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Lovely author, here is my theory about letters: how much detail people want in a letter is HIGHLY variable. Some people (such as myself) prefer if their recip gives LOTS of guidance on their wishes. Some prefer as little as possible so they can be free as a bird. Most are somewhere in between. So! Here's everything including the kitchen sink if you find it helpful, but feel free to ignore it if it is not helpful. I would rather get a story you were happy with than "well, she said she liked x, so I guess I have to do x even though I don't like x and/or am just not inspired that way."
I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.
The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.
One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
Please no incest.
Here are some other things to keep in mind (not all of which will apply to all fandoms): I don't like it when characters of color are pushed aside so that white characters can take center stage. I love the acknowledgment that female strength comes in many forms, of which the kinds put forward by modern western feminism are only a few. I like cultural diversity, and to know that culture matters to people, but please don't exoticise anything. I like quirky characters. I like unreliable narrators. I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong. I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general, but I don't like explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. If there's going to be sex, there needs to be a reason for it within the story--it advances the plot, or characterization, or something (and, again, if you have to do it, please don't make it explicit). I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot), but sex-for-the-sake-of-sex is pretty boring to me. I generally prefer no slash.
I love worldbuilding. Sometimes I find exploring the corners of a world or universe to be as fun (or sometimes more fun) than reading stories set in it. I want to know what's behind the curtain. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll probably enjoy it if you do.
I like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened. Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon--Regency AUs where everyone's attitude is modern but with a Regency #aesthetic drive me batty. ("But entailments didn't work that way!") I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves. While things can get dark or angsty in the middle, I prefer happy endings.
On to the prompts! Please feel free to use these as jumping off points, or ignore if you have an idea that inspires you more.
Thrawn Trilogy
Lando/Mara/Luke
I love Mara, how she's a bit messed up from the Emperor but even at her worst she's loyal and practical and ethical and competent, and how she's committed to growing and becoming a better person, but she's gonna do it in her own way. I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. And I love Luke because he is an idealist, because he always sees the good in people, and because he is kind but not stupid or bland. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want.
Prompts: I hated the whole "oh, of COURSE Mara couldn't ever really have been with Lando, she doesn't even LIKE him, it was ALL JUST A JOB FROM KARRDE" retcon for like a hundred different reasons. And my theory of SW EU canon is like my theory of comics canon: pick and choose what you like and ignore the rest. So! Either Mara met Lando through Luke, or through working with Karrde. What's Lando been up to after the Empire was defeated? Did he go back to Cloud City and liberate it? Did he start over and drift back into semi-legal exploits? Did he get a job in the New Republic, in whatever department handles business regulation and the like? Are the three a triad or a polyamorous V, and if a V, is Mara or Luke in the middle? Maybe Luke and Lando got together while they were looking for Han and Mara becomes part of the relationship after the trilogy. Maybe Mara gets together with Lando on a job before she and Luke get together, and when he sees Mara and Lando together Luke realizes he has a thing for both of them. You could do curtainfic, or business shenanigans, or Dire Imperial Threat to the New Republic, or Lando and Mara providing much-needed pragmatism and outside perspectives on Luke setting up his Jedi training.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth/Bingley, Elizabeth/Charlotte, Mary/Collins
Angst is fine, but I prefer a happy ending. I have no idea how you'd get Bingley and Elizabeth together, but it would be an interesting dynamic, both between the two of them and then how they relate to Jane and Darcy. I think they could do well together, though Elizabeth would definitely be the driving force; Bingley just wants to be pleasant and happy and good, and Elizabeth could provide the kind of warm home he'd probably want, and he's a good enough man with few enough foibles that she could respect and like him. Maybe she's the driving financial force (running the estate they purchase/keeping some money in the Bingley family business) while he runs the social connections. Elizabeth/Charlotte, I can see Charlotte marrying Collins anyway because neither of them have any money to live on and she's still the practical one, and then after Elizabeth marries Darcy Charlotte just ... comes to visit a lot. Or maybe she doesn't marry Collins because as prudent as it would be, she knows Elizabeth would never be able to stand living with him. (I bet Charlotte's ideal would be for Jane to marry well and Elizabeth and Charlotte live with her as "spinster sisters," or for Elizabeth to marry well and keep Charlotte with her as a companion. After all, they must have something to live on, and neither of them are going to inherit it.) Mary/Mr. Collins: We don't know if they're suited because canon doesn't give us enough of a picture of Mary, but they might be, and it's certain she's the only one of the Bennet girls who might have a chance at a good marriage with him. There are so many different ways you can take the two of them, but I would prefer something that is sympathetic to both of them.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AU
Star Wars: OT
Lando/Leia, Lando/Leia/Han
I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want. I'm not terribly fond of the whole "princesses are just damsels waiting for prince charming, therefore Leia can't be a princess anymore, she's a general which is much better!" idea. Princesses (and queens) literally rule. Which can include leading their troops in battle, but also includes politics and diplomacy and everything else rulers do.
