kimaracretak (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
fiachairecht) wrote2019-07-01 12:09 am
fiachairecht) wrote2019-07-01 12:09 am
femslash after dark 2019
Hello friend, it is time for dark and/or porny femslash 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've by and large chosen canons I love for their 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.
I don't mind if the M/E rating is for smut or dark themes (both is very very good). 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 || Smut Likes || DNWs || Big Little Lies || Dare Me - Megan Abbott || Nikita || Killing Eve || Picnic at Hanging Rock (TV 2018) || The Fever - Megan Abbott || The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo || Under the Pendulum Sun - Jeannette Ng || Witcher (Games)
General: I haven't seen season 2 yet so my prompts are really only season 1 based. That being said, I'll be caught up by the time reveals happen, so if you want to do something s2-compliant or diverge after s1, either is great! I have no infidelity-related squicks, so handle the canon marriages however you want (pre-fic divorce/never married/open marriage/whatever)
Madeline/Celeste: I'm deeply weak for friendships like theirs that may or may not have tipped into something romantic if their world offered that as a possibility but are still more important than any of their romantic relationships. Pre-canon is great, as is anything in s2 that sparks your ideas.
Renata/Celeste: Renata's secret insecurity vs Celeste's secret strength is one of my faovurite dynamics of s1. They have/had similar jobs/attitudes towards their work, and I'd love something that explores that - I feel like Renata might see her as an easier first person to try to befriend as she starts to navigate what relationships with other women look like.
Renata/Madeline: A not insignificant amount of Madeline's hatred of Renata stems from how Renata treats other women (which: lbr, it's rather deserved. Renata's terrible, it's why I love her). How do they navigate life together post-s1 as Renata re-orients herself towards her female friends and lovers, and how does sex complicate or ease that? Alternatively: what happens when you've been hatefucking your nemesis for YEARS and then suddenly you realise that you maybe don't hate her?
General: I am happy with basically anything for these ships! All the obsession, all the clinical-sensual interest in what bodies can do, all the levels of genuinely caring mentorship that ultimately can't do anything but fail. Sex involving under 16s DNW lifted for this fandom, but you can also just not mention the girls' ages.
General: I don't know what good I did to the universe to get this show in return but wow is this blood-soaked grimly funny chase across London and Russia and half of Europe the show of my dreams. I love how bright Villanelle is in everything she does, I love her twisted undeniable logic and her unstoppable yearning. I tend to think of some level of Villanelle/Eve as basically canon, and though I'm leaving it off my request list in favour of my rarer Villanelle pairs, I don't think it's entirely avoidable and I'm totally here for that sort of conflict between Villanelle's multiple desires pulling her towards conflicting (or perhaps ultimately nonconflicting?) goals. Canon-compliant deathfic for Nadia is okay.
Villanelle/Pamela: Gods, this show gave me so much identity porn tailored directly to my taste I feel almost ungrateful for sitting in the corner, going 'no, I want more of that other identity porn' but … I want more of the Villanelle/Pamela identity porn! All the bits we didn't get to see! All the games and the dressing up and the calling-her-Eve and - Pamela was so into those games? So deliciously corruptible? Maybe she follows Villanelle to London and starts killing to impress her.
Villanelle/Nadia: MURDEROUS EXES WHO ALSO WANT TO MURDER EACH OTHER, what a good trope. Nadia brings out the sweet side of Eve's poison in a weird way - their scenes together were the only times I started to question if VIllanelle ever did see a life for herself outside of the assassin gig. Because, lbr: she is far too invested in performing for Eve to give up killing for Eve, and, genuine desire for normal life or not, Nadia opens up a new possibility for desire that Villanelle is delighted by - and fucking hates. Like, she doesn't know what to do with a want that conflicts with her sense of self but she also doesn't know how to say no to desire, yknow? So of course she kills Nadia but of course she makes it sweet, and of course she asks how Nadia wants to go, and of course she indulges that. All of which is to say: fuck me up, dear author. Tell me about their meetings, their missions, their murder attempts, Nadia's final seconds of life. Or go AU, tell me about their captivity together in Arcadia and how Villanelle sold her out to the True Fae for a way through the Hedge and Nadia has found her own way back and is seeking REVENGE. Or make them vampires. I am never gonna say no to my faves being made vampires.
Villanelle/Anna: Messy obsessive mentor/student problems are MY THING and I'm obsessed with all of this - Anna's guilt, Oksana's growing estrangement from what should be as she falls deeper and deeper into what she wants. Pre-canon fic is great - first times, seduction attempts, inappropriate teasing and attempting to play house together, the aftermath of Oksana killing Max (re: my sex-involving-under-16s DNW, you can just not mention her age). Or AU post-s1 where Anna either survives or doesn't attempt suicide at all.
