Dear AU Exchange Creator (2019)
Jul. 12th, 2019 01:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
scioscribeThank you so much for writing for me! I'm so excited about all these fandom and tag combinations; feel free to mix and match requested tags if you see some that would go well together. I had more scenarios/details for some prompts, but occasionally the prompts just seemed to stand on their own--I'd really be happy to get any of them, regardless of whether or not I could expand on it.
I'm![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p2.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
scioscribe on AO3 and ![[tumblr.com profile]](https://www.tumblr.com/favicon.ico)
scioscribe on Tumblr. All requests this year are for fic.
And thank you again! I hope you have a great exchange.
Likes
enemies-to-lovers, enemies-to-friends, opposites attract, conflicting worldviews and priorities, emotional vulnerability, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, fix-its, sympathetic bad guys/terrible people with moments of goodness or vulnerability, redemption, pining, obvious feelings that don’t quite get admitted to, unconventional gestures of affection, partnerships, power dynamics, ambiguously intense relationships, found family, friendships, first-time stories, betrayal with reconciliation, character death, amnesia, characters forced to cooperate, forced proximity, bedsharing, huddling/cuddling for warmth, 5 + 1 fics, slow-burns, fake/pretend relationship, arranged marriage/marriage of convenience, power couples, age gaps, worldbuilding, magical realism, undercover work, loyalty, tenderness, identity porn, complicated relationships, codependency, morally gray characters, moral complexity, long relationships that go through a lot of changes, werewolves with pack dynamics, canon-divergence AUs
Historical- and canon-typical language, violence, attitudes, and darkness-levels all okay to include.
General Sex Likes/Kinks
BDSM, spanking (including breasts, thighs, and pussy), clothed sex, wall-sex, rough sex, dubcon/consent play/ambiguous consent, teasing, anal play/sex, oral sex, frottage, fingering, gags, dirty talk, hand and finger kink, hair-touching, nipple play, characters giving orders/instructions, roleplay, talking during sex, emotional sex, sleepy/lazy sex, humorous sex scenes, enthusiastic sex, tenderness, loss of virginity, bad/awkward sex (either charmingly funny or depressing), coming untouched, coming in pants, exhibitionism, collaring, people getting mussed, orgasm delay/denial, overstimulation, edging, begging, historical period- or location-specific sex, sex toys, praise kink, marking/bruising/biting
DNW
ageplay, mommy/daddy kink, explicit sex for characters under sixteen, modern AUs, unrequested mundane AUs, knotting, scat, bestiality, vore
Fandom-specific DNWs are listed in the individual fandom sections.
Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers/Nick Fury
Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg
Carol Danvers/Minn-Erva
Fandom-specific DNW: Carol being pregnant.
Kemmer AU
+ Gethenian-style Kree sexuality--and maybe, post-blood transfusion, that's become part of how Carol's sexuality works, too? Do any of them take drugs to prevent kemmer? Is Carol taking them without knowing it? In any of the shippy setups, who winds up gendered first?
+ Weird Estraven parallels where Yon-Rogg has a child with his brother, the person Carol thinks he probably admires most.
+ Carol/Minn-Erva, sort-of-hate-sex in a kemmerhouse on Hala.
+ Carol and Fury working a case/solving a crisis on Earth when Carol starts going through kemmer. Culture clash over gender concepts, including Carol's internal clash from her time with the Kree vs. her Earth origins--has Carol gotten out of the habit of using gendered pronouns? (If you use Le Guin-style "single-gender pronouns for everybody," I'm fine with the single-gender pronoun being he, she, or they, whatever works best.)
+ Carol knocking up Yon-Rogg. Carol knocking up Minn-Erva. Minn-Erva knocking up Carol.
Noir AU
+ Well, we already have a conspiracy, corrupt power, amnesia... I'd love a full-on noir spin on this universe. Are the Kree basically a wealthy Los Angeles family who have been trying to keep Carol under their thumb by convincing her she's their daughter? Does that make her think any relationships with Yon-Rogg or Minn-Erva would be incestuous? Or are they just all in the same social world?
+ Carol hires private eye Fury to help her look into her missing memories, but danger mounts as they get closer to finding the answers...
+ Carol saunters into town feeling sure of her family's power and reputation, but then she meets the Skrulls she was always told were criminals.
+ Or, instead of noir parallels, just noir fics. Is Minn-Erva seducing Carol to get her to kill Yon-Rogg for the insurance money? Does Fury see Carol as a femme fatale leading him into a trap? What are her real motivations? Carol/Yon-Rogg where one of them seduces the other as part of a means to an end, and the sex is steamy and manipulative? DOA-style plot where a character gets poisoned (or Infinity Stoned) and has to solve their own murder before they die?
+ Some of my favorite noirs are Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, In a Lonely Place, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Blvd., The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Third Man, Laura, Chinatown, Body Heat, and LA Confidential. I'd be totally happy to see versions of any of those, with either the CM characters in traditional noir settings or with the noir tropes and storytelling in the cosmic setting.
Carol doesn't recover her memory
+ This is such a great premise. Does she stay on Earth longer to keep trying to bring it back? It would be great and heartbreaking to see her interactions with Maria and Monica in this context. (I'm totally fine with Carol/Maria for this one.) Does Fury try to reintroduce her to Earth culture? Does she start looking into her own personal history?
+ Or does she bottle up her frustration? Take it out on the Kree? On Yon-Rogg or Minn-Erva specifically?
+ All the messy internal cultural identity stuff. Does Hala feel much more like home, and much more familiar, than Earth? Are there parts of Earth that strike her as strange or even barbaric, even though she knows she's from there? I would read a bunch of slightly angsty domestic fic of Carol trying to set up a life on Earth, even temporarily, without really knowing what she's doing.
Soulmates Decided by Goose, the Angry Flerken
+ This is an amazing tag and I am grateful to whoever nominated it. What does Goose do to indicate the choice of soulmate? How does Goose push them together? How do they react? Do they even understand what's going on? Is it different when they know Goose is a Flerken vs. when they think he's just a cat? (It's cute to have a cat playing matchmaker; having a Flerken do it might be unnerving.)
Doctor Strange
Stephen Strange/Wong
Journey to the Underworld to Resurrect Loved One
+ I'd love this for either character. I'm so up for weird underworld landscapes and magical rules and mysticism and possible prices people don't know if they should be willing to pay.
+ Is the magic reliable, something the sorcerers have used in the past? Or is one of them basically inventing it in the hopes of getting the other back, and they're flying blind with no idea of what's going to happen?
+ Are they together before the underworld journey? Or is everything full of pining and regret over missed chances or repressed inability to realize feelings until they're smacked in the face with them? Does the dead one actually want the living one to risk it? What happens afterwards? What are the consequences?
Cosmic Horror/Eldritch Abomination AU
+ "Protecting your reality, douchebag"--Strange and Wong as the last bastion of defense between humanity and cosmic menaces that could crush us without even noticing we were there. What kinds of threats do they face? What toll does it take on them? I'm here for everything from splintering sanity to reality slippage to tender hurt/comfort in the aftermath of something horrific.
+ How do the eldritch horrors/cosmic horrors manifest themselves? I'm good with both literal monsters and weirder, less tangible things like "The Colour Out of Space" or China Mieville's "Details." Uncanny, malignant colors? Cracks in the world that madness pours through? ALL OF IT.
+ "Found manuscript" is a horror trope that I'm particularly fond of for this. Is one of them keeping a journal or record of their attempts to combat the latest menace? Does it have an ominous, abrupt ending? Or are we talking about a collage of perspectives on an event with a huge impact?
