Like a dandelion up through the pavement, I persist

• Fic that is largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon and non-canon compliant fic is not a problem, but I do really like fic that rattles the bars of its canonical confines while remaining within them (or stays within them for the most part). See also:
  • Post-canon fic and prequel fic—especially ones that are:
    • Character studies.
  • Missing scene fic.
• Fic with a strong ensemble cast.
• Dramatic irony, especially when it’s comedic.
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue.
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I prefer fics with a comedic tone, or at least a comedic tinge (which can be ironic and/or bitter, in fics that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum). I like pretty dry and understated humour, but I am also just a fan of Funny more generally.
• Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss.
• There Was Only One Bed.
• 5+1 fic.
• Bittersweet or melancholy fics. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time.
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in a gen fic featuring one or more queer characters.
• Pining.
• Cuddling, especially in conjunction with touch starvation.
• Overwrought emotion and crying.
• Polyamory
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don’t try this at home" kind of depiction.
• Kid fic.
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts
• I love STEM-y things being featured in fic, either realistic or I also love wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades.
• Things relating to ageing.
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy. Can be along the fluffy side or the kinky side.

• First time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren’t Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about.
  • First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn’t given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn’t be into, is something they’re really into. I’d prefer they go into it with a “Sure, I’ll try anything once” attitude rather than an “I’ll suffer through it for you 😥” attitude.
• Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn’t have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way).
• Non-penetrative sex.
  • Intercrural sex specifically. This can transition into penetrative sex or not.
  • Oral sex of all varieties.
• Virginity kink, even/especially if the fic itself doesn’t buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept.

• Mundane/modern AUs (e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc.)
• Harry Potter AUs/fusions/references
• Grimdark fic. I’m fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing, or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis at the end.
• Non-con
• Degradation kink.
• Desperation kink.
• Edging

Requested characters: Norman Stanley "Fletch" Fletcher; Lennie Godber

Something shippy would be lovely, if you were so inclined, but canon-typical gen would also be a delight. I'd love a "case fic" of some kind where they had to do some labyrinthine shenanigans to accomplish a goal of some variety, or a scene that implied a larger plot to that effect. Other thoughts I've had is that Fletch and Godber both had birthdays while in prison, so maybe you could do something about that? Godber feeling glum about turning 24 on the inside possibly? Fletch having his own inscrutible birthday-related feelings when he adds up how many he's spent on the inside versus out? Something more lighthearted and caper-adjacent than I'm suggesting? You could also do something more general with holidays/special occasions where they try to make the days feel different from each other, maybe up to and including inventing nonsense holidays to amuse themselves. If you wanted to write something post-canon that included stuff from Going Straight or Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher, or that diverged from the spin-off and mockumentary if you wanted to go in other directions, that would be great! In terms of tone, I enjoy the comedic and silly vibe of canon but feel free to have more somber moments about life in prison, etc., if the mood strikes you. If you were interested in writing something shippy, I do also think that Fletch has about a metric tonne of internalised homophobia, so that's also something I'd be intrigued to read about.

Requested characters: Max Bialystock; Leopold "Leo" Bloom

I really love the relationship between these two whether it's framed as shippy or platonic. For all that it starts out as a manipulation to try and get Leo more on board with committing fraud with him, it seems to turn very sincere and affectionate very quickly. I think both of them, in their own way, are very lonely at the start of the movie. Bialystock does, technically, have a sex life, albeit one that is having sex with his investors to fund his rapidly diminishing lifestyle, but I don't think it would be a stretch to say there is no intimacy in his life before their friendship develops. Leo, for his part, was never called by his first name even in kindergarten!

On the shippier side of things, it intrigues me that on Bialy's side of things, sexual relationships with women seem to be a means to get something rather than something he wants in their own right. He has sex with the little old ladies for money, he cat-calls women out the window to peacock and put Leo off-balance when he arrives to do his accounts, he hires Ulla to ogle but then turns her down every single time she propositions him, sometimes quite irritably. Obviously it's Not Great to use women as a status symbol, but is that what's going on? Is he maybe gay or ace?

While we're in headcanon territory, I also think that Leo Bloom pings very autistic (although I wouldn't use that specific terminology in a fic because it would be incongruous with the time period). His composure that rapidly gives way to emotional fragility and meltdowns, his job that involves a lot of tolerance for tedious repetition and attention to detail, his near-total social isolation and then intense devotion to a single friend, it all adds up into the most relatable character I have ever seen on screen. I also have thought on occasion that there is scope for a trans reading of him, with lines like "No one ever called me Leo before" and "I'm Leo Bloom! I'm me! I can do whaever I want! I'm Leo Bloom!" and his discomfort with gender non-comformity (when he meets Roger de Bris and is thrown by him wearing a dress and the "I'm not a madam; I'm a concierge!" scene), which I think have a different vibe when you interpret him as a stealth trans man in his mid-thirties in the late 60s. This would also, potentially, factor into his loneliness and social isolation, if he were stealth and trying to a) distance himself from his pre-transition life and b) avoid intimacy that could be compromising. If this was something you were intrigued by, I'd be interested in reading a fic along those lines, but it is far from the only take I'd be interested in reading about!

For some specific ideas, maybe something post-canon where they are putting Prisoners of Love from prison? Or maybe a canon-divergent fic where they were able to make it to Rio de Janeiro before it all went south. Do they immediately start a new scheme when they're there? Does Leo manage to convince Max to quit while they're ahead? Maybe something set during canon? A missing scene when they're going through scripts? Bialy telling Leo stories about his old shows?

Requested characters: Sabrina Clarke, Sharleen Clarke, Rodney Cullen, Spud

This show was such a breath of fresh air in the superhero genre! It had such a strong sense of place and the characters were so distinct and vivid, and the premise genuinely felt like a novel take on a superhero origin story. As I mentioned in my sign up, if you would prefer, you can write a fic that just features Sharleen and Sabrina or one that just features Rodney and Spud rather than something with all four of them. Although, maybe something around the theme of family would lend itself to something that they'd all fit into?

I love that Sharleen and Sabrina are so different from each other, but that doesn't flatten them into a "bad girl vs good girl" stereotypical dynamic. Sabrina does let herself get coaxed out to the club (and, for that matter, tells Krazy that she will kill him herself and be the one going to prison for thirty years when she thinks Shar is in danger), Sharleen is writing her dissertation, and they both love each other so fiercely. If you wanted to go post-canon and show something about Sabrina trying to rescue her sister from where she's been kidnapped, that would be great, or you could go pre-canon and have something about the two of them growing up, or something that wove through pre-, during and post-canon. Maybe Rodney could bond with Sabrina about how horrifying it is for your loved ones to be in peril and for you to have no power to help, even with bloody superpowers.

With Rodney and Spud, I'm intrigued by what their relationship is. Is it romantic? If so, are they non-monogamous, or does Rodney just keep flirting with random women to keep in practice? They do seem to share all their money and I did assume they lived together in that one-bedroom flat until the line where Rodney says that Spud "stays over most nights". See also: Rodney saying they'd be shopping for a house once the money started coming in. I don't think it necessarily needs to be kissy-kissy for them to be life partners, of course, and a fic about them being in a QPP would also be great. It would also be pretty on-brand for Rodney to have sped past the trivial little details of asking someone out or telling him he like him before deciding they were going to spend the rest of their lives together.

Requested characters: Dorothy "Dot" Everest, Overkill, Arthur Everest, the Tick

As mentioned in my sign up, I'm open to something that only feaures Dot and Overkill or something that just features Arthur and the Tick if you don't have an idea for somethign with all four of them. I'm happy for something shippy involving either or both Dot/Overkill and Tick/Arthur, or something gen.

