kimaracretak (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fiachairecht) wrote2020-06-21 08:53 pm
fiachairecht) wrote2020-06-21 08:53 pm
every woman 2020
Hello friend, it is time for fic about ladies, and my requests have no particular theme besides swords or forests (or both!). I know I'm modding, but I promise not to peek at things ahead of time, and I am so excited to see what you will write for me! If you want inspiration beyond this letter I am also ![[archiveofourown.org profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/b164c54b26e4/-/archiveofourown.org/favicon.ico)
kimaracretak, where I have a small but reflective-of-things-I-like set of bookmarks, and kimaracretak on 8tracks if you want #aesthetic musical inspiration.
I love all these canons for the worldbuilding and mytharcs as well as their characters and relationships, and I am easy to please as long as you stay away from my DNWs (both general and canon-specific), so don't feel like you Have to write any of my specific prompts. Don't read anything into relative lengths of sections, I am equally happy to get something for anything in this letter! Some of these prompts are reused from old letters, and if you have written them for me before, rest assured that I loved your fic, I am simply greedy and would like to see every possible take on my favourite scenarios. A lot of my prompts are very horror-slanted, but if your muse is inclined to things less murderous, feel free! That being said, I'm extremely not into plotless/conflictless fluff or 'soft' takes on these characters/canons, and would prefer you avoid them.
I love everything from short introspection bits to long plotty missionfic to sex scenes as ways to explore character/setting/worldbuilding, and I don't need a lot of romance in my ships: sex for power, manipulation, or just between friends who want to have fun is also great. Please no unrequested ships unless specifically allowed for, but feel free to combine any compatible ones from my requested ones.
Likes || Art Likes|| Dark Likes || Smut Likes || DNWs || An Enchantment of Ravens - Margaret Rogerson || Jiàn Yǔ (Reign of Assassins) || Jordskott || Zone Blanche (Black Spot)
General: I adore the worldbuilding madly and would love something that gets into all the Craft and glamour and politics of the world, or something with one of the fairy characters that explores their lives and relationships before Isobel started working with/for them. Shipwise I love Isobel/Hemlock, Isobel/Lark, Isobel/Gadfly, and Isobel/Aster, am happy for background Isobel/Rook. Any gen combinations of the four requested characters with each other or + any other characters are great. Worldbuilding especially loved here.
Aster: She's such a wonderful, terrible haunted creature and I want more of her, especially something that perhaps complicates the idea that losing humanity is the worst possible outcome - she feels like someone who'd find a better place in Winter, so maybe something about her life after the autumn court passes and winter rules?
Hemlock: Hemlock is the love of my life and I want to spend infinitely more time with her! Hunts that she and her dogs have undertaken, first meetings with Rook, more dreamsharing with Isobel and all the AUs where she survives and becomes Isobel's Huntmistress post-canon, all the AUs where Isobel fails and is doomed to be Hemlock's quarry for eternity. Just ... Hemlock.
Isobel: I am obsessed with AUs where she drinks from the Green Well, slowly becoming more and more strange at first willingly and then with growing horror as she realises she can't recognise what she's become - and with Lark and Hemlock and Gadfly and Rook there to offer either enabling or suffering. Canonverse post-canon is also excellent, of course - all the bits of ruling that she wasn't prepared for.
Lark: I love how well she plays with and embraces the line between curious and cruel. Especially interested in pre-canon fic for her - various bargains she's made and enchantments created.
General: Listen. This movie is perfect and I fucking love it. In fact, I have written an entire post about why you should love it too, if 'identity-porn filled wuxia film starring Michelle Yeoh' is not enough to have you hooked immediately. I prefer pre-identity change Zeng Jing to be referred to as Xi Yu rather then Drizzle but I'm totally fine with either Chinese or English names for all other characters. Background Ah-Sheng/Jing or Lei Bin/his canon wife is fine.
Ye Zhanqing: She's terrible and I am in love and I want her to have the BEST time. Kung fu practise! Identity porn/undercover assassination missions! Hanging out with Lei Bin and Lian Shang and co-opting his tricks for EVEN MORE DEADLY MAGIC! For art, just give her a sword and I will be SUPER HAPPY! Or her covered in blood after she gets to kill a dude :D Infiltrating a rival gang. Anything where she survives being buried, OR any exploration of what comes-back-wrong looks like in this world, where corpses carry so much power.
Ye Zhanqing/Zeng Jing: There is no reason this film needed to go so hard on the 'lady assassins too obsessed with other lady assassins they are trying to kill' theme, except for the fact that it must love me specifically. But like ... they're so many of my favourite tihngs I hardly know where to start with what I want. Tell me how Ye Zhanqing survives being buried under the bridge, because I refuse to believe that killed her - does she crawl out herself, does Zeng Jing save her? Anything about how Zhanqing might have grown up hearing stories about Xi Yu and how that obsession developed. AU where Zhanqing takes searching for Xi Yu into her own hands earlier, and takes Ah-Sheng's place in the story. Swordfights lead to sex. Just, anything about how they can't keep their eyes/hands/thoughts off each other.