Gothic Romance AU
+ They already live in an enormous and almost certainly haunted house, and their lives are full of secrets. I'm fine with just amping that up to eleven and leaning into scenery porn and the gothic angle as they fall in love and try to root out some secret in the Sanctum. Or maybe they travel to another Sanctum, one that's recently been through some mysterious event, and have to try to solve the mystery of what happened there.
+ Or, if you want to change the circumstances more, one of them already runs the Sanctum and the other is a relative newcomer who can't quite make out the other's intentions or know if they're good or evil.
+ Wong's library, but haunted and/or even more uncanny. Do they get magically stuck in books--maybe even in a Gothic romance that Wong was reading on the job? Does Strange find a mysterious text there and use it to start looking into something mysterious and/or magical with Wong?
Ritual Sex Required to Save the World
+ Required once, and it's a dramatic game-changer that they aren't quite prepared for? Are they already together, or does this act as a catalyst for their feelings in one way or another? If they haven't had sex beforehand, how do they get used to the idea? (I would also totally read "one of them is a secret virgin" in this scenario, regardless of the plausibility level.)
+ Is it required nearly constantly? Do they do an inadvertent slow burn "ritual sex partners to lovers" without really noticing because they have to fuck to avert the apocalypse about three times a week? How detailed are the ritual demands for sex--do they get into positions and actions? What's it like to comply with those when sometimes they're really in line with what they want and sometimes they're really not? Are they ever actively uncomfortable/traumatic? Are they ever surprised to be blown away by the hotness of something?
+ Are other people aware that Strange and Wong have to have sex to save the world? Do they try to keep it a secret? Is this just something all magicians have to do?
+ Ritual sex to save the world while secretly pining.
The Infinity Stones' powers are weirder and less predictable than in canon
+ Are they constantly going through time shifts, time skips, time loops, etc.? Are they living their lives backwards or in a completely different order from the rest of the world? Are they even consistently living their lives in the same order as each other? Does time ever slow down or speed up in their presence? Basically, what effect does it have on them that Strange is constantly wearing the Time Stone around his neck?
+ Are there any odd spin-off powers of the Time Stone that wouldn't seem, at first, to be directly related? Like, do they ever accidentally resurrect someone by unwinding their death? Are extinct animals roaming around the Sanctum? Do they have weird problems like time passing differently in different parts of the house, so food left on the right side of the kitchen always spoils within seconds but it keeps forever on the other side? Do their visitors get touched by this effect?
+ On a more mundane level, what about ordinary physical side effects? Is it really safe to constantly be in the presence of one of these things, when we know that using the stones can cause damage? I'm here for hurt/comfort where one or both of them is sort of constantly dying a little from some kind of radiation sickness and has to be healed. Do they take turns wearing the stone, under those circumstances? What kind of burden is it?
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Fandom-specific DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. Peter/Tony acted on/significantly-contemplated-by-Tony before Peter's in college, unless it's for the Groundhog Peggy Sue prompt. Horrible Tony/Pepper breakups--I prefer amicable exes. (If it's for Tony & Nebula prompts, I'm okay with Pepper having been Snapped, or Tony somehow being convinced that she was. Aside from that, I'd prefer her to still be alive.)
Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Gothic Romance AU
+ Rich, intimidating older man with a tangled past? Young ingenue just coming into his powers? Avengers Compound as an enormous, crumbling manor? I like it. It could be cool to see this spin on a relatively canon universe--is mysterious billionaire Tony Stark hiring struggling college student Peter Parker as agoverness beta tester/developer for his child fledgling human-level AI? Is Peter trying to look out for the AI or an even younger superhero under Tony's wing while unraveling the mystery of Tony's intentions? (Presumably this is an AU where Tony is actually good at not telling people things.)
+ Are they both thrown into an isolated, creepy location with a possible haunting afoot? They're both geeks who want a scientific answer but also live in a world where magic exists--how do they respond to signs of a Gothic supernatural? Are the events real or somehow manipulated by a third party? (Does Peter find out that Quentin is running some enormous Gothic Gaslight scam on Tony to get control of the company?)
+ Historical Gothic romance AU where Peter actually is an idealistic, penniless young tutor or companion that Tony hires and everything is full of fraught pining and the supernatural.
Groundhog Peggy Sue
+ I have such a fascination with how this would affect the age gap angst in their particular relationship. I especially like it if they've had some kind of straightforward first life where they do in fact get together at some reasonably socially acceptable point and have a few happy years together before one or both of them dies (from natural or superhero-related causes) or otherwise winds up accidentally going back in time. Because then you get all of these delicious conflicts!
+ Like grown-up Peter suddenly fifteen again and trying to convince a non-looping Tony that they're totally married in the future, seriously.
+ Or Tony looping back and all of a sudden his boyfriend/husband is a teenager again and he really, really knows he should let Peter's teenage years happen normally, but it's so hard not to say anything.
+ Or--stealing from Ken Grimwood's Replay--they're both living parts of their life over and over again, but they're not synchronized, so one of them has to spend weeks/years/months waiting for the other one's future consciousness to suddenly get dumped in their body. All the pining.
+ What happens once it becomes clear that this is a Groundhog Day Peggy Sue, and the second time around isn't the last? What weird, baroque things do they get up to? Are they able to find a way out? What changes do they make in their world during the various loops?
Socioeconomic Status Swap
+ Peter is an ultra-wealthy trust fund kid dropping money right and left; Tony Stark is a struggling scientist who has had to continue making his suits in caves with boxes of scraps (or, okay, the barely-funded academic equivalent).
+ Unconventional sugar baby dynamics where Peter keeps trying to spoil Tony rotten by funding his projects and buying him creature comforts and lab equipment and taking him to super-nice restaurants. I'm also really curious about the effect this would have on the power dynamics, because Peter would have a lot of clout--and a fair amount of fame--and a lot of power, but Tony would still obviously have much more experience and the influence of age... while maybe not being comfortable being dragged to the Alps for skiing or being suddenly swept onto a private jet.
+ The press reaction is... confused. Is Tony out as Iron Man, or is that level of publicity not something he wants as a much more ordinary person? Because if he's not, then it's "heir to Parker fortune dating much older scientist." Or maybe he is openly Iron Man, and people think they're both doing their own version of celebrity-fucking. Does the wealth make Peter fine with being revealed as Spider-Man, because he can still control a lot of what his life looks like?
Nebula & Tony Stark
Tony and Nebula spend much longer in space
+ Basically all my prompts fall under this. I just like to think of them having months or years of space adventures together and becoming a tight-knit duo.
+ Did they defeat Thanos and it's just taking forever to get Tony back to Earth? This would be the relatively upbeat version, and it would be awesome to see them having to do mechanic or heroes-for-hire work for fuel/food money. Is Nebula still more comfortable crossing lines that Tony isn't? How do they deal with those kinds of conflicts? I'm also just totally happy to read about them bumming around a planet together, trying out local cuisine and getting into trouble.
+ Or have they lost? Is half the universe dead? Are they just trying to go kill Thanos together? Are they feeling too hopeless to bother with anything besides survival, and they're just trying to scrape by out there in space?
+ Just anything with mutual protectiveness, growing camaraderie, friendship, hurt/comfort, Tony teaching Nebula Earth games, the two of them working on engineering stuff together--anything.
Marriage By Winning Ritual Combat to Gain Partner's Hand
(I'm fine with this staying platonic, obviously, but I'm also fine with it eventually getting into romance/sex.)
+ I just love the idea of Tony and Nebula's sad space adventures including something where Tony's hand in marriage inadvertently becomes the prize in some ritual combat and Nebula grimly decides she has to keep some stranger from winning him. And all the while Tony is trying to work out what the hell is happening. I just loved their dynamic in Endgame so much and just want more of it--I love her getting protective of him and him giving her a much-needed self-esteem boost.