General: I know it's been five years since it ended but this is still the spy show of my heart and I love all these sad glamorous dubiously-moral assassins. Before Amanda's backstory reveal I spent some time headcanoning her as a Russian agent - feel free to run with that background if it speaks more to you than her canon one! I am fine with background Nikita/Owen, Nikita/Alex, Amanda/Alex, or Nikita/Ryan, but DNW Nikita/Michael.
Nikita/Amanda: POST-CANON FIC. I don't love season 4, but I've made my peace with most of it with the exception of ... we watched Nikita obsess over Amanda for four seasons and then we were meant to ... believe she locked Amanda in a cell and ignored her forever? I don't buy it, and I want to see all of their visits, all of the manipulation-into-goodness that Nikita is so horrifically amazing at, all of the bad-idea sex with the weight of all their history. Alternatively, all of Nikita's early days with Division, the dressing up and the missions and the undercover-as-a-couple and the whole idea of Amanda trying to teach Nikita how to human. They love each other so much! They're so determined to create and re-create each other and they're both so bad at pretending the other isn't succeeding. The whole bit in 2x18 with 'I broke your heart? You broke mine.' is like. One of my top 5 scenes in television ever. I love them. I love how much they hate each other and how bad they are at hating each other and I love how much they want. Feel free to OT3 them (V or triad) with Alex.
Nikita/Cassandra: I love spies and double-triple identities and I love these two! Perhaps Nikita finding Cassandra years in the future, or missing scenes - just give them some time alone with each other and with no Michael.
Carla/Amanda: Anything and everything about the early days of Division! The power struggles, the missions they keep (or try to keep) secret from each other, fighting over specific recruits, fighting over Nikita. Running into each other over the years, letters written over the years, sabotaging each other's missions, angsty please-come-join-me sex that neither will admit is either angsty or about getting the other woman to join them.
Amanda/Madeline: How much do I love the whole Senator-and-her-unruly-assassin thing they have going on I love it SO MUCH. I am always and forever down for AUs where Sean dies in that car bomb instead of Madeline. I love early days of Division fic, personal missions/tasks Madeline gives Amanda, and Madeline just. Showing up in Division after Amanda thinks she's dead to give orders directly and the epic power struggle that would kick off (Amanda successfully pretending to 99% of the agents that was absolutely her plan while plotting to kill Madeline :3)
General: This show has a thesis of 'why be a girl when you could be an eldritch horror instead' because it loves me, it really loves me. I love the bonds and the backstabbing and the love-through-horror, I love the changeling girls and the amount of respect it gives stories of self-creation. I love the contrast between the suffocating boarding-school atmosphere and the equally terrifying 'I would like to let the sky eat me' of the Rock and how that's reflected in the characters' emotional relationships. Permadeath of any of the requested characters is fine for this fandom, as is ambiguous/show-consistent explanations of what happened at the Rock. The show does so much excellent work with forests that probably want to eat you/nature which tries to eat you/nature which wants to crawl inside you and never come out and I want to see infinitely more of it! Sith and vampire AUs especially adored for this fandom.
Hester Appleyard: She's so fucked up and so sad and I adore her madly. Every time we get a glimpse inside her head it's so frantic compared to the perfectly composed facade she builds, and I would love anything that plays in the space between those two. Favourite ships for her are with Irma or Dianne but character-study gen is equally loved. Ghosts haunting ghosts - I'd love Hester haunting her husband's ghost, or Sara's, or somehow slipping into the space beyond the Rock. Pre-series fic would also be excellent.
Greta/Dianne: I am up for any sort of came-back-wrong!Greta - time ghost, dream sex, sex to bring Dianne into the space beyond the Rock. I love the mindfucky dreamy atmosphere of the canon and think that would be super neat to explore in a sex scene with these two, especially during the picnic. I feel like they'd have one of those surface-level soft and romantic relationships that's actually fairly dark - whether that's their desire for painplay, the angst caused by staying secret, or something else.
Greta/Marion: Secret relationship and mentorship problems, everything I love. Greta's so ambiguosly lost at the end, even more so than Marion and Miranda - does she ever find her way past the rock and into Marion's new world? What does that look like? Firsts - first meetings, first kisses, first times with various sex acts. AU where Marion becomes a teacher at the Academy, either the mid-canon one or post-canon if Hester succeeded in building a new one (perhaps with Miranda and/or Irma still lost, or perhaps she came back instead of Irma).
Hester/Dianne: I mean, hatesex for always if you go shippy, or any sort of emotionally manipulative sensuality. There's an odd undercurrent of 'why aren't you better' that they both have towards each other (and themselves) and I'd love a story that lives in the lovely-awful tangled knots they tie each other into, and the ways in which they can't quite bring themselves to wish they were more like the other. I'd love to see an AU where Dianne accompanies Hester to the Rock or one where Hester and Dianne moved and built a new school out of the ruins of the first Academy. Any sort of post-canon fic where Hester haunts Dianne in her new position.
