Chocolate Box Letter
Jan. 1st, 2022 09:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grundyscribblingDear Chocolatier,
Thank you for writing for me!
I don't want to restrict your creativity or have you fret about whether or not you've hit everything on a checklist, so I tried to keep my requests broad. Hopefully I haven't been so broad that you're left scratching your head. The prompts are more ideas than anything. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment here. (Anonymous comments are screened.)
I've split the requests out by fandoms. Most DNWs are the same for all, but there are a few fandom specific ones. (The majority of the DNWs are there not because I never read them, but because they are very hit and miss for me. I don't want you to put time and effort into something I know I’m unlikely to be in the mood to read.)
General Likes
Happy or at least hopeful endings, friends to lovers, missing scenes/somewhere offstage, slice of life, family dynamics and relationships (including found family/family of choice), loyalty/devotion (not just in romantic/sexual relationships, but in familial and friend relationships also), pre- or post-canon, the couple that slays together stays together, humor, eucatastrophe, unconventional courtship, worldbuilding
Sex Likes
Partners really into each other’s enjoyment, more experienced/adventurous partner being patient with/coaxing their partner into trying new things, first time, mutual masturbation, body worship
General DNWs
A/B/O
Unrequested kink (including but not limited to BDSM, scat, watersports, and bloodplay)
Graphic torture/violence
Rape/non-con
Incest (sibling/sibling or parent/child)
1st or 2nd person narrator
Genderswaps
Mpreg
A requested ship written as one-sided, delusional/only in someone’s head, no love there anymore, or a hateship
Modern AUs
AUs that involve changing the bodily nature of the characters (Vampire AU, merfolk AU, etc.)
Plague/epidemic/pandemic
The fandoms:
Crossovers
These are things I didn't know I wanted until I saw the tag. I don't have any coherent prompts other than curiosity to see where you go with your chosen combo.
If you are writing Guinan/Jadzia - As I said no genderswaps in the DNWs, clarifying that I'm aware that Dax has had both male and female hosts. If this pairing is what you're writing, do not feel like you have to shy away from memories/mentions of previous hosts.
Firefly
Washburne/Zoe - I'm fascinated by the most stable couple on Serenity. I get what Wash sees in Zoe, but how did she fall for Wash? What does life look like for them when Mal & crew aren't in the middle of a caper?
Mal/Simon - Not my ship, but I'm curious. How do these two get together? (And how do they not drive each other crazy in the not so good way?) This seems even more opposites attact than Kaylee/Simon or Zoe/Wash.
Inara & River Tam, Inara Serra & Zoe, Kaylee Frye & Zoe, Inara Serra & Kaylee Frye - Lumping all these together, because I just want to see the girls of Serenity interacting with each other. (To be clear, I'm not expecting you to put them all in the story. You can pick just one tag and go with it.) Inara and Zoe seem like they play a big sister/older friend role to Kaylee and River. Maybe I'm due a re-watch, but I don't feel like we saw that much of Zoe & Inara interacting without others around.
Kaylee Frye/Simon Tam - She carried such a torch...at what point did he notice?
Dragonriders of Pern
Fandom-specific DNWS:
Fandom-specific likes:
Brekke & Wirenth We saw very little of Brekke prior to the disaster in High Reaches, and most of that was from F'nor's not very objective POV. Show me some of Brekke's time as a queenrider from her POV.
F'lar & F'nor What did the relationship between the brothers look like? (Could be whenever, but I feel like it's more interesting after F'lon's death. (Maybe a side of how Manora views the two of them? For all the talk of fostering in Weyrs, it read to me like she was a mother looking after her son when Brekke was out of commission after Wirenth's death and F'nor was so worried about her.)
F'lar/Lessa How does this go from Lessa gritting her teeth and doing what she needs to do to secure her position and the Weyr's to actually caring about F'lar? And the flip side, how does F'lar go from free to fool around with Kylara to just Lessa?
Jaxom & Menolly From the events of The White Dragon it seems like these two are friends, but when did that start? And did it continue beyond Jaxom meeting Sharra and Menolly getting together with Sebell?
Menolly & Mirrim It's a shame we didn't see more of Menolly and Mirrim's friendship in the books. We know they were friends, and presumably spent time together, but we don't actually see much of it. I feel like they would have had a lot to talk about - Mirrim is the first female greenrider (well, of the Ninth Pass, at least) and Menolly the first female Harper (again, of the Ninth Pass). Who else would they have had to commiserate with about men like Master Morshal?