I love how this show combines campy superhero shenanigans with a more grounded approach to emotional storytelling. I'm totally in the market for either silly jokes or something with a more serious slant. Or, indeed, both! If you wanted to do sort of a mid-mission case fic (since 1000 words isn't a lot of scope for a full on plot along those lines) that would be really cool, or something not related to crime-fighting would also be fun. Maybe something where Arthur could flex his paperwork skills to save the day through administrative means? Dot and Overkill having to get bailed out by Arthur and the Tick for some antiheroics gone wrong? In the event you wanted to write something shippy with Tick/Arthur, I tend to prefer when smutty fic for this pairing is a bit off the beaten path and I think there's a lot of scope for some fun xenophilia-adjacent things. The "suit" being a living part of his body rather than something that can conveniently come off or make way for more conventional human anatomy is very compelling to me. With Dot/Overkill, I think that something that engages with Overkill's disabilities in an access intimacy kind of way would be really cool. Him allowing himself to be vulnerable around Dot by taking off/turning off his prostheses to be comfortable maybe?

Requested characters: Beetlejuice, Lydia Deetz, Delia Deetz, Astrid Deetz

I'm open to somethat that just features Beetlejuice and Lydia, or something that just features Lydia and Delia, or something that just features Lydia and Astrid if you would rather write that than something with all four characters.

I saw Beetlejuice Beetlejuice on the big screen recently with no real expectations, but I loved it so much! Maybe even more than the original, because it was so much less cruel, especially in its treatment of Delia. I've always felt that, all things being equal, she as an oddball artist would have been a natural ally to Lydia the weird goth girl with a penchant for photography. I also like that Beetlejuice was significantly defanged in terms of how menacing he seemed and he was borderling sweet at points. Honestly, Lydia's scumbag fiance being a more realistic kind of terrible makes old BJ come off like a prince in comparison. She could, and did, do a lot worse! Which is all to say, I am very happy to receive shippy Beetlejuice/Lydia fic, although feel free to not go that route if you'd rather write something gen with them, or a gen fic about Lydia's relationship with either Astrid or Delia. Or both of them! I'm very intrigued by how Lydia's relationship with Delia improved and how it was that they reached the cheerful equilibrium they did in the sequel that wasn't barb-free but was still friendly. Similarly, when did Astrid's relationship with Lydia start to go downhill? Was she maybe more even-handed before her father died, or did she start being resentful once Lydia and her dad separated/divorced? Was she embarrassed about Lydia's paranormal shtick before then, or was it "selling out" that soured her on it? Or maybe did she believe her mom as a kid and get made fun of for it?

Feel free to drop references to other adaptations – I loved the cartoon as a kid and I have approximate knowledge of the musical from my sister who is a big musical theatre fan. If you do go shippy with Beetlejuice/Lydia, I'd prefer if Lydia had agency and the ability to assert boundaries and was actively choosing the relationship as opposed to being tricked or coerced, although I'm not against a "fake marriage to real relationship" sort of thing, or something that starts more dubious and moves to a more equal playing field.

Requested characters: Caeneus, Eurydice "Riddy", Ariadne "Ari", Dionysus

I am open to a fic that just features Caeneus and Riddy, or one that just features Ari and Dionysus or one that is about any of the requested characters invididually.

I loved this show so much! I feel like it's so hard to adapt Greek mythology in a way that feels fresh at this point, given how many centuries worth of interpretation and reinterpretation have been going on at this point, but it had me in the palm of its hand from start to finish. I have been saying for ages now that I want a version of Ariadne who genuinely loved her brother instead of aiding and abetting his murder (justice for the minotaur!). And the idea of a Eurydice who just isn't that into Orpheus is inspired! What does it mean to be the object of someone's undying loyalty when that comes at the expense of being the subject of your own narrative? Caeneus as a former Amazon who had to leave after coming out as trans was a very rich vein to mine too, and I really liked Dionysus as just sort of a nice (by the standards of the gods) guy who likes people, which seemed very appropriate for a god with his particular domain. The nod at the end of the series to his relationship with Ariadne in the myths was also very fun! I'd love if you wanted to write a fic where they met. I also adore Caeneus and Riddy's relationship and I think that's rich with the potential for something deliciously angsty, or maybe something more fluffy as a missing scene when they are in the underworld together? I also would really love to read a character study of any of the characters I have requested. Their backstories are so intriguing and canon has left a lot of room to carve out discrete moments in their past in a fic.

• Humourous lyrics or ironic pairings of clips with lyrics for a humorous effect
• Character study vids
• Ensemble vids
• Uptempo vids with lots of quick cuts on the beat and a sense of movement
• But also: slower, contemplative vids with long clips
• Vids with a strong narrative/emotional arc
• Music specific likes:
  • Disco, Soul, 60s/70s R&B e.g. Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5, Smokey Robinson, The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan and the Village People
  • Rock and pop from the 1960s-1980s, e.g. The Mamas & the Papas, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Cher, The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, ABBA and Queen
  • Contemporary pop, e.g. Carly Rae Jepsen, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Mitski, Hayley Kiyoko, Marina (& the Diamonds), Florence + the Machine
  • Contemporary hip hop and R&B, e.g. Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Rihanna, Shea Couleé and Janelle Monáe
  • Pop folk, e.g. Simon & Garfunkel, Sufjan Stevens, Belle and Sebastian, Mumford & Sons and Joni Mitchell
  • Vocal jazz, especially Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Chet Baker. I mostly listen to stuff from the 1930s-1960s, but I'd be thrilled to get something set to more contemporary jazz or jazz fusion too.
  • Great American Songbook singers, i.e. anyone known for singing things composed by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. but especially Judy Garland
  • Musical theatre e.g. Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
  • Country, e.g. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Trixie Mattel, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lyn, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Norah Jones, Lil Nas X, Sheryl Crow and Miley Cyrus

• Vids set to music by Michael Bublé or Taylor Swift
• Footage of rats
• Sustained strobing or flashing throughout the vid

• Fic that is largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon and non-canon compliant fic is not a problem, but I do really like fic that rattles the bars of its canonical confines while remaining within them (or stays within them for the most part). See also:
  • Post-canon fic and prequel fic—especially ones that are:
    • Character studies, especially of characters who are sparsely characterised or underutilised in canon.
  • Missing scene fic.
• Fic with a strong ensemble cast.
• Dramatic irony, especially when it’s comedic.
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue.
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I prefer fics with a comedic tone, or at least a comedic tinge (which can be ironic and/or bitter, in fics that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum). I like pretty dry and understated humour, but I am also just a fan of Funny more generally.
• Bittersweet or melancholy fics are also wonderful. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time.
• Quiet, domestic stories.
• Exciting, dynamic stories.
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in a gen fic featuring one or more queer characters.
• Pining.
• Polyamory/non-monogamy, very much including forms of non-monogamy other than polyfidelitous triads, such as vee arrangements, polycules or open relationships etc.
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don’t try this at home" kind of depiction.
• Kid fic.
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts, especially from authors who are crafters and especially-especially when it includes technical or jargon-y details.
• Speaking of jargon, I love STEM-y things being featured in fic.
• I also love wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades.
• Things relating to ageing.
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy. Can be along the fluffy side or the kinky side.

• Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss (I know, how NSFW, lol) or first time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren’t Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about.
  • First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn’t given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn’t be into, is something they’re really into. I’d prefer they go into it with a “Sure, I’ll try anything once” attitude rather than an “I’ll suffer through it for you 😥” attitude.
• Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn’t have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way).
• Non-penetrative sex.
  • Intercrural sex specifically. This can transition into penetrative sex or not.
  • Oral sex of all varieties.
• Virginity kink, even/especially if the fic itself doesn’t buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept.
• Re: the above, I really it like, in general, when a work winks at the idea that kinky elements are just roleplay and not Real. Not for moralistic reasons or anything, I just think it gives a nice atmosphere and feel to the relationship and dynamic between the characters to imagine them being kinky together on purpose, as opposed to fics that play to the kink, but are not explicitly written to portray the characters as kinky, if that makes sense. I've heard this described as diegetic kink, which I think is a fun term for it. I don’t mind if this is not something in play though, and I can definitely tell the difference between id-heavy smutty fan fiction and writing intended to be taken as a strictly literal account of how things are or should be done, if you find it clunky to write in-universe scenes.

• First or second person narration, unless that is canon typical.
• Mundane/modern AUs (e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc.)
• Harry Potter AUs/fusions
• Pregnancy related DNWs:
  • Unwanted pregnancy.
  • A character being coerced or tricked into becoming pregnant, even if they come around to the idea and/or are not upset by it (babytrapping from the side of the gestational parent isn’t a problem for me, because it’s a bodily autonomy thing for me mainly and also I’m a hypocrite).
  • Pro-life sentiment/politics endorsed by the narrative.
  • Abortion or miscarriage (re: the apparent contradiction with the last bullet point, for me this is like “there was only one bed” fic where they resolve it with someone sleeping on the couch, because I like pregnancy fic and the kind I seek out start from a premise that the pregnancy is wanted, even if unplanned).
• Dark fic. I’m fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing, or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis at the end.
• A strong focus on bigotry. You do not have to engage in historical revisionism or erase bigotry that exists in canon or the real world and I do enjoy fic that engages with the broader social contexts of various fandom settings, but I would prefer this wasn’t the primary focus.
• Fetishisation or romanticisation of a marginalised group. For example: race play, fetishisation of trans people, fat fetishism, fetishisation of physically disabled people’s bodies, romanticisation of mental illness, etc. One exception is that I do have a weakness for clueless class privileged characters who are poverty tourists, à la the song Common People, so I will say that I’m generally neutral-to-positive on this one, provided the character whose socioeconomic circumstances are being romanticised explicitly thinks that the poverty tourist is being a privileged dick, regardless of whether they also still have, or want to have, sex and/or a relationship with them.
• Intimate partner violence or other related forms of abuse.

• Non-con
• Consensual non-consent or other rape fantasies.
• 24–7 D/s relationships.
• Master/slave relationships.
• Degradation kink.
• Desperation kink.
• Edging.
• Chastity belts/cages.
• Erotic asphyxiation. Non-erotic choking is okay.
• Heavy pain play. Light impact kink or discomfort from restraints is fine.
• Sadism.
• Sounding.
• Things likely to edge near a hygiene squick.
• Characters consenting to sex they think they won’t like, whether they turn out to be right about this or not.
• Detailed descriptions of sex that is painful or unpleasant.

Requested relationships:

• Kira Darvis & Xenk Yendar
  I really want to see what Kira would think of Xenk. I imagine that she’d be disposed to like him, if only to be contrary to her father, and that he would treat her very seriously in a way that I think she’d appreciate because I don’t think Xenk condescends to children. Or at least no more than he does to everyone else.
• Solo: Themberchaud
  Themberchaud, my beautiful chaotic evil son! I was so worried that they were going to kill him and was extremely relieved when they didn’t manage it.

I'd be very interested to see a fic that includes stuff about his backstory, specifically about his past in Gracklstugh and how he came to escape it and be in Dolblunde by the events of the movie. Is he still allied with the duergar? Does he still do any smithing? Has he retired to sleep on his hoard all day and set fire to people who annoy him? I am equally happy to read a fic that has a blank slate take on the character though!

• Solo: Xenk Yendar
  I am violently in love with Xenk Yendar and would die for him. I love that he is so relentlessly earnest and kind, but also kind of a little stinker (see: him smirking when Edgin whispered that he hated him).

I read him as autistic, but I wouldn't necessarily use our-world terminology given the setting (although, that said, I think with TTRPG settings you can brazen out a Fantasty Costco here and there, so if you wanted to then go wild), so if you were drawn to that kind of reading of the character it might be fun to see him getting into various special interests, or having hyper or hyposensitivity that lead to him being sensory averse or sensory seeking (could be both in different contexts), or an autistic take on his strong sense of justice, etc.

I'm also very interested to read a pre-canon fic about him growing up after fleeing Thay and how he came to be a Paladin. How does he feel about the ways he's been changed by exposure to necromantic magic? Does he dwell on it much? Is he ambivalent when it’s helpful, e.g. his ability to see in the dark? Does he get close enough to others to feel conflicted about his extended lifespan, or is he too alienated as a Thayan to have lost many close friends? Is this something he is now grappling with after meeting the party?

• Edgin Darvis/Xenk Yendar
  I am so here for this ship. I love how wearily defeated Edgin seems to be by Xenk’s Goodness and sincerity. As a cynical son of a bitch with low self esteem whose chief weapon is a cleverness with words, I can think of nothing more disarming and frustrating than handsome, heroic Xenk Yendar who completely refuses to engage in verbal sleight of hand and keeps telling you that you're a good person who will do the right thing. I love this for Edgin.

Something post-canon where they get together would be great. It would be interesting to see how aware they both are of their own feelings and whether or not they are reciprocated. I can very easily see both of them being like "Well, obviously I'm down to clown, but he's not so nothing's going to come of it and that's fine" and then one or both of them casually says this and they are both like. Ah. Or maybe something where they are not entirely sure how to untangle sexual attraction from emotional attachment. Maybe one seems okay but the other is unthinkable, and which is which could differ between them?

• Edgin Darvis & Kira Darvis
  I'd love to read a fic where Edgin and Kira get to know each other again. It could be a little bittersweet with both of them trying not to think too hard about the time lost, or maybe Kira still has some lingering feelings about Edgin leaving her behind that are unresolved. I could see that even after knowing Forge had lied to her it would be hard to just Stop feeling some of the resentment that had become baseline for her. It doesn't have to be sad or fraught though! Something that's purely funny or cute would be very good too.
• Edgin Darvis & Holga Kilgore
  The rare "they're just friends, don't be gross" relationship where I'm fully on board with a strictly platonic reading! I adore Edgin and Holga's devotion to each other and how comfortable they are in being Messes around each other or even mean and prickly. They are certain of each other in a way that can let them take each other for granted sometimes, which is both touching to me and does also make me want to see them remember to be nice, haha. A fic where Edgin is doing the emotional heavy lifting of supporting Holga (maybe after her divorce?) would also be great because he does lean on her a lot in canon.
• Solo: Doric
  As a Fantasy High fan I was so excited when Doric wildshaped into an owlbear for the first time that me and my sister just kept shouting "Hoot, growl! Hoot, growl!" at the screen for the full duration of the scene. I love that she's so powerful and that tonally she's living in an entirely different story to everyone else a lot of the time.

I'm intrigued by how she conceptualises her own identity as a culturally elvish tiefling born to humans who rejected her. She seems very integrated into her community and unconflicted about her place in it, which is not always typical of "between two worlds" characters. If a human relative other than her parents wanted to reconnected, such as a sibling, would she entertain that? Does she have any wood elf step siblings? Who are her peers in the Emerald Enclave growing up? How connected is she to being a tiefling outside of her relationship to her human family of origin and her adopted wood elf family? Does she know any other tieflings?