+ Or maybe they wind up captured by Thanos--I don't care what the timeline shenanigans would be on that--and he decides to forcibly marry one of them off to someone and the other has to intervene to try to win them by victory in combat. Nebula killing Ebony Maw so Tony doesn't have to marry Squidward! Tony fighting Proxima Midnight so Nebula can marry him and get away from her fucked-up family!
Soulbond Allows Characters to Share Dreams
+ Yes, please. Something I like about this is their worlds are so different that their dreams would probably feel almost unintelligible to each other--but they'd have enough empathy and context to probably get the core aspects.
+ Awkwardly sharing sex dreams with your soulbonded buddy. Fraught shared dreams of trauma, with neither of them necessarily well-equipped to discuss their own or the other person's, but they try to deal with it as best they can. (All the tentative comfort!) Is one of them prone to especially out-there dreams, baffling the other one?
+ Do they eventually get used to the dream-sharing and discuss it more easily? It could be cool to see this just becoming part of the texture of their weird life together in space.
+ What about if they're apart? Maybe Tony has gotten back to Earth--are their shared dreams an odd way of staying in touch? A kind of comfort? Does one of them have to drop everything and go halfway across the universe because they can't reach the other one and there have been some disturbing dreams lately that would suggest the other might be in trouble?
Weaponized Tribbles
[I am usually terrible with art prompts and have trouble requesting it in significant detail, but anyone drawing any of this would be my hero.]
+ KILL THANOS WITH TRIBBLES.
+ I have no explanation for how happy this tag makes me. I just want to see Tony weaponizing tribbles and Nebula trying to deny that she finds them cute (while secretly petting one when she thinks no one's looking). This also feels like a total Rocket thing to me, so it would be cool if Nebula got the idea from him somehow, or if he's there with them working on it. I just want them flooding people's grain compartments with tribbles for the greater good.
+ Extreme Crack Edition: they themselves are weaponized tribbles. Tony is a tribble in a metal suit. Nebula is a tribble with body modifications. Together, they fight crime.
Star Trek: TOS
T'Pring/Nyota Uhura
1930s Science Fiction Writer AU
I'm not super-picky about the decade--if you want to extend this anywhere up through the fifties, I'm fine with that.
+ Nyota Uhura is a science fiction writer churning out pulp SF under a pen name to skirt around racism and sexism; she's dreaming of a better future. (Maybe she's even writing a version of Star Trek.) T'Pring is her slightly off-putting neighbor whom she secretly begins using as a model for her aliens, but then they fall in love. Alternately, T'Pring doesn't mean to keep writing her very attractive friend/acquaintance/neighbor into her stories as an adventure heroine on Mars, but it just keeps happening.
+ They're both science fiction authors trying to cobble together their own magazine and get it up off the ground. Do they already know each other? Or is Uhura acting as the magazine's editor and trying to recruit authors, and she and T'Pring fall for each other via letter or over the phone? (Communications angle!) Are they both writers, but only one of them is writing science fiction, and the other is trying to persuade them to try it? Was T'Pring brought up to only write the most elevated of prose, but she has a secret desire to write SF adventure? Is Uhura a science journalist who gets pulled into more and more speculation?
+ Uhura and T'Pring vs. John W. Campbell. Uhura and T'Pring as aspiring science fiction authors having a sci-fi book club. Them at any early science fiction convention, networking with other authors. (Or other science fiction authors made up of the Enterprise crew or Vulcan characters! Though in that case I'd rather their relationships with their fellow authors be friendly.)
Arranged Marriage AU
Mail Order Spouse AU in Canon 'Verse
Future Arranged Spouses are Forbidden to Meet but Able to Study One Another's Hobbies
I've lumped all these together because they're all relatively of a piece.
+ I just really like the idea of the Enterprise having to detour to Vulcan so Uhura can marry T'Pring--is T'Pring about to go into pon farr, causing her to request her intended bride unexpectedly? Or somehow get a mail order contract with Uhura immediately? I do always love pon farr porn, especially when combined with the awkwardness of two people who don't know each other very well yet.
+ Uhura's on a five-year mission without a lot of time to form a real relationship with anyone not on the ship's crew--but she can get permission to have a spouse travel with her as a passenger. She tries out a mail order bride and ends up with T'Pring, who wants to escape some of the claustrophobic demands of Vulcan society.
+ Why is their marriage arranged? Does T'Pring want to go into space? Is Uhura fascinated by Vulcan? Is this an attempt to bring about greater understanding between Earth and Vulcan, something that they've both been asked to do? Or does Spock maybe arrange it as a friend, networking between the two of them because he can tell there's potential for a bond there?
+ Uhura's family is visiting on Vulcan when she's young and she and T'Pring form a preliminary bond with each other, formally engaging them. They're not allowed to meet after that, but they can receive notifications of each other's hobbies--T'Pring sees that Uhura is learning languages and communications frequencies and star travel, Uhura finds out about Vulcan hobbies. I'd love to see them delicately trying to get to know each other this way, in an odd mishmash of it sometimes working and sometimes just baffling them. Are they allowed to correspond along with this? Epistolary romances are always lovely.
Iron Fist
Harold Meachum & Joy Meachum & Ward Meachum
Joy Meachum & Ward Meachum
Ward Meachum & Danny Rand
Ward Meachum & Danny Rand & Colleen Wing
Ageswap AU
+ Joy is the older sister to Ward's younger brother. Does Harold's treatment of them relate strongly to their age? If Joy were the eldest, would he reveal his continued existence to her even though it would endanger her? Or would he continue to use Ward--and start using him at an even younger and more vulnerable age? What would be the strain on the sibling relationship to have either Joy keeping secrets from Ward or a younger Ward hiding so much from his guardian older sister? If Ward's still the one in on the secret, does Harold want him promoted over Joy in the company? What kind of trouble does that caues? Or does Harold have to make do with Ward in a slightly lesser position? Does that frustrate him? If Harold's relying on Joy and she's in control of Rand, what does Ward think is going on? What does he look like without Harold's later influence? What is Joy's life like in Harold's control--does he fall into abusing her too, or does their relationship continue with a little more stability?
+ Ward is a bratty younger brother to Danny--I feel like this could change a lot. If Danny's older before the plane crash, is he in any position to notice that the Meachum home life is messed up? What's his role in Ward's life, and how do they feel about each other? What happens when Ward's protective big brother "dies" in a plane crash? What's their reaction upon being reunited? I feel like the feelings of betrayal and loyalty there would be similar but interestingly different, too. If Danny's used to being the responsible, caretaking one, does that change his whole attitude towards the Iron Fist training? How does that shape his personality?
Bodyswap
+ It would be a lot of fun--with the potential for a dash of angst--to see any variety of body-swapping among Ward-Danny-Colleen-Joy. I see Ward-Danny-Colleen three-way swap as the most obviously comedic, with it being an enormous hassle that they have to work out in some S2 timeframe: how does Colleen or Ward deal with having the Iron Fist? (Is this part of what urges Colleen in that direction?) How does Danny take to a new body? Is whoever's in Ward's body having to deal with recurring addiction cravings? I'm also always up for little bits of hurt/comfort, even in the comedy, so stuff like addiction, dealing with old wounds, coming to understand each other better, etc. is always welcome.
+ Ward and Joy swap bodies in season one and it's incredibly angsty re: Harold. Ward has to go see Harold as Joy--does he tell Harold the truth and still see Harold treating him a little differently just because he's wearing Joy's face? Does he actually try to hide it and pretend he's Joy discovering all this for the first time? Does Joy-in-Ward's-body get the Frank N. Stein text or call and wind up following it, discovering that her father is still alive? Does seeing how he treats her when he thinks she's Ward shape her opinion of him?