General: Witchy murderforest of my whole entire heart and all the women and girls it loves, ahhhh. This show has so many beautiful things to say about love and care and loss and obsession and it's eaten me as surely as Silverhojd has eaten Josefine. Tell me stories about witches and women and love and life and forests and I will be so, so happy. I would be totally happy with gen, but I ship Eva/Jeanette, Eva/Klara, Eva/Laila, Eva/Zara, Laila/Zara, Esme/Linus, and Esme/Maja, if you want to write something shippy. I headcanon Linus as nonbinary, but don't feel beholden to that if you involve him in fics. You don't have to resurrect Klara/ignore her death if you're writing late/post-s2 fic, but I'd rather it not be dwelt on.
Fandom-specific DNW: Eva/Bahar, Bahar being married to a man, romantic/sexual ships involving Ida, Josefine, or Kalem
Ylva: I was stunned by how much love the show had for Ylva the first time around, she's such a rare, joyful embrace of all the most wonderful things about the crone archetype despite the pain she's gone through. I'd love to see something about her life with Muns, or with Klara, or with the network of support she's built in the town and the forest. She's so aware, of thoughts and of life, and getting her perspective on the events of the show more immediately than we did through Eva's visuals would be lovely. We know she's far, far older even than she appears - she's had centuries in that forest, go wild with your worldbuilding and tell me all about them! AU where she managed to save + raise Laila? Can she shapeshift? When did she meet Klara? Are there others like her in other countries that she keeps in touch with?
Eva and Bahar: Y'know Bahar put on trousers for Eva and Eva said 'I hate having to lie to Bahar' and for all s2's turmoil they're really a stunningly lovely and genuinely good-for-each-other partnership. I'd love post-s2 fic where Eva takes Bahar to the forest, as part of making amends for her secret-keeping - maybe she even introduces her to Josefine's tree. Also casefic where they get to actually work together, in Stockholm or Silverhojd. Post-s2 casefic would be great, especially given the offer Bahar got at the end of s2. Eva bonding with Bahar's kids? Bahar somehow seeks out Ylva to try to help Eva?
Eva and Josefine: I'd love Eva dreaming about Josefine in Stockholm, or any introspective moments for Eva sitting by Josefine's tree.
Eva and Laila: Attempted murder, yes please! Though, honestly, I love Laila and would love to see her post-s2 trying to fashion a happier life for herself with Eva - what else is Eva going to do with all the space in the Thornblad house, honestly?
Esmeralda and Klara: Witches and mentorships and found families, I love forever. Something set in the s1-s2 gap would be wonderful, showing how Esme grew from the rightfully distrustful lonely girl she was to someone who uncomplicatedly called Klara her foster mother and left that heartbreaking voicemail. Klara teaching Esme - anything from serious things about her powers to more simple 'no, you cannot actually eat that plant without dying'. I would love resurrection fic - Esme taking Klara back from the forest, Esme being given Klara-but-wrong by the trees, weird wonderful necromancy rituals with Ylva's help. Fic with them travelling somewhere - maybe a post-s2 AU where Esme takes Klara to Stockholm to show her why she found the city so important, or maybe Klara has friends/contacts somewhere else in Finland/Norway/Scotland/wherever that she takes Esme to meet. Anything that gets into hulderfolk/banshee mythology would be fantastic.
Ida and Josefine: They understood each other when no one else did, in a way that no one else did, and I'm obsessed with how the forest functions a conduit between them and what affect the Ida-is-a-changeling reveal might have on that. I'd love to see something that acknowledges that Josefine is continuing to grow - Ida sneaking off to the forest to sit by Josefine's tree and draw her pictures, maybe. Or dreamsharing, I am super into dreamsharing for them. I love how Ida acts as voice for Josefine and the forest both, and how Josefine, in human or tree form, might help bring some of Ida's own visions to life in return. I don't need Josefine to be in human form for this, and honestly it would be super cool if she wasn't? Lean into all the weird wonderful inhuman love and special care these girls have for each other!
Klara and Ylva: I would dearly, dearly love Klara-resurrection fic. Resurrection/rebirth/what it means to come back are such huge themes, and I'd like that to be explored in some way, especially because some form of necromancy is canonically possible. Whether the forest gives Klara back (slightly wrong?) or Ylva brings her back, I'd love anything dealing with improbable survival and learning to live again. But I would be just as happy with any quiet pre-show moment for them, Ylva teaching Klara about the forest, Klara helping Ylva care for Muns, both of them tending to Josefine while they wait for Eva to come back.
General: I love the lush expansiveness of Tolkien's work, the history and the care and the sheer amount of space characters are allowed to take up and that we are able to fill in. My favourite bits are the horror and the weird fey things, and I'm happy to see my requested characters as either the victim or the cause of horror! I'm entirely happy to just have the canon husbands not mentioned, but I have no infidelity-related squicks, so deal with them however makes sense for the story you want to tell. Turin/Nienor or Melian/Thingol as background ships are fine. Loads more Tolkien-specific notes in last year's Innumerable Stars letter and plenty of worldbuilding prompts in this year's worldbuildingex letter.
Fandom-specific DNW: Half-elves who did not canonically choose mortality choosing mortality, LaCE-style elven marriage-for-life or soulbonds (fucked-up eldritch-horror-y telepathic bonding is fine & encouraged), movie canon, Maglor in history.
