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reconditarmonia · 5 years

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Dear Chocolate Box Author

Hello, lovely writer!

I’m reconditarmonia here and on AO3 (and have been since LJ days, but my LJ is locked down and I only have a DW to see locked things). I have anon messaging off, but mods should be able to contact me if you have any questions.

General likes:

– Relationships that aren’t built on romance or attraction. They can be romantic or sexual as well, but my favorite ships are all ones where it would still be interesting or compelling if the romantic component never materialized.

– Loyalty kink, whether commander-subordinate or comrades-in-arms, and the trust associated with it. Sometimes-but-not-always relatedly, idealism. I guess the two combined might be, in general, the idea of nobility of character and what that means. Also, gestures of loyalty.

– Heists, or other stories where there’s a lot of planning and then we see how the plan goes.

– Femslash, complicated or intense relationships between women, and female-centric gen. Women doing “male” stuff (possibly while crossdressing).

– Stories whose emotional climax or resolution isn’t the sex scene, if there is one.

– Uniforms/costumes/clothing.

– Stories, history, and performance. What gets told and how, what doesn’t get told or written down, behavior in a society where everyone’s consuming media and aware of its tropes, how people create their personas and script their own lines.

– Eucatastrophe.

General DNW: rape/dubcon, torture, other creative gore; unrequested AUs, including “same setting, different rules” AUs such as soulmates/soulbonds; PWP; food sex; embarrassment; focus on pregnancy; Christmas/Christian themes.

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Fandom: Coriolanus

Ship(s): Coriolanus/Aufidius

Fightsex ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Or fighting with high UST? (I should mention that Hiddleston!Coriolanus’s bemused reaction to Aufidius’s speech and kiss is, shall we say, not my headcanon; I like how equally obsessed with each other the two of them are.) The “he is a lion that I am proud to hunt” line seems to get quoted a lot, but I’m more interested in the part of the line that immediately precedes it - “Were half to half the world by th' ears and he upon my party, I'd revolt to make only my wars with him" - and this coexists with how they see each other as being so similar.

Fandom-Specific DNWs/Exception: PWP should be all right on this one. Cultural hangups around penetration in the context of fighting for dominance are fine, but DNW shame/reluctance when getting down to whatever they decide to do, please, and also DNW dialogue descriptions of what’s occurring in the sex.

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Fandom: Discworld

Ship(s): Polly “Ozzer” Perks & Jackrum, Polly “Ozzer” Perks & Sam Vimes, Tonker Halter/Lofty Tewt/Maladict, Tonker Halter/Lofty Tewt/Polly “Ozzer” Perks

/ ships: Destroy the Polly/Mal and Tonker/Lofty hegemony! /sarcasm These just seemed like ships that would be interesting to see - I guess I imagine them as being short-term given Tonker and Lofty’s one true love, but I’d be interested in seeing why Tonker and Lofty might let someone else in, why Mal or Polly might accept, and how that’d play out. Probably post-canon? How does it come about, if Tonker and Lofty have retired (to be criminals/freedom-fighters, or did they just rob the one bank to get enough to retire on and burn down the one place as personal revenge?) while Mal and Polly are still in the army? (Again, sarcastic about the Polly/Mal, I ship it and would be up for Polly/Mal pining in the context of one of these trios if that’s what you’re into.)

& ships: Just more of Polly and her mentor/s! I love that Monstrous Regiment is about a woman who joins the army in response to an immediate crisis but comes to learn that she’s a cunning bastard and that being a sergeant is what she’s good at. More of Polly learning from Jackrum (or deciding to do things differently, having things to teach) would be great. (She hasn’t heard nearly all Jackrum’s stories - or, even in retirement, there must be some adventure they could have, or something could come up around Jackrum’s big secret, or the book of blackmail.) So would Polly finding a new mentor in Vimes, learning how things work in Ankh-Morpork (as big city - how does she react to all the cultural differences? - or as a power structure where the rules of getting stuff done might be different than in Borogravia) or across periodic meetings when he’s in Borogravia. What are they cynical about, what do they believe in?

I request Monstrous Regiment a lot, so I have previous prompts for it in my “dear authors” tag.