In ESB, Lando was in an impossible situation, and he was right to put his citizens first. He is the respectable one, and his past as a con artist (but one with ethics) and a businessman and an administrator would make him an ideal ally for Leia as they are building the New Republic. Han would probably be quite happy to be free to roam with Chewie and then come home to Leia and Lando, and be a bit freer and not have to do with all the politics. I would love something focused on political worldbuilding, either "how do they build a New Republic" or "what all happens with Leia's role as Princess of Alderaan" (and feel free to ignore the ST and the new EU if you want).
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, New Republic destroyed.
MCU
Bruce Banner/Brunnhilde/Thor
Brunnhilde/Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Thor
Brunnhilde/Okoye
Brunnhilde/Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers/Nick Fury
Carol Danvers/Steve Rogers
Carol Danvers/Thor
James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson (MCU)
James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Sam Wilson (MCU)
M'Baku/Shuri (MCU)
Nick Fury/Maria Hill
Okoye/Natasha Romanov
Okoye/Ramonda
Spoilers from Age of Ultron killed my desire to see any Avengers movie from then on, though I've seen most of the individual titles. But the group movies have too much passing around of the idiot ball to build DRAMA, too little interest in building up character moments, just a lot of smashy-smashy CGI. So please don't feel you need to stick with canon. You can do the classic "everyone lives in Avengers tower! and they're all besties and nothing from AOU on happened!" You can pick a movie and fix it. You can cherry-pick MCU and comics canon. Go wild.
Both Bucky and Sam were HEAVILY coded as the love interest in TFA and TWS respectively, and I hate how often Sam gets swept aside to be just the sidekick and unpaid therapist. Sam IS a therapist, but he's got good enough boundaries not to try and be the therapist for friends/family/lovers. I also hate how Rhodey gets ignored by fandom. I love how competent Maria is, and how she's always there in the background Getting Things Done And Taking No Shit. Okoye's loyalty combined with willingness to challenge her monarch fascinates me. She's very smart and hyper-competent, but possibly because of cultural differences isn't as driven/hardened as the other women warriors and spies tend to be. Natasha, I don't think women need babies or that motherhood is right for all women, but I am FURIOUS at Whedon's "I can't have kids so I'm a monster" for many, many reasons. Either Nat should be fine without kids, or Wakandan tech should be able to fix whatever the Red Room did.
I think Thor loves intelligent women who can kick his ass. I don't think Brunnhilde would ever really want to settle down, and I think she'll probably always be wounded and grieving what she lost and have poor coping skills, but I also think she's got a lot of depth and will have a lot of fun along the way. I think she'd be fine with no-strings-sex but find true intimacy a lot harder, and I'd love to see her getting the support and care she hasn't had in thousands of years.
For Carol/Nick, I can see either "Carol coming back to Earth once the Kree are stopped and the Skrulls are settled and safe, and building something with younger/less jaded Nick" or "Carol comes back after Nick is the jaded, suspicious bastard we see in most of canon and has to deal with both an Earth that's changed a lot and how she's changed and how Nick has changed." Carol and Steve have a lot in common, both personality-wise (never back down or run away, get right back up and take out anybody who gets in your way) and circumstances-wise (changed into superheroes, missed a lot and everything changed while they were gone).
