Rare Male Slash Exchange 2020

[aurilly]

Thank you so much for offering one of these! If the prompts don’t work for you, free to write your own idea for these pairings, maybe trying to incorporate one of the general likes? As long as there's a happy/hopeful ending, I'm sure I'll love it. I'm aurilly on AO3 as well.


Here are anchor links to the different sections of this letter:
• Narnia (Edmund/Bacchus)
• MCU (Bucky/OMC ships)
• MCU/Au Service de la France Crossovers (Bucky/André)
• MCU/Narnia Crossovers (Bucky/Edmund, Bucky/Tirian)
• MCU/Other Fantasy World Crossovers (Bucky/Jaqen; Bucky/Geralt)
• David Blaize Crossovers
• Original Works - Portal Fantasies
• Original Works - Historical France
• Wodehouse (Psmith/Mike)

General Notes
What I'm most interested in is what happens after two characters meet--the dynamics they forge, the adventures they have, the things they learn, their teamwork, how they get together, etc. The set-up of getting them to the same place and meeting is the least interesting part to me. Feel free to skip past all that to start in media res, after they’ve already become friends, or even years later, when they're reuniting after a separation, for a ‘friends to lovers’ feel. Basically, stories that end shortly after the introductions make me sad.

General Bucky Notes (for MCU-only and crossover pairings)
I like stories about Bucky trying to move on and build a new life, and finding healing through adventures or helping other people--not ones where he's brainwashed or pathetic for most of it. I have a pet peeve about fics where Bucky (and Steve) say "ain't" and sound like characters from a 1930s gangster movie. I'd like them to sound like they do in canon, where they speak as 'correctly' as, say, Howard or Bruce do. Cursing is fine, though.


Things I Always Love
• Devoted Odd Couples: enjoying one another's company; laughing at one another; fond exasperation; friends to lovers (including for characters who never met in canon; you can pretend they’ve been friends since before the story started)

• Adventures: fish out of water; exploring new territory; finding out about magic; complementary skill sets; badassery; laughing in the face of danger or absurdity; the pen is mightier than the sword (but I also really love swords)

• Historical or Fantasy Settings: SWORDS!; also crossbows; carriages (and sex therein); knighting; tournaments; balls; forced to share a horse; camping

• Reunions: assuming characters have a past together (ex. cousins, long-lost school chums, briefly visited the other world as a child, had a one night stand, etc) and starting the story when they reunite in the present; not immediately recognizing old acquaintances due to canon-inspired plot reasons; still getting along despite having grown or changed

• Crossovers or Portal Fantasies: applying skills/knowledge from one world to another world's problems; characters coming up with logical but incorrect theories about what's going on before discovering the truth; contrasting or reconciling differences in how a concept manifests across canons (ex. immortality, magic, realm hopping, time shenanigans, education, sailing); magic or plot point in one canon has roots in another (ex. The Doom in GoT vomited up Valyrian steel that magically made it to Earth, known here as vibranium; the mysterious guy who smuggled baby Shasta to Calormen was actually Bucky)

• Not Originally Sexual Bondage: I prefer restraint when it, at least initially, occurs for plot reasons. A ties B to the bed for sexy fun? Not my thing. A ties B to the bed to keep B from hurting himself while possessed? Yes! Whether or not it then turns sexy in the story (it certainly can!), it's already sexy to me. Examples... tied or chained up for a ritual or because of imprisonment; stoicism and nobility while bound, stripped, whipped, jeered at, or nonconsensually touched; captives find ways to kiss and touch despite being bound; strong character submits or pretends to be unable to break out of bonds for reasons

• Hurt/Comfort: external force/person makes A hurt B; forced to watch loved one endure something awful; stoic character trying to joke their way through pain or hide wounds; shame about desires or how badly they want it; comforter is hiding their own hurt; bedside vigils; patching up loved one's wounds; helping one another through an awful ordeal; fainting; "I thought you were dead!"

• Loyalty & Self-Sacrifice : taking the rap for loved one; jumping in front of a bullet; sacrificing career, safety, reputation or happiness for loved one (but it turns out okay in the end!); volunteering to be beaten, humiliated, tortured, fucked, etc to spare loved one or to secure some benefit for them; trying to keep sacrifice or hurt secret from loved one, either out of shame or because A doesn't want B to feel beholden/guilty or because A doesn’t want B to know the extent of A's feelings; B finding out anyway

• Sexy Times: I have no top/bottom preferences in m/m. This letter is so long, so I left general porn likes HERE; they're applicable to any ship, not just the ones there. There's a more detailed version HERE (but the first one is enough, don't worry).

• Clothing Porn: suits, leather, armour, uniforms, boots, breeches; admiring how good (or ridiculous) love interest looks in the above; not sure how to get these weird clothes off; neckties and the many uses thereof

• External Force/Party Makes Them Have Sex: for cultural or initiation rites, to cast a spell, bad guys made them do it, etc. I'll take these for the flimsiest of reasons, so handwave away or even skip the set-up. I like dubcon tropes with an ultimately happy ending--where at least one of them is awkward, angsty, pining and/or guilt-ridden during the sex, and they realize only during or afterwards that feelings are requited. Or they develop feelings during the ordeal. I also love stories that focus on the awkward aftermath and getting together.


Do Not Wants
*These are the same as in my signup, but with a little more explanation on some. The category headers and organization don't mean much; I'm just trying to loosely group to reduce scrolling.

• Death & Endings: permanent death of requested characters; afterlives; bleak endings; as-if-it-never-happened erasure endings (ex. "it was all a dream" or events of fic are permanently mind-wiped away)
• Sex-Related: D/s dynamics; underage/overage sex or romance; A/B/O; "cum"/"cumming"; pregnancy
• Headcanons: characters written as ace, aro, or demi; gender identity headcanons
• Ship-Related: pre-relationship fic that ends before they’re together or before any kissing happens; poly/threesomes; non-canon romantic ships, unless prompted (however, mentions of backstory relationships with OCs are fine); conflicting requested ships (ex. A/B and A/C in same fic), unless prompted; non-canonical nicknames (ex. "Stevie"); shovel talks; adultery or open relationships; yentas and matchmakers; fated love; dark dynamics within requested ships; age differences of 10+ years within requested ships (see crossover request sections for ideas on how to handle this)
• Writing-Related: 1st & 2nd person POV; phonetically spelled dialogue (my brain genuinely struggles to process it)
• Crossover-Related: unprompted crossovers of more than two canons at a time; fourth wall breakage (ex. World A characters know World B as fiction); crossovers or portal fantasies where the main characters remain unaware of each others' backgrounds or magic (the reveal doesn't have to happen 'on-screen', but please don't let it end with everyone thinking everyone else is normal, in a 'ships passing in the night' kind of way)
• Other: fusions; setting change AUs**; goofy crack (but crack taken seriously is fine!)

**A Note on setting change AUs: I welcome invented mechanisms, like portals, to get characters from one world to another. I also welcome the addition of supernatural elements to a canon (ex. selkies exist, someone's mom was a fairy, time loops are possible, Stonehenge is a magical place, etc.). Shifting timelines within a late 19th/early 20th century range is also fine! My DNW for setting change AUs is meant to cover scenarios where the supernatural elements that form a canon's premise are wholly removed, or a requested character's pre-canon backstory beats are wholly unrecognizable (ex. Bucky as a born and bred Narnian instead of an early 20th century Brooklynite), or a canon is moved into a wildly different location or time period (ex. 21st century, space, high school).


