Original 5K 2022
Oct. 22nd, 2020 02:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aurillyI'm so sorry. Whenever I request Original Work, I end up with less of an exchange letter, and more of a dissection/celebration of my favorite genres. However, all of this word vomit is meant to get meyou in the mood, not serve as a checklist. Including more of my listed elements does not equal a story I'll like better! I promise. I want a story that YOU had fun writing, and that you let go wherever it takes you, even if it only has one or two of the things I mentioned. Thank you!
Here are anchor links to the different sections:
• Time Loops &/or Coffee Shops
• English Public Schools
• Ancien Régime France
• Prince & Pauper
General Notes:
Protagonists: I want generally well-meaning people in the requested ship, even if they have huge flaws, do terrible things, are awful snobs, are little shits, etc. The more devoted they are/become to one another, the happier I will be.
Sexy Times: For pairings where I chose "smut" only, even ~250 words in a 5,000 word story would be fine! And it doesn't need to be penetration (though it can!). As long at least one of the requested characters unquestionably gets the other off, I'll be good. See here for general porn likes/dislikes.
Adultery: Please don't let the two main characters ever cheat on any of their partners. However, it's fine if previous partners cheated on the main characters. And background characters can have all the affairs they want. For the Ancien Régime France requests specifically, it's also fine if the requested characters have previously slept with married men or women.
Homophobia: For present-day or fantasy world settings, you can write something completely homophobia-free, or include some homophobia, or pretend the fantasy world is as homophobic as olden times in our world. While I don't want to pretend homophobia didn't exist in historical settings (the forbiddenness adds a lovely frisson), I do want the main pairing to get away with their secret romance and have a happy/hopeful ending. I'm open to all sorts of mentalities from the main characters (each one having a different reaction could be fun): confusion; shame about his desires (that he at least partially gets over); desperate self-delusion; failed self-abnegation; devil-may-care; “love is never wrong” equanimity, etc. All that said, I also adore stories where no one’s particularly angsty and the social issues aren’t overtly discussed. They just… get away with it without the story having to explicitly talk about why they’re being secretive?
Things I Love:
Friends to Lovers: devoted odd couples; enjoying one another's company; laughing at one another; fond exasperation; reunions; I adore stories that skip over the first meeting in order to spend more time on 'friends to lovers'
Adventures: exploring new territory; dramatic rescues or escapes; 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)
External Abuse: As long as there's a hopeful ending, no permanent physical damage, and no adults molesting children, I'm a sucker for whump that requires comfort, vengeance, triumphant overcoming, or jollying-out-of. I'm fine with references to or depictions of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. However, I need someone/something outside the main pairing to cause the whump (or to force the main characters to hurt one another).
Loyalty & Self-Sacrifice: taking someone else’s blame or punishment; 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; A trying to keep sacrifice secret from B, but B finding out anyway
Not Originally Sexual Bondage: I love bondage that occurs, at least initially, for plot reasons (think: heroes bound and gagged by villains, noble writhing and struggling, heroes pretending to be unable to break out of bonds for reasons, co-captives chained up in their cells but still trying to touch one another…). Whether or not it then turns sexy in the story (it certainly can!), it's already sexy to me.
Do Not Wants
• Pre-ship (I want all my pairings to unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts--or more!)
• Death & Endings: permanent death of requested characters; the afterlife; bleak endings
• Sex-Related: BDSM; underage/overage sex; 'on-screen' sex involving people under 17; A/B/O; pregnancy or discussion thereof; requested characters written as ace, aro, demi, or trans
• Ship-Related: shovel talks; soulmates; yentas and matchmakers; poly/threesomes; my ship stops liking each other
• Writing-Related: 1st & 2nd person POV; phonetically spelled dialogue (my brain genuinely struggles to process it; however, foreign language exhortations—Mon Dieu!—always make me smile, translations neither needed nor desired)
• Other: vampires; werewolves; fate/destiny; main characters being permanently maimed
Time Loops and Coffee Shops
Pairings:
• Victorian or Edwardian English Public School Student Stuck in a Time Loop/A Classmate (M/M)
• Barista Stuck in a Time Loop/Regular Customer at the Coffee Shop (M/M)
• Man Stuck in a Time Loop/Barista at Looper’s Favorite Coffee Shop (M/M)
• Superhero with a day job at a coffee shop/Supervillain who's a regular (M/M)
Ratings: smut or no-smut; both fine!
I'll start with general genre ideas for each genre, and then after that, I'll go into ideas for the specific pairing tags. Note: the schoolboy pairing notes are in the schoolboy section below, but the time loop notes are here.
Time Loops – General Thoughts
I love journeys of self-discovery, as well as self-help adventures in which damaged people learn life lessons, overcome baggage, figure out priorities, etc. This trope is amazing for all that! No explanation for how it starts or stops needed; feel free to handwave or leave it wholly unexplained. How does the looper spend his time? If it makes sense for the chosen character and situation, I enjoy watching loopers progress through a variety of mindsets: wacky; curious; determined; suicidal; hedonistic; enjoying the little things; trying to optimize the day; the darkest timeline; erroneously thinking it’s over; the part where the looper breaks and stops giving any fucks… Is it an angsty thing where the looper keeps having to die, or having to watch a loved one die, or does it reset without drama? Does the ship only get together at the end? Or do they hook up in the middle, either continuing to do so, or stopping until the loop is over because of Reasons?
This trope gets a little creepy for me when the looper is solely focused on making someone fall in love with them, or where the non-looper is simply the looper’s oblivious reward. Is there a way for the non-looper to have agency or help the looper? Or maybe they're in the loop together and this is the kind of intense forced proximity they need to get together? Or maybe the non-looper had already been secretly pining, and the looper develops reciprocating feelings during the loop? Basically, as long as the looper has other goals/projects, and/or the non-looper has agency, I'll be ecstatic.