Hester/Greta: Greta owes Hester a lot, and while she never goes to the lengths Hester did to keep her secrets (largely because Hester didn't care) I feel like they're both very aware Greta is on a very thin line there, and I'd love to see some exploration of that. I'd love something that leans in the loyalty kink - sexual or not, consensual or not (seriously, dubiously consensual loyalty kink was one of my favourite smutswap tags. The whole ... we both know what the other isn't saying and why and we're both responding to that sort of conversation/mutual existence is so good, and I'd love more of it.
Hester/Miranda: I love how Miranda spends the whole series deconstructing Hester so deftly no one's quite sure what she's done til the very end. Maybe Hester sees Miranda at the Rock, maybe Miranda taunts her about Sara, maybe one of Hester's attempts to dress her up nicely backfires somehow. An extension of the punishment scene, especially one including Hester bandaging her hands afterwards instead of Irma and Marion, and the glorious emotional whiplash that could provoke.
General: I want anything, tbh! All the secrets and identity issues and possibly-eldritch toxic lakes. I like the vague sense of Importance everything has, and how all the girls project and internalise it.
General: I love fics that get into the WEIRD and the magic and the worldbuilding. I've read King of Scars/Six of Crows but don't mind you take them into account for post-trilogy fic or not. I didn't hate endgame Alina/Mal or mind Alina losing her Grisha powers, but if you want, like, background endgame Alina/Zoya in a Tamar/Nadia fic, or AU where Alina's powers come back/she never lost them, go for it! Canon-compliant deathfic for Marie is fine, Darkling wins!AUs welcome. If relevant, I also ship Alia/Nikolai and Alina/the Darkling.
Genya/Alina: They went from 'yes, they could be kinda cute' to INCREDIBLY MY THING in the space of the whole 'dress you up to die' scene and: these girls, they kill me. The way they manage to keep such a deep affection for each other through all of the politics and betrayal is so good, and I want to see more of it.
Marie/Nadia: TRAGEDY GILRS. I like this either canon or one-sided on Nadia's part - fuck me up with all of the Nadia-touching-herself-to-Marie's-memory fic, or if Nadia and Marie were the couple in S&S, how much more painful does that make the aftermath of Os Alta? Fix-it fic for Marie's death is great too, and how she and Nadia might find their way back to each other after the coup.
Tamar/Nadia: They're my worldbuilding ship, ngl. Political wives navigating this whole running-a-country deal? Shu traditions and rituals? Adventures that neither Nikolai nor Alina would approve of but that they're gonna go on anyway because they deserve it?
Zoya/Alina: Honestly this is one of my favourite enemies-to-lovers potential archetypes ever, because they both have such genuine reasons for disliking each other that are taken seriously by the book, without the disagreements ever being reduced to caricatured catfights? I love it. Alina needs someone to drop uncomfortable truths on her head, and Zoya is both very good at that and very willing. I love how complicated they are, I love how their mutual stubbornness and how they grow to be so willing to work with and learn from each other. I'm happy with fic set at any time, from early S&B hatesex to post-R&R reunion/comfortsex.
Zoya/Genya: Soldiers old before their time finding each other after the war is such a good trope and CK confirms at least that they still work together so - lean into that, give me all the post-canon adventures, all the interesting things that can be done when they find a safe person they can take their masks off with but who understand why the masks exist and would never actually ask the other to give them up.
General: Oh hey this weird book about fucked-up missionary siblings in clockwork Fairyland snuck into my life and ruined me and I would love to be further ruined by any fic you write! I really, really loved the Changeling!Cathy faux-reveal and was a bit put out by its last-chapter reversal (all books can do with more weird changelings, lbr), so any Changeling!Cathy fic - or fic where she's human but grappling with the fact that she enjoyed elements of the time when she thought she was a soulless creature - is always adored. Canon-compliant deathfic for Ariel is fine - especially if it leads to Mab further manipulating/fucking with Cathy, and Cathy continuing to spiral about her identity, but I am also thrilled by any AU you come up with where she survives or is brought back.
Ariel/Cathy: I would love some of Ariel's POV on the novel's events - she has a sort of resignation to liminality about her that I find fascinating. What if she had been given more time to convince Cathy she was a Changeling too? What if she tried to sell Cathy to Mab for Laon's safety (or, perhaps, Cathy tries it with her). Resurrection attempts? Ill-advised wanderings into the depths of Arcadia? We see glimpses of what Changelings think about Cathy and Laon's theology, but what kind of myths and religions of their own have they developed that Ariel and Cathy might stumble into in this land where everything's just a bit too real? Also intrigued by the possibility of them meeting in the mortal world sometime before Cathy travels to Arcadia - what would that meeting look like, what kind of traps might Ariel try to set (at Mab's encouraging?), would Cathy notice something off about her?
