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Yuletide 2020 - Dear Author
Letter is complete--sorry for the delay, thank you for your patience, and happy Yuletide!
AO3: Panny
Hello, dear author, and thank you so much for writing for me! I have tried to leave you at least a general idea of what I like about each canon and what I might be interested in reading for them. Some canons may have more written than others depending on how much I had to say and how many specific ideas I had (and how much I had to copy over from previous letters), but rest assured that I want all of them desperately and look forward to whatever you create!
If I've left prompts that don't speak to you, don't worry about it! There are plenty of things that I enjoy that I haven't specifically prompted for (and there's a reason that I leave a list of general likes) and I want you to write something that you enjoy and find exciting. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me through the mods. I try to be speedy about replying and never mind clarifying.
As a general note, I'm not especially interested in porn for porn's sake for my M/M ships, but I'm down for sex scenes as a part of character building or for the purposes of relationship development. I'm a lot more keen on something that focuses on the emotions/internal thoughts during the moment than the physical descriptions of the smut in general.
Clickable Table of Contents
➳General Likes
➳General DNWs
➳The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde (Comics): Thomas Adye, Edward Hyde | Henry Jekyll
➳The Question (Comics): Renee Montoya, Vic Sage
Potential Prompts:
✎ Tom meets one Dorian Gray, who "seduces him with his philosophy". Hyde hears through the rumour mill that Mr. Gray might know the secret to eternal life (and anyway, a man has to look out for his mates).
✎ Picking up right where canon left off, Tom pursues the case of the mysterious Invisible Man, still dealing with the aftermath of his time with Hyde and the Jack the Ripper case. Hyde, as it turns out, hasn't gone as far as he'd assumed.
✎ In the wake of a series of grave robberies, Tom hears rumours of a monster sighted on city streets. It turns out that Utterson isn't the only ambitious man with an interest in Hyde's formula. (Frankenstein fusion?)
✎ A mysterious murder leads Tom to meet a wealthy man who's recently acquired property in the area and who only ventures out at night. (He may or may not be a Transylvanian vampire.) Tom quickly figures out he's in over his head and reaches out to Hyde for help.
✎ In a canon where there are already themes of duality and transformation...what if werewolves? Tom has earned some grudging respect from his colleagues, but they still think he's mad when he insists there's a definitive human element behind a series of apparent animal attacks. When he finds the culprit, even Hyde's serum might have met its match.
✎ Tom, realizing his dreams and ideals were never what he thought they were, makes a different decision at the end of canon and he and Hyde wind up on the run together.
✎ It's been years, but the time has finally arrived when Tom feels he must hunt Hyde down (though maybe he still doesn't know what he'll do when he finds him).
✎ Tom has some interesting thoughts on Hyde's last string of murders in Whitechapel - rationalizing them in a way that borders on admiration on the basis of who the victims are and that they deserve some kind of comeuppance. In trying to force Tom's hand in Utterson's death, Hyde also refers to having had "high hopes" for him and having "brought [Tom] this far". What would it take to push Tom to murder himself? At what point would he be able to rationalize it as righteous violence and make it mesh with his idea of justice? How would Hyde feel once it finally happened? Would he feel proud, amused, relieved to have a kindred spirit? Would he regret it - seeing the last of Tom's idealism snuffed out and perhaps reminding him a little too keenly of Jekyll's own descent to darker urges and what he had to give up to become Hyde?
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
The Question
Renee, Vic
I love the dynamic between these two so much (have I mentioned that 52 was great? Because it was great!). I have a lot of affection for both of these characters individually, but together *chef's kiss*. As someone who was a big fan of the character arc Renee started in Gotham Central, I also love how much Vic was exactly what she needed exactly when she needed it and how rewarding it was to see her continue out that arc as Vic’s chosen successor to the Question mantle. I love every phase of their partnership and seeing Renee’s actually totally justified annoyance at this weirdo invading her personal life developing to genuine mutual respect and affection. I love Renee coming to see Vic as her best friend and Vic’s total faith in Renee as a person.
These two each have a complicated, equally fascinating relationship with vigilantism and canon treats the choice to put on the Question mask as a type of honesty - for both of them. The question (heh) of morality and how far is too far and trying to figure out where the line lies was a significant part of both of their characters, even if the perspectives and experiences they used to navigate that problem are unique to each of them and their role as the Question means something different as a result. Vic meeting Renee fresh off the whole Corrigan mess was always a fascinating point for their characters to form a connection around considering Vic's own musings on "justifiable homicide" (his words). Similarly, it added a lot of depth to Vic helping Renee cope with finally having to take the shot in a situation where she really didn't want to.
They both have a lot of anger at the world and neither one is a stranger to brutal necessity. They're both stubborn, naturally curious, and have a tendency to get in over their heads very quickly. They're also both characters who are always in need of more good friends. As competent as she is on her own, I always feel like Renee is at her best when working with a partner and having someone who can balance her out and Vic absolutely brought out the best in her at a time when Renee had convinced herself that there was nothing good left to find - even if it took a lot of time and effort and sleeping with rats to get there.
On a less serious note, both characters' senses of humour really work for me and their banter was a serious highlight in 52 - they're hilarious! They're also each exceptionally talented detectives in their own right and it's a lot of fun to see either of them work through a case, but seeing where their strengths complement each other as they puzzle through problems together was a real treat.
I’m totally down for stories set during their time together in 52, Convergence stuff where Renee meets an alt version of Vic, AUs where Vic survives and they continue working together, AUs where they meet under different circumstances, AUs where Vic gets resurrected somehow after his death in 52, Blackest Night fic where (somehow, through shenanigans) Vic actually does come back like Tot was hoping instead of being a murder zombie (or in addition to being a murder zombie), fic jumping off of their reunion in Lois Lane, alternate Rebirth fic where the Question harasses an angry Gotham cop into working with him, whatever!
Case fic's an obvious choice for this match up and I would absolutely be down for them investigating anything as mundane or as bizarre as you'd like. Organized (or disorganized) crime in Hub City? Gotham-level supervillainy? Religion of Crime up to the usual? Caught in a time loop together? People spontaneously rising from the grave and newly rezzed Vic helping Renee figure out why? Monkey's paw style wish granting causing trouble?
Some Potential Prompts:
✎ Canon divergence where Vic not only survives 52 - he's somehow miraculously cured (because comics). Given that his entire game plan was to have Renee succeed him as the Question, they both have to deal with what it means that he's still around.
✎ Given Blackest Night, Tot was clearly ready to go to some extremes for the slim chance of reviving Vic. One such extreme actually works. Renee and Vic have to deal with the fallout of Vic being dragged from the claws of death.
✎ Vic's around to help Renee deal with the whole Faceless One prophecy. How are things different when there are two faceless people on Gotham's streets?
✎ Rebirth canon divergence where the Question harasses an angry Gotham cop into working with him.
✎ People start spontaneously rising from the grave. A newly resurrected Vic works to help Renee figure out why.
✎ Renee meets an AU version of Vic during Convergence.
✎ AU where Renee is never driven to leave the force (maybe Crispus even survives this one!) and still meets Vic at some point during 52.
✎ Renee gets a hold of a monkey's paw style artifact and her tendency toward self-destructive ends justify the means behaviour leads to trouble. Vic has to help her sort it out.
✎ Vic and Renee confront the kind of supernatural threats that Gotham had to deal with in Batwoman's urban legends arc.
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
✎ Renee time travels and/or universe jumps in an attempt to save Vic's life (or vice versa). There may be Consequences. She may not care.