Coffee Shops – General Thoughts
Coffee Shop AUs have long been my secret weakness. It's the coziest genre! I love how it allows the reader to watch people slowly get to know one another in brief bursts. I especially love when the crush is at least partly based on something that intrigues one or both about the other, as opposed to solely insta-lust. However, these stories frustrate me when the main characters have nothing going on in their lives beyond their crush, and when the only impediments are the characters' extreme levels of obliviousness and/or lack of self-confidence. Hence why I love the idea of adding time loops or superheroes. This way, there's definitely something going on other than just mutual pining!
I'm all for the generic, contemporary American version of these stories, but I would also be thrilled to read something set in a different country. Or maybe it's set in an earlier time period? Go wild! I enjoy friendships between the employees, but only if it feels like the friends lead full lives of their own, and are not overly concerned with the main characters' love lives (basically, my yenta DNW). Or maybe the barista is usually working by himself, no background staff at all.
Other random coffeeshop details I love: beautiful hands; latte art; coffee naïfs; coffee snobs; someone only likes tea; watching someone while they're deep in thought or spaced out; unexpectedly running into one another outside the café; reasons to give someone free coffee; mortifying spills; an emergency results in customer(s) offering to help in the kitchen or behind the register; makeouts in the storeroom; breaking out booze after hours
Superhero/Villain:
I love coffee shop stories, superhero movies, and identity porn. So, combining them sounds amazing! How does the barista balance his super-heroing and his job? What brings the villain there so often? Is it near his house, or near his dayjob, or does he go out of his way to frequent it for some reason? Or…? Do the hero and villain (or just one?) have actual powers, or are they more Batman-style muggles? If there are powers, how do they hide their powers during their interactions? Are there any weird slips? Are they the only superhero and supervillain in town, or are there others? If it fits, I love seeing what totally logical yet completely incorrect hypotheses A comes up with to try to make sense of B's odd behavior, the hijinks that ensue when A acts on those hypotheses, how A figures out the truth, and/or B's reaction if/when he finds out about that incorrect hypothesis. Bonus points if there's a scene where someone gets tied up for plot reasons. How do they get to a happy ending? If you want to add the time loop to this prompt, go ahead!
General Customer/Barista Ideas:
How do these relative strangers end up connecting during the loop? Do either (or both) of the main characters have some sort of angsty backstory or sadness they they're working through during the loop? Is the shop in a work or residential or touristy neighborhood? Is one of them a lonely foreigner newly arrived in the city? Is the customer a PhD student struggling with his thesis? Or a relatively happy person who uses the shop as a venue for first dates that rarely go well? Or a harried son whose parent has been in the hospital down the street for the past two weeks? Something else? Is the barista also the owner? Or a freelance hustler who has lots of jobs in addition to this one? Or does he do this to pay the bills whilst trying to make it in a field he has an actual passion for? Or only doing the barista thing for a year or so to supplement income so he can pay off a debt? Or depressed and stuck in a rut and should have quit to do something that will fulfill him ages ago? Anything! Time loop stories often work well when there are routines to explore and/or break. And coffee shops have lots of routines: employee shifts and break periods; regular customers who always come in at the same time; the thing the regulars always ask for; the procedures around opening or closing the shop... Maybe it takes awhile for the barista to even realize he's in a loop, because his days are so similar.
English Public School Stories
Pairings:
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student Stuck in a Time Loop/A Classmate (M/M)
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student with a Secret Superpower/Non-Powered Classmate (M/M)
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student who discovers a portal to Faerie/A Classmate (M/M)
Ratings: smut or no-smut; both fine!
I love deeply loyal friendships, repressed yearning, coming of age angst, and humorous hijinks. All of which make the classic British public school story one of my favorite genres. I've read dozens of these books, so what I'm looking for in fic are the two things I can't get from the actual canons: 1) two students unambiguously getting together (with actual makeouts—or more!) and having a happy/hopeful ending; and 2) something supernatural added to the otherwise period-typical world. While I very much prefer the characters in the central pairing to both be 17-19, references to other liaisons they had when they were younger, or background older/younger student pairings are totally fine. Basically, no 'on-screen' sex involving people under 17.
I'll start with ideas for the specific pairing tags, and then leave you with a zillion general genre ideas.
Specific Pairing Tag Ideas
— Time Loops:
See the time loop request section above for general thoughts on this trope. But for schoolboys specifically… What are the personal issues that being in a time loop can help either one (or both!) of the main characters overcome? How do they end up connecting during the loop, or deepening an existing friendship? Time loop stories often work really well when there are routines to explore and/or break. And the school genre is all about routines and rules!
— Superpowers:
If possible, I would love this to be set in a world like ours, where having superpowers/magic is hitherto unheard of (so, not a Harry Potter or X-Men-type setting). I don’t care how/why he gets superpowers/magic, so feel free to skip that or leave it unexplained. Has he had it for awhile, or does it suddenly manifest at the start of the fic? Either way, how does he react? How does the other character find out? What kind of confusion does the power cause? If he only just got it, how does the non-magical one help him through this weird time? Is having the power fun and awesome, or awkward and awful? What uses do they find for the power? Does he accidentally hurt the other and feel terrible about it? Does the one with the power try to keep it secret while also trying to use it to help the other or something in the school? Does he temporarily go mad with power, or does he never lose his moral compass? How does this premise help them get together? Any superpower would be great, from traditional ones to something super random and seemingly useless that ends up having unexpected applications.
— Portals to Faerie:
Did one boy visit Faerie before the story started, and the fic starts with him showing his friend? Or do they discover it together? Or did they discover it separately before the story started, leading to confusions or shenanigans until they find out that they both know? How can knowledge or experiences or objects gained in Faerie help them in their lives at school? Or vice versa? Do they go often for short bursts, or does the whole story take place during one long trip to Faerie? Is Faerie a nice place inhabited by nice people creating a nice time for the boys? Is there a break from homophobia there? Or is it a creepy place with sinister forces or people? Does one boy get kidnapped or enchanted, necessitating a rescue? Are theresexpagan rituals they have to perform? Unfortunate deals made? Anything! How does the adventure help them get together? The logistics of how/why the portal works, how they originally find it, and their initial weirded out reactions are the least interesting aspects to me, so feel free to start the fic with them already in Faerie, or having already been and returned once, or having already made friends/enemies there. If you end up doing something with the trope of time passing differently between here and there, DNW the boys ending up as mismatched ages.
