Id Pro Quo Letter 2021

[corvusumbranox]

Id Pro Quo 2021 Letter

AO3 Username: StopTalkingAtMe

Welcome to my Id Pro Quo letter, Dear Creator. Some of the sections here may be longer than others but please don’t read anything into that – I’d be thrilled to receive a fic or piece of artwork for any one of the fandoms or ships I’ve requested. All requests are for both art and fic.

Table of Contents

• General Preferences
  
  • General Likes
  • Art Likes
  • Smut Likes
  • DNWs
• Blake’s 7
  
  • Servalan/Travis
  • Roj Blake/Travis
• Doctor Who (1963)
  
  • Third Doctor/Jo Grant
• The Last Days of Pompeii (TV 1984)
  
  • Lydon/Sporus, Lydon/Nydia/Sporus
  • Melior/The Unnamed Barmaid
• The Sword and the Sorcerer (1981)
  
  • Titus Cromwell/Xusia of Delos, Mikah/Titus Cromwell
  • Alana/Talon, Elizabeth/Mikah

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.
• Closed Circle - Stranded with a murderer in your midst
• Case-fic.
• Whump
• Endings of all kinds, happy, bleak or bittersweet.
• Canon-divergent AUs, especially post-canon ones where the bad guys win.
• Pining
• Descriptions of scars
• Main Character Death and grief.
• Crossovers (If you have reason to believe I know and like the other fandom, go for it).
• Dimension Travel
• Mirror Universe
• Post-Apocalypse
• Stranded Together With No Way Home
• Time Loops
• that fic genre w/ long lowercase title (&parenthetical) that’s sexy moody multilayered & complicated

Smut Likes

• Sex Pollen and aftermath
• Aliens Made Them Do It
• Angry Sex
• Careful Sex with an Injured Partner
• Clothed Sex
• Comfort Sex
• Dubcon when requested (mutual dubcon of the something-made-us-do-it kind is ALWAYS okay even when not explicitly requested)
• Foreplay - Kissing down partner's spine as you slide down/unzip their top
• Hate Sex - Characters having hate sex gradually catch feelings
• Kisses pressed against the back of the neck and/or along bare/mostly-bare shoulders
• Mild bondage and other forms of gentle restraint
• Morning after (amazing sex the night before)
• Oral Sex
• Rough Sex - Lots of Scratching and Biting and Hair-Grabbing/Pulling and Holding Partner(s) Down
• Sex in grimy, grim, uncomfortable places
• Sex - Loving Soft Gentle Submission to Inexperienced Character
• Sex - Touch-Starved Character So Overwhelmed They Don't Know What to Do With Themselves
• Sex Pollen - Both/All Affected
• Threesomes

General Art Likes

In terms of artwork I'm open to a lot of different things, but I'll particularly love something which captures the atmosphere of canon, whether that be beautiful scenery, or something grim and gritty. If it suits the fandom and ship, I'm not averse to a bit of gore and violence either, and there's a couple where I'd particularly like some elements of horror. I love contrast and lots of rich intricate detail, but I'm also open to simpler art with softer, more muted colours if that's your style. I also quite like diptychs and triptychs, as well as the use of stylised borders which incorporate themes and objects from canon, such as clockwork, books, or vines. Artist-wise, I'm particularly fond of art nouveau and the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, but seriously, anything.

DNWs

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

Blake’s 7

It’s rare that I fall so completely and utterly head-over-heels in love with a show, but it’s happened with Blake’s 7, to the point where frankly I’m a little taken aback. I loved it right from the very first episode, which was so grimly dystopian (the bureaucracy, the people in charge running ‘feasibility studies’ when the possibility being examined is the act of planting false memories of abuse in the minds of children, I mean… fuck. Fuck.) It’s so utterly bleak and awful, but then it’s balanced out by the sheer fun of the sets and the storylines.

I’ll be up for anything that examines the dystopian elements of the world and the Federation, angst, backstory, canon divergent AUs set during, pre- and post-canon, hurt/comfort, whump and torture, trust issues, case fic of the planet-of-the-week sort or the murder mystery sort, clothes porn, and… look, I’ll take basically anything for this show.

Request One: Servalan/Travis
Servalan/Travis
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: "I Hate You More Than Anything But Can't Live Without You", “love is dangerous I’ll pine from afar” to “I rly want them but can’t have them 😭“ to happy ending, Amnesia - Affected person forgets the terrible things they've done, Amnesiac's Slow Realization That They're A (Non-Literal) Monster, Angst - characters know exactly how to hurt each other emotionally, Antagonism - characters don't like each other but nobody else understands them this well, Can't live with you; can't live without you, Canon divergence due to bad guy switching loyalties, Casual sex while hiding feelings, Character A and Character B Mutually Pine For Each Other While They Fuck Other People Together, Character A resents how much they love Character B, Complicated relationships of love and loyalty and hurt and resentment, A dies; B will not stand for this, Exploitation of extreme loyalty, fleeting moment of unexpected tenderness in the midst of hate sex, Loyalty Kink - Person A Thought Would Inevitably Betray A Proves To Be Extremely Loyal, Yanking head back by the hair

These two. Oh god, where do I even start. I was going to say they were the two most evil people in the Federation, but this is the Federation that plants false memories of abuse in the minds of children, so… idek. I loved the brief flash of a conscience Travis shows in Deliverance and the way she tramples on it and you can see him reassessing his opinion of her right there and then, and the way the whole of his arc in the second series is a constant push and pull between them, going from working together to antagonistic to whatever the hell that was in Gambit… I mean, she had him at her mercy on a sex swing. A literal sex swing. And all the time they were low-key threatening each other they were holding hands. I was already shipping them pretty damn hard, and watching that felt like a fever dream. I’m still not entirely convinced I didn’t hallucinate it. :D

Go with either Travis, or bridge the gap between the two. I loved Travis I, but Travis II won me round very quickly indeed. I liked his quieter, more sinister manner (and his scruffier appearance towards the latter half of the season was scorching hot, so, uh, any description of that wouldn’t go amiss. Look, the slipping of his military standards of appearance is thematically relevant character development, okay?). I’d be especially here for anything that explores reasons for the changes in his behaviour (such as the moment in Weapon where he goes all broken and mentions his visits to the retraining therapists) and his gradual deterioration over the course of season 2. An AU with Travis II in the first season or Travis I in the second would be interesting too – their speech patterns, manner and appearance are very different, and it’d be interesting seeing how his story arc in the second season would work with Travis I. And Servalan, how utterly ruthless and amoral she is, the way she tries to manipulate everybody, her poise, her clothes, the way she toys with him, and finds a way, despite his break from the Federation as a result of her scheming, to get him working for her again. She’s so utterly ruthless and evil and fantastic to watch. I especially love seeing her when she’s out of her comfort zone, but managing to regain her composure. I’m also open to post season 2 set fics where it’s not Travis himself but a clone she’s had made for reasons of her own.