✎ Give me those difficult choices leading to hurt/comfort. Hostage situations, forced to shoot the bad guy to save your partner, near death experiences, being forced to hurt someone to achieve a necessary goal, not staying down after being hit a lot, pushing through injuries in a dangerous situation, trapped together, etc.
Canon Knowledge Note:
I've read a fair smattering of different writers' takes on Vic Sage since his integration into the DC Universe - O'Neil, Veitch, Rucka. I'm partial to O'Neil or Rucka characterization, but I do have a soft spot for Veitch's weird run with the nice art (as much as canon understandably just ignores it). I'm passingly familiar with the way Ditko wrote him originally, but never read much in depth for the Charlton Comics version of the character. I basically skipped over everything surrounding the Question mantle in general and Vic Sage specifically during the New 52 era (sans Convergence for the sake of New Earth!Renee) until Vic was returned to the role with Rebirth. At this point, I still don't have any plans to go back and read either Trinity of Sin!Question (who does not seem to be related to Vic or Renee anyway) or Suicide Squad!Vic (corrupt bureaucrat doesn't really jive with how I personally see Vic at all, but I'm genuinely glad if that version of the character prompted any new fans to get into him). I have been very, very thorough with my Renee Montoya reading from Gotham Central until Flashpoint and have generally caught up on her and Kate's story lines in Rebirth. I read (and loved) Rucka's Lois Lane run and am hyped to see both characters once again take up the mantle.
All that being said, I'm generally willing to be flexible when it comes to comics canons because that is the nature of the beast.
Greenhollow Duology
Tobias, Henry
I enjoyed these novellas immensely and by the time I finished, all I wanted to do was spend more time in the world and with these characters. I enjoyed how relaxing Tobias's point of view was in Silver in the Wood, but Drowned Country and Henry's perspective really hit a lot of my narrative kinks in ways that I wasn't expecting! Both books spoke to me as a hurt/comfort fiend, but Drowned Country was on another level. Tobias repeatedly ending up in danger because, as Henry noted, he jumps at the chance to put himself between anyone and dangerespecially if that "anyone" is Henry. Tobias ostensibly being there to protect Henry but Henry having to repeatedly step up when things go awry. Henry being frustrated and an angry kind of hurt that's still mostly pining despite himself and then having that sharp interjection of concern every time he's reminded of how mortal Tobias is now. Yes, yes, yes!
I like the shape of their new partnership a lot too. Tobias being steady and experienced and having a very practical way of looking at things and addressing problems. Henry being curious and enthusiastic in a reckless way but far more capable and competent than anyone quite gives him credit for. I'd be really interested in seeing more of that balance between their skills. Tobias having lived so long and encountered so many creatures, just having this well-earned knowledge. And while Henry might be more taken by flights of whimsy, he's come by some honest information just by the sheer amount of effort and earnest interest he's put into his area of study and the fact that he's willing to entertain some more out there ideas that Tobias would dismiss out of hand.
While I'm happy with the way that the immortality issue was resolved in Drowned Country (and would be more than happy to just explore where things go next from that point and see them on more monster hunting adventures), I was very intrigued by the way that said immortality issue fed into the conflict in their relationship and how it might shape things going forward if they worked through those problems and still had to deal with that aspect. Tobias having been so long-lived and facing renewed mortality, Henry being so much younger and having a possible eternity now stretching before him, and the tragic sweetness of the space of time where their lives overlap and, though they might have what most would consider a good lifetime's worth of years, how brief it would inevitably feel compared to the spans of their respective lives.
I love the atmosphere in these books--especially when it comes to both the woods and faerie land! I would love to see more intriguing locations like this (or even more exploration of these particular locations) where the setting is as much a character as anyone with a speaking role.
Potential Prompts:
✎Pick up right from the end of canon! What kind of adventures do these two go on next? What kind of mysteries do they get involved in? What kinds of monsters and supernatural creatures do they deal with? I want all the fable/folk tale elements! Maud and Adela are certainly more than welcome to participate too (I love them)!
✎AU where it takes a little longer to handle the immortality thing/the solution isn't so straightforward and they have to navigate that space for a bit while repairing their fractured relationship. I'm still happy for them to ultimately end up where they do at the end of Drowned Country, but gosh what an interesting dilemma!
✎Hurt/comfort, especially with physically endangered!Tobias and emotionally suffering!Henry! Injuries obtained on missions. More mundane accidents and problems. Bad run-ins with locals who are suspicious of the supernatural.
✎Fill in more of the time between the end of Silver in the Wood and the break up. I love relationship development and they've both undergone so many major life changes! And Henry has so much anxiety that he's sitting on and we know it leads to terrible decisions!
✎Canon divergence of all kinds! What if Henry had heeded Tobias's warning (which would leave Fay as still a very present concern in future)? What if Tobias had been more proactive in dealing with Fay? What if Adela hadn't brought Henry to help with the case when she did? What if the Fairy Queen had been better prepared? Split off at any point you want!
✎I always love time loops! One of my favourite time loop plots is when characters are stuck in the loop until they come to a realization or solve a problem. I would love to see that enacted here! Especially since both characters have had experiences with weirdly loose experiences of time thanks to the connection they each had with the woods, so I wonder how genuine time shenanigans would feel to them!
✎Just lean in to the fairy tale aspects in the tropiest ways possible. I'm talking curses that can only be broken with kisses and strange interactions with animals. Is Henry tuned in to fairy tale tropes enough to realize what's going on immediately? Does it start kind of silly and turn serious (or vice versa)?
✎I have a lot of affection for stories that play with the storytelling medium in interesting and unconventional ways, especially the kind of self-aware story that just wants to be a love letter to storytelling. I think this could be a really interesting canon to play with some of those formats, particularly as Henry is so interested in learning about and telling stories and Tobias is someone who has had a lot of stories told about him. Epistolary fic that tells a story through Henry's publications? Semi-epistolary fic that switches between Henry's (or someone else's) writings and the reality of the situation? Outsider POV relating what people observe as Henry and Tobias go about their business? The kind of local legends that spring up around them?
The Serpent Gates
Tal
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I became so fond of Tal throughout reading The Unspoken Name and smiled every time he showed up. I loved how much of a perpetual spanner in the works he was for absolutely everyone and I couldn't wait until the next time he'd show up and either ruin or fix anything (possibly inadvertently in either direction). I just want more of him. More of him getting into and out of scrapes. More of his genuine resourcefulness and his incredible efficiency in using new information to carry out long term goals. More of his blundering into situations with only half of the information he needs and full of unwarranted confidence. More of his snide attitude, more of his startling moments of vulnerability. I want more of him being self-sufficient, more of him being gay and pining, more of him working surprisingly well with Csorwe given the proper motivation. I want his grand aspirations, his moments of extreme pettiness, the things he doesn't dare to hope for, and the things he tries for anyway.
I really loved the worldbuilding in The Unspoken Name, especially everything related to the different gods and their relationships with the various societies within their domains and how differently each culture regarded them. The maze was also really neat and I'd be stoked to spend more time exploring parts of it that we didn't focus on. While Tal was my runaway favourite, I did love the rest of the cast too and I'd be thrilled to have them show up and interact with Tal. Seeing more of Tal and Csorwe's rivalry, seeing how Tal and Shuthmili would interact (without him just seeing her as an extension of his annoyance at Csorwe), seeing Tal's relationship with Sethennai either within the context of his canonical infatuation or afterward when he's cut his ties by helping Csorwe pull one over on him, seeing what he and Oranna might make of each other when they're not either involved in torture or competing over a dude, or hell I wouldn't even say no to Atharaisse if you want to swing that!