General Genre Ideas
— Main Character Type Ideas: practical-minded everyman; mastermind with a single weakness; earnest team captain burdened with school's cricket hopes; mischievous but charismatic leader; dryly witty eccentric; grumpy new transfer; hapless but well-meaning boy everyone looks out for; universally respected/liked prefect with a dark secret; accidental prefect buckling under the pressure; boy who’s ashamed of his poor/disgraced/other roots; wannabe stone-cold philosopher undone by innate romanticism; unhappy aristocrat; boy who's useless at games
— Background Character Type Ideas: sadistic Latin master; kindly but absent-minded House Master; secretly amused Headmaster; sister who drops epistolary bombs; evil Head Boy; bully and his cronies; hero-worshiping younger boy; indulgent cook, sassy errand boy or grumpy groundskeeper; boy who gets expelled (either due to 'filthiness', or after a terrific rag); unused character types from list above
— Location Ideas (for trysts or plot action or whatever): shared study; dormitory; school baths; secret swimming hole; infirmary; cave on school grounds; off-limits woods adjoining the school; senior day room
— Slice of Life Details: heart-to-hearts or sneaking out after lights out; teatime; cricket or other sports; funny sobriquets; fagging; corporal punishment; impossible exams; crossword puzzles; awful food; self-sacrificial gestures (false confessions, giving up your spot on the team, etc); writing lines; dealing with subtle class differences; finding unexpected applications for Classics education; getting called to the Headmaster's office
— Random Plot Ideas (to optionally include as other things going on in their lives that the time loops, superpowers, or trips to Faerie might have an impact on, or vice versa): investigating who is behind the anonymous bully brigade; starting a Scarlet Pimpernel-type do-gooder brigade; nostalgia, fear or 'give no fucks' attitudes during last week before graduation; get rich quick schemes that go awry; ferreting out the evil master’s embarrassing secret; pulling off the Greatest Rag; stealing something for the greater good; organizing illicit midnight feasts; only ones spending the holidays at school; stuck hiding somewhere all night because there’s no way to sneak back into dorms without getting caught; defending the school from invaders or supernatural threats
Ancien Régime France
Pairings:
• 17th Century French King's Musketeer/Same (M/M)
• Badass English Dandy/Well-meaning French aristocrat in a tight spot during Revolution (M/M)
• 17-18th Century French Courtier with Womanizing Reputation/Repressed Captain of King's Guard (M/M)
Ratings: smut, please!
17th -18th century France is my favorite period for pretty much everything. That said, don't worry about historical accuracy. I'm mainly looking for the general spirit, and for these two handsome gents to unambiguously get together--with actual makeouts, or more!--and have a happy ending. I love the decadence and court intrigue of the ancien régime, as well as the high stakes drama of the revolutionary period. I love passion and drama and blood and wine. I love loyalty porn and carriagesexrides. I love sword fights, lusty living, loyal bands of found family brothers, strict codes of honour that somehow don't preclude assholery, secret trysts, rescues from highwaymen, fortunes riding on card games, hiding lovers in wardrobes... The more melodramatic, the better.
I'll start with ideas for the specific pairing tags, and then go into a zillion general genre ideas.
Specific Pairing Tag Ideas
— Musketeer/Musketeer:
I'd be equally thrilled with swashbuckling adventures or with quotidian life as a Musketeer. The general genre ideas below cover all my other thoughts about this pairing. This request comes from a love of Dumas, but it doesn't have to sound like Dumas or feel like it fits in Dumas's world. Like, to the point where if you want to add magic to 17th-century France, go for it.
— Courtier/Captain:
So many possibilities here! If none of the actual kings or regents make sense with what you want to write, you can make up a king and set it in a alternate history, or even set it in a fantasy land that sounds and feels like this era of France. Or make him some other stoic soldier with great responsibility who is always at court for work, even if he isn’t technically the captain of the king’s guard. I'll roll with anything! The idea of this soldier being wracked with guilty longing is delicious. How do they work through it? Does the captain have general, period-typical internalized homophobia, or is there additional backstory angst? Is he a nobody who's distinguished himself enough to win this position, or is he the younger son of a noble house, or…? Does he have a lot of influence, or do people barely notice him? Is there ever a situation where he has to choose between his yearning and his duty? Why does he self-loathingly yearn for this specific courtier? And what's the courtier's deal? Is he the king's best friend and most trusted confidante? Or just another member of the dissolute court? Does he love/respect the king? Or does he dislike the king (ex. king is an idiot, or is dubconning courtier's sister, etc.)? Is the courtier truly a ladykiller, and this is his first same-sex relationship? Or has he been fucking guys, too, but being more discreet about it? Or maybe the womanizing reputation is just a clever ruse/cover for something? How/why do they start to notice one another? Are they forced into a mission or project or situation that results in greater proximity and getting to know one another (ex. saving the king, or doing a project for the king, or…)? Or does this take place wholly during quotidian palace or Paris life? Does the captain slowly realize that there's more to the courtier than his foppish/snobbish/whatever persona? Or maybe there's no persona; maybe the courtier is the most endearing member of the king's friend circle. Or maybe he's a likeable asshole! Or maybe the courtier delights to discover that the stoic captain has a sense of humor… Anything!
— Badass English Dandy/French Noble During Revolution:
Despite the similarities, I'm not actually looking for a Scarlet Pimpernel expy or rehash. There are so many other directions to go in! I specified that the Frenchman be "well-meaning" because I want him to be a good and kind man, not an oppressor deserving a comeuppance (though some undeserved whump would be lovely). As for the dandy, "badassery" can be expressed through a wide variety of attributes, not only Percy-style ones. Is the dandy usually a badass, or does he discover hitherto untapped reserves of awesome during the story? Is he hiding vulnerability or trauma behind a veneer of superficiality, or does he genuinely love clothes and stuff? Does he agitate about this one guy despite not generally caring about the plight of French nobles? What kind of 'tight spot' is the French guy in? Is he being blackmailed? Has he been dispossessed, and now he's broke and afraid? Did he initially support the Revolution, but then they turned on him? Was his father or elder brother horrible and now the people are taking out their vengeance on him? Is he on the run and in need of help getting out of France, or out of prison? Do they have culture clashes before/during falling in love? Do they meet now, or did they know one another before the revolution (reunions!)? Does the dandy rush to France when he hears that his old friend is in trouble? Or maybe they meet during a heist or mission in which they need to get an important message to its destination? Or the English king sent the dandy to France as a spy? Is the aristocrat the mark? Do they need to work together to rescue someone else? Do they get captured together?
