Rare Pairs Exchange 2020

Rare Pairs Exchange 2020

AO3 Username: StopTalkingAtMe

Hi, Mystery Author, and welcome to my 2020 Rare Pairs Exchange letter. Some of my requests may be longer than others, but please don't take this as an indication that I want any request more than the others, because I love all these fandoms and would be thrilled with fic for any one of them.

Table of Contents

General Likes, Smut Likes and DNWs
Anaconda
Assassin’s Creed
Dishonored
Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Whiskey in the Jar – The Dubliners

General Likes and DNWs

General Likes

• Character studies and introspection
• Loneliness and isolation
• Atmospheric description, scenery porn, sensory description
• World-building and character development. Backstory
• Horror of all kinds, particularly body horror, folk horror, Lovecraftian horror, and atmospheric ghost stories.
• The Closed Circle trope (the most famous example is And Then There Were None) in both horror and mysteries.
• Case-fic.
• Death fic, mourning, and introspective fics dealing with one character's reaction to another's death. In ships where one character dies in canon, I'm happy for them to not actually appear in the fic
• Endings of all kinds, happy, bleak or bittersweet.
• Canon-divergent AUs, especially post-canon ones where the bad guys win.
• Older characters finding love
• Horror scenarios which involve being trapped in dark, claustrophobic places (especially caves) with monsters (As in The Descent)

Smut Likes

• Consensual sex both gentle and rough
• Fellatio and cunnilingus (especially cunnilingus with fingering)
• Mild bondage and other forms of gentle restraint, holding a person down or restraining their wrists.
• Dubcon, (when requested).
• Realistically imperfect but still pleasurable sex (e.g. taking factors into account such as age, one party feeling shy or vulnerable etc,)
• Ghost sex
• For vampires, bloodplay and biting
• Threesomes (and orgies)
• Sex in grimy, grim, uncomfortable places
• Tentacle sex, entirely consensual or dubiously so
• Monster fucking

DNWs

• A/B/O
• Noncon (Unless requested. Extremely dubious dubcon is also fine if prompted)
• Dubcon involving unaroused characters
• Incest (unless requested)
• Bestiality (monsters don't count here)
• Scat and waterplay
• Formalised D/s dynamics (bondage and other forms of restraint are OK)
• Underage
• Het anal sex
• Breathplay
• Fisting
• Sexualised lactation
• Any variation of the word 'come' in a sexual context spelled as 'cum' (please use 'come', 'came', 'precome' etc)

Anaconda

Requested ships: Terri Flores/Paul Serone
Requested medium: Fic

*Clarification for my Noncon DNW: By 'no violent non-con', I mean no actual physical harm (other than slight bruises) and keep it mostly painless (i.e. mild pain that comes indirectly from struggling against bonds rather than being directly inflicted is fine). I'd prefer the prevailing emotion to be one of anger and/or pragmatism rather than trauma, but a bit of trauma is okay (maybe an awareness of it being something she'll have to deal with in the future, but right now she has to focus on survival). And aroused victim only, please.

~~

I have a huge soft spot for monster movies, and Anaconda is one of my favourites. I unashamedly love it. It’s a fun film to watch, I like all the characters, and something about the setting of a bunch of people isolated on a boat hits my id hard (see my related request for The River). Then on top of that there’s the Terri/Paul Serone thing, which… well… There are very, very few things that hit my id harder than the trope of a woman trying to distract the bad guy by pretending to seduce him (blame it on watching Disney’s Aladdin at an impressionable age). This ship is skeevy and messed up, so dubcon, sex pollen, and forced seduction are all possibilities here… Or alternatively maybe something goes wrong, the rest of the crew goes missing, leaving the two of them stranded, and Terri realises she has to go through with her pretended seduction.

Silly popcorn movie or not, I actually find the character dynamics in it kind of interesting and there’s potentially quite a lot to explore. I like that the characters don’t always act as expected, such as when Gary throws his lot in with Serone, and the pompous English dickhead (there’s always one) much more likeable in a moment of crisis. And then there’s Serone himself: simultaneously revolting, sinister and OTT. I can’t help being delighted at Jon Voight’s scenery chewing, and kind of want to know more about the character. Is all the priest stuff real or is it an act? I also like the idea of exploring the conflict in having to rely on someone who is simultaneously a threat to your life, and I would be particularly interested in explorations of his character where he isn’t just the cartoon villain he almost becomes in canon, but treated as a rounded character, ruthless and brutal as he is.