I was a bit surprised when the book first switched POV after spending so long with Csorwe, but I found I really liked getting to see the characters from multiple perspectives. I got a big kick out of seeing how different characters saw one another. I felt like I got to know Tal a lot better once I got inside his head (which is fair and expected enough), but I still really enjoyed seeing Csorwe's perspective of him and the way she reacted to his involvement in the plot when they were each privy to different information. All this to say, I'm totally open to you exploring things from whatever POV you're moved to write from (Tal? Csorwe? Another canon character? A total outsider POV? A combination thereof?) and will always get something out of it.
Potential Prompts:
✎Fill in the gaps during the time skip between Sethennai reclaiming Tlaanthothe and meeting Shuthmili. I want to see more of the development of the rivalry between Csorwe and Tal and the build up of all the little betrayals that are briefly alluded to in canon! I want to see more of Csorwe and Tal balancing out each other's skills and faults surprisingly well and proving to be well-suited collaborators when the chips are down (or being in the position to collaborate and letting either self-interest or pettiness get the better of them). I want to see Tal knowing it's a bad idea and falling for Sethennai anyway and entertaining the hope of a future he doesn't actually expect to happen.
✎Pick up where canon left off. We have a vague idea of where Csorwe and Shuthmili are going, but what's next for Tal? What's driving him forward now--what are his short term and long term goals? How's moving on after cutting ties with Sethennai in such a spectacular fashion working for him? I know there's a sequel coming out next year, but I'm not at all worried about anything being jossed--I just want all the Tal adventures!
✎All the canon divergence! What if Tal had worked with Csorwe instead of immediately throwing her under the bus? What if Sethennai had been unsuccessful in his goal of retaking Tlaanthothe? What if the first confrontation with Oranna hadn't gone so horribly sideways? What if Oranna had kept him around instead of leaving him for her lackeys to kill? Canon divergence is one of my favourite things--spin off from any point you want!
✎More adventures in the maze! It's so intriguing and yet we've seen so little of it, really. Surely Tal has been some places while searching for the reliquary or will go some interesting places post-canon. I just want to explore! I absolutely love stories where the setting is just as much a character as anyone with a speaking role and visiting Echentyr was one of my favourite parts of the early book! Please feel free to go in on the worldbuilding!
✎More adventures with gods! The gods in this world are so fascinating and Tal is one of the very, very few central characters who doesn't really interact with any of them. Remedying that could be so interesting! Tal has an almost trickster-ish quality (though he fills the role with middling success) and that could feed into such an interesting dynamic--the kind of confrontation that fables are written about! At the same time, Tal can be surprisingly earnest, especially when his aspirations come into the mix--it would be interesting to see what kind of bargains Tal might be tempted to make with a god, for better or for worse.
✎I love time loops as a trope and one of my favourite varieties is when a character is trapped in the loop until they do something they don't want to or otherwise have to admit to something they're denying. I want this for Tal very much.
✎Honestly, how did Tal get into the scary giant snake pit? We know how Csorwe did it, but he was just hanging out there after she finished sweet talking Atharaisse. I need this missing scene.
✎I was deeply amused by Csorwe and Tal (badly) playing at being scholars. I wonder what other roles they've had to play while working for Sethennai? Basically I wantterrible undercover fic.
✎Tal flirting with Malkhaya and Csorwe's longsuffering reaction amused me greatly. Considering this is enough of an ongoing thing for Csorwe to know Tal's type (which is, interestingly, rather not at all how one might describe Sethennai), I would love to see other incidents of flirtation, past or future. Did some of these flirtations actually benefit (or hinder) the mission? Which men were super down? What were the flirtees' impressions of Tal? I love Sethennai a lot and would also be more than happy to explore from Tal's internal feelings as he continues the affair, falling in love and trying to convince himself that he's fine with Sethennai never reciprocating those feelings, while flirting with a series of honestly very nice men who are exactly his type and would probably be better for him.
Asgardians of the Galaxy
Ren, Annabelle, Val
I love Ren and Annabelle's relationship - they're so sweet! One thing that I really wish we'd had the chance to see more of, though, is the dynamic between Valkyrie & Ren (or /Ren, as the case may be) and navigating the whole My New Girlfriend is Actually Two Hot Women in a Trench Coat thing. Val seems to openly like Ren and support her relationship with Annabelle, but I actually think that Val and Ren could have a fun dynamic themselves if they had more opportunity to interact. And if that budding relationship led to Annabelle now getting to date both of her superhero love interests at the same time while they also dated each other, all the better.
Mission fic is always great and I would be equally happy with either just the three of them or the team being included. I would love to see more opportunities for them to work together facing down foes and solving problems. Exploring how the relationships work with the body sharing dynamic would also be interesting to me. I would also be up for a scenario where Annabelle and Valkyrie are separated and seeing how the three of them work things out when they no longer have to share a body. Hurt/comfort is also definitely an area of interest for this trio.
You can pay as much or as little attention to the War of the Realms crossover and its impact on Valkyrie's character as you want. While I think Bunn did a good job of tying it into Annabelle's character arc, I also don't think that Val dying was initially part of the Plan for the series (and we know that the abrupt ending brought about by the cancellation definitely wasn't). Want to use it as a jumping off point and carry on where canon left off? Go for it. Want to sidestep the whole issue? Go for it. Want to canon divergence the hell out of it? Go for it!
Some potential prompts:
✎ More space adventures! Any planet hopping shenanigans were kind of waylaid by the series being dragged into not one but two crossover events and then being abruptly cancelled, but I'd love to see more. Annabelle would go absolutely gaga over learning about cultures and histories from beyond the stars. Maybe at some point they detour to Earth to pick up Ren?
✎ Epic revival quests! So, both FD and AotG have established a kind of pattern where at least one of these three dies per comic run and at least one of the others has to go on a quest to save them that's wrapped up one way or another in a single issue (thank you, Clea, for always coming in in the clutch). I would love to see a similar plot line (you don't have to use one of the canon incidents; there are no shortages of opportunities for temporary character death in Marvel comics) that focuses in more on the quest element - the challenges the rescuer(s) face(s), the foes they fight, the world they traverse, etc.
✎ AU where Annabelle doesn't die in Fearless Defenders but instead continues her growth as a chosen member of the Valkyrior separately from Val. Where does she fit into the team? How does this impact her dynamic with Val after they snap her out of Doom Maiden mode? How does it impact her dynamic with Ren? What's the relationship between the three of them like as of Asgardians of the Galaxy?
✎ Val and Annabelle are somehow separated after sharing a body for a while (you can use War of the Realms as a jumping off point or do something else). How do they feel about this? How does their experience co-existing within a single body impact their dynamic now that they no longer need to rely on each other in the same way? What does Annabelle do when Ren and Val are on missions (if she doesn't have the Nova Corps helmet)?
✎ Further exploration of the identity issues caused by the body sharing, especially Val's feeling that she was losing herself re: issue 12 of Fearless Defenders. How do they cope with this? How do they find a balance that works? How do you date someone who lives inside your body? How does Ren deal with her girlfriend being part of a body-based spiritual timeshare agreement?
✎ Mission fic! Alone together or with the rest of the team to aid them (either team, really - Defenders or Asgardians of the Galaxy). Bonus points if, at some point during their adventure, Annabelle's skills actually end up being more useful than Valkyrie's in solving a problem.
✎ As of Asgardians of the Galaxy, Val also canonically worries about the danger she's putting Annabelle in by going into battle. When did this fear start to surface? Was there something in particular that went wrong at some point? Do they have any close calls before the series? Given Ren's protective tendencies, how does she deal with this?