Menolly & Piemur Another friendship we never seem much of again after a certain point, even though it's very important to both parties! Could be before or after the events of Dragondrums.
Menolly & Robinton Please keep this a mentor/student relationship (potentially with shades of found family). Could be Robinton teaching Menolly how to be a Harper, stepping in to explain some of the things a parent normally would (with or without Silvina's help) or just Robinton and Menolly a day in the life as they play music or go to a Gather or a Hatching or whatever.
Menolly/Sebell Thanks to Piemur's observations, we know Sebell had a thing for Menolly. But was there more to it on her side besides just 'firelizard mating flight'? If there was meant to be, we don't get to see it in canon...
Mirrim/T'gellan It looks like T'gellan already had his eye on Mirrim in Dragonsong, but then Menolly leaves the weyr and we don't hear anything more about it until they pop up as a settled pair several books later. What happened with these two in all that 'offscreen' time? (Please don't let it be just a mating flight.)
Knives Out
Fandom specific DNWs/notes on DNWs
Harlan & Marta How did Marta go from employee to friend? The will came as a surprise to her, but had Harlan told her more about the family besides what was shown about Walt, Linda's husband, and Joni? What else did they talk about? We see Marta reading a lot - were they Harlan's books, were they books Harlan recommended, or what?
Marta/Ransom Marta seems like she largely tried to stay out of Ransom's way until he came to her rescue while his family were ganging up on her after the will reading. Was that how their relationship always was, or was there more in the past? Was Ransome actually interested in her but got shut down or just ignored as not being serious? Was his attempt to maneuver Marta into killing his grandfather about more than just the will? (Is Ransom the sort of guy who never grew out of pulling pigtails to get a girl's attention? Is he the guy who wants what he can't have?) Don't make this a hateship - that's still a DNW - but you've got considerable leeway here. It could be one-sided on Ransom's part, it could be a past relationship. Heck, if you're confident you have one, show me a believable (non-stalkerish) way in which Ransome manages to get Marta to not avoid dealing with him ever again.
Harlan & Ransom We know they were drama llamas who liked twisting the knife, but there must have been more to their relationship than that. Ransom was his grandfather's research assistant for a while, and Harlan not only sounds fond of him but tells Marta how much of himself he sees in Ransom. (Was he shocked when he realized what Ransom had done?)
The Mummy
I will read any or all of the requested pairings however you choose to write them, with the caveat that I don't want Evy or Rick as villains/turning to the dark side or one of them betraying the other. Also, please no Evy, Rick, or Ardeth being killed. (You can kill Imhotep if you really must.)
Silmarillion
Fandom-specific DNWS:
Fandom-specific likes:
Textual ghosts/filling in the blanks, complex characters, not being strict about adherence to LaCE, happy moments even in otherwise grim times, interaction between cultures, craftspeople at work
Eärwen/Finarfin & Galadriel - War of Wrath or beyond - how do her parents take Galadriel's decision to remain in Middle-earth? What does their reunion in Valinor look like?
Celebrían/Elrond Peredhel/Ereinion Gil-galad Second Age or beyond. How did this throuple happen? How does Elrond handle losing first Gil-galad, then Celebrian? How do Celebrian and Gil-galad handle being on the other side of the Sea? Is Gil-galad there when Celebrian arrives? (You do not need to work all of this in.)
Celeborn /Galadriel First Age onwards. (Celeborn is Sindarin, not Telerin.)
Aegnor/Andreth First Age or beyond. It's not a change to canon so much as a wiggling around it - what if they quietly ignored Finrod's advice and married anyway?
Fëanor/Nerdanel Whenever. Wherever. (Up to and including 'when he comes back from Mandos and she has a few things to say to him'.)
Celeborn & Oropher Both are Sindar of Doriath originally. Both end up lords of elven realms in the late Third Age. What is the relationship between them at any point from the Years of the Trees to the Fourth Age?
Celebrían/Elrond Anything you care to write about these two lovelies who deserve better than canon gave them.
Celegorm & Curufin & Finrod I like these three as friends before the Beren mess...
Celebrimbor & Celegorm & Curufin First Age or later. What was life like in Aglon? Nargothrond? How did Celebrimbor feel about his father and his uncle later, after the Kinslayings (or possibly after the First Age)?