Narnia - A Bonus Option!
• Bacchus/Edmund Pevensie

This ship is in the tagset, but not in my official signup. However, if you would like to write, very specifically, Edmund/Bacchus Golden Age Ritual Sex instead of what we matched on, go ahead! I would be over the moon to get this prompt for them. There’s a hysterical barrage of optional ideas about it HERE (I really let it all out… and then ended up not being able to sign up for that exchange), if you’re interested. Ignore the stuff about Lucy, given that this is an m/m exchange.


MCU - Bucky/OMC Ships
• Bucky/Original WWII Allied Soldier
• Bucky/Original Male Wakandan Battle Rhino Trainer

General Bucky/OMC
Some of my most favorite MCU fics are ones in which Bucky (or Steve) experiences self-discovery, healing, and/or sexual awakening through romances with original male characters. You don’t need to include their first meeting (unless you want to!); you can skip ahead to start when they’ve already spent some time together, for a ‘friends/colleagues to lovers’ feel (my favorite!). Please let them unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts--or more! General Bucky notes are at the top of this letter.

While having the OMC feel like a real person with his own setting-relevant quirks and issues (not simply a perfect dream boyfriend) is ideal, I’m here for Bucky exploration. For example, when I’m looking for fic on AO3, I don’t click on ones whose summaries make it sound all about the OC, or like the author’s dream of dating Bucky. I like ones where the romance is mainly a vehicle for Bucky’s character growth, and is based on them knowing/liking each other or sharing experiences, instead of love or lust at first sight.


James “Bucky” Barnes/Original WWII Allied Soldier
I love the WWII setting, and canon didn’t give me nearly enough of it! Bucky was so gorgeously stoic and hurting. I wanted to know more about his day to day life as a soldier and sergeant. I wanted to know more about him as the Allies’ best sniper. Did he get sent out on secret missions? Does one or both characters have period-typical internalized homophobia (delicious); if so, how do they get over it enough to get together? How does Bucky’s romance affect his friendship with Steve (does Steve even know about it?) or Howling Commando projects?

I wish there were a million more fics about Bucky post-Azzano, pretending to be fine even though he clearly wasn’t. I love the idea that the serum was already slowly kicking in, but he was keeping it secret (from Steve, at least). So angsty! Observing changes in himself whilst having PTSD? Self-loathing? Body horror? What are the early manifestations of his superness? How is Bucky dealing with all this, and how can the other guy help? What makes him confide in the love interest? Or does the love interest figure it out? Or does Bucky accidentally let something slip?

It doesn’t have to be perfectly healthy and sweet love (though it definitely can!). I’m also open to something that’s rather fraught despite mutual, genuine feelings. Does Bucky want this guy despite disapproving of his methods in army-related work? If it’s just a casual thing (at least at first), how does Bucky feel if the OC is fucking other people, too? Is Bucky too angstily messed up to communicate properly, leading to the OC unwittingly taking things much faster or harder than Bucky’s actually ready for? Does the OC vastly outrank Bucky, leading to conflicts of interest or other tensions/challenges? Is the OC a repressed posh guy conflicted about… who knows? Or is he, regardless of class, so terrified of being caught that he oscillates wildly between extreme tenderness and hurtfully cold rejection, which adds to Bucky’s angst? How do they work through these issues?

Is the OC a guy Bucky met on the ship over to Europe? Do they reunite later on? Or is he European? What does Bucky learn about the other guy’s culture? If not English-speaking, does he learn a bit of the guy’s language (hot)? I started to write premise prompts for this, but they were similar to the Frank/Bucky prompts in the David Blaize Crossovers section below. The only prompt I wouldn’t want for Bucky/OMC is the last one about Frank in the future. (You also don’t need to read those prompts at all; this section is long enough.)


James “Bucky” Barnes/Original Male Wakandan Battle Rhino Trainer
I love Bucky’s Wakandan life and wanted so much more of it. I know everyone’s all about Bucky’s goats--and I love the goats, I do!--but I am really really into rhinos. The battle rhinos in Black Panther were among my favorite things in the entire MCU. I would love a story where Bucky dates the trainer, hangs out with rhinos, and continues his healing. I adore all the Wakandan protagonists, so any of them are welcome to appear. DNW: hippos.

How do Bucky and the rhino trainer meet? Did T’Challa or Shuri request that he help out with the rhinos, either because he’s hardy enough for it, or because it would be a good healing project for him (or both)? Or does Bucky develop a crush on the trainer first (like, they met in the market or something, IDK), and he volunteers to help with the rhinos in order to get to know this guy better? Or does Bucky develop a fascination with the rhinos, which leads to him getting to know the trainer? Or is it a thing where a rhino introduced them? Ex., it escaped and ran into Bucky’s farm, and the trainer chased it there? Also, did you know that rhinos and goats can be friends? (There’s a lot of this on YouTube and it’s very cute.) Does an orphaned baby rhino get sent to live on Bucky’s goat farm, and that’s how he gets to know the rhino trainer? How do Bucky and the trainer get together?

What does Bucky learn about Wakanda (history, traditions, rituals) through this whole rhino training thing? Is dealing with the rhinos a new challenge for him? How does the rhino trainer help him? Or, can Bucky help the rhino trainer with something? How is Bucky integrating into Wakanda? Are most Wakandans wary of/confused by Bucky’s presence--and the trainer is one of the first to come around? Or is Bucky already quite popular?

Is the rhino trainer at first intimidated by the fact that Bucky is BFFs with the royal family? Or maybe rhino training is a job only people from the poshest families can do, so Bucky having fancy friends is no big deal to him? Or is rhino training more of a job for hotstrong rustic types? Is there a test you have to pass? Do Bucky and his boyfriend have to fight in a battle with the rhinos (maybe Bucky DID fight in the battle against Killmonger, but off-screen)? Or maybe Bucky and the trainer fuck up some poachers who sneak into Wakanda. Or maybe bad people come for Bucky, but the trainer and rhinos are like, “Oh HALE no.”

I’m thinking this is set in the universe where Infinity War never happened, allowing Bucky’s Wakandan idyll to continue indefinitely. But you could also imagine that totally different sets of people were snapped/not snapped, leaving Bucky and the trainer alive during those five years (but lots of people Bucky knows are dead), for an angsty “finding love in a time of loss” sort of thing.


MCU/Au Service de la France Crossovers
• Bucky/André Merlaux

What even is this show, you may ask? Well, it’s a delightful French sitcom, which Netflix has translated as "A Very Secret Service"! It’s set in 1960, so the period details and styling are wonderful. André, our protagonist, gets recruited as a trainee in the French secret service. I love him SO MUCH! He is practically the only good-hearted, earnest, hard-working, common-sense-having agent in the whole agency; almost everyone else is ridiculous, ineffectual, or corrupt. His whole backstory is amazingly iddy (he lives in a church garret! his dad is a catholic priest! so many scenes in confessionals!), and the show succeeds in balancing silliness with darkness. He's very different in S2, but I still love him in the new, badass guise. Watch the trailer!

I know André did not like having to fuck that guy on the honeypot mission, but the whole situation was meant to be unappealing. I could see him and Bucky/WS being super into each other (and they would be absurdly beautiful together). They’re such good guys. You could have André rescue Bucky, or pretend Bucky escaped on his own (or was rescued by someone else) before the story started. I know at the top of this letter I said I generally want Bucky to be back to himself in fic, but for this one crossover, it makes sense to have a bit more WS time, if you want (though I’d still want a good bit of the romance be between André/actual-Bucky).

