minebyrights | Chocolate Box Letter 2018

Hello, chocolatiers! Whoever you are and whatever canon(s) brought you here, I hope you find this pleasing, rewarding, and low on stress.

The following skirts the lines of TL;DR, but I want to emphasize up front that I am genuinely in love with all of these relationships, as well as desperate for fic for them, so anything you produce that doesn't hit my squicks will be A++. Prompts are mostly me throwing wild ideas at the walls and seeing what sticks; if you have something roiling around in your brain you really want to write for these relationships, go for it! In general, all ratings from gen to depraved NC-17 porn are good, and all gender combos are fine.

For matching purposes, all of these are prompts specifically for fic, but if something in here sparks a desire to draw in you, I welcome any potential art treats as well!

If you want to find me in the wild, I'm:

theoldgods

minebyrights

minebyrights

And with that, on to the letter itself!

Likes and Dislikes | All Souls Trilogy - Deborah Harkness | The Americans (TV 2013) | Black Sails | God’s Own Country (2017) | The 100 (TV) | Les liaisons dangereuses | Dangerous Liaisons - Choderlos de Laclos | Rome (TV 2005) | Sherlock (TV)

LIKES AND DISLIKES

Likes: worldbuilding, Holmes/Watson dynamics, undercover work and casefic, bedsharing, huddling for warmth, fake relationships/fake married, bickering and bantering like old marrieds, clothing descriptions (especially period clothing, suits, kilts, tall boots), hands and feet, bathing and cleaning one another, adrenaline junkies and partners in crime, found families, snow/winter/autumn settings, 5+1s/vignettes with some thematic growth/resonance, daemons, clothed sex, frottage/intercrural/nonpenetrative sex, dubcon (sex pollen etc), light/casual BDSM (especially with subby men), topping from the bottom, oral sex, dirty talk, threesomes, masturbation, outdoor sex, voyeurism/exhibitionism

Please no: first or second person POV, pregnancy/childfic, deathfic, angst without some light at the end of the tunnel, horror/gore, character bashing, AUs (except canon divergence, future fic, and daemon AUs), tentacles, body horror/extreme body modification, omegaverse, rape/noncon, bodily fluids/watersports, anything dealing with the sexual humiliation of women (even for kink) (exception to this is some femslash--see below where relevant)

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ALL SOULS TRILOGY - DEBORAH HARKNESS

I discovered All Souls somewhat by accident and was surprised by how, despite my various misgivings with the clunky writing at times and meandering plots and some of the character and relationship beats, I found myself unable to stop thinking about it and its various implications afterward. I love the various creatures hiding in plain sight, the use of paganism/Greco-Roman mythology and backgrounds, the blend of science and history and the detail into which Harkness goes into the past in SoN, the inclusion (even if the execution isn’t always great) of queer witches and humans and daemons and vampires, the politicking (particularly that of Philippe) and the depth and complexity of relationships that spring up amongst thousand-year-old vampires, the strong sense of found family across gender and race and species lines that develops in addition to the odd, not-biological-but-intensely-important vampire families. I’m particularly interested here in more of the worldbuilding and lives of these beings, how women and queer folk interact amongst one another, female vampires being actual heads of families in either past or future as the world continues to progress, and the bonds both biological and nonbiological that hold all sorts of creatures together.