I tend to read her as a lesbian, but don't feel married to that interpretation if you don't. I would prefer you didn't write shippy fic with her and Simon, although a fic about them trying to make it work and realising that they were better as friends would be cool.

• Doric & Xenk Yendar
  I feel like Doric and Xenk are probably the most earnest characters in the movie and I'd be interested to see how they relate to each other one-on-one. They are also both characters who are, for want of a better way of putting it, from human backgrounds but who are distanced in some way from that. Xenk's was changed by his brush with the beckoning death, Doric is a tiefling whose biological parents are human, and both of them were estranged from their biological parents. Do they think about these parallels? Has one of them but not the other?

Doric mentioned Xenk having helped the Emerald Enclave defeat the Clerics of Talos—was she there at the time, maybe as a child? She said she'd heard of him rather than that she'd met him, but did she maybe see him in passing? Maybe she would have related to his story. Possibly they had a very brief interaction that she doesn't think he'd remember, but then he does.

Fandom specific DNWs:

• Shippy Simon/Doric.

Requested relationships:

• Mary Bennet/Anne de Bourgh
  I have always felt quite sorry for Anne de Bourgh being stuck in Rosings with her mother all the time and not having the opportunity of society beyond visitors, who it doesn't seem like she has much say in either. It also must be a bit of a blow to her ego that, vast fortune aside, her mother seems to think the only person who could be prevailed upon to marry her is her cousin, and only then out of a sense of family duty to his own late mother. Mary, by contrast, sort of shuns the social opportunities she has, which often endears her to modern readers (and it does to me too!) but is a very bad plan from a pragmatic sense for someone due to inherit as little as she is. It's not as dramatic as Lizzie refusing Mr Collins, but Mary won't compromise her happiness for the sake of financial security either, which intrigues me. I think it's not a lot of a stretch to read Mary, with her moralising and lack of social graces and self awareness, as autistic, and Anne is canonically chronically ill, so I'd be interested to see how they would relate to each other as people who are both alienated from others by disability. And in terms of their class differences, would Mary be deferential out of respect for Lady Catherine's rank, like Mr Collins, or would she be awkward and rude? Would Anne enjoy awkward rudeness and a lack of deference as a change of pace?

How would they meet? At Pemberley? Is it likely Mary would be invited to stay with the Collinses and visit Rosings Park? Maybe she would live with the Collinses as a governess? I don't know if she would need to take up paid employement after her elder sisters' marriages, but I think she'd be stubborn enough to not want to depend on their husbands. Maybe if she was employed by the Collinses, she would be more inclined to accept the offer of practising piano in Anne's companion's room than Lizzie had been. Would Anne take this amiss?

I think there are a lot of ways you could throw these characters together and a lot of ways they could react to each other that would be very compelling to read about.

• Catherine "Kitty" Bennet/Georgiana Darcy
  Kitty and Georgiana's post-canon friendship is very sweet and I think it would take on a shippy dynamic very readily. And since Kitty living in Pemberley after her father's death (not that you have to kill Mr Bennet!) would be quite unremarkable, as would Georgiana living with her brother if she remained unmarried, it would be relatively easy for them to live together. Georgiana's wealth would also maybe make a little cheeky lesbianism less socially unforgiveable, à la Anne Lister, and potentially they could perhaps be semi-open about a relationship, or at least more indiscreet than if they were not insulated by class privilege.

Georgiana is such a Good Girl and quite shy compared to Kitty's puckish shamelessness and I'm interested to see how they took to each other so quickly given that they are so different. Georgiana does have a weakness for rogueishness, given Wickham's attempted elopement with her, so I think she would be very taken with Kitty, for all that she did canonically tame Kitty's wilder excesses (in public anyway).

Requested relationships:

• Raleigh Becket/Mako Mori
  It is hard to go wrong with Raleigh/Mako. The deep respect they have for each other and how fascinated they are by each other is endlessly compelling to me. I love all the small things, like how in their Jaeger, Raleigh's fighting stance is different to when he piloted with Yancy, and Mako being surprised that he spoke Japanese.

Beyond sparring, how else does their drift compatibility manifest? I would also love to see how they got to relate to each other outside of the context of drift compatibility after the end of the first movie. How are they different and strange to each other? What does it mean to be drift compatible when there's no more need for Jaegers? Does Mako lean on Raleigh in her grief, or does she think that would be too much to assume once they can't touch each other's minds anymore?

• Solo: Mako Mori
  Mako is very much the heart of Pacific Rim for me and I would love to read a character study about her. Even as she honours them, how much does Mako remember of her parents? Does the worst day she had with them overshadow the rest of her memories, or has she been able to hold on to more? What was her schooling like, moving between Shatterdomes? Has she always wanted to pilot a Jaeger, or did the desire grow more slowly?
• Chuck Hansen & Mako Mori, Chuck Hansen/Mako Mori
  I am grouping the & and / version of this relationship together to avoid redundancy here, and I am equally happy either a gen or a shippy take. I have always wondered about Chuck and Mako's pre-canon relationship to each other. Presumably they ran into each other on and off throughout childhood at various Shatterdomes—were they ever friends? Did they have a falling out or grow apart more slowly over time? Mako ran over to kneel down and pet Max when she saw the Hansens, and given that Max is a often read as a symbol for how Chuck and Herc show each other affection despite outwardly finding it hard, this seems significant to me.

I think it's not at all unlikely that they have had sex, either with or without romantic feelings involved, and that they have some fondness for each other despite Chuck's hostility toward Mako in the movie and their general amnity. If you wanted to write something post-Chuck's death where Mako reckons with her ambivalent feelings about Chuck, I think that would be very interesting to tease out, but I would equally be happy to read a PWP where they have frenemies-with-benefits thing, or a story about them being childhood friends.

• Newton Geizler/Hermann Gottlieb
  I love these guys and their nasty squabbling and sniping that lies over a deeply profound bond. By the time of the movie they are, effectively, the only peers the other has and the stress and their differing perspectives have made that such a fraught and bitter thing.

And yet, they care so deeply for each other! Maybe it is impossible to be honest about how much because they have to be able to work together to fight the Kaiju and if they risked the emotional intimacy of being honest about their feelings then they couldn't do that.

There is also the unavoidable tension of their forced proximity to each other and the fact that they have to work with someone whose metholodologies and hypotheses are completely alien to their instincts, but I think that it's not just a familiarity breeding contempt thing.

Fandom specific DNWs:

• References to Pacfic Rim: Uprising.
• Writing Hermann Gottlieb as married.

Requested relationships:

• Sylvia Bennington/Jack Holden/Michael Kellman/Peter Mitchell
  Whenever I see this movie I mourn the secret queer polyamorous version of it that exists in my head. I would adore to read a fic about Mary's various parents' relationships to each other. You don't have to have everyone/everyone in the exact same way, and I would really like seeing a less neatly squared away take. Maybe Michael is gay, maybe Peter is primarily interested in Sylvia, maybe Jack bedhops, maybe Sylvia dates other people as well.

Given that they are all raising a child together, I imagine that they were all very deliberate about how they got involved with each other and did not want to risk their family bond over evolving their relationships to each other. For Michael and Peter, who have no blood relationship to Mary, I can imagine this was a big factor to consider because a break up going badly could involve losing their daughter, who they have no legal tie to.

Something about their evolving conception of family and how it diverges further and further from the heteronormative nuclear family would be deeply compelling to me.

Feel free to diverge from the sequel, Three Men and a Little Lady, or not according to your own preference.