Bucky/Sam/Steve, Bucky would start out relieved that there was someone else to prevent Steve from running face-first into trouble, and then be horrified to find out how alike Steve and Sam are and be like "shit, now there's TWO of them!" Rhodey/Sam: they have so much in common. Both military, both take no shit, both love to fly, both superheroes who followed friends into weird and wacky shit, neither give up when they're faced with incredible odds. OTOH, they have very different perspectives on politics and power which is why they ended up on opposite sides in Civil War. It's a fascinating dynamic which I'd love to see explored.
M'Baku/Shuri, such an interesting idea! She thinks technology can fix anything and has a ... loose relationship with tradition; he doesn't trust technology and is very much a traditionalist. And they're from such different backgrounds. Those are all interesting dynamics to explore. Maybe a future fic where they've had time to get to know one another and Shuri has had time to grow up from "cocky teenager" to "mature adult." Maybe some sort of arranged marriage.
Nick/Maria, super-competent super-spies. Could be a mission, could just be the day-to-day running of SHIELD. I'd prefer either "nobody knows about the two of them bc super spies" or "dealing with the shit they'd get for an interracial relationship PLUS age gap PLUS she works for him." Don't just handwave it away. Okoye/Natasha. I have no prompts, but I'd be fascinated to see them together. Okoye/Ramonda, loyalty kink and/or competence porn.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, no-power AUs
Harry Potter
Cho/Cedric, Cho/Harry, Luna/Draco, Luna/Harry, Narcissa Malfoy/Arthur Weasley
Go wild with canon-AUs on this one, I love exploring all the various what-ifs. If Cho appears, I want the story to be centered on her and not just as"the girlfriend." She's smart, athletic, popular, and Voldemort and the Death Eaters are running around. Luna is so delightfully off-beat, and also extremely perceptive. I've never seen Fantastic Beasts and I hate virtually everything I've ever heard about Cursed Child. Above all, I hate how JKR made Nagini (the evil snake with basically no lines who has no will of their own) into a woman of color. And the Pottermore worldbuilding about magic schools in the Americas is just :facepalm: Stuff from the original books and movies is great; I'm not quite DNWing all the add-ons and extensions, but please be thoughtful about whatever you bring in from them.
Go wild with magic worldbuilding and canon AUs. I don't have any specific prompts for most of these couples, but I always love alternative takes on "how the fight against Voldemort/villain of the year" might have gone. Or a future-fic can be great. For Narcissa/Arthur, I'm thinking arranged marriage. Maybe the First Wizarding War was more pitched-battles-and-declared-sides and less skirmishes-in-the-dark-while-everyone-pretends-things-are-fine-in-public and they needed symbolic marriages to seal a peace treaty. Maybe people were trying to heal the breaches in Wizarding pureblood society before it turned into open bloodshed. Maybe Voldemort showed his hand too early and got killed, and the Blacks had to try and repair their reputation and the Weasleys needed money. The only thing Narcissa and Arthur have in common in canon is that they both love their kids, so build on that.
ETA: I should have said, I was thinking about the arranged marriage in the First Voldemort War era, but I'm willing to be convinced about something with them older. Just ... not abusive/hugely dysfunctional, please.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, mundane AUs
DCEU
Diana/Clark/Lois
Diana/Clark/Lois/Bruce
Diana/Lois
DC was my first comics love; I grew up on the Timmverse cartoons. My biggest complaint about the DCEU is how grimdark it is. I like my Superman optimistic, my Lois Lane kick-ass, my Batman cynical but loyal and pragmatic, and my Diana compassionate and slightly alien. Gal Gadot is my favorite Diana, Tyler Hoechlin in the Supergirl TV series is my favorite Clark/Superman, Margot Kidder from the 70s movies is my favorite Lois Lane, and the 90s Timm cartoon Batman is my favorite Batman. In the current DC movies, I love Diana (obviously), but I also think that Lois and Clark have a good dynamic, and that focusing on Bruce's fear of aliens (and then on his drive to make up for his mistakes) is an interesting choice.
Make love not war! What if they'd gotten together before Luthor had time to unleash his monster and had been working together from the start? Or what if Bruce and Lois had a previous relationship and he could get the lowdown on Superman from her? Or what if Lois didn't get together with Superman in the first DCEU superman movie and Bruce seduced her to get information on Superman and then realized he felt more for her than just a source (not very in touch with his feelings, is our Bruce). What if Clark/Lois and Diana/Bruce are the relationships, and the Clark or Diana has some weird biology/cultural thing that only the other can handle?