General Genre Ideas
— Genre Details: duels; fighting back to back; clothing porn; honor before reason; saved by the love token he wears beside his heart; combat compliments; apologetic attacks; taking it to the streets!; OTT self-sacrificing gestures (ex. taking the bullet, taking the blame; ‘take me instead’; ‘I will only slow you down’, dying moment of awesome that he ends up not dying of); 'I thought you were dead'; ‘it's okay, it isn't my blood’; horse falls lame so we have to share; revenge!; trying to hide wound until dramatic fainting or pool of blood gives it away; tenderly wrapping wounds with ripped pieces of his shirt; coming to blows over whose native region makes the best bouillabaisse or whatever
— Main Character Types: unjustly disinherited stoic woobie; paranoid secret Huguenot; naïf newly arrived from the provinces; repressed romantic hiding under feigned apathy/misanthropy; elegant playboy whose daddy bought his commission; weakling whose cleverness compensates for fencing incompetence; noble birth dictated soldiering career but should have been a painter; self-loathing illegitimate son who possesses superior nobility of spirit; unjustly shunned deserter or son of disgraced family starting over under a new name; something tweaked from schoolboy main character list
— Locations: candlelit corridors; secret passageways; formal gardens; sophisticated salon parties; palace balls; opera boxes; carriages; romantic balconies; someone else's bedroom; shitty rented rooms; rowdy taverns; atmospheric cemeteries; walkways under the quays of the Seine; country roads; creepily quiet villages; country inns; barns/haylofts; battlefield tents; battlefields strewn with wounded and dead
— Background Character Types: inspiring or incompetent Prince/General; nosy landlady; understanding benefactress; trusty tavern wench; loyal, lazy or wily valets; easily bribed city watchmen; grizzled old fellow soldier; vicious psycho; ambitious administrator; dashing foreign duke; mysterious repeat opponent; vengeful husband of mistress past; royals with no idea of/care for the emotional havoc their actions wreak
— Dynamic Types: childhood friends unexpectedly reunited; met while hidden in the closet of their mutual mistress; turns out to be less of a dick than his friends; seconds in other people’s duel; identity porn; loyal lieutenants of enemy leaders; first love/love that heals a previously broken heart; Chaotic Good/Lawful Good
— Plots: assigned as bodyguard(s) to distasteful people; foiling an assassination attempt; partnered on espionage assignment; tasked with apprehending highwaymen (stakeouts!); A involved in a righteous conspiracy that B has been assigned to stop; kidnapped, captured or imprisoned together; losing a card game (with money, objects or actions/dares as payment)
Prince & Pauper
Pairing:
• Prince In Fantasy World City/His Not-Related Street Urchin Friend Who Looks Exactly Like Him (M/M)
Ratings: smut, please!
As long as it isn't more technologically advanced than, say, late 18th century Europe, I’m open to a wide variety of fantasy worlds. Is it a magical realm? Or is it a mundane world (also good!)? Does it feel Medieval-ish, Arabian Nights-ish, Baroque Venice-ish, Fairyland-ish? Narnia-ish? Some other inspiration? Go wild! I am much more interested in what happens after they've become friends than I am in the meet-cute. So, feel free to start the story well into their friendship! That said, if you have the time and inclination to include the meet-cute as well, go for it.
There are a zillion potential plots for this pairing, and I want to read all of them! What excites me most is the potential for identity porn, adventures, shenanigans, cross-class cultural differences, complementary skillsets, and/or friends to lovers (with actual makeouts—or more!). Which is why I want these unrelated boys to just happen to look alike; the types of drama that come with making them related would distract from what I'm most interested in. So, DNW incest.
While I'd prefer the characters in the central pairing to be 17-20, references to previous liaisons are totally fine. What do they get from each other that they don't get from anything else in their lives? Sure, there are probably lots of little jealousies or resentments between them to work through (on both sides, about different things), and maybe some good-natured teasing and/or moments of frustration/annoyance. but I want the boys (and the narrative) to have genuine respect for both of them. However, I do love moments of seeming betrayal, and all the resulting angst (ex. one is forced to act like they don't care about the other, because of Reasons).
Are there issues in the kingdom that the MCs work together to deal with? Vanquishing conspirators trying to overthrow the royal family? Or is this not even the prince's kingdom, and he's just visiting for diplomacy or tutelage? Helping the prince avoid an unwanted marriage? Competing in a tournament whose outcome will decide something personally or politically important, where each of the boys is good at half of the tasks? Rescuing each other from something? Weird (possibly sexual and/or magical) rituals they have to perform, for Reasons? Do bad people notice the resemblance and want to make use of it (while whumping one or both)?
Or is the story more slice of life or working on quotidian challenges? Is the street urchin some sort of criminal (either by his choosing or forced into it by third parties)? Are there rumors about the prince being dissolute because 'he' keeps getting caught doing questionable things? Or does the street urchin often get away with his crimes because the cops assume it's the prince slumming it for the evening, and turn a blind eye? Does one (or both!) need a skill that the other one has, or need to be in two places at once, so they pretend to be one another for an evening at a time? Are they good at pretending to be one another, or terrible? Does it ever go awry? Or a little too well?
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 him a cynical, jaded misanthrope (waiting to be softened by his love for the prince)? Or does he retain a dreamer or eccentric streak? Does the prince help the urchin create a better life? Or is the story more about the street urchin helping the prince gain self-confidence, or teaching him how to be a good future king, or something else heartwarming?