Intro

So my 'new' thing is not really new, either to me or in general, but I have been revisiting the 1970s British sitcom Porridge recently and, having had a lovely windfall of Yuletide gifts and written a couple of my own fics, am now absolutely in its thrall with no clear endpoint in sight. The show is generally remembered fondly by people in the UK and Ireland (and, I think, some other Anglophone countries) who are of an age to have seen it, but there is not much of a transformative fandom presence per se, which, of course, means that I have to do my level best to drag a few of you, who it may or may not be new to, down with me 😉

Porridge stars the late Ronnie Barker in the lead role of Norman Stanley Fletcher, a small-time career criminal who has been sent to serve a five year prison sentence in Slade Prison. This is far from his first time on the inside and, as an old hand, he takes the other lead, Lennie Godber, a young first-offender from Birmingham, played by the late Richard Beckinsale (father of Kate and Samantha Beckinsale), under his wing. Fletch and Godber are cellmates for most of the show, despite Fletch's attempts to finagle a single cell, and many of the scenes are set in their cell and mostly, or only, feature them.

The show has three series and two Christmas specials, two spin-offs—Going Straight, which follows Fletch immediately after he's released from Slade, and a reboot from 2016 where his grandson is the lead, which I have not seen and don't really intent to—a semi-canonical movie from 1979, and a once-off mockumentary set in-universe—Life Beyond the Box: Norman Stanley Fletcher—which came out in 2003.

My crackpot shippy slant on the dynamic between the leads, which is actually very reasonable, how dare you, I don't have to stand here and be insulted like this

Click to expand

Godber: I'm fed up with crime. I wanna go straight.
Fletch: How old are you, son?
Godber: Twenty-three.
Fletch: Twenty-three and you wanna go straight? What kind of talk is that, eh? You've got your whole life ahead of you!

So, yeah, I ship Fletch and Godber, because of course I do. Here is a graphic I made and posted on Tumblr in 2023 when I started rewatching the show:

This is not a recent development or a revelation I've only had upon rewatching the show, because I also shipped them a LOT when I saw the show first as a teenager. It was, however, extremely arresting (aha) to revisit it and be hit by the shippiness anew. Given my much-touted love of roguish con-men and crooks, and shipping them with wide-eyed younger men who adore them, this is extremely on-brand behaviour from me, to the point where a friend, after I told her that I was rewatching Porridge and having a great time sexualising Ronnie Barker through the proxy of Richard Beckinsale, said, "That makes total sense as a ship for you." A statement which remains the funniest way I have ever been called out in my entire life.

However! In my own defence, I don't think this is shipping goggles forcing a romantic dynamic that may not exist onto two characters who tick enough boxes for me that I'd like to imagine them kissing. I mean it's not not that, but it's not just that. There is, of course, Godber's general open admiration, sometimes almost to the point of awe, of Fletcher, and Fletch's protectiveness over Godber, and their little domestic squabbles and stuff like Godber darning Fletch's socks and nicking tins of pineapple chunks for him at great personal risk, but the first thing that piqued my interest came from their first scene together.

Godber: Know all the form, don't ya? You been here before?
Fletch: No, never been here. But it’s all the same; porridge is porridge innit?
Godber: First time for me. Don't know how I'll get through.
Fletch: Oh, cheer up, could be worse. State this country's in, you could be free, couldn't you? Stuck outside with no work and a crumbling economy. How horrible that would be. Nothing to do but go to bed early and increase the population.
Godber: Won't be doing that for a while.
Fletch: No, that's true, hmm. No, I shouldn't have said that, it's a tasteless joke, innit?
Godber, with an expression like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth: I'm gonna feel ever so deprived.

Like??? I cannot overstate how easy it is to read a lot of scenes in the first few episodes as Godber trying desperately to signal in every way that he can think of that he's up for it to this older, more experienced man who's done time before and has taken him under his wing. Tragically, Fletch doesn't pick up on these hints. I imagine that he hasn't quite got it right yet, per this quote from the pilot:

Godber: Hey, Fletcher, what does he mean by 'practising homosexual?'
Fletch: One who ain’t quite got it right yet.

Ah well, better blatant than latent, but better latent than never, eh? And, like, again, I feel like it is an extremely small stretch to read Fletch, a man who has spent most of his married life in prison and who got married very young to his also-very-young girlfriend after an unplanned pregnancy, as someone who is gay and just hasn't spent enough time outside prison to reflect much on not being that interested in women sexually/romantically.

Fletch, talking to the hens in the prison farm as he steals eggs: Now then, girls. This is what's known as one of the perks of the job. Now, with these eggs I'm smuggling in 'ere, I can get meself a quarter ounce of shag, or two tubes of toothpaste, or... three bars of Fruit 'N Nut! Or I could take them down to E-wing and see Smutty Garland, the king of the porn, exchange 'em for two of his dirty books, yeah, full of full-frontal naked nubiles...
Fletch: I think I'd rather have the Fruit 'N Nut meself.

He also says at various points that 'carnal thoughts' are a bad idea in prison and you should try your absolute best to suppress them—although he also plasters the cell with pictures of topless Page 3 girls, so he's not entirely consistent here, at least on a surface level reading where you do not assume that this choice of decor is performative. I am, however, equally open to readings of him as not gay but otherwise queer and attracted to men, but deeply repressed about it, perhaps in part because of having spent so much time in prison, where there is a lot of homophobic violence and sexual assault, which queer prisoners are disproportionately the victims of. Fletcher himself expresses a lot of casual homophobia, often in the form of jokes about sexual assault, which could just be read at face value as bad-taste homophobic jokes, but could also take on a more sinister undertone if you scratch the surface of it, particularly since Fletch's primary coping mechanism is humour.

Fletch is pretty fond of Lukewarm, who is gay and out, and textually treats Lukewarm's boyfriend on the outside, Trevor, and their relationship as basically equivalent to other prisoners' relationships with their wives, with the only caveat that Trevor also has to worry about Lukewarm having wandering eyes while they're apart, so I don't think he's a unilateral bigot. I do absolutely think he needs some practice to get the hang of one or two things though. As it were.

Where you can watch it

The Producers

Edit: The thought belatedly occurs that people might not be familiar with the movie, so I have written a quick summary below. Spoilers ahoy, and content warning for references to Nazis.

I saw the 2005 remake of the 1967 original back in the mid-00s and I liked it a lot at the time, but once I got my hands on the original I absolutely never looked back. With all apologies to Nathan Lane and Matthew Broderick, accept no substitutes: it's Mostel and Wilder or bust for me.

I am incredibly fond of a lot of Mel Brooks' movies, but this one is especially dear to me. I often joke on Tumblr that I have to be sparing with rewatching it, because once I've flipped that switch I am very liable to just watch it every day for weeks and it'll become my entire personality for at minimum a month.

I'm Leo Bloom, I'm an accountant, I'm from Whitehall & Marks, I was sent here to do your books, and I'm terribly sorry I caught you with the old lady.

The main reason that I love this movie so much is Gene Wilder's portrayal of Leo Bloom, which, from the moment I first saw it, seemed like it was ripped from the headlines of my real life. He does such a wonderful job of turning on a dime from being mild-mannered and professional, talking to Max about his accounts, to completely losing it and melting down when he gets overwhelmed and... it's a joke, I know it's a joke, but it's just something that I'd never seen before, and rarely have since, which felt so much like my experience of the world and even though it was supposed to be a joke, and not a flattering one, it has always felt deeply validating to me. Some of us are very good at playing the part of a polite, professional, normal person right up until we get too anxious or overstimulated and then absolutely all the wheels fall off the wagon and we can't do it anymore and it becomes obvious how strange and not the persona we adopt to cope in the world we are, and honestly it means a lot to see that, even in a comedic context, when the character is not just a joke.

And, in this movie, Leo's arc is about letting go of his inhibitions and experiencing joy for what may be the first time in his life.