Diana & Emily & Sarah: I really loved Diana’s tumultuous relationship with the witches who raised her, and I’d love more of them—Em and Sarah raising young Diana and various suspicions about spellbinding, postcanon with Diana learning to see Em and helping Sarah and Em to connect, whatever. Diana’s tenuous connection to witchhood is both interesting and frustrating at points, and I’d love to see her navigating that via both Em and Sarah.
Diana & Philippe: The Diana and Philippe bond in SoN startled me with how intense and genuine it became, as a wonderful time-traveling father-daughter-esque connection. I loved their scene at the goddess’s temple, and I’d love to see more of them sharing their connection to her. How has the goddess worked in both their lives over the millennia? How did Philippe work to ensure Diana would come to be over the many centuries between 1590 and his death? (Did he think of her often? Was he ever tempted to tell someone about her?) The suggestion in BoL that Diana essentially is Philippe now—a strategizer and politicker within the family, connected to the goddess, etc.—was lovely, and the suggestion that she would in future (?) timewalk back (??) to be with Philippe during his slow weeks spent dying was amazing—I’d love to see her at his deathbed, helping him let go of all his millennia.
Diana & Sarah: Diana and Sarah are at odds often, but these two headstrong women also have such a lovely bond that grows over the series, particularly upon Diana’s return from 1590. I’d love to see Sarah’s relationship with her sister’s young girl, before and after Rebecca’s death, as well as her reflections on Diana at various points in Diana’s life, or her and Diana postcanon trading spells/craftwork and learning to fully trust one another in this increasingly intercreature-y world.
Diana & Ysabeau: I love Ysabeau, and her simultaneous fascination with and disdain for witches before she meets Diana is a great character beat. What does she think of Diana’s first days at Sept-Tours? Does she have any bizarre flashbacks to things Philippe could have done in the past that she now sees as connected to Diana somehow? Does Diana later tell her about how she relieves Philippe’s last days alive? Does Ysabeau teach Diana more hunting, later? Does Diana show Ysabeau more magic and craftwork?
Em/Sarah: I love these two, their well-worn relationship despite the many various traumas that have happened around them. I’d love their early courtships days, them doing magic together, them reflecting on Diana, Sarah coming to terms with the various secrets Em seems to have held (about spellbinding and higher magics and various prophecies Rebecca had made regarding Diana/Matthew). I’d also love an AU where Em survives, even if very weak, and her and Sarah helping Diana postcanon with further magic discovery, or just them taking a well-deserved vacation.
Fernando/Hugh: I was so, so intrigued by their relationship—ancient/medieval gay men, supernaturally/preternaturally bound together as vampires!—and so sad we got none of it directly onscreen. How did they meet? What were their many centuries together like? What was their bonding moment like? What sorts of politicking did they get into before Hugh’s death? How did they fit in within the greater de Clermont clan? What are vampire attitudes toward same-sex bonds/mates like, now and in the far past? What would have happened if Fernando had died instead of Hugh? What would Hugh be like in the present?
Hamish/William: I loved Hamish’s references to his sweet William, as well as the idea of an interspecies romance going on right under our noses before we even fully understand the implications of the Covenant. How did Hamish and William meet? Does William know that Hamish is a daemon? Does he learn over the course of the series, while the rest of the plot is going on? What does William think of Hamish’s hunting house?
Kit & Matthew, Kit/Matthew: Kit fascinated me—I alternately felt incredibly sorry for him, incredibly angry at his presumption and attitude toward Diana, amused and annoyed by this picture of Christopher Marlowe, and incredibly curious about just how long he’d loved Matthew and how much Matthew had known that on his first go-round through history. I’d love more of their relationship, the first or the second time through history, with any sort of sexual reciprocation or not—more of them carousing and Matthew getting high through Kit’s blood? Awkward semicasual sexual encounters they say nothing about? Timewalking Matthew being forced to put off Kit’s sexual attentions whereas he’d indulged them on the first pass through history, and the angst and confusion that results? Matthew as Kit’s muse?
Marthe & Ysabeau, Marthe/Ysabeau: The hints that Marthe was a vampire before even Ysabeau, and had been with Philippe before Ysabeau, were intriguing to me, and the fact that they’ve stayed together through the millennia is lovely. I’d love Ysabeau’s rescue and care of by Marthe, or them together at various points in later history, or them comforting and raging together after Philippe’s death. I’d especially love to see Marthe in action as a vampire, so to speak, maybe acting to protect Ysabeau while she’s particularly weak at one moment, and to explore potential f/f vampire sex, even dealing with the mate bond of Philippe—would it be possible after his death? As a casual thing (can/do vampires do casual vampire-vampire sex?) while he’s still alive?
Matthew & Ysabeau: Ysabeau has told the story of Matthew’s changing, and her fondness for him even before he was a vampire, but I’d love to see more of her with a young ampire Matthew, teaching him to hunt, dealing with his blood rage over the years, bonding with him at various points in history. I’d love to see her putting him in his place as well during a particularly bad period at his life—after Cecilia, maybe, or another one of his disasters—and using her vampire strength against his, a la Philippe in the barn in SoN, or them together in the aftermath of Philippe’s death.
Philippe/Original Male Character: In a Reddit AMA at some point, I believe Harkness mentioned that she imagined that Philippe had probably had sex with men during his long, long, long life, so. I’d love to see a human proto-Greek Philippe having sex with other men, or Philippe having sex with other male vampires or humans once he’s a vampire, or even him having sex with other male creatures, before or after the Covenant is put into place. Him fucking men (Baldwin??) in Rome or Greece? Him fucking one of the manservants (Alain?) during one of his periods of separation from Ysabeau? (Maybe even in 1590ish while Ysabeau is out witch-hunting?)
Philippe/Ysabeau: I adore their long, long, long power-couple relationship, them as the ultimate kings and queens and (for a while) gods of their own small world that endures from age to age, and how relatively open they are, allowing one another a great deal of space and separation from time to time so that they can still adore one another after over a thousand years. I’d love to see them politicking at pretty much any time in history, but especially in ancient Rome, or during the Crusades. I’d love to see more of their notes in various languages and various books over the centuries, what they do while separated from one another and how they behave once they’re brought back together. What was building Sept-Tours like at first? How was their first bonding/mating experience? When has Ysabeau saved Philippe? What was their relationship like after 1590, when Philippe knew he would die but apparently never told Ysabeau? (Does Ysabeau look back after the events of the series and see moments where he, in retrospect, was hiding from her?) Does Ysabeau eventually, far down the line, get to see Philippe’s ghost, or at least some sense of him? Does she timewalk somehow to be with him again (in his own timeline after 1590, so he knows he’s going to die eventually) way down the line, maybe shortly before her own death? (Does Diana help grant them that last moment?)

