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innie_darlingHi, Gorgeous!
This is my letter for Rare Pairs 2021. I hope it's helpful.
Let me say first off - thanks! I think you're nifty to write me a fic in a fandom we share! Above all, if you have a good time writing the story, that will shine through, and I guarantee that I'll enjoy it too.
General stuff:
*I'm requesting gen, het, and slash because I enjoy all of them - write what pleases you best. I'm requesting only the pairs that I'd like to see together in each case, but I am ALL ABOUT those characters having friends who support them as they make this major life move.
*I don't have a rating in mind, so anything from G to NC-17/Explicit is completely fine.
*For this challenge, I'd prefer to have the characters as they are in canon and for the canons themselves to be stable - no AUs this time around, please.
*I don't really enjoy unremittingly dark fic, and I don't want anything with a terribly unhappy ending.
*I swoon for humor. I'm impressed by world-building, and I love seeing those little details that tell me you've thought about the realities of the place you're depicting. I adore quietly sorrowful stories. I quite enjoy romance and smut. (Here is my letter for smut-centric challenges.)
*I think of myself as easy to please and have requested only characters and canons that I absolutely love, which I'm hoping makes your job a little easier.
*I'm so excited to read your fic!
Do Not Wants:
I do not want fic with any kind of consent issues (rape, non-con, dub-con, altered mental states), polyamory, infidelity (even fucking A while wishing to be with B), A/B/O, toys, bestiality or animal play, death, loss of bodily control, body modification, loss of mental soundness, BDSM, permanent power imbalances, soulmates/soul-bonding, larger destinies that erase choice and free will, pain/pain-play, humiliation, or a very unhappy ending, please. Also no (Reader)(You) insert-fic, please.
(I tend to do a lot of clickety-clicking once I have my assignment, but in case you'd rather just have a couple of straightforward links to figure me out, here is my master fic list (stories are listed in the order in which I wrote them within each fandom) and here I am on AO3 under the name innie. I don't have a tumblr or twitter or a current lj - I'm just on dw and AO3.)
Now on to the details, since I think I'm more likely to get a story that hits all of my buttons if I tell you what my buttons are for these fandoms. I would be deliriously happy with a fic for any of these requests (listed alphabetically and not in desired order)!
Fever Pitch
Paul Ashworth/Steve
Prompt: DOMESTICITY
If you're new to this fandom, let me give you a quick summary: Paul's parents divorced when he and his sister were young children, and his dad, who returns to England every so often, takes young Paul to his first football match and Paul falls madly in love with Arsenal. The team becomes the love of his life, even after he grows up and becomes an English lit teacher (and football coach); his best friend, Steve (who appears to have some sort of finance job), is his usual companion when watching Arsenal on TV or at the stadium, and Paul's mum and sister also start supporting the team at first to boost him and then on their own. Enter Sarah Hughes, the humorless history teacher new to Paul's school, who complains about him and scolds him and falls into bed with him. They carry out a seemingly joyless relationship — it's mostly how much it irritates her that he has structured his life around a football team, though she's never shown having any hobbies or interests at all — for several months and Sarah gets pregnant (failed condom). There's a lot of arguing about whether he's mature enough to be a father, whether she's planning to terminate the pregnancy, etc., and at the end, Arsenal finally wins the championship. In the celebration, Paul and Sarah reunite.
WRONG. The person Paul's clearly meant to be with is Steve — and not just because Paul is played by Colin Firth and Steve is played by Mark Strong. Partly because the premise of the movie is flawed; devotion to something is not necessarily a sign of immaturity, and also not a strictly masculine failing. (It's clear that Sarah objects to Paul's fannishness because its object is a sports team, but I wonder how different it would be if he were fannish about a band or an author or a filmmaker.) But mostly because Paul and Steve are genuinely close — they hang out regularly, have shorthand/inside jokes with each other, borrow clothing from each other, and are brothers in that peculiar sorrow of having your team disappoint you time and again.