Ariel/Mab:How was Ariel summoned back from the mundane world? How did Mab 'lay claim' to her changeling - did she get any pushback form other Faerie lords? Did Ariel ever think about defecting to another court, or is that not allowed by Faerie laws? AU where she did defect to another court, and how that influenced her relationships with both Mab and Catherine. Is necromancy possible in Arcadia? Came back wrong fic would be delightful. Ariel - or whatever's left of her - confronting Mab about the Hunt, before or after it happens.
Cathy/Kasdaye: I mean - "Have you not wanted to speak to me all your life?" makes me want pre-Arcadia Cathy dreaming of/dreaming with Kasdaye, but I would also love an AU of the masquerade where Kasdaye does succeed in telling Cathy's fortune. Kasdaye trying to take over Ariel's position as Cathy's guide in Arcadia after the Hunt, or time that they spend post-canon together in Pivot.
Cathy/Mab: Changeling Cathy! Either one where Mab made her before sending her off into the mortal world, or one where Mab decides to turn her into one at some point during/after the events of the book (look ... we don't know how Changelings are made, it's totally possible). I wasn't entirely sold on the 'Arcadia = literally Hell' conceit of the ending, so maybe something where that was Mab's real lie? Human Cathy becomes one of Mab's courtiers in exchange for Laon's life/freedom. But, look, Cathy killed someone she liked to spite Mab, even if Laon's soul was also playing some part in that decision, I am gonna be super into whatever you write for them! Arcadian adventures and rituals, Cathy-as-servant, Cathy-as-toy, Arcadian politicking ... all excellent.
General: I am happy for any book details to be used for extra worldbuilding, but where the books and games differ go with the games. I follow the Scoia'tael path in Witcher 1 and Iorveth's in Witcher 2 and ask that you take the events of those paths as canon for your fic's worldstate. If relevant, I also ship Geralt/Iorveth and Geralt/Yaevinn, and really love the Iorveth & Saskia platonic ship. For Sheala fic, please assume Geralt saves her in 'Enter the Dragon'.
Fandom-specific DNW: Dandelion, sorceress-bashing, the events of non-Scoia'tael paths, Witcher 3 DLC-focussed stories (I'm spoiled but haven't actually played them), reducing Yen & Triss' dynamic to 'I don't like you because you stole my boyfriend'
Enid/Tissaia: Gameverse versions of their time together pre-Thanedd, basically.
Enid/Ida: We don't really get Enid propery in the games, so my only real prompt is that I would love to see a gameverse account of their reckoning over elvish homes and Nilfgaardian orders - I would love to see anything else you come up with as well though!
Margarita/Tissaia: Pre-Witcher 1 witchy academic worldbuilding!
Philippa/Saskia: This was My Everything for like five minutes before the mind control revelation, and, honestly? It's still My Everything, though in an entirely separate way. I'd love to see Philippa's thought process leading up to drugging Saskia, or the two of them dealing with the fallout if/when Saskia realises what happened. How does Philippa make amends to a dragon when she's not sorry for what she's done, what does Saskia think about what's come of Philippa post-Assassins of Kings? Or maybe Geralt never actually discovers that she's spellbound to Philippa - what would a Saskia-Philippa ruling alliance look like, whether Saksia's spellbound or not? I don't have a preference whether you write Saskia's curse as lifted or not, but don't have Geralt kill Saskia during the summit. Basically this hits everything I love about power and loyalty and questionably-compatible morals and I love.
Sheala/Philippa: Gorgeous ships about politics and plotting and king-killing and tricksters who love tricksters that I am here for in basically any form! My personal subtitle for Witcher 2 is 'Assassins of Not Enough kings, so a successful murder plot against Henselt or someone is great. CDPR came Directly for my id with blind prophetess Philippa, and I would love Witcher 3 fix-it that lets her interact with Sheala.
Sheala/Yennefer: Look, I will go to my grave sobbing about Yenna, I'm a sorceress, please let me die with dignity and I will not say no to any sort of fix-it/recovery fic.
Tissaia/Yennefer: MENTORSHIP FEELINGS. What was their life like at Aretuza pre-Thanedd, or what if Yennefer managed to save her post-Thanedd? (For this request: Yen solo thinking about dead Tissaia is fine).
Triss/Yennefer: They're both so fierce and stubborn and so much of their love for each other comes through in games that are ... not the best for women that I've ended up in a place where I was incredibly surprised they weren't canon-level girlfriends (why love triangles when polyships). I'd love something pre-canon at the Lodge for them, or something with them recovering from the Battle of Sodden Hill, or maybe an AU of the second half of the Assassins of Kings where Geralt and Triss manage to set off looking for Yen earlier.
I've by and large chosen canons I love for their 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.