Celegorm/Lúthien Given how subsequent events went, it seems a little ridiculous to think that Celegorm could hold Lúthien against her will. Maybe she didn't mind hanging around for other reasons? (And maybe it made sense that Beren, being mortal, was going to die eventually anyway and elves can remarry when there's no expectation their spouse will return from Mandos...) If you take this one on, though, please no forced relationship/dubcon or bitterness at Beren on Celegorm's part. (If he's bitter, let it be at Namo getting involved to change the terms & conditions, or at fate in general for bringing him and Lúthien together too late.)
Sherlock Holmes
I have no solid prompt here other than general enthusiasm for Watson/Holmes and/or Watson & Holmes. (Will be extra squeeful if you work in one of the Holmes stories Granada didn't adapt.)
Star Trek:AOS
Fandom specific DNW
No saving the Kelvin/other butterflying of the consequences of the Narada jumping timelines.
Amanda Grayson/Sarek Could be before or after the events of the first movie. How did these two get together? How does Sarek deal with her death?
Christopher Pike & James T. Kirk Was it really just a coincidence that Pike (who did his thesis on the Kelvin incident) and George Kirk's son both happened to end up in the same small town at the same time? Did Pike keep an eye on Kirk's Academy career? What happened after the Narada was destroyed?
Gaila & Nyota Uhura They're roommates. Presumably they're also friends. (Does Gaila survive the incident at Vulcan? Does their friendship continue?
Gaila/James T. Kirk Before or after Uhura kicks him out of the room and he cheats on the Kobayashi Maru...
George Kirk/Winona Kirk - Before the Kelvin was destroyed or after, your choice. (I don't think James T. Kirk was the only one living with what-ifs...)
Montgomery Scott & the Enterprise "I like this ship! It's exciting!" Please, tell me more.
Nyota Uhura/Spock I have no solid prompt here. Surprise me.
Sarek & Spock "Spock" could be either version of him.
Thank you for writing for me!
I don't want to restrict your creativity or have you fret about whether or not you've hit everything on a checklist, so I tried to keep my requests broad. Hopefully I haven't been so broad that you're left scratching your head. The prompts are more ideas than anything. If you have questions, feel free to leave a comment here. (Anonymous comments are screened.)
I've split the requests out by fandoms. Most DNWs are the same for all, but there are a few fandom specific ones. (The majority of the DNWs are there not because I never read them, but because they are very hit and miss for me. I don't want you to put time and effort into something I know I’m unlikely to be in the mood to read.)
General Likes
Happy or at least hopeful endings, friends to lovers, missing scenes/somewhere offstage, slice of life, family dynamics and relationships (including found family/family of choice), loyalty/devotion (not just in romantic/sexual relationships, but in familial and friend relationships also), pre- or post-canon, the couple that slays together stays together, humor, eucatastrophe, unconventional courtship, worldbuilding
Sex Likes
Partners really into each other’s enjoyment, more experienced/adventurous partner being patient with/coaxing their partner into trying new things, first time, mutual masturbation, body worship
General DNWs
A/B/O
Unrequested kink (including but not limited to BDSM, scat, watersports, and bloodplay)
Graphic torture/violence
Rape/non-con
Incest (sibling/sibling or parent/child)
1st or 2nd person narrator
Genderswaps
Mpreg
A requested ship written as one-sided, delusional/only in someone’s head, no love there anymore, or a hateship
Modern AUs
AUs that involve changing the bodily nature of the characters (Vampire AU, merfolk AU, etc.)
Plague/epidemic/pandemic
The fandoms:
Crossovers
These are things I didn't know I wanted until I saw the tag. I don't have any coherent prompts other than curiosity to see where you go with your chosen combo.
If you are writing Guinan/Jadzia - As I said no genderswaps in the DNWs, clarifying that I'm aware that Dax has had both male and female hosts. If this pairing is what you're writing, do not feel like you have to shy away from memories/mentions of previous hosts.
Firefly
Washburne/Zoe - I'm fascinated by the most stable couple on Serenity. I get what Wash sees in Zoe, but how did she fall for Wash? What does life look like for them when Mal & crew aren't in the middle of a caper?
Mal/Simon - Not my ship, but I'm curious. How do these two get together? (And how do they not drive each other crazy in the not so good way?) This seems even more opposites attact than Kaylee/Simon or Zoe/Wash.
Inara & River Tam, Inara Serra & Zoe, Kaylee Frye & Zoe, Inara Serra & Kaylee Frye - Lumping all these together, because I just want to see the girls of Serenity interacting with each other. (To be clear, I'm not expecting you to put them all in the story. You can pick just one tag and go with it.) Inara and Zoe seem like they play a big sister/older friend role to Kaylee and River. Maybe I'm due a re-watch, but I don't feel like we saw that much of Zoe & Inara interacting without others around.