I'm not saying you need to rewrite the movie to excise Sarah. What I'd really like is post-movie fic that works with the elements that canon itself gives us (Paul's having resigned from the school and looking for his next job and Sarah's deciding not to terminate her pregnancy) but Paul and Sarah can't/don't make it work and Paul ends up raising the kid with Steve. I'd like to see the bumps in the road as they transition from friends to lovers to family — surely it can't all be smooth [I wonder sometimes if Paul ever set his sister up with Steve], and I leave it up to you to decide who's aware of his feelings for the other one first, and which one made the first move — but would very much appreciate a happy ending.
Ground Floor (TV)
Brody Moyer/Jenny Miller
Prompt: LOVE
What I love about this show - aside from the cast - is that Brody and Jenny fall sincerely in love and that's it. Love is an actual goal in the world of the show, and we get to see how it builds and grows and is maybe threatened every once in a while without being in real danger. And the show managed to write them as individuals who kept their personalities even while they were becoming a team. The bit that really hooked me was in a very early episode (ep 3 maybe?) in which Jenny says she hoped they'd bring out the best in each other, not the worst, and for the rest of the series you can see how much they're both changed for the better by each other. I'd love to see what happens next after the proposal with which the series ended. I'd also like to see Threepeat bonding with Brody - they've already spoken openly about their love for each other - and I think the biggest problem Mansfield would have with their wedding would be deciding whose dad he's standing in for: Jenny's or Brody's. Just give me Brody and Jenny, rapturously in love even after one extraordinary year, being fantastic and fun and themselves as newlyweds and beyond.
Miranda (TV)
Miranda Hart/Gary Preston
Prompt: GUSTO
Long ago, a friend told me I'd love this show, but I didn't get around to watching it until recently. (It's made my subsequent bingeing of Lucifer especially hilarious, to consider that Mr. Tall Dark and Diabolical is also this frizzy-haired goof who dances to Billy Joel, plays any number of air-instruments, and is petrified of mice and geese.) I adore the idea of straight best friends who never got up the nerve to confess their feelings, especially in this configuration, in which the man is the more conventionally attractive and could have his choice of partners while the woman believes herself to be not the type to be pursued. What I love is that Miranda has not let qualms about her attractiveness keep her from living her life exactly as she wants to live it. While I do think there are some good ideas in the final episodes about not needing to be beholden to certain ideals, I'm not sure how much I buy that the problems Miranda and Gary were having as the series wound down were really their problems. So this is the one fandom for which I'm happy to have an AU - did they get together at uni, when they first confessed to having liked each other way back when, at the Pride and Prejudice party? Whatever they do and whenever they do it, they do it with gusto.
Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau/George Cooper
Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak/Gary of Naxen
Prompt: PATIENCE
Though this request is listed for the Tortall fandom, I only know the Song of the Lioness Quartet, and I'd be very glad if you stuck to that as well. Alanna/George is one of the earliest pairings I ever wholeheartedly loved, to the point where I was bored silly by Alanna's relationships with Jonathan and Liam. Go back to the big-schnozzed, bright-eyed, open-hearted King of Thieves, Alanna! George's particular strengths are as fascinating to me as his weakness for this girl disguised as a boy, and it means something that he's the first one she confides in and that he lives up to her trust. As for Raoul/Gary, I have a real soft spot for Raoul, that strong and silent knight, and think he and the sharply witty Gary could build something very interesting from their long-standing friendship.
Younger (TV)
Charles Brooks/Liza Miller
Prompt: FULFILLMENT
I have watched this show from minute one, and have always been on Team Charles - that voice! that intelligence! those twinkly eyes! - and while the show seems like it's on course to oblige me, I'm not such a fan of how much of the canonical relationship makes Liza passive as she waits for Charles to come around. So here too I'd be okay with an AU, if that's where you want to go: show me Charles/Liza as a partnership of equals! Or if you'd rather stick to canon, show me how they both find fulfillment in this relationship, as step-parents to each other's daughters. I am also desperately missing Diana Trout in this last season, so her comments on all of this relationship drama would be very welcome.
So that's it! Thank you again for working on something for me, and happy writing!
All the best,
kunju
ps - digital files of some of my source material has been acquired and can make its way over to you through a proxy or anon comment
This is my letter for Rare Pairs 2021. I hope it's helpful.