I don't mind if the M/E rating is for smut or dark themes (both is very very good). 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 || Smut Likes || DNWs || Big Little Lies || Dare Me - Megan Abbott || Nikita || Killing Eve || Picnic at Hanging Rock (TV 2018) || The Fever - Megan Abbott || The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo || Under the Pendulum Sun - Jeannette Ng || Witcher (Games)
- 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
- 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
- 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.
- 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
- 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
- Rape/noncon (dubcon is fine)
- Permanent death of female characters, except when fandom prompts say otherwise
- 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)
- Apocalypse and post-apocalypse fic, zombies
- *isms, issuefic
- '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.
General: I haven't seen season 2 yet so my prompts are really only season 1 based. That being said, I'll be caught up by the time reveals happen, so if you want to do something s2-compliant or diverge after s1, either is great! I have no infidelity-related squicks, so handle the canon marriages however you want (pre-fic divorce/never married/open marriage/whatever)
Madeline/Celeste: I'm deeply weak for friendships like theirs that may or may not have tipped into something romantic if their world offered that as a possibility but are still more important than any of their romantic relationships. Pre-canon is great, as is anything in s2 that sparks your ideas.
Renata/Celeste: Renata's secret insecurity vs Celeste's secret strength is one of my faovurite dynamics of s1. They have/had similar jobs/attitudes towards their work, and I'd love something that explores that - I feel like Renata might see her as an easier first person to try to befriend as she starts to navigate what relationships with other women look like.
Renata/Madeline: A not insignificant amount of Madeline's hatred of Renata stems from how Renata treats other women (which: lbr, it's rather deserved. Renata's terrible, it's why I love her). How do they navigate life together post-s1 as Renata re-orients herself towards her female friends and lovers, and how does sex complicate or ease that? Alternatively: what happens when you've been hatefucking your nemesis for YEARS and then suddenly you realise that you maybe don't hate her?
General: I am happy with basically anything for these ships! All the obsession, all the clinical-sensual interest in what bodies can do, all the levels of genuinely caring mentorship that ultimately can't do anything but fail. Sex involving under 16s DNW lifted for this fandom, but you can also just not mention the girls' ages.
General: I don't know what good I did to the universe to get this show in return but wow is this blood-soaked grimly funny chase across London and Russia and half of Europe the show of my dreams. I love how bright Villanelle is in everything she does, I love her twisted undeniable logic and her unstoppable yearning. I tend to think of some level of Villanelle/Eve as basically canon, and though I'm leaving it off my request list in favour of my rarer Villanelle pairs, I don't think it's entirely avoidable and I'm totally here for that sort of conflict between Villanelle's multiple desires pulling her towards conflicting (or perhaps ultimately nonconflicting?) goals. Canon-compliant deathfic for Nadia is okay.
Villanelle/Pamela: Gods, this show gave me so much identity porn tailored directly to my taste I feel almost ungrateful for sitting in the corner, going 'no, I want more of that other identity porn' but … I want more of the Villanelle/Pamela identity porn! All the bits we didn't get to see! All the games and the dressing up and the calling-her-Eve and - Pamela was so into those games? So deliciously corruptible? Maybe she follows Villanelle to London and starts killing to impress her.
Villanelle/Nadia: MURDEROUS EXES WHO ALSO WANT TO MURDER EACH OTHER, what a good trope. Nadia brings out the sweet side of Eve's poison in a weird way - their scenes together were the only times I started to question if VIllanelle ever did see a life for herself outside of the assassin gig. Because, lbr: she is far too invested in performing for Eve to give up killing for Eve, and, genuine desire for normal life or not, Nadia opens up a new possibility for desire that Villanelle is delighted by - and fucking hates. Like, she doesn't know what to do with a want that conflicts with her sense of self but she also doesn't know how to say no to desire, yknow? So of course she kills Nadia but of course she makes it sweet, and of course she asks how Nadia wants to go, and of course she indulges that. All of which is to say: fuck me up, dear author. Tell me about their meetings, their missions, their murder attempts, Nadia's final seconds of life. Or go AU, tell me about their captivity together in Arcadia and how Villanelle sold her out to the True Fae for a way through the Hedge and Nadia has found her own way back and is seeking REVENGE. Or make them vampires. I am never gonna say no to my faves being made vampires.
Villanelle/Anna: Messy obsessive mentor/student problems are MY THING and I'm obsessed with all of this - Anna's guilt, Oksana's growing estrangement from what should be as she falls deeper and deeper into what she wants. Pre-canon fic is great - first times, seduction attempts, inappropriate teasing and attempting to play house together, the aftermath of Oksana killing Max (re: my sex-involving-under-16s DNW, you can just not mention her age). Or AU post-s1 where Anna either survives or doesn't attempt suicide at all.
