FiaB 2023 Letter

AO3 Username: StopTalkingAtMe

Welcome to my letter, Mystery Creator. Let me start by saying I’m open to a LOT of different things, including unrequested crossovers with other fandoms that I’m into. If I’ve ever written it or requested it or otherwise given you reason to think I’m a fan then go ahead.. And while my general likes might lean towards the bleak and angsty, believe it or not, I do also really love more light-hearted styles of fic as well as pure unadulterated smut. Do whatever you want with my prompts. I tend to use freeforms to trigger ideas and suggestions, but they are purely to give you ideas of the sort of thing I like. Use them, subvert them, or ignore them completely and go off my general likes if you’d prefer. Some of the sections here may be longer than others but please don’t read anything into that – I’d be delighted with a gift for any one of them. I’m excited to see what you come up with! :D

General Likes
Smut Likes
DNWs
The 4400 (2004)
Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (2023 Movie Duology)
Dr Mordrid (1992)
Evil Dead (Movies and TV)
House on Haunted Hill (1999)
Interzone (1987)
The Lurking Fear (1994)
Re-Animator (Movies)
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Would You Rather? (2012)

General Likes and DNWs

General Likes

Character studies and introspection
Loneliness and isolation
Angst
Atmospheric description, scenery porn, sensory description
World-building, backstory, and character development.
Horror of all kinds, understated ghost stories, body horror, cosmic horror, claustophibic horror where the characters are trapped underground, potentially with monsters (think The Descent), etc.
Closed Circle - Stranded with a murderer in your midst, whether in horror or murder mystery. Think And Then There Were None.
Case-fic, whether fully realised or just touching on elements from a case.
Whump, hurt/comfort and hurt/no comfort.
Endings of all kinds, happy, bleak or bittersweet.
Canon-divergent AUs, especially post-canon ones where the bad guys win.
Pining, whether mutual or one-sided
Repression and stoicism
Descriptions of scars
Main Character Death and grief; characters getting together while still grieving for previous partners, taking solace in each other, the dead character still seeming like a presence in the relationship, etc.
Crossovers, especially oddball crossovers that come completely out of left field, although I do tend to prefer crack played straight rather than outright crack. If you have reason to believe I know and like the other fandom, then I encourage you to go for it.
Post-Apocalypse scenarios, including zombies (probably my favourite AU scenario of all time), with focus on angst and the struggle for survival.
Stranded Together With No Way Home, intense (and probably pretty damn unhealthy) fire-forged relationships that come about as a result of being isolated together and being able to rely on no one but each other.
Time Loops
Older characters finding love.
Age gap relationships
I really love historical detail and extensive research notes, so if that’s what you’re into then feel free to go wild. (If that’s not your thing, then please don’t worry: I am in no way an expert, and I love tropey indulgent stuff and cheerfully anachronistic fics just as much).
Hair kink. Hands pushed into hair, coiling it around fingers, routinely cutting another character's hair if appropriate in context (e.g. in post-apocalyptic scenarios), hairwashing as part of hurt/comfort, yanking head back by the hair, etc
Textiles, especially knitwear and embroidery; men in jumpers; historical and cultural details and craft in general
Unusual structures and ways of telling a story, such as Rashomon plots, non-linear narratives, outsider POVs, epistolary works, etc.
Cigarette kink: descriptions of smoking, sharing cigarettes, lighting cigarettes for each other, etc.
Finally, and I cannot emphasise this enough, men in sleepwear, particularly pyjamas and dressing gowns.

Smut Likes

Sex Pollen and aftermath, and any other kind of something made them do it scenario
Angry Sex, rough sex, hate sex, rough sex that turns tender
Clothed Sex, or clothed/naked
Comfort Sex
Dubcon when requested (mutual dubcon of the something-made-us-do-it kind is ALWAYS okay even when not explicitly requested)
Mild bondage and other forms of gentle restraint
Oral Sex, especially cunnilingus in all its forms, and ESPECIALLY cunnilingus with fingering
Rough Sex - Lots of Scratching and Biting and Hair-Grabbing/Pulling and Holding Partner(s) Down
Sex in grimy, grim, uncomfortable places
Threesomes
Situations where one character is too tired, injured etc to orgasm themselves, but takes great pleasure in making the other person come, so long as it's part of a wider give-take relationship when it comes to sex.

DNWs

Omegaverse
Noncon between requested ships (Something Made Them Do It scenarios are always okay though, including Bad Guys Made Them Do It)
Dubcon involving unaroused characters
Unrequested Incest
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 (antagonistic choking is fine)
Fisting
Lactation kink
Any variation of the word 'come' in a sexual context spelled as 'cum' (please use 'come', 'came', 'precome' etc)
Focus on AIDS/HIV

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The 4400 (2004)

Requested Ships:
Jordan Collier/Shawn Farrell
Kevin Burkhoff/Tess Doerner
Requested Worldbuilding Tags:
WB: The Future Catastrophe
Requested Freeforms:

(I understand there are post-canon novels available, but I haven’t read them yet. It’s fine to disregard them and purely go off the series.)

Although the wheels started to come off by the end, on the whole I loved this weird convoluted little puzzle box of a show in its entirety. I wish we’d got more closure about the future and the catastrophe and everything that was going to happen. Right up to the end I genuinely couldn’t predict where it was going to go and how things were going to shake out, and I just had so much fun watching it and trying to figure out what was going to happen and what the implications were.

This is one of those I love everyone in this bar kind of shows. I love all the different characters and their various relationships, Maia and Diana, Tom and Diana, Marco, and Lily and Richard, and Shawn, god, Shawn.

Shawn and Maia are probably the two characters I came away loving the most: they’re both so young and complicated, and I’d be really fascinated to see how they both deal with everything post-canon. I had my doubts about Isabelle (the whole super-fast-aging eldritch baby turns out hot thing), but actually I really loved her too by the end, especially after she lost her abilities.

And then there’s all the time stuff. It’s kind of superheroes-by-stealth, and I really love how it’s an upside down version of the X-Men while not being anything of the kind, and the way it focuses on the day-to-day realities of a situation like this by mostly following NTAC (and god, I ADORE Tom and Diana’s rock-solid, loving, affectionate, I-would-die-for-this-person friendship <3<3<3)

And then there's all the fucked up time weirdness and the way it’s cosmic horror adjacent. The show even gives a nod to Lovecraft at one point and specifically to A Shadow out of Time, in which people swap minds with impossibly alien creatures from the far future, which is so fascinating giving everything revealed in the later episodes. Plus, even the supposed good guys of the future are capable of being incredibly spectacularly cruel: witness their kidnapping and erasure of Maia from the timeline, plus virtually everything about Kevin and Tess. We never really learn that much about the people from the future – on the one hand, I’d like answers, but on the other, I’m actually really glad the show ultimately left that sort of ambiguous. What I keep coming back to is that all we know about the future is what the future tells us, which has the potential to be spectacularly creepy. If you want to play with even the good guys of the future turning out to be neither as good or as human as they claim, then please do.

And time stuff: how does the butterfly affect change the original plan of the people from the future? If Isabelle was meant to destroy the 4400s and she is actively working against the plan, then what does that mean for the promicin developed later in the series? I think Kevin even says at one point that it’s different from his. So how might things have played out if Isabelle had never been sent back and the original plan had played out with Kevin’s promicin becoming more slowly available, perhaps with fewer deaths because he’s able to figure out the compatibility test earlier?

And then I have a bunch of other questions. Like what the hell was going on with Cassie? What parts of the plot were down to the good future people and which the bad future people? How will things play out post-series? Does Jordan actually manage to clear the interloper and what happens if he doesn’t? Play with the butterfly effect: give me a Sliding Doors style thing which explores different timelines, or a canon-divergent fic, or character studies of any of the characters. Or a future-fic which looks at what happens a significant length of time post-canon.

(And yet another goofy crossover possibility, but the nod to Re-Animator in this series delights me. If you want to do a crossover where Herbert is one of the 4400 and maybe possibly meets up with Kevin, then PLEASE DO.)

Jordan Collier/Shawn Farrell

As much as I love all the other relationships that appear in the show, the one between Jordan and Shawn is ultimately the central relationship of the show: these two as diametrically-opposed messiahs, each of them wanting to do what’s best for everyone, but ultimately ending up on opposite sides.

And they’re still like that at the end – the issue with promicin still hasn’t gone away. Jordan still wants everyone in the world to take the shot, Shawn wants to save as many lives as possible, and still has Kevin potentially developing a test to determine whether anyone taking it will be able to survive, so that conflict between them is still there. At one point it felt like the show was setting up Jordan vs Isabelle, and it kiiiinda was, but more than that, what it was actually setting up was this weird, complicated push-pull relationship between Shawn and Jordan, and goddamn, am I here for seeing that explored.

And Shawn, god I love him so much. Everything he’s been through, everything he’s lost: his fucked-up relationship with Isabelle, and his brother, and the pressure on his shoulders. I forget, sometimes, watching it, just how painfully young he is, given he was still in high school at the start of the series, and the series only really unfolds over a couple of years. He’s really just a kid, but he’s had to shoulder this massive burden and responsibility while getting his heart ripped out and stamped on at every turn. Taking over the 4400 centre after Jordan’s death (and his GRIEF when that happens), and trying to steer a middle path and shift the centre away from Jordan’s extremely cult-like trappings to something more genuine, and then Jordan comes back as a kind of smug Jesus (not a complaint: what other kind of Jesus would Jordan Collier be?) and starts a whole new cult, and just… oof.

Can that middle path be steered? Which of them is right? To what extent does Jordan believe his new world heaven on earth bullshit, or is it just more of him being a businessman and creating the image he knows what everyone wants to see? I do believe he is, at least to some extent, sincere, but at the same time some part of his nature remains, and he was always manipulative and stubborn.

What exactly is this vision of the face of god he’s talking about or heaven on earth? Right up until the end I didn’t know if Jordan was going to prove to be a force for good or bad, and I still can’t tell, but then I think about his for the world being 100% promicin positive, and I think about how many deaths that means, and yeeeeeah, that probably ain’t great.

Explore any point of their relationship, from the manipulative early days when Shawn was starting to find his feet, to the later seasons where Shawn has taken over the centre and has grown more used to power and leadership.

Optional Prompts

I seem to remember Matthew suggesting he knew Jordan was back before Jordan made his appearance at the wedding. What if the Marked got hold of him earlier and turned him into one of them then, so that he’s marked right from the moment he turns up. How would that change things? How does Shawn figure out that there might be a way to save him.
A fic revolving around Shawn removing the Mark from Jordan after they escape in the final episode. Does he get tempted at any point simply to let Jordan die?
I do love a nightmare post-apocalyptic hellscape so explore that all you want. Perhaps Shawn and Jordan find themselves trapped together in one of Jordan’s nightmarish visions of the future and have to work together to survive. Maybe they really are trapped, or maybe they’re shared dreams. If the latter, is Jordan behind them?
Jordan and Shawn are the subject of one of Curtis Peck’s terrible, terrible films, which predicts Jordan’s death and the identity of his murderer before Jordan is killed. Oh, and also, Jordan and Shawn are an item in the film.
A 5+1 fic exploring the way their relationship changes over the course of the show.
A Sliding Doors fic that looks at different ways the timeline could have gone. What if Jordan hadn’t been killed, or if Shawn had been able to save him?
Maia makes a prediction that not only are Shawn and Jordan going to end up on the same side, they’re also going to end up lovers.
So what if things happen differently with Danny and the promicin virus spreads beyond Seattle, so Shawn isn’t able to take him out of the picture until it’s too late? Maybe he gets kidnapped by a splinter-group who don’t agree with Jordan’s insistence that everyone has to choose to get the shot, who want to deliberately use him to infect the world. And Shawn and Jordan have to team up to rescue him (although exactly how sincere is Jordan about that? Ultimately there are always going to be some people who refuse to get the shot).
Shawn is injured and Jordan has to tend to his wounds.
What the hell was going on with Cassie and all the White Light cult stuff? Was it the result of inconvenient 4400s being sent back in the time line and still retaining some memory of what was going on?