✎ What if a villain finds a way to mess with their ability to switch between being Val and Annabelle the way that Loki does in Asgardians of the Galaxy? How do they cope? How do they fix the situation? How does Ren, with her protective tendencies, react when Annabelle inevitably won't let herself be left out of the action?
✎ Soulbond fic. How does that work when you're bonded to someone who shares a life force with another person?
✎ Ren gets to come along for the ride when Angela interrupts their date in Asgardians of the Galaxy for space adventures.
✎ I really love the absolutely baller covers Mark Brooks drew for Fearless Defenders (seriously, I wish I had all of them in poster form) and could see some of them being a really fun jumping off point for fic.
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
Pretty Deadly
Big Alice, Deathface Ginny
Note: I really ship these two and if there's a pairing focus, I'd prefer that it be them.
I am 100% okay with violence being included as not just an element, but as a feature. Especially for these two. The fight scene between them in volume 1 is what made the transition from "okay, I'm decently interested" to "I love this comic" for me. Getting to see two women fight as viciously as these two was a treat. And I am not above some scrapping between two halves of a ship, especially for femslash. Love me some (fr)enemy ships. Love me some sexual tension in fighting.
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I'm super fascinated by this series and these two characters in particular. For everything we learn about them, I feel like I have a million more questions and a million things still left unanswered. I'd love to know more about them on a general level (their histories, their roles as reapers, the world they live in) and a personal level (motivations, inner thoughts, desires, personal relationships). Violence is welcome, not just as an element, but as a feature when it comes to these two.
Pretty Deadly is a super fascinating comic, aesthetically and conceptually. I love every part of it and I would be over the moon to see someone take the worldbuilding and characters and play with them or flesh them out a little. Everything about how reapers work has been really neat and the whole detail about reapers with complementary aspects working in pairs from volume 2 is definitely something that you can play with for these two (Vengeance and Cruelty is such an interesting combo).
I was already down for this ship from Alice's introduction--my femslash goggles are strapped tight enough that two women viciously fighting + a degree of implied history is a foolproof recipe. But I was not prepared for Pretty Deadly: The Rat and I still don't know what I did to deserve it. I would have been thrilled enough at learning that Ginny was searching for Alice after her death/losing her physical form in Volume 2. But Alice as Ginny's obsession? Finding Alice as the leverage that the Reaper of Obsession uses to bait and try to trap Ginny? "You're not her. You're not Alice"? Holy smokes that was some good ship fodder!
Potential Prompts:
✎Pick up right where The Rat left off with Ginny trapped in Obsession's realm. How does she get out (if she gets out)? Does she agree to something Obsession wants to get more information about Alice? Does Obsession continue to use Alice's likeness to torment her?
✎What happens when Ginny finally finds Alice? What happens to a reaper after they die? How does Ginny get her back? How does Alice feel about Ginny coming after her--particularly given the grudge that Alice herself is carrying over Ginny's past rejection?
✎More exploration of their partnership as reapers. They were always meant to be a pair, but we only saw them actually working together for a brief time before Alice's death. I would love to see more of the two of them going on reaper missions.
✎Pre-canon, especially with the new clues we've got about their history thanks to The Rat. How did that rejection go down? How has Alice's grudge manifested over the years? Did they ever try to make it work before canon or was Ginny riding solo from the get go? Did they have many run ins like the one in Volume 1?
✎Canon divergence AU around Alice's death in Volume 2. What if she'd survived? What if Ginny had been a position to notice what was happening between her and Johnny Coyote?
✎More worldbuilding, more reapers! Bringing reapers back to the Garden after Sissy takes over, running into reapers (and conflict with reapers) during their travels. What other aspects might there be for reapers and what might they be like (beyond all the very interesting ones we've already seen)? What sort of aspect pairs do these other reapers form when they do? How do these reapers interact with the mortal world?
✎The comic is progressing forward in time through different eras with each volume--what about the eras that came before the start of volume 1? What about the time periods in between the volumes? What about eras that come later than what we've seen?
✎What if Ginny had been the one to "die" in volume 2? Would Alice be as motivated to find her? What lengths would she go to? How would she feel about what happened?
✎I'm totally down for outsider POV! I love the canonical framing of the story told between Butterfly and Bunny (and would definitely be into other animal POV relating their impressions of the characters), but I'd also be really interested in seeing what some mortal characters make of Ginny and Alice? I'm super fascinated by the relationship between the reapers and the mortal world and their impact on it, so anything tapping into that would be baller!
AO3: Panny
Hello, dear author, and thank you so much for writing for me! I have tried to leave you at least a general idea of what I like about each canon and what I might be interested in reading for them. Some canons may have more written than others depending on how much I had to say and how many specific ideas I had (and how much I had to copy over from previous letters), but rest assured that I want all of them desperately and look forward to whatever you create!
If I've left prompts that don't speak to you, don't worry about it! There are plenty of things that I enjoy that I haven't specifically prompted for (and there's a reason that I leave a list of general likes) and I want you to write something that you enjoy and find exciting. If you have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me through the mods. I try to be speedy about replying and never mind clarifying.
As a general note, I'm not especially interested in porn for porn's sake for my M/M ships, but I'm down for sex scenes as a part of character building or for the purposes of relationship development. I'm a lot more keen on something that focuses on the emotions/internal thoughts during the moment than the physical descriptions of the smut in general.
Clickable Table of Contents
➳General Likes
➳General DNWs
➳The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde (Comics): Thomas Adye, Edward Hyde | Henry Jekyll
➳The Question (Comics): Renee Montoya, Vic Sage
➳Greenhollow Duology - Emily Tesh: Tobias Finch, Henry Silver
➳The Serpent Gates - A.K. Larkwood: Talasseres Charossa➳Asgardians of the Galaxy: Ren Kimura, Annabelle Riggs, Brunnhilde | Valkyrie
➳Pretty Deadly (Comics): Big Alice, Deathface Ginny
➳Pretty Deadly (Comics): Big Alice, Deathface Ginny
General Likes: |
♥ Tropey goodness, taken as seriously or as silly as you like.
♥ Protectiveness.
♥ Loyalty.
♥ Conflict.
♥ Hurt/comfort.
♥ Messy, complicated relationships where no one person is necessarily "better" than the other.
♥ Characters who are normally in control very much not being that.
♥ Canon divergence/for want of a nail AUs.
♥ Self-destructive tendencies.
♥ Mind games and mutually dangerous people engaging in cat-and-mouse scenarios.
♥ Badass in distress.
♥ Competency and cleverness
♥ Identity porn and related scenarios.
♥ "Good guys" being driven to do shady, questionable things in the pursuit of their goals/righteous ideals.
♥ Morally bankrupt bad guys falling in love and doing things that screw over their agenda or leave them vulnerable because they care about one particular person.
♥ Emotion-driven desperation.
♥ When two people rest their foreheads together and it's super intimate
♥ Women pinning other women against walls.
♥ Role swaps.
♥ Time loops.
♥ Superheroes.
♥ Fairy tales.
♥ Dragons and/or robots.
♥ Hair ruffling.
General DNWs: |
✘ Non-canonical (permanent) major character death; character death as part of a Groundhog Day scenario or where the other half of the ship goes on a quest to revive them or etc. is totally fine.
✘ Torture.
✘ Mutilation. Description of/reference to existing canon injuries would be fine. New injuries resulting in a new scar or something would also be fine, particularly considering the type of characters we're dealing with in some of these canons. Canon-typical levels of violence are fine as a general rule.