General: I know it's been five years since it ended but this is still the spy show of my heart and I love all these sad glamorous dubiously-moral assassins. Before Amanda's backstory reveal I spent some time headcanoning her as a Russian agent - feel free to run with that background if it speaks more to you than her canon one! I am fine with background Nikita/Owen, Nikita/Alex, Amanda/Alex, or Nikita/Ryan, but DNW Nikita/Michael.
Nikita/Amanda: POST-CANON FIC. I don't love season 4, but I've made my peace with most of it with the exception of ... we watched Nikita obsess over Amanda for four seasons and then we were meant to ... believe she locked Amanda in a cell and ignored her forever? I don't buy it, and I want to see all of their visits, all of the manipulation-into-goodness that Nikita is so horrifically amazing at, all of the bad-idea sex with the weight of all their history. Alternatively, all of Nikita's early days with Division, the dressing up and the missions and the undercover-as-a-couple and the whole idea of Amanda trying to teach Nikita how to human. They love each other so much! They're so determined to create and re-create each other and they're both so bad at pretending the other isn't succeeding. The whole bit in 2x18 with 'I broke your heart? You broke mine.' is like. One of my top 5 scenes in television ever. I love them. I love how much they hate each other and how bad they are at hating each other and I love how much they want. Feel free to OT3 them (V or triad) with Alex.
Nikita/Cassandra: I love spies and double-triple identities and I love these two! Perhaps Nikita finding Cassandra years in the future, or missing scenes - just give them some time alone with each other and with no Michael.
Carla/Amanda: Anything and everything about the early days of Division! The power struggles, the missions they keep (or try to keep) secret from each other, fighting over specific recruits, fighting over Nikita. Running into each other over the years, letters written over the years, sabotaging each other's missions, angsty please-come-join-me sex that neither will admit is either angsty or about getting the other woman to join them.
Amanda/Madeline: How much do I love the whole Senator-and-her-unruly-assassin thing they have going on I love it SO MUCH. I am always and forever down for AUs where Sean dies in that car bomb instead of Madeline. I love early days of Division fic, personal missions/tasks Madeline gives Amanda, and Madeline just. Showing up in Division after Amanda thinks she's dead to give orders directly and the epic power struggle that would kick off (Amanda successfully pretending to 99% of the agents that was absolutely her plan while plotting to kill Madeline :3)
General: This show has a thesis of 'why be a girl when you could be an eldritch horror instead' because it loves me, it really loves me. I love the bonds and the backstabbing and the love-through-horror, I love the changeling girls and the amount of respect it gives stories of self-creation. I love the contrast between the suffocating boarding-school atmosphere and the equally terrifying 'I would like to let the sky eat me' of the Rock and how that's reflected in the characters' emotional relationships. Permadeath of any of the requested characters is fine for this fandom, as is ambiguous/show-consistent explanations of what happened at the Rock. The show does so much excellent work with forests that probably want to eat you/nature which tries to eat you/nature which wants to crawl inside you and never come out and I want to see infinitely more of it! Sith and vampire AUs especially adored for this fandom.
Hester Appleyard: She's so fucked up and so sad and I adore her madly. Every time we get a glimpse inside her head it's so frantic compared to the perfectly composed facade she builds, and I would love anything that plays in the space between those two. Favourite ships for her are with Irma or Dianne but character-study gen is equally loved. Ghosts haunting ghosts - I'd love Hester haunting her husband's ghost, or Sara's, or somehow slipping into the space beyond the Rock. Pre-series fic would also be excellent.
Greta/Dianne: I am up for any sort of came-back-wrong!Greta - time ghost, dream sex, sex to bring Dianne into the space beyond the Rock. I love the mindfucky dreamy atmosphere of the canon and think that would be super neat to explore in a sex scene with these two, especially during the picnic. I feel like they'd have one of those surface-level soft and romantic relationships that's actually fairly dark - whether that's their desire for painplay, the angst caused by staying secret, or something else.
Greta/Marion: Secret relationship and mentorship problems, everything I love. Greta's so ambiguosly lost at the end, even more so than Marion and Miranda - does she ever find her way past the rock and into Marion's new world? What does that look like? Firsts - first meetings, first kisses, first times with various sex acts. AU where Marion becomes a teacher at the Academy, either the mid-canon one or post-canon if Hester succeeded in building a new one (perhaps with Miranda and/or Irma still lost, or perhaps she came back instead of Irma).
Hester/Dianne: I mean, hatesex for always if you go shippy, or any sort of emotionally manipulative sensuality. There's an odd undercurrent of 'why aren't you better' that they both have towards each other (and themselves) and I'd love a story that lives in the lovely-awful tangled knots they tie each other into, and the ways in which they can't quite bring themselves to wish they were more like the other. I'd love to see an AU where Dianne accompanies Hester to the Rock or one where Hester and Dianne moved and built a new school out of the ruins of the first Academy. Any sort of post-canon fic where Hester haunts Dianne in her new position.