Kevin Burkhoff/Tess Doerner

The relationship between these two hits me so hard in the id, it makes me a little bit giddy. The age gap, the protectiveness, the complete unwavering mutual devotion, the (also mutual) caretaking, all the potential for guilt and grief, and just in general all the complexities of their relationship. It was made for me, and I feel so spoiled that it happened. :D

They are so, so affectionate with each other. I do kinda wish their relationship came across as a little more explicitly sexual on-screen, but I can headcanon that as Kevin feeling guilty about the age gap, which actually is canon given the moment in the penultimate episode where he tries to break up with her (I’ll settle for hugs, kisses and forehead pressing *sobs*). I am very much here for younger characters pursuing older ones and for the older characters feeling weird and guilty as hell about it, but they just adore each other so much, and again SPOILED. I also love the weirdness of her being so much younger than him despite having been born in the thirties.

Given the weird not-quite-superheroes vibe of this show, it absolutely cracks me up how ridiculously incongruously badass they both are. He can heal himself from any wound! She has insanely powerful mind control and can essentially create her own army! And what do they mainly use those abilities for? SCIENCE. Tess in particular is fucking terrifying. The scene where she rescues Kevin from Promisetown? Just gathering up a bunch of 4400s and using their powers for herself? They never quite explored the full ramifications of her powers or how far they spread, but yeeeeah.

There’s an argument to be made that she’s the most powerful 4400 after Isabelle (and it cracks me up the way they kept having to ~~dose her with kryptonite~~ pack her off to visit her grandniece to get her out of the way. It’s not a perfect show, but it’s imperfections are part of what I find so delightful XD).

And that leads me to another thing about their relationship: the sheer casual indifferent cruelty of how they came together in the first place, with Tess being sent back purely to cure his paranoid personality disorder (but only just enough so that he’s able to develop promicin; not to the point where he necessarily has good judgement or is fully capable of making ethical judgements or anything). Just, oof, how guilty would Kevin feel learning the circumstances of how he came to be healed? While the show never really touches on it, it colours so much of their relationship going forwards, and I would love to see that explored.

They also sort of act as a mirror to Lily and Richard, another couple who have been semi-destined to be together. I mentioned the incongruousness of Kevin and Tess's abilities, and there’s a weird fucked-up sort of synergy about how they seem designed to protect each other. Like, yes, okay, maybe Kevin’s invulnerability is to protect his promicin-research, but it also means that when Tess has a schizophrenic break he’s able to survive anything she does to him, and he’s devoted enough to hang on in there. The more you start to tease out the implications, the more the cruelty starts to show itself, so dig into that all you want.

Go with something plotty if you want, but for these two I would just love to wallow in something indulgent smut or hurt/comfort. Or just explore missing scenes – so much of their relationship development happens off-screen. And I am so, so here for tender, gentle (and maaaaaybe just slightly guilty) smut I cannot even say.

Optional Prompts

A bad guys win!AU in which Marked!Jordan Collier is removing the abilities of the p-positives, while the original 4400s are being hunted down one by one. Tess and Kevin go on the run.
Their reunion after Tess gets out of hospital happens off-screen. I would love to see how that went, and how they came to be working together. There’s so much potential for everything I love here: his guilt over how he came to be cured, and the hurt/comfort as the promicin side effects get worse.
Yet another thing that happens off-screen: how they got together as a couple in the first place. Given that they kiss just after he’s sloughed off his skin, clearly something was happening while he was still scarred, and oh god that DELIGHTS me. Him being so ashamed of it and not wanting her to see her like that, her being so into him anyway? Mmph.
The first time they sleep together.
Oof, that scene where he says goodbye in the hospital (the book, the kiss on the cheek, the hairtouching). It isn’t clear how much Kevin has realised at that point and whether he understands that it was Tess who cured him, but he’s a smart man: he’ll figure it out quickly. I’d love something exploring his grief and survivor’s guilt over the way things panned out (and I adore early Kevin where he’s still adjusting to being cured, spitting sunflower seeds in the general direction of the bin and not quite having shaken off his mental illness yet).
Thanks to a 4400’s ability akin to the one in No Exit, Kevin and Tess and a bunch of other people find themselves trapped in an alternate universe. Except that this one is a superhero AU, and they specifically have to use their abilities as superheroes. Mainly because I find it so amusing that the least badass people get the most badass abilities. (and it also cracks me up how the various abilities were basically magic by the end.)
They reunite after the end of the series.
Something fluffy and sweet and indulgent where another handwavey 4400 ability allows Kevin and Tess the opportunity to go back in time and give her the Sweet 16 birthday party she never got to experience. Maybe something that works along similar lines to Alana’s, so they don’t lose any time in the real world, and this is set during the penultimate episode, right before he sends her away, and it’s a little respite for them, and perhaps the other people at the party can’t see them? And it’s sweet and romantic and a little bit hot, but also sort of uncomfortable for Kevin given everything that happened in the diner. And play with the age thing: on the one hand it reminds him how young she is, but at the same time he hadn’t actually been born yet.

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Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (2023 Movie Duology)

Requested Ships: Charles Siringo/Tom Horn
Requested Freeforms:

This is going to be a bit of a shorter request, mainly because I’m throwing it in last minute, but please don’t think that means I want this any less. These films, starting with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (the 2023 version), which is followed up by the sequel Butch vs Sundance, aren’t perfect by any means, but I found them a lot of fun to watch, the first one especially. They’re free on Tubi, but I’m not sure if they’re available elsewhere – I had to use a VPN to access them. I enjoyed the first film more, although I did appreciate a lot of what the second film tried to do, (and ftr I ship the Butch Cassidy/Sundance Kid/Etta Place OT3 too, and the only reason I’m not requesting it here is because wording the request is completely beyond me right now).

Horn is only in the first film and I was a little disappointed with how the sequel defanged Siringo a little – he wasn’t nearly as much as a bastard as he was in the first film. OTOH that bit where he slams Sundance into the bars of the cell? HOT. (Also the whole section where Siringo and Sundance are travelling together and all the testing his loyalty stuff? I’m not quite sure it pulled off what it was trying to do, but I would have been very very into what it was trying to do had it managed to do it, so I think of it fondly for that reason alone. Kiiiiinda shipping Siringo/Sundance a little bit too, ngl. XD)

Charles Siringo/Tom Horn

Oof, the height difference alone. *hearteyes* But I also adore their dynamic so much: in their first scene together, Siringo approvingly watching Horn beat the shit out of someone for the crime of stealing a chicken. Giving him a badge and turning Horn into his monster on a leash, standing back and watching him work: all of that is golden. The potential for loyalty kink is delicious, and it’s all the better for how Siringo is actually barely in control of Horn a lot of the time, with innocent people getting hurt as a result, but even so Horn remains completely loyal to Siringo throughout.

I would love to see that whole dynamic dug into, and I am so fucking here to see them having a sexual relationship, possibly one that reflects their dynamic onscreen – Siringo having maaaaybe bitten off more than he can chew, and not quite being in control, but at the same time doing his damndest to maintain the appearance of being in control.

Siringo fascinates me – why is he so intent on bringing Cassidy in? Does it just come down to him being obsessed with the law? I’m also really drawn to the question of morality, and the way his association with Horn leads to him compromising his moral values. (Or not. Maybe he was always that much of a bastard, and Horn just gives him the excuse). In other words, if you want to go to town on a character study, then please, please do, but ftr I would also be happy with pure indulgent smut.

The theme of apparently dead people turning out not to be dead at all comes up repeatedly, so what about an AU where Horn survives, and is only thought to be dead, whether for handwavy reasons or because Siringo thought that if he was thought to be dead, he might be able to use him to outwit Butch.

Optional Prompts

Pure indulgent smutfic. I’d especially love to see something exploring Siringo’s potential feelings of being out of control, and having unleashed something he’s maybe not quite ready to deal with. Also for this pairing I’m especially here for sex under the stars, rough sex, oral sex, campfire sex, scar worship/comparison, and a potentially repressed man getting borderline dubconned while at the same time being very into it.
Something set during the second film which digs into how Horn’s canonical death provides Siringo with a further motive to bring Cassidy in, particularly if they were lovers. (It’s fine for Horn not to appear in the fic.)
One thing I really did like about the second film was Siringo and Sundance travelling together, and Siringo’s attempts to win Sundance over to his side. Assuming Horn’s still dead, maybe they recognise that the other is attracted to men, and Sundance figures out what Siringo’s relationship with Horn really was, adding a whole interesting layer to the relationship Siringo’s trying to build between them, especially if Sundance is playing up the UST, whether or not they actually sleep together.
Alternatively, how would the second film have played out if Horn had survived? Perhaps if he’s there while Siringo is travelling with Sundance?
Prison break! Horn did survive the first film after all, and breaks Siringo out of jail after the end of the second. What happens? Do they go after Cassidy? How does the whole having the law turned against him affect Siringo’s moral worldview?
Hurt/comfort -- they both survive the end of the first film, but are both wounded and have to patch each other up.
A's Love Language Is Killing B's Enemies And Dropping Them At B's Feet Like A Cat Gifting Dead Mice – With A being Horn. :D Go hard on the loyalty kink, and it’s fine to handwave whatever canon events you need to or ignore them completely.
Zombie AU – I always love zombies, and there isn’t nearly enough zombie apocalypse stuff set in alternative time periods. Potentially as an excuse to force Siringo to work with Butch and the rest of his gang.
Alternate Universe - Different First Meeting – I’d love to see the version of Siringo recruiting Horn where they met before, potentially as an anonymous one night stand (although it doesn’t have to be) – maybe he isn’t sure if Horn recognises him, but turns out he does, which leads to complicated feelings. (or just sex. That’s good too.)
Give me Siringo’s version of the story, in which he very much sees himself as the hero. Is it a case of unreliable narrator, or is he well aware of all the terrible things he’s done, but sees them as a necessary price to pay? (First person and epistolary works, maybe a memoir written in prison are particularly welcome here.)
I’d love something digging into their onscreen dynamic, exploring how Siringo really feels about Horn's propensity for violence and the way his own moral code is compromised, or if he was just secretly always that much of a bastard and Horn just gave him the excuse. Also here for him being taken aback by how drawn he is to Horn because of how good he is at killing.
Character Surprised By Their Own Deep Loyalty Feels; Object Of Loyalty Even More Surprised – The tag speaks for itself. :D Here for all the loyalty kink. and for Horn unexpectedly being genuinely loyal to Siringo, even though he might not always obey him
One character shaves another's face with a straight razor – Ideally Horn shaving Siringo, but the alternative is good too. Bring this about however you can, whether Siringo’s hands have been injured, or maybe they’ve already slept together and this is just an extension of that intimacy. If there’s an undercurrent of mild threat to the shaving and Siringo isn’t entirely comfortable with it, then all the better.
Only One Bed – Or maybe there is another room and it’s in the brothel next door, so everyone’s expecting Horn to take it, including Siringo (and maybe Horn himself), but actually he ends up sharing Siringo’s room and bed instead and trying to pass it off as being because of his moral uprightedness which literally no one believes for a minute.

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Doctor Mordrid (1992)

Requested Ships:
Samantha Hunt/Anton Mordrid
Requested Freeforms:

Such a weird little gem of a film, even though it’s so short, (and not in a ‘told all the story they want to tell’ way, but in a ‘straight-up forgot to include the third act’ way). While I wish it was longer, I still found it very fun to watch, and I ship Sam and Anton so hard. There’s so much space to expand on the worldbuilding, and the storyline, and the relationship between Anton and Kabal. I wish that it had got all that, and that it had got the sequels it was meant to, but mainly, if I had one Dr Mordrid-related wish…?