If it fits, it would be fun to see them explore and delight in the similarities and contrasts between their bodies. For example, maybe the prince is hot for how lithe and acrobatic the street urchin is as a result of his day-to-day life, while the street urchin likes the thigh muscles that horseback riding and fencing practice have given the prince. IDK. Or one has sexy scars or scruff or longer hair that needs to be cut. How well the urchin cleans up, or how hot the prince looks without lace. Maybe their faces are identical, but their hair or eye color is different, which adds tension when they have to impersonate one another? Does one of them angst about what it says about him to be so wildly attracted to his doppelganger?
Here are anchor links to the different sections:
• Time Loops &/or Coffee Shops
• English Public Schools
• Ancien Régime France
• Prince & Pauper
General Notes:
Protagonists: I want generally well-meaning people in the requested ship, even if they have huge flaws, do terrible things, are awful snobs, are little shits, etc. The more devoted they are/become to one another, the happier I will be.
Sexy Times: For pairings where I chose "smut" only, even ~250 words in a 5,000 word story would be fine! And it doesn't need to be penetration (though it can!). As long at least one of the requested characters unquestionably gets the other off, I'll be good. See here for general porn likes/dislikes.
Adultery: Please don't let the two main characters ever cheat on any of their partners. However, it's fine if previous partners cheated on the main characters. And background characters can have all the affairs they want. For the Ancien Régime France requests specifically, it's also fine if the requested characters have previously slept with married men or women.
Homophobia: For present-day or fantasy world settings, you can write something completely homophobia-free, or include some homophobia, or pretend the fantasy world is as homophobic as olden times in our world. While I don't want to pretend homophobia didn't exist in historical settings (the forbiddenness adds a lovely frisson), I do want the main pairing to get away with their secret romance and have a happy/hopeful ending. I'm open to all sorts of mentalities from the main characters (each one having a different reaction could be fun): confusion; shame about his desires (that he at least partially gets over); desperate self-delusion; failed self-abnegation; devil-may-care; “love is never wrong” equanimity, etc. All that said, I also adore stories where no one’s particularly angsty and the social issues aren’t overtly discussed. They just… get away with it without the story having to explicitly talk about why they’re being secretive?
Things I Love:
Friends to Lovers: devoted odd couples; enjoying one another's company; laughing at one another; fond exasperation; reunions; I adore stories that skip over the first meeting in order to spend more time on 'friends to lovers'
Adventures: exploring new territory; dramatic rescues or escapes; 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)
External Abuse: As long as there's a hopeful ending, no permanent physical damage, and no adults molesting children, I'm a sucker for whump that requires comfort, vengeance, triumphant overcoming, or jollying-out-of. I'm fine with references to or depictions of physical, sexual or emotional abuse. However, I need someone/something outside the main pairing to cause the whump (or to force the main characters to hurt one another).
Loyalty & Self-Sacrifice: taking someone else’s blame or punishment; 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; A trying to keep sacrifice secret from B, but B finding out anyway
Not Originally Sexual Bondage: I love bondage that occurs, at least initially, for plot reasons (think: heroes bound and gagged by villains, noble writhing and struggling, heroes pretending to be unable to break out of bonds for reasons, co-captives chained up in their cells but still trying to touch one another…). Whether or not it then turns sexy in the story (it certainly can!), it's already sexy to me.
Do Not Wants
• Pre-ship (I want all my pairings to unambiguously get together, with actual makeouts--or more!)
• Death & Endings: permanent death of requested characters; the afterlife; bleak endings
• Sex-Related: BDSM; underage/overage sex; 'on-screen' sex involving people under 17; A/B/O; pregnancy or discussion thereof; requested characters written as ace, aro, demi, or trans
• Ship-Related: shovel talks; soulmates; yentas and matchmakers; poly/threesomes; my ship stops liking each other
• Writing-Related: 1st & 2nd person POV; phonetically spelled dialogue (my brain genuinely struggles to process it; however, foreign language exhortations—Mon Dieu!—always make me smile, translations neither needed nor desired)
• Other: vampires; werewolves; fate/destiny; main characters being permanently maimed
Time Loops and Coffee Shops
Pairings:
• Victorian or Edwardian English Public School Student Stuck in a Time Loop/A Classmate (M/M)
• Barista Stuck in a Time Loop/Regular Customer at the Coffee Shop (M/M)
• Man Stuck in a Time Loop/Barista at Looper’s Favorite Coffee Shop (M/M)
• Superhero with a day job at a coffee shop/Supervillain who's a regular (M/M)
Ratings: smut or no-smut; both fine!
I'll start with general genre ideas for each genre, and then after that, I'll go into ideas for the specific pairing tags. Note: the schoolboy pairing notes are in the schoolboy section below, but the time loop notes are here.
Time Loops – General Thoughts
I love journeys of self-discovery, as well as self-help adventures in which damaged people learn life lessons, overcome baggage, figure out priorities, etc. This trope is amazing for all that! No explanation for how it starts or stops needed; feel free to handwave or leave it wholly unexplained. How does the looper spend his time? If it makes sense for the chosen character and situation, I enjoy watching loopers progress through a variety of mindsets: wacky; curious; determined; suicidal; hedonistic; enjoying the little things; trying to optimize the day; the darkest timeline; erroneously thinking it’s over; the part where the looper breaks and stops giving any fucks… Is it an angsty thing where the looper keeps having to die, or having to watch a loved one die, or does it reset without drama? Does the ship only get together at the end? Or do they hook up in the middle, either continuing to do so, or stopping until the loop is over because of Reasons?
This trope gets a little creepy for me when the looper is solely focused on making someone fall in love with them, or where the non-looper is simply the looper’s oblivious reward. Is there a way for the non-looper to have agency or help the looper? Or maybe they're in the loop together and this is the kind of intense forced proximity they need to get together? Or maybe the non-looper had already been secretly pining, and the looper develops reciprocating feelings during the loop? Basically, as long as the looper has other goals/projects, and/or the non-looper has agency, I'll be ecstatic.