Bialystock: Having a good time?
Bloom: I don't know. I feel so strange.
Bialystock: Maybe you're happy.
Bloom: That's it, I'm happy. *starts to laugh* Well what do you know about that? I'm happy!

The dream! Is he being manipulated into white collar crime by a scoundrel who, at first, only saw him as a means to make a fortune and exploited his loneliness and the ways he's been alienated by his oddness to do so, by being, perhaps, the first person who's ever been nice to him?

Bialystock, walking through the park arm-in-arm with Bloom: Call me Max. You know I don't let everyone call me Max. Just those people I like.
Bloom: And you can call me Leo.
Bialystock: I already did!
Bloom: Oh! *lifts his hand to touch his forehead in embarrassed delight*
Bialystock: Where would you like to eat?
Bloom: Well, Max. I don’t know, Max. What do you think, Max?

I mean, yeah, sure, but that doesn't mean it's not vicariously liberating to watch him stand on a fountain and shout, "I want everything I've ever seen in the movies! I'm Leo Bloom. I'm me! I can do whatever I want! I'm Leo Bloom!"

And it also doesn't mean that Bialy's fondness for him remains a lie, because very swiftly they are both incredibly fond of each other and not shy about being demonstrative about it.

 

ID: two screencaps where Max Bialystock and Leo Bloom embrace, posted to Tumblr by cherry-flavored-sigh on February 15, 2015.

There is a scene at the end of the movie where they get caught for embezzling and Leo speaks on Bialy's behalf, which goes like this:

I would like to say something your honor, not on my behalf, but in reference to my partner, Mr. Bialystock. Your honor, ladies and gentlemen of the jury, Max Bialystock is the most selfish man I ever met in my life. Not only is he liar, and a cheat and a scoundrel, and a crook, who has taken money from little old ladies, he has also talked people into doing things, especially me, that they would never in a thousand years had dreamed of doing.

But, your honor, as I understand it the law was created to protect people from being wronged. Your honor, whom has Max Bialystock wronged? I mean, whom has he really hurt? Not me. Not me.

I was... this man... No one ever called me 'Leo' before! I mean, I know it's not a big legal point, but even in kindergarten they used to call me 'Bloom!' I never sang a song before! I mean with someone else, I never sang a song with someone else before. This man, this man, this is a wonderful man. He made me what I am today... he did.

And what of the dear ladies? What would their lives have been without Max Bialystock? Max Bialystock, who made them feel young, and attractive, and wanted again. That's all I have to say.

I cry on at least a monthly basis when the words "I never sang a song before! I mean with someone else, I never sang a song with someone else before" and, again, maybe it's a joke but "Nobody ever called me 'Leo' before (...) even in kindgarten they used to call me 'Bloom!'" will never fail to produce at least a little mistiness, including now as I write this. It is also kind of the basis for my trans headcanon of Leo Bloom, but that is besides the point. Anyway...

You know who I used to be? Max Bialystock! King of Broadway! Six shows running at once! Lunch at Delmonico's. $200 suits. You see this? This once held a pearl as big as your eye! Look at me now. LOOK AT ME NOW! I'm wearing a cardboard belt!

So, having spoken at great length about Leo Bloom, you might get the impression that I'm not that pushed about Max Bialystock. And, oh, how wrong you would be.

I have, for years, made jokes on Tumblr about The Type, alluding to my penchant for sleazy, dapper (but often slovenly and/or shabby) crooks with poorly concealed hearts of gold and soft spots for certain people. Your Bernard Blacks, your Grunkle Stans, your Quarks, your Norman Stanley Fletchers, and, very, very much in keeping with that, your Max Bialystocks.

He just is... this man. This is a wonderful man.

Also, while a movie with Mr. "Don't touch my blue blanket!" in it was always going to have me identifying more with Leo Bloom, Bialy himself is not exactly... um, unrelatable. I mean:

Bloom, look at me. Look at me, Bloom. Bloom, I'm drowning. Other men sail through life. Bialystock has struck a reef. Bloom, I'm going under. I'm being sunk by a society that demands success when all I can offer is failure.

I just... when will a dishonest man come and manipulate me into commiting white collar crime for him? When will an earnest and profoundly weird little man come and change my life by merely posing a little accounting theory and falling in love with me?

Because, in a move that could not be more on-brand for me, I do very much ship this. How could you not, honestly?

GIF posted by giantmonster to Tumblr here on April 7, 2017

The movie is also, when it's not being the beautiful love story of an unscrupulous down-on-his-luck producer and a lonely autistic accountant, an irreverant anti-fascist satire (i.e. a satire that is anti-fascist, not a satire of anti-fascism) that was highly controversial when it was released, and has been, to varying degrees, ever since.

• Humourous lyrics or ironic pairings of clips with lyrics for a humorous effect
• Character study vids
• Ensemble vids
• Uptempo vids with lots of quick cuts on the beat and a sense of movement
• But also: slower, contemplative vids with long clips
• Vids with a strong narrative/emotional arc
• Music specific likes:
  • Vocal jazz, especially Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Billie Holiday, Nina Simone and Chet Baker (my token white man in this category, lol). I mostly listen to stuff from the 1930s-1960s, but I'd be thrilled to get something set to more contemporary jazz too
  • Great American Songbook singers, i.e. anyone known for singing things composed by Irving Berlin, George and Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Jerome Kern, Harold Arlen, Johnny Mercer, Hoagy Carmichael, Rodgers & Hammerstein, etc. but especially Judy Garland
  • Motown, e.g. Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, Stevie Wonder, The Jackson 5 and Smokey Robinson
  • Disco, e.g. The Bee Gees, Donna Summer, Gloria Gaynor, Boney M., Earth Wind & Fire, Chaka Khan and the Village People
  • Rock and pop from the 1960s-1980s, e.g. The Mamas & the Papas, Janis Joplin, Neil Young, Cher, The Turtles, The Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, David Bowie, ABBA and Queen
  • Contemporary pop, e.g. Carly Rae Jepsen, Ke$ha, Lady Gaga, Mitski, Hayley Kiyoko, Marina (& the Diamonds), Florence + the Machine
  • Contemporary hip hop and R&B, e.g. Lizzo, Megan Thee Stallion, Doja Cat, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Shea Couleé and Janelle Monáe
  • Pop folk, e.g. Simon & Garfunkel, Sufjan Stevens, Belle and Sebastian, Mumford & Sons and Joni Mitchell
  • Musical theatre e.g. Patti Lupone, Audra McDonald, Barbra Streisand, Liza Minnelli, Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel
  • Country, e.g. Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Trixie Mattel, Skeeter Davis, Loretta Lyn, Woody Guthrie, Willie Nelson, Shania Twain, Norah Jones, Lil Nas X, Sheryl Crow and Miley Cyrus

• Vids set to music by Michael Bublé or Taylor Swift
• On-screen suicide
• Footage of rats
• Strobing or sudden bright lights