Setting the ship aside, I really do love the film purely for itself. Ignore the ship completely and give me more canon-style survival horror and I will be happy, I swear.

Please note that this request is specifically for the first film. References to the sequels are fine, but I'm perfectly happy for them to be completely ignored. The only thing I will say is that I really like the imagery of the Blood Orchid in the second film, even if you use absolutely nothing about it except its appearance (my sex pollen prompt is probably relevant here).

Optional Prompts

• An AU where Steven and Serone come to an agreement about which way to travel so there’s no need for the wasp. (Maybe Serone manages to persuade him or they’ve met previously?) How would that change the course of the film, with perhaps the others suspecting him slightly less? After all, he was right about the tribe...
• Something goes wrong, and Terri and Serone are separated from the rest of the crew (or everyone else is killed). Set-up for sex pollen or something more serious. Whether they’re shipped or not (and please feel free to make this gen if you’d prefer), I’d really like to see some exploration of their dynamic. How you approach this probably depends on how suspicious Terri is of him: whether he’s already revealed himself as a villain, or if her suspicions haven’t yet been confirmed (but maybe she’s warming towards him because he saved her life, even if he is a massive fucking weirdo). I’d be happy with either. Also open to her seducing him to prevent him from killing her/leaving her stranded.
• An exploration of where the snakes come from. Use the sequels if you want or ignore them completely and make shit up. I do like the aesthetic of the orchids in the second film (and the, uh, giant snake orgy), but there shouldn’t be any need to have watched the film to use them. Does it occur to Terri at any point that there may in fact be more of a market for a documentary about a massive 40 ft anaconda than the original topic?
• The attempt to distract Serone goes horribly wrong and she has to go through with it (perhaps an AU there aren’t enough of them left to overpower him), or an extremely dubiously consensual no no yes situation. Or with Gary dead, Denise is particularly vulnerable, and so Terri seduces Serone thinking she’s protecting her.
• Why is Serone so obsessed with that damn snake? Is it really purely about money, or is there something more at work? Is it any snake, or is it purely that specific snake that he’s after? And I am, as always, up for backstory and character development.
• I’d love to see something Lovecraftian here, exploring obsession and the possibility that the anacondas are harbingers of an Elder God. Maybe Terri gets sucked into it in his wake, and the near-madness of facing it creates a kind of bond between them, which she can’t escape afterwards as much as she hates him.

Assassin’s Creed

Requested ships: Kyra/Thaletas Deimos!Kassandra/Stentor
Requested medium: Fic

~~

*Please consider my incest DNW waived for Deimos!Kassandra/Stentor ship.

This game is so ridiculously huge and gorgeous: I've been playing it for a while, and I'm still overwhelmed by how massive it is and how easy it is to get sidetracked. I'd particularly love to see some scenery porn for this fandom.

Kyra/Thaletas

I started shipping these two right from that first cut-scene with the two of them together. It took all my self-control to avoid the romance-options, because as far as I’m concerned they will never be anything but perfect for each other. :D Self-control and a habit of procrastinating on side quests won out, and by some miracle by the end of my first play-through they were still alive and in love.

There’s a lot I’d love to see for these two, whether you go for something joyous which takes full advantage of the gorgeous scenery and which might very well be unabashedly filthy smut, OR something that wallows in all the potential misery and angst for this pairing. I'm also always here for backstory, and any delving you want to do into Thaletas's arrival on the islands, or Kyra's family background.

I’d prefer that any focus on either character being shipped with the player character be kept to a minimum, perhaps a little flirting.

Optional Prompts

• Hurt/comfort -- Of any kind, but especially one of them or both of them getting captured and tortured by the enemy or Podarkes's men, and tender, careful sex afterwards.
• Sex in captivity, whether 'we're not dead yet' sex or of the dubiously consensual bad guys made them do it variety.
• Time loop -- Kyra has to watch Thaletas dying repeatedly and only sex will break the loop. (Although admittedly I can't help thinking that would be a very short loop)
• Pure PWP. Ideally something happy, fun and playful. That plateau with the gorgeous view, or trying to stay silent in the rebel caves. I also really like the idea of playful sex that's almost a borderline sparring session, with each of them trying to get the other hand, maybe trying to pin down the other one.