✘ Issue fic (e.g. fic centered around delivering a moral lesson or having a character learn the error of their ways by being educated about social issues; fic set around commenting on/paralleling real world social issues, power structures, or concepts of identity that don't exist natively in the canon's worldbuilding--"canon typical" is fine, as a rule).
✘ "Ripped from the headlines" plots/stories about contemporary real world events (e.g. COVID).
✘ Terminal illness.
✘ Mundane AUs (e.g. coffee shop, high school, no powers, etc.).
✘ Non-con.
✘ Age play.
The Strange Case of Mr. Hyde
Tom, Hyde
Note: I really ship these two and if there's a pairing focus, I'd prefer that it be them. If you write in a new villain/encounter for our "heroes" to deal with like, say, Dorian Gray as canon had initially intended, I have no problem with there being some attraction or there being something of a M/M/M love triangle (the volume 2 blurb had me hooked with Tom being ~seduced by Dorian's philosophy~, let me tell you). I'm also fine with general characteristic flirtation and lecherous behaviour from Hyde. However, I would prefer just Tom/Hyde endgame.
I would be fine with mentioning Hyde's engagement to Millicent or Tom's relationship with Mary Jane with regard to character background, but I wouldn't want them to be the focus of the fic. If you choose to just gloss over them or they don't come up, I'm fine with that too.
Also, while I know the original comic has a lot of violence against women because, well, Jack the Ripper and I'm fine with there being some female murder victims in fic for it, I'd also prefer that the fic not dwell exclusively on that aspect if it can be avoided.
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Ruthless serial killers developing a soft spot for the naive, stick-in-the-mud detectives they're manipulating! Goody-goodies making increasingly dangerous moral compromises! "But, Tom, we're mates"! Rooftop/air balloon battles! Mind games and pretentious quote matches and disillusionment in idealistic notions about the upper class! What's not to like!
The dynamic between these two pretty much made the comic for me. It's so good. The general back and forth and learning to work together and Tom discovering things about himself that maybe he would have preferred not to. And then that genuine moment of returned friendship (Hyde's goddamn smile when Tom finally agrees that they're mates) just before Tom shoots Hyde in the chest followed by Tom tearing up in relief over having confirmation that Hyde's still alive and then using his serial killer best buddy to threaten people. Right up my alley.
I really like all the development and internal conflict that Tom went through over the course of the comic and would be totally stoked to see further development and potential fallout related to that. Whatever reason you can cook up for Hyde making a return and the two of them having to team up again is totally fine with me. (Has someone come after Hyde? Is Hyde keeping tabs on his good mate Tom? Did Tom finally decide to track Hyde down himself? Does the newest villain have something Hyde's interested in?)
Things I love: Tom finding himself in positions to take shadier options and dealing with balancing those impulses with his righteous ideals is always great. Hyde, as smart and powerful as he is, potentially compromising his goals because he's become genuinely fond of Tom is great. Tom getting damsel-in-distressed as per issue 4 and Hyde swooping in to rescue him is great. Hyde calculating and machinating while Tom pieces things together is great. Tom finding ways to surprise Hyde as much as he did when he shot him is great. Tom realizing how deep he's slipping and being discomfited by how easy it is for Hyde to get under his skin is great. Swapping barbs and quotes while no one else around them understands them half as well as they understand each other is great.
I would be totally head over heels for something set after the original comic dealing with some other famous literary monsters/villains, especially those drawn from Gothic horror. The sequel hook at the end of the comic teased the Invisible Man as Tom's next case and the cover for the planned sequel comic (which sadly never materialized) confirmed that Dorian Gray exists in this universe and would come into contact with Tom (I was so looking forward to Tom being "seduced by his philosophy"). Either of those options would be fabulous, but don't feel restricted by them - bring in whoever you want.Potential Prompts:
✎ Tom meets one Dorian Gray, who "seduces him with his philosophy". Hyde hears through the rumour mill that Mr. Gray might know the secret to eternal life (and anyway, a man has to look out for his mates).
✎ Picking up right where canon left off, Tom pursues the case of the mysterious Invisible Man, still dealing with the aftermath of his time with Hyde and the Jack the Ripper case. Hyde, as it turns out, hasn't gone as far as he'd assumed.
✎ In the wake of a series of grave robberies, Tom hears rumours of a monster sighted on city streets. It turns out that Utterson isn't the only ambitious man with an interest in Hyde's formula. (Frankenstein fusion?)
✎ A mysterious murder leads Tom to meet a wealthy man who's recently acquired property in the area and who only ventures out at night. (He may or may not be a Transylvanian vampire.) Tom quickly figures out he's in over his head and reaches out to Hyde for help.
✎ In a canon where there are already themes of duality and transformation...what if werewolves? Tom has earned some grudging respect from his colleagues, but they still think he's mad when he insists there's a definitive human element behind a series of apparent animal attacks. When he finds the culprit, even Hyde's serum might have met its match.
✎ Tom, realizing his dreams and ideals were never what he thought they were, makes a different decision at the end of canon and he and Hyde wind up on the run together.
✎ It's been years, but the time has finally arrived when Tom feels he must hunt Hyde down (though maybe he still doesn't know what he'll do when he finds him).
✎ Tom has some interesting thoughts on Hyde's last string of murders in Whitechapel - rationalizing them in a way that borders on admiration on the basis of who the victims are and that they deserve some kind of comeuppance. In trying to force Tom's hand in Utterson's death, Hyde also refers to having had "high hopes" for him and having "brought [Tom] this far". What would it take to push Tom to murder himself? At what point would he be able to rationalize it as righteous violence and make it mesh with his idea of justice? How would Hyde feel once it finally happened? Would he feel proud, amused, relieved to have a kindred spirit? Would he regret it - seeing the last of Tom's idealism snuffed out and perhaps reminding him a little too keenly of Jekyll's own descent to darker urges and what he had to give up to become Hyde?
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
The Question
Renee, Vic
Note: Since Vic’s cancer is a major plot point during their time together in 52, I’m waiving my Terminal Illness DNW here. I don’t expect anyone to have to overlook or handwave that part of canon. However, I’d prefer the fic not center entirely around that element.
I enjoy most Renee/women ships and would be fine with one popping up as a side/background element. I specifically enjoy Renee/Daria Hernandez, Renee/Kate Kane, Renee/Helena Bertinelli, Renee/Elicia Sanchez (especially after that Kiss of Death reveal, yowza), and recent canon has piqued my interest in Renee/Lois Lane, but I'm very open to other possibilities.
I love the dynamic between these two so much (have I mentioned that 52 was great? Because it was great!). I have a lot of affection for both of these characters individually, but together *chef's kiss*. As someone who was a big fan of the character arc Renee started in Gotham Central, I also love how much Vic was exactly what she needed exactly when she needed it and how rewarding it was to see her continue out that arc as Vic’s chosen successor to the Question mantle. I love every phase of their partnership and seeing Renee’s actually totally justified annoyance at this weirdo invading her personal life developing to genuine mutual respect and affection. I love Renee coming to see Vic as her best friend and Vic’s total faith in Renee as a person.
These two each have a complicated, equally fascinating relationship with vigilantism and canon treats the choice to put on the Question mask as a type of honesty - for both of them. The question (heh) of morality and how far is too far and trying to figure out where the line lies was a significant part of both of their characters, even if the perspectives and experiences they used to navigate that problem are unique to each of them and their role as the Question means something different as a result. Vic meeting Renee fresh off the whole Corrigan mess was always a fascinating point for their characters to form a connection around considering Vic's own musings on "justifiable homicide" (his words). Similarly, it added a lot of depth to Vic helping Renee cope with finally having to take the shot in a situation where she really didn't want to.