Kaylee Frye/Simon Tam - She carried such a torch...at what point did he notice?
Dragonriders of Pern
Fandom-specific DNWS:
- AUs that grow out of major changes to canon events (ex: "Path is a gold not a green", "Menolly chose to stay in the Weyr")
- abusive dynamics between the requested characters
- serious injury or death of Path or any of Menolly's firelizards
Fandom-specific likes:
- Age-Appropriate Relationships - AMcC's thing for women with much older men is a bit weird to me, so if you're writing F'lar/Lessa, Menolly/Sebell, or Mirrim/T'gellan, please don't write the guys as significantly older.
- Female friendship - it's a shame we didn't get to see more of Mirrim and Menolly hanging out together in the books, or a friendship that wasn't fraught the way Lessa's interactions with other female dragonriders or Weyrfolk often are.
- Women figuring out how to deal with being highly visible in their profession
Brekke & Wirenth We saw very little of Brekke prior to the disaster in High Reaches, and most of that was from F'nor's not very objective POV. Show me some of Brekke's time as a queenrider from her POV.
F'lar & F'nor What did the relationship between the brothers look like? (Could be whenever, but I feel like it's more interesting after F'lon's death. (Maybe a side of how Manora views the two of them? For all the talk of fostering in Weyrs, it read to me like she was a mother looking after her son when Brekke was out of commission after Wirenth's death and F'nor was so worried about her.)
F'lar/Lessa How does this go from Lessa gritting her teeth and doing what she needs to do to secure her position and the Weyr's to actually caring about F'lar? And the flip side, how does F'lar go from free to fool around with Kylara to just Lessa?
Jaxom & Menolly From the events of The White Dragon it seems like these two are friends, but when did that start? And did it continue beyond Jaxom meeting Sharra and Menolly getting together with Sebell?
Menolly & Mirrim It's a shame we didn't see more of Menolly and Mirrim's friendship in the books. We know they were friends, and presumably spent time together, but we don't actually see much of it. I feel like they would have had a lot to talk about - Mirrim is the first female greenrider (well, of the Ninth Pass, at least) and Menolly the first female Harper (again, of the Ninth Pass). Who else would they have had to commiserate with about men like Master Morshal?
Menolly & Piemur Another friendship we never seem much of again after a certain point, even though it's very important to both parties! Could be before or after the events of Dragondrums.
Menolly & Robinton Please keep this a mentor/student relationship (potentially with shades of found family). Could be Robinton teaching Menolly how to be a Harper, stepping in to explain some of the things a parent normally would (with or without Silvina's help) or just Robinton and Menolly a day in the life as they play music or go to a Gather or a Hatching or whatever.
Menolly/Sebell Thanks to Piemur's observations, we know Sebell had a thing for Menolly. But was there more to it on her side besides just 'firelizard mating flight'? If there was meant to be, we don't get to see it in canon...
Mirrim/T'gellan It looks like T'gellan already had his eye on Mirrim in Dragonsong, but then Menolly leaves the weyr and we don't hear anything more about it until they pop up as a settled pair several books later. What happened with these two in all that 'offscreen' time? (Please don't let it be just a mating flight.)
Knives Out
Fandom specific DNWs/notes on DNWs
- A requested ship written as delusional/only in someone’s head or a hateship.
Note: I am ok with one-sided or past Marta/Ransome. - AUs in which Harlan lives or Ransom didn't try to engineer his death
Harlan & Marta How did Marta go from employee to friend? The will came as a surprise to her, but had Harlan told her more about the family besides what was shown about Walt, Linda's husband, and Joni? What else did they talk about? We see Marta reading a lot - were they Harlan's books, were they books Harlan recommended, or what?
Marta/Ransom Marta seems like she largely tried to stay out of Ransom's way until he came to her rescue while his family were ganging up on her after the will reading. Was that how their relationship always was, or was there more in the past? Was Ransome actually interested in her but got shut down or just ignored as not being serious? Was his attempt to maneuver Marta into killing his grandfather about more than just the will? (Is Ransom the sort of guy who never grew out of pulling pigtails to get a girl's attention? Is he the guy who wants what he can't have?) Don't make this a hateship - that's still a DNW - but you've got considerable leeway here. It could be one-sided on Ransom's part, it could be a past relationship. Heck, if you're confident you have one, show me a believable (non-stalkerish) way in which Ransome manages to get Marta to not avoid dealing with him ever again.