Deimos!Kassanda/Stentor

Because apparently nothing gets me shipping something harder than spontaneous antagonistic wrestling in the middle of dinner. <3<3<3 I love the idea of them together so, so much, and how they’re almost imperfect mirrors of each other: they were both raised to be warriors and both raised to be warriors. I am absolutely HERE for any angst-ridden fallout of Deimos adjusting to what she did for the Cult (That ‘I’ve done terrible things’ to her mother towards the end of the game), and maybe finding she has more in common with Stentor than she does with her brother as a result of their various upbringings. As always, canon-divergent AUs are welcome. I’m also fine with most background ships for the other characters, but I’m particularly fond of Myrrine/Nikolaos and Alexios/Brasidas. A couple of these prompts are for AUs where Kassandra had a sister rather than a brother, and if you choose that option then feel free to change either the PC’s name or Deimos’s name.

Optional Prompts

• What if their paths crossed before they meet in canon? Does Stentor notice the resemblance, or does Deimos realise he is Nikolaos’s adoptive son, and perhaps see it as an opportunity for revenge, defying/angering the Cult? Perhaps an AU where Kassandra had a sister rather than a brother, and the resemblance between them is so obvious Stentor cannot help but notice the resemblance.
• Speaking of AUs where Kassandra had a sister rather than a brother… a fic where Stentor thinks he’s in love with protagonist!Kassandra, and is sleeping with Deimos as a way to drown his sorrows, but gradually begins to realise she’s much more suited to him.
• Smut – their sparring or wrestling sessions (whether friendly or otherwise) keep leading to sex.
• One of my favourite bits of their interaction in canon was the way the other characters react to the wrestling session. The way Alexios WTFs and Myrrine’s little smile at the end. So something shown through one or more of the other characters’ POVs. Do the other characters realise there’s something between them before they do? Or is Alexios (whom I always played as being extremely slow on the uptake because it was more fun that way) genuinely concerned they might actually murder each other until Myrrine puts him right?
• Anything exploring how they’re adjusting to their lives at the end of the game, with Deimos adjusting to life in Sparta and both of them to their new family.
• Hurt/comfort of any kind, particularly the ‘captured and tortured by the enemy’ type, whether bandits, Athenians, or the Followers of Ares (I particularly love claustrophobic settings and caves
• More smut – sex in captivity, whether it’s of the ‘bad guys made them do it’ or if they’re just seeking comfort in each other.
• Time-loo or some other reality-breaking down weirdness. Play with the meta of the various potential endings and characters who could be alive or dead. Perhaps a time-loop where one or the other keeps dying, or one of them finds themselves in a version of reality where the other didn’t survive.
• Kid-fic. Not for them necessarily, but instead Alexios (or Kassandra if you want to go the two sisters!AU) settles down (as far as he or she ever will), marries, and just generally does what Good Spartans are meant to do. Mainly I’m here for mild angst and for the image of Deimos being the most terrifying auntie ever. (I have no preference as to who the PC is shipped with, btw, although I’m not keen on mpreg – accidental baby acquisition is definitely a possibility though)
• Meta action/adventure. I love stealth games despite being dreadful at them, and I really like the idea of these two being forced to be stealthy despite being two of the least stealthy characters in the game. Take them out of their comfort zone, take away all their weapons, leave them vulnerable, injured and outnumbered, and put them in a position where they have to rely on stealth and throat-slitting rather than confronting their enemies head-on.

Dishonored

Requested ships: Corvo Attano/Teague Martin
Requested medium: Fic

~~

I'm fascinated by the Loyalists and everything that's going on behind the scenes with them while the events of the game are taking place. And Martin especially, with all the whump-potential that comes as a result of his suffering at the hands of the Overseers, and all the delicious angst and guilt as he struggles with his conscience and how he owes Corvo everything but still betrays him. Perhaps he's still recovering from his injuries, or Corvo's still mourning Jessamine, and trying to bury his grief in sex (whether meaningless or otherwise). Maybe they're trying to keep it quiet for whatever reason, or Martin is still struggling with the decision of whether or not he should turn against Corvo.

I’d be thrilled with anything that captures the awkward place between love/attraction, obligation and betrayal, or which tackles their awkward backstories and complicated emotions. Any level of relationship is welcome, from hateship, to using each other as a distraction, to one-sided pining, to genuine love and affection: mainly I’d be fascinated to see what you come up with for these two.