Are the people who were WWII Nazi collaborators actually Hydra? Were they involved in Bucky’s brainwashing or have access to sending the WS on missions with André? Or do the bosses send the WS to train all new agents, but André is the first one good-hearted enough to realize something is deeply fucked up here, and want to help Bucky? Or perhaps it was while André was infiltrating the KGB. Did one of his tests involve something with the WS? Or a canon divergence where André's time with the KGB lasted longer, and he was assigned to be the WS’s handler? Or does André get sent on missions that pit him against the WS (ex. do the people who want André dead send the WS to kill him after other attempts have failed? What happens, how do their skills decide the battle, and how do they end up hooking up/healing Bucky?

Or, a different angle… Did Bucky know André’s dad or any of those people back in the war? Is he the only one left who can uncover the truth? Or perhaps it’s set during the skipped year between S1 and S2. Is Bucky the person André learned how to be such a super-spy from? Is Bucky sad to see André lose some of that adorable innocence? Did André meet up with the WS and learn all his moves from him? Do they help more colonies gain independence? I literally just finished watching this the night before signups closed, so my brain is still too busy swirling to thing up better prompts; write whatever you want!

I’d also love to see Bucky interacting with the more ridiculous aspects of the show, along with the romance, if it fits. Is everyone’s ineffectuality or... well, Frenchness... completely baffling to Bucky and/or the WS? Does the WS get lost in a sea of paperwork? Or fail to get a form stamped? Does Bucky teach the parrot Americanisms? Is he Jacquard’s latest tenant? Does Calot start to wonder if he’s been brainwashed? Does Marie-Jo bake Bucky a cake? All the characters crack me up, so they’re all welcome to appear? Please pretend things with Sophie didn’t work out or they’re on a break or something. You can pepper the dialogue with bits of French, if you want--translations neither needed nor desired. I like both of André's canon love interests, so please don't bash them; please pretend they were amicably over before the fic started, or were never a thing at all.


MCU/Narnia Crossovers
• Bucky/Tirian
• Bucky/Edmund

General Narnia Notes
General Bucky notes are at the beginning of this letter. Tirian and Edmund were my very first favorite characters, and Narnia's worldbuilding elements formed most of my narrative interests. I love Golden Age fics and fics that diverge from canon (as wildly as you like!) at any point before the closing chapters of the Last Battle. Time between these realms is already untethered and random, and I welcome as much timey-wimey handwaving as you want to add. Ex. there's no reason why post-TWS Bucky couldn't travel to the Golden Age or Tirian’s reign.

I love everyone's competency, earnestness, and courage when it counts, but also their flaws, fears, and crankiness. Tirian has such human flaws, and he started off as a hot mess of a king, but he means so well, and is quite resourceful and clever when you rouse him out of his decadence. I love that being redeemed into a just warrior king didn’t entirely cure Edmund of being a cranky, sarcastic little shit.

The end of Narnia, train crash, and afterlife are my biggest DNWs. Please let it be clear that everyone will get to live out their lives. I don't need a fix-it (i.e. a fic focused on how their canon death was averted that day). I prefer to pretend it just never came up! I'm not at all invested in the religious allegory elements.


Bucky/Tirian
They would be so competent and delightful and hot together. Fairytale king + Brooklyn street smarts, yum. I really don't care how Bucky and Tirian get here or there. Feel free to leave it unexplained and/or start with him already there. I like all the 'nice' people in TLB, so include whomever you want. If it’s easier not to include the Friends of Narnia, that’s fine, too!

— Does Bucky seek Tirian or Narnia out? Somehow getting his hands on the rings? Or Tirian blows the horn? Something else?

— Met In Dreams First: You know how Tirian astrally projected to the Friends of Narnia that one time? Well, what if he's been doing it on the regular, with Bucky? They have always secretly thought they had an imaginary friend (or are going nuts), but one day they meet, either in Narnia or on Earth. Maybe Tirian inherited star magic, which makes this possible? What I'm most interested in is what happens when they are together in the flesh, so you can even background the vision part, if you want.

— Tirian In Our World: What if, instead of astrally projecting, Tirian actually goes! Either during WWII, or to our present-day, or multiple points in time. Tirian was so cutely nerdy about history and hero-worshipping the Friends; what would he make of actually being in our world? Is there something here that could help him or that he could help with? Does he rescue Bucky from Hydra, or do they meet after Bucky's already escaped? Does he help the Howlies with a mission? Or maybe he arrives post-TWS and there's hurt/comfort as Bucky is pulling himself together. How do they take care of one another and get together?

— Caught In Calormen: Bucky somehow joining Tirian for a pre-TLB jaunt into Calormen? Is Tirian there for espionage, diplomacy and/or undercover partying? How do they get together? Does this adventure result in the whole Calormene invasion getting nipped in the bud so the world doesn't have to end?

— Canon-Divergent Post-TLB: What if, instead of the world ending, Tirian & Co ran away to the mountains and started a resistance to the Calormene occupation, like they talked about doing at one point? I love espionage, desperate missions, angsty last stands and people bonding while struggling to survive in nature. It could be set near the start when they’re corralling Narnians and spiriting them to safety. Or you could start it later on, when the resistance has grown pretty strong and they’re ready to start making moves. How/when does Bucky end up with them, how he can help, and how do he and Tirian fall for one another? Does Tirian know more secret hideouts full of wine? Does Puzzle (the darling!) somehow end up saving the day along with Bucky? Do Bucky and Tirian go on a quest to the magic garden place?


Bucky/Edmund
I want them to love each other as much as I love them, and to have adventures, and be competent, and unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts (or more!). What aspects of their angsty backgrounds can they pep talk each other through? How can their experiences and skill sets help each other or help solve an issue in either canon? How do they figure out one another's backstories, and what do they think of the other's? How do they fall in love? There's delicious potential for angsty separations and happy ending reunions in this ship, too, if you want.

Edmund being a kid and Bucky being a soldier during WWII is too situationally intrinsic to both characters for my usual timeline adjustment approach. However, I’d be thrilled to ignore or break the timelines to make it work in other ways. For example, post-TWS Bucky traveling to the Golden Age or some other point in Narnian history works for me! Or maybe at the end of Endgame, Bucky time travels to the 50s/60s when Edmund is grown up again, either as the initial premise of the story or as the happy ending epilogue. Basically, do whatever you need to avoid an age discrepancy ending and I'll roll with it. (It's okay if adult!Bucky temporarily hangs out with kid!Edmund at some point, as long as he doesn't touch the kid, and the happy ending is with grown-up Ed).

— Edmund in the Future: The story starts when grown up again Edmund returns from going on adventures with the rings. However, because of handwavey inter-realm time shenanigans, the rings have dropped him off decades after he left, and now he's stuck in the future… Whoops! Or maybe it's a canon divergence where the Pevensies return from the Golden Age as adults 15 years later instead of deaging to kids at the moment they'd left? Does Ed rescue Bucky from Hydra (possibly earlier than in canon?), or is it post-TWS? Or even post-Endgame? Out of time together, hurt/comfort, etc. Is Hydra after one or both, or is it more slice of life?

— Traveling with Rings: Hydra sends the Winter Soldier to the Professor's childhood home to get the rings on the same day that Edmund goes, resulting in them going to other realms instead of Edmund dying. Exploring the Wood, or deserted Charn, or Asgard, or back to Narnia, or GoT's Westeros, or the Witcher (TV) world, or a world you make up?