Coffee Shops – General Thoughts
Coffee Shop AUs have long been my secret weakness. It's the coziest genre! I love how it allows the reader to watch people slowly get to know one another in brief bursts. I especially love when the crush is at least partly based on something that intrigues one or both about the other, as opposed to solely insta-lust. However, these stories frustrate me when the main characters have nothing going on in their lives beyond their crush, and when the only impediments are the characters' extreme levels of obliviousness and/or lack of self-confidence. Hence why I love the idea of adding time loops or superheroes. This way, there's definitely something going on other than just mutual pining!
I'm all for the generic, contemporary American version of these stories, but I would also be thrilled to read something set in a different country. Or maybe it's set in an earlier time period? Go wild! I enjoy friendships between the employees, but only if it feels like the friends lead full lives of their own, and are not overly concerned with the main characters' love lives (basically, my yenta DNW). Or maybe the barista is usually working by himself, no background staff at all.
Other random coffeeshop details I love: beautiful hands; latte art; coffee naïfs; coffee snobs; someone only likes tea; watching someone while they're deep in thought or spaced out; unexpectedly running into one another outside the café; reasons to give someone free coffee; mortifying spills; an emergency results in customer(s) offering to help in the kitchen or behind the register; makeouts in the storeroom; breaking out booze after hours
Superhero/Villain:
I love coffee shop stories, superhero movies, and identity porn. So, combining them sounds amazing! How does the barista balance his super-heroing and his job? What brings the villain there so often? Is it near his house, or near his dayjob, or does he go out of his way to frequent it for some reason? Or…? Do the hero and villain (or just one?) have actual powers, or are they more Batman-style muggles? If there are powers, how do they hide their powers during their interactions? Are there any weird slips? Are they the only superhero and supervillain in town, or are there others? If it fits, I love seeing what totally logical yet completely incorrect hypotheses A comes up with to try to make sense of B's odd behavior, the hijinks that ensue when A acts on those hypotheses, how A figures out the truth, and/or B's reaction if/when he finds out about that incorrect hypothesis. Bonus points if there's a scene where someone gets tied up for plot reasons. How do they get to a happy ending? If you want to add the time loop to this prompt, go ahead!
General Customer/Barista Ideas:
How do these relative strangers end up connecting during the loop? Do either (or both) of the main characters have some sort of angsty backstory or sadness they they're working through during the loop? Is the shop in a work or residential or touristy neighborhood? Is one of them a lonely foreigner newly arrived in the city? Is the customer a PhD student struggling with his thesis? Or a relatively happy person who uses the shop as a venue for first dates that rarely go well? Or a harried son whose parent has been in the hospital down the street for the past two weeks? Something else? Is the barista also the owner? Or a freelance hustler who has lots of jobs in addition to this one? Or does he do this to pay the bills whilst trying to make it in a field he has an actual passion for? Or only doing the barista thing for a year or so to supplement income so he can pay off a debt? Or depressed and stuck in a rut and should have quit to do something that will fulfill him ages ago? Anything! Time loop stories often work well when there are routines to explore and/or break. And coffee shops have lots of routines: employee shifts and break periods; regular customers who always come in at the same time; the thing the regulars always ask for; the procedures around opening or closing the shop... Maybe it takes awhile for the barista to even realize he's in a loop, because his days are so similar.
English Public School Stories
Pairings:
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student Stuck in a Time Loop/A Classmate (M/M)
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student with a Secret Superpower/Non-Powered Classmate (M/M)
• Victorian or Edwardian Public School Student who discovers a portal to Faerie/A Classmate (M/M)
Ratings: smut or no-smut; both fine!
I love deeply loyal friendships, repressed yearning, coming of age angst, and humorous hijinks. All of which make the classic British public school story one of my favorite genres. I've read dozens of these books, so what I'm looking for in fic are the two things I can't get from the actual canons: 1) two students unambiguously getting together (with actual makeouts—or more!) and having a happy/hopeful ending; and 2) something supernatural added to the otherwise period-typical world. While I very much prefer the characters in the central pairing to both be 17-19, references to other liaisons they had when they were younger, or background older/younger student pairings are totally fine. Basically, no 'on-screen' sex involving people under 17.
I'll start with ideas for the specific pairing tags, and then leave you with a zillion general genre ideas.
Specific Pairing Tag Ideas
— Time Loops:
See the time loop request section above for general thoughts on this trope. But for schoolboys specifically… What are the personal issues that being in a time loop can help either one (or both!) of the main characters overcome? How do they end up connecting during the loop, or deepening an existing friendship? Time loop stories often work really well when there are routines to explore and/or break. And the school genre is all about routines and rules!
— Superpowers:
If possible, I would love this to be set in a world like ours, where having superpowers/magic is hitherto unheard of (so, not a Harry Potter or X-Men-type setting). I don’t care how/why he gets superpowers/magic, so feel free to skip that or leave it unexplained. Has he had it for awhile, or does it suddenly manifest at the start of the fic? Either way, how does he react? How does the other character find out? What kind of confusion does the power cause? If he only just got it, how does the non-magical one help him through this weird time? Is having the power fun and awesome, or awkward and awful? What uses do they find for the power? Does he accidentally hurt the other and feel terrible about it? Does the one with the power try to keep it secret while also trying to use it to help the other or something in the school? Does he temporarily go mad with power, or does he never lose his moral compass? How does this premise help them get together? Any superpower would be great, from traditional ones to something super random and seemingly useless that ends up having unexpected applications.