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, mundane AUs
Crossovers
Anne Elliot/Fanny Price
Carol Danvers/Buffy Summers
CT-7567 | Rex/Luke Skywalker
Jadzia Dax/River Song
Peggy Carter/Diana (Wonder Woman 2017)
Anne and Fanny are so alike: both neglected and emotionally abused by their families, both are highly compassionate, both quiet background types who take care of things. They could help one another to heal. What if Anne decided to keep a companion, the way her older sister had Mrs. Clay, and decided on Fanny to help get her away from Mansfield Park?
Carol Danvers/Buffy Summers. Either they team up to fight demons, or they team up to fight Kree. Either way, they would kick ass and take names.
Rex/Luke. I can see Luke drawn to someone who knew his father, and Rex being drawn to someone who reminded him of his Jedi. Maybe Luke figures out how to use the Force to stop Rex's rapid aging? Maybe they find out together that Anakin became Darth Vader and are horrified? Maybe there's some big AU and Anakin never turns, but somehow he and Rex lose track of one another (chaos and fighting the Empire? clones demobilized after the war is over and Palpatine unmasked and stopped?) and Rex later runs into Luke and they get together somehow, and then they have to figure out how to break it to Luke's parents and any of Rex's surviving fellow clones.
Dax/River: technobabble! wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff! Improbable science! Gambling with disreputable people! Saving the day! Having lots of fun and looking good doing it!
Peggy Carter/Diana. Obviously, Diana is an OSS agent in France during WWII. Or maybe she goes on a one-woman crusade against HYDRA and/or Nazis and/or liberates concentration camps, and she and Diana team up. Then maybe break up over differences about spying after the war. Diana loved Steve, she understands that spying can be necessary, but she ALSO knows just how corrosive it can be and how easy it is to justify all the dirty deeds to yourself. Diana thinks this means there should be less spying and more open talking about things; Peggy thinks this means there should be more people of good character in spywork to do what must be done but stop things before they go too far.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern/mundane AUs
Star Trek: TNG
Deanna Troi/Worf
Sam Lavelle/Taurik
I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. All my feelings about Star Trek in general can be summed up with this vid. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication). My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels (especially Spock's World and the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane, but also the Vulcan Academy Murders and the IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah). If you know those books, great; if not, don't worry about it. I also love Klingons, and PARTICULARLY when they are not written as one-dimensional fighters. Like, yes, the warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them.
Prompts: An episode-like adventure! Show Our Heroes doing what they do best, meeting new cultures, sciencing the shit out of things, dealing with ethical dilemmas. Or, cross-cultural exploration! Meeting the family! (Oh, God, Lwaxana and the Rozhenkos, and Worf and Deanna both sitting back in mortification, can you imagine?)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern/human AUs
I'm fairly easy to please; I've been doing ficathons for over a decade and am very rarely disappointed with my gifts. I write long and detailed Dear Author letters because I find such things helpful when I'm writing for other people; if you are like me, here you go! If your style is different and a detailed letter makes you feel hemmed-in, feel free to do what works for you.
The most important thing for me in a fic is that the characters are well-written and recognizably themselves. Even when I don't like a character, I don't go in for character-bashing. If nothing else, if the rest of this letter is too much or my kinks just don't fit yours, just concentrate on writing a story with everyone in character and good spelling and grammar and I will almost certainly love what you come up with.
One thing: I do have an embarrassment squick, which makes humor kind of hit-or-miss sometimes. The kind of humor where someone does something embarrassing and the audience is laughing at them makes me uncomfortable. On the other hand, the kind of humor where the audience is laughing with the characters I really enjoy.
Please no incest.
Here are some other things to keep in mind (not all of which will apply to all fandoms): I don't like it when characters of color are pushed aside so that white characters can take center stage. I love the acknowledgment that female strength comes in many forms, of which the kinds put forward by modern western feminism are only a few. I like cultural diversity, and to know that culture matters to people, but please don't exoticise anything. I like quirky characters. I like unreliable narrators. I like acknowledgment that different people can have different points of view without either of them being wrong. I like stories that engage with problematic aspects of the source, and which deal with privilege in one way or another.