• Fic that is largely canon compliant. Canon divergent AUs are great, fic that re-interprets or re-examines canon events with a different lens is also great. I am not especially reverent towards canon and non-canon compliant fic is not a problem, but I do really like fic that rattles the bars of its canonical confines while remaining within them (or stays within them for the most part). See also:
• Post-canon fic and prequel fic—especially ones that are:
• Character studies, especially of characters who are sparsely characterised or underutilised in canon.
• Missing scene fic.
• Fic with a strong ensemble cast.
• AUs that are a completely different setting to canon, especially fusions with other canons such as Pacific Rim AUs or The Last Unicorn AUs (see DNWs for exceptions).
• Dramatic irony, especially when it’s comedic.
  • That said, I love sincerity that is entirely unembarrassed of itself and does not try to deflate itself with irony.
• Witty or otherwise humorous dialogue.
• As you can probably tell from the last two listed likes, I prefer fics with a comedic tone, or at least a comedic tinge (which can be ironic and/or bitter, in fics that skew more towards the dramatic side of the comedy-drama spectrum). I like pretty dry and understated humour, but I am also just a fan of Funny more generally.
• Bittersweet or melancholy fics are also wonderful. I am always a sucker for regret and missed opportunities/wasted time.
• Quiet, domestic stories that have a sense of contentment about them.
• Exciting, dynamic stories that have a sense of uncertainty about them. I particularly really love stuff where I don’t know what’s going on for 85% of the fic and then it all clicks into place in the last 15% as reveals that were set up earlier start to fall like dominoes.
• Found family.
  additional details

  Characters can have any kind of relationship to their family of origin in these kinds of fics—I am equally happy with fic about or featuring found families where the characters haven’t spoken to their parents in years and never intend to again and fic where one of the characters called their mom to talk to her about sourdough starter yesterday. Mixing and matching between these two extremes can be fun too!
• Queer platonic partnerships.
  additional details

  The character(s) can be aro and/or ace, and/or be sexually and/or romantically attracted to a different gender to their QPP, or they can just be queer platonic partners because that is the kind of relationship that suits them and not due to a mismatch/mutual incompatibility of sexual and/or romantic orientation.
• References to queer culture and history. This can be in conjunction with one or more queer ships, but can also be in a gen fic featuring one or more queer characters.
• Pining.
  additional details

  I especially like this when the character in question’s feelings are actually requited and they’re just unaware (especially-especially if the reader is aware before the character is through clues given but not explicitly stated in the narration) but also when their feelings genuinely are one-sided.
• Rarepairs.
  additional details

  In most of my fandoms, I usually end up getting more and more niche over time. I love when my first reaction to seeing a ship tag is, “Huh?” but then when I read the fic I’m completely sold by the execution of it because it feels true to the canonical characterisation of the characters and the evolution of the relationship (or invention of it, if they’ve never met before in canon) is a natural extension of that, so feel free to include ships that you really love that I have not mentioned in my fandom specific likes, as long as I haven’t mentioned actively disliking them. Also, this probably goes without saying, but just in case: I am using an interpretation of “rarepair” here includes ships that involve more than two partners.
• Polyamory/non-monogamy, very much including forms of non-monogamy other than polyfidelitous triads, such as vee arrangements, polycules or open relationships etc.
  additional details

  Your fic can be primarily about X/Y and have it as a background detail that this relationship is non-monogamous, if you like. I really like fic that is about X/Y, but X’s canonical relationship with Z also exists in the fic without anyone cheating or getting jealous. For examples of the kind of thing I mean, cosmic_llin has some great fic where Deanna Troi is dating something who is not her canonical love interest Will Riker, while also being in an open relationship with Riker.
• Emotionally intense and tempestuous co-dependent relationships, which can either get healthier over the course of the narrative or remain very much a "don’t try this at home" kind of depiction.
• Unironic “issuefic.”
  additional details

  This is a term that turns up in DNWs rather than likes in a lot of fandom exchange letters, in my experience, but I genuinely love reading about The Issues™. This can include, but is not limited to, things like disability theory adjacent themes, trans headcanons, depictions of characters being very deliberate and careful about respecting consent, unironic depictions of characters talking like they’re trying to get a good grade in therapy (maybe He Would Not Fucking Say That, but if we’re going to limit ourselves to what he would fucking do and say why not just call it quits on fandom and stick to canon, lol), examinations of the broader social context of the settings of various fandoms, middle aged men trying to be kind.
• Kid fic.
  additional details

  I prefer if the kid seems broadly realistic for the age they are depicted as being, but what is typical at a certain age varies a lot (I certainly had a very spiky developmental profile myself as a child) so don’t stress about it.
• Knitting or other kinds of crafts, especially from authors who are crafters and especially-especially when it includes technical or jargon-y details.
• Speaking of jargon, I love STEM-y things being featured in fic.
  additional details

  An example of what I mean is things like the stuff about mathematical proofs in astolat‘s Rodney McCay/John Sheppard fic Time in a Bottle. You don’t have to go into enormous depth here to get a lot of bang for your buck in terms of how much it will please me. I nearly swooned when I read the main character of the novel Hold Me by Courtney Milan mention something about something being three standard deviations above the mean.
• I also love wildly unrealistic and campy fake science escapades.
  additional details

  Things à la this Karate Kid fic I wrote where a CEO character’s R&D department creates a super soldier who he falls in love with or this fic trinityofone wrote for the same ship where the CEO character uses fake science, again from his R&D department, to babytrap his love interest. Basically though, if a bubbling, neon green liquid housed in a beaker that is smoking profusely appears in your fic then you are on the right track!
• Things relating to ageing.
  additional details, some NSFW.

  Including, but not limited to: moments of wistfulness or melancholy about it, older characters having active and fulfilling sex lives, broader themes about ageing, or matter of fact inclusion of details about changes brought about with age. In terms of that last one, I once wrote a fic where a character’s wrist started clicking after he fingered the woman he was having sex with for a long time, so stuff along those lines is great. That fic also had some sci-fi age-related stuff about the Phase where post-menopausal Betazoids’ sex drive quadruples or more, so feel free to include speculative/sci-fi stuff about ageing too if it fits the setting of your fic!
• Stuff about (wanted) pregnancy. I have some pregnancy related DNWs at the link here, so if this is an option you’re attracted to, please click through to see what I do not want from this kind of story.
  additional details about what I do like (some NSFW)

  Including, but not limited to: cloyingly fluffy family fic, breeding kink (and/or risky sex) and overly specific and/or scientific details about pregnancy itself. These details can relate to real pregnancy or speculative/sci-fi pregnancies featuring alien physiology or artificial wombs, etc. Speculative/sci-fi pregnancy does not have to be realistic for me to enjoy it! Depictions of real pregnancy would ideally have a higher degree of realism though, as pregnancy has been a long standing special interest of mine. I don’t mean, by this though, that you have to give someone a difficult pregnancy because they’re over 36 and that’s “more realistic” or something (also, fwiw, my aunt had her first baby at 48 and she had a very healthy and active pregnancy with both of her children), just that I would prefer that any specifics that you mention are accurate (so no feeling the baby kick before 16 weeks, for example). If you want to write about someone having a difficult pregnancy, or complications like gestational diabetes, though, go right ahead! I would ask though that if you go this route that it’s more along the lines of h/c than something that ends tragically. Regarding abortion, where termination is discussed (if, for example, the pregnancy was unplanned and the potential parent is thinking about options) I would strongly prefer that it was in a pro-choice context, unless you really feel that one or more of the characters would be pro-life and the overall narrative itself did not endorse them on this. I’m totally open to angsty fic about infertility that does not end with the character becoming pregnant, however.