I’m always here for character studies and I’d love to see something that dives deep into their characters and motivations (and maybe continues what the show started and humanises them a little, while not letting them off the hook for the atrocities they’ve committed), but I’m also up for pure smut too. Man, I am so, so here for fucked-up loyalty kink between them. And I don’t know if loyalty kink is the right word for their relationship, considering everything that happens in canon, but I still can’t help but see him as desperately wanting to be ride-or-die for her, even after everything she’s done to him and knowing she’ll fuck him over at the first opportunity, but if he can just prove himself one more time maybe she’ll give him the chance...

Optional Prompts

• Smut – One of my first thoughts on watching the scene between them in Deliverance was that Servalan should really dom the fuck out of him on her conveniently located couch. (In fact those two episodes, Deliverance and Orac, solidified my love for them as a ship, and I wish to god he’d used his body to shield hers when he set that charge in the tunnels under Aristo).
• Yet more smut – Look, she canonically had him unconscious and at her mercy on a sex swing (well, technically a swinging bed suspended from the ceiling, but still…). Not to do something with that would be criminal.
• Fill in some of the missing moments from his arc, either from the first or second season. In the first season, he’s in disgrace after the events of Duel. His arc in the second season is a rollercoaster ride. After Hostage it’s pretty clear he’s in regularish contact with Servalan, so there are some opportunities for missing scenes there. Maybe he comes close to getting captured by the Federation and she manipulates things to get him free and hunting for Blake again.
• What the hell would pillow talk between the two of them look like?
• More background to The Keeper, please. I have some headcanons about what was going on with him (he just wanted to rule the universe by her side, another moment between them that makes my shippy heart explode in delight, as does the idea that this ship might have been the pivotal moment that would massively change the course of events of the series going forwards), but I’m curious to see your take on it. If she’d let him, would he have been genuinely loyal to her, or might he still have betrayed her down the line? I think it probably goes without saying that she would have betrayed him.
• And along those lines the concept of Travis and Servalan ruling the universe side by side is a TERRIFYING one. Give me that AU, please, or else the set-up for it where he delivers Star One to her.
• An AU where Travis survives Star One. “There's no one as free as a dead man,” Servalan tells him in Hostage. Well, now everyone thinks he’s dead, so he’s got his freedom. What’s he going to do with it? How does he get off Star One? Does he end up working with Servalan again, or watch her from afar, trying to keep his head down? Or maybe he carves out a new identity for himself and later runs into Servalan as Commissioner Sleer putting them both in a very awkward position, each knowing the other's real identity and able to turn the other in. Given what the Federation is up to at this point, chances are they wouldn't give a shit about Travis's war crimes, and so if only Servalan knows about his involvement with Star One it would make the power balance between them very interesting indeed...
• Amnesiac's Slow Realization That They're A (Non-Literal) Monster - After hid death, Servalan secretly has Travis cloned. Gradually the clone begins to realise what sort of man he was. I just love the idea of Servalan keeping him in the dark about everything that's going on, and him coming to represent this moment of peace away from the Federation, when actually...
• Character A and Character B Mutually Pine For Each Other While They Fuck Other People Together - Poor, poor Jarriere. Or Rai (Or possibly Jarvik if you're up for a canon-divergent AU). Or maybe Carnell, who'd probably be manipulating the two of them right back for his own reasons. I just love the thought of the two of them fucking each other by proxy - Travis targeting the people he thinks Servalan is sleeping with, and the whole thing amping up into something incredibly messy.

Art Likes

I love the look of this series so, so much: the gloriously wonky BBC special effects, and the clothes – oh god, the clothes - so anything like that which can be incorporated will be appreciated, and I am here for pure unadulterated costume porn, especially if Servalan is involved.

I'd just love to see Servalan and Travis interacting. Looks-wise I have a slight preference for Travis I (that metal plate!) or outlaw!Travis II (his scruffy hair! That beard!), and the visual contrast between her white flowing dresses and his black leather uniform. Sexually explicit, or just Servalan being Servalan, flirting with her hand on his chest while he’s trying to stay stony-faced (Servalan stroking his chest is life. The tunnels under Aristo. The sex swing. Costume porn. Antagonism. Him choking her. Her slapping him. Servalan domming the fuck out of him. The two of them ruling the universe side by side as the most terrifying power couple of all time. Bonus points if you can get him looking just the tiniest bit vulnerable, especially if he’s trying to look anything but.