Optional Prompts

• Post-canon ‘fix-it’ fic, although the actual fix-it part is entirely optional.
• A Bad Guys Win!AU. Corvo fails to stop the Loyalists but isn’t killed. Maybe he’s just injured or imprisoned, and resurfaces years later. Perhaps Martin regrets what happened and has done his best to make amends by serving Emily as best he can, and then he starts to hear rumours about an assassin who sounds very much like Corvo. Does he hole up somewhere or go looking for him?
• (Uh, also writing the above prompt has made me realise that I’d be open to a fic with the above set-up where Emily and Martin stumbled into a love affair once she was old enough, but they're both still hugely fucked up over Corvo (who could be alive or dead). Falling in love with her older protector/advisor was what her mother did, after all, and she thinks of Martin as one of her father's loyal supporters, and meanwhile Martin's basically obsessed with Corvo and Emily is almost a replacement for him.)
• Something set during the events of the first game. Corvo is still mourning Jessamine, Martin is still recovering from his injuries, and the whole situation is ripe for some gloriously angst iddy whump. Could be smut or emotional or physical hurt/comfort.
• The Outsider reaches out to Martin and offers him powers, perhaps the chance to go back and change events.
• Something set during the final mission of the first game: Emily is saved, the Loyalists are defeated, but Martin is still alive and Corvo has some loose ends to tie up. Does he kill Martin or let him live? (I’m fine with either) Or alternatively, does Martin choose death as alternative?
• A canon-divergent AU where they’re discovered or betrayed and the Hound Pits Pub is overrun with the Lord Re

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

Requested ships: F!General Tullius/Legate RikkeFemale Dragonborn | Dovahkiin/General TulliusMale Dragonborn | Dovahkiin/Commander MaroTeldryn Sero/Athis (Skyrim)
Requested medium: Fic - Emphasizing Sexual Content, Fic- Not Emphasizing Sexual Content

~~

I love the Elder Scrolls games: that feeling when you start playing and know that a ridiculous amount of time is going to be sucked up by the game for the foreseeable future. I love the depth of the lore and the history, and I should mention that I'm also a huge Oblivion fan, so I will particularly appreciate any references to events in that game (or its occasional goofy quirks, although Skyrim has plenty of goofy quirks of its own :D).

Screwing with canon events, timelines and quests is all welcome. I especially like it when events don't unfold as in game, and when, while in-game events may take place, it's not necessarily the Dragonborn at the heart of them. Canon-divergent AUs are especially welcome here. Please note that I'd also be happy with an alternate start player character who isn't actually the Dragonborn.

F!General Tullius/Legate Rikke

Oddly enough, M!Tullius/Rikke is about as close to a NOTP as I ever get, but make him a woman, and I start shipping it hard. Rikke isn’t exactly in the first flush of youth herself, but I really like the age gap aspects and how competent they both are, both warriors and veterans of the Great War, and how Rikke isn’t afraid to tell Tullius when he/she is wrong.

Optional Prompts

• Backstory – times when their paths have crossed before, or Tullius’s arrival in Skyrim.
• Tullius gradually begins to see Skyrim through Rikke’s eyes.
• The aftermath of Helgen, and Tullius trying to come to terms with the existence of dragons. They swap stories of mythology and everything they’ve seen.
• Anything exploring the main plotline, the civil war, and their attitudes towards the Thalmor.

Female Dragonborn | Dovahkiin/General Tullius

Me being me, of course General Tullius would turn out to be my favourite character in Skyrim: it's the sarcasm, mainly, along with his ruthless competence and implied conflict over the Thalmor. For this pairing, what appeals to me is the dynamic of two older characters with plenty of history and experience, and who just might be starting to get a bit too old for this shit. Having said that, a younger Dragonborn offers up a lot of interesting possibilities too. This seems like a ship suited for introspection and quieter thoughtful moments (and I'd be thrilled with that), but I'd also love to see him taken out of his comfort zone, and being forced to survive away from the safety of Solitude and the Legion. Especially if it involves 'Thank god we're alive sex' by the side of a campfire.

Oh, and if you happen to be looking for a first name for him, my head-canon preference happens to be 'Reman', but PLEASE ignore this if you prefer something else or choose not to give him a first name at all.

Optional Prompts

• The eve of the battle for Windhelm (or Solitude -- who says the winning side has to be the one the player character picks?), and they both might die tomorrow
• There's an awkward moment at the Thalmor embassy party
• Anything delving into the lore and history of Solitude or any of the quests revolving around the city, like the Potema questline or the Sheogorath quest.
• The Dragonborn comes seeking revenge for what happened in Helgen
• The Dragonborn isn't really the Dragonborn but a con-artist who gets caught up in the civil war.
• Their party is waylaid on the way to Windhelm and they're isolated from the rest of the group or involved in a skirmish with Stormcloaks.