One of the reviews I read of this film somewhere said that it felt like the pilot for a TV show, and YES, that is exactly what it feels like. Somewhere there is a parallel universe in which this was a pilot, and went on to spawn several seasons worth of a mid-range budget supernatural police procedural show in which Jeffrey Combs plays a hot, sad, lonely wizard who lives in an insanely gorgeous apartment and uses his background in criminal psychology (and, y’know, being an actual literal wizard) to help his cop neighbour Sam solve a series of cult-related weird-as-shit crimes. There is plenty of UST, a will-they-won’t-they relationship, Kabal is an ongoing antagonist, and occasionally Anton wears a cape. I want to live in that universe. Failing that, I would like fics from that multiverse.

There’s so much I love about it, like the worldbuilding and how much there is to explore, and the sheer lack of human contact of Anton’s life before he really starts getting to know Sam hits me in a very tender spot: he’s so quiet and sad and lonely, and it gets me right in the heart. D:

I just want to see something that follows on from the end of the movie. What happens after he returns and is he sticking around? And while I was semi-joking about wanting fics from the alternative universe, I really, really do love the idea of them working together from now on, with the problems with the police smoothed over and him being brought on in an advisory capacity.

Alternatively, expand on the events in the film, because there’s no way what happened was enough to kill Kabal. Or maybe give me a scene from a version of the film where events are much more epic. I'd especially love something tender and sweet for these two, or, if you go with something darker like a Bad Guys Made Them Do It fic (which: YES PLEASE. I always love Something Made Them Do It scenarios with their potential for angst and guilt, as well as them providing a catalyst for a get-together), something with lots of mutual support and hurt/comfort.

Optional Prompts

Morning After (Incredible Sex the night before) - So it's finally happened after however many weeks or months of pining, they've finally fallen into bed together. I'd love to see the aftermath, the satisfaction that comes from finally getting together with the person you're in love with.
Hand and Finger Kink - Because I find the bit where he casually breaks out of the handcuffs while they're in the police interview room hot as fuck.
Undercover Work Used As Excuse To Have Sex They've Always Wanted -- While investigating a cult, they have to go undercover as a couple.
Anton teaches Sam how to use magic. Take this whatever way you want. Maybe something goes wrong (a tentacle monster with designs on making them do it?) or maybe it’s just an opportunity for lots of flirting, casual touching, and sexual tension.
Time Travel - Sam travels back to another time period and needs to work with Anton's younger self. Is she already together with present day Anton, or is this somehow the catalyst for getting them together? Or, potentially, the opportunity for a selfcest threesome?
For plot reasons, Anton has to fake being evil. Or perhaps he’s been mind-controlled by Kabal into being evil, but somehow Sam manages to get him to break the mind control, but he has to maintain it for a little while longer.
Loneliness is such a can’t fail trope for me. Having resigned himself to a lonely existence, Anton has to adapt to finding intimacy with Sam.
Experience - Experienced Partner Lets Inexperienced One Explore Them – I mean, he’s spent the past century and a half avoiding so much as talking to his neighbours, let alone dating.
Feeling your feelings in a quiet moment with a much older/immortal being – something quiet and sweet and tender, exploring the strangeness of being in a relationship with someone so much older.
A casefic where Sam and Anton investigate a Lovecraftian Cult.
Villain tries to draw out hero's dark side (that they say they know is there) – Because I can’t help thinking that when Anton was telling Sam about his backstory that he wasn’t being entirely candid. Especially when he was positioning himself as kind and good in comparison to Kabal being evil. I can’t help but think that there’s an undercurrent of bitterness there. So what if he had once been tempted to work with Kabal, perhaps before he realised how thoroughly evil Kabal was? (And for the record I’m completely here for past Anton/Kabal).

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Evil Dead (Movies and TV)

Requested Ships: Solo: Ash Williams
Requested Freeforms:

For the record, I’ve just started season 2 of the TV series, but I’m burning through it pretty quickly, so should certainly have finished it by reveals (and possibly even by the end of sign-ups). Please don’t worry about spoilers, and I apologise in advance if I miss anything in my request). I also haven’t consumed the games, comics or the more recent films (although I may well be seeking out the comics and the recent films), so while I don’t mind spoilers, feel free to disregard them.

I am such a sucker for a reluctant heroes who are much more noble than they want or pretend to be, and for characters who pretend to be more assholish than they are. Not to mention undergoing whump and bucketloads of trauma, and Ash hits all of this spot-on. I very much appreciate that we repeatedly get to see him dragged to the end of his tether and a little bit beyond, and then get the chance to watch him snap. His moment of pure despair at the end of Evil Dead 2 when he realises it isn’t over and it’s probably never going to be over, and *cough*, the final scenes of ED1 (and every other time for that matter) when he’s sweating and terrified and repeatedly getting drenched in blood. I cannot emphasise enough how here I am for moments like that.

I am fascinated by the way his character evolves over the course of the films and the TV series, and while I don’t love everything about the show what I do love is how damaged he is by everything he’s gone through and everything he’s lost, and the way he’s trying to be a selfish asshole and never quite 100% succeeding because he cares more than he wants to.

There are so many contradictions in his character: the womanising vs how he’s actually pretty damn romantic whenever he gets the chance, and the whole thing about him being dumb, when he is demonstratively NOT stupid AT ALL – he converted his trashed car so that it could be steam-powered ffs! My personal headcanon is that he was an engineering student working at S-Mart to put himself through college, which may or may not be supported by canon, but either way I love the insights those apparent contradictions give us – his almost supernatural competence when it comes to fighting Deadites vs the whole accidentally reading from the Necronomicon while high to impress a girl thing, the way his mistakes seem to come from spiralling despair and depression, the womanising coming from not wanting to get close to anyone because they almost inevitably die horribly, and the prospect of a career just being yet another thing he’s lost because of everything that happened. It’s all a mix of whump and grief and regret that will never fail to hit me in a very tender spot, and I would love to see any of that explored.

I ship him with basically everyone, Sheila, Ruby, Amanda (*sobs*), and just about every permutation of Ash/Pablo/Kelly, so if you want to write smut or ship-fic, then you have just about an open book there. I also ship Amanda/Ruby and Amanda/Kelly. And just in general, I really, really love the dynamics of the relationship between Ash, Pablo and Kelly, him making the deal with Ruby purely to save them, and all the day to day mundanities of life on the road living in his trailer, and the way Kelly and Pablo feel a little like facets of Ash’s character – with Pablo being the way he used to be, mostly a normal young man, maybe a little more sensitive and quiet than most (okay, YMMV hugely on that, but that’s my take), while Kelly is the way he is now, a traumatised badass who is pissed as hell. I love her so freaking much, and find myself adoring her and her dynamic with Ash more with every episode I watch.

Optional Prompts

That time the evil clone goes back in time to have questionably consensual sex with a younger version of Ash, who never realises it’s a clone and so just assumes he’s inevitably going to turn into a bit of an asshole. Which… might explain a lot.
A 5+1 Things fic looking at anything you want it to. Five people Ash has slept with, five encounters with a Deadite, five times he tried to destroy the Necronomicon, Five times Ash got drenched in blood, etc.
Aftermath of possession – The ongoing trauma and after-effects of the possession in ED2.
Bathing/Washing – Because he sure does get grimy a lot in canon. Here for hurt/comfort, or just moments of respite when he gets the chance, however briefly, to get clean.
- Taking the original trilogy and the TV show in mind, I'm amused by the way each instalment contradicts the canon in one that went before. Like it only being Ash and Linda who went to the cabin in ED2, and the TV series (so far anyway) ignoring that whole sleeping too long element at the end of Army of Darkness. But what if they're all true, and each discrepancy can be put down to an alternate universe? What happens if the barriers between those universes start to break down?
Fill in the missing scenes, particularly between AoD and the TV series (or between ED2 and the TV series if you choose to pretend AoD didn’t happen). How did he get back from the future? I’d love a character study that explores what happened over the last thirty years, and how his character changed and developed.
Character expected to die but didn't and now has no idea how to live any more – I’d love to see the aftermath of trauma explored, what happened in Elk Grove after his return, the death of his girlfriend and sister, and his doomed attempts at trying to rebuild his life. Just rip my heart out please.
Ash has to fake being evil for reasons.
Character resigned to loneliness finds unexpected intimacy with other(s) – I love his relationship with Pablo and Kelly so much, how tightly knitted they’ve become in so short a time, the whole travelling together, the way they’ve all lost something. I ship it, but I’m here for the gen relationship too – the protectiveness and the loyalty and the way that it kind of feels like he has a family again, and ow my heart ow.
Competence Kink - Character A Annoyed By How Hot They Find Character B’s Competence – Ahha, :D. I’ll admit I have Ruby in mind for this, but competence kink in general is a good fit for him, and especially the disconnect between people’s first impressions of him and the way he is in action. That speech he gives Kelly in the first episode about how ‘sure, he doesn’t look like much now, but wait a while...’ and her ‘oh. Oh no’ moment. XD
Going undercover in a cult that worships the Deadites.
Ash’s relationship with Sheila leaves her pregnant, resulting in the establishment of a secret society dedicated to hunting demons. Although their priorities may have got a little mixed up over the centuries.
A Burn Notice crossover! (Note that so far I've only watched season 1 of Burn Notice, and I'm not sure how far I'll get in it by reveals, so I'd prefer no major spoilers, please. ETA: This doesn't apply to Sam's backstory or to the Fall of Sam Axe) Mistaken identities. The trio jumping to the conclusion that the evil hand has regrown Ash again and trying to kidnap/kill Sam necessitating another rescue by Michael and Fi until deadites complicate matters. Sam and Ash having to pose as each other for plot reasons. Or alternatively, maybe Sam just wakes up hungover in Ash's body one day and has to pretend to be him while he figures out what the hell's going on, who these people are, and what the fuck happened to his hand. Fudge the timelines however you need to to make this happen. :D Oh, and I should add that I am very, very here for Ash/Sam, with an Ash from any point in the timeline from the first film onwards.

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House on Haunted Hill

Requested Ships:
Dr Richard B Vannacutt & The House
Watson Pritchett & Dr Richard B Vannacutt
Watson Pritchett & The House
Watson Pritchett/Dr Richard B Vannacutt
Requested Worldbuilding Tags:
WB: The Architecture of the House
The History of the House
The Nature of Life as a Ghost
Requested Freeforms:

Canon-specific DNW: This request is specifically for the first film, and it’s fine for Return to House on Haunted Hill to be ignored. If you do include it, please avoid having the evil in the house being purely due to the Baphomet Idol.

I have a very particular fondness for 90s cheese, architectural horror, and the disparate bunch of people trapped somewhere for *reasons* trope, which is one of my favourite tropes of all time. Add in ghosts, and ohhhh baby, I am there. (As an aside, I'm also a big fan of the original trilogy of Thief games, and the ghost visuals in this were the direct inspiration for the Shalebridge Cradle mission in Thief 3 (possibly one of the best, creepiest missions in anything EVER), so I'm inclined to be kindly predisposed towards this film purely because of that.)

It’s a curious one, because the things that mean it doesn’t work that well as a horror film for me (the CGI smoke-monster climax! The criminal underuse of Dr Vannacutt!) are the exact same things that make the question of what the hell is going on significantly more interesting. The more you dig into the first film, the more it becomes clear that there’s something more going on that just a haunting as a result of what happened at the asylum.

I also find it fascinating that despite Dr Vannacutt being the most prominent ghost (and male), Pritchett refers to the house as female, and specifically as ‘a stupid vengeful whore’ iirc. The Shadow primarily speaks with female voices (and according to one of the extras they used imagery of naked women to create the Rorschach effect). Then there’s the women Price sees while he’s in the Saturation Chamber.

I'd love to see the mythology of the house dug into, because I have a lot of unanswered questions. Like the walled off room we finally see towards the end where Vannacutt used to dump his corpses, and in the middle of the room there’s a chair, just sitting right in front of the rubble, which is the creepiest fucking thing. Why is that chair there? Did Vannacutt sit on it, staring into the rubble, listening to the Shadow talk to him? (And while I’m not hugely keen on the canon introduced by the second film, and I especially dislike the suggestion that the evil in the house is all down to the Baphomet idol, I do quite like the way it expands on the way the house seduces people, the idea of good if flawed people being corrupted, and the suggestion that Vannacutt wasn’t always evil).