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: gender headcanons, identity musing, or non-canonical pronouns. “He” or “she” for Jackrum are both fine, but I would not want to read the character making a big deal about gender identity or pronouns. Also, er, PWP would probably be fine for the / ships, although I’m still interested more in the character dynamics than in what would be hot.

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Fandom: Harlots

Ship(s): Charlotte Wells & Margaret Wells, Lydia Quigley & Charlotte Wells, Nancy Birch/Margaret Wells, Nancy Birch & Margaret Wells & William North

Charlotte & Margaret: There are so many levels to their relationship! In some ways it’s the usual “your baby is an adult person now”, but especially in season 2, Charlotte’s also working/fighting for the “side” that Margaret leads, and of course who Charlotte is as an adult person is so dependent on Margaret’s great betrayal of her. It’d be great to read something dealing with how thorny and complex their relationship is, their ambition and moral ambivalence, a conflict they have over something that’s not a keeper/relationship, ways in which their personalities are similar or different. (I would prefer to have Margaret’s selling of Charlotte remain an element of their backstory, rather than being the focus of the fic. If you want to start the story post-canon with Margaret back in place, don’t feel obligated to explain how she avoided transportation - I’m fine with that noodle incident or tacit canon divergence, but I’d prefer that the fic didn’t ignore the events of season 2 in general. Explaining it, or having her indeed transported, are also fine!)

Lydia & Charlotte: The other mother-daughter pairing! I love everything about the “loyal and beloved henchman secretly plotting revenge” plot in season 2. What if the secret hadn’t been revealed when it was, and Charlotte had become more and more compromised? Or, without that canon divergence, tell me more about what they genuinely like or admire about each other, or what Charlotte learns from Lydia about managing her house or her persona. Or maybe there’s another situation where, even as open enemies, they have to work together and help/rely on each other. (If you don’t feel like explaining how Lydia gets out of Bedlam and want to start the story post-canon with her back in place, I’m fine with that, whether we assume she manipulated her way out or that canon divergence happened and she wasn’t committed.)

Nancy/Margaret or Nancy & Margaret & Will: I was really happy that Nancy and Margaret got to kiss, because I’d been shipping them. What interests me most about the ship (and which is the reason I’m prompting both Nancy/Mags and Nancy&Mags&Will together) is Nancy and Margaret as partners-as-family. Both Nancy and Will are Margaret’s unmarried partners, to some degree or other, and play a parental role with the children that are hers but not theirs - do they have words for that when so many other relationships in their lives are definable and quantifiable? Did Nancy and Margaret ever try to live together or go into business together (after leaving Quigley’s - I’m not really interested in reading about them when they’re very young) or did they decide to live close but separate from the start? What’s a day in the life like for Margaret, Will, and Nancy?

I’ve requested this fandom before, in my “dear author letters” tag.

Fandom-Specific Exception to DNW: I recognize that rape and dubcon are endemic to the canon and specifically to a subplot I like, and I don’t expect you to avoid all reference to them, but would prefer not to have them described in detail, or to dwell on specific instances.

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Fandom: Original Work

Ship(s): Crime Boss/Right Hand Man or Woman/Undercover Police Officer, Female Aristocrat/Her Right-Hand Woman, Female Berserker/Female Officer She's Absolutely Loyal To, Female Commissioned Officer/Female Non-Commissioned Officer, Female Historical or Fantasy World Assassin-Spy/Her Female Patron, Female Re-Enactor Playing Male Soldier/Female Re-Enactor Playing Woman, Queen in a Court Full of Intrigue/Loyal and Vicious Female Writer, Recently Promoted Female Officer/Her Female Comrade-Now-Subordinate

So, clearly I love loyalty kink, stuff about how people relate to one another across a difference of rank or responsibility, questions of doing potentially fucked-up things for someone else because you’re loyal to them or are replacing your ethical judgment with theirs, or alternately of stopping someone from using the skills at their disposal in order to protect them or for a more farsighted goal. What kinds of situations could these characters be put in to risk themselves (whether that’s physically, or their ethics, reputation, secrets, position, goals...) for each other, or to ask someone they love to risk themselves? Maybe they’re the best at what they do, but what is it and how do they do it? How far do they need to go to prove their loyalty, if that’s what they need to do for personal reasons or for their own ambitions or wider goals?