I like plotty, gen stories, and plotty stories in general, but I don't like explicit sex, particularly when it's just thrown in for teh porn. If there's going to be sex, there needs to be a reason for it within the story--it advances the plot, or characterization, or something (and, again, if you have to do it, please don't make it explicit). I'm asexual; a lot of the time I don't even bother to read the sex scenes. Romance is awesome (as long as both are in character and the romantic plot doesn't hinge on one or both of them being an idiot), but sex-for-the-sake-of-sex is pretty boring to me. I generally prefer no slash.
I love worldbuilding. Sometimes I find exploring the corners of a world or universe to be as fun (or sometimes more fun) than reading stories set in it. I want to know what's behind the curtain. I love hearing about the economics, the politics, the religion, the clothing, the history, all of that kind of stuff. And I want to know why it matters--how is all this cultural background stuff affecting the characters, the plot, everything. You don't have to do deep worldbuilding, but I'll probably enjoy it if you do.
I like AUs, but not complete AUs (i.e. no highschool or college or coffee shop AUs, and especially not mundane AUs--nothing where you keep characters but drop most of the worldbuilding). I like fork-in-the-road type AUs, where one thing is different and the changes all result from that one thing, and you explore what might have been if such-and-such happened. Crackfic is really hit and miss for me, sometimes I love it and sometimes I can't stand it. Basically, if it's the characters we know and love in a ludicrous situation, that's great. If they're OOC or parodied in order to make something funny ... it's not funny to me. I like historical AUs, but only when the author actually knows the history period in question and does thoughtful worldbuilding to meld actual culture of the time with the canon--Regency AUs where everyone's attitude is modern but with a Regency #aesthetic drive me batty. ("But entailments didn't work that way!") I like angst, but not complete and unrelieved angst, and not angst of the type that people cause themselves. While things can get dark or angsty in the middle, I prefer happy endings.
On to the prompts! Please feel free to use these as jumping off points, or ignore if you have an idea that inspires you more.
Thrawn Trilogy
Lando/Mara/Luke
I love Mara, how she's a bit messed up from the Emperor but even at her worst she's loyal and practical and ethical and competent, and how she's committed to growing and becoming a better person, but she's gonna do it in her own way. I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. And I love Luke because he is an idealist, because he always sees the good in people, and because he is kind but not stupid or bland. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want.
Prompts: I hated the whole "oh, of COURSE Mara couldn't ever really have been with Lando, she doesn't even LIKE him, it was ALL JUST A JOB FROM KARRDE" retcon for like a hundred different reasons. And my theory of SW EU canon is like my theory of comics canon: pick and choose what you like and ignore the rest. So! Either Mara met Lando through Luke, or through working with Karrde. What's Lando been up to after the Empire was defeated? Did he go back to Cloud City and liberate it? Did he start over and drift back into semi-legal exploits? Did he get a job in the New Republic, in whatever department handles business regulation and the like? Are the three a triad or a polyamorous V, and if a V, is Mara or Luke in the middle? Maybe Luke and Lando got together while they were looking for Han and Mara becomes part of the relationship after the trilogy. Maybe Mara gets together with Lando on a job before she and Luke get together, and when he sees Mara and Lando together Luke realizes he has a thing for both of them. You could do curtainfic, or business shenanigans, or Dire Imperial Threat to the New Republic, or Lando and Mara providing much-needed pragmatism and outside perspectives on Luke setting up his Jedi training.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs.