And then there’s one of my favourite things about this film: Pritchett, a fucked-up traumatised asshole woobie packed with neuroses, who clearly has a boat-load of issues with the house. It’s not immediately clear whether he actually used to live in the house or not, but he’s clearly spent a lot of time there and he’s familiar with it enough to know the history of the house, his way around the basement, and quite a lot about how it’s haunted, including the existence of the Darkness/Shadow and Dr Vannacutt. I’d love to see something about his previous experiences with it, what happened with his grandfather and father, and what it was like growing up in the vicinity of that house, whether he lived there or not. And I am completely here for the house’s attempts to seduce him.

Other random things I love about this canon: the Saturation Chamber! I’m really drawn to the concept of machines that can drive you insane through sensory experiences, and it’s just the icing on the cake that it takes the form of this extraordinary period-appropriate zoetrope. The relationship between Price and Evelyn! This complicated tangle of love and hatred and contempt, spitting daggers at each other, and him clearly being so desperately in love with her still, while she's so completely batshit. I love her. And the whole thing of there being multiple conflicting agendas, with the three competing guest lists, and even then the house doesn’t get what it wants because of Sara being an imposter.

Watson Pritchett/Dr Richard B Vannacutt

Not a pairing that I’d originally considered, but then a seed took root and now I can’t stop thinking about these two and what sort of dynamic they’d have.

We see so little of Vannacutt, but Pritchett absolutely freaks the fuck out when he realises he’s around, so they clearly have a history, but exactly what that history is, and what Vannacutt’s role is as a ghost in the house, is left decidedly unclear. It’s gradually become one of my favourite things about this film: the way the focus shifts from the villain being Vannacutt to the house itself, and the way that upends the way his character could potentially be seen – is he a villain, or potentially another victim of the house, or both?

There are just so many unanswered questions about what it means to be a ghost in that house, how much of it is reenacting the terrible things that happened there, and how much free will they have, and to what extent they’re being controlled by the house, and just… damn, I don’t know, but dig into it as much as you want.

The sequel flattens out most of the unexpected wrinkles in the worldbuilding, and is mostly forgettable, so I don’t really recommend watching it (although I will admit to being delighted by Steven Pacey and Andrew Lee Potts’ inclusion in the cast), but what it does do is develop the idea of people being corrupted and seduced by the house, with one line being: ‘Vannacutt was known for being a brilliant physician and great humanitarian. Nominated for the Nobel Prize in the '20s. But somehow, this great man went from saving people to butchering them’ and oof.

The whole trope of otherwise good-but-flawed people getting corrupted to evil and doing terrible things (and there’s no doubt that he’s done terrible things) gets me right in the id. Corruption and redemption arcs are welcome in all their forms for either character, as is the all-encompassing guilt that comes from realising what you’ve done. I’m also just generally interested in the idea of them finding common ground as fellow victims of the house, even if Vannacutt remains wholly evil, and that would affect how they might relate to each other, before and after Pritchett’s death. And pre-canon too – why does Pritchett react like that to finding out Vannacutt’s around?

Explore the ship in whatever way you choose. The gen dynamics fascinate me just as much, but shipwise, anything is welcome, from fucked up extremely dubious consent, where the sex is part of the house’s way of torturing Pritchett (potentially with some medical kink mixed in, but anything where Pritchett gets strapped down?), to anything on the enemy-fucking scale, to something a little more sympathetic where we do actually get a glimpse of a glimmer of goodness in Vannacutt. Or maybe the house is fucking with them both by making them fuck each other?

Optional Prompts

This House has a Personality and that Personality is Fucked Up – And adolescence is tough enough as it is, without having to go through it while you're living in a haunted house that can't seem to decide whether it wants to fuck you or kill you.
Explore the deaths of Pritchett's father and grandfather, because it feels like there are a lot of unanswered questions there. Did the house exert any influence over them? Could Pritchett’s father have murdered his grandfather? How did his father really die?
A both hates and loves how good the sex with B is – Vannacutt/Pritchett (because the more I think about shipping them, the harder I ship them.)
Character is forced to work with someone who scares them – I’m intrigued by what it means to be a ghost and how much free will they have. Pritchett has to work with Vannacutt for reasons (especially delighted by the idea of this considering how Pritchett crapped himself when he recognised Vannacutt’s description).

So how does Pritchett manage to resist the Shadow at the end in order to free Sara and Eddie, when seemingly no one else was able to resist?

Something revolving around the stained glass ceiling, because creepy though it is is just suggest a marginally less evil side to Vannacutt and the idea of good people being corrupted by evil will always fascinate me.

Character with trauma is freaked out and turned on by getting tied up – Specifically thinking of Pritchett here, the poor little bastard. XD

Conversations In Liminal Spaces On The Border Of One World And Another – Ghost!Pritchett and ghost!Vannacutt have a conversation.

Evil!Pritchett – A canon-divergent fic where Pritchett isn’t so resistant to the house. How would that affect canon?

Entering someone's dreams/nightmares – Vannacutt and/or the Shadow enter Pritchett’s dreams, where pre-, during, or post-canon.

Time Travel Fix-It – Pritchett travels back in time to the 20s-30s, and finds himself caught up in events at the asylum. Could he potentially change the way events pan out? (The actual fix-it is optional here)

Time Travel - Character meets their child self – Ghost!Pritchett realises it’s possible to travel through time and interact with his younger self.

Vannacutt manages to escape the house. There’s a deleted scene (after the credits roll in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zdo8voI87LI) in which Vannacutt brings the real Jennifer Jenzen to the house, and another scene where his spot being tortured is taken by Price. Which leads me to wonder if it’s possible for him to buy his freedom, or if he’s figured out a way to outwit the house.

Explore what the hell was going on with that chair. Was Vannacutt listening to the Darkness, or was it potentially a seduction/sex thing?

Corruption Arc – Either for Vannacutt or for Pritchett. Or, conversely, a redemption arc for Vannacutt, or Vannacutt getting a redemption arc while Pritchett goes the other way. I really love the idea of the house seducing people into evil (the second film goes harder on that, and iirc explicitly states that Vannacutt wasn’t always a monster), and the question of whether someone who’s done terrible things can really be redeemed.

Eldritch Architecture – I’d love to see something that goes hard on the Lovecraftian elements in the plot, the idea of this ancient nameless evil existing even before the house was built, and of what the Darkness at the heart of the house really is.

Tentacles made them do it – Probably no surprises that I have Pritchett/Vannacutt in mind here.

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Interzone (1987)

Requested Ships:
Swan/Tera
Requested Worldbuilding Tags:
WB: Everyday Life in the Interzone
Requested Freeforms:

Note that while this is tricky to get hold of, there are a couple of versions up on Youtube. One of them (the slightly longer one with VHS in the title, I think) I found unwatchable, but the quality of the shorter one was more or less okay.

Okay, first off, I am not going to claim that this is a good film (hahaha NOPE), and yet it is so unabashedly joyously trashy that I can’t help but be charmed by (almost) everything about it. The plot is extremely thin, and the sound mixing is so bad I struggle to make out some of the dialogue (which some might argue is a plus XD), but objectively terrible though it undoubtedly is I love it so fucking much, mainly because I get the feeling everyone involved is having a shitload of fun.

One factor that can sometimes get me loving a completely trashy, objectively rubbish canon is a feeling of delighted incomprehension at what the hell I’m watching, and this hits that in spades. The ‘sex’ scene, the two guys it cuts to during the sex scene, the ridiculous bar fight scene at the beginning, Panasonic’s terrible acting in his psychic voiceovers (so bad it’s got to be deliberate, surely? Surely?)… Also, yes, there’s a character called Panasonic. He’s a cock-blocking psychic monk, (a phrase that feels like it ought to be sung to a Chemical Brothers song) and yes, it makes sense in canon... as much as anything makes sense in canon.

Buuuut then at the same time, there’s some stuff about it that I do really like, like some of the locations it uses are genuinely cool (and the sense of a post-apocalyptic society it has going on at times, particularly in the brief bar scene at the beginning. And, *cough*, the scene where a shirtless Bruce Abbott dangles from chains while the bad guy whips him stood out, and frankly even at the best of times he’s barely wearing a shirt tbh. And the noise he makes when Tera kisses his collar bone is... mmph.

Swan hits just the right balance between rogueish and honourable, & cynical and earnest. I will forever be a sucker for a reluctant hero who’s much more noble than he really wants to be, and while Tera doesn’t get nearly enough to do, I do really like their dynamic and chemistry, and I just want more of this stupid, trashy, iddy film.

Stick with the goofy ridiculous tone of canon or go more serious/realistic, or expand and explore the worldbuilding, although I’m not sure how much sense the worldbuilding makes: like… how long has it actually been since the end of the world? If the Interzone is the only habitable area, how come Balzakan calls Swan a foreigner (and specifically a ‘fuzzy faced foreigner’, an example of the kind of the top drawer dialogue which makes me love this terrible film so much <3)? Was the end of the world much more recent than I’d assumed and it happened within living memory, or did he come from outside the Interzone somehow? Where the fuck did Mantis get that banana? Why is Panasonic so determined to stop Tera and Swan from having sex to the point of literally opening fire on them, wtf? What’s Swan’s deal with dogs? What happens post-canon with the treasure?

Or alternatively just go full-on iddy with smut and/or whump, particularly along the lines of that whipping scene because hot fucking damn. There are also some really delicious opportunities for pining and dubcon of the Bad Guys Made Them Do It variety while they’re in Mantis and Balzakan’s camp, and for angsty, tender and/or possessive sex in the aftermath.

Optional Prompts

There are a couple of hints in canon that Swan is in mourning for a dog, which made me hanker for a fic where they stumble across, and try to befriend what might actually be the last dog left alive in the Interzone.
Femdom – Explore the aftermath of everything that happens with Mantis and Balzakan. After some jealousy on Tera’s part, he tries to reassure her that it meant nothing and wasn’t even fun: Mantis just blindfolded him and made him do everything she said, at which Tera is like, actually that does sound like fun.
Accidental Baby Acquisition –
Expand on the situation in Mantis and Blazakan's camp. Watching it, I wasn’t really sure how much of their ‘plan’ is actually a plan and how much is improvised, but I’d love to see it expanded on in a fic. Identity kink, the pining coming from Swan sleeping with Mantis and Tera with Balzakan. And of course, the potential for Bad Guys Made Them Do It, whether it’s a case of having to keep up the pretence, or if they’ve both been found out.
An AU involving a different kind of apocalypse, whether zombies or triffids or something that takes a slightly more realistic take on the apocalypse than this.
Relationship study. This is not the sort of canon that really goes all that deep into character development, but from what we get, I find their dynamics really appealing, and I’d love to see their relationship explored.
AU - Villains win – The ‘treasure’ makes about as much sense as just about anything else in this film, but let’s say Mantis and Balzakan managed to break into the vault. Even despite everything that happened, Mantis is still pretty fond of Swan, so can be persuaded to spare him, especially if Balzakan is killed. Tera still gets brought back, so together they have to negotiate a potentially uneasy truce and deal with the potential destruction of the Interzone.
building a civilization from the ground up – Swan and Tera return to the Veterans to start the process of cataloguing the treasure.
Characters Have Trouble Sleeping Apart After Shared Traumatic Captivity – All the angst, emotional hurt/comfort and mutual support please. Especially if nightmares are involved. Or just go all out on the emotional fallout of canon.
Came Back Wrong – Just because Tera came back doesn’t mean her resurrection is going to be entirely smooth sailing (or Swan’s miraculous healing for that matter). Maybe it’s flawed in some way, or maybe it’s only temporary and they have to set out to find a way to make it permanent. And if you want to delve into Swan's guilt over the circumstances of her death, then please do.
Ghosts - A is a ghost only B can see and interact with – And similarly, while the assumption is that she really has been brought back, what if that isn’t true?
Undercover as Master and Slave – Which, actually, canon does, without ever really getting too into the details. That moment where they first get to the Bad Guy camp and Tera hands him the leash because he’s forgotten, and Mantis casually saying ‘Maybe I’ll have her later’ just, um, stood out to me a bit. Or maybe the roles are reversed, and it’s Tera who has to play the role of Master.