Female Houseless Elf:
Galadriel and Luthien:
Galadriel and Melian: I love play with power dynamics for these two, whether that's something that leans into Melian-as-teacher and how eager Galadriel is to please her, or Melian being surprised by how much untapped/untamed power Galadriel has. Feel free to go as creepy or not with the mentor/student dynamics as you like - Melian is rather peak #unavailable older woman in position of authority, but she's also, yknow, a Maia and therefore has questionable notions of 'appropriate'. Magic lessons, storytelling, HONOUR BONDAGE, creepy nature, adventures beyond the Girdle.
Haleth and Luthien:
General: I love these books as a changeling story, I love them as a story of nature-as-entity, I love them as a story of how desolation is never bleak and usually alive. I would prefer you use the characters' professions to describe them (eg "the psychologist" ) in narration, rather than their names. The canon by nature is playing with some pretty dark questions about embodiment and environmental catastrophes and death, but there's plenty of potential for the horror of light and joy as characters give themselves back over to Area X (or are taken over by Area X!), so don't be afraid to lean into that. I've read all three books and my prompts do get kinda spoilery, but if you've only read Annihilation, I welcome fic based only off that. I love the journal style of Annihilation and epistolary fic is especially welcome for this fandom. Entirely original expeditions welcome. Any kind of bad end welcome for this request.
The Biologist: I'd love a journal of hers from previous expeditions - especially in Rock Bay. I'm interested in her malleable sense of self, the way she feels the need to both wholly become and only observe her sites. I'd love to see more of her with the Psychologist or Ghost Bird, especially now that she and the Psychologist are weird Area X creatures. Post-Annihilation, what version of her husband does she find, if any - or what other creatures/remnants of old expeditions does she find?
Ghost Bird: I love clones/bits of sentient nature coming into themselves as their own creatures and I love Ghost Bird. I'd like to get inside her head, during her time alone in Rock Bay, sometime post-series with Grace in the new world that is wholly Area X, while meeting what the Biologist has become. I would especially love some way for her to meet the psychologist - time is weird! The Psychologist is in a weird not-dead/not-Area-X limbo! It is so possible, and I would love it.
The Surveyor: She's the one character who gets significant alone time in Annihilation whose head we never get into, and I would love something set during that span of time where she's alone in the ruins of the campsite, sitting next to the tower, dwelling over the anthropologist's body - what was she thinking, what creatures did she meet? Pre-series fic would be cool, as would be came back wrong fic or fic about an Area-X-doppelganger!Surveyor observing the events of the next two books, perhaps meeting Ghost Bird or the returned biologist.
Original Female Expedition Member(s): Honestly, feel free to do pretty much anything you like with this one! They can have whatever role/profession you like (linguist would be neat, since the linguist didn't go with the 12th expedition, but a psychologist/expedition member would also be excellent, as would something like, idk, an oceanographer that we didn't see in the books). If you feel like something shippy, I'd be really interested in what going into Area X would do to a married couple, especially if the women's marriage is already deteriorating - does this force them apart or bring them together in a newly horrific way? Or former lovers who reconnect on an expedition. Just something weird and horrifically gorgeous, please.
The Linguist and The Psychologist: We got some more explanation of why the linguist didn't join the expedition in Authority, but I'd love to see more of it from her POV, and would especially love something between her and the part of the psychologist who comes back and brings the barrier with her.
The Anthropologist and The Psychologist: I've always been interested in the Anthropologist as the first to die, and I wonder how much of that was (unconsciously?) premeditated by the Psychologist - did either of them know going in that this might be a possiblity? Does an Area X!Anthropologist meet what the Psychologist has turned into by the end?
Ghost Bird and The Biologist: Do you ever think about how Area X creates Ghost Bird in the image of the Biologist and then by the time Ghost Bird meets the Biologist the Biologist has become Area X? Because I think about that a lot and I'm emo about it and I just want something that dwells in that uneven furrow between the two creatures and their desires to be/love/consume each other. Something post-canon would be interesting, or perhaps Ghost Bird runs into the Biologist before she leaves Area X.
General: I have a deep love for half-dead half-forest women and this show has truly left me spoiled for choice amongst them! Sad cops? Tired medical examiners? Girls with disturbing archery skills? Old bartenders possibly as old as time itself? I love them all! Gimme creepy things in the forest and I'm in love. I have a slight preference for came-back-wrong/never died Marion & Camille over pre-death/dead Marion & Camille, but it's truly slight, I will love anything you write me even if they stay dead! I am happy with / or & relationships for any of the groups.
Camille Laugier: So much guilt and so many missed opportunities.
Laurène Weiss: See above re: always weak for half-forest half-dead women. I want anything - I would honestly be happy with just 500 words of lovingly described scenery porn as she wanders through the forest looking for Sylvaine! Dreams about being dead. TIME LOOPS - the forest revives her so many times, I would love a Laurène-centric time loop, especially if she needs to die or kill someone to reset it. Post-canon shipped with Leila. Canon divergence where she gives up on Bertrand a lot earlier, even/especially if she (accidentally?) kills him. Any sort of plant-based body horror as she transforms into the forest.
Leila Barami: Leila is under-loved and I would like something where she gets to be the centre of everything! What was her All-Nighter like? How did she readjust to Villefranche after medical school? Any kind of supernatural-medical body horror story.