Harlan & Ransom We know they were drama llamas who liked twisting the knife, but there must have been more to their relationship than that. Ransom was his grandfather's research assistant for a while, and Harlan not only sounds fond of him but tells Marta how much of himself he sees in Ransom. (Was he shocked when he realized what Ransom had done?)
The Mummy
I will read any or all of the requested pairings however you choose to write them, with the caveat that I don't want Evy or Rick as villains/turning to the dark side or one of them betraying the other. Also, please no Evy, Rick, or Ardeth being killed. (You can kill Imhotep if you really must.)
Silmarillion
Fandom-specific DNWS:
- AUs that grow out of major changes to canon events (ex: "Fëanor lives", "Galadriel dies in one of the Kinslayings")
- Evil Maeglin
- Narcissist/abusive father Fëanor
- Terrible mother Elwing
- Breakup of canon pairings (including Fingon/Maedhros)
Fandom-specific likes:
Textual ghosts/filling in the blanks, complex characters, not being strict about adherence to LaCE, happy moments even in otherwise grim times, interaction between cultures, craftspeople at work
Eärwen/Finarfin & Galadriel - War of Wrath or beyond - how do her parents take Galadriel's decision to remain in Middle-earth? What does their reunion in Valinor look like?
Celebrían/Elrond Peredhel/Ereinion Gil-galad Second Age or beyond. How did this throuple happen? How does Elrond handle losing first Gil-galad, then Celebrian? How do Celebrian and Gil-galad handle being on the other side of the Sea? Is Gil-galad there when Celebrian arrives? (You do not need to work all of this in.)
Celeborn /Galadriel First Age onwards. (Celeborn is Sindarin, not Telerin.)
Aegnor/Andreth First Age or beyond. It's not a change to canon so much as a wiggling around it - what if they quietly ignored Finrod's advice and married anyway?
Fëanor/Nerdanel Whenever. Wherever. (Up to and including 'when he comes back from Mandos and she has a few things to say to him'.)
Celeborn & Oropher Both are Sindar of Doriath originally. Both end up lords of elven realms in the late Third Age. What is the relationship between them at any point from the Years of the Trees to the Fourth Age?
Celebrían/Elrond Anything you care to write about these two lovelies who deserve better than canon gave them.
Celegorm & Curufin & Finrod I like these three as friends before the Beren mess...
Celebrimbor & Celegorm & Curufin First Age or later. What was life like in Aglon? Nargothrond? How did Celebrimbor feel about his father and his uncle later, after the Kinslayings (or possibly after the First Age)?
Celegorm/Lúthien Given how subsequent events went, it seems a little ridiculous to think that Celegorm could hold Lúthien against her will. Maybe she didn't mind hanging around for other reasons? (And maybe it made sense that Beren, being mortal, was going to die eventually anyway and elves can remarry when there's no expectation their spouse will return from Mandos...) If you take this one on, though, please no forced relationship/dubcon or bitterness at Beren on Celegorm's part. (If he's bitter, let it be at Namo getting involved to change the terms & conditions, or at fate in general for bringing him and Lúthien together too late.)
Sherlock Holmes
I have no solid prompt here other than general enthusiasm for Watson/Holmes and/or Watson & Holmes. (Will be extra squeeful if you work in one of the Holmes stories Granada didn't adapt.)
Star Trek:AOS
Fandom specific DNW
No saving the Kelvin/other butterflying of the consequences of the Narada jumping timelines.
Amanda Grayson/Sarek Could be before or after the events of the first movie. How did these two get together? How does Sarek deal with her death?
Christopher Pike & James T. Kirk Was it really just a coincidence that Pike (who did his thesis on the Kelvin incident) and George Kirk's son both happened to end up in the same small town at the same time? Did Pike keep an eye on Kirk's Academy career? What happened after the Narada was destroyed?
Gaila & Nyota Uhura They're roommates. Presumably they're also friends. (Does Gaila survive the incident at Vulcan? Does their friendship continue?
Gaila/James T. Kirk Before or after Uhura kicks him out of the room and he cheats on the Kobayashi Maru...
George Kirk/Winona Kirk - Before the Kelvin was destroyed or after, your choice. (I don't think James T. Kirk was the only one living with what-ifs...)
Montgomery Scott & the Enterprise "I like this ship! It's exciting!" Please, tell me more.
Nyota Uhura/Spock I have no solid prompt here. Surprise me.
Sarek & Spock "Spock" could be either version of him.