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The Lurking Fear (1994)

Requested Ships:
Dr. Haggis/Cathryn Farrell
Requested Freeforms:

As far as I can remember, I don’t think Dr Haggis’s first name is mentioned at any point, but by the looks of that sign outside his surgery, it starts with an I. :D

God, I had so much fun watching this. It’s very short and kiiinda trashy, inexplicably mashing up Lovecraft with a London gangster subplot, but 1.) I appreciate how firmly it commits to in media res (even the prologue flashback opens with the people of Leffert’s Corners fully aware that the creatures exist), and, 2.) oh GOD do I adore Cathryn and Dr Haggis, both the individual characters and their ‘us against the world’ dynamic, whatever the hell their relationship is, or was, or might have been. <3<3<3 Oh, and the basic horror concept of monsters living in a cave trope (along the lines of The Descent, if you've seen it) is a bulletproof trope for me, and I love this particular film's take on it with the creatures burrowing up into people's houses and nowhere in town being safe.

For Cathryn, I love that whole thing of her having to take over the commando role from her sister, even though it’s not really a role that fits her naturally. She’s so tough, but vulnerable at the same time. And Dr Haggis, ohhhh baby: he’s a damaged, chain-smoking (even around sweating dynamite. DUDE. XD), bitter as fuck, alcoholic broken man, but at the same time he absolutely steps the fuck up when it comes to people needing medical attention and he’s so protective towards Beth and Cathryn... Uhm, not to mention the adoring stoic hearteyes he makes at Cathryn throughout. I love him so much and I just want him to have nice things. Or at least to survive so he can suffer some more.

They’re both so bruised by whatever’s gone on before the film starts. We never really see anything of what they were before or what their lives were really like: we’re just plunged into this semi post-apocalyptic warzone with no real explanation. He’s pretty clearly pining for her, but their conversation at the church door suggests the feeling is mutual, and I am just so here to see their relationship explored, whether it be a look at what might have happened between them pre-canon, or possibly a post-canon fix-it (or a fix-it to make it worse) where he survives. I love the way they work together, and the dynamic they’ve fallen into, and their shared grim resignation and determination to fight. They’re just together, this mismatched quietly pining little battle-couple, while their town falling to hell around them, and I ship them so hard.

I’d love to see something that explores pre-canon, because the film really does does drop us right smack in the middle of things, with virtually no explanation of what happened before. How did the townspeople finally figure out the creatures existed, and how long has it been common knowledge? Why haven’t they left? Or a canon-divergent fic where things shake out differently: maybe his injuries weren’t quite that serious which means he survives and she has to patch him up? Or the Martenses haven’t quite all been killed and come after them looking for revenge? Or give me a moment between them: have they ever hooked up while drunk or had inadvisable ‘thank god we’re alive’ sex? Oh, and pining is extremely welcome, especially mutual pining.

The film and pairing also hits a very specific trope which is like CATNIP to me: a physically unprepossessing man uncomfortably aware of how powerless he is to protect the woman he’s with from men who are stronger than he is, whether or not the woman can take care of herself (and in this case Cathryn very much can take care of herself). It gets me every damn time. *eyes*

Optional General Prompts

Battle-couple – They just work so well together. I’d love to see some moments of them working together, because I’m so drawn to their dynamic, especially since fighting doesn’t necessarily come easily to her. Are they fighting by each other’s side, or it it a case of her fighting and him patching her up afterwards? Or him talking her through patching him up because he’s the one who got injured?
Love in the time of horror and misery – Something else I love is the whole bleak atmosphere of the virtually deserted town. Everything’s crumbling and worn down, there are holes everywhere where the creatures have burrowed through, and everything is falling apart. It’s almost post-apocalyptic, except the world is still going on around them. Show me them them falling in love, or quiet moments of tenderness, affection and loyalty in the middle of the world going to hell around them.
Alternate Universe - the big bad wins – They’ve lost and been captured by the creatures, and have nothing to do but try to escape, or trying to support and comfort each other through it, or have ‘fuck it we’re going to die’ despair sex.
Bathing/Washing - After a fight, the two of them hole up together to wash off the gore.
A 5 Times fic showing the gradual change in Leffert's Corner over time as the townsfolk gradually begin to realise something is wrong.
Character A falls asleep on B's shoulder – Their relationship has so many opportunities for moments of quiet intimacy and emotional hurt/comfort. And pining. Lots and lots of pining.
Character A has been crying and tries to hide it but B still notices it – I’m good with either one of them being the crying character here. Maybe he’s exhausted patching people up, or someone’s died despite all his best efforts, or she’s been coasting on adrenaline for too long and is finally starting to crumble. I adore their dynamic so much, and the idea of him being the only person she lets see her in a moment of weakness is the most delicious thing.
Scars – Maybe a Five Times fic cataloguing their scars (or just hers), whether they’re caused by the creatures or not.
Gently touching a character's scar(s) – As an excuse for hurt/comfort or tender emotional sex? I’m good with either. Or both.
A canon-divergent fix-it where Dr Haggis survives his injuries, which means Cathryn has to patch him up post-canon.
Cigarettes – You can probably count the number of minutes he’s without a cigarette on one hand. XD Give me all the descriptions of smoking, maybe a traumatised moment when his hand is shaking so hard he can’t light his cigarette so she has to do it for him.
Functional Alcoholic Not So Functional At The Moment – Here for the hurt/comfort of this, whether the emotional hurt/comfort of them being there for each other when they’re scared or grieving, or the physical hurt/comfort of her helping him to bed, and then maybe sticking around afterwards, and the two of them bedsharing, whether entirely platonic or otherwise. Also here for drunken confessions, or maybe him just being less able to hide the way he feels about her while he’s drunk. I love how important they clearly are to each other, but also how frustrated she is with his drinking, even while she obviously gets why he does it.
Childbirth - Because you can't have the Chekhov's Gun of a heavily pregnant woman and not have her give birth in a highly stressful set-piece, come on. So how about a canon-divergent scene where Beth, Cathryn and Haggis are beseiged down by the monsters, and at the worst possible moment, Beth goes into labour.
That line of Cathryn's: "This is what I thought the end of the world was going to look like."? What if it really was the end of the world? Give me a post-apocalyptic AU. Maybe they're dealing with a zombie apocalypse, or creatures much like the canon ones but more widespread, or they're carriers for a disease.
In that first scene with them, while they're outside his surgery, he makes a reference to them making some kind of bargain, presumably an agreement to stick around in town to kill the creatures. How did that bargain come about?
There’s a lot about this film that doesn’t entirely make sense, the most notable thing being that they’re not actually trapped in the town, and can leave any time they like. I can buy them wanting to stay to finish things once and for all, but at the same time that doesn’t mean they can’t have the occasional holiday. So maybe they get out of town for a night or two when there’s no rain forecast for a while. Are they able to relax or are they constantly thinking about going back? Book separate rooms but end up sharing a room/bed anyway because it’s the only way they can get any sleep? Both get drunk and end up sleeping together?

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Re-Animator

Requested Ship:
Herbert West/Dan Cain
Requested Freeforms:

Canon-specific DNW: Please pretend that the scenes of sexual violence against women in Beyond Re-Animator never happened. References to the Meg/Hill scene in the first film are fine though, and I’m also fine with Dan or Herbert being nonconned (onscreen or otherwise) by a third party for the purposes of whump or hurt/comfort.

I fell absolutely head over heels in love with the first Re-Animator film from the first moment I saw it – it’s so much damn fun to watch, funny, gory, obscene, and I think Herbert West might actually be one of my favourite characters in anything ever (and while I have some reservations about the sequels I do really like them both). As for Dan/Herbert, I shipped it right from the scene where they bring the cat back, and specifically from the moment where they’re side by side with weapons in hand, although with Herbert hanging back a little bit and clinging onto Dan’s shirt, because obviously.

The way from that moment they’re just… together, and there’s no way Dan is going to do anything other than help Herbert. I love that, and I love the way Dan sticks with Herbert through thick or thin (right up until the moment that he doesn’t, but more of that in a minute). So many things about this ship are tailor-made to my id: the combination of earnest/obsessive and likeable/abrasive, the constant touching with Herbert grabbing Dan at every single opportunity (this in particular just freaking delights me XD), the potential for hurt/comfort and protectiveness, and a complicated mixture of loyalty, manipulation, and betrayal that will get me every damn time.

I’d love anything that goes hard on the hurt/comfort and mutual protectiveness between Herbert and Dan, or anything that captures the tone and bonkers exuberance, gore, humour and horror of the films. Maybe something that explores what happens in between the films, especially between the first and second films, because damn, are there some unanswered questions there – like how did Meg’s heart come to be outside of her body, and how the hell did Herbert manage to persuade Dan to go to Peru with him? And any of the reunions where an apparently dead Herbert pops up again. I also cannot emphasise enough how here I am for Herbert getting menaced and/or whumped.

I know it’s a deleted scene, but I find it really interesting that it doesn’t seem to be the prospect of having to give Dr Hill the credit for his work that gets Herbert to break the hypnosis, but Hill threatening Dan’s life. And the way he immediately abandons their current work to switch focus onto making the Bride to stop Dan from moving out. On the one hand, it’s a terrible manipulative thing to do, but on the other hand… *eyes* And also, what the hell was Herbert’s ultimate plan with the Bride anyway? How did he see that whole thing panning out long-term, beyond a short-term fix to keep Dan from leaving?

And then there’s the third film. While I have reservations about it, Dan turning state’s evidence on Herbert actually isn’t one of them. I am a complete sucker for complicated relationships, and I actually really love the way it shifts the balance of their relationship, especially considering the unfortunate consequences and the hellhole of a prison Herbert ends up getting thrown into. The way it hints at the way he’s suffered without ever quite going into details (the years in solitary), along with that moment when the warden hits him… and Herbert’s very deliberate act of revenge on the warden, which I firmly believe is something the Herbert of thirteen years previously would not have contemplated in a million fucking years, just shows how much the experience has changed him. That, and the way he reacts when Howard calls him doctor when they first meet. Mmph. It’s all very painful in a way that hits me right in the id.

I’m also delighted by how differently Herbert acts towards Howard, particularly at the end of the third film, where he comes across Howard cradling Laura’s head, looks at him for a moment, and then just effectively shrugs and yoinks his ID card. It’s a detail that brings home just how important Dan is to him. As far as I’m concerned, at the end of the 3rd film he is 100% going off to find Dan, and I would love something that explores them meeting again post-canon, and how the dynamics between them might shift with a Herbert who’s hurt at the betrayal and bruised by everything he’s been through and a Dan who’s not quite so naive and trusting.