Sabine Hennequin: Sabiiiine she's the soul of Villefranche and one of my first loves in the show. I would love pre-canon fic for her, how she came and why she stayed. Fic where she's some kind of weird immortal is awesome - whether it's because she's some type of creature or because the forest gave immortality to her as a gift. I love her friendship with Anna, maybe something about how she took Anna in in the early days (or maybe Anna wasn't the first woman she helped like that, if you lean into the old/immortal aspect of her). The story of Sabine's all-nighter! Or anything leaning into the small-town politics of Villefranche. Fic with Camille, where Sabine figures out what's happening and tries to help her, whether she fails or suceeds. Anything about the questionably-willing mentorship she's developed with Laurène - I like the idea of Sabine as someone else who is loved by the forest, and maybe has a deeper understanding of it than Laurène, but not really great at communicating it. Just. Witchy things!
Anna and Sabine: Anna had ten years to adjust to Villefranche - ten years of working with Sabine and learning what it meant to live in this town, this forest, and I want to know everything about those years! How Sabine took her under her wing, maybe brought her to the forest - is there an All-Nighter equivalent for people who move there that Sabine helped her with?
Camille and Cora: Mm, so much possiblity for fucked-up angst - Cora doesn't find Marion's USB key in the marsh, and Camille tries to comfort her while knowing exactly what she did to her mother? Camille comes back and tries to apologise?
Camille and Marion: They're not that far apart in age, which makes what happened to Marion almost worse. They knew each other! They were probably friends! Maybe even lovers! AUs where Camille died instead. AUs where Marion only mostly dies, and seeks Camille out for answers. Far-future fic where Camille finds an old woman in the woods and realises it was Marion the whole time. Anything about dreams and nightmares. One or both using Cora as a replacement for the other.
Laurène and Camille: I ship them a lot, requited or not - all of Camille's yearning for approval through her guilt combined with Laurène's unwillingness to get too close despite her affection combined with the literal murder. Camille dying at Cora's feet whispering I'm sorry about the Major (not 'Laurène' not 'your mother') gave me more feelings about them than I know how to deal with, so I humbly request you write me something about them! Things I love: Camille and Laurène meeting in some liminal death-space (especially if Laurène is dying over and over again to stay close to her and coming back worse each time), Laurène making the forest give her Camille back so they can (try to) have some of the conversations they didn't have in life, Camille being desperate to impress Laurène, THE CROWS, Laurène taking advantage of Camille's guilt to manipulate her into helping, dream sex, reunion sex that does not make anything better but that makes most things easier to forget.
Leila and Laurène: Fraught-yet-tender childhood friends/occasional lovers! Pre-canon would be nice, or any kind of casefic.
Marion and Cora: I love the idea that Cora was in love with Marion, and I'd love to see more of the fallout of that, whether Marion reciprocated or not. I love the angst possibilities: first-time-is-also-the-last-time fics, dream sex before or after Marion's death, Marion is back and something is absolutely not right but Cora thinks she can love her back to normal anyway. Necromancy shenanigans are always excellent. Slice-of-life archery practise/exploring the forest/environmental activism would be lovely.
I love all these canons for the worldbuilding and mytharcs as well as their characters and relationships, and I am easy to please as long as you stay away from my DNWs (both general and canon-specific), so don't feel like you Have to write any of my specific prompts. Don't read anything into relative lengths of sections, I am equally happy to get something for anything in this letter! Some of these prompts are reused from old letters, and if you have written them for me before, rest assured that I loved your fic, I am simply greedy and would like to see every possible take on my favourite scenarios. A lot of my prompts are very horror-slanted, but if your muse is inclined to things less murderous, feel free! That being said, I'm extremely not into plotless/conflictless fluff or 'soft' takes on these characters/canons, and would prefer you avoid them.
I love everything from short introspection bits to long plotty missionfic to sex scenes as ways to explore character/setting/worldbuilding, and I don't need a lot of romance in my ships: sex for power, manipulation, or just between friends who want to have fun is also great. Please no unrequested ships unless specifically allowed for, but feel free to combine any compatible ones from my requested ones.
Likes || Art Likes|| Dark Likes || Smut Likes || DNWs || An Enchantment of Ravens - Margaret Rogerson || Jiàn Yǔ (Reign of Assassins) || Jordskott || Zone Blanche (Black Spot)
- Mentorship and loyalty dynamics, including ladies' suicidal world-saving or world-breaking devotion to other ladies, #unavailable older women in positions of authority
- Femslash and female friendship in both the foreground and the background
- Nature and cities and houses and spacecraft as characters (especially when they would like to eat you because they love you), architectural horror
- Vampires, magic, witchcraft, rituals, eldritch things, fey things, eerie things, cosmic horrors
- Feelings about embodiment and iconography, body horror (especially flowers growing out of people's bodies)
- Epistolary fics, IF, poems for poetry canons, song lyrics for song/album canons
- First- and second-person pov, unreliable narrators
- Politics, worldbuilding
- Philosophical, legal, and academic debates
- Flirting, domesticity, sensuality, friends-and-lovers
- Canon-divergent/what-if AUs, Aniara, Vampire: The Requiem, Changeling: The Lost, Scandinoir, and Star Wars Sith AUs
- Conflicted loyalties, moral ambiguity, hero/villain and villain/villain relationships, 'I am the only one allowed to hurt you' hero/villain relationships
- Darkfic
- Arranged marriages, marriages of convenience, married by a technicality
- Relationships negotiated around characters' different vocabularies of trust and care
- 'I hate you I love you I would like to wear your skin as a sign of my devotion' types of relationships
- 'Look what I can make you do to me' kinds of emotional manipulation in relationships
- 'You don't get to save me but you will kill me' types of relationships, especially when the killing doesn't actually happen and they both have to live with that
- Getting back together after messy breakups
- Desire, women who aren't afraid of desire, women who lean too far into desire, women who desire to kill and eat their gods
- Porn as character work.