+ I'm frankly astonished Harold never tried to steal Ward's body and leave Ward in his while it was dying or about to be killed by the Hand. I'm all here for panicky Harold-shaped Ward trying to persuade Danny that he's really himself.
+ Ward and Danny body-swap somehow across a global distance, stranding child Ward in Danny's body in K'un-Lun and Danny back in New York. Or they body swap on their Asian road trip--because of couse they do--and have to figure out some way to deal with it. Iron Fist powers in the wrong body, Danny punching something and forgetting he's only got Ward's very human hand, Ward stumbling through inept kung fu...
Stranger Things
Dustin Henderson & Steve Harrington
Steve Harrington
Robin
I am completely behind Steve & Robin and Steve & Dustin & Robin; I also really like Steve/Nancy/Jonathan, if you want to include any shipping.
Characters Participate in Fandom
+ This is basically canon already, but come on, it would be so great to see Robin getting to tentatively explore her sexuality through slash zines. (Or Steve doing the same, for that matter.) The three of them attending cons together, or Steve taking Dustin to one and getting reluctantly into it. Cosplay. Writing fic: I want so badly to know what kind of fic and meta these three would be writing.
+ What fandoms are they in? Star Wars is an obvious possibility, but there are so many good ones. Does Robin write fic for her favorite movies, sadly unaware that one day Yuletide will come along to give her an audience for them? Does Steve write truly terrible self-insert fic at first? Do they all create a fanzine together?
+ I love fandom history, so I'm here for whatever geeky level of detail you want to provide for these kids and their eighties fandom experience.
Peggy-Sue
+ I really love the idea of one of these characters going back to an earlier point in their life and trying to intervene in what they know is going to happen, on a big or small scale. Does Steve find himself back in freshman year and try to be friends with Nancy and Jonathan and Robin? Does Robin loop back to high school and get irritated by the fact that her friend Steve isn't really himself yet?
+ Is Dustin frantically trying to foil Will getting taken to the Upside Down and trying to coordinate with Steve and the Party to rescue the still-imprisoned Eleven, much to Steve's confusion? Does Steve loop back to season one, when things are going on that he didn't know about then but does now, and Dustin has no idea why Nancy's boyfriend is suddenly showing up and demanding to help out?
+ How long have they lived before they loop back? Their perspective would change so much--season three Steve looping back to season one would have a wildly different experience than Steve at forty looping back to when he's seventeen; adult Dustin suddenly back in his kid-self's body would be like that only even more so, since he'd be going back to before puberty. And if Robin gets to grow up a lot before she loops back, she might have found her way to a better, more accepting place, only to suddenly find herself back in Hawkins and the eighties, which can't be fun. And on a purely practical level, what information might they have later that would change things?
Summer Camp AU
+ Steve and Robin as camp counselors! Dustin as camper! Is he still at math camp? Is Steve a counselor there as part of a package deal with Robin, or does it not matter if he's not a math genius as long as he's just good with kids? Or is it a non-themed summer camp or a non-academic summer camp, and Steve and/or Robin are just starting to feel out how they feel about the job and the responsibilties?
+ Do they already know each other, or is this the first time they're really meeting? I love platonic slow-burns where characters gradually warm up to each other, so it would be cool to see these characters, in any combination, start to get fond of each other while doing arts and crafts and mandatory swimming.
+ All the setting details for this one. Drown me in the details of the camp cabins and what all these people do with their time. Does Dustin make Steve a friendship bracelet that Steve is secretly charmed by? Does Robin get to pick the movies for camp movie nights? Do Steve and Robin have the opportunity for hookups with other counselors? (I love the idea of them wingmanning each other.) Basically, I adore lazy summer rhythms and artifically constructed environments, and summer camp has both.
+ Has a Gate to the Upside Down been opened in the woods outside of camp? It would be amazing to see these characters investigating these problems under very different circumstances and with way less information.
Portal(s) to Narnia AU
+ Hypothetically, one of those opened gates has to eventually lead somewhere good. My heart just needs Dustin and Steve stumbling around Narnia, dealing with Mr. Tumnus and talking animals, etc. I just picture Dustin being able to roll with it and Steve being freaked out of his mind at first--but then very protective when it looks like any danger might strike.
+ Do Steve and Dustin and Robin become Narnian royalty? Does Robin get to travel on a ship like the Dawn Treader and visit strange new lands? Does Steve get dragged along on adventures whether he wants them or not?
+ Is Narnia a children's book series in-universe? I'm fine with them stumbling across it as an entirely new world, but it would also be amazing to see it as something they're all more or less already acquainted with... and now they realize CS Lewis must have somehow been there before. Can his accounts be trusted? Do they really know what they're getting into? Do they have varying levels of familiarity with the canon?
t
+ If they run into canonical Narnian characters, I could really get behind Robin/Lucy or Robin/Susan or Robin/Aravis, or Steve having an awkward crush on Dawn Treader-era Caspian. Do they wind up falling in with an established set, with Steve babysitting the young Pevensies or with all of them aboard the Dawn Treader? Do Dustin and Reepicheep hit it off right away? Does Jill Pole become Robin's Dustin?
Twin Peaks
Dale Cooper/Audrey Horne
Audrey Horne/Laura Palmer
Audrey Horne
Laura Palmer
Fandom-specific DNW: institutionalized Audrey (I love supernatural explanations for her S3 status, though).
I also really like Laura/Cooper and Audrey/Laura/Cooper, if the story takes you in either of those directions.
Golden Age Detective AU
+ I adore the idea of Cooper's investigation reframed as a Golden Age detective story, with traditional ratiocination coming face-to-face with Lynchian weirdness. Does Cooper somehow formulate his own distinctive style of detection even in this mold? Or is he interviewing people and dissecting alibis and looking for contradictions while being told the owls are not what they seem? And what's to make of the young lady in the case? He's falling in love with her, but is she possibly a murder suspect? Does Audrey still basically attach herself to him as his assistant?
+ Bending canon further, it would be heartbreaking and amazing to see Audrey/Laura or Laura's death in general played out under these circumstances--something emotional and troubled and not at all fitting within Golden Age Detective norms but sort of forcibly interpreted--or misinterpreted--through them anyway. Do we see the truth and then how the clever detective would explain it?
+ Is the whole AU some kind of odd Black Lodge nightmare effect where Laura is replaying her murder and its solution from different angles, casting and recasting it over again? Are Audrey and/or Cooper just in her fantasy? Are they aware of it?
Golden Age of Hollywood
+ I can just see Laura Palmer as a tragic Golden Age actress with a lot of drug/alcohol/sex scandals the studio has hushed up. Is she still dealing with BOB and his possession of her father, just while also trying to manage an acting career and the fragile life of being a kind of public daydream? Is she still murdered, possibly bringing all of this to light? (Is Cooper still a detective? Or maybe a journalist chasing a story about her death?) Is she having a secret affair with Audrey, another actress? 1940s Mulholland Dr.?
+ Golden Age Hollywood also has the kind of Twin Peaks feel of a perfect surface with a lot more darkness underneath--even as it still has a genunie appeal. But the contrast between that surface and the seedy, more sexualized underbelly of things is especially intriguing to me for Audrey, Laura, and Audrey/Laura. The damage the worst parts of that world could do would be really interesting to explore.
+ Audrey and Cooper always have a sort of out-of-time feeling, so I can easily see them existing in the world of Golden Age Hollywood. Are they both acting? Is he an established actor while she's trying to break into the world? Are they both drawn to each other becasue they have a kind of innocence amidst all the experience, and that's something the rest of their world lacks, no matter how polished and pretty it is on the surface?
+ I love movies, so feel free to dive into the studio system and particular films, if you like, and just generally luxuriate in the worldbuilding of Golden Age Hollywood and how the characters might have worked on particular films or with particular people. Outsider POVs could be great here--what do the movie magazines make of them? The studio publicists? The directors and producers?