Optional Prompts

5 Times Dan Assumed Herbert was Dead – Because in various places, namely the screenplay and the novelisation, he is explicitly stated to have died at the end of the first film and I like the idea of him repeatedly appearing to die and popping up again mostly unscathed (and I’m amused that the one film where he doesn’t appear to die at the end is the one in which Dan does not appear. XD).
Accidental Baby Acquisition – I mean, they’re doctors. It’s not beyond the realms of possibility that they might find themselves in a situation where they have to deliver a baby in a crisis (possibly involving zombies), and end up separated from the mother and stuck having to look after the baby.
Addiction - Character tries to distract Addict from addiction with sex – Dan tries to break Herbert’s reliance on the serum.
Alternate Universe - Russian Doll Fusion – I love time loops in all their forms anyway, but this one in particular, with its focus on constant, unrelenting death, and the way the discovery that the loop is being shared with another person would play out with these two is perfect. (and for time loops in general, I’m amused by the way Herbert would probably adapt his work to take full advantage of the loop (er, an endless supply of fresh corpses with no consequences – hey, how is it murder if they don’t stay dead? – having to memorise the results because he can’t write them down, etc.)
Hurt/Comfort – Hurt/Comfort is always welcome, but one thing I’d love to see is Dan helping Herbert through withdrawal from the serum. Mainly because I really wish that deleted scene had been included in the film. I have some quiet headcanons about Herbert’s addiction to reagent, and amongst them is the fact that avoiding sleep is really, really not a good idea, and that maybe the times when he’s at his most batshit are the times when he’s suffering from chronic sleep-deprivation. All of which convinces Dan to help him to break the habit.
Bad Guys Made Them Do It – and every other iteration of Something Made Them Do It.
Betray them to save them – Dan’s presence looms so large in Beyond Reanimator even though he doesn’t appear. I can definitely see a situation where Dan got to a point where he couldn’t see any other choice, and he genuinely believed if things carried on the way they were that Herbert was going to get himself killed. I’d love to see that decision explored and the fallout when/if they’re reunited and he realises what Herbert’s been through.
Hurt/Comfort - Character with injured hands requires assistance (which turns sexual) – Here for the hurt/comfort and smut potential of this (and also very fond of one character shaving another.)
Inspired by the novelisation, Dan is completely taken by surprise when Herbert unexpectedly turns out to be massively into ice hockey. Maybe it’s a hobby he only occasionally spares the time for, but either way Dan is extremely weirded out by the prospect of Herbert going to bars and talking to fans.
You Hurt Me More Than Anything; But Being Without You Hurts More – Herbert goes in search of Dan after the end of Beyond Reanimator. Is he planning on revenge (even if he ultimately can’t face going through with it?) Does something else happen as a catalyst that forces them to work together again? I’d love to see all the messy hurt/comfort and emotional fallout of everything that happened.
Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence – How might things have played out if Meg hadn’t been so hostile to Herbert from the get-go? Maybe if she hadn’t been there when he came about the room, allowing Dan to prime her for his oddball roommate beforehand? And if she hadn’t walked in on them bringing Rufus back, which meant that Dan wouldn’t have fallen out with Dean Halsey, who then wouldn’t have died, etc etc. It’s interesting how differently Herbert treats Francesca. While he’s not exactly polite to her (XD) he tolerates her presence in a way he doesn’t really tolerate Meg’s, and I can’t help but read that as at least partially being the result of Meg’s attitude towards him.
Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence – A canon-divergent AU where Francesca isn’t on the scene and the creation of the Bride is much more successful, and she isn’t quite so much of a monster. Mainly because I’m really curious what the hell Herbert actually had in mind beyond keeping Dan with him at all costs. (And for the record, I’m completely open to Herbert/Dan/The Bride in whatever form that takes.)
Hurt/Comfort - Technically awful attempts at comfort are actually very comforting – Okay, so Herbert is pretty terrible at doing the whole comfort thing, but the fact that he even tries is pretty damn significant.
Road trip after the end of the world – Any post-apocalypse scenario will do, but I am particularly fond of a zombie apocalypse, which seems particularly apt for this canon. Was it Herbert’s fault, or was he entirely innocent for once? Where are they going? What’s the plan? And how does reagent factor into things?
Estranged Characters - Injured A shows Up on B's doorstep Saying "I didn't know where else to go" – My first thought with this was Herbert turning up out of the blue, but what if it’s the other way around? What if, potentially after Herbert’s prison break, he considered hunting Dan down, but reluctantly decided not to follow through, only for Dan to suddenly turn up unexpectedly, and turns out he’s been keeping track of Herbert all these years and somehow or other the shit’s about to hit the fan?
Herbert and Dan take the places of the narrator and the version of Herbert in the original story by Lovecraft. – I read the story after watching the films, and I was really not expecting to find that so much of what happens in the first two films came more or less directly from the story (with a fair few changes along the way). I’m fascinated by the way the films work as adaptations, but especially by the similarities and differences between the two Herberts (running away screaming the first time they reanimate a corpse? Film!Herbert would never. On the other hand the stuff with the revolver? Yeeeeah, he totally would). So perhaps a historical AU where Herbert and Dan are from that period, or where they’re still their 80s selves but have switched places with the versions of themselves from the story. Or maybe it’s just Dan who’s switched places, and he has to content with a different version of Herbert, who is BLOND (and, y'know, also slightly more actively murderous than Dan's Herbert, and has a disconcerting habit of eyeing his healthy physique with a covetous eye). (If you haven’t already read it, be warned it has some racist elements. I’d prefer for those to be avoided if you go with this prompt, please)
A Re-Animator/Ghosts (UK) crossover. Why, yes, this is goofy as hell but I waaaant it. :D In the eighties or nineties Dan and Herbert rent out Button House. Unfortunately something goes wrong and Herbert ends up dying on the property and coming back as a ghost.

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DS9 is easily my favourite Star Trek series. I love all the shades of grey, the complicated questions of morality it raises, everything to do with the Dominion War and the Cardassians and the damn Ferengi. One of my favourite things about it is how it deals with the overturn of the status quo on a planetary scale, whether on Bajor, Cardassia, in the Dominion, and even on Ferenginar. I love what this series did with the Ferengi so, so much. They could just have been comic relief, but instead they’re so much more complicated than that. Partly it’s because the whole Ferenginar plotline ties in with the themes of the rest of the series, but it’s also because Quark is actually one of the most complicated characters in the whole show. I particularly love the way he’s used to comment on the Federation, and on humans in particular. His speech to Nog about how humans are only wonderful and friendly so long as their bellies are full in the Siege of AR-558 gives me the shivers.

Quark/Brunt

These two had my enemy-shipping heart right from the moment Brunt got his Nausicaan goons to beat Quark half to death. *hearteyes* They are so, so shippy I can’t even: from how ridiculously unsubtle the show was about the subtext at the end of Ferengi Love Songs, to the air-kiss Quark blows him in Profit and Lace, to basically everything that happens between them in Body Parts. Brunt spending a small fortune purely to fuck Quark over, turning up in his quarters and reclining on Quark’s couch as he talks gleefully about his plans planning on defiling Quark’s remains (and that moment of ‘what do I do with my hands?!’ panic when Quark suddenly moves closer to him?)… yeah, um, that… that right there is a Ferengi who might just be up for some contract renegotiation.

It’s fascinating how much their relationship shifts throughout the series, going from entirely antagonistic to some degree of them being willing to work together even though Brunt’s ultimately always out for himself. There’s actually a lot of common ground between them – compared to just about everyone else in his family Quark’s a traditional Ferengi (or at least he wishes he was a traditional Ferengi), and it’s probably only because of his very non-traditional mother (Ishka, you glorious creature, you <3<3<3) that they end up at odds. I’m fascinated by the question of what makes a good Ferengi, and by Quark, who despite his first appearances as an amoral little schemer actually has a pretty strong moral code, and I found their reactions to the changes on Ferenginar in The Dogs of War, with Quark being outraged and Brunt much more pragmatic, pretty damn interesting, given how very, very bound to tradition Brunt’s been throughout the series. Granted he’s seen the changes first hand, and is trying to suck up to and manipulate Quark, but still… (and as an aside, that bit when he drops to his knees and kisses Quark’s hand? *eyes*)

I’d love to see anything from any moment of their relationship, from the early days when Brunt is so obsessed by (and horny for) Quark that he’s willing to do virtually anything to destroy him, to later when Brunt is more focused on his own gain and becoming Grand Nagus himself, to a post-canon fic which focuses on how their relationship might develop after the end of the series and the massive sweeping changes on Ferenginar. Similarly, tone-wise I’d be delighted with anything from UST and pining (one-sided or mutual), to hate-fucking, to something more genuine, and anything on the enemies-to-lovers to enemies-to-enemies-who-fuck scale.

Explore the worldbuilding – how progressive is Ferenginar when it comes to gay relationships? (and repression, denial, and internalised homophobia on one or both their parts is always welcome.) Alternatively, maybe Ferengi are actually pretty relaxed about it when it comes to casual relationships, or in the context of an M/M/F poly relationship because at least that solves the question of who pre-chews the tube grubs? In theory at least...

It’s also fine to write about their mirror universe counterparts instead, whether the story is focused on the actual mirror universe versions (and canon-divergent AUs are always welcome, btw), or something that involves pining while fucking the mirror-universe counterpart of the object of your affections, or a selfcest threesome (We barely saw Mirror!Quark, but Mirror!Brunt is such a sweetheart and I just want him to have nice things. D:). I also really, really love the look of (male) Ferengi clothing, so if you want to go all-out on clothing porn, then please do, as well as exploring any avenues of clothed or clothed/unclothed sex you might want to go down.

Optional Prompts

'Dirty little secret' relationship leads to Too Many Feelings leads to unexpected marriage proposal – Because I am so here for the two of them having a secret relationship on the downlow, and maybe they keep telling themselves it’s just about sex and it doesn’t mean anything, but actually...
Accidental Marriage – When they’re on an alien planet negotiating a contract, they accidentally wind up married (maybe because in that planet’s laws rivalry is considered a sign of great regard), and this cannot stand. Turns out getting it annulled is a little trickier than first envisioned, and in the meantime pining, forced proximity, and sex-of-convenience ensues.
Hate Sex – I am so, so here for the two of them hatefucking, and for moments of unexpected tenderness in the middle of the hatefucking, and for hate sex where they gradually start to develop feelings.
Exploration of Aftermath of Canon Events – A relationship study that looks at how things might develop between the two of them after the end of the series, with neither of them entirely happy about the changes on Ferenginar.
Characters don't realise they're in a relationship but everyone else can see it – Maybe Brunt keeps finding reasons to return to Deep Space Nice to make Quark’s life a misery, and Quark does everything he can to irritate Brunt, and neither of the two of them wants to admit that actually they’re sort of starting to enjoy each other’s company, while as far as everyone else is concerned they’re already basically together.
A post-canon fic with an established relationship between Quark and Brunt. They’re… sort of settled. Almost happy. And then, like a hand grenade tossed into the middle of their relationship, Quark’s old lover Natima Lang comes back. Somehow Brunt finds out what happened between them and is torn between horrified disgust at Quark being willing to abandon everything to run off with her and seething jealousy because he thinks, rightly or wrongly, that Quark wouldn't do that for HIM in a million years. Maybe Quark and Natima have both moved on with no lingering feelings other than a faint poignant ‘what might have been’, or maybe they’re still as in love with each other as ever and the only way to resolve this is with Quark/Natima/Brunt.
5+1 Things – A post-canon 5+1 fic exploring the ways every single member of Quark’s family undermines their attempts at (semi-)tradition Ferengi parenting (preferably of a boy, please, unless the focus is on them both overcoming their terrible ingrained sexism to the point where it’s probably going to be a bit ooc, let’s face it).
Having met by chance with an oddly familiar stranger in a bar who shares his animosity for Quark, Brunt obtains a copy of a unique holosuite program involving Major Kira with Quark’s head in return for a discounted price and the promise to use it to destroy Quark. Which would be easier to do if he could just stop thinking about how it would be better with Quark’s head on Quark’s body. To facilitate Getting Revenge, obviously. (And just as soon as he figures out why the hell Quark would make the program so damn good at oo-mox if it was written for a non-Ferengi).
So, um, those scenes in The Dogs of War when Brunt is sucking up to Quark because they both think Zek is going to appoint him the next Grand Nagus? He’d be remiss if he forgot Rule 113 of the Rules of Acquisition: Always have sex with the boss.
Ishka figures out why Brunt is so fixated on bringing Quark down. And, well, okay, yes, Brunt is terrible, but also he’s a good Ferengi, and frankly, Quark could probably do worse.
Time Travel Fix-It – Brunt and Quark travel back to a point where they’re in a position to alter the course of Ferengi history and prevent the sweeping changes brought about by Quark’s mother, but potentially ruining their fortunes in their present, since with the franchisement of Quark’s they’re actually doing pretty damn well for themselves. Do they go through with it, or disagree about whether they should go through with it?