Pride and Prejudice
Elizabeth/Bingley, Elizabeth/Charlotte, Mary/Collins
Angst is fine, but I prefer a happy ending. I have no idea how you'd get Bingley and Elizabeth together, but it would be an interesting dynamic, both between the two of them and then how they relate to Jane and Darcy. I think they could do well together, though Elizabeth would definitely be the driving force; Bingley just wants to be pleasant and happy and good, and Elizabeth could provide the kind of warm home he'd probably want, and he's a good enough man with few enough foibles that she could respect and like him. Maybe she's the driving financial force (running the estate they purchase/keeping some money in the Bingley family business) while he runs the social connections. Elizabeth/Charlotte, I can see Charlotte marrying Collins anyway because neither of them have any money to live on and she's still the practical one, and then after Elizabeth marries Darcy Charlotte just ... comes to visit a lot. Or maybe she doesn't marry Collins because as prudent as it would be, she knows Elizabeth would never be able to stand living with him. (I bet Charlotte's ideal would be for Jane to marry well and Elizabeth and Charlotte live with her as "spinster sisters," or for Elizabeth to marry well and keep Charlotte with her as a companion. After all, they must have something to live on, and neither of them are going to inherit it.) Mary/Mr. Collins: We don't know if they're suited because canon doesn't give us enough of a picture of Mary, but they might be, and it's certain she's the only one of the Bennet girls who might have a chance at a good marriage with him. There are so many different ways you can take the two of them, but I would prefer something that is sympathetic to both of them.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AU
Star Wars: OT
Lando/Leia, Lando/Leia/Han
I love Lando because he is a deeply pragmatic and principled man (who was right to put the welfare of his citizens above that of a couple of old friends he hadn't seen in years), who will do the right thing even if it's hard, but who does his bit for the Grand Cause when necessary and then goes back to real life. While the old EU was a bit of a mess, I liked it better than the ST. You can bring in ST details if you want to, but please no Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, and please don't destroy the New Republic. From the EU, please no Yuuzhan Vong. Any PT or Clone Wars details are fine to include, if you want. I'm not terribly fond of the whole "princesses are just damsels waiting for prince charming, therefore Leia can't be a princess anymore, she's a general which is much better!" idea. Princesses (and queens) literally rule. Which can include leading their troops in battle, but also includes politics and diplomacy and everything else rulers do.
In ESB, Lando was in an impossible situation, and he was right to put his citizens first. He is the respectable one, and his past as a con artist (but one with ethics) and a businessman and an administrator would make him an ideal ally for Leia as they are building the New Republic. Han would probably be quite happy to be free to roam with Chewie and then come home to Leia and Lando, and be a bit freer and not have to do with all the politics. I would love something focused on political worldbuilding, either "how do they build a New Republic" or "what all happens with Leia's role as Princess of Alderaan" (and feel free to ignore the ST and the new EU if you want).
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern AUs, Ben Solo/Kylo Ren, New Republic destroyed.
MCU
Bruce Banner/Brunnhilde/Thor
Brunnhilde/Carol Danvers/Maria Rambeau/Thor
Brunnhilde/Okoye
Brunnhilde/Carol Danvers
Carol Danvers/Nick Fury
Carol Danvers/Steve Rogers
Carol Danvers/Thor
James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson (MCU)
James "Rhodey" Rhodes/Sam Wilson (MCU)
M'Baku/Shuri (MCU)
Nick Fury/Maria Hill
Okoye/Natasha Romanov
Okoye/Ramonda
Spoilers from Age of Ultron killed my desire to see any Avengers movie from then on, though I've seen most of the individual titles. But the group movies have too much passing around of the idiot ball to build DRAMA, too little interest in building up character moments, just a lot of smashy-smashy CGI. So please don't feel you need to stick with canon. You can do the classic "everyone lives in Avengers tower! and they're all besties and nothing from AOU on happened!" You can pick a movie and fix it. You can cherry-pick MCU and comics canon. Go wild.
Both Bucky and Sam were HEAVILY coded as the love interest in TFA and TWS respectively, and I hate how often Sam gets swept aside to be just the sidekick and unpaid therapist. Sam IS a therapist, but he's got good enough boundaries not to try and be the therapist for friends/family/lovers. I also hate how Rhodey gets ignored by fandom. I love how competent Maria is, and how she's always there in the background Getting Things Done And Taking No Shit. Okoye's loyalty combined with willingness to challenge her monarch fascinates me. She's very smart and hyper-competent, but possibly because of cultural differences isn't as driven/hardened as the other women warriors and spies tend to be. Natasha, I don't think women need babies or that motherhood is right for all women, but I am FURIOUS at Whedon's "I can't have kids so I'm a monster" for many, many reasons. Either Nat should be fine without kids, or Wakandan tech should be able to fix whatever the Red Room did.
I think Thor loves intelligent women who can kick his ass. I don't think Brunnhilde would ever really want to settle down, and I think she'll probably always be wounded and grieving what she lost and have poor coping skills, but I also think she's got a lot of depth and will have a lot of fun along the way. I think she'd be fine with no-strings-sex but find true intimacy a lot harder, and I'd love to see her getting the support and care she hasn't had in thousands of years.