— Portals to Faerie:
Did one boy visit Faerie before the story started, and the fic starts with him showing his friend? Or do they discover it together? Or did they discover it separately before the story started, leading to confusions or shenanigans until they find out that they both know? How can knowledge or experiences or objects gained in Faerie help them in their lives at school? Or vice versa? Do they go often for short bursts, or does the whole story take place during one long trip to Faerie? Is Faerie a nice place inhabited by nice people creating a nice time for the boys? Is there a break from homophobia there? Or is it a creepy place with sinister forces or people? Does one boy get kidnapped or enchanted, necessitating a rescue? Are there
General Genre Ideas
— Main Character Type Ideas: practical-minded everyman; mastermind with a single weakness; earnest team captain burdened with school's cricket hopes; mischievous but charismatic leader; dryly witty eccentric; grumpy new transfer; hapless but well-meaning boy everyone looks out for; universally respected/liked prefect with a dark secret; accidental prefect buckling under the pressure; boy who’s ashamed of his poor/disgraced/other roots; wannabe stone-cold philosopher undone by innate romanticism; unhappy aristocrat; boy who's useless at games
— Background Character Type Ideas: sadistic Latin master; kindly but absent-minded House Master; secretly amused Headmaster; sister who drops epistolary bombs; evil Head Boy; bully and his cronies; hero-worshiping younger boy; indulgent cook, sassy errand boy or grumpy groundskeeper; boy who gets expelled (either due to 'filthiness', or after a terrific rag); unused character types from list above
— Location Ideas (for trysts or plot action or whatever): shared study; dormitory; school baths; secret swimming hole; infirmary; cave on school grounds; off-limits woods adjoining the school; senior day room
— Slice of Life Details: heart-to-hearts or sneaking out after lights out; teatime; cricket or other sports; funny sobriquets; fagging; corporal punishment; impossible exams; crossword puzzles; awful food; self-sacrificial gestures (false confessions, giving up your spot on the team, etc); writing lines; dealing with subtle class differences; finding unexpected applications for Classics education; getting called to the Headmaster's office
— Random Plot Ideas (to optionally include as other things going on in their lives that the time loops, superpowers, or trips to Faerie might have an impact on, or vice versa): investigating who is behind the anonymous bully brigade; starting a Scarlet Pimpernel-type do-gooder brigade; nostalgia, fear or 'give no fucks' attitudes during last week before graduation; get rich quick schemes that go awry; ferreting out the evil master’s embarrassing secret; pulling off the Greatest Rag; stealing something for the greater good; organizing illicit midnight feasts; only ones spending the holidays at school; stuck hiding somewhere all night because there’s no way to sneak back into dorms without getting caught; defending the school from invaders or supernatural threats
Ancien Régime France
Pairings:
• 17th Century French King's Musketeer/Same (M/M)
• Badass English Dandy/Well-meaning French aristocrat in a tight spot during Revolution (M/M)
• 17-18th Century French Courtier with Womanizing Reputation/Repressed Captain of King's Guard (M/M)
Ratings: smut, please!
17th -18th century France is my favorite period for pretty much everything. That said, don't worry about historical accuracy. I'm mainly looking for the general spirit, and for these two handsome gents to unambiguously get together--with actual makeouts, or more!--and have a happy ending. I love the decadence and court intrigue of the ancien régime, as well as the high stakes drama of the revolutionary period. I love passion and drama and blood and wine. I love loyalty porn and carriage
I'll start with ideas for the specific pairing tags, and then go into a zillion general genre ideas.
Specific Pairing Tag Ideas
— Musketeer/Musketeer:
I'd be equally thrilled with swashbuckling adventures or with quotidian life as a Musketeer. The general genre ideas below cover all my other thoughts about this pairing. This request comes from a love of Dumas, but it doesn't have to sound like Dumas or feel like it fits in Dumas's world. Like, to the point where if you want to add magic to 17th-century France, go for it.
— Courtier/Captain:
So many possibilities here! If none of the actual kings or regents make sense with what you want to write, you can make up a king and set it in a alternate history, or even set it in a fantasy land that sounds and feels like this era of France. Or make him some other stoic soldier with great responsibility who is always at court for work, even if he isn’t technically the captain of the king’s guard. I'll roll with anything! The idea of this soldier being wracked with guilty longing is delicious. How do they work through it? Does the captain have general, period-typical internalized homophobia, or is there additional backstory angst? Is he a nobody who's distinguished himself enough to win this position, or is he the younger son of a noble house, or…? Does he have a lot of influence, or do people barely notice him? Is there ever a situation where he has to choose between his yearning and his duty? Why does he self-loathingly yearn for this specific courtier? And what's the courtier's deal? Is he the king's best friend and most trusted confidante? Or just another member of the dissolute court? Does he love/respect the king? Or does he dislike the king (ex. king is an idiot, or is dubconning courtier's sister, etc.)? Is the courtier truly a ladykiller, and this is his first same-sex relationship? Or has he been fucking guys, too, but being more discreet about it? Or maybe the womanizing reputation is just a clever ruse/cover for something? How/why do they start to notice one another? Are they forced into a mission or project or situation that results in greater proximity and getting to know one another (ex. saving the king, or doing a project for the king, or…)? Or does this take place wholly during quotidian palace or Paris life? Does the captain slowly realize that there's more to the courtier than his foppish/snobbish/whatever persona? Or maybe there's no persona; maybe the courtier is the most endearing member of the king's friend circle. Or maybe he's a likeable asshole! Or maybe the courtier delights to discover that the stoic captain has a sense of humor… Anything!
— Badass English Dandy/French Noble During Revolution:
Despite the similarities, I'm not actually looking for a Scarlet Pimpernel expy or rehash. There are so many other directions to go in! I specified that the Frenchman be "well-meaning" because I want him to be a good and kind man, not an oppressor deserving a comeuppance (though some undeserved whump would be lovely). As for the dandy, "badassery" can be expressed through a wide variety of attributes, not only Percy-style ones. Is the dandy usually a badass, or does he discover hitherto untapped reserves of awesome during the story? Is he hiding vulnerability or trauma behind a veneer of superficiality, or does he genuinely love clothes and stuff? Does he agitate about this one guy despite not generally caring about the plight of French nobles? What kind of 'tight spot' is the French guy in? Is he being blackmailed? Has he been dispossessed, and now he's broke and afraid? Did he initially support the Revolution, but then they turned on him? Was his father or elder brother horrible and now the people are taking out their vengeance on him? Is he on the run and in need of help getting out of France, or out of prison? Do they have culture clashes before/during falling in love? Do they meet now, or did they know one another before the revolution (reunions!)? Does the dandy rush to France when he hears that his old friend is in trouble? Or maybe they meet during a heist or mission in which they need to get an important message to its destination? Or the English king sent the dandy to France as a spy? Is the aristocrat the mark? Do they need to work together to rescue someone else? Do they get captured together?