Request Two: Roj Blake/Travis
Roj Blake/Travis
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: Aliens Made Them Do It, Amnesia - Affected person forgets the terrible things they've done, Bonding - characters grow closer despite themselves, Both Captured - Forced to Work Together to Escape, Brainwashing - Character Recovered from Brainwashing Gets Captured and Brainwashed Again, Canon divergence due to bad guy switching loyalties, Character A nurses character B back to health after B nearly killed A, Characters Stranded Without Any Other People For Decades, Characters That Don't Like Each Other Nonetheless Find Comfort In Parallel Traumas, conflicted horny feelings towards an alternative version of your enemy, Dubcon - Character in denial about wanting it, Dubcon - Conditioning Means Unable to Say No For Sex, Enemies Forced To Work Together, Enemies to Allies - Character From Future Tries To Convince Current Enemy To Work Together, Enemies to Allies of Convenience to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers - Character A Tenderly Treats Character B's Injuries Character A Inflicted, Enemy uses mindwipe on hero but mindwipe is only partially effective, Redemption is hard, Yanking head back by the hair

I always love a good enemy ship, and Blake/Travis is a particularly delightful example. Their background, Travis’s overwhelming hatred of Blake, Blake’s repeated failure to kill him… Why does he keep sparing Travis? In Duel he justifies it because the Federation would just send someone else in Travis’s place and at least Blake knows he’s capable of defeating Travis, but it doesn’t ring entirely true. It could just be him being merciful, but personally I have a soft spot for the idea that Blake’s fucked over about his brainwashing (speaking of which, how does Blake’s period of compliance on Earth fit into Travis’s vendetta against him?) and is aware that Travis is probably the person who knows him best and so subconsciously unwilling to kill Travis because of that. Again, go with either Travis here, whenever you choose to set it.

I want so many different things for this pairing, from smut: Travis dubconning Blake (all the way up to extremely dubious consent), or sex pollen, to something more plotty: like the two of them being stuck in a situation where they’re forced to work together. Smut would be fantastic, but they’ve both been fucked over by the Federation and are both ruthless men willing to do terrible things for their beliefs (and I freaking adored the way the last episode drew deliberate parallels between them), so I’d love to see something where they’re forced to warily interact on a level beyond simply trying to kill each other. I’d also be open to Blake’s clone acting as a stand-in for Blake himself. They had to travel together, so what would that have looked like, considering what happened to the first clone? It’s also fine for the ship to take a back seat to character development.

Optional Prompts

• We’ve heard the story of what happened between Blake and Travis, but we only hear the latter half of it through Blake’s somewhat compromised memories. What if it didn’t happen quite the way Blake described?
• Travis survives Star One and runs into Blake. Does Travis regret what he did or is he completely unrepentant? And considering the consequences of destroying Star One, it’s not like Blake is entirely comfortable on the moral high ground. Perhaps there’s an external conflict that forces them to work together and not just kill each other there and then, but I’d also be willing to just seen them both too tired and broken to fight and so calling a truce of a kind just for one night.
• Smut (although character development would be welcome here too) – It occurs to Travis, possibly at Servalan’s urging, that he might be able to use the clone to work out his issues with Blake. Maybe Servalan acts as a third party directing the two of them, and rather enjoying Travis’s shame at enjoying it so much (he was so broken in that episode), or else a hundred petty little moments of cruelty escalate into extremely dubconny sex.
• Blake ends up brainwashed again and an extremely resentful Travis is set as his guard dog with explicit instructions not to harm him and the ability to erase Blake’s memories if he thinks Blake is starting to suspect something is wrong. It’s not like he was planning on taking advantage of the situation, but it just sort of happened that way. Does Blake start growing on him despite Travis’s best efforts or does the whole situation just intensify the antagonism between them?
• They get stuck in a time loop, (some kind of simulation, perhaps?) and the only way out of the time loop is for them to work together to get them both out of the situation in one piece or, uh, possibly for them to fuck.
• Canon divergence due to bad guy switching loyalties - Watching the show, particularly during season 2 (and with Crais from Farscape in mind), part of me was secretly hoping we'd get to see Travis joining the Liberator's crew, even if just temporarily. It dangled that possibility in front of me in Hostage and it came to nothing, but what if he did switch loyalties? What would it take for that to happen, both for him to switch loyalties and for the crew of the Liberator to tentatively accept that? Would the crew ever be able to 'trust' him enough to work with him (I mean they barely trust each other as it is...)? Is he genuinely seeking redemption or is it all an elaborate scheme? Or just a fraught alliance with Avon because they're both hunting for Blake for their own reasons, each knowing the other will try to kill them if they ever actually find Blake? How would it change the dynamics of the crew? Does Travis know Tarrant already? I have so many questions (it's fine, btw, for Blake not to appear in this if you're setting it after season 2).

Art Likes

Optional Art Prompts

Blake and Travis – Ohhhh boy, the LOOK of these two together, and again I have the same slight preference for either Travis I or outlaw!Travis II. That scene from their backstory where Blake fires on Travis! Blake getting tortured. Somewhat dubiously consensual sexually explicit fanart (sex pollen, or use of aphrodisiacs?). Travis burying his fingers in Blake’s hair and jerking his head back. A post-coital scene where they’re either sated and exhausted and it’s only just beginning to dawn on them what a terrible idea that was, or where that has already become very clear indeed. A moment where they have to work together. Blake having Travis at his mercy and deciding – again! – to spare him. Them drinking together in a bar as part of that Travis survives Star One AU. Evil or brainwashed!Blake working alongside Travis.

Doctor Who (1963)

Requested Ships: Jo Grant/The Third Doctor
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: “love is dangerous I’ll pine from afar” to “I rly want them but can’t have them 😭“ to happy ending, Aftermath of sex pollen - attempting to resume purely professional relationship, Aliens Made Them Do It, bonding in captivity, Case/mission fic ultimately resulting in ship’s realization of feelings for each other, Characters both trying to sacrifice themselves for the other, Characters Stranded Without Any Other People For Decades, Closed Circle - Stranded with a murderer in your midst, A dies; B will not stand for this, Forehead Kisses, Gratuitous descriptions of hugging, Holding Hands, Hurt/Comfort - feeling your feelings in a quiet moment with a much older/immortal being, Oh No We Have to Get Married For .... Political Reasons Yeah That's It, Passionate first kiss after near-death experience, outsider pov, Pining - B is completely oblivious to A's pining and A intends to keep it that way, Slow Burn - Soulbonding is the only way for A to save seriously injured B's life, Time Loop - A is trying to save the life of B; the one they're secretly in love with and pining for, Undercover - Undercover as a Couple brings out Feelings

~~

Jo Grant/The Third Doctor

*On the subject of my infidelity DNW, if it comes to it (e.g. for anything more than unrequited or unrealised pining), then either disregard Clifford Jones or have them be separated UNLESS you choose to indulge my ridiculous 'Clifford Jones is actually the Doctor' headcanon, in which case anything goes.

”Jo, you've got all the time in the world, and all the space. I'm offering them to you.” *hearteyes*

I was already kind of shipping them because I am a sucker for hand-holding and they are always holding hands or hugging, but then I skipped ahead to The Green Death and oh my fucking god. I can’t see that speech at the beginning with the Doctor offering her the universe as anything but a love confession. It’s not just the words, but his delivery, which is ridiculously solemn given that he’s just giving her the choice of which shithole planet she wants to fail to get to. And she says no! And then the end of the story where he says goodbye to her and gives her the sapphire from Metebelis 3 as a wedding present (the way their hands touch!) and then she looks back at him as he slips out of the celebrations. Uh, which is to say that The Green Death got me from kind of shipping it to shipping it like burning.

Even if you set the ship aside, the Third Doctor and Jo are one of my favourite Doctor-Companion combinations. I absolutely fucking love the Pertwee years, and I love Jo so much: even back when Dr Who wasn’t on TV I had a battered novelisation of The Daemons that I read to death… (and rewatching it recently I’ve realised that may well be the source of my love for the trapped-in-a-creepy-village trope. The bit in Time Monster where the Master calls the Doctor's bluff and the Doctor can't bring himself to sacrifice Jo, so she makes the decision to sacrifice the both of them. <3<3<3 She’s tougher than she looks and she’s adaptable, but she’s still so vulnerable at times, and he’s so protective of her – all the putting his arm round her, and her flinging herself into his arms and being willing to sacrifice herself for him, him going in to kiss the top of her head… Yeah, I ship them hard.

Set it during canon or alternatively years late when Jo is older and wiser. I’m not really familiar with what the extended media has Jo doing after she leaves the show, so you’ve got an open book there as far as I’m concerned and I’m not bothered about spoilers for other media. Follow that canon or disregard it entirely: it’s up to you. The same goes for the fate of UNIT.

Regarding Clifford Jones, I happen to have a completely unsubstantiated headcanon that he's a previously unmet regeneration of the Doctor under the influence of the Chameleon Arch (perhaps one prior to Three who’s been forgotten about for some reason). It all kind of fits – his eccentricity, his name, his research being, according to the Doctor, remarkable for the age he lives in. Alternatively, I’m fine with him being ignored completely or for him and Jo to have gone on to divorce further down the line.

Optional Prompts

• Remember my headcanon about Clifford Jones? Well, after Jo’s marriage, the Doctor is distracted by inconvenient memories of her, memories which shouldn’t belong to him at all.
• Years after her marriage to Clifford breaks up, Jo finds herself meeting the Third Doctor again. A time paradox at Llanfairfach? The Master?
• Something ridiculously tropey – there’s only one bed, or they arrive on a planet where they’re forced to pose as husband and wife. Or, my favourite, trapped in a cupboard and hiding from monsters.
• Explore the shift in their relationship. Why did the Doctor go from not giving a damn about her flirtation with the Peladon to being so protective of her over Clifford?
• That speech the Doctor gave at the start of The Green Death: what would have happened if she’d agreed to go with him to Metebelis 3 (on the assumption that it would be a stop-off on the way to Llanfairfach).
• Undercover - Undercover as a Couple brings out Feelings - On arriving on a planet, the Doctor and Jo attempt to blend in (Curse of Peladon-style) by pretending to a pair of expected visiting government officials. Unfortunately, those government officials are actually husband and wife and events -- mysterious murders? -- mean they have to pretend to be married so as not to draw suspicion to themselves, and they find themselves enjoying the act. Or maybe they stage a breakup but the act of arguing actually draws them closer together.
• Oh No We Have to Get Married For .... Political Reasons Yeah That's It - Accidental marriage. <3<3<3 I have no idea how this could come about... maybe a planet where marriage is a requirement and so Jo insists on marrying the Doctor to save his life, and then it proves not to be quite so easy to annul as they'd anticipated.
• outsider pov - One of the things I really love about the Pertwee-era is how different the Doctor's manner was with Liz and Jo and it would be fantastic to see Jo's relationship with the Doctor explored through her bonding with Liz. Maybe it just started with Jo seeking out advice for how to work with the Doctor, and then it gradually becomes clear to Liz that Jo is falling in love with him.
• Slow Burn - Soulbonding is the only way for A to save seriously injured B's life - God, I love this concept so much. I could see this working with either character in the life-saving role. All the angst and guilt and anger, whether the anger is directed at the other character or that the other character had to be put in that position, or a messy mixture of both. <3
• Characters Stranded Without Any Other People For Decades - And another concept that's pure id. <3<3<3 Are they stranded for real, and is it permanent, or are they rescued at the end? And if/when Jo dies, will that mean the Doctor has to go on alone? Or, alternatively, is it an implanted memory situation or kind of simulation, with them living out the course of decades over a much shorter period of time, but it's no less real for that? Do they both live through it, or is it just one of them (Jo for preference if only one of them lives it.)

Art Likes

Costume porn, particularly the Doctor’s clothes. (The capes! The frilly shirts!) For the Doctor/Jo, hugging and hand-holding, the Doctor generally being protective, and just scenes of them being adorable together in general. The wonderful, terrible special effects, monsters, and giant maggots, and utterly impractical robots. :D An older Jo meeting the Third Doctor again.

The Last Days of Pompeii – 1984 Miniseries

(Available on Youtube here: part one, part two, and part three. Also, please note this section contains some fairly significant spoilers.)

Basically my distilled pure id from start to finish. Hallucinatory dubcon threesome sex, rival gladiators, doomed lovers, and so many satisfying death scenes I’m shivering in delight at the thought of them. I enjoyed the book too, but found myself preferring a lot of the changes the miniseries made – many of the characters are significantly more likeable, and I was low-key invested in a *lot* of the canon ships and friendships. I also thoroughly appreciated that they decided to give the gladiators more of a role in the story, that they eased back on the ‘Ancient Greece is massively superior to Ancient Rome’ theme in the book, and added a couple of the characters who came to be favourites of mine (especially Chloe <3).