For Carol/Nick, I can see either "Carol coming back to Earth once the Kree are stopped and the Skrulls are settled and safe, and building something with younger/less jaded Nick" or "Carol comes back after Nick is the jaded, suspicious bastard we see in most of canon and has to deal with both an Earth that's changed a lot and how she's changed and how Nick has changed." Carol and Steve have a lot in common, both personality-wise (never back down or run away, get right back up and take out anybody who gets in your way) and circumstances-wise (changed into superheroes, missed a lot and everything changed while they were gone).
Bucky/Sam/Steve, Bucky would start out relieved that there was someone else to prevent Steve from running face-first into trouble, and then be horrified to find out how alike Steve and Sam are and be like "shit, now there's TWO of them!" Rhodey/Sam: they have so much in common. Both military, both take no shit, both love to fly, both superheroes who followed friends into weird and wacky shit, neither give up when they're faced with incredible odds. OTOH, they have very different perspectives on politics and power which is why they ended up on opposite sides in Civil War. It's a fascinating dynamic which I'd love to see explored.
M'Baku/Shuri, such an interesting idea! She thinks technology can fix anything and has a ... loose relationship with tradition; he doesn't trust technology and is very much a traditionalist. And they're from such different backgrounds. Those are all interesting dynamics to explore. Maybe a future fic where they've had time to get to know one another and Shuri has had time to grow up from "cocky teenager" to "mature adult." Maybe some sort of arranged marriage.
Nick/Maria, super-competent super-spies. Could be a mission, could just be the day-to-day running of SHIELD. I'd prefer either "nobody knows about the two of them bc super spies" or "dealing with the shit they'd get for an interracial relationship PLUS age gap PLUS she works for him." Don't just handwave it away. Okoye/Natasha. I have no prompts, but I'd be fascinated to see them together. Okoye/Ramonda, loyalty kink and/or competence porn.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, no-power AUs
Harry Potter
Cho/Cedric, Cho/Harry, Luna/Draco, Luna/Harry, Narcissa Malfoy/Arthur Weasley
Go wild with canon-AUs on this one, I love exploring all the various what-ifs. If Cho appears, I want the story to be centered on her and not just as"the girlfriend." She's smart, athletic, popular, and Voldemort and the Death Eaters are running around. Luna is so delightfully off-beat, and also extremely perceptive. I've never seen Fantastic Beasts and I hate virtually everything I've ever heard about Cursed Child. Above all, I hate how JKR made Nagini (the evil snake with basically no lines who has no will of their own) into a woman of color. And the Pottermore worldbuilding about magic schools in the Americas is just :facepalm: Stuff from the original books and movies is great; I'm not quite DNWing all the add-ons and extensions, but please be thoughtful about whatever you bring in from them.
Go wild with magic worldbuilding and canon AUs. I don't have any specific prompts for most of these couples, but I always love alternative takes on "how the fight against Voldemort/villain of the year" might have gone. Or a future-fic can be great. For Narcissa/Arthur, I'm thinking arranged marriage. Maybe the First Wizarding War was more pitched-battles-and-declared-sides and less skirmishes-in-the-dark-while-everyone-pretends-things-are-fine-in-public and they needed symbolic marriages to seal a peace treaty. Maybe people were trying to heal the breaches in Wizarding pureblood society before it turned into open bloodshed. Maybe Voldemort showed his hand too early and got killed, and the Blacks had to try and repair their reputation and the Weasleys needed money. The only thing Narcissa and Arthur have in common in canon is that they both love their kids, so build on that.
ETA: I should have said, I was thinking about the arranged marriage in the First Voldemort War era, but I'm willing to be convinced about something with them older. Just ... not abusive/hugely dysfunctional, please.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, mundane AUs
DCEU
Diana/Clark/Lois
Diana/Clark/Lois/Bruce
Diana/Lois
DC was my first comics love; I grew up on the Timmverse cartoons. My biggest complaint about the DCEU is how grimdark it is. I like my Superman optimistic, my Lois Lane kick-ass, my Batman cynical but loyal and pragmatic, and my Diana compassionate and slightly alien. Gal Gadot is my favorite Diana, Tyler Hoechlin in the Supergirl TV series is my favorite Clark/Superman, Margot Kidder from the 70s movies is my favorite Lois Lane, and the 90s Timm cartoon Batman is my favorite Batman. In the current DC movies, I love Diana (obviously), but I also think that Lois and Clark have a good dynamic, and that focusing on Bruce's fear of aliens (and then on his drive to make up for his mistakes) is an interesting choice.