— Canon-Setting Spies: I enjoy the fanon that Edmund grows up and becomes a spy. Does he get partnered with the Asset, is like, "gah, this poor guy" and run away with him? Or do they go on a spy mission while Bucky's in Narnia? What adventures do they have together?

— Bucky In Golden Age Narnia: Maybe someone blows the horn, summoning Bucky? Or the Tesseract or Bifrost takes him there? Or he fell off the train and into Narnia? Or some other way, or leave it unexplained, I don't care. Getting together while dealing with giants, or during some annual tournament in Archenland? Helping Edmund get rid of the remaining werewolves or hags from the Witch’s reign? Sea voyage adventures on the Splendour Hyaline? Outwitting Calormene spies, implementing educational policies, the Rabadash situation? Something else? Is it a divergence where the Pevensies ruled for longer? Or do Bucky and Edmund reunite later back in our world?

— Reunions: Does Bucky encounter the Pevensies while they’re still rather young (whether during ‘Prince Caspian’, VoDT, early on during the Golden Age, or during WWII); nothing shippy happens then, but it does when they reunite once Edmund is an adult and Bucky basically hasn’t aged? Or maybe they never met before, but Bucky went to Narnia (or had some Narnia-related experience) during a time when the Pevensies weren’t there, and he meets adult Edmund back in our world; how do they figure out their Narnian connection while also falling for one another? Or maybe some of the mythical figures that exist in both Narnia and Earth (ex. Bacchus, Father Christmas) help them meet or reunite, either here or there? You can include the flashbacks, or just focus on the reunions!


MCU/Other Fantasy World Crossovers
• Bucky/Jaqen H'ghar (Game of Thrones TV)
• Bucky/Geralt (The Witcher TV)

General
Unlike with Narnia, where I'm pretty equally excited about stories set either here or in Narnia, for these, I desperately want Bucky to go to Westeros/Essos or the Witcher world (I’m much less interested in fic set in our world). What kinds of character development or healing does Bucky get from this whole experience? How can Bucky's skills or experiences be useful in this world? Fish out of water stuff? What do the other world's characters make of him and the idea of other worlds? As usual, I don’t care about the realm travel mechanics, so feel free to start with him already there. You don't need to explain how he got there at all! See the top of this letter for general Bucky notes.

Bucky/Jaqen
Something playing with ideas of assassins, shapeshifting, of being ‘no one’ or a ‘ghost’, of losing/reclaiming your identity, etc. What does Bucky think of this whole Faceless Man thing? Does the Many-Faced God owe Bucky? Is newly arrived and confused Bucky seeking refuge at the temple, or does Jaqen seek him out to recruit him? Do they meet in Bravos, or while Jaqen is traveling? Do they have a bittersweet fling, but that's all it can be because being nobody means Jaqen can't have lasting relationships? Or does Jaqen's shapeshifting help Bucky work through their feelings for someone else (ex. Steve; platonic or gen)? What kinds of tests does Bucky have to pass? Or do he and Jaqen have to work a job together? Or does Bucky decide, “fuck this” (which perhaps turns out to be what ‘passes’ him? IDK)? Arya can be around or not, up to you. Is the Waif as awful to Bucky as she was generally? Does he take her down a peg (please!)? Learning more about this world in general (ex. visiting markets, attending plays, interacting with a Red Priest(ess), etc)?

Bucky riding dragons, Bucky with a sword, Bucky’s arm acting as Valyrian steel, Bucky as the actual prince who was promised… Any and all of this would make me scream with joy. I’ll take a canon divergence branching off from any point you like! Or something set before, after, or off-screen during canon. It's great if there's some shapeshifting, but the shallow part of me would like a majority of Wlaschiha!Jaqen in the shippy parts. I only know the TV show, but you can include bits of book canon as long as Bucky learns about it with me. My main GoT DNW is any appearance by Ramsay Snow or the Sand Snakes. The afterlife is one of my general DNWs, but zombies and whatever was going on with Jon and Beric don't count as afterlife to me.


Bucky/Geralt
I love these two stoic woobie badasses. They have quite in common--being taken and modified, turned into super strong killing machines, retaining the goodness at their cores, being looked at as monsters even though they aren't really, dry sarcasm, etc. I think some of the commonalities, taken together with the wild differences that being from different worlds entails, would make for a fascinating duo! It can be forever true love with Bucky being stuck here forever and not minding it, or it can be a bittersweet thing where Bucky goes home at the end, but they both fondly remember their time together. I just want them to really like each other, be a bit comforted by one another, be badass together, and have very muscular makeouts (or more!).

You could set it at a lot of points in Geralt's long life. Maybe someone captured poor, confused, recently arrived Bucky, or reactivated him with magic, and then Geralt rescues him? Or people in a town think poor, confused, recently arrived Bucky is some sort of monster and want Geralt to kill him, but Geralt ends up dating him instead? Or they just meet in a tavern/on the road/something and Geralt decides to let Bucky tag along (or at least for as long as it takes to get to a sorcerer or something who might be able to help Bucky get back home)? Is Bucky's arrival due to more Law of Surprise shenanigans, and he is bound to Geralt? Did Mousesack do magic to summon a hero for Calanthe, and accidentally brought Bucky, which now Geralt has to deal with? Do Bucky and Geralt help the elves? How do they pep talk (for Geralt's definition of 'pep talk', lol) each other out of their baggage? Can Bucky get drunk off the liquor in this place?Also, they would be SO HOT fighting monsters or whatever together, so there's always that. And sexy bathing scenes! What is the Witcher without sexy bathing fics?

I also love all the arbitrary magic here, so feel free to make up reasons for random silly tropes played totally seriously that could get Bucky and Geralt to make out (or more!). You could also imagine what comes after S1. I do love all those post-TWS fics about Bucky acquiring random children while on the run and finding healing through taking care of them; the promise of that trope with Geralt&Ciri was the reasonI started watching. Does it turn into a 'My Two Dads' kind of scenario (but without Ciri playing matchmaker, please, per the general DNW) as these two broken loners figure out how to take care of this little princess? Does Bucky find Dara again? Does Geralt feel weirdly protective of Bucky? This is a new ship for me, so I don't have a lot of concrete ideas. I will love anything!

I am only familiar with the TV show, not the books or games, so please don't spoil me on things that are likely to happen in S2. However, feel free to use place names or bits of history or monsters I don't know for 'case of the week'-type stuff. Please pretend Geralt/Yennefer amicably ended before the fic started or were never a thing. I love Jaskier, so he can be around, or not, but please keep anything with him gen (I don't tend to like mixing my ships in the same fic).



David Blaize Crossovers
• Frank/Edmund (Narnia)
• Frank/Bucky (MCU)
• Frank/Thor (MCU)
• Frank/Ethan (Penny Dreadful)

General David Blaize Notes
I've never encountered a character more in need of a nice boyfriend than Frank. He's such a fascinating and endearing blend of judgmental, whimsical, bossy, charismatic, and melancholic. I love his cleverness, snark, take-chargeness, and sense of whimsy. The chapter where he devises the plan to catch the cheaters was such fun, as was his love of the macabre. While his anguished self-loathing is super compelling, I ultimately want him to get over it (and get over himself, a little). I want him to find happiness and self-acceptance with someone new—unambiguously, with actual kissing, or more! If you want to run with the thing where he cured David with the power of love to a place where Frank literally has some kind of magic (whether he knew it or not at the time), go for it!