They both have a lot of anger at the world and neither one is a stranger to brutal necessity. They're both stubborn, naturally curious, and have a tendency to get in over their heads very quickly. They're also both characters who are always in need of more good friends. As competent as she is on her own, I always feel like Renee is at her best when working with a partner and having someone who can balance her out and Vic absolutely brought out the best in her at a time when Renee had convinced herself that there was nothing good left to find - even if it took a lot of time and effort and sleeping with rats to get there.
On a less serious note, both characters' senses of humour really work for me and their banter was a serious highlight in 52 - they're hilarious! They're also each exceptionally talented detectives in their own right and it's a lot of fun to see either of them work through a case, but seeing where their strengths complement each other as they puzzle through problems together was a real treat.
I’m totally down for stories set during their time together in 52, Convergence stuff where Renee meets an alt version of Vic, AUs where Vic survives and they continue working together, AUs where they meet under different circumstances, AUs where Vic gets resurrected somehow after his death in 52, Blackest Night fic where (somehow, through shenanigans) Vic actually does come back like Tot was hoping instead of being a murder zombie (or in addition to being a murder zombie), fic jumping off of their reunion in Lois Lane, alternate Rebirth fic where the Question harasses an angry Gotham cop into working with him, whatever!
Case fic's an obvious choice for this match up and I would absolutely be down for them investigating anything as mundane or as bizarre as you'd like. Organized (or disorganized) crime in Hub City? Gotham-level supervillainy? Religion of Crime up to the usual? Caught in a time loop together? People spontaneously rising from the grave and newly rezzed Vic helping Renee figure out why? Monkey's paw style wish granting causing trouble?
Some Potential Prompts:
✎ Canon divergence where Vic not only survives 52 - he's somehow miraculously cured (because comics). Given that his entire game plan was to have Renee succeed him as the Question, they both have to deal with what it means that he's still around.
✎ Given Blackest Night, Tot was clearly ready to go to some extremes for the slim chance of reviving Vic. One such extreme actually works. Renee and Vic have to deal with the fallout of Vic being dragged from the claws of death.
✎ Vic's around to help Renee deal with the whole Faceless One prophecy. How are things different when there are two faceless people on Gotham's streets?
✎ Rebirth canon divergence where the Question harasses an angry Gotham cop into working with him.
✎ People start spontaneously rising from the grave. A newly resurrected Vic works to help Renee figure out why.
✎ Renee meets an AU version of Vic during Convergence.
✎ AU where Renee is never driven to leave the force (maybe Crispus even survives this one!) and still meets Vic at some point during 52.
✎ Renee gets a hold of a monkey's paw style artifact and her tendency toward self-destructive ends justify the means behaviour leads to trouble. Vic has to help her sort it out.
✎ Vic and Renee confront the kind of supernatural threats that Gotham had to deal with in Batwoman's urban legends arc.
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
✎ Renee time travels and/or universe jumps in an attempt to save Vic's life (or vice versa). There may be Consequences. She may not care.
✎ Give me those difficult choices leading to hurt/comfort. Hostage situations, forced to shoot the bad guy to save your partner, near death experiences, being forced to hurt someone to achieve a necessary goal, not staying down after being hit a lot, pushing through injuries in a dangerous situation, trapped together, etc.
Canon Knowledge Note:
I've read a fair smattering of different writers' takes on Vic Sage since his integration into the DC Universe - O'Neil, Veitch, Rucka. I'm partial to O'Neil or Rucka characterization, but I do have a soft spot for Veitch's weird run with the nice art (as much as canon understandably just ignores it). I'm passingly familiar with the way Ditko wrote him originally, but never read much in depth for the Charlton Comics version of the character. I basically skipped over everything surrounding the Question mantle in general and Vic Sage specifically during the New 52 era (sans Convergence for the sake of New Earth!Renee) until Vic was returned to the role with Rebirth. At this point, I still don't have any plans to go back and read either Trinity of Sin!Question (who does not seem to be related to Vic or Renee anyway) or Suicide Squad!Vic (corrupt bureaucrat doesn't really jive with how I personally see Vic at all, but I'm genuinely glad if that version of the character prompted any new fans to get into him). I have been very, very thorough with my Renee Montoya reading from Gotham Central until Flashpoint and have generally caught up on her and Kate's story lines in Rebirth. I read (and loved) Rucka's Lois Lane run and am hyped to see both characters once again take up the mantle.
All that being said, I'm generally willing to be flexible when it comes to comics canons because that is the nature of the beast.
Greenhollow Duology
Tobias, Henry
Note: I really ship these two and if there's a pairing focus, I'd prefer that it be them.
__________________________________________I enjoyed these novellas immensely and by the time I finished, all I wanted to do was spend more time in the world and with these characters. I enjoyed how relaxing Tobias's point of view was in Silver in the Wood, but Drowned Country and Henry's perspective really hit a lot of my narrative kinks in ways that I wasn't expecting! Both books spoke to me as a hurt/comfort fiend, but Drowned Country was on another level. Tobias repeatedly ending up in danger because, as Henry noted, he jumps at the chance to put himself between anyone and danger
I like the shape of their new partnership a lot too. Tobias being steady and experienced and having a very practical way of looking at things and addressing problems. Henry being curious and enthusiastic in a reckless way but far more capable and competent than anyone quite gives him credit for. I'd be really interested in seeing more of that balance between their skills. Tobias having lived so long and encountered so many creatures, just having this well-earned knowledge. And while Henry might be more taken by flights of whimsy, he's come by some honest information just by the sheer amount of effort and earnest interest he's put into his area of study and the fact that he's willing to entertain some more out there ideas that Tobias would dismiss out of hand.
While I'm happy with the way that the immortality issue was resolved in Drowned Country (and would be more than happy to just explore where things go next from that point and see them on more monster hunting adventures), I was very intrigued by the way that said immortality issue fed into the conflict in their relationship and how it might shape things going forward if they worked through those problems and still had to deal with that aspect. Tobias having been so long-lived and facing renewed mortality, Henry being so much younger and having a possible eternity now stretching before him, and the tragic sweetness of the space of time where their lives overlap and, though they might have what most would consider a good lifetime's worth of years, how brief it would inevitably feel compared to the spans of their respective lives.
I love the atmosphere in these books--especially when it comes to both the woods and faerie land! I would love to see more intriguing locations like this (or even more exploration of these particular locations) where the setting is as much a character as anyone with a speaking role.
Potential Prompts:
✎Pick up right from the end of canon! What kind of adventures do these two go on next? What kind of mysteries do they get involved in? What kinds of monsters and supernatural creatures do they deal with? I want all the fable/folk tale elements! Maud and Adela are certainly more than welcome to participate too (I love them)!
✎AU where it takes a little longer to handle the immortality thing/the solution isn't so straightforward and they have to navigate that space for a bit while repairing their fractured relationship. I'm still happy for them to ultimately end up where they do at the end of Drowned Country, but gosh what an interesting dilemma!
✎Hurt/comfort, especially with physically endangered!Tobias and emotionally suffering!Henry! Injuries obtained on missions. More mundane accidents and problems. Bad run-ins with locals who are suspicious of the supernatural.
✎Fill in more of the time between the end of Silver in the Wood and the break up. I love relationship development and they've both undergone so many major life changes! And Henry has so much anxiety that he's sitting on and we know it leads to terrible decisions!
✎Canon divergence of all kinds! What if Henry had heeded Tobias's warning (which would leave Fay as still a very present concern in future)? What if Tobias had been more proactive in dealing with Fay? What if Adela hadn't brought Henry to help with the case when she did? What if the Fairy Queen had been better prepared? Split off at any point you want!