Make love not war! What if they'd gotten together before Luthor had time to unleash his monster and had been working together from the start? Or what if Bruce and Lois had a previous relationship and he could get the lowdown on Superman from her? Or what if Lois didn't get together with Superman in the first DCEU superman movie and Bruce seduced her to get information on Superman and then realized he felt more for her than just a source (not very in touch with his feelings, is our Bruce). What if Clark/Lois and Diana/Bruce are the relationships, and the Clark or Diana has some weird biology/cultural thing that only the other can handle?
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, mundane AUs
Crossovers
Anne Elliot/Fanny Price
Carol Danvers/Buffy Summers
CT-7567 | Rex/Luke Skywalker
Jadzia Dax/River Song
Peggy Carter/Diana (Wonder Woman 2017)
Anne and Fanny are so alike: both neglected and emotionally abused by their families, both are highly compassionate, both quiet background types who take care of things. They could help one another to heal. What if Anne decided to keep a companion, the way her older sister had Mrs. Clay, and decided on Fanny to help get her away from Mansfield Park?
Carol Danvers/Buffy Summers. Either they team up to fight demons, or they team up to fight Kree. Either way, they would kick ass and take names.
Rex/Luke. I can see Luke drawn to someone who knew his father, and Rex being drawn to someone who reminded him of his Jedi. Maybe Luke figures out how to use the Force to stop Rex's rapid aging? Maybe they find out together that Anakin became Darth Vader and are horrified? Maybe there's some big AU and Anakin never turns, but somehow he and Rex lose track of one another (chaos and fighting the Empire? clones demobilized after the war is over and Palpatine unmasked and stopped?) and Rex later runs into Luke and they get together somehow, and then they have to figure out how to break it to Luke's parents and any of Rex's surviving fellow clones.
Dax/River: technobabble! wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey stuff! Improbable science! Gambling with disreputable people! Saving the day! Having lots of fun and looking good doing it!
Peggy Carter/Diana. Obviously, Diana is an OSS agent in France during WWII. Or maybe she goes on a one-woman crusade against HYDRA and/or Nazis and/or liberates concentration camps, and she and Diana team up. Then maybe break up over differences about spying after the war. Diana loved Steve, she understands that spying can be necessary, but she ALSO knows just how corrosive it can be and how easy it is to justify all the dirty deeds to yourself. Diana thinks this means there should be less spying and more open talking about things; Peggy thinks this means there should be more people of good character in spywork to do what must be done but stop things before they go too far.
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern/mundane AUs
Star Trek: TNG
Deanna Troi/Worf
Sam Lavelle/Taurik
I love alien culture worldbuilding. I love boldly going and exploring and wacky science hijinks and time travel and alternate universe shenanigans. I love the hopeful attitude that we can become better than we are. All my feelings about Star Trek in general can be summed up with this vid. I love cross-cultural romance (especially when it deals realistically with having to figure out what compromises each is going to make on what they expect out of a relationship--love is not all you need, you also need a lot of hard work and communication). My headcanon on Vulcans was shaped by 80s Trek novels (especially Spock's World and the Rihannsu books by Diane Duane, but also the Vulcan Academy Murders and the IDIC Epidemic by Jean Lorrah). If you know those books, great; if not, don't worry about it. I also love Klingons, and PARTICULARLY when they are not written as one-dimensional fighters. Like, yes, the warrior ethos shapes their entire culture, but it's not the only thing about them.
Prompts: An episode-like adventure! Show Our Heroes doing what they do best, meeting new cultures, sciencing the shit out of things, dealing with ethical dilemmas. Or, cross-cultural exploration! Meeting the family! (Oh, God, Lwaxana and the Rozhenkos, and Worf and Deanna both sitting back in mortification, can you imagine?)
DNW: bashing, incest, explicit sex, major embarrasment/humiliation, modern/human AUs