Please let Frank completely get over his tragic crush on David and be entirely into the new person, without bashing David (whom I do like). And please set it when Frank is anywhere between 18-30 (ie. canon divergence, or only a few years post-canon), so he doesn't have to wait long to be happier. DNW something set before he met David and became all repressed; the whole point is that I want him to un-repress!


Frank/Edmund (Narnia)
Frank coming up with well-reasoned but incorrect theories to explain Edmund’s weirdness before eventually figuring it out? What is post-Narnia life like for Edmund? Is he also frustrated (sexually or otherwise)? Carrying around knowledge or experience that he can’t use? Desperate because he remembers adult relationships but has (until now) been too young/lacked opportunity/hasn’t liked anyone enough/other? Or maybe he’s actually quite inexperienced. What draws them to each other and how do they get together?

See Narnia notes at the beginning of the MCU/Narnia Crossovers section of this letter. My biggest asks are a) for Frank to find out about Narnia/Edmund’s secret (it doesn’t have to be a whole written-out info-dump or happen on-screen at all) and b) to pretend the David Blaize books were set later so that they are around the same age (DNW age differences).

— University: Edmund at Cambridge, too! Taking the same lecture, on the same teams, or occupying neighboring dorm rooms? Wet and full of adrenaline after a sailing race or tennis match? Some other aspect of college life brings them together? What does Frank think of Edmund before and after he finds out why Ed is the way he is? Do they first meet at Cambridge, or did Edmund go to Marchester, too? Were they in the same class? Or was Ed a year or two older and they’re reuniting at Cambridge? If so, what was their dynamic before?

— Frank Visits During Golden Age: What are Frank's reactions to Narnia? How does Edmund, who probably doesn't have a ton of attractive humans around, react to having this nice, smart, handsome Brit in the castle? Or does Frank arrive while Edmund is in Calormen or on a sea voyage? Did they know each other from before, or do they meet here? Can Frank help Ed and his siblings remember their lives from before? I don’t care how Frank gets there, so feel free to start in media res.

— Using the Rings: I'm obsessed with Edmund using the rings to go adventuring. Maybe it's Frank's parents' house that Edmund burgles to get the rings, and that's how they meet and go off on adventures together? Or were they friends before and decide to adventure together? Visiting the Wood Between the Worlds or not-so-dead Charn? Back to Narnia? Westeros/Essos (I only know the TV show).

— Other Post-Series: Does Edmund also become an archaeologist? Or spy? Or something else that allows them to travel to Greece together? Voyages on trains or ships (and possibly stranded when the vehicle breaks down)? Finding ancient magic here on earth? Partying with Bacchus, who's an old acquaintance or lover of Ed's? Or they get jobs post-university and meet in London or some society event? Or as guests at a mutual friend’s estate?

— Some of the Bucky/Edmund prompts from the MCU/Narnia section would work for these two, too!


Frank/Bucky (MCU)
I would especially like a WWII getting together story. Please pretend the books were set later so that they are around the same age (DNW age differences). They’d make such a great odd couple. Brooklyn boy/posh Brit, classical education/street smarts, etc. How do they overcome Frank’s (possibly also Bucky’s?) internalized homophobia and find something good? Is Bucky more open-minded or experienced with men than Frank? Or has he always denied himself, and Frank initiates him?

See Bucky notes at the beginning of this letter. Feel free to pretend Bucky didn’t fall off the train so they can have a happily ever after. Or maybe Frank rescues his brainwashed old flame from Hydra in, like, 1950 (ie. before there’s a major age difference), or Bucky travels back in time with Steve at the end of Endgame for a happily ever after, or brings Frank to the future. Or you can make it bittersweet, with Bucky still falling, but even though he grieves, their time together has left Frank in a healthier place to live and love again without such self-loathing (and WE know Bucky will eventually be okay, per canon).

Is Frank initially jealous of Bucky’s friendship with Steve, because he’s projecting his own experiences with David onto Steve&Bucky? Does Bucky scoff because he and Steve aren't like that at all? Or is Frank actually correct in thinking Bucky has been unrequitedly pining (this is the one sort-of exception to my 'no conflicting ships' DNW)? If Bucky had been crushing on Steve, I need him to get over it completely as he and Frank fall for one another, without bashing Steve. Or you could not bring up Steve/Bucky as a question or issue at all.

— Met Fighting in WWII (Howling Commandos edition): Frank as part of the gang? Getting together while using their combined smarts on a mission, either with the whole group, or a side project just for them? I’m thinking stakeouts, disguises, foreign languages, need for quick thinking, getting information at a party, stranded in a snowy cabin, down time at a bombed out pub, appreciating the beauty of Europe despite the horror of war… anything!

— Met Fighting In WWII (general soldiering edition): Maybe the 107th is camped alongside Frank’s unit before or after their capture? Sharing a foxhole together? Exploring or hiding in a bombed out village together? Left behind and forced to trek to safety together? Saving one another? Bucky probably also needs some TLC after Azzano, even if Frank wasn't there with him… Does the desperation of war get them over their issues enough to act on their feelings?

— Canon-Setting Spies: Sent on an espionage + sniper mission together? Or maybe Frank isn’t a soldier, but rather some sort of archaeologist-civilian who is asked to use his knowledge to help the war effort. Is the mission to get information, or to prevent the Nazis from getting some Ancient Greek occult blah blah? Does Frank have to go ‘undercover’ as gay (when he already repressedly is)?

— Met In Captivity (Azzano edition): Was Frank also a prisoner in Azzano, possibly also getting experimented on? Do they huddle together between torture/experimentation sessions, clinging to each other and their identities? Hurt/comfort and desperate “we’ll probably die tomorrow” hookups? Nazis humiliating them or forcing them to have sex or confess feelings or watch each other be hurt? Or maybe they only get together after Steve’s rescued them (in a wartime hospital? as members of the Howlies? Other?) when they begin to realize the experiments left permanent changes on them (i.e. superpowers). Are they still traumatized, leading to even more closeness? The more hurt/comfort the better.

— Frank Goes to the Future: For a non-WWII option that I'm equally excited about, perhaps the story starts after Frank has been sucked into the present-day. Maybe some MCU-related cosmic business has brought him here/now, or he fell into a portal, or he is actually magical… It doesn't matter. How do he and Bucky get together? Bonding over both being 'out of time', Frank's reactions to the future, Bucky finding healing by helping Frank adjust… Can Frank's knowledge, skills or perspective help with an MCU-type plot?


Frank/Thor (MCU)
I love Thor so very much. He balances godly/regal gravitas and deadliness with jolliness, earnestness, gentleness, slyness, and a delightful alien weirdness. He would be such a fascinating foil for Frank's complicated temperament, and just generally, it would be boiling hot. Please let Frank find out who/what Thor is! What is Frank’s reaction to this literal fairytale prince? Thor’s reaction to this lovely but sad earthling? How do they get along and get together? Are Asgardians nonchalantly bisexual? If so, how does Thor react to Frank’s repression? Or do Asgardians have their own hangups? If so, how do their different hangups intersect and how do they get over them together?

It can be forever love (if so, please handwave a mention of magical solutions to the lifespan issues), or a fling that ends amicably when Thor has to go home again, leaving Frank in a healthier and happier headspace to continue on with the rest of his life, both of them retaining fond memories of their time together. I love every iteration of Thor, but for this ship, I want pre-Ragnarok Adonis!Thor. Loki and other Asgardians are welcome to be included, too, if you want.