Hester/Greta: Greta owes Hester a lot, and while she never goes to the lengths Hester did to keep her secrets (largely because Hester didn't care) I feel like they're both very aware Greta is on a very thin line there, and I'd love to see some exploration of that. I'd love something that leans in the loyalty kink - sexual or not, consensual or not (seriously, dubiously consensual loyalty kink was one of my favourite smutswap tags. The whole ... we both know what the other isn't saying and why and we're both responding to that sort of conversation/mutual existence is so good, and I'd love more of it.
Hester/Miranda: I love how Miranda spends the whole series deconstructing Hester so deftly no one's quite sure what she's done til the very end. Maybe Hester sees Miranda at the Rock, maybe Miranda taunts her about Sara, maybe one of Hester's attempts to dress her up nicely backfires somehow. An extension of the punishment scene, especially one including Hester bandaging her hands afterwards instead of Irma and Marion, and the glorious emotional whiplash that could provoke.
General: I want anything, tbh! All the secrets and identity issues and possibly-eldritch toxic lakes. I like the vague sense of Importance everything has, and how all the girls project and internalise it.
General: I love fics that get into the WEIRD and the magic and the worldbuilding. I've read King of Scars/Six of Crows but don't mind you take them into account for post-trilogy fic or not. I didn't hate endgame Alina/Mal or mind Alina losing her Grisha powers, but if you want, like, background endgame Alina/Zoya in a Tamar/Nadia fic, or AU where Alina's powers come back/she never lost them, go for it! Canon-compliant deathfic for Marie is fine, Darkling wins!AUs welcome. If relevant, I also ship Alia/Nikolai and Alina/the Darkling.
Genya/Alina: They went from 'yes, they could be kinda cute' to INCREDIBLY MY THING in the space of the whole 'dress you up to die' scene and: these girls, they kill me. The way they manage to keep such a deep affection for each other through all of the politics and betrayal is so good, and I want to see more of it.
Marie/Nadia: TRAGEDY GILRS. I like this either canon or one-sided on Nadia's part - fuck me up with all of the Nadia-touching-herself-to-Marie's-memory fic, or if Nadia and Marie were the couple in S&S, how much more painful does that make the aftermath of Os Alta? Fix-it fic for Marie's death is great too, and how she and Nadia might find their way back to each other after the coup.
Tamar/Nadia: They're my worldbuilding ship, ngl. Political wives navigating this whole running-a-country deal? Shu traditions and rituals? Adventures that neither Nikolai nor Alina would approve of but that they're gonna go on anyway because they deserve it?
Zoya/Alina: Honestly this is one of my favourite enemies-to-lovers potential archetypes ever, because they both have such genuine reasons for disliking each other that are taken seriously by the book, without the disagreements ever being reduced to caricatured catfights? I love it. Alina needs someone to drop uncomfortable truths on her head, and Zoya is both very good at that and very willing. I love how complicated they are, I love how their mutual stubbornness and how they grow to be so willing to work with and learn from each other. I'm happy with fic set at any time, from early S&B hatesex to post-R&R reunion/comfortsex.
Zoya/Genya: Soldiers old before their time finding each other after the war is such a good trope and CK confirms at least that they still work together so - lean into that, give me all the post-canon adventures, all the interesting things that can be done when they find a safe person they can take their masks off with but who understand why the masks exist and would never actually ask the other to give them up.
General: Oh hey this weird book about fucked-up missionary siblings in clockwork Fairyland snuck into my life and ruined me and I would love to be further ruined by any fic you write! I really, really loved the Changeling!Cathy faux-reveal and was a bit put out by its last-chapter reversal (all books can do with more weird changelings, lbr), so any Changeling!Cathy fic - or fic where she's human but grappling with the fact that she enjoyed elements of the time when she thought she was a soulless creature - is always adored. Canon-compliant deathfic for Ariel is fine - especially if it leads to Mab further manipulating/fucking with Cathy, and Cathy continuing to spiral about her identity, but I am also thrilled by any AU you come up with where she survives or is brought back.
Ariel/Cathy: I would love some of Ariel's POV on the novel's events - she has a sort of resignation to liminality about her that I find fascinating. What if she had been given more time to convince Cathy she was a Changeling too? What if she tried to sell Cathy to Mab for Laon's safety (or, perhaps, Cathy tries it with her). Resurrection attempts? Ill-advised wanderings into the depths of Arcadia? We see glimpses of what Changelings think about Cathy and Laon's theology, but what kind of myths and religions of their own have they developed that Ariel and Cathy might stumble into in this land where everything's just a bit too real? Also intrigued by the possibility of them meeting in the mortal world sometime before Cathy travels to Arcadia - what would that meeting look like, what kind of traps might Ariel try to set (at Mab's encouraging?), would Cathy notice something off about her?