Let me say first off - thanks! I think you're nifty to write me a fic in a fandom we share! Above all, if you have a good time writing the story, that will shine through, and I guarantee that I'll enjoy it too.
General stuff:
*I'm requesting gen, het, and slash because I enjoy all of them - write what pleases you best. I'm requesting only the pairs that I'd like to see together in each case, but I am ALL ABOUT those characters having friends who support them as they make this major life move.
*I don't have a rating in mind, so anything from G to NC-17/Explicit is completely fine.
*For this challenge, I'd prefer to have the characters as they are in canon and for the canons themselves to be stable - no AUs this time around, please.
*I don't really enjoy unremittingly dark fic, and I don't want anything with a terribly unhappy ending.
*I swoon for humor. I'm impressed by world-building, and I love seeing those little details that tell me you've thought about the realities of the place you're depicting. I adore quietly sorrowful stories. I quite enjoy romance and smut. (Here is my letter for smut-centric challenges.)
*I think of myself as easy to please and have requested only characters and canons that I absolutely love, which I'm hoping makes your job a little easier.
*I'm so excited to read your fic!
Do Not Wants:
I do not want fic with any kind of consent issues (rape, non-con, dub-con, altered mental states), polyamory, infidelity (even fucking A while wishing to be with B), A/B/O, toys, bestiality or animal play, death, loss of bodily control, body modification, loss of mental soundness, BDSM, permanent power imbalances, soulmates/soul-bonding, larger destinies that erase choice and free will, pain/pain-play, humiliation, or a very unhappy ending, please. Also no (Reader)(You) insert-fic, please.
(I tend to do a lot of clickety-clicking once I have my assignment, but in case you'd rather just have a couple of straightforward links to figure me out, here is my master fic list (stories are listed in the order in which I wrote them within each fandom) and here I am on AO3 under the name innie. I don't have a tumblr or twitter or a current lj - I'm just on dw and AO3.)
Now on to the details, since I think I'm more likely to get a story that hits all of my buttons if I tell you what my buttons are for these fandoms. I would be deliriously happy with a fic for any of these requests (listed alphabetically and not in desired order)!
Fever Pitch
Paul Ashworth/Steve
Prompt: DOMESTICITY
If you're new to this fandom, let me give you a quick summary: Paul's parents divorced when he and his sister were young children, and his dad, who returns to England every so often, takes young Paul to his first football match and Paul falls madly in love with Arsenal. The team becomes the love of his life, even after he grows up and becomes an English lit teacher (and football coach); his best friend, Steve (who appears to have some sort of finance job), is his usual companion when watching Arsenal on TV or at the stadium, and Paul's mum and sister also start supporting the team at first to boost him and then on their own. Enter Sarah Hughes, the humorless history teacher new to Paul's school, who complains about him and scolds him and falls into bed with him. They carry out a seemingly joyless relationship — it's mostly how much it irritates her that he has structured his life around a football team, though she's never shown having any hobbies or interests at all — for several months and Sarah gets pregnant (failed condom). There's a lot of arguing about whether he's mature enough to be a father, whether she's planning to terminate the pregnancy, etc., and at the end, Arsenal finally wins the championship. In the celebration, Paul and Sarah reunite.
WRONG. The person Paul's clearly meant to be with is Steve — and not just because Paul is played by Colin Firth and Steve is played by Mark Strong. Partly because the premise of the movie is flawed; devotion to something is not necessarily a sign of immaturity, and also not a strictly masculine failing. (It's clear that Sarah objects to Paul's fannishness because its object is a sports team, but I wonder how different it would be if he were fannish about a band or an author or a filmmaker.) But mostly because Paul and Steve are genuinely close — they hang out regularly, have shorthand/inside jokes with each other, borrow clothing from each other, and are brothers in that peculiar sorrow of having your team disappoint you time and again.