General Genre Ideas
— Genre Details: duels; fighting back to back; clothing porn; honor before reason; saved by the love token he wears beside his heart; combat compliments; apologetic attacks; taking it to the streets!; OTT self-sacrificing gestures (ex. taking the bullet, taking the blame; ‘take me instead’; ‘I will only slow you down’, dying moment of awesome that he ends up not dying of); 'I thought you were dead'; ‘it's okay, it isn't my blood’; horse falls lame so we have to share; revenge!; trying to hide wound until dramatic fainting or pool of blood gives it away; tenderly wrapping wounds with ripped pieces of his shirt; coming to blows over whose native region makes the best bouillabaisse or whatever
— Main Character Types: unjustly disinherited stoic woobie; paranoid secret Huguenot; naïf newly arrived from the provinces; repressed romantic hiding under feigned apathy/misanthropy; elegant playboy whose daddy bought his commission; weakling whose cleverness compensates for fencing incompetence; noble birth dictated soldiering career but should have been a painter; self-loathing illegitimate son who possesses superior nobility of spirit; unjustly shunned deserter or son of disgraced family starting over under a new name; something tweaked from schoolboy main character list
— Locations: candlelit corridors; secret passageways; formal gardens; sophisticated salon parties; palace balls; opera boxes; carriages; romantic balconies; someone else's bedroom; shitty rented rooms; rowdy taverns; atmospheric cemeteries; walkways under the quays of the Seine; country roads; creepily quiet villages; country inns; barns/haylofts; battlefield tents; battlefields strewn with wounded and dead
— Background Character Types: inspiring or incompetent Prince/General; nosy landlady; understanding benefactress; trusty tavern wench; loyal, lazy or wily valets; easily bribed city watchmen; grizzled old fellow soldier; vicious psycho; ambitious administrator; dashing foreign duke; mysterious repeat opponent; vengeful husband of mistress past; royals with no idea of/care for the emotional havoc their actions wreak
— Dynamic Types: childhood friends unexpectedly reunited; met while hidden in the closet of their mutual mistress; turns out to be less of a dick than his friends; seconds in other people’s duel; identity porn; loyal lieutenants of enemy leaders; first love/love that heals a previously broken heart; Chaotic Good/Lawful Good
— Plots: assigned as bodyguard(s) to distasteful people; foiling an assassination attempt; partnered on espionage assignment; tasked with apprehending highwaymen (stakeouts!); A involved in a righteous conspiracy that B has been assigned to stop; kidnapped, captured or imprisoned together; losing a card game (with money, objects or actions/dares as payment)
Prince & Pauper
Pairing:
• Prince In Fantasy World City/His Not-Related Street Urchin Friend Who Looks Exactly Like Him (M/M)
Ratings: smut, please!
As long as it isn't more technologically advanced than, say, late 18th century Europe, I’m open to a wide variety of fantasy worlds. Is it a magical realm? Or is it a mundane world (also good!)? Does it feel Medieval-ish, Arabian Nights-ish, Baroque Venice-ish, Fairyland-ish? Narnia-ish? Some other inspiration? Go wild! I am much more interested in what happens after they've become friends than I am in the meet-cute. So, feel free to start the story well into their friendship! That said, if you have the time and inclination to include the meet-cute as well, go for it.
There are a zillion potential plots for this pairing, and I want to read all of them! What excites me most is the potential for identity porn, adventures, shenanigans, cross-class cultural differences, complementary skillsets, and/or friends to lovers (with actual makeouts—or more!). Which is why I want these unrelated boys to just happen to look alike; the types of drama that come with making them related would distract from what I'm most interested in. So, DNW incest.
While I'd prefer the characters in the central pairing to be 17-20, references to previous liaisons are totally fine. What do they get from each other that they don't get from anything else in their lives? Sure, there are probably lots of little jealousies or resentments between them to work through (on both sides, about different things), and maybe some good-natured teasing and/or moments of frustration/annoyance. but I want the boys (and the narrative) to have genuine respect for both of them. However, I do love moments of seeming betrayal, and all the resulting angst (ex. one is forced to act like they don't care about the other, because of Reasons).
Are there issues in the kingdom that the MCs work together to deal with? Vanquishing conspirators trying to overthrow the royal family? Or is this not even the prince's kingdom, and he's just visiting for diplomacy or tutelage? Helping the prince avoid an unwanted marriage? Competing in a tournament whose outcome will decide something personally or politically important, where each of the boys is good at half of the tasks? Rescuing each other from something? Weird (possibly sexual and/or magical) rituals they have to perform, for Reasons? Do bad people notice the resemblance and want to make use of it (while whumping one or both)?
Or is the story more slice of life or working on quotidian challenges? Is the street urchin some sort of criminal (either by his choosing or forced into it by third parties)? Are there rumors about the prince being dissolute because 'he' keeps getting caught doing questionable things? Or does the street urchin often get away with his crimes because the cops assume it's the prince slumming it for the evening, and turn a blind eye? Does one (or both!) need a skill that the other one has, or need to be in two places at once, so they pretend to be one another for an evening at a time? Are they good at pretending to be one another, or terrible? Does it ever go awry? Or a little too well?
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 him a cynical, jaded misanthrope (waiting to be softened by his love for the prince)? Or does he retain a dreamer or eccentric streak? Does the prince help the urchin create a better life? Or is the story more about the street urchin helping the prince gain self-confidence, or teaching him how to be a good future king, or something else heartwarming?
If it fits, it would be fun to see them explore and delight in the similarities and contrasts between their bodies. For example, maybe the prince is hot for how lithe and acrobatic the street urchin is as a result of his day-to-day life, while the street urchin likes the thigh muscles that horseback riding and fencing practice have given the prince. IDK. Or one has sexy scars or scruff or longer hair that needs to be cut. How well the urchin cleans up, or how hot the prince looks without lace. Maybe their faces are identical, but their hair or eye color is different, which adds tension when they have to impersonate one another? Does one of them angst about what it says about him to be so wildly attracted to his doppelganger?