- Jewel tones, black and white
- Pieces that play with light/shadow
- Landscapes, forests, oceans
- Mist, moonlight, rain
- Tiny humans in otherwise-abandoned landscapes
- Characters covered in blood and/or plants
- Architecture, decaying buildings, abandoned buildings
- Accidental apotheosis, non-consensual apotheosis
- Blood magic, blood kink, blood rituals, blood as art medium
- Body horror
- Conflicted loyalties, abuse of loyalties, loyalty leading people into really bad decisionmaking
- Died and came back wrong, died multiple times and comes back wronger each time
- Doomed ships, ghost ships, ships that should be abandoned but aren't, cursed ships (spaceships/airships/sailing ships all good!)
- Eerily pristine abandoned places, ruined castles/fortresses/villages, other eldritch places
- Folk horror
- Ghosts
- Human sacrifice, ritual scarification, what happens when sacrifices to higher powers aren't accepted
- Identity Issues, especially those stemming from close bonds with another person
- In-universe regional horror, myths, (urban) legends, and folklore
- Killing and eating your gods as a form of worship
- Memory loss
- Nature that wants to crawl inside you and never come out, nature that wants to eat you, sentient malevolent nature
- Necromancy, the unpleasant aftereffects/costs of necromancy
- Oneiromancy, dreamsharing, dreams that bleed into reality, cursed dreams, prophetic dreams
- One character dressing another up to die
- Repeatedly killed and resurrected
- Ritual gone wrong
- There's something dangerous about the boredom of teenage girls trope
- Unhealthy Coping Mechanisms
- Unintended consequences of having your future told
- Hair braiding, hair pulling
- Bathing, washing, bath/shower sex
- Painplay, bloodplay, knifeplay, wax play, edgeplay, edgeplay to the edge of death
- Mirror sex, identity porn
- Bondage, shibari/kinbaku, suspension, honour bondage, blindfolds, gags, D/s dynamics (though not 24/7 bdsm lifestyle setups)
- Jewellery and clothes kink
- Dressing or undressing each other
- Spanking, especially as a show of forgiveness or as penance for fucking up at work
- Consent play, somnophilia
- Praise kink, loyalty kink, competency kink
- Public and semi-public sex, having to stay quiet
- Oral sex
- Overstimulation
- Biting, marking
- First time with each other
- Sex for manipulation/political gain/conversion to the other political-military side (success optional)
- Inappropriate use of magic and weapons
- Mutual masturbation
- One person in a threesome directing the other two and getting off watching them.
- Unrequested m/m or m/f ships, unless specified.
- Rape/noncon (dubcon is fine)
- Permanent death of female characters (ghosts fine unless otherwise specified, references to pre-canon dead female characters fine unless otherwise specified).
- Kidfic, breeding, pregnancy including unconventional forms like fpreg/oviposition, age-regression and time-travel to see kid versions of characters
- Scat, watersports, emetophilia, enemas
- A/B/O
- Food in/on genitalia or used as sex toys, weight gain/stuffing kink (fantasy body horror and metaphors are fine)
- 'Only one destined true love' AUs like soulmates or hanahaki disease
- Detailed descriptions of injuries to feet, amputated feet (minor/referenced injuries are fine)
- Zombie apocalypse fic, day-to-day survival in the postapocalyptic wasteland fic (exploration of ruins from dead civilisations is fine)
- Issuefic, fic focussing on characters' romantic/sexual/gender identities, characters describing themselves with canon-atypical or anachronistic romantic/sexual/gender identity terms
- 'It was all a dream' sort of mindfuckery
- 'I am too old to be loved' angst in age-gap ships
- Bodyswap fic, crackfic
- Sex involving under-16s.
- Mentions of Brexit in contemporary canons
- Safeword/colour checkins
- Characters who do not have dicks in canon magically conjuring/being given dicks (strap-ons are fine)
General: I adore the worldbuilding madly and would love something that gets into all the Craft and glamour and politics of the world, or something with one of the fairy characters that explores their lives and relationships before Isobel started working with/for them. Shipwise I love Isobel/Hemlock, Isobel/Lark, Isobel/Gadfly, and Isobel/Aster, am happy for background Isobel/Rook. Any gen combinations of the four requested characters with each other or + any other characters are great. Worldbuilding especially loved here.
Aster: She's such a wonderful, terrible haunted creature and I want more of her, especially something that perhaps complicates the idea that losing humanity is the worst possible outcome - she feels like someone who'd find a better place in Winter, so maybe something about her life after the autumn court passes and winter rules?
Hemlock: Hemlock is the love of my life and I want to spend infinitely more time with her! Hunts that she and her dogs have undertaken, first meetings with Rook, more dreamsharing with Isobel and all the AUs where she survives and becomes Isobel's Huntmistress post-canon, all the AUs where Isobel fails and is doomed to be Hemlock's quarry for eternity. Just ... Hemlock.