Mirror Ezri Dax/Brunt & Mirror Ezri Dax/Mirror Brunt/Brunt

Mirror!Brunt is such a sweetheart. Pottering around the ship preparing tube grubs for everyone! Honourable and decent and loyal! Quietly and respectfully pining for Mirror!Ezri, knowing that his feelings will probably never be reciprocated, and being a little bit sad about that, but it doesn’t matter because he values her friendship and their partnership above everything else!

And then there’s Brunt. XD

Brunt is genuinely terrible in so many ways. He’s the worst, and I have loved him right from the first moment he was twitchy about Ishka wearing clothes. <3<3<3 I’m so charmed by the difference between him and his mirror counterpart, and I just want him and Mirror!Ezri to hook up however it comes about, and whether it’s just a one-off or something more long-lasting. Maybe she needs him to pretend to be Mirror!Brunt to pull something off. Or maybe she finds herself in the non-mirror universe and runs into him in Quark’s, and is, uh... taken aback? Fascinated? Weirdly charmed?... by this absolute dick with the face of the dead partner she really was very fond of. He’s sexist and greedy and treacherous, and she can’t trust him as far as she can throw him, but maybe she finds herself drawn to him. And while Mirror!Brunt was far too self-effacing to proposition her, the same is very definitely not true of regular Brunt. Maybe it’s just because she really misses her Brunt, or maybe it’s because regular Brunt reminds her more of herself, or maybe it’s just because she’s horny and he’s there, idk.

As for the OT3, I cannot say how delighted I am by the idea of the two Brunts meeting. I can’t tell which of them would be the more horrified at meeting the other one. I’m not quite sure how the threesome would come about, but man, do I want to see it. Is it a one-off, or is the OT3 threesome the catalyst that actually gets Mirror Brunt/Mirror Ezri together?

And while this should go without saying, canon divergent fics are very welcome here. The poor Ferengi never seem to get much of a chance in the Mirror universe. (I’m also curious what Ferenginar is actually like there).

I headcanon Mirror Ezri as bisexual and read Mirror Brunt's comment about her being picky when it comes to men as relating to Quark and Brunt being Ferengi. References to her relationships with Mirror Leeta and the Intendant are welcome, and the requested ships absolutely do NOT have to be end-game (although I would prefer the fic to focus on them.) Look, I just find the idea of these two treacherous bastards hooking up hot as fuck, even if it's just temporary, and I'm both amused and heartbroken at how Mirror Brunt might react to finding out that actually she will make an exception for at least one Ferengi male and it's the terrible evil mirror universe version of himself who is the literal worst.

Optional Prompts

Femdom – Because if there’s ever been a character who very definitely needs to get dommed by a female, it is Brunt.
Clothing - Naked Male Clothed Female – Niiice. I just love this freeform so, so much when it comes to Brunt (especially if combined with femdom). He would just hate it so fucking much. It’s disgusting. It’s depraved. So why the hell does he find it so fucking hot? *hearteyes*
Identity Porn – Brunt has to pose as his Mirror counterpart and work with Mirror!Ezri, leading to a sex scene in which for kink reasons he ends up having sex with her while still in the Mirror!Brunt persona.
A threesome in which Ezri and Brunt edge Mirror!Brunt until he’s a sobbing desperate mess. Look, I just want him to have nice things okay?
Accidental Baby Acquisition – I am a sucker for certain tropes and one of those tropes that will forever get me is when people who under normal circumstances have no business looking after babies get stuck looking after a baby. If Mirror!Brunt is around, maybe the plan was that he’d be the one looking after the kid, but due to something going wrong, he and Brunt have to trade places and pretend to be each other.
Competence Kink - Whether they’re rivals or allies, I just love the idea of Brunt and Mirror!Ezri being secretly impressed and turned on by how good the other one is at lying, cheating and stealing. Lets just say Brunt probably has more in common with Mirror!Ezri than his counterpart does.
Since his death, Ezri has been seeing Mirror!Brunt's ghost. Maybe it’s some kind of hallucination from a space anomaly, or maybe she’s just imagining him, or maybe he really is a ghost, or maybe he’s the result of a malfunctioning portable holoprojector (which she hasn’t fixed because she kind of misses him and it’s nice having him around). but either way she’s gradually beginning to accept she might have had feelings for him after all. Then she meets Brunt.
proxy-fucking – Mirror!Ezri fucking Brunt as a way of processing the grief she feels about Mirror!Brunt’s death.

Odo/Weyoun

Go with any Weyoun you want, whether past, present, or future. In the relaunch novels, Odo creates a ninth clone to act as his aide, and while I’m not otherwise tied to the canon of the relaunch novels, as far as I’m concerned, Odo bringing Weyoun back absolutely happened, and that is a hill I will die on. :D

I've shipped Odo/Weyoun pretty damn hard right from Weyoun's first episode, and Weyoun 6 sacrificing himself and then dying in Odo’s arms certainly didn’t make me ship them any less. There's a lot to dig into with this relationship: the complexities of the Vorta and their inbuilt loyalty to Changelings, the potential for changes to the way the Vorta are created and how that might affect the Dominion, Odo's blind spot for his people, and the fact that they're both capable of leading very long lives. Even when almost every other solid Odo’s known in his life has passed on, Weyoun could potentially still be around, and there are a lot of possibilities there.

There’s also a moment in A Time to Stand when Weyoun 5, gloriously insincere arsehole that he is, talks about the habitat ring echoing with the sound of happy children, but this is a man who’d knowing preside over wiping out the population of entire planets, and of course the Vorta don’t have children or childhoods in the usual way, and that’s probably something else the Dominion have taken away from them. It’s pure nightmare fuel.

I have a lot of feelings about everything that happens between them both in Faith, Treachery and the Great River, and what it says about both their characters. That story Weyoun 6 tells Odo about the origins of his people, and the way Odo seems to take it as kindness when actually what the Founders did was at the very least mass enslavement, and possibly even something akin to genocide? The suggestion that the Vorta are powerful is laughable, given that their entire purpose, over and above their own wellbeing, is to serve the Founders, and Odo of all people should know that. Would he have thought of himself as powerful when he was facilitating the Cardassians on Terok Nor? (Yeah, I wasn’t kidding about having a lot of feelings about that episode. XD) There are a lot of interesting parallels to be drawn, and I do very much appreciate Odo’s blind spot when it comes to his people though.

Optional Prompts

DS9: Post-canon attempt to return the Vorta to sexual reproduction; first non-clone baby born - With Weyoun and Odo being at the heart of the attempt.
A canon-divergent fic where Weyoun 6 survives to defect to the Federation, exploring how their relationship goes after the war is over.
A canon-divergent AU where the canonical baby Changeling turns up while the station is in the hands of the Dominion and Weyoun is involved with Odo's attempts to look after it.
Complicated emotions at being pregnant with a baby character believes is a god - somehow Weyoun ends up knocked up, whether it's some kind of handwavy transporter accident type accident, or the result of a sex pollen incident necessary to save Odo's life and neither of them realised Weyoun could get pregnant that way. Is there some kind of side effect from the pregnancy which leaves Weyoun with some degree of shapeshifting powers, or the ability to link with the baby, which is amazing but also very uncomfortable because he's just a Vorta.
Cloning Accident result in creating a baby - The real reason Weyoun 6 tried to defect. :D Is it a wholly new person or just a baby version of Weyoun, and what are the implications of it not being going through the full cloning process?
character that thought they had zero parenting instincts goes into hardcore protective mode - I love Weyoun as a villain at least partly because of how very... unintimidating he is in a lot of ways. He's small and slight and vulnerable and he keeps dying, and I'm really drawn to this prompt both for him embracing his violent side in the interests of protecting a baby and for the potential to explore his character because I’ll always love a character study.
a 5+1 fic exploring the way Odo's relationship with the various different Weyouns changes over the years.
Sex Pollen – Whether it’s Odo affected and Weyoun willingly sacrifices himself to save the Founder, or Weyoun is affected and is horrified/pathetically grateful at Odo being willing to help. Or the aftermath of the sex pollen situation with all the fallout.
A canon-divergent AU where Odo remains human for longer, and he’s still a solid when he meets Weyoun 5 for the first time. What effect would Odo's becoming a solid have on their dynamic? How would the Vorta conceptualise the concept of a god becoming a solid, and what does that mean for the way Weyoun’s worldview? I’d be delighted with anything from a character/relationship study that follows their time on the station together, or perhaps something plottier where they're stranded on a planet together and have to work together to survive, but now Odo's just as vulnerable as Weyoun is. (Sex pollen always welcome)
Hurt/Comfort - Character Treats Other Character's Injuries – Weyoun is injured and Odo has to treat his injuries, whether it’s Weyoun 6 or one of the other ones. I’m just fascinated by all the messy feelings of faith and awe, and Odo’s discomfort at being thought of as a god.
Slow and painful process of recovering from lifetime of cultural brainwashing – Whether it happens over the course of one Weyoun or several. I really love all the tangled complexities of the way the Vorta see the world. Maybe this is a canon-divergent fic where Weyoun 6 survives and Odo tries to deprogram him? Or maybe a future Weyoun where the process has begun but isn't quite there yet.
Whump - A sacrifices themself to protect B; B is forced to watch A being tortured – The obvious candidate for self-sacrifice is Weyoun, but Odo sacrificing himself and Weyoun's struggles watching him being tortured (perhaps that Romulan device that stops him from changing shape) would be delicious too.

Mirror Brunt/Weyoun 6

Because a passing stray thought that Mirror Brunt and Weyoun 6 should hook up got into my head and then refused to go away. Which I can understand, because because fucking hell, yes. I have absolutely no idea how it would work or how it would come about, but goddamn do I want it to happen.

As ships go, this is absurdly self-indulgent, but at the same time there are some potentially really interesting dynamics and parallels to be drawn between them. They're both more sympathetic versions of more or less antagonistic characters, both desperately loyal to another person with whom they have a somewhat one-sided relationship, (and they're both adorable tragically doomed cinnamon rolls. D:) Maybe Weyoun finds himself stranded in the Mirror universe – is the fact that it isn’t his universe provide a loophole that allows him to override his inbuild loyalty to the Dominion? (Keevan shows that not all Vorta are unquestionably loyal, which suggests that Weyoun is just like that, unswervingly terrifyingly loyal, whether it’s to the Dominion or to Odo, and I love him all the more for that) Does he immediately set out to try to find a way back to his universe, or to find the wormhole in the Mirror universe? How does Mirror Odo complicate matters?

There are countless things I’d love to see here, and explore it however you want, but I do really love the idea of him gradually coming to terms with being stranded in the Mirror universe, and even though it’s a grimdark hellhole, realising he’s better off there, even though he’s conflicted about staying. And as for Mirror Brunt, mmph, these two sweethearts would be absolutely perfect for each other. Just get them together and make them kiss, however you have to do it. And maybe they’re both pining for other people at first, but gradually they catch feelings for each other. They’re both so lovely: they deserve some happiness.