— Frank really needs to get laid. Does Thor carefully, joyfully, overwhelmingly seduce and fuck Frank’s repression away? Like, not even Frank’s dedicated self-denial can hold strong. And if an actual god is so into it/him, who is Frank to say this is ‘beastly’ or wrong? Or is Thor actually rather inexperienced (with men, or in general) at this point in his life, and they learn together, or Frank initiates him? I would prefer Frank to become an enthusiastic, curious and active participant, not just lie down and take it the whole time.

— A canon divergence from the first film, where Thor was banished to Frank’s time and location, whether Cambridge or Frank’s backyard or one of his archaeology digs? Or maybe it’s set pre-Thor canon, when he snuck over to Earth for some secret fun and got stuck here (or Loki played a prank that got him stuck here)?

— Greece Setting: I love that Frank is an archaeologist! Maybe during one of his digs, he stumbles into an ancient place and accidentally sets off a magical thingy that summons gods, except a different set than expected arrive. Or some wholly other reason for Thor being in Greece? I don’t actually care how Thor gets there; feel free to skip over that part.

— Disguised/Fish Out of Water: Thor trying to blend into 1920s Cambridge, or a Wodehouse-style club, or with Frank’s family... What do Frank’s friends make of Thor? What does Thor make of everything? How does Thor take to having to keep their relationship on the DL? Is he even capable of it?

— Random Optional Details: Thor using Mjolnir to fly Frank somewhere gorgeously remote; switching; spanking; marathon sex; held down by Mjolnir so that Frank is completely at Thor's mercy


Frank/Ethan (Penny Dreadful)
I basically want Frank to hang with the PD gang in London and get involved with their supernatural drama. Does finding out about and dealing with all this demi-monde insanity put 'beastliness' into new perspective for Frank (I mean, Ethan is LITERALLY a beast, so Frank kind of needs to calm his angst)? Does Frank find out about Ethan's werewolfness? If so, how does he react (hopefully some hurt/comfort?)?

Please pretend the David Blaize books took place earlier, so that Frank is around the same age as Victor or Vanessa in the early 1890s, with the same age difference as between either of them and Ethan (I think Ethan’s a few years older?). I really do want Ethan/Frank to be wholly into one another, so please pretend Vanessa/Ethan wasn’t a thing or that he’s moved on (from both Vanessa and Brona) by the time he meets Frank.

I loved this show for Victor, Vanessa, Ethan, Malcolm, Sembene, and Lyle's Scooby Gang teamwork and found family, so a bit of that in the background would be fun, if it fits your idea. I wasn’t very interested in John Clare or Lily’s plots, so would prefer the story not to focus on them (mentions or super brief cameos are fine). DNW Victor to bring anyone else back to life.

Maybe Frank knew one of the gang before the story started. I’ll give some examples for backstory to spark you, but what I’m most interested in is what happens after they’ve incorporated Frank into the group, not a fic that’s all about these backstories or his first meeting with Ethan. Ex. maybe Frank grew up in the same area as the Murray/Ives houses, and was a childhood friend of Vanessa’s? Or perhaps Victor went to Marchester or Cambridge with Frank? Do they reunite by chance, like, at a ball or at a scene of supernatural violence that Frank manages to survive? Or do Victor or Vanessa recruit him for help with their latest monster endeavor? Or maybe Frank works at the museum after his fellowship, and Lyle brings him in as a needed Classics or archaeology expert.

— Maybe everyone stayed in London at the end of S2 and found a new thing to fight. Catching the Ripper? Dealing when Jekyll goes full Hyde? Taking care of Ethan during a full moon? Something else? Whatever it is, how does the adventure help Frank/Ethan get together?

— Do they have to infiltrate a creepy gathering or society event? Does Frank help with post-canon or alternate S3 adventures (either keeping the ending or pretending Vanessa didn't die)? Going undercover as brothers with Ethan while pining? Do Frank or Ethan teach each other some kind of skill, the way Ethan taught Victor how to shoot? Does Vanessa give Frank the kind of pep talks she gives Victor?

— Or run with the thing where Frank cured David with the power of love to a place where Frank is literally magical; how does he realize he's part of the demi-monde and start helping (but DNW Frank to be a werewolf or vampire)?

— Some ritual or magic plot blah blah requires that Frank be relieved of his virginity... Ethan volunteers.

— Leaving London entirely? Do they go on a vampire-hunting mission, just the two of them (or with the whole gang), or heal a haunted house? A trip to Bath or some other society place? Or some kind of stranded together or captured together scenario? Some other project that requires them to combine their talents and knowledge?

— Does Ethan take Frank out on a date, and maybe Frank doesn't initially realize that's what it is, because he'd never think this hunky, seemingly 'normal' American would be like that, only to find out that Ethan has slept with at least one man without angsting about it? Does Frank angstily and unhealthily fuck Dorian before ending up in a more feelings-ful romance with Ethan? Do they bond about how everyone ends up fucking this guy?


Original Works - Portal Fantasies
• Plucky Street Urchin in Fantasy World City/Posh Edwardian Schoolboy Who Fell Through a Portal
• Fantasy World Pirate/18th-century British Naval Captain Who Sailed Through a Portal

General Portal Fantasy Notes
I love portal fantasies. I love Age of Sail and English schoolboy protagonists. So, I figured combining them would be doubly delicious! The setup of why this guy was near a portal and how/why it works are the least interesting aspects to me, so please don’t get hung up on the moment of transport or explanations for it. Feel free to skip over all that and start the story when he’s already in the other world, handwaving the logistics. What I’m here for is romance and adventures in the other place!

I’m open to a wide variety of fantasy worlds. Is it one with mages or curses or magical creatures or a black market for spells? Or is it kind of steampunky? Or Medieval-ish? Or Arabian Nights-ish? Or Baroque Venice-ish? Something other inspiration? Is the climate or geography or composition of the ocean really different? Or is it a mundane world (also good!)? Go wild! Is there a war on over there? Do the MCs undertake a magical quest, or have to perform a weird ritual, or fight monsters, or overthrow the evil vizier, or join a tournament, or rescue each other from jail or capture or sirens? Or is it more slice of life or working on quotidian challenges? Is this the Earth guy’s first time here, or is he realizing that that weird memory from his childhood wasn’t just a dream?

As I hope the incoming word vomit makes clear, I’ll take anything that has actual make-outs (or more!) and a happy/hopeful ending. The only things I wouldn’t be excited about are 1) something set largely in our world or 2) a fantasy world that is technologically much more advanced than the Earth guy’s time period (but magical advancements are fine!) or 3) an alternate/mirror universe of our world (I’m looking for a totally other place, in the way that Middle Earth, Westeros, Oz, and Narnia are other places).


Fantasy World Pirate/18th-century British Naval Captain Who Sailed Through a Portal
I’m open to the sailor from our world being something lower than a captain; is he just a midshipman or a lieutenant, young and still training, but very bright? You could also make him French instead of British, if you want. He could also be from the 19th century!

Do the two ships and crews get into an altercation? Is it a meet-ugly that slowly leads to working together and love? Or did the captain’s ship go through the portal after a big battle, heavily damaged and with only a couple of sailors left alive? Or was the captain in a rowboat escaping something, so he’s the only one to go through? Or did he not so much “sail” through the portal as “swim” through after falling off his ship in a storm? Does he get rescued/captured by the pirate? Does he realize he’s in another world immediately, or does it take a bit? What clues him in?