Isobel: I am obsessed with AUs where she drinks from the Green Well, slowly becoming more and more strange at first willingly and then with growing horror as she realises she can't recognise what she's become - and with Lark and Hemlock and Gadfly and Rook there to offer either enabling or suffering. Canonverse post-canon is also excellent, of course - all the bits of ruling that she wasn't prepared for.
Lark: I love how well she plays with and embraces the line between curious and cruel. Especially interested in pre-canon fic for her - various bargains she's made and enchantments created.
General: Listen. This movie is perfect and I fucking love it. In fact, I have written an entire post about why you should love it too, if 'identity-porn filled wuxia film starring Michelle Yeoh' is not enough to have you hooked immediately. I prefer pre-identity change Zeng Jing to be referred to as Xi Yu rather then Drizzle but I'm totally fine with either Chinese or English names for all other characters. Background Ah-Sheng/Jing or Lei Bin/his canon wife is fine.
Ye Zhanqing: She's terrible and I am in love and I want her to have the BEST time. Kung fu practise! Identity porn/undercover assassination missions! Hanging out with Lei Bin and Lian Shang and co-opting his tricks for EVEN MORE DEADLY MAGIC! For art, just give her a sword and I will be SUPER HAPPY! Or her covered in blood after she gets to kill a dude :D Infiltrating a rival gang. Anything where she survives being buried, OR any exploration of what comes-back-wrong looks like in this world, where corpses carry so much power.
Ye Zhanqing/Zeng Jing: There is no reason this film needed to go so hard on the 'lady assassins too obsessed with other lady assassins they are trying to kill' theme, except for the fact that it must love me specifically. But like ... they're so many of my favourite tihngs I hardly know where to start with what I want. Tell me how Ye Zhanqing survives being buried under the bridge, because I refuse to believe that killed her - does she crawl out herself, does Zeng Jing save her? Anything about how Zhanqing might have grown up hearing stories about Xi Yu and how that obsession developed. AU where Zhanqing takes searching for Xi Yu into her own hands earlier, and takes Ah-Sheng's place in the story. Swordfights lead to sex. Just, anything about how they can't keep their eyes/hands/thoughts off each other.
General: Witchy murderforest of my whole entire heart and all the women and girls it loves, ahhhh. This show has so many beautiful things to say about love and care and loss and obsession and it's eaten me as surely as Silverhojd has eaten Josefine. Tell me stories about witches and women and love and life and forests and I will be so, so happy. I would be totally happy with gen, but I ship Eva/Jeanette, Eva/Klara, Eva/Laila, Eva/Zara, Laila/Zara, Esme/Linus, and Esme/Maja, if you want to write something shippy. I headcanon Linus as nonbinary, but don't feel beholden to that if you involve him in fics. You don't have to resurrect Klara/ignore her death if you're writing late/post-s2 fic, but I'd rather it not be dwelt on.
Fandom-specific DNW: Eva/Bahar, Bahar being married to a man, romantic/sexual ships involving Ida, Josefine, or Kalem
Ylva: I was stunned by how much love the show had for Ylva the first time around, she's such a rare, joyful embrace of all the most wonderful things about the crone archetype despite the pain she's gone through. I'd love to see something about her life with Muns, or with Klara, or with the network of support she's built in the town and the forest. She's so aware, of thoughts and of life, and getting her perspective on the events of the show more immediately than we did through Eva's visuals would be lovely. We know she's far, far older even than she appears - she's had centuries in that forest, go wild with your worldbuilding and tell me all about them! AU where she managed to save + raise Laila? Can she shapeshift? When did she meet Klara? Are there others like her in other countries that she keeps in touch with?
Eva and Bahar: Y'know Bahar put on trousers for Eva and Eva said 'I hate having to lie to Bahar' and for all s2's turmoil they're really a stunningly lovely and genuinely good-for-each-other partnership. I'd love post-s2 fic where Eva takes Bahar to the forest, as part of making amends for her secret-keeping - maybe she even introduces her to Josefine's tree. Also casefic where they get to actually work together, in Stockholm or Silverhojd. Post-s2 casefic would be great, especially given the offer Bahar got at the end of s2. Eva bonding with Bahar's kids? Bahar somehow seeks out Ylva to try to help Eva?
Eva and Josefine: I'd love Eva dreaming about Josefine in Stockholm, or any introspective moments for Eva sitting by Josefine's tree.
Eva and Laila: Attempted murder, yes please! Though, honestly, I love Laila and would love to see her post-s2 trying to fashion a happier life for herself with Eva - what else is Eva going to do with all the space in the Thornblad house, honestly?
Esmeralda and Klara: Witches and mentorships and found families, I love forever. Something set in the s1-s2 gap would be wonderful, showing how Esme grew from the rightfully distrustful lonely girl she was to someone who uncomplicatedly called Klara her foster mother and left that heartbreaking voicemail. Klara teaching Esme - anything from serious things about her powers to more simple 'no, you cannot actually eat that plant without dying'. I would love resurrection fic - Esme taking Klara back from the forest, Esme being given Klara-but-wrong by the trees, weird wonderful necromancy rituals with Ylva's help. Fic with them travelling somewhere - maybe a post-s2 AU where Esme takes Klara to Stockholm to show her why she found the city so important, or maybe Klara has friends/contacts somewhere else in Finland/Norway/Scotland/wherever that she takes Esme to meet. Anything that gets into hulderfolk/banshee mythology would be fantastic.