Female Re-Enactor Playing Male Soldier/Female Re-Enactor Playing Woman does seem to be the odd one out, even if it also has to do with women soldiers, but I’d be so curious to know how they came to the decisions about who they would play, if they fall in love first or if their characters fall in love first and how all that plays out, all the tropey stuff that you might write for a historical canon but played as re-enactment, costume stuff...

For the military ones, these can be made-up societies, AU history where integrated or all-female armies were the norm, both women disguised as men in male armies, contexts where male soldiers are the norm but our female characters are there too for reasons...I think I'd prefer a context a little removed from the modern, but there's a lot of room for flexibility there. Same for the Aristocrat/Right-Hand Woman and Queen/Writer - historical or fantasy world, as with the assassin/patron, would be ideal. The re-enactors can be modern, or also in a made-up or future world. Gender wasn’t specified in the Crime Boss ship - I’d especially love to read that as f/f/f if you can swing it, but if that doesn’t work out, I would prefer f!boss/right-hand man/f!cop or f!boss/right-hand woman/m!cop over options with m!boss or two men.

I’ve requested this sort of thing before, so there’s more in my “dear author letters” tag.

Fandom-Specific DNW: If you go with a fantasy world for this, I would prefer human characters or, I guess, elves; DNW orcs, goblins, demons, dragons, etc.

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Fandom: The Revenger’s Tragedy

Ship(s): Lussurioso/Vindice, Vindice & Hippolito, Vindice & Hippolito & Castiza

It is my firm belief that had Lussurioso’s target not happened to be Castiza, Vindice would have loved being Lussurioso’s henchman. They hit it off right away - both times! I’d love to see something that explores that (not that it has to be AU, I mean, just the idea that Vindice actually likes the guy and really enjoys/is well suited for this job). And Lussurioso’s got the measure of him, too, to some degree (“Yet [swear to be true in all] for my humour’s sake...’cause I love swearing.”) Uh, not that this means you can’t write it as incredibly fucked up, though; I mean, a big part of Vindice’s character for me is that he might have no place in an honest world. Does Vindice have any scruples that aren’t related to his own family? Sex as manipulation one way, both ways? How much murder?

Or give me some family dynamics! I’m weirdly curious about birth order, which is not specified in canon - I firmly headcanon Vindice as not the oldest and Hippolito as older than him, but would be interested in your perspective on the rest of the configuration. How alike or different are they (beyond the canon path of Hippolito getting more into Vindice’s whole “elaborate murder” shtick)? What else might happen to our battlin’ brothers that’s off-screen in canon, where they’re more, or less, in sync/on the same wavelength? If Castiza learns about what the brothers have been up to during or after canon, how might that play out?

Fandom-Specific DNW: No movie canon. The razor scars? Just in the movie. As well, please don’t have Castiza (or Antonio, if it comes up) be truly corrupted.

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Fandom: Simoun

Ship(s): Aaeru & Neviril & Paraietta & Rodoreamon & Floef & Vyuraf, Aaeru/Neviril, Mamiina/Rodoreamon, Paraietta & Neviril, Paraietta/Rodoreamon

I’m so interested in the way that the war affects the relationship dynamics of this show - how Mamiina and Rodoreamon have this troubled backstory that they need to set aside and end up loving/respecting one another, how both Paraietta and Aaeru’s relationships with Neviril are personal relationships but also about them being soldiers and her being commander. And the way their experiences change them as people, and what that could mean for their relationships with one another. One thing I love about the canon is how, in the mold of all my favorite epic yuri/shoujo animes, Everything Is Beautiful And Then Shit Gets Real, and that’s not just an out-of-universe fact of the show but something that the characters themselves, who are “supposed” to be priestesses and not an air force, have to deal with.

I don’t have a lot of ship-specific prompts, but I’m always interested in loyalty; sexual first times probably tie into the canon’s themes in a lot of ways; time loops or timespace play? I did start wondering (when prompting this for Yuletide) what might happen post-canon if Neviril and Aeru make it back to the main world when war is brewing again, but Neviril has no one from the old cohort to lead because they can’t fly anymore - so what do they do? (I think the way the show is allows for lost characters like them or Mamiina to be brought back, although I think I’d prefer it to be acknowledged in-story as due to magic or time weirdness rather than a tacit canon divergence/retcon.)

I request this allllll the time, so I have a lot of rambling in my “dear author letters” tag.

