? How old is she—who were her parents, if she knows? (Was that first mermaid in the breeding grounds her mother?)
:: Where else has she been, in the ocean? Does the clan migrate? Who taught her to hunt—was she good at it right away, or did it take time to master? Who was in charge before Katrina? (Have Katrina and Ryn been at odds before?)
:: Did she have friends or companions besides Donna, or any other siblings? Had she ever been on land before? Her POV on Donna's capture, or the moment she realized Donna was gone and decided she had to follow!
:: And anything at all you'd like to tell me about mermaid packs/clans/tribes, their interactions with each other, caves full of ancient healing songs or how they choose their burial grounds, negotiating for the right to pass through another group's territorial waters, how they've handled any previous human intrusions—it's all very much welcome!
• Or! Give me something focused on Ryn somewhere during canon:
:: Right from the beginning—picking her name, trying to understand where she is and figure out how to find her sister? Meeting Ben and Maddie, and Helen, and learning how to talk, and how to navigate this strange world she's found herself in?
:: Or a little later? Mid-S1, her POV on reuniting with Donna or being stuck at the police station until Maddie shows up; or on the overfishing bringing her back (did she have weirdly mixed feelings about having a problem she could seek Ben and Maddie's help with? :D). The fight with Katrina! Realizing her song could hurt Ben! ANYTHING.
:: Or, of course, S2! The tension of trying to keep everyone safe while they're hiding together in the cabin in the woods? Singing her song to Maddie, once Maddie's got the headphones and she's allowed to (or later, without them)? Making the agreement to let herself be studied, once she realizes it could help Ben's mother?
:: And by all means go right up to the end of the season: anything about the hybrid community or mermaid mating practices, the struggle to handle the effects of the stem cell procedure and her own instincts! Dinner at Ben's parents' house—or Ian's death and the aftermath, however you think that might play out in S3!
• And I'd also be delighted to receive something set much further post-canon, or going AU in basically any direction!
:: Futurefic where Ben and Maddie and Ryn live together, blissfully happy, with the healthy merbabies no one stole from Ryn ever, on an oceanfront property where they swim together every day would be just as welcome as something speculating on the next set of problems you think they might face (conflict with Bryan and his splinter group—stealing back Ryn's baby, once it's born? More issues with the military, now that they've burned a bridge there by stealing the embryos?)
:: If you'd like to explore the AU we were handed in the S2 finale, except not Ben's imagination this time, I would LOVE that. :D Tell me all about Ryn and Ben and Maddie on the run, trying to steer clear of the military lockdown and keep Ryn safe!
:: Or—what if Ryn had been the one caught by the military, not Donna? Could she have escaped, and met Maddie and/or Ben while trying to find her way back to the water? (If you like h/c and trauma recovery stories, BY ALL MEANS INDULGE YOURSELF. \o/)
:: Or venture further afield! What if Ryn and Maddie and Ben were all merpeople? What if Maddie and Ben had become marine biologists with convenient military clearance, and had been called in as consultants on a very unusual project? What if mermaids had conquered humanity a long time ago, and humans were considered dull brutes to be used for minor labor and boring tasks—but Ryn found herself weirdly drawn to a couple of them? :D
• And I ship Ben/Maddie/Ryn, but also lots of other things!
:: I'm here for Ryn/basically anybody—Ryn/any mermaid (including Donna, or even Cami, if mermaid incest is your jam :D), Ryn/Nicole Martinez (with all the messiness of Nicole's deceptions baked in), Ryn/Xander or Ryn having an adventurous night with Calvin and Janine ... Seriously, whatever Ryn ship you ship, I would love to read about it!
:: And you should feel free to focus in on Ryn/Ben or Ryn/Maddie, though I'd like for the existence or at least possibility of the threesome to be acknowledged one way or another! (Also, totally okay to add someone else in, Levi or Eliza or Xander, and make it a square or beyond—or to elaborate on that mermaid mating party at the cabin, and let Ben and Maddie join in instead of awkwardly supervising from outside in the cold. :D)
:: More of Ryn's dreams, about either one of them? Ryn having kissed Maddie at the Siren's Song, or how it felt singing to Ben, or being weird and possessive about either of them. Fluff about mermaid courting gifts; angst where Ryn knows she's not supposed to drag either of them into the water to bite them too hard and hit them with her tail, but has no idea what she should do ...
:: BUT I would also be very glad to receive Ben/Maddie/Ryn, never fear! :D Set very early on, with just hints of UST and inappropriate kissing starting to happen? YES PLEASE. Maddie or Ben thinking about Ryn ~too much, and feeling weird and guilty for it, only to accidentally let it slip and discover they're not alone? ABSOLUTELY.
:: And I'm very much into anything that focuses specifically on the things Ben and Maddie learn in S2 about mermaid mating. Finding themselves helplessly kinking on Mermaid Things: on biting, on throat-grabbing, on glowing Ryn and the whole idea of mating season? (I'd be a sucker for any kind of angst based on Ben and Maddie's totally legitimate bad reaction to the surprise choking during the stress-hormone incident—with Ryn assuming that that means she can't let any of her mermaid instincts off the chain with them, that it would be Wrong and Bad even if it's also what she wants the most sometimes ...)
:: Or take it anywhere else you want to go—M or E-rated fic would be awesome, and if you'd like to get into the details of either Ryn exploring her land body some more, OR Ryn fucking people in water with loving xenobiological descriptions of how that works when she's shifted? GO FOR IT. I'm totally here for anything from adorable threesome dates with a teasing fade-to-black to "turns out alpha mermaids can impregnate human dudes AND human ladies, if they've sung to them and then fuck them in water". :D
With any luck, you aren't looking at this because you actually staggered through that entire essay, but rather because you decided to scroll to the bottom on a whim to see how long this sucker really was. :D BUT, just in case: I am very sorry about all this, and also you are great for being willing to soldier through my rambling. ♥ Thank you so much for bearing with me, and I hope you have a fantastic Yuletide!