Ida and Josefine: They understood each other when no one else did, in a way that no one else did, and I'm obsessed with how the forest functions a conduit between them and what affect the Ida-is-a-changeling reveal might have on that. I'd love to see something that acknowledges that Josefine is continuing to grow - Ida sneaking off to the forest to sit by Josefine's tree and draw her pictures, maybe. Or dreamsharing, I am super into dreamsharing for them. I love how Ida acts as voice for Josefine and the forest both, and how Josefine, in human or tree form, might help bring some of Ida's own visions to life in return. I don't need Josefine to be in human form for this, and honestly it would be super cool if she wasn't? Lean into all the weird wonderful inhuman love and special care these girls have for each other!
Klara and Ylva: I would dearly, dearly love Klara-resurrection fic. Resurrection/rebirth/what it means to come back are such huge themes, and I'd like that to be explored in some way, especially because some form of necromancy is canonically possible. Whether the forest gives Klara back (slightly wrong?) or Ylva brings her back, I'd love anything dealing with improbable survival and learning to live again. But I would be just as happy with any quiet pre-show moment for them, Ylva teaching Klara about the forest, Klara helping Ylva care for Muns, both of them tending to Josefine while they wait for Eva to come back.
General: I love the lush expansiveness of Tolkien's work, the history and the care and the sheer amount of space characters are allowed to take up and that we are able to fill in. My favourite bits are the horror and the weird fey things, and I'm happy to see my requested characters as either the victim or the cause of horror! I'm entirely happy to just have the canon husbands not mentioned, but I have no infidelity-related squicks, so deal with them however makes sense for the story you want to tell. Turin/Nienor or Melian/Thingol as background ships are fine. Loads more Tolkien-specific notes in last year's Innumerable Stars letter and plenty of worldbuilding prompts in this year's worldbuildingex letter.
Fandom-specific DNW: Half-elves who did not canonically choose mortality choosing mortality, LaCE-style elven marriage-for-life or soulbonds (fucked-up eldritch-horror-y telepathic bonding is fine & encouraged), movie canon, Maglor in history.
Female Houseless Elf:
Galadriel and Luthien:
Galadriel and Melian: I love play with power dynamics for these two, whether that's something that leans into Melian-as-teacher and how eager Galadriel is to please her, or Melian being surprised by how much untapped/untamed power Galadriel has. Feel free to go as creepy or not with the mentor/student dynamics as you like - Melian is rather peak #unavailable older woman in position of authority, but she's also, yknow, a Maia and therefore has questionable notions of 'appropriate'. Magic lessons, storytelling, HONOUR BONDAGE, creepy nature, adventures beyond the Girdle.
Haleth and Luthien:
General: I love these books as a changeling story, I love them as a story of nature-as-entity, I love them as a story of how desolation is never bleak and usually alive. I would prefer you use the characters' professions to describe them (eg "the psychologist" ) in narration, rather than their names. The canon by nature is playing with some pretty dark questions about embodiment and environmental catastrophes and death, but there's plenty of potential for the horror of light and joy as characters give themselves back over to Area X (or are taken over by Area X!), so don't be afraid to lean into that. I've read all three books and my prompts do get kinda spoilery, but if you've only read Annihilation, I welcome fic based only off that. I love the journal style of Annihilation and epistolary fic is especially welcome for this fandom. Entirely original expeditions welcome. Any kind of bad end welcome for this request.
The Biologist: I'd love a journal of hers from previous expeditions - especially in Rock Bay. I'm interested in her malleable sense of self, the way she feels the need to both wholly become and only observe her sites. I'd love to see more of her with the Psychologist or Ghost Bird, especially now that she and the Psychologist are weird Area X creatures. Post-Annihilation, what version of her husband does she find, if any - or what other creatures/remnants of old expeditions does she find?
Ghost Bird: I love clones/bits of sentient nature coming into themselves as their own creatures and I love Ghost Bird. I'd like to get inside her head, during her time alone in Rock Bay, sometime post-series with Grace in the new world that is wholly Area X, while meeting what the Biologist has become. I would especially love some way for her to meet the psychologist - time is weird! The Psychologist is in a weird not-dead/not-Area-X limbo! It is so possible, and I would love it.
The Surveyor: She's the one character who gets significant alone time in Annihilation whose head we never get into, and I would love something set during that span of time where she's alone in the ruins of the campsite, sitting next to the tower, dwelling over the anthropologist's body - what was she thinking, what creatures did she meet? Pre-series fic would be cool, as would be came back wrong fic or fic about an Area-X-doppelganger!Surveyor observing the events of the next two books, perhaps meeting Ghost Bird or the returned biologist.
Original Female Expedition Member(s): Honestly, feel free to do pretty much anything you like with this one! They can have whatever role/profession you like (linguist would be neat, since the linguist didn't go with the 12th expedition, but a psychologist/expedition member would also be excellent, as would something like, idk, an oceanographer that we didn't see in the books). If you feel like something shippy, I'd be really interested in what going into Area X would do to a married couple, especially if the women's marriage is already deteriorating - does this force them apart or bring them together in a newly horrific way? Or former lovers who reconnect on an expedition. Just something weird and horrifically gorgeous, please.