Fandom-Specific DNW/Exception: I don't need you to retcon the attempted assault(s), but please don't dwell on them. No Dominuura/Limone if that comes up, please.

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Fandom: Sleep No More

Ship(s): Bald Witch & Sexy Witch & Boy Witch, Bald Witch & Macduff, Sexy Witch & Fulton, Witch/Witch/Witch

I saw Sleep No More for the first(?) time in November, and it was really neat to explore and see all of the intertwining stories. I was especially interested in the Witches and the parts of their stories that I saw (I spent a lot of time with Bald Witch and with Fulton). One of my favorite things was the idea of this world of darkness and magic that’s underlying or intertwined with the social world, rather than in a separate space - I loved seeing the Witches at the ball and, holy shit, Bald Witch pulling off her wig after the ball in her solo ritual thing! This was the place in the loop where I first ran into her/noticed her, so I hadn’t realized it was a wig until that moment, and I was hooked. So, how do the Witches interact with the normal world, or deliberately carve out other spaces (like the apothecary shop)? What’s under the physical foundations of the castle and hotel and shops/what was there before, that they (or people like Fulton) might know about but that the world at large doesn’t know or has forgotten?

But also - who are the witches and how did they find each other? Are they still human, or are they immortal in some way? Do they have day-to-day lives or are they witching all the time?

BTW, I’d be happy to get just Bald Witch/Sexy Witch or Bald Witch & Sexy Witch if that’s what you’re more interested in, rather than all three.

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Fandom: Spinning Silver

Ship(s): Miryem Mandelstam/Irina, Miryem Mandelstam/Original Female Staryk Character, Miryem Mandelstam/Wanda

I really liked the book’s ideas of power - Miryem’s real-world power of accounting and hardheadedness becoming magic in the Staryk world, being a queen in one world while belonging to a disenfranchised minority in another. Power, rules, exchange - these play into a number of my prompts for these ships.

Miryem/Irina: Two queens with very different kinds of power, and different ideas of where their commitment lies - Miryem’s to “her people” whether that’s her family/other Jews/the Staryk who have bound themselves to her, Irina’s to “Lithvas” - and what’s consistent with their own ethics to fulfill those commitments. Widow them both and have the ultimate human world-Staryk world power marriage? A more serious rivalshippy thing where you make Miryem and Irina deal with the fact that they’re respectively a Jewish queen of a super-powerful magic country and the queen of a largely anti-Semitic country who’s not totally free from those beliefs herself? (I should mention that I am explicitly okay with the story touching on anti-Semitism or having anti-Semitism as a central issue.) What about different court traditions, when they visit each other - or, what happens when Miryem is back in the human world, knowing she’s a queen somewhere else? Can Miryem use the mirror from Irina to do an end run around the whole Persephone setup and travel back and forth whenever she wants?

Miryem/Wanda: I liked the early development of their relationship and wished we’d had more of that later in the story. How would Wanda’s gratitude to Miryem and the Mandelstams play in a land that views gratitude so differently from the human world? Might Wanda’s real-world “magic”, like the reading and writing Miryem gave her, manifest differently in the Staryk world too? Do you want to go full Tam Lin and have Wanda rescue Miryem from the Staryk world? Would Wanda ever consider converting to Judaism? What if she’s less settling into comfortable forest retirement and more becoming a magical gatekeeper of Miryem’s land in her own way?

Miryem/Original Female Staryk Character - Miryem must have more adventures in the Staryk world post-canon, not just the post-war rebuilding. Or maybe in an AU, there’s a different way that she comes into their land, or a Staryk character who comes into the human world. Who might she meet?

I also requested this for Yuletide, so I have more prompts in my “dear author letters” tag. And you can also feel free to ignore these pairings and write another fairytale about the Staryk and the Jews (possibly with Original Female Staryk/Original Female Human, Original Female Staryk/Original Female Staryk, or not).

Fandom-Specific DNW: I’m not interested in Miryem/Staryk or Irina/Mirnatius (as m/f, anyway), so please don’t get into either infidelity angst or poly negotiation. AUs where they never married them, killing both the husbands offscreen, or the assumption of an open relationship are all fine.

#dear author letters #chocolate box #original work #spinning silver #harlots #coriolanus #sleep no more #monstrous regiment #simoun #the revenger's tragedy

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