I'm
And thank you again! I hope you have a great exchange.
Likes
enemies-to-lovers, enemies-to-friends, opposites attract, conflicting worldviews and priorities, emotional vulnerability, hurt/comfort, emotional hurt/comfort, fix-its, sympathetic bad guys/terrible people with moments of goodness or vulnerability, redemption, pining, obvious feelings that don’t quite get admitted to, unconventional gestures of affection, partnerships, power dynamics, ambiguously intense relationships, found family, friendships, first-time stories, betrayal with reconciliation, character death, amnesia, characters forced to cooperate, forced proximity, bedsharing, huddling/cuddling for warmth, 5 + 1 fics, slow-burns, fake/pretend relationship, arranged marriage/marriage of convenience, power couples, age gaps, worldbuilding, magical realism, undercover work, loyalty, tenderness, identity porn, complicated relationships, codependency, morally gray characters, moral complexity, long relationships that go through a lot of changes, werewolves with pack dynamics, canon-divergence AUs
Historical- and canon-typical language, violence, attitudes, and darkness-levels all okay to include.
General Sex Likes/Kinks
BDSM, spanking (including breasts, thighs, and pussy), clothed sex, wall-sex, rough sex, dubcon/consent play/ambiguous consent, teasing, anal play/sex, oral sex, frottage, fingering, gags, dirty talk, hand and finger kink, hair-touching, nipple play, characters giving orders/instructions, roleplay, talking during sex, emotional sex, sleepy/lazy sex, humorous sex scenes, enthusiastic sex, tenderness, loss of virginity, bad/awkward sex (either charmingly funny or depressing), coming untouched, coming in pants, exhibitionism, collaring, people getting mussed, orgasm delay/denial, overstimulation, edging, begging, historical period- or location-specific sex, sex toys, praise kink, marking/bruising/biting
DNW
ageplay, mommy/daddy kink, explicit sex for characters under sixteen, modern AUs, unrequested mundane AUs, knotting, scat, bestiality, vore
Fandom-specific DNWs are listed in the individual fandom sections.
Captain Marvel
Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers/Nick Fury
Carol Danvers/Yon-Rogg
Carol Danvers/Minn-Erva
Fandom-specific DNW: Carol being pregnant.
Kemmer AU
+ Gethenian-style Kree sexuality--and maybe, post-blood transfusion, that's become part of how Carol's sexuality works, too? Do any of them take drugs to prevent kemmer? Is Carol taking them without knowing it? In any of the shippy setups, who winds up gendered first?
+ Weird Estraven parallels where Yon-Rogg has a child with his brother, the person Carol thinks he probably admires most.
+ Carol/Minn-Erva, sort-of-hate-sex in a kemmerhouse on Hala.
+ Carol and Fury working a case/solving a crisis on Earth when Carol starts going through kemmer. Culture clash over gender concepts, including Carol's internal clash from her time with the Kree vs. her Earth origins--has Carol gotten out of the habit of using gendered pronouns? (If you use Le Guin-style "single-gender pronouns for everybody," I'm fine with the single-gender pronoun being he, she, or they, whatever works best.)
+ Carol knocking up Yon-Rogg. Carol knocking up Minn-Erva. Minn-Erva knocking up Carol.
Noir AU
+ Well, we already have a conspiracy, corrupt power, amnesia... I'd love a full-on noir spin on this universe. Are the Kree basically a wealthy Los Angeles family who have been trying to keep Carol under their thumb by convincing her she's their daughter? Does that make her think any relationships with Yon-Rogg or Minn-Erva would be incestuous? Or are they just all in the same social world?
+ Carol hires private eye Fury to help her look into her missing memories, but danger mounts as they get closer to finding the answers...
+ Carol saunters into town feeling sure of her family's power and reputation, but then she meets the Skrulls she was always told were criminals.
+ Or, instead of noir parallels, just noir fics. Is Minn-Erva seducing Carol to get her to kill Yon-Rogg for the insurance money? Does Fury see Carol as a femme fatale leading him into a trap? What are her real motivations? Carol/Yon-Rogg where one of them seduces the other as part of a means to an end, and the sex is steamy and manipulative? DOA-style plot where a character gets poisoned (or Infinity Stoned) and has to solve their own murder before they die?
+ Some of my favorite noirs are Double Indemnity, The Postman Always Rings Twice, In a Lonely Place, Ace in the Hole, Sunset Blvd., The Maltese Falcon, Out of the Past, The Third Man, Laura, Chinatown, Body Heat, and LA Confidential. I'd be totally happy to see versions of any of those, with either the CM characters in traditional noir settings or with the noir tropes and storytelling in the cosmic setting.
Carol doesn't recover her memory
+ This is such a great premise. Does she stay on Earth longer to keep trying to bring it back? It would be great and heartbreaking to see her interactions with Maria and Monica in this context. (I'm totally fine with Carol/Maria for this one.) Does Fury try to reintroduce her to Earth culture? Does she start looking into her own personal history?
+ Or does she bottle up her frustration? Take it out on the Kree? On Yon-Rogg or Minn-Erva specifically?
+ All the messy internal cultural identity stuff. Does Hala feel much more like home, and much more familiar, than Earth? Are there parts of Earth that strike her as strange or even barbaric, even though she knows she's from there? I would read a bunch of slightly angsty domestic fic of Carol trying to set up a life on Earth, even temporarily, without really knowing what she's doing.
Soulmates Decided by Goose, the Angry Flerken
+ This is an amazing tag and I am grateful to whoever nominated it. What does Goose do to indicate the choice of soulmate? How does Goose push them together? How do they react? Do they even understand what's going on? Is it different when they know Goose is a Flerken vs. when they think he's just a cat? (It's cute to have a cat playing matchmaker; having a Flerken do it might be unnerving.)
Doctor Strange
Stephen Strange/Wong
Journey to the Underworld to Resurrect Loved One
+ I'd love this for either character. I'm so up for weird underworld landscapes and magical rules and mysticism and possible prices people don't know if they should be willing to pay.
+ Is the magic reliable, something the sorcerers have used in the past? Or is one of them basically inventing it in the hopes of getting the other back, and they're flying blind with no idea of what's going to happen?
+ Are they together before the underworld journey? Or is everything full of pining and regret over missed chances or repressed inability to realize feelings until they're smacked in the face with them? Does the dead one actually want the living one to risk it? What happens afterwards? What are the consequences?
Cosmic Horror/Eldritch Abomination AU
+ "Protecting your reality, douchebag"--Strange and Wong as the last bastion of defense between humanity and cosmic menaces that could crush us without even noticing we were there. What kinds of threats do they face? What toll does it take on them? I'm here for everything from splintering sanity to reality slippage to tender hurt/comfort in the aftermath of something horrific.
+ How do the eldritch horrors/cosmic horrors manifest themselves? I'm good with both literal monsters and weirder, less tangible things like "The Colour Out of Space" or China Mieville's "Details." Uncanny, malignant colors? Cracks in the world that madness pours through? ALL OF IT.
+ "Found manuscript" is a horror trope that I'm particularly fond of for this. Is one of them keeping a journal or record of their attempts to combat the latest menace? Does it have an ominous, abrupt ending? Or are we talking about a collage of perspectives on an event with a huge impact?
Gothic Romance AU
+ They already live in an enormous and almost certainly haunted house, and their lives are full of secrets. I'm fine with just amping that up to eleven and leaning into scenery porn and the gothic angle as they fall in love and try to root out some secret in the Sanctum. Or maybe they travel to another Sanctum, one that's recently been through some mysterious event, and have to try to solve the mystery of what happened there.
+ Or, if you want to change the circumstances more, one of them already runs the Sanctum and the other is a relative newcomer who can't quite make out the other's intentions or know if they're good or evil.