✎I always love time loops! One of my favourite time loop plots is when characters are stuck in the loop until they come to a realization or solve a problem. I would love to see that enacted here! Especially since both characters have had experiences with weirdly loose experiences of time thanks to the connection they each had with the woods, so I wonder how genuine time shenanigans would feel to them!
✎Just lean in to the fairy tale aspects in the tropiest ways possible. I'm talking curses that can only be broken with kisses and strange interactions with animals. Is Henry tuned in to fairy tale tropes enough to realize what's going on immediately? Does it start kind of silly and turn serious (or vice versa)?
✎I have a lot of affection for stories that play with the storytelling medium in interesting and unconventional ways, especially the kind of self-aware story that just wants to be a love letter to storytelling. I think this could be a really interesting canon to play with some of those formats, particularly as Henry is so interested in learning about and telling stories and Tobias is someone who has had a lot of stories told about him. Epistolary fic that tells a story through Henry's publications? Semi-epistolary fic that switches between Henry's (or someone else's) writings and the reality of the situation? Outsider POV relating what people observe as Henry and Tobias go about their business? The kind of local legends that spring up around them?
The Serpent Gates
Tal
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I became so fond of Tal throughout reading The Unspoken Name and smiled every time he showed up. I loved how much of a perpetual spanner in the works he was for absolutely everyone and I couldn't wait until the next time he'd show up and either ruin or fix anything (possibly inadvertently in either direction). I just want more of him. More of him getting into and out of scrapes. More of his genuine resourcefulness and his incredible efficiency in using new information to carry out long term goals. More of his blundering into situations with only half of the information he needs and full of unwarranted confidence. More of his snide attitude, more of his startling moments of vulnerability. I want more of him being self-sufficient, more of him being gay and pining, more of him working surprisingly well with Csorwe given the proper motivation. I want his grand aspirations, his moments of extreme pettiness, the things he doesn't dare to hope for, and the things he tries for anyway.
I really loved the worldbuilding in The Unspoken Name, especially everything related to the different gods and their relationships with the various societies within their domains and how differently each culture regarded them. The maze was also really neat and I'd be stoked to spend more time exploring parts of it that we didn't focus on. While Tal was my runaway favourite, I did love the rest of the cast too and I'd be thrilled to have them show up and interact with Tal. Seeing more of Tal and Csorwe's rivalry, seeing how Tal and Shuthmili would interact (without him just seeing her as an extension of his annoyance at Csorwe), seeing Tal's relationship with Sethennai either within the context of his canonical infatuation or afterward when he's cut his ties by helping Csorwe pull one over on him, seeing what he and Oranna might make of each other when they're not either involved in torture or competing over a dude, or hell I wouldn't even say no to Atharaisse if you want to swing that!
I was a bit surprised when the book first switched POV after spending so long with Csorwe, but I found I really liked getting to see the characters from multiple perspectives. I got a big kick out of seeing how different characters saw one another. I felt like I got to know Tal a lot better once I got inside his head (which is fair and expected enough), but I still really enjoyed seeing Csorwe's perspective of him and the way she reacted to his involvement in the plot when they were each privy to different information. All this to say, I'm totally open to you exploring things from whatever POV you're moved to write from (Tal? Csorwe? Another canon character? A total outsider POV? A combination thereof?) and will always get something out of it.
Potential Prompts:
✎Fill in the gaps during the time skip between Sethennai reclaiming Tlaanthothe and meeting Shuthmili. I want to see more of the development of the rivalry between Csorwe and Tal and the build up of all the little betrayals that are briefly alluded to in canon! I want to see more of Csorwe and Tal balancing out each other's skills and faults surprisingly well and proving to be well-suited collaborators when the chips are down (or being in the position to collaborate and letting either self-interest or pettiness get the better of them). I want to see Tal knowing it's a bad idea and falling for Sethennai anyway and entertaining the hope of a future he doesn't actually expect to happen.
✎Pick up where canon left off. We have a vague idea of where Csorwe and Shuthmili are going, but what's next for Tal? What's driving him forward now--what are his short term and long term goals? How's moving on after cutting ties with Sethennai in such a spectacular fashion working for him? I know there's a sequel coming out next year, but I'm not at all worried about anything being jossed--I just want all the Tal adventures!
✎All the canon divergence! What if Tal had worked with Csorwe instead of immediately throwing her under the bus? What if Sethennai had been unsuccessful in his goal of retaking Tlaanthothe? What if the first confrontation with Oranna hadn't gone so horribly sideways? What if Oranna had kept him around instead of leaving him for her lackeys to kill? Canon divergence is one of my favourite things--spin off from any point you want!
✎More adventures in the maze! It's so intriguing and yet we've seen so little of it, really. Surely Tal has been some places while searching for the reliquary or will go some interesting places post-canon. I just want to explore! I absolutely love stories where the setting is just as much a character as anyone with a speaking role and visiting Echentyr was one of my favourite parts of the early book! Please feel free to go in on the worldbuilding!
✎More adventures with gods! The gods in this world are so fascinating and Tal is one of the very, very few central characters who doesn't really interact with any of them. Remedying that could be so interesting! Tal has an almost trickster-ish quality (though he fills the role with middling success) and that could feed into such an interesting dynamic--the kind of confrontation that fables are written about! At the same time, Tal can be surprisingly earnest, especially when his aspirations come into the mix--it would be interesting to see what kind of bargains Tal might be tempted to make with a god, for better or for worse.
✎I love time loops as a trope and one of my favourite varieties is when a character is trapped in the loop until they do something they don't want to or otherwise have to admit to something they're denying. I want this for Tal very much.
✎Honestly, how did Tal get into the scary giant snake pit? We know how Csorwe did it, but he was just hanging out there after she finished sweet talking Atharaisse. I need this missing scene.
✎I was deeply amused by Csorwe and Tal (badly) playing at being scholars. I wonder what other roles they've had to play while working for Sethennai? Basically I want
✎Tal flirting with Malkhaya and Csorwe's longsuffering reaction amused me greatly. Considering this is enough of an ongoing thing for Csorwe to know Tal's type (which is, interestingly, rather not at all how one might describe Sethennai), I would love to see other incidents of flirtation, past or future. Did some of these flirtations actually benefit (or hinder) the mission? Which men were super down? What were the flirtees' impressions of Tal? I love Sethennai a lot and would also be more than happy to explore from Tal's internal feelings as he continues the affair, falling in love and trying to convince himself that he's fine with Sethennai never reciprocating those feelings, while flirting with a series of honestly very nice men who are exactly his type and would probably be better for him.
Asgardians of the Galaxy
Ren, Annabelle, Val
Note: Any permutation of Ren/Annabelle/Val in a shippy scenario is great. I am also not opposed to background Angela/Sera.
Feel free to sidestep the War of the Realms crossover as much or as little as you wish.
__________________________________________I love Ren and Annabelle's relationship - they're so sweet! One thing that I really wish we'd had the chance to see more of, though, is the dynamic between Valkyrie & Ren (or /Ren, as the case may be) and navigating the whole My New Girlfriend is Actually Two Hot Women in a Trench Coat thing. Val seems to openly like Ren and support her relationship with Annabelle, but I actually think that Val and Ren could have a fun dynamic themselves if they had more opportunity to interact. And if that budding relationship led to Annabelle now getting to date both of her superhero love interests at the same time while they also dated each other, all the better.