Optional Prompts

Look, if in doubt, please just make them kiss and I will be happy. :D
Body Swap - Characters Are Alarmingly Good At Being Each Other
Conflicting loyalties – Explore the issue of loyalty and how it manifests in each of them. Especially Weyoun, whose loyalties are at least somewhat artificial. How does the Mirror universe affect his loyalties to the Founders? Is he able to override it? Perhaps because he’s stuck there he gradually becomes used to feeling free of his obligations to the Dominion, and transfers his loyalties to Mirror Brunt instead, but then an opportunity to return to the prime universe arises and he has to deal with his conflicting loyalties.
Weyoun has fallen in with M!Ezri and M!Brunt and has been working with them for a while without issue until they capture Mirror!Odo. And maybe he can override his instinctive loyalties because this is the Mirror!Universe version and so not a true Founder, but it doesn’t come easily.
Character finally finds an unconditionally good relationship; not sure how to handle it - They're both just so damn sweet, and while everything else might be going to hell, the two of them still manage to carve out some moments of sweetness in the middle of the nightmarish dystopia that is the Mirror Universe.
Character isn't used to being loved and shown tenderness/affection – Because loving relationships aren’t normally part of a Vorta’s life experience, and Weyoun isn’t quite sure how to handle it.
Food as part of the language of love – They both have interesting relationships with food. Given Mirror Brunt’s tendency to make sure everyone’s fed (with tube grubs, but still...), and the way Weyoun works his way through everything on the replicator’s menu, it seems like this would be the perfect way for them to bond. And okay, maybe Brunt can’t get his hands on kava nuts or rippleberries but there must be something.
Creating your moral code from scratch after the last one imploded – So let’s say Weyoun is stranded, temporarily or otherwise, in the Mirror universe. He’s finally free of his obligations to the Dominion, because there is no Dominion there, and so has to figure out a few things and relearn the sort of person he wants to be.
Gently touching a character's scar(s) – Because again this is one of the contrasts between them, Mirror Brunt being scarred (because picking up scars in the Mirror Universe is inevitable, let’s face it) while Weyoun is almost entirely scar-free due to being a recent clone. I’m particularly here for scar kink, and all the associated fascination and sympathy and tenderness, but you could also play with the issues over cloning: Weyoun’s memories of injuries sustained by other Weyouns, which aren’t reflected on his body, but which maybe he feels as phantom scars of some kind?
Emotional hurt/comfort – Ordinarily Vortas’ memories of their previous deaths and injuries are suppressed as part of the cloning process to ensure they remain motivated and willing to sacrifice themselves, but every now and then those suppressed memories return in full force.
Identity Porn - A scam/heist requires that they both have to pose as their other selves.
Smut - experimenting with and exploring interspecies biology.
on the run together – Whether from the Alliance or from some kind of crime syndicate (potentially run by Mirror Ishka XD), and bonding in the process.
Two tired people taking quiet comfort in each other – Exhausted sex, moments of respite in the middle of the world going to hell, the two of them finding moments of common ground, etc.
Competence Kink - And the two of them being quietly impressed and turned on by the other’s competence: Brunt’s toughness and fighting skills and Weyoun's innate diplomacy and negotiating skills.

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Would You Rather (2012)

Requested Ships:
Shepard Lambrick & Julian Lambrick
Shepard Lambrick & Iris
Shepard Lambrick/Iris
Requested Worldbuilding Tags:
WB: Past and Future Games
WB: The Lambrick Foundation
Requested Freeforms:

Shepard Lambrick & Julian Lambrick

Fucked-up Lambrick family dynamics please! :D While the film itself doesn’t do too much digging into the Lambrick family, it sets up a lot of hints that seem like they’d be very fun to dig into. Like, what the deal is with the Lambrick Foundation, and everything to do with the games, past, present and future. And especially the relationship between Julian and his father, which I find deeply uncomfortable to watch but in an extremely satisfying way (much like the film itself XD). Julian is a terrible excuse for a human being, but it’s pretty clear at least part of the reason he’s so sadistic and screwed up and ultimately a cringing little worm (that bit where he’s cowering under the table much to Shepard’s contempt? Oof) is because of having Shepard as a father. And god, Shepard: from his first appearance where he’s putting on the thinnest veneer of philanthropy possible to the way he manipulates the proceedings of the game, terrorising basically everyone except Bevans? Even when things are going wrong, he’s never less than in control. He’s a genuinely terrifying villain and an absolute blast to watch.

Every moment Shepard and Julian interact is gold, and I would very much like to know more about their relationship. There are some interesting wrinkles there: the whole thing about Shepard being glad that Julian’s finally taking an interest in the Foundation, the question of what happened with Julian’s mother, the way Shepard reacts when he finds out about Julian’s attempt to sexually assault Iris, and whatever happens between them off-screen when Shepard excuses himself to talk to Julian… It shouldn’t be that hard for Julian to live up to his father, right, and yet he keeps failing and disappointing his father again and again, and yeeeeah, I’m not sure Shepard Lambrick is a man you really want to disappoint.

I’d love to see exploration of other games, whether in the past or the future, alternative ways the game in the film could have gone, what Julian’s childhood was like, what happened to his mother, how the whole thing came about in the first place. Even just a fic exploring the day-to-day running of the Foundation, which might seem entirely normal on the surface, but with occasional glimpses behind the curtain to suggest that something is very, very badly wrong, like glimpses of ex-players who are now working for the Lambricks. How many of them are morally compromised in the way that Dr Barden was, and how many have willingly, even eagerly, embraced everything Shepard had to offer?

I’m fascinated by the way Shepard manipulates everyone around him (including his family?), and the way he seems to be building up this network of people who are complicit in murder, and what his motivations for doing that might be. Or the consequences of the game we see in canon: what will Iris do next given her reason for playing is now gone? Will she make use of Shepard’s patronage any way or turn against him?

And then there’s Lucas. Watching the film for the first time, I was convinced he was going to turn out to be the other Lambrick brother, and to have been a ringer in on it all along. It would probably have been too obvious a twist, but story-wise and character-wise the possibilities are delicious, and I am so so here for Lucas and Julian as siblings with a fucked-up codependent relationship: Lucas as the golden child, the one who has the guts to actually take part in the games himself, risking genuine physical pain and potential harm (short of death because they've been rigged just enough) because that’s what his father’s ‘rules’ call for, with Julian as the weaker son who can never live up to his father’s legacy. (The film ultimately doesn’t really bear this out, but it’s not beyond the realms of possibility that the eye injury could have been faked, and maaaaybe the death too if you squint. And hey, that's what AUs are for.)

It throws an interesting spin on Julian’s bitterness, and on some of Lucas’s behaviour in the game, and the possibility that he too is pushing back against his father. Or maybe the reason he gives the others a chance to run is to give Julian the chance to go after her, because because he’s doing it for his brother or because he knows how his father will react. I particularly love the idea of Shepard taking a hands-off approach to discipline, but manipulating them into punishing each other instead.

If you do go this route, I am absolutely here for Lucas and Julian having an incestuous relationship. Perhaps one which they think their father doesn’t know about, although actually not only does he know about it, he’s quietly done everything in his power to encourage it. (Or for extra fucked-up vibes, Lucas knows their father knows, but Julian doesn’t.)

Optional Prompts

Something Lovecraftian – Because apparently I’m almost incapable of requesting an entirely non-Lovecraftian film with Jeffrey Combs in it without going ‘Yeah, but what if Lovecraft though?’ On the one hand, you could just take this film at face value, but on the other there does seem to be an odd sense of duty about the way Shepard treats the games, with his attention to the rules and tradition, so what if the Foundation and the games have some kind of supernatural reason for existing?
Antagonism - characters don't like each other but nobody else understands them this well Characters who can't stand each other would also die for each other
Daddy Issues – Because if there was ever a character with hang-ups over his father, it’s Julian Lambrick.
Fantasies about murdering your father – Whether a 5+1 fic about the times Julian has thought about killing his father throughout his life, or something a bit more involved, where he’s actually seriously thinking about going through with it. Or dreaming about doing it. Will he ever have the guts? Does Shepard know? (And if Lucas is involved, maybe the two of them plotting together as part of some fucked-up sexual fantasy, but actually Lucas is telling Shepard about it)
Shepard is beginning to have doubts about whether Julian really has the necessary qualities to follow in his footsteps. Maybe he decides to give Julian one last chance.
A fucked-up slice of life fic following the everyday operations of the Lambrick Foundation.
Something investigating Shepard’s relationship with his son in contrast to Shepard’s relationship with his own father.
What was the first game like? Did it happen under Shepard, or was it something that he inherited? If the latter, then what was his experience of his first game like?

Shepard Lambrick & Iris, Shepard Lambrick/Iris

And then there’s my Iris &/ Shepard requests. Whether entirely platonic or shippy (in whatever form that takes) or something in between, these have so much potential to be utterly fucked up and uncomfortable in a way that very much appeals to me. Given Shepard’s ongoing relationship with Dr Barden at the start of the film, it can be assumed that he makes a habit of taking a continuing interest in the winners of his games, and his ‘Call me Shep’ at the end of the film (*shiver*) suggests that it’s going to be the same sort of situation with Iris, and that he’s going to follow her career through college with an eye to manipulating into a position where she can be of some use to him. And oh dear fucking god, that’s creepy.

The situation at the end of the film throws that completely out of joint though, and I go back and forth on which way she might go. Her primary reason for taking part in the game has gone, but it’s also one of the few things that Shepard isn’t responsible for, and I could go either way on whether she chooses to take advantage of Shepard’s patronage or not.

And Shepard himself is such a bundle of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, he’s a fucked-up, sadistic, manipulative arsehole who gets a kick out of psychological and physical torture (he’s just enjoying himself so much), but on the other hand he really does seem to run the games by a certain set of rules and maybe a sick sort of honour, which almost makes him more terrifying in a way. I’m thinking of the moment when he apologises to Iris for Julian’s behaviour – in a way that touch on her shoulder makes my skin crawl more than the attempted rape. It’s all very messy and uncomfortable, and one of the reasons why I love this fucked up little film so much, aside from how tense and claustrophobic it is.

What if the situation leads him to take even more of an interest in her than he usually would? Or perhaps his additional interest is in reaction to something she does? Maybe every now and then one of the players of the game does something to genuinely surprise him, and something about her draws him to her, to the point, perhaps, where he starts to shape her into a potential protoge. (Which Julian isn’t exactly happy about naturally).

As for the shippy version a lot of the appeal of this is how deeply fucked up it would be, and the deal with the devil vibes it would have, and Iris telling herself that she’s going into it with her eyes open because she knows what a monster he is, and finding herself in way over her head anyway. What does it take for this to come about?

Optional Prompts

Enemies to Lovers - Enemy tenderly treats character's injuries that the enemy inflicted – Whether this follows on directly from the end of the film, or relates to a whole new injury that Iris has sustained, I am so completely here for this. Or alternatively, what if Shepard is the one who’s been injured at Iris’s hands. It’s a couple of years down the line and, trying to get her revenge on him, she’s taken him to an isolated cabin while his people hunt for them. Only she isn’t sure whether she can really bring herself to kill someone again. Manipulation ensues.
Antagonist Surprises With Honourable Behavior – ‘honourable’ according to Shepard’s judgement, anyway. Because he really does seem to have a fucked-up code of his own when it comes to the games, even if that is just one of his manipulation techniques. But he honours his promises, and Iris finds herself conflicted.
Breathplay - top/dom likes getting choked – Consider this an exception to my Breathplay DNW. Shepard has a thing about being choked. Iris obliges because she just hates him so much. They’re both drawn to the element of risk: him because he knows she might well kill him if she was capable of it, she’s not sure if she is capable of it, but knows that if she takes it too far it could end very badly for her.
Captivity – For one reason or another, Shepard decides it’s necessary to have Iris quietly disposed of, but he’s unwilling to have her killed so imprisons her instead.
Character has their face shaved with a straight razor (by someone they have reason to distrust) – Having established a sexual relationship, although still aware that there’s good chance she’d like to kill him, Shepard lets Iris shave him. What appeals to me here is the sexual tension and Iris’s ever-present temptation to just cut his throat and have done with it.
Character Trains a Protege – Ohhh baby. Explore this however you want to, whether the focus is on the beginning of the process or if you start with her taking her place as a witness to a game. Is Iris all in (for whatever reason), or does she still have her doubts, or is she working against him somehow? And what exactly is Julian doing in all of this?
Slow Seduction/Corruption Arc – So uncomfortably hot, whatever form the seduction takes, whether it’s about sex or a moral corruption. I am absolutely here for a sexual relationship developing between them, but also her originally resisting him trying to use her for his own ends once she’s gone through college, and his attempts to bring her around, finding her a job, etc.
Outsider POV of a 'date' between Shepard and Iris. Especially if its clearly deeply uncomfortable, but to the outsider it just looks like a normal date between a solicitous older man and a younger woman (aside from maybe a couple of out-of-place moments).
Possessiveness - No One Is Allowed to Hurt You Except Me – Times when Shepard went out of his way to protect Iris.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder – After the game, Iris is struggling to recover from the experience.
Scar Worship – Specifically that stab-wound. But also, maybe Shepard has one or two scars of his own.

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Thanks for reading!

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