+ Wong's library, but haunted and/or even more uncanny. Do they get magically stuck in books--maybe even in a Gothic romance that Wong was reading on the job? Does Strange find a mysterious text there and use it to start looking into something mysterious and/or magical with Wong?
Ritual Sex Required to Save the World
+ Required once, and it's a dramatic game-changer that they aren't quite prepared for? Are they already together, or does this act as a catalyst for their feelings in one way or another? If they haven't had sex beforehand, how do they get used to the idea? (I would also totally read "one of them is a secret virgin" in this scenario, regardless of the plausibility level.)
+ Is it required nearly constantly? Do they do an inadvertent slow burn "ritual sex partners to lovers" without really noticing because they have to fuck to avert the apocalypse about three times a week? How detailed are the ritual demands for sex--do they get into positions and actions? What's it like to comply with those when sometimes they're really in line with what they want and sometimes they're really not? Are they ever actively uncomfortable/traumatic? Are they ever surprised to be blown away by the hotness of something?
+ Are other people aware that Strange and Wong have to have sex to save the world? Do they try to keep it a secret? Is this just something all magicians have to do?
+ Ritual sex to save the world while secretly pining.
The Infinity Stones' powers are weirder and less predictable than in canon
+ Are they constantly going through time shifts, time skips, time loops, etc.? Are they living their lives backwards or in a completely different order from the rest of the world? Are they even consistently living their lives in the same order as each other? Does time ever slow down or speed up in their presence? Basically, what effect does it have on them that Strange is constantly wearing the Time Stone around his neck?
+ Are there any odd spin-off powers of the Time Stone that wouldn't seem, at first, to be directly related? Like, do they ever accidentally resurrect someone by unwinding their death? Are extinct animals roaming around the Sanctum? Do they have weird problems like time passing differently in different parts of the house, so food left on the right side of the kitchen always spoils within seconds but it keeps forever on the other side? Do their visitors get touched by this effect?
+ On a more mundane level, what about ordinary physical side effects? Is it really safe to constantly be in the presence of one of these things, when we know that using the stones can cause damage? I'm here for hurt/comfort where one or both of them is sort of constantly dying a little from some kind of radiation sickness and has to be healed. Do they take turns wearing the stone, under those circumstances? What kind of burden is it?
Marvel Cinematic Universe
Fandom-specific DNW: Permanent character death of requested characters. Peter/Tony acted on/significantly-contemplated-by-Tony before Peter's in college, unless it's for the Groundhog Peggy Sue prompt. Horrible Tony/Pepper breakups--I prefer amicable exes. (If it's for Tony & Nebula prompts, I'm okay with Pepper having been Snapped, or Tony somehow being convinced that she was. Aside from that, I'd prefer her to still be alive.)
Peter Parker/Tony Stark
Gothic Romance AU
+ Rich, intimidating older man with a tangled past? Young ingenue just coming into his powers? Avengers Compound as an enormous, crumbling manor? I like it. It could be cool to see this spin on a relatively canon universe--is mysterious billionaire Tony Stark hiring struggling college student Peter Parker as a
+ Are they both thrown into an isolated, creepy location with a possible haunting afoot? They're both geeks who want a scientific answer but also live in a world where magic exists--how do they respond to signs of a Gothic supernatural? Are the events real or somehow manipulated by a third party? (Does Peter find out that Quentin is running some enormous Gothic Gaslight scam on Tony to get control of the company?)
+ Historical Gothic romance AU where Peter actually is an idealistic, penniless young tutor or companion that Tony hires and everything is full of fraught pining and the supernatural.
Groundhog Peggy Sue
+ I have such a fascination with how this would affect the age gap angst in their particular relationship. I especially like it if they've had some kind of straightforward first life where they do in fact get together at some reasonably socially acceptable point and have a few happy years together before one or both of them dies (from natural or superhero-related causes) or otherwise winds up accidentally going back in time. Because then you get all of these delicious conflicts!
+ Like grown-up Peter suddenly fifteen again and trying to convince a non-looping Tony that they're totally married in the future, seriously.
+ Or Tony looping back and all of a sudden his boyfriend/husband is a teenager again and he really, really knows he should let Peter's teenage years happen normally, but it's so hard not to say anything.
+ Or--stealing from Ken Grimwood's Replay--they're both living parts of their life over and over again, but they're not synchronized, so one of them has to spend weeks/years/months waiting for the other one's future consciousness to suddenly get dumped in their body. All the pining.
+ What happens once it becomes clear that this is a Groundhog Day Peggy Sue, and the second time around isn't the last? What weird, baroque things do they get up to? Are they able to find a way out? What changes do they make in their world during the various loops?
Socioeconomic Status Swap
+ Peter is an ultra-wealthy trust fund kid dropping money right and left; Tony Stark is a struggling scientist who has had to continue making his suits in caves with boxes of scraps (or, okay, the barely-funded academic equivalent).
+ Unconventional sugar baby dynamics where Peter keeps trying to spoil Tony rotten by funding his projects and buying him creature comforts and lab equipment and taking him to super-nice restaurants. I'm also really curious about the effect this would have on the power dynamics, because Peter would have a lot of clout--and a fair amount of fame--and a lot of power, but Tony would still obviously have much more experience and the influence of age... while maybe not being comfortable being dragged to the Alps for skiing or being suddenly swept onto a private jet.
+ The press reaction is... confused. Is Tony out as Iron Man, or is that level of publicity not something he wants as a much more ordinary person? Because if he's not, then it's "heir to Parker fortune dating much older scientist." Or maybe he is openly Iron Man, and people think they're both doing their own version of celebrity-fucking. Does the wealth make Peter fine with being revealed as Spider-Man, because he can still control a lot of what his life looks like?
Nebula & Tony Stark
Tony and Nebula spend much longer in space
+ Basically all my prompts fall under this. I just like to think of them having months or years of space adventures together and becoming a tight-knit duo.
+ Did they defeat Thanos and it's just taking forever to get Tony back to Earth? This would be the relatively upbeat version, and it would be awesome to see them having to do mechanic or heroes-for-hire work for fuel/food money. Is Nebula still more comfortable crossing lines that Tony isn't? How do they deal with those kinds of conflicts? I'm also just totally happy to read about them bumming around a planet together, trying out local cuisine and getting into trouble.
+ Or have they lost? Is half the universe dead? Are they just trying to go kill Thanos together? Are they feeling too hopeless to bother with anything besides survival, and they're just trying to scrape by out there in space?
+ Just anything with mutual protectiveness, growing camaraderie, friendship, hurt/comfort, Tony teaching Nebula Earth games, the two of them working on engineering stuff together--anything.
Marriage By Winning Ritual Combat to Gain Partner's Hand
(I'm fine with this staying platonic, obviously, but I'm also fine with it eventually getting into romance/sex.)
+ I just love the idea of Tony and Nebula's sad space adventures including something where Tony's hand in marriage inadvertently becomes the prize in some ritual combat and Nebula grimly decides she has to keep some stranger from winning him. And all the while Tony is trying to work out what the hell is happening. I just loved their dynamic in Endgame so much and just want more of it--I love her getting protective of him and him giving her a much-needed self-esteem boost.
+ Or maybe they wind up captured by Thanos--I don't care what the timeline shenanigans would be on that--and he decides to forcibly marry one of them off to someone and the other has to intervene to try to win them by victory in combat. Nebula killing Ebony Maw so Tony doesn't have to marry Squidward! Tony fighting Proxima Midnight so Nebula can marry him and get away from her fucked-up family!
Soulbond Allows Characters to Share Dreams
+ Yes, please. Something I like about this is their worlds are so different that their dreams would probably feel almost unintelligible to each other--but they'd have enough empathy and context to probably get the core aspects.