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THE AMERICANS (TV 2013)

I love The Americans for so many reasons: the period piece setting, their flawless use of 70s and 80s music, the subtle pisstakes they do of Reagan, the gray morality/use of antiheros, the deliberate blurring of lines and parallels between Americans and Soviets (both legal and illegal) and their relationships with their governments, the action, the black humor, the absurd wigs and costuming. With these various relationships, I'm all about exploring those levels of grey, the life of spies, the adrenaline thrills they get, the blurring of selves and that influence over time as American and Soviet worlds collide and absorb one another.

Elizabeth/Philip: They don't want to love each other, really, but they do anyway, slowly, and I love that. They are forced to rely on one another above all else, even when they cannot be fully honest about themselves, particularly in the earlier days. Claustrophobia, hate sex, sex on a mission, interacting a bit with their kids (as long as the focus is still on them), complaining about America, remembering something about the homeland, more of their S5 Russian wedding, spy hijinks...
Elizabeth/Gregory: I really loved Elizabeth being able to have a relationship with someone so very American in her early years in the States, how despite the fact that she hates America they can bond over social justice and how Gregory seems to know quite a lot of who she really is, certainly more than any other mark. Them running hits, Elizabeth using him for sex, Gregory showing Elizabeth some American cultural thing, complaining about Philip or the kids, how they met, and more welcome.
Elizabeth/OFC: Did Elizabeth have any other women she was close to during her childhood? How about during KGB training? (Did her rape affect her ability to relate to men in any way that made her explore women instead?) Has she had female marks she’s been expected to use explicitly sexually/romantically while in the US?
Elizabeth & Claudia, Elizabeth & Gabriel: How do Elizabeth's relationships with their various handