CorvusUmbranox

AO3 name: StopTalkingAtMe 

Hi, and welcome to my 2018 Yuletide letter. It's my first ever time taking part, so please bear with me, and thanks for reading.
 

Fic preferences: While romance and smut can be delightful, I usually prefer it when it supports the plot rather than the other way around. When it comes to shipping, I generally prefer het to slash. Genre-wise, I really like horror, mysteries, historical fics, anything spooky, angsty, gritty, grim and brutal. I like lots of gritty sensory details and realism, and for characters to have the crap beaten out of them, literally and emotionally. I prefer conflict, whether internal or external, rather than anything too fluffy or slice of life.

I am open to AUs, although I'd prefer nothing too mundane (like coffeeshops, unless there's a supernatural twist to them). I love anything apocalyptic, zombies or otherwise, and horror ranging from slasher to MR James style ghost stories is all welcome. I don't mind gore or scenes of torture so long as the descriptions aren't too explicit (think the Halloween films rather than Hostel). Dubcon is fine, so long as it's not treated romantically. 
 

I LOVE stories where characters are isolated and being picked off one by one. Either in a mysterious apocalyptic wasteland or a creepy mansion house on an isolated island in the middle of a thunderstorm. Give me that and I'm pretty much guaranteed to be happy.

DNW: A/B/O, explicit rape or rape as a major theme, incest, bestiality, scat and waterplay, BDSM, torture porn, explicit underage sex (16 or below. If under 18, but over 16, then no large age differences please.).

On with the fandoms.
 

I don't know who nominated this, but THANK YOU, whoever you are. I squealed when I saw it was listed and the characters who'd been nominated. So. Corvus. I've written about him myself a bit and as often happens when I write about a character I have fallen in love just the tiniest bit. So, yeah, no pressure. :D
 

Millona/Corvus is engraved on my heart, but I am open to other pairings. Smut would be appreciated, although feel free to keep it gen and/or T-rated if you prefer. I'm also open to slash here -- I can see some potential slash parings in Hieronymous Lex, Armand Christophe, or *cough cough hate sex* Lucien Lachance. And the previous Gray Fox, of course, whether male or female, human or otherwise. No pairings at all is welcome too if you'd prefer to keep it gen, or alternatively focus on platonic friendship, such as Corvus & Armand.

I would LOVE to see someone else's take on his backstory, such as how he became the Gray Fox, or his childhood. Was he or Millona the heir to the seat of Anvil? How did they meet and fall in love? Or, rather than a prequel, a sequel: how did he and Millona manage after the curse was broken, because there's no way that's going to be a bed of roses. Did they make it through? Did she manage to forgive him? Or if you feel like something less about the feels, then an elaborate heist fic would be fun as hell.
 

This is edging into Skyrim territory and I'm not sure if that's allowed, but Mercer Frey owning a bust of the Gray Fox has always intrigued me (and made me much more sympathetic to that particular thiefy bastard). There's a story or two there, I think. Did Corvus sell his soul to Nocturnal? Did he meet Mercer in the Twilight Sepulcher?
 
If you happen to feel like trying your hand at a crossover, I would love to see a crossover with The Gentlemen Bastards Sequence or the first three Thief games. Seeing Corvus pit his wits against Garrett or Locke and Jean might actually make my blackened misanthropic little heart explode with delight. Which sounds sort of painful, but totally worth it.

 

I would really, really, REALLY love horror for this, whether full-blown gothic horror or something more quietly creepy: either would be welcome. I ship Derek/Rachel a little bit, and I'm not really interested in slash for this fandom, but I would be perfectly happy with gen too.
 

Basically, just give me horror and I'll be happy. You could explore some of the other chapter houses, or delve into the history of the Legacy. I'd really like to see a prequel in a historical setting, whether in San Francisco or elsewhere, like the London House, and if you did this, then I wouldn't mind at all if you left out the nominated characters and had all OCs, although a time slip would be fun too. A prequel exploring Derek's backstory (and leaving Rachel out) would be wonderful too.

What I said in my general preferences section about being stranded in a creepy mansion is relevant here, although ideally it won't be the Legacy chapter house, since part of the appeal of that trope for me is that it's an unfamiliar place. UNLESS they've all lost their memories for some reason?

Ghosts, possession, folklore, demons: seriously, anything goes here. One thing I like in the show is how they're not afraid to make it sexually charged, so feel free to play with that a little.

I think it's highly unlikely that anyone will write this, but I would love anything about Thomas Chaloner, who is one of the most delightful characters I've ever met -- a cynical world-weary spy in Restoration-era London who's just trying to make a living. I don't think there's any fanfiction for this series anywhere. I'd prefer no slash for this fandom. Case fic or spy action would be wonderful, or you could just have him stuck investigating something utterly tedious and mundane for the Earl of Clarendon. I know I said I'd prefer no slice of life somewhere up above, but for this fandom I'd be perfectly happy with a bit of historical detail, him going about his life, his music, and a lot of smut, either a canon relationship (Metje or Hannah), an OFC, or with Temperance North.

AUs would be welcome here too. Basically, I will be grateful as hell if you write about him, so pretty much anything goes here, although my liking for horror still applies. :D

As of the season 4, I have started to ship Murphy and Roberta. I never thought I'd ship Murphy with anyone, but season 4 managed it. I would love to see something shipping the pair of them, taking into account Warren's personality and what a total bastard Murphy is, although if you don't want to do that, then I'll be equally happy with horror-saturated gen.
 

I like how Murphy and Warren's relationship has changed and shifted over the various seasons, so something that investigates how they've gone from being uneasy allies to outright antagonists and back to allies again. Or delving into the time they spent together in Zona and the messed-up vibe of that place. Or following on from the season 4 finale. Or a missing episode from any one of the seasons.

I'd also love an AU, although one with the focus still firmly on horror and the apocalypse. What if the zombies are more like vampires and have more intelligence, or if there are no zombies and it's just a post-apocalyptic wasteland with roaming gangs of bandits or cannibals? Or if they think Zona is all that's left, and it's sort of like Logan's Run or a THX 1138-style creepy dystopia. Or a world more like the one depicted in HG Well's The Time Machine?

Or you know, just give me that creepy mansion and a thunderstorm, and I'm good. Seriously, I wasn't kidding about that.

Finally:

And we're done. Thank you for reading. I'm excited to be taking part for the first time. If you write for one of my fandoms, I can't wait to see what you come up with.