+ Awkwardly sharing sex dreams with your soulbonded buddy. Fraught shared dreams of trauma, with neither of them necessarily well-equipped to discuss their own or the other person's, but they try to deal with it as best they can. (All the tentative comfort!) Is one of them prone to especially out-there dreams, baffling the other one?
+ Do they eventually get used to the dream-sharing and discuss it more easily? It could be cool to see this just becoming part of the texture of their weird life together in space.
+ What about if they're apart? Maybe Tony has gotten back to Earth--are their shared dreams an odd way of staying in touch? A kind of comfort? Does one of them have to drop everything and go halfway across the universe because they can't reach the other one and there have been some disturbing dreams lately that would suggest the other might be in trouble?
Weaponized Tribbles
[I am usually terrible with art prompts and have trouble requesting it in significant detail, but anyone drawing any of this would be my hero.]
+ KILL THANOS WITH TRIBBLES.
+ I have no explanation for how happy this tag makes me. I just want to see Tony weaponizing tribbles and Nebula trying to deny that she finds them cute (while secretly petting one when she thinks no one's looking). This also feels like a total Rocket thing to me, so it would be cool if Nebula got the idea from him somehow, or if he's there with them working on it. I just want them flooding people's grain compartments with tribbles for the greater good.
+ Extreme Crack Edition: they themselves are weaponized tribbles. Tony is a tribble in a metal suit. Nebula is a tribble with body modifications. Together, they fight crime.
Star Trek: TOS
T'Pring/Nyota Uhura
1930s Science Fiction Writer AU
I'm not super-picky about the decade--if you want to extend this anywhere up through the fifties, I'm fine with that.
+ Nyota Uhura is a science fiction writer churning out pulp SF under a pen name to skirt around racism and sexism; she's dreaming of a better future. (Maybe she's even writing a version of Star Trek.) T'Pring is her slightly off-putting neighbor whom she secretly begins using as a model for her aliens, but then they fall in love. Alternately, T'Pring doesn't mean to keep writing her very attractive friend/acquaintance/neighbor into her stories as an adventure heroine on Mars, but it just keeps happening.
+ They're both science fiction authors trying to cobble together their own magazine and get it up off the ground. Do they already know each other? Or is Uhura acting as the magazine's editor and trying to recruit authors, and she and T'Pring fall for each other via letter or over the phone? (Communications angle!) Are they both writers, but only one of them is writing science fiction, and the other is trying to persuade them to try it? Was T'Pring brought up to only write the most elevated of prose, but she has a secret desire to write SF adventure? Is Uhura a science journalist who gets pulled into more and more speculation?
+ Uhura and T'Pring vs. John W. Campbell. Uhura and T'Pring as aspiring science fiction authors having a sci-fi book club. Them at any early science fiction convention, networking with other authors. (Or other science fiction authors made up of the Enterprise crew or Vulcan characters! Though in that case I'd rather their relationships with their fellow authors be friendly.)
Arranged Marriage AU
Mail Order Spouse AU in Canon 'Verse
Future Arranged Spouses are Forbidden to Meet but Able to Study One Another's Hobbies
I've lumped all these together because they're all relatively of a piece.
+ I just really like the idea of the Enterprise having to detour to Vulcan so Uhura can marry T'Pring--is T'Pring about to go into pon farr, causing her to request her intended bride unexpectedly? Or somehow get a mail order contract with Uhura immediately? I do always love pon farr porn, especially when combined with the awkwardness of two people who don't know each other very well yet.
+ Uhura's on a five-year mission without a lot of time to form a real relationship with anyone not on the ship's crew--but she can get permission to have a spouse travel with her as a passenger. She tries out a mail order bride and ends up with T'Pring, who wants to escape some of the claustrophobic demands of Vulcan society.
+ Why is their marriage arranged? Does T'Pring want to go into space? Is Uhura fascinated by Vulcan? Is this an attempt to bring about greater understanding between Earth and Vulcan, something that they've both been asked to do? Or does Spock maybe arrange it as a friend, networking between the two of them because he can tell there's potential for a bond there?
+ Uhura's family is visiting on Vulcan when she's young and she and T'Pring form a preliminary bond with each other, formally engaging them. They're not allowed to meet after that, but they can receive notifications of each other's hobbies--T'Pring sees that Uhura is learning languages and communications frequencies and star travel, Uhura finds out about Vulcan hobbies. I'd love to see them delicately trying to get to know each other this way, in an odd mishmash of it sometimes working and sometimes just baffling them. Are they allowed to correspond along with this? Epistolary romances are always lovely.
Iron Fist
Harold Meachum & Joy Meachum & Ward Meachum
Joy Meachum & Ward Meachum
Ward Meachum & Danny Rand
Ward Meachum & Danny Rand & Colleen Wing
Ageswap AU
+ Joy is the older sister to Ward's younger brother. Does Harold's treatment of them relate strongly to their age? If Joy were the eldest, would he reveal his continued existence to her even though it would endanger her? Or would he continue to use Ward--and start using him at an even younger and more vulnerable age? What would be the strain on the sibling relationship to have either Joy keeping secrets from Ward or a younger Ward hiding so much from his guardian older sister? If Ward's still the one in on the secret, does Harold want him promoted over Joy in the company? What kind of trouble does that caues? Or does Harold have to make do with Ward in a slightly lesser position? Does that frustrate him? If Harold's relying on Joy and she's in control of Rand, what does Ward think is going on? What does he look like without Harold's later influence? What is Joy's life like in Harold's control--does he fall into abusing her too, or does their relationship continue with a little more stability?
+ Ward is a bratty younger brother to Danny--I feel like this could change a lot. If Danny's older before the plane crash, is he in any position to notice that the Meachum home life is messed up? What's his role in Ward's life, and how do they feel about each other? What happens when Ward's protective big brother "dies" in a plane crash? What's their reaction upon being reunited? I feel like the feelings of betrayal and loyalty there would be similar but interestingly different, too. If Danny's used to being the responsible, caretaking one, does that change his whole attitude towards the Iron Fist training? How does that shape his personality?
Bodyswap
+ It would be a lot of fun--with the potential for a dash of angst--to see any variety of body-swapping among Ward-Danny-Colleen-Joy. I see Ward-Danny-Colleen three-way swap as the most obviously comedic, with it being an enormous hassle that they have to work out in some S2 timeframe: how does Colleen or Ward deal with having the Iron Fist? (Is this part of what urges Colleen in that direction?) How does Danny take to a new body? Is whoever's in Ward's body having to deal with recurring addiction cravings? I'm also always up for little bits of hurt/comfort, even in the comedy, so stuff like addiction, dealing with old wounds, coming to understand each other better, etc. is always welcome.
+ Ward and Joy swap bodies in season one and it's incredibly angsty re: Harold. Ward has to go see Harold as Joy--does he tell Harold the truth and still see Harold treating him a little differently just because he's wearing Joy's face? Does he actually try to hide it and pretend he's Joy discovering all this for the first time? Does Joy-in-Ward's-body get the Frank N. Stein text or call and wind up following it, discovering that her father is still alive? Does seeing how he treats her when he thinks she's Ward shape her opinion of him?
+ I'm frankly astonished Harold never tried to steal Ward's body and leave Ward in his while it was dying or about to be killed by the Hand. I'm all here for panicky Harold-shaped Ward trying to persuade Danny that he's really himself.
+ Ward and Danny body-swap somehow across a global distance, stranding child Ward in Danny's body in K'un-Lun and Danny back in New York. Or they body swap on their Asian road trip--because of couse they do--and have to figure out some way to deal with it. Iron Fist powers in the wrong body, Danny punching something and forgetting he's only got Ward's very human hand, Ward stumbling through inept kung fu...