What does the pirate make of all this? Is he good at piracy, or kind of hapless? Is he a former legitimate captain who turned to piracy after a tragedy, or because the authorities are corrupt? Or was he forced into piracy at a young age? Does he dream of leaving this life of skullduggery and going into chartered accountancy? Or is he a cold-hearted mercenary who develops a singular weakness for the noble-hearted captain? Does the pirate corrupt the captain? Or does the captain have a naughty streak that he’s simply lacked an opportunity to flex? Or does the captain give the pirate a new and noble purpose? Or do they not change each other but fall in love anyway, with all the angst and work that entails? Does the captain stay forever, or is it a bittersweet thing where he has to go back, but... IDK. Anything!

Random Age of Sail setting details I love: canons; ropes and rigging; cabins and hammocks; white linen, big hats and brass telescopes; turning the big wheel; supplies running out; watching the stars from the bird’s nest; beset by storms; false flag operations; walking the plank; sword between the teeth; boarding parties; stranded on deserted islands; sheer terror before or during a sea battle; the only one who knows how to swim; trying to find privacy on the crowded ship; seasickness; slowly getting the non-officer men to respect you as a leader despite being half their age; people falling off the ship at night under dramatic circumstances and being presumed dead except they’re not; rampage of rescue; the grumbling cook; bawdy port taverns


Plucky Street Urchin in Fantasy World City/Posh Edwardian Schoolboy Who Fell Through a Portal
While I want the schoolboy to be from the British Isles, he doesn’t need to be specifically ‘Edwardian’; Victorian would be good, too! I’d really love it if the two characters were the same age. Please keep it to just kisses and cuddles if they’re younger than 17. However, hot and heavy for 17+ is very welcome! Also, he doesn't literally need to "fall" through the portal (blunder, trip, walk, etc. work as the action, too); I was mainly trying to insinuate that him going is an accident.

I love the odd couple potential and character contrasts here. I love the idea of the schoolboy learning to slum it (and maybe loving aspects of that). Or maybe boarding school is so awful that living on the streets is a comparative luxury. Maybe typical schoolboy skills (cricket, rugby, Classics studies, sneaking out of the dorms, ragging the masters, doing lines, running the school paper, etc.) come in handy here? Or maybe this is an opportunity to shine with skills/interests that no one appreciated at school?

Is it a thing where the schoolboy is “stuck” over there for the whole story (possibly forever)? Or is it a thing where he goes back and forth between the fantasy world and the school (like, the portal opens one night a week or something)? Does time pass funkily in going back and forth? What about the place does he love or hate? How do both boys take the mind-blowing realization that there are other worlds?

Some (non-exhaustive) schoolboy archetypes to get you started include: earnest team captain; dryly witty eccentric; opportunistic entrepreneur; stone-cold nihilist undone by repressed romanticism; hapless but endearing boy everyone looks out for; seemingly perfect prefect wracked with internalized homophobia; rich aristocrat whose life isn’t as enviable as everyone assumes; boy who's useless at games but has other talents; solidly average boy with more common sense than the so-called ‘geniuses’; boy about to graduate who is feeling lost and frightened about his future outside the school

When I think of “street urchin”, I’m thinking an orphan ~16-19 years old, who’s lived much of his life on the streets, maybe pickpocketing or doing odd--possibly sketchy--jobs. Or maybe he does/did have some kind of home, but the situation was so terrible that he ran away or spends most of his time away from it? Is he skinny and consumptive and tragic, or is he a charismatic athletic type? Or some other variation? Is he just trying to survive, or is he saving up to help his blind grandma? Or is he a surrogate big brother to younger street kids, shouldering too much responsibility?

I love street urchin characters knowing the ins and outs of the city better than anyone else, scrabbling around on the roofs, enjoying secretly romantic views that no one else can access, squatting in fancy buildings, having all sorts of dodgy but useful contacts, beloved by the chimney sweeps but constantly chased by the Watch...

Has his hard life left the street urchin a cynical, jaded misanthrope (just waiting to be softened by his love for the schoolboy)? Or does he retain a dreamer or eccentric streak? Does the schoolboy help the urchin create a better life? Or is the story more about helping the schoolboy gain self-confidence or something else heartwarming? Or maybe the happy ending is them deciding to go live in our world?


Original Works - Historical France
• French Nobleman's Ward/Artist Under Same Nobleman's Live-In Patronage

Renaissance through Restoration, it’s all good. But don’t worry if you don’t know much about the historical periods. I just love the idea of these two dependents falling in love--with actual makeouts, or more--and having a happy/hopeful ending. Please make the ward 17-20 while the artist is 25-30 (i.e. I’d like the artist to be a bit older than the ward, but without underage or age differences of 10+ years). As a side note, random exhortations in French--Mon Dieu!--always make me smile, translations neither needed nor desired.

Passion and posing, repression and temptation. Fluid streaked across bare skin that could be blood or wine or paint, who knows, much French! Grasping swords and moulding clay (literal and/or metaphorical) while nude. Coming of age, love that heals broken hearts. Perceived betrayals, the inspiration of heartbreak, tender reconciliations. Secret trysts, rescues from highwaymen, fortunes riding on card games, hiding lovers in wardrobes... The more melodramatic, the better.

Is the artist merely the latest the ward has seen come through the nobleman’s revolving door? Or did the ward only just get here, while the artist has been here for years? Or have they both been here for years, but only recently started to notice one another in a new way? Is he the only artist under patronage or are there a bunch jockeying for favor? Is it slice of life at the nobleman’s country estate? Or does the story take place at court and/or Paris?

What kind of art does this guy make? Religious paintings (does he have the kid pose as St Sebastian? does he paint religious art to expiate his sinful desires)? Or does he dream of grand history painting while making ends meet with decorative stuff or secret porny engravings? Or is he a sculptor? Does the ward help him achieve his artistic dreams? Or does he help the painter feel better about being best at “lowly” still lifes or whatever?

Where does the tension come from? Does the nobleman have big plans for the ward’s future (a position at court, a glorious military career, marriage to a duchess) but the ward wants something wildly different? Or maybe one of them has political ideas that threaten to get him/them into trouble? Is the ward actually the secret illegitimate son of someone in the royal family? Does the ward love the painter but secretly think his work is awful? If during the Revolution, does the painter rescue the ward from the Jacobins?

Maybe some horrible person is trying to coerce the ward or the artist into bed, or has offered the nobleman something if he’ll let this guy fuck one of them, and they rescue each other? Or maybe the nobleman is evil? Has he been grooming the ward for sex (or already been nonconning him)? Or maybe the patronage is actually based on dubcon sex, not art? Did the nobleman kill his own brother, and is now trying to steal his nephew’s fortune? Does the nobleman find out that the ward has been fuckingmodeling for the painter, either by recognizing his face, or worse, his body?

Or maybe everyone is lovely and the tension is just your run of the mill, period-typical homophobia (which is always delicious to me, not boring)? Was the ward super religious or repressed until meeting the artist? Was he in a priory before this? Or maybe the ward is a young libertine who’s been fucking stable-boys or whoever for years, but this quiet, serious painter is the first person for whom he’s caught real feelings. Any dynamic or characterizations will be great!

How do they resolve all this? Does the painter win the Prix de Rome or finally make it big? Does the ward come into his money? Do they expose the evil nobleman and take his money? Something else? Go wild! Like, to the point where if you want to add magical elements to historical France, I would be super into it!


Psmith
• Psmith/Mike

I want anything where they unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts--or more! DNW any hint that they will ever be with anyone else in the future; please set it before they met their wives and/or pretend they never did. I’ve requested them so many times that, at this point, I have endless prompts. But feel free to write whatever you want, even if there isn’t a prompt for it (Most of the prompts are kind of bonkers, but I promise I’d like something canon-typical just as much!)