Go with a fix-it or take full advantage of my being fine with Major Character Death and wallow in the tragedy and grief. I’d particularly love to see the gladiatorial life explored a little, especially the various relationships between them all, and canon-divergent AUs are welcome, as are fix-its, whether they’re genuinely fixing things or otherwise. The only thing I would ask you to avoid, if you’re doing a canon-divergent fic, is an AU where Vesuvius doesn’t erupt because that's the whole freaking point. :D Aside from the requested ships, one of the things that appeals about canon is the web of interconnecting friendships (Lydon and Glaucus comparing wrestling styles XD) so I’d love to see that reflected too if you have a chance.

Request One: Sporus/Lydon, Sporus/Lydon/Nydia
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: "Thank Fuck You're Alive!" Emotions Turn Into Frantic Fucking, Careful Sex with an Injured Partner, Character A resents how much they love Character B, Character A tilting character B's chin up with the tip of a sword, Character expected to die but didn't and now has no idea how to live anymore, Characters struggling together with guilt and grief and forgiveness, Coming to terms with the permanent effects of significant injuries, Complicated relationships of love and loyalty and hurt and resentment, Fighting/Sparring as Foreplay, Get Together - Permanently scarred A mistakenly believes B couldn't love them, Gratuitous wallowing in historical detail, Grief - Bonding over mutual grief, Hurt/Comfort - Character hides their illness until they faint and everyone panics, Hurt/Comfort - Character is weak and fatigued but doesn't slow down because they're "just tired", Hurt/Comfort - Character Treats Other Character's Injuries, Pining - Character A thinks B could never love them back, Pining - mutual pining between exes who broke up for valid reasons but who still love one another, Polyamory: Character A slowly discovers that they love both Character B and Character C, Post-canon - characters slowly recover from trauma caused by canon, this fandom is tiny gimme whatever you think I'd like (other than DNWs) I trust you

Sporus is a fantastic character, a tightly knit bundle of resentment, envy, jealousy, and bitterness (I love how pissy he is at not being appreciated when Marcus snipes at him for killing his opponent in the arena). And the early scene after the first gladiator fight when he helps Lydon with his armour and tells him, utterly sincerely, to be careful. <3<3<3 And then later the scene where Lydon is training with Gar, and Sporus doesn’t know whether to be jealous of Gar or Nydia or of Lydon being champion. And his lines in his final scene, which led to a massive record scratch on my part: Lydon, I did love you. Not ‘Lydon, I loved you’ but ‘I DID love you.’ Implying… what? That the question of his feelings for Lydon had come up at some point in the past? Did they have a fling? Was Lydon in love with Sporus before Nydia? Did Sporus deny him? WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED? And Lydon holding his hand while he dies… goddamnit, my heart.

I would love backstory for this, or something set during canon. Canon-divergent AUs are always welcome, and I’d also be happy for any level of ship: from fully realised, to pining, whether mutual or one-sided. If you're not sure what to do with Nydia and don't want to write Sporus/Lydon/Nydia, I'm pretty invested in Nydia/Ione and Nydia/Glaucus/Ione.

And then there's Sporus/Lydon/Nydia, which I would particularly like to see as a triad although a v-shaped set-up where everyone is fine with the situation is okay (or a v-shaped set-up which gradually turns into a triad). If they all manage to make it out of Pompeii it would be a pretty fascinating dynamic, especially if Sporus feels himself dependent on Lydon due to his injuries. I'd be especially interested in seeing Sporus's relationship with Nydia developed.

Optional Prompts

• We know how and why Lydon came to be a gladiator and why he continues in that life despite having earned his freedom, but what about Sporus? Was he already there when Lydon turned up as a slave whom no one expected to last more than a couple of matches?
• Always here for descriptions of gladiator matches or sparring, the blood, the sweat, the sexual tension… Also helping each other with their armour, and tending to wounds afterwards. And, uh, bathhouses.
• And hey, if you just want to write PWP, sex in the wake of a match or sparring session wouldn’t go amiss.
• What happened when they all left Pompeii for Campania?
• A post-canon fix-it. Lydon escapes Pompeii with an injured Sporus. What does the aftermath look like? Bitter angst and hurt/comfort welcome here. Given what a massive jealous shit Sporus is in canon, I’d love to see that explored.
• Nydia understands something about being in love with someone you feel dependent on and the heartbreak of watching them love another. An understanding develops between her and Sporus.

Art Likes

Here for all the depictions of sweat, blood, and gladiator armour of the arena, and I’d also love to receive explicit artwork for either pairing. Some fairly astonishing frescoes of gladiators have survived as well as some gladiator-related graffiti, so it would be pretty damn cool to get a pastiche of those or something which otherwise reflects Roman artworks in some way.

Request Two: Melior/The unnamed bar maid
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: Carried to bed by partner, Characters struggling together with guilt and grief and forgiveness, Coming to terms with the permanent effects of significant injuries, Cunnilingus So Good That Partner Has To Hold Them When Their Knees Buckle, Domesticity, Get Together - Permanently scarred A mistakenly believes B couldn't love them, Gratuitous wallowing in historical detail, Grief - Bonding over mutual grief, Hurt/Comfort - Character Treats Other Character's Injuries, Post-canon - characters slowly recover from trauma caused by canon, Pregnancy: Domestic Fic, pregnant belly kisses, Pregnant Sex, Smut - Long Slow Foreplay Ramping Desperation Before + Pillow Talk After, Teaching a beginner how to fight unexpectedly effective as foreplay, this fandom is tiny gimme whatever you think I'd like (other than DNWs) I trust you

In a show filled with likeable characters (even the ones who are massively flawed), Melior is the loveliest and I just want him to have nice things. Almost the first moment we see him in a gladiatorial fight, he’s persuading his opponent to put his hand up to beg for mercy so he can be spared, and later he protects Nydia from Gar. Which makes his fate and the fate of his canon love interest, the bar maid, all the more gutting. They get so few scenes and she gets no lines, but the brief attention they get is the rip-out-my-heart-and-stamp-on-it kind, and I will never not be a sucker for that. I was absolutely not prepared for that last shot of her towards the end, and as tiny as this ship is, it was cemented into my heart as something I desperately want. Also in that bar scene it’s pretty clear they’re holding hands, and that’s something I can never resist.