Mission fic is always great and I would be equally happy with either just the three of them or the team being included. I would love to see more opportunities for them to work together facing down foes and solving problems. Exploring how the relationships work with the body sharing dynamic would also be interesting to me. I would also be up for a scenario where Annabelle and Valkyrie are separated and seeing how the three of them work things out when they no longer have to share a body. Hurt/comfort is also definitely an area of interest for this trio.
You can pay as much or as little attention to the War of the Realms crossover and its impact on Valkyrie's character as you want. While I think Bunn did a good job of tying it into Annabelle's character arc, I also don't think that Val dying was initially part of the Plan for the series (and we know that the abrupt ending brought about by the cancellation definitely wasn't). Want to use it as a jumping off point and carry on where canon left off? Go for it. Want to sidestep the whole issue? Go for it. Want to canon divergence the hell out of it? Go for it!
Some potential prompts:
✎ More space adventures! Any planet hopping shenanigans were kind of waylaid by the series being dragged into not one but two crossover events and then being abruptly cancelled, but I'd love to see more. Annabelle would go absolutely gaga over learning about cultures and histories from beyond the stars. Maybe at some point they detour to Earth to pick up Ren?
✎ Epic revival quests! So, both FD and AotG have established a kind of pattern where at least one of these three dies per comic run and at least one of the others has to go on a quest to save them that's wrapped up one way or another in a single issue (thank you, Clea, for always coming in in the clutch). I would love to see a similar plot line (you don't have to use one of the canon incidents; there are no shortages of opportunities for temporary character death in Marvel comics) that focuses in more on the quest element - the challenges the rescuer(s) face(s), the foes they fight, the world they traverse, etc.
✎ AU where Annabelle doesn't die in Fearless Defenders but instead continues her growth as a chosen member of the Valkyrior separately from Val. Where does she fit into the team? How does this impact her dynamic with Val after they snap her out of Doom Maiden mode? How does it impact her dynamic with Ren? What's the relationship between the three of them like as of Asgardians of the Galaxy?
✎ Val and Annabelle are somehow separated after sharing a body for a while (you can use War of the Realms as a jumping off point or do something else). How do they feel about this? How does their experience co-existing within a single body impact their dynamic now that they no longer need to rely on each other in the same way? What does Annabelle do when Ren and Val are on missions (if she doesn't have the Nova Corps helmet)?
✎ Further exploration of the identity issues caused by the body sharing, especially Val's feeling that she was losing herself re: issue 12 of Fearless Defenders. How do they cope with this? How do they find a balance that works? How do you date someone who lives inside your body? How does Ren deal with her girlfriend being part of a body-based spiritual timeshare agreement?
✎ Mission fic! Alone together or with the rest of the team to aid them (either team, really - Defenders or Asgardians of the Galaxy). Bonus points if, at some point during their adventure, Annabelle's skills actually end up being more useful than Valkyrie's in solving a problem.
✎ As of Asgardians of the Galaxy, Val also canonically worries about the danger she's putting Annabelle in by going into battle. When did this fear start to surface? Was there something in particular that went wrong at some point? Do they have any close calls before the series? Given Ren's protective tendencies, how does she deal with this?
✎ What if a villain finds a way to mess with their ability to switch between being Val and Annabelle the way that Loki does in Asgardians of the Galaxy? How do they cope? How do they fix the situation? How does Ren, with her protective tendencies, react when Annabelle inevitably won't let herself be left out of the action?
✎ Soulbond fic. How does that work when you're bonded to someone who shares a life force with another person?
✎ Ren gets to come along for the ride when Angela interrupts their date in Asgardians of the Galaxy for space adventures.
✎ I really love the absolutely baller covers Mark Brooks drew for Fearless Defenders (seriously, I wish I had all of them in poster form) and could see some of them being a really fun jumping off point for fic.
✎ Groundhog Day time loop shenanigans. I'm totally willing to break my character death DNW for this, provided the final loop comes out with everyone alive.
Pretty Deadly
Big Alice, Deathface Ginny
Note: I really ship these two and if there's a pairing focus, I'd prefer that it be them.
I am 100% okay with violence being included as not just an element, but as a feature. Especially for these two. The fight scene between them in volume 1 is what made the transition from "okay, I'm decently interested" to "I love this comic" for me. Getting to see two women fight as viciously as these two was a treat. And I am not above some scrapping between two halves of a ship, especially for femslash. Love me some (fr)enemy ships. Love me some sexual tension in fighting.
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I'm super fascinated by this series and these two characters in particular. For everything we learn about them, I feel like I have a million more questions and a million things still left unanswered. I'd love to know more about them on a general level (their histories, their roles as reapers, the world they live in) and a personal level (motivations, inner thoughts, desires, personal relationships). Violence is welcome, not just as an element, but as a feature when it comes to these two.
Pretty Deadly is a super fascinating comic, aesthetically and conceptually. I love every part of it and I would be over the moon to see someone take the worldbuilding and characters and play with them or flesh them out a little. Everything about how reapers work has been really neat and the whole detail about reapers with complementary aspects working in pairs from volume 2 is definitely something that you can play with for these two (Vengeance and Cruelty is such an interesting combo).
I was already down for this ship from Alice's introduction--my femslash goggles are strapped tight enough that two women viciously fighting + a degree of implied history is a foolproof recipe. But I was not prepared for Pretty Deadly: The Rat and I still don't know what I did to deserve it. I would have been thrilled enough at learning that Ginny was searching for Alice after her death/losing her physical form in Volume 2. But Alice as Ginny's obsession? Finding Alice as the leverage that the Reaper of Obsession uses to bait and try to trap Ginny? "You're not her. You're not Alice"? Holy smokes that was some good ship fodder!
Potential Prompts:
✎Pick up right where The Rat left off with Ginny trapped in Obsession's realm. How does she get out (if she gets out)? Does she agree to something Obsession wants to get more information about Alice? Does Obsession continue to use Alice's likeness to torment her?
✎What happens when Ginny finally finds Alice? What happens to a reaper after they die? How does Ginny get her back? How does Alice feel about Ginny coming after her--particularly given the grudge that Alice herself is carrying over Ginny's past rejection?
✎More exploration of their partnership as reapers. They were always meant to be a pair, but we only saw them actually working together for a brief time before Alice's death. I would love to see more of the two of them going on reaper missions.
✎Pre-canon, especially with the new clues we've got about their history thanks to The Rat. How did that rejection go down? How has Alice's grudge manifested over the years? Did they ever try to make it work before canon or was Ginny riding solo from the get go? Did they have many run ins like the one in Volume 1?
✎Canon divergence AU around Alice's death in Volume 2. What if she'd survived? What if Ginny had been a position to notice what was happening between her and Johnny Coyote?
✎More worldbuilding, more reapers! Bringing reapers back to the Garden after Sissy takes over, running into reapers (and conflict with reapers) during their travels. What other aspects might there be for reapers and what might they be like (beyond all the very interesting ones we've already seen)? What sort of aspect pairs do these other reapers form when they do? How do these reapers interact with the mortal world?
✎The comic is progressing forward in time through different eras with each volume--what about the eras that came before the start of volume 1? What about the time periods in between the volumes? What about eras that come later than what we've seen?
✎What if Ginny had been the one to "die" in volume 2? Would Alice be as motivated to find her? What lengths would she go to? How would she feel about what happened?
✎I'm totally down for outsider POV! I love the canonical framing of the story told between Butterfly and Bunny (and would definitely be into other animal POV relating their impressions of the characters), but I'd also be really interested in seeing what some mortal characters make of Ginny and Alice? I'm super fascinated by the relationship between the reapers and the mortal world and their impact on it, so anything tapping into that would be baller!