— First Times - Acting Out Sex Scenes from a Novel as a Sex Guide: Are they roleplaying scenes from an imaginary novel, or Victorian erotica, or imagined deleted scenes from a real novel? Is it a sexy chapter from the schoolboy story Psmith quipped about in their first scene together? How/why do they end up doing this for their first time? Does one make this suggestion as a way to overcome their nerves? Or is this Psmith's kink that Mike fondly goes along with? Is one embarrassed about something, but the other doesn't mind? Is it sweetly vanilla? Or is one surprised or a little hesitant about an aspect of the roleplay?

— Like Canon, Except More Gothic: I love this genre (but retaining happy endings and a sense of humour). Weird stuff happening around the archeological ruins near the school/university? Something eerie about their apartment building? Mirrors not working how mirrors should? Learning alchemy at school? Or any gothic trope or idea that tickles your imagination! How does this creeptastic or atmospheric adventure get them together and show off how well they work together?

— Condition-Ridden Inheritance: Set after one or both of their father's has lost his money, as in canon. Which one has a distant relative die? Or is the inheritance from a non-relative? If so, why? What are the stipulations? Is it something they have to do once they have the money/stuff, or is it a quest they have to undertake in order to claim it? Make it as wacky or angsty or anything as you like! If it leads to angst, do they decide to give up the money? Or does it facilitate them living their best lives (and what does that look like?)? Or does it give them a challenge to overcome together?

— Canon Setting Spies: God, they'd be the best/worst spy team. Is it for the war? Or do they open a spy/detective business when their dads lose all their money? What is the job? Is it domestic espionage or are they abroad working for the government? Does it require a moment of pretending to be together (like, the mark is in gay club or something)? Or is it more action-based (I love badass Psmith and Mike fighting together)? Do they get caught? Are there disguises? Anything!

— Ritual Sex: Maybe it's part of a team or society club initiation, like some sort of rite of passage? Ideally (for me, not for the characters), this is their awkward first time together, before they've confessed their feelings. Or maybe the experience helps at least one of them to realize they like the other? I like it to feel angsty and fraught in the moment (no pre-arranged discussions of consent, please), and they find out only later that they were both into it and get together.

— Time Loops: I don’t care which one is in the loop (or maybe both!). I also don't care how/why it starts or stops; feel free to handwave or leave things unexplained. Does the loop focus on a quotidian time (ex. redoing a day at Sedleigh, or on the ship voyage to New York, or a normal day during the bank period, or Cambridge Boat Races day) or something super dramatic (ex. NYC gangsters, WWI battles). I enjoy a variety of loop iterations—from wacky, to “give no fucks”, to suicidal, to exploratory, to the darkest timeline, to erroneously thinking it’s over—and using these iterations to explore a character's more extreme sides. For example, what does "giving no fucks" or "suicidal" look like for this character? Do they only get together at the end? Or do they hook up in the middle but something angsty prevents the looping character from trying again for awhile? Or maybe they're in the loop together and this is the kind of intense scenario they need to get together. I love all kinds of takes, such as 'A is forced to watch their loved one die repeatedly until loop is broken', 'can only be broken by getting together with love interest', or 'looping until A can improve B's lot', or any other take you come up with!

— WWI: The boys meeting at boarding school is usually sacrosanct to me, but something about the army's strict rules, complicated hierarchies to navigate, all-male forced proximity, ragging potential, etc, creates a similar environment—only with even more opportunities for whump, action, and angst. You could also keep them having met at Sedleigh, as in canon, and go on to fight in the war. Either way! Fighting together, espionage missions, winning a key battle through impertinent ragging, unexpected application of cricket talents, writing for The Wipers Times, the REAL story behind the Angels of Mons… Meeting or reuniting during training, in the trenches, as prisoners… Do they have special skills or jobs? Mike the accidental war hero, keeping one another warm in their trench, making out in a bombed out Belgian village, the desperation of war causing them to reveal long-secret pining, Psmith going behind enemy lines to rescue Mike…

— Random Acquisition of Superpowers: I don’t care which of them gets it or how/why it happens, so feel free to skip that or leave it unexplained. It would just be fun to see how they react, in a world where having superpowers is not supposed to be a thing. What kind of angst or hurt or confusion does the power cause? How does the other help him through this weird time? Is it fun and awesome, or awkward and awful? What uses do they find for the power? Do they accidentally hurt each other (hurt/comfort and angst!)? Or do they improve their lot with it? How does this premise help them get together? Any superpower would be great, from traditional ones to something super random and seemingly useless.

— Genie Grants Three Wishes: I love stories where the wording of the wishes results in unexpected stuff, or the wisher didn’t realize his randomly voiced thought counted as a wish, or… What are the wishes, how do they go awry, how do the boys set things right in the end, and how does the experience help them get together?

— Like Canon but With Slavery: In the same way that fic writers add A/B/O or soulmates to a canon-ish setting, how about slavery? Or, instead of adding slavery to Edwardian England, you could write this as a crossover with Narnia (like, some portal spits them out in the Lone Islands), or a GoT crossover (a portal takes them to Essos). Either way, it's a great excuse for whump, hurt/comfort, and loyalty. Does Psmith secretly take Mike's chores, beatings and/or sex duties to spare him? Or vice versa? Are they forced to watch one another be abused? Forced to put on a show? What breaks them (if anything)? Does the trauma get them to finally act on their feelings? Or does Psmith arrange things so that life as slaves is actually pretty good, no rape or beatings, just lots of cricket? How do they escape? Or do they get revenge on their master(s)? Or do they organize a Socialist revolution? Some wholly other direction you want to take this? I'l love anything!! Lots of OCs are (obviously) welcome; if you're doing the crossovers, it's fine if the other canon's characters don't appear, though they can if you want. No body modification, branding, or permanent damage please.

— Non-Con and/or Whump Perpetrated by a Third Party/Force: Are they forced to have sex, or watch one another be nonconned, or submit to torture? Are the perpetrators boarding school bullies, evil masters, NYC gangsters, random magic, or is it a canon divergence in which they fought in WWI? Another angle is voluntarily submitting to horrible things for the other one’s sake. Like, one really wants to join a club, or needs money, or owes gambling debt to a bookie or something, IDK, and the only way the other can help is by letting a gross perv or trash party have their way with him. Or A learns that B traded getting nonconned or whumped for B's release from captivity or something. What I'm here for is stoicism, self-sacrifice, hurt/comfort and/or feelings revealed. Psmith's tragic bon mots, Mike's repressed despair or bubbling anger, etc. Tender looks exchanged, falling into one another's arms, aftercare, bandages, bathing, kisses, declarations... That sort of thing.

— Crossovers: With childhood best friend ships like this, I ship it SO HARD, but often feel like they need some bonkers scenario to make them finally get together, since they haven't already. Hence the crossovers! I'm looking for the experience of being fish out of water together breaking down remaining barriers or masks, forcing them to have long overdue conversations, discovering new qualities about each other, etc. I want to hear what Psmith and Mike have to say about these weird people and places. You can send them to the Narniam world, to Westeros/Essos or the world of the Witcher (I only know the TV show versions of these IPs). You could pretend Psmith canon was set in the 1890s, so that they are around the same age as Victor and Vanessa from Penny Dreadful, and have a supernatural adventure with that gang. You could tweak crossover prompts from earlier in this letter to work for Psmith/Mike instead of whomever I wrote them about. Or come up with your own idea!