I would absolutely love a fix-it for this, whether a true fix-it or just a temporary one so that something even worse can happen. As for the bar maid, I’d love to see her given more agency - a name and some actual lines would be a start :D. (As an aside, if you happen to know the name of the actress who portrays her, I will love you for ever. I have a feeling she might be Italian, based on… absolutely nothing at all.) I’d also love to see something of how the gladiators fit into the world of Pompeii in general. The scene where the gladiators are returning from Campania, with Lydon pursued by adoring women (with Sporus looking pissy in the background XD) gets me curious about how she fell for Melior in the first place. Why him, when all the other women are flocking around Lydon? (aside from Melior clearly being so lovely).

Optional Prompts

• A ridiculously indulgent fix-it where they both survive Pompeii and settle down together (a bar? A farm? Kids running around), then meet up by chance with Lydon, and the other survivors (whether Nydia or Sporus) – the friendships are one of my favourite things about canon, so I’d just love to see them catching up with each other and reminiscing about old times. Happy to receive utterly plotless fluff for this one, or go hard on the PTSD and grief for the friends and family who didn’t make it.
• Smut – after he intervenes between Gar and Nydia, or just before they leave for Campania (or afterwards). Or maybe they’re fooling around, him playfully teaching her some fight moves and things develop from there.
• Hurt/comfort where Melior survives his wounds and returns to Pompeii. She comforts him. A happy ending, or:
• Melior survives the trip to Campania and returns to Pompeii and the bar maid… only so that they can both die together tragically when Vesuvius erupts. Yay? (Seriously, the multiple tragic deaths are one of my favourite aspects of the show so if you want to write something that’ll rip my heart out, please do).
• Backstory. How did she come to fall in love with Melior over all the other gladiators?

Art Likes

Must like the other pairing, I'm here for all the depictions of sweat and blood of the arena, and I’d also love to receive explicit artwork for this pairing. Some fairly astonishing frescoes of gladiators have survived as well as some gladiator-related graffiti, so it would be pretty damn cool to get a pastiche of those or something which otherwise reflects Roman artworks in some way.

Depict a scene from any of the prompts suggested above. Melior and the bar maid huddled together (hand-holding, foreheads pressed together?) during the eruption. Or either pairing having survived the eruption, looking back either straight afterwards (as in the final scene of the show with the sun rising) or several years afterwards.

The Sword and the Sorcerer (1982)

The full film is available on Youtube. Content warning for attempted rape, sexism, utterly gratuitous levels of female nudity, and somewhat dubious handling of issues of race.

I mean... I'm not going to claim this is a good film, but damn is it enjoyable to watch. :D It's fun, fast-paced, violent, and, um, filled with a fair amount of men suffering extremely prettily, if that happens to be your id. Apparently it's mine. It also skips fairly rapidly over a lot of the set-up, meaning that there's a lot waiting to be explored, and you honestly have to admire the gall of the filmmakers in calling a film the Sword and the Sorcerer and then going on to make both sword and sorcerer almost completely irrelevant to the plot.

It reminds me a lot of the 1999 version of the The Mummy - it's the same sort of tone and a similar mix of adventure and humour. I'd love to see some exploration of the worldbuilding and the characters' backstories, and just generally taking a closer look at how the world works and the consequences of canon.

The film itself is fast-paced, but if you want to slow it down so that events take a slower turn, happening over days and weeks, then that's fine.

Request One: Titus Cromwell/Xusia of Delos, Mikah/Titus Cromwell
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: Alternate Universe - Villain Wins, Bathe them and bring them to me, Captivity: Chained up with arms above head, Character A tilting character B's chin up with the tip of a sword, Deep-delving into all the politics and court dynamics canon barely touched on, Enemy uses mindwipe on hero but mindwipe is only partially effective, Entering someone's dreams/nightmares, Luxury & opulence rendered in delicious detail, Mind Control, this fandom is tiny gimme whatever you think I'd like (other than DNWs) I trust you, Torture - Tortured while loved ones are forced to watch, Yanking head back by the hair

Note on my DNWs: Please consider my Bestiality DNW waived for snakes under Xusia's control.

~~

The (extremely) dubious consent edition. :D

I think part of the reason this film appealed to me so much was how it subverted my expectations. After Xusia's resurrection with all that glorious horror imagery and the demonstration of his power I completely wasn't expecting him to turn out to be basically a bad-tempered wizard up until the moment he was betrayed by Cromwell and then to be essentially sidelined for almost the entire film, although I'm delighted that he was. He's clearly evil -- there's no getting around that -- but he turned out to be very different from the character archetype I was expecting going in. I am fascinated by the dynamic between him and Cromwell, especially given his masquerading as Machelli all the while Cromwell is utterly obsessed with the hunt for him. I'd love to see the relationship between them explored, whether you focus on the time between Xusia's resurrection and betrayal at Cromwell's hands, or post-betrayal, with Xusia toying with him from afar, perhaps dubconning him through dreams and nightmares. I'd also love to learn more about Xusia's past and his reputation, and about how magic works in this world. Horror is a big part of my id, so if you want to forget the ship and treat this as gen then that's fine. And what really happened with Machelli? At what point did Xusia take his form? Was there ever a real Machelli or was he always a puppet controlled by Xusia?

As for the Mikah/Cromwell request, more of what's in canon, please (I'd say make it sexy, but what's in canon is already pretty damn hot so... :D). Simple torture isn't quite doing the trick, so Cromwell changes tack and attempts to break Mikah through the humiliation of forced seduction, or drugs, or maybe Cromwell blackmails him with the threat of what he could do to Mikah's sister. And if you want to combine this ship with the Mikah/Elizabeth ship in my second request for this fandom, then please do.