I'm not saying you need to rewrite the movie to excise Sarah. What I'd really like is post-movie fic that works with the elements that canon itself gives us (Paul's having resigned from the school and looking for his next job and Sarah's deciding not to terminate her pregnancy) but Paul and Sarah can't/don't make it work and Paul ends up raising the kid with Steve. I'd like to see the bumps in the road as they transition from friends to lovers to family — surely it can't all be smooth [I wonder sometimes if Paul ever set his sister up with Steve], and I leave it up to you to decide who's aware of his feelings for the other one first, and which one made the first move — but would very much appreciate a happy ending.
Ground Floor (TV)
Brody Moyer/Jenny Miller
Prompt: LOVE
What I love about this show - aside from the cast - is that Brody and Jenny fall sincerely in love and that's it. Love is an actual goal in the world of the show, and we get to see how it builds and grows and is maybe threatened every once in a while without being in real danger. And the show managed to write them as individuals who kept their personalities even while they were becoming a team. The bit that really hooked me was in a very early episode (ep 3 maybe?) in which Jenny says she hoped they'd bring out the best in each other, not the worst, and for the rest of the series you can see how much they're both changed for the better by each other. I'd love to see what happens next after the proposal with which the series ended. I'd also like to see Threepeat bonding with Brody - they've already spoken openly about their love for each other - and I think the biggest problem Mansfield would have with their wedding would be deciding whose dad he's standing in for: Jenny's or Brody's. Just give me Brody and Jenny, rapturously in love even after one extraordinary year, being fantastic and fun and themselves as newlyweds and beyond.
Miranda (TV)
Miranda Hart/Gary Preston
Prompt: GUSTO
Long ago, a friend told me I'd love this show, but I didn't get around to watching it until recently. (It's made my subsequent bingeing of Lucifer especially hilarious, to consider that Mr. Tall Dark and Diabolical is also this frizzy-haired goof who dances to Billy Joel, plays any number of air-instruments, and is petrified of mice and geese.) I adore the idea of straight best friends who never got up the nerve to confess their feelings, especially in this configuration, in which the man is the more conventionally attractive and could have his choice of partners while the woman believes herself to be not the type to be pursued. What I love is that Miranda has not let qualms about her attractiveness keep her from living her life exactly as she wants to live it. While I do think there are some good ideas in the final episodes about not needing to be beholden to certain ideals, I'm not sure how much I buy that the problems Miranda and Gary were having as the series wound down were really their problems. So this is the one fandom for which I'm happy to have an AU - did they get together at uni, when they first confessed to having liked each other way back when, at the Pride and Prejudice party? Whatever they do and whenever they do it, they do it with gusto.
Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Alanna of Pirate's Swoop and Olau/George Cooper
Raoul of Goldenlake and Malorie's Peak/Gary of Naxen
Prompt: PATIENCE
Though this request is listed for the Tortall fandom, I only know the Song of the Lioness Quartet, and I'd be very glad if you stuck to that as well. Alanna/George is one of the earliest pairings I ever wholeheartedly loved, to the point where I was bored silly by Alanna's relationships with Jonathan and Liam. Go back to the big-schnozzed, bright-eyed, open-hearted King of Thieves, Alanna! George's particular strengths are as fascinating to me as his weakness for this girl disguised as a boy, and it means something that he's the first one she confides in and that he lives up to her trust. As for Raoul/Gary, I have a real soft spot for Raoul, that strong and silent knight, and think he and the sharply witty Gary could build something very interesting from their long-standing friendship.
Younger (TV)
Charles Brooks/Liza Miller
Prompt: FULFILLMENT
I have watched this show from minute one, and have always been on Team Charles - that voice! that intelligence! those twinkly eyes! - and while the show seems like it's on course to oblige me, I'm not such a fan of how much of the canonical relationship makes Liza passive as she waits for Charles to come around. So here too I'd be okay with an AU, if that's where you want to go: show me Charles/Liza as a partnership of equals! Or if you'd rather stick to canon, show me how they both find fulfillment in this relationship, as step-parents to each other's daughters. I am also desperately missing Diana Trout in this last season, so her comments on all of this relationship drama would be very welcome.
So that's it! Thank you again for working on something for me, and happy writing!
All the best,
kunju
ps - digital files of some of my source material has been acquired and can make its way over to you through a proxy or anon comment