Stranger Things
Dustin Henderson & Steve Harrington
Steve Harrington
Robin
I am completely behind Steve & Robin and Steve & Dustin & Robin; I also really like Steve/Nancy/Jonathan, if you want to include any shipping.
Characters Participate in Fandom
+ This is basically canon already, but come on, it would be so great to see Robin getting to tentatively explore her sexuality through slash zines. (Or Steve doing the same, for that matter.) The three of them attending cons together, or Steve taking Dustin to one and getting reluctantly into it. Cosplay. Writing fic: I want so badly to know what kind of fic and meta these three would be writing.
+ What fandoms are they in? Star Wars is an obvious possibility, but there are so many good ones. Does Robin write fic for her favorite movies, sadly unaware that one day Yuletide will come along to give her an audience for them? Does Steve write truly terrible self-insert fic at first? Do they all create a fanzine together?
+ I love fandom history, so I'm here for whatever geeky level of detail you want to provide for these kids and their eighties fandom experience.
Peggy-Sue
+ I really love the idea of one of these characters going back to an earlier point in their life and trying to intervene in what they know is going to happen, on a big or small scale. Does Steve find himself back in freshman year and try to be friends with Nancy and Jonathan and Robin? Does Robin loop back to high school and get irritated by the fact that her friend Steve isn't really himself yet?
+ Is Dustin frantically trying to foil Will getting taken to the Upside Down and trying to coordinate with Steve and the Party to rescue the still-imprisoned Eleven, much to Steve's confusion? Does Steve loop back to season one, when things are going on that he didn't know about then but does now, and Dustin has no idea why Nancy's boyfriend is suddenly showing up and demanding to help out?
+ How long have they lived before they loop back? Their perspective would change so much--season three Steve looping back to season one would have a wildly different experience than Steve at forty looping back to when he's seventeen; adult Dustin suddenly back in his kid-self's body would be like that only even more so, since he'd be going back to before puberty. And if Robin gets to grow up a lot before she loops back, she might have found her way to a better, more accepting place, only to suddenly find herself back in Hawkins and the eighties, which can't be fun. And on a purely practical level, what information might they have later that would change things?
Summer Camp AU
+ Steve and Robin as camp counselors! Dustin as camper! Is he still at math camp? Is Steve a counselor there as part of a package deal with Robin, or does it not matter if he's not a math genius as long as he's just good with kids? Or is it a non-themed summer camp or a non-academic summer camp, and Steve and/or Robin are just starting to feel out how they feel about the job and the responsibilties?
+ Do they already know each other, or is this the first time they're really meeting? I love platonic slow-burns where characters gradually warm up to each other, so it would be cool to see these characters, in any combination, start to get fond of each other while doing arts and crafts and mandatory swimming.
+ All the setting details for this one. Drown me in the details of the camp cabins and what all these people do with their time. Does Dustin make Steve a friendship bracelet that Steve is secretly charmed by? Does Robin get to pick the movies for camp movie nights? Do Steve and Robin have the opportunity for hookups with other counselors? (I love the idea of them wingmanning each other.) Basically, I adore lazy summer rhythms and artifically constructed environments, and summer camp has both.
+ Has a Gate to the Upside Down been opened in the woods outside of camp? It would be amazing to see these characters investigating these problems under very different circumstances and with way less information.
Portal(s) to Narnia AU
+ Hypothetically, one of those opened gates has to eventually lead somewhere good. My heart just needs Dustin and Steve stumbling around Narnia, dealing with Mr. Tumnus and talking animals, etc. I just picture Dustin being able to roll with it and Steve being freaked out of his mind at first--but then very protective when it looks like any danger might strike.
+ Do Steve and Dustin and Robin become Narnian royalty? Does Robin get to travel on a ship like the Dawn Treader and visit strange new lands? Does Steve get dragged along on adventures whether he wants them or not?
+ Is Narnia a children's book series in-universe? I'm fine with them stumbling across it as an entirely new world, but it would also be amazing to see it as something they're all more or less already acquainted with... and now they realize CS Lewis must have somehow been there before. Can his accounts be trusted? Do they really know what they're getting into? Do they have varying levels of familiarity with the canon?
t
+ If they run into canonical Narnian characters, I could really get behind Robin/Lucy or Robin/Susan or Robin/Aravis, or Steve having an awkward crush on Dawn Treader-era Caspian. Do they wind up falling in with an established set, with Steve babysitting the young Pevensies or with all of them aboard the Dawn Treader? Do Dustin and Reepicheep hit it off right away? Does Jill Pole become Robin's Dustin?
Twin Peaks
Dale Cooper/Audrey Horne
Audrey Horne/Laura Palmer
Audrey Horne
Laura Palmer
Fandom-specific DNW: institutionalized Audrey (I love supernatural explanations for her S3 status, though).
I also really like Laura/Cooper and Audrey/Laura/Cooper, if the story takes you in either of those directions.
Golden Age Detective AU
+ I adore the idea of Cooper's investigation reframed as a Golden Age detective story, with traditional ratiocination coming face-to-face with Lynchian weirdness. Does Cooper somehow formulate his own distinctive style of detection even in this mold? Or is he interviewing people and dissecting alibis and looking for contradictions while being told the owls are not what they seem? And what's to make of the young lady in the case? He's falling in love with her, but is she possibly a murder suspect? Does Audrey still basically attach herself to him as his assistant?
+ Bending canon further, it would be heartbreaking and amazing to see Audrey/Laura or Laura's death in general played out under these circumstances--something emotional and troubled and not at all fitting within Golden Age Detective norms but sort of forcibly interpreted--or misinterpreted--through them anyway. Do we see the truth and then how the clever detective would explain it?
+ Is the whole AU some kind of odd Black Lodge nightmare effect where Laura is replaying her murder and its solution from different angles, casting and recasting it over again? Are Audrey and/or Cooper just in her fantasy? Are they aware of it?
Golden Age of Hollywood
+ I can just see Laura Palmer as a tragic Golden Age actress with a lot of drug/alcohol/sex scandals the studio has hushed up. Is she still dealing with BOB and his possession of her father, just while also trying to manage an acting career and the fragile life of being a kind of public daydream? Is she still murdered, possibly bringing all of this to light? (Is Cooper still a detective? Or maybe a journalist chasing a story about her death?) Is she having a secret affair with Audrey, another actress? 1940s Mulholland Dr.?
+ Golden Age Hollywood also has the kind of Twin Peaks feel of a perfect surface with a lot more darkness underneath--even as it still has a genunie appeal. But the contrast between that surface and the seedy, more sexualized underbelly of things is especially intriguing to me for Audrey, Laura, and Audrey/Laura. The damage the worst parts of that world could do would be really interesting to explore.
+ Audrey and Cooper always have a sort of out-of-time feeling, so I can easily see them existing in the world of Golden Age Hollywood. Are they both acting? Is he an established actor while she's trying to break into the world? Are they both drawn to each other becasue they have a kind of innocence amidst all the experience, and that's something the rest of their world lacks, no matter how polished and pretty it is on the surface?
+ I love movies, so feel free to dive into the studio system and particular films, if you like, and just generally luxuriate in the worldbuilding of Golden Age Hollywood and how the characters might have worked on particular films or with particular people. Outsider POVs could be great here--what do the movie magazines make of them? The studio publicists? The directors and producers?
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-14 08:46 am (UTC)OH MY GOD. XD That is brilliant. And awful. Poor Ward.
... killling Thanos with tribbles is also the most amazing image.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-14 05:27 pm (UTC)... killling Thanos with tribbles is also the most amazing image.
My whole life is better for having thought of it, seriously.
(no subject)
Date: 2019-07-16 04:02 am (UTC)I am completely on board with this. :D