Canon being canon, it doesn't really expand on what Alana and Mikah have been doing before the rebellion really ramps up. Have they been forced to deal with Cromwell, acting as his courtiers? Watching as the old castle was torn down and a new one built in its place? Either way, we see Cromwell standing in the same ruined gardens that we saw King Richard in, so that still stands at least.

Optional Prompts

• In vengeance for his betrayal, Xusia torments Cromwell in his dreams. All the horror imagery for this: pits of snakes, Cromwell finding himself trapped with Xusia in his tomb. Gradually reality and nightmares begin to merge and Cromwell begins to realise Xusia isn't dead and must be intent on revenge.
• Give me all the missing scenes between Xusia's resurrection and his betrayal at Cromwell's hands. I'd love to see more of how their alliance works in practice, with Xusia at once both a powerful sorcerer with a terrifying reputation and a minion who's willing to follow Cromwell's orders, even if only temporarily.
• Xusia allowing Cromwell to think he's using Machelli, while in reality Xusia is using the proximity to somehow get the upper hand. Perhaps involving mind control somehow? Or Machelli 'comforting' Cromwell after the terrifying dreams that Machelli/Xusia caused himself?
• Bathe them and bring them to me - After Cromwell threatens to hurt Alana, Mikah agrees to do whatever he wants, not knowing that Cromwell intends to humiliate him by having him washed and groomed and dressed in luxurious clothing and jewels
• Deep-delving into all the politics and court dynamics canon barely touched on - I'd love to see some scenes before the main events in canon, the cat-and-mouse games going on when Cromwell is still trying to win Mikah and Alana to his side, suspecting their part in the rebellion but not quite being certain yet, and all the while he's still searching for Xusia... Do they resist? Pretend to go along with it? (the requested ship can take a back seat here if it's easier to treat this as primarily gen).
• And along similar lines: what if gay marriage is legally recognised in this world, and to protect his sister Mikah clumsily offers himself to Cromwell in her place.

Art Likes

I loved the horror imagery of the living faces on the side of Xusia's tomb, so some nightmare imagery. Cromwell dreaming about snakes or being entombed with Xusia's arms (and snakes) wrapped around him. Or Machelli -- those moments when his servile facade cracks and we see Xusia shining through. Maybe a post-coital moment between Cromwell and Machelli, where the latter is showing his true form while Cromwell sleeps, unaware. An image from a Xusia Wins!AU where Cromwell is under Xusia's power.

For Cromwell/Mikah, yeah, I'm afraid it comes down to more of what's in canon, please. :D Mikah chained up and being tortured was certainly a thing that happened, and I'd, uh, quite like more of it, please? Or the 'Bathe them and bring them to me' tag, with Mikah naked and vulnerable in the bath while Cromwell kneels behind him, pulling his head back by the hair. Or alternatively those cat-and-mouse scenes from before the main events of canon, with Mikah going all out to flirt with Cromwell and distract him from Alana.

I'd love to see the canon settings incorporated into the artwork: the gardens, before and after everything died, the dungeons, the bathhouse in the castle, Xusia's tomb...

Request Two: Alana/Talon, Elizabeth/Mikah
Requested Medium: Art and Fic
Requested Tags: Alternate Universe - Villain Wins, Captivity: Chained up with arms above head, Careful Sex with an Injured Partner, Character expected to die but didn't and now has no idea how to live anymore, Comfort Sex, Deep-delving into all the politics and court dynamics canon barely touched on, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, fairy tale wedding, Fix-It, Hurt/Comfort - A nurses injured B back to health after B got tortured or raped to spare A the same, Hurt/Comfort - Aftermath of Torture, Hurt/Comfort - Character Treats Other Character's Injuries, Luxury & opulence rendered in delicious detail, Mind Control Aftermath & Recovery, Mutual Hurt/Comfort After Shared Traumatic Event, Post-canon - characters slowly recover from trauma caused by canon, Smut - Long Slow Foreplay Ramping Desperation Before + Pillow Talk After, this fandom is tiny gimme whatever you think I'd like (other than DNWs) I trust you, Torture - Tortured while loved ones are forced to watch, Undercover - Undercover character must torture loved one who fully understands what's going on

Note on my DNWs: Please consider my Bestiality DNW waived for snakes under Xusia's control.

~~

The hurt/comfort, sweetly self-indulgent fix-it and/or world-building edition.

I think what appeals to me here is that the film doesn't quite make it clear what's going on and whether Mikah and Alana actually know who Talon is. I think the only point they definitely hear his name is when the kings start chanting it during the celebrations at the end and it's hard to tell whether they realise he's the actual heir to the throne. If Talon is a common name, it's possible that they simply don't realise, although Mikah may well suspect. Anyway, I'd love to see the moment they do realise and some of the ramifications of that. I would also love to see the female characters getting a bit more character development and autonomy, although tbf this canon being what it is, no one really gets much. :D

On Talon... mmph, what can I say? It was the eighties. He really, strongly reminds me of Brendan Fraser's character in The Mummy; they've got the same sort of mix of roguishness and slightly shop-soiled honour. He turns up in Ehdan in search of Cromwell and finds this extremely naive pair of siblings claiming to be the heirs to the throne that's rightfully his, so if you squint, his behaviour when he first meets Alana seems a bit more reasonable if you remember that he's been working as a mercenary for the past decade and assume that when he demands a night of sex with her he doesn't really intend to follow through on it... Unless, you know, she wants to. His timing is still awkward as fuck, but, eh, the eighties.

Oddly, the IMDB entry lists a young Mikah, Alana, and Elizabeth as characters, although as far as I can tell they don't actually appear in the film, which I'm sort of gutted about. I'm not sure what was going on with that, and I'm... not entirely sure the filmmakers did either. :D I think maybe the younger children accompanying Talon's mother to the boat may have originally been intended to be Mikah and Alana, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the way canon plays out (It also raises the question of what did happen to Talon's sister if that wasn't Alana being carried off, since it wouldn't have made sense for Cromwell to kill her). Anyway, supposedly, Mikah and Alana are the children of King Richard's advisor Mogullen, so did Talon know and play with them as children? Is there a heartfelt reunion? How exactly did they come to declare themselves the next in line for the throne? If you want to make them Talon's cousins, which might make their claim to the throne more explicable, then that's fine, and I don't consider it to violate my incest DNW.