  Notes regarding mpreg and people other than cis women getting pregnant

  Cis mpreg heavily depends on execution for me and I am generally not that interested in it—when I do read it, I prefer cis mpreg where pregnancy is not the norm for cis men in that universe and it’s contextually a fake science or magic-related thing. I am okay with trans mpreg, especially written by other transmasculine authors, and with other AFAB trans people getting pregnant as long as it is a wanted pregnancy and any depictions of dysphoria are not extremely graphic. If you would like to write a story where a trans woman or transfeminine or other AMAB trans person gets pregnant, then I’m totally open to that and my preferences for that align more closely to the ones I’ve mentioned for speculative/sci-fi pregnancy than to my preferences relating to cis men being depicted as being pregnant. Rather than wanting the pregnancy to be depicted as unusual or unique, as is my preferance for cis mpreg, I would prefer a fic where transition related healthcare has progressed or is on the cusp or progressing far enough to allow this kind of pregnancy to happen. Also, despite what I just said about preferring this kind of pregnancy not to be depicted as being singular in-universe, if you want to write fic where your character has gotten pregnant after being granted a wish by fairies, set in a universe where transition related healthcare has not, and will not in the near future, allow for AMAB people to get pregnant, go right ahead! This is relatively uncharted territory, fic-wise, to my knowledge, so go forth and be fruitful, as it were 😉 My only truly strong preference here would be that your character is pregnant due to wanting to be pregnant rather than for another reason.
• Since I mentioned it briefly in the above bullet point: speculative or canon alien physiology in settings where this is relevant.
  additional details (mildly NSFW?)

  Can be related to non-human typical genital configurations like Spock’s various fanonical space!junk, or more along the lines of Spock’s heart being where a human’s liver would be, and him having copper based blood.
• Inclusion of sensory and sensual details (which may or may not be erotic).

• Getting together and/or stuff with a first kiss (I know, how NSFW, lol) or first time having sex. I particularly like if first time sex scenes (and sex scenes generally) aren’t Perfect™ and things are a little awkward in a way that the characters can laugh about.
  • First time bottoming and, more generally, first time doing X sex act or kink and/or characters realising that something they hadn’t given much thought to, or had assumed they wouldn’t be into, is something they’re really into. I’d prefer they go into it with a “Sure, I’ll try anything once” attitude rather than an “I’ll suffer through it for you 😥” attitude.
• Friends with benefits/platonic sex. This can turn into fuckbuddies-to-lovers, but it doesn’t have to. I am particularly partial to a character who wingmans for their fuckbuddy and gets them together with another love interest (whether or not the two friends continue to have platonic sex afterwards is fine either way).
• Non-penetrative sex.
  additional details

  The characters can be actively choosing not to have non-penetrative sex specifically because of practical concerns, such as them don’t want to risk pregnancy, or them wanting to fuck right the fuck now and not wanting to wait for an opportune time for anal, or a character having vaginismus, or one or more of the characters just not really liking penetration. It can also just be something with non-penetrative sex without the need to justify that choice in-text. I really like when fics don’t make a distinction between penetrative and non-penetrative sex in terms of what is considered to be “real” sex, e.g. things like characters referring to a time they had oral sex as, “When we fucked” in dialogue, or similar casual nods to non-penetrative sex also being sex.
  • Intercrural sex specifically. This can transition into penetrative sex or not.
  • Oral sex of all varieties. I don’t particularly care about erotica being historical accurate or not (or, indeed, about erotica being strictly realistic in general—it can be fun to write realistic sex, but if you want to write impromptu anal fisting, go for it! I have, lol), so feel free to include it in a setting where it would be unlikely, e.g. the Golden Age of Piracy.
• Virginity kink, especially if the fic itself doesn’t buy into the social construction of virginity as a concept.
• Re: the above, I really it like, in general, when a work winks at the idea that kinky elements are just roleplay and not Real. Not for moralistic reasons or anything, I just think it gives a nice atmosphere and feel to the relationship and dynamic between the characters to imagine them being kinky together on purpose, as opposed to fics that play to the kink, but are not explicitly written to portray the characters as kinky, if that makes sense. I don’t mind if this is not something in play though, and I can definitely tell the difference between id-heavy smutty fan fiction and writing intended to be taken as a strictly literal account of how things are or should be.

• First or second person narration, unless that is canon typical.
• Mundane/modern AUs (e.g. college or coffee shop AUs, etc.), Harry Potter AUs/fusions, AUs or pre-canon fic where the characters are aged down.
  random tangent about Scooby Doo

  Although, come to think of it, I’d love to see a fic, AU or post-canon, where characters were depicted as much older than they appear in canon, e.g. something like the gang from the original 1969 Scooby Doo cartoon in the modern day as 70-somethings … in this purely hypothetical Scooby Doo fic that nobody will ever write though, Scooby is obviously still alive, typical 8-10 year lifespan of a Great Dane be damned.
  (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Pregnancy related DNWs:
  • Unwanted pregnancy.
  • Fic where a character is coerced or tricked into becoming pregnant, even if they come around to the idea and/or are not upset by it (babytrapping from the side of the gestational parent isn’t a problem for me, because it’s a bodily autonomy thing for me mainly and also I’m a hypocrite).
  • Fic where the overall narrative explicitly promotes a pro-life sentiment.
  • Pregnancy fic where the pregnancy ends in abortion (re: the apparent contradiction with the last bullet point, for me this is like “there was only one bed” fic where they resolve it with someone sleeping on the couch, because I like pregnancy fic and the kind I seek out start from a premise that the pregnancy is wanted, even if unplanned).
  • Fic where the pregnancy ends in miscarriage, unless the character does manage to carry a pregnancy to term (or after 12 weeks, with the implication that they will carry to term) by the end of the story and the miscarriages are not depicted graphically. (return to where you left off in Likes)
• Dark fic. I’m fine with angsty or bittersweet fic or with stories that are framed as tragedies, but I do not want something that is primary intended to be disturbing, or that is unrelentingly miserable with no reprieve and no catharsis at the end.
• More than passing depictions of bigotry. You do not have to engage in historical revisionism or erase bigotry that exists in canon or the real world and I do enjoy fic that engages with the broader social contexts of various fandom settings, but I do not want a fic that is centred primarily around experiences of bigotry.
• Fetishisation or romanticisation of a marginalised group.
  additional details

  For example: race play, fetishisation of trans people, fat fetishism, fetishisation of physically disabled people’s bodies, romanticisation of mental illness, etc. One exception is that I do have a weakness for clueless class privileged characters who are poverty tourists, à la the song Common People, so I will say that I’m generally neutral-to-positive on this one, provided the character whose socioeconomic circumstances are being romanticised explicitly thinks that the poverty tourist is being a privileged dick (regardless of whether they also still have, or want to have, sex and/or a relationship with them).
• Intimate partner violence or other related forms of abuse.
  additional details

  I do like some specific ships where the characters are unhealthily obsessed with each other and mutually destructive, but I do not like fics where a character is primarily a victim of their partner rather than someone willingly walking into a lake of bad decisions with their partner and drowning, hand in unlovable hand. N.B. I don’t mean by this distinction that I think that anyone in a real life abusive relationship is culpable for the abuse they suffer in any way.

• Kink related DNWs:
  • Consensual non-consent or other rape fantasies.
  • 24–7 D/s relationships.
  • Master/slave relationships.
  • Humiliation kink. Non-kinky humiliation is fine.
  • Desperation kink.
  • Edging.
  • Chastity belts/cages, etc.
  • Degrading or insulting language in a kink context.
  • Erotic asphyxiation. Non-erotic choking is okay.
  • Heavy pain play. Light impact kink or discomfort from restraints is fine.
  • Sadism.
  • Sounding.
  • Things likely to edge near a hygiene squick.
• Non-con or dub-con.
• Characters consenting to sex they think they won’t like, whether they turn out to be right about this or not.
• Detailed descriptions of sex that is painful or unpleasant.
  additional details

  While I love badsex where it all goes pear-shaped in a way that’s funny to both the reader and the characters, and I love fic where characters get better at communicating what they enjoy sexually and their sex life improving as a result, I really don’t want to read long or in-depth depictions of characters being subjected to sex they absolutely hate with a partner who is either unaware that they don’t like it, or doesn’t care, that never gets any better.