The Linguist and The Psychologist: We got some more explanation of why the linguist didn't join the expedition in Authority, but I'd love to see more of it from her POV, and would especially love something between her and the part of the psychologist who comes back and brings the barrier with her.
The Anthropologist and The Psychologist: I've always been interested in the Anthropologist as the first to die, and I wonder how much of that was (unconsciously?) premeditated by the Psychologist - did either of them know going in that this might be a possiblity? Does an Area X!Anthropologist meet what the Psychologist has turned into by the end?
Ghost Bird and The Biologist: Do you ever think about how Area X creates Ghost Bird in the image of the Biologist and then by the time Ghost Bird meets the Biologist the Biologist has become Area X? Because I think about that a lot and I'm emo about it and I just want something that dwells in that uneven furrow between the two creatures and their desires to be/love/consume each other. Something post-canon would be interesting, or perhaps Ghost Bird runs into the Biologist before she leaves Area X.
General: I have a deep love for half-dead half-forest women and this show has truly left me spoiled for choice amongst them! Sad cops? Tired medical examiners? Girls with disturbing archery skills? Old bartenders possibly as old as time itself? I love them all! Gimme creepy things in the forest and I'm in love. I have a slight preference for came-back-wrong/never died Marion & Camille over pre-death/dead Marion & Camille, but it's truly slight, I will love anything you write me even if they stay dead! I am happy with / or & relationships for any of the groups.
Camille Laugier: So much guilt and so many missed opportunities.
Laurène Weiss: See above re: always weak for half-forest half-dead women. I want anything - I would honestly be happy with just 500 words of lovingly described scenery porn as she wanders through the forest looking for Sylvaine! Dreams about being dead. TIME LOOPS - the forest revives her so many times, I would love a Laurène-centric time loop, especially if she needs to die or kill someone to reset it. Post-canon shipped with Leila. Canon divergence where she gives up on Bertrand a lot earlier, even/especially if she (accidentally?) kills him. Any sort of plant-based body horror as she transforms into the forest.
Leila Barami: Leila is under-loved and I would like something where she gets to be the centre of everything! What was her All-Nighter like? How did she readjust to Villefranche after medical school? Any kind of supernatural-medical body horror story.
Sabine Hennequin: Sabiiiine she's the soul of Villefranche and one of my first loves in the show. I would love pre-canon fic for her, how she came and why she stayed. Fic where she's some kind of weird immortal is awesome - whether it's because she's some type of creature or because the forest gave immortality to her as a gift. I love her friendship with Anna, maybe something about how she took Anna in in the early days (or maybe Anna wasn't the first woman she helped like that, if you lean into the old/immortal aspect of her). The story of Sabine's all-nighter! Or anything leaning into the small-town politics of Villefranche. Fic with Camille, where Sabine figures out what's happening and tries to help her, whether she fails or suceeds. Anything about the questionably-willing mentorship she's developed with Laurène - I like the idea of Sabine as someone else who is loved by the forest, and maybe has a deeper understanding of it than Laurène, but not really great at communicating it. Just. Witchy things!
Anna and Sabine: Anna had ten years to adjust to Villefranche - ten years of working with Sabine and learning what it meant to live in this town, this forest, and I want to know everything about those years! How Sabine took her under her wing, maybe brought her to the forest - is there an All-Nighter equivalent for people who move there that Sabine helped her with?
Camille and Cora: Mm, so much possiblity for fucked-up angst - Cora doesn't find Marion's USB key in the marsh, and Camille tries to comfort her while knowing exactly what she did to her mother? Camille comes back and tries to apologise?
Camille and Marion: They're not that far apart in age, which makes what happened to Marion almost worse. They knew each other! They were probably friends! Maybe even lovers! AUs where Camille died instead. AUs where Marion only mostly dies, and seeks Camille out for answers. Far-future fic where Camille finds an old woman in the woods and realises it was Marion the whole time. Anything about dreams and nightmares. One or both using Cora as a replacement for the other.
Laurène and Camille: I ship them a lot, requited or not - all of Camille's yearning for approval through her guilt combined with Laurène's unwillingness to get too close despite her affection combined with the literal murder. Camille dying at Cora's feet whispering I'm sorry about the Major (not 'Laurène' not 'your mother') gave me more feelings about them than I know how to deal with, so I humbly request you write me something about them! Things I love: Camille and Laurène meeting in some liminal death-space (especially if Laurène is dying over and over again to stay close to her and coming back worse each time), Laurène making the forest give her Camille back so they can (try to) have some of the conversations they didn't have in life, Camille being desperate to impress Laurène, THE CROWS, Laurène taking advantage of Camille's guilt to manipulate her into helping, dream sex, reunion sex that does not make anything better but that makes most things easier to forget.
Leila and Laurène: Fraught-yet-tender childhood friends/occasional lovers! Pre-canon would be nice, or any kind of casefic.
Marion and Cora: I love the idea that Cora was in love with Marion, and I'd love to see more of the fallout of that, whether Marion reciprocated or not. I love the angst possibilities: first-time-is-also-the-last-time fics, dream sex before or after Marion's death, Marion is back and something is absolutely not right but Cora thinks she can love her back to normal anyway. Necromancy shenanigans are always excellent. Slice-of-life archery practise/exploring the forest/environmental activism would be lovely.