So what happens after the end of the film? Maybe it's not all that easy for Talon to just ride off into the sunset, especially if people know who he is. Perhaps he marries Alana in order to solidify Mikah's claim to the throne. I would really love to see the consequences of canon followed up here. At what point do Mikah and Alana realise who he is? Does Alana realise before Mikah or is it the other way around?

For Elizabeth and Mikah, ahhh damn. I'd love to see a fix-it where she survives. Or something set during his imprisonment, and again, if you want to slow canon down so that events aren't happening at the speed of light please do. The whole set-up between Elizabeth and Mikah kills me. It's implied that Cromwell knows (or suspects) Elizabeth is working for the rebels since he intends to have her butchered along with Mikah (unless he really is just that much of a bastard), and the whole situation is just ripe for some gloriously iddy hurt/comfort porn. While it seems like Mikah doesn't know Elizabeth at first, maybe he just didn't realise it was that Elizabeth until he meets her for the first time in the dungeons. Cromwell having her torture or pleasure Mikah and they're both going along with it and pretending not to know each other, and all the while Cromwell knows they're already lovers. Oh god. For a post-canon fic, either follow canon and give me all the guilt and grief, or alternatively give me a canon-divergent AU where Elizabeth survives and marries Mikah and they both live happily ever after: it's up to you.

I'd also love to see more of Alana and Mikah's sibling relationship, and the relationship between Mikah & Talon too. The contrast between them fascinates me: Mikah, naive, untested and self-confident, claiming at the beginning that he won't wear the crown, but then he ends up sticking it straight on his head the first chance he gets alongside Talon's discomfort with even being referred to as 'my lord'.

Optional Prompts

• Deep-delving into all the politics and court dynamics canon barely touched on - The consequences of canon. Mikah and Alana realising who Talon really is and that he is the true heir to the throne. Do they remember each other from when they were children? Is there pressure from the rulers of other kingdoms (the ones Talon has helped in the past) to treat with Talon? How easy is it really for Talon to go on living the live of a roguish mercenary now that he's avenged himself on Cromwell?
• fairy tale wedding - For either couple, whether it's a supposed marriage of convenience between Talon and Alana, or one of love between Mikah and Elizabeth. Or both.
• What did happen to Talon's sister? Cromwell probably wouldn't have killed her, not when he could have married her to strengthen his claim to the throne, as he's planning to do with Alana, so did she die? Did she escape? Possibly go over to the dark side and become one of the snake witches? What happens when she comes back and isn't nearly as understanding about Mikah and Alana usurping the throne as Talon is?
• The hurt/comfort vibes aren't nearly as obvious with Talon/Alana as they are with Mikah/Elizabeth, but still... the dude got crucified. Maybe his bravado before the crowd was just for show and he didn't really have any intention of actually going through with it due to his wounds or because he barely knows her or because he realised what a dick he was when they first met. Either way, she isn't standing for it.
• Explore Talon's complicated feelings towards Alana (and Mikah). Were they friends as children? Childhood sweethearts? What news has he heard of Ehdan during the time he was away? Rumours of their collaborating with Cromwell, maybe? Why did it take him so long to return?
• Alana and Mikah set out to undo the changes Cromwell has made to the castle and it's the perfect excuse for Alana to tempt Talon back to Ehdan so she can pick his brains about what the castle originally looked like.
• Elizabeth and Mikah's first meeting in the dungeons. The moment when she starts freeing him from his manacles and he calls her an angel is life. Either he doesn't know her and this is the moment he realises he has an ally, or he did already know her and this is the moment he realises the danger she's put herself in for him. Either way, it's iddy as hell.
• Undercover - Undercover character must torture loved one who fully understands what's going on - This tag is so perfect for Elizabeth/Mikah. Maybe they're already lovers, and Cromwell, knowing that, torments Mikah further by making Elizabeth join in torturing him (or having her pleasure him). They go along with it to protect Elizabeth, not knowing that Cromwell already knows.
• A post-canon fic where Mikah, grieving for Elizabeth and guilty about her death and those of all the other people who died following him, finds solace by sleeping with Talon who knows what it's like to have to lead people to their deaths.
• Unfortunately love in the time of horror and misery isn't in the tag-set, but I love it beyond reason and it's the perfect way to capture the tone I'd love to see for my Alternate Universe - Villain Wins requested tag - An AU where Xusia succeeds and goes through with whatever it was he was planning to do, and everyone has to scrabble to survive as best they can. Maybe after he initially marries Alana in Cromwell's place he loses interest in her so she's able to regain some autonomy and help her brother in trying to keep the kingdom running as best as they can, while plotting to free Talon and overthrow Xusia. What would a kingdom under Xusia's rule look like?

Art Likes

Much as in the previous request, I'd love to see canon settings incorporated into this, particularly the gardens and the dungeons. Show me a scene from any one of my requests (or anything else you can come up with) - that fairytale wedding (maybe a very intricate Richard Scarry-type cut-through with hundreds of things going on, or a more intimate close-up), or the villain wins! AU with Xusia on the throne, utterly bleak with the tiniest glimmer of hope.

For Talon and Alana, perhaps a sweet scene from when they were children, Talon and Alana holding hands, possibly contrasted now that they're older and have been through so much. Talon leaving her to go back to his mercenaries, or a scene from when he returns to help them with something. Him teaching her how to fight. That utterly ridiculous sword. Talon awkwardly fitting back into the courtly life after so long away.

For Mikah/Elizabeth, heavy on the hurt/comfort and/or sweet fix-it wish fulfilment. Her treating his wounds. A scene of them together while he's in the dungeon, a brief moment of respite, perhaps with their foreheads pressed together (My requested Captivity: Chained up with arms above head tag seems relevant here :D). Or just a moment of peace after the end of canon, wandering together hand-in-hand through the gardens or along the cliffs or beach.

Thanks for reading!