Male Dragonborn | Dovahkiin/Commander Maro

This ship was born out of a longing for a more fleshed-out version of the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood quest. It’s a shame that it didn’t match the main version in terms of complexity, and I would have freaking loved a version which developed the relationship between the Dragonborn and Commander Maro in the same way as the relationships between the various assassins are developed in the version of the quest where you join them. And why couldn’t it have been triggered by the note from one of the random assassination attempts instead of forcing you to murder someone? It was such a missed opportunity.

It’s up to you whether you want to go the Destroy the Dark Brotherhood route and have them as allies, or if you’d rather go much darker, and have the Dragonborn join the Dark Brotherhood, and make it an enemy-ship instead, with all the ensuing attempts at corruption, dubcon, imprisonment, torture, etc. (Or alternatively, completely ignore the Dark Brotherhood, whether you go the PWP route, or something plottier which focuses on something like, like the machinations of the Thalmor).

Optional Prompts

• Maro and the PC fail in their quest to destroy the Dark Brotherhood, and are captured, imprisoned and tortured.
• Devastated by the murder of his son at the hands of the PC, Maro falls into the trap of allowing himself to be gradually corrupted. (Or alternatively, something along similar lines but the person who murdered his son is an NPC, and the PC is concerned for Maro and trying to prevent him from straying down a path he’ll regret.)
• Any kind of casefic. Such as Maro and the PC investigating a murder suspected to be the work of the Dark Brotherhood, or a Thalmor mole in the Penitus Oculatus.
• An all-too-brief moment of peace (I’d love to see some scenery porn for this)

Teldryn Sero/Athis

Ah man, Athis. <3<3<3 He’s such a little shit, and I love him so much. I’m also fascinated by his backstory: there’s a bit where he talks about having crawled out of the ashes of Morrowind, and something about that aspect of having built up his life again from nothing is incredibly appealing to me. I completely headcanon him as an Ashlander (but please ignore that if you see him differently). And then there’s Teldryn Sero, who is unquestionably one of the best followers in the game. These two were made for each other: the contrast between them, the shared history and differences. How would Teldryn Sero feel about the Companions? Or Athis about visiting Solstheim, given what he has to say about Eastmarch and how he avoids it because it’s too close to the border? I’d particularly love to see some focus on loss and the devastation wrought on Morrowind, and how that puts into perspective any differences between them. As Athis puts it, they’re all Ashlanders now.

Bring the Dragonborn into it if you want, or leave them out entirely. And if you want to turn this into a threesome by including the Dragonborn (whether male or female), then please do.

Optional Prompts

• Athis runs into Teldryn Sero in Solstheim.
• Follower Life – what’s it like being stuck following the PC around, and what happens when the PC isn’t there? (Something kind of meta, maybe?)
• Something focused on the Companions, seen from a perspective that isn’t the Dragonborn. Athis is (presumably) unaware of the secret of the Circle. What happens when he finds out?
• I would freaking love to see some dungeon crawling for this. Or cave crawling. And I do have a bit of a thing for the Falmer.
• They’re in Eastmarch, which Athis usually avoids. How to distract him from his painful memories? (Okay, admittedly this is just an excuse for PWP hot springs sex, but if you want to sneak some angst in there I wouldn’t say no...)
• Windhelm is even more of a shithole if you’re a Dunmer, but on the plus side it gives Teldryn Sero the chance to fuck the East Empire Company over while Athis is getting into brawls...

Whiskey in the Jar – The Dubliners

Requested ships: The Narrator/Captain Farrell
Requested medium: Fic

~~

One of my favourite songs, and I'd love to see something exploring the characters. In the song, there's no explanation of how the Narrator got out of prison, so how did he escape? *Did* he escape, or do the last couple of verses represent him fantasising in prison about the life he used to lead? Why did Jenny betray him? What's her relationship with the captain? Does she regret doing it? What is the relationship between the Narrator and Captain Farrell? Is there more to it than English/Irish animosity, and would they have been something other than enemies if they'd been born into different circumstances? I’m also open to both characters being shipped with Jenny.

Oh, and while I've made the assumption that the Narrator is a man, the song doesn't actually specify this, so if you want to make them a woman instead, then OMG I would be all over that.

Optional Prompts

• After escaping prison, the Narrator meets Captain Farrell injured and close to death years later (how you treat this probably depends on whether you choose to have Farrell treat the Narrator cruelly or with mercy in prison -- I'm good with either).
• I'd also love some dubcon between them in prison, with either party as the aggressor, or maybe both if the other manages to turn the tables. Or perhaps something more consensual, if conflicted due to their being enemies.

Thanks for reading!