Ariel/Mab:How was Ariel summoned back from the mundane world? How did Mab 'lay claim' to her changeling - did she get any pushback form other Faerie lords? Did Ariel ever think about defecting to another court, or is that not allowed by Faerie laws? AU where she did defect to another court, and how that influenced her relationships with both Mab and Catherine. Is necromancy possible in Arcadia? Came back wrong fic would be delightful. Ariel - or whatever's left of her - confronting Mab about the Hunt, before or after it happens.
Cathy/Kasdaye: I mean - "Have you not wanted to speak to me all your life?" makes me want pre-Arcadia Cathy dreaming of/dreaming with Kasdaye, but I would also love an AU of the masquerade where Kasdaye does succeed in telling Cathy's fortune. Kasdaye trying to take over Ariel's position as Cathy's guide in Arcadia after the Hunt, or time that they spend post-canon together in Pivot.
Cathy/Mab: Changeling Cathy! Either one where Mab made her before sending her off into the mortal world, or one where Mab decides to turn her into one at some point during/after the events of the book (look ... we don't know how Changelings are made, it's totally possible). I wasn't entirely sold on the 'Arcadia = literally Hell' conceit of the ending, so maybe something where that was Mab's real lie? Human Cathy becomes one of Mab's courtiers in exchange for Laon's life/freedom. But, look, Cathy killed someone she liked to spite Mab, even if Laon's soul was also playing some part in that decision, I am gonna be super into whatever you write for them! Arcadian adventures and rituals, Cathy-as-servant, Cathy-as-toy, Arcadian politicking ... all excellent.
General: I am happy for any book details to be used for extra worldbuilding, but where the books and games differ go with the games. I follow the Scoia'tael path in Witcher 1 and Iorveth's in Witcher 2 and ask that you take the events of those paths as canon for your fic's worldstate. If relevant, I also ship Geralt/Iorveth and Geralt/Yaevinn, and really love the Iorveth & Saskia platonic ship. For Sheala fic, please assume Geralt saves her in 'Enter the Dragon'.
Fandom-specific DNW: Dandelion, sorceress-bashing, the events of non-Scoia'tael paths, Witcher 3 DLC-focussed stories (I'm spoiled but haven't actually played them), reducing Yen & Triss' dynamic to 'I don't like you because you stole my boyfriend'
Enid/Tissaia: Gameverse versions of their time together pre-Thanedd, basically.
Enid/Ida: We don't really get Enid propery in the games, so my only real prompt is that I would love to see a gameverse account of their reckoning over elvish homes and Nilfgaardian orders - I would love to see anything else you come up with as well though!
Margarita/Tissaia: Pre-Witcher 1 witchy academic worldbuilding!
Philippa/Saskia: This was My Everything for like five minutes before the mind control revelation, and, honestly? It's still My Everything, though in an entirely separate way. I'd love to see Philippa's thought process leading up to drugging Saskia, or the two of them dealing with the fallout if/when Saskia realises what happened. How does Philippa make amends to a dragon when she's not sorry for what she's done, what does Saskia think about what's come of Philippa post-Assassins of Kings? Or maybe Geralt never actually discovers that she's spellbound to Philippa - what would a Saskia-Philippa ruling alliance look like, whether Saksia's spellbound or not? I don't have a preference whether you write Saskia's curse as lifted or not, but don't have Geralt kill Saskia during the summit. Basically this hits everything I love about power and loyalty and questionably-compatible morals and I love.
Sheala/Philippa: Gorgeous ships about politics and plotting and king-killing and tricksters who love tricksters that I am here for in basically any form! My personal subtitle for Witcher 2 is 'Assassins of Not Enough kings, so a successful murder plot against Henselt or someone is great. CDPR came Directly for my id with blind prophetess Philippa, and I would love Witcher 3 fix-it that lets her interact with Sheala.
Sheala/Yennefer: Look, I will go to my grave sobbing about Yenna, I'm a sorceress, please let me die with dignity and I will not say no to any sort of fix-it/recovery fic.
Tissaia/Yennefer: MENTORSHIP FEELINGS. What was their life like at Aretuza pre-Thanedd, or what if Yennefer managed to save her post-Thanedd? (For this request: Yen solo thinking about dead Tissaia is fine).
Triss/Yennefer: They're both so fierce and stubborn and so much of their love for each other comes through in games that are ... not the best for women that I've ended up in a place where I was incredibly surprised they weren't canon-level girlfriends (why love triangles when polyships). I'd love something pre-canon at the Lodge for them, or something with them recovering from the Battle of Sodden Hill, or maybe an AU of the second half of the Assassins of Kings where Geralt and Triss manage to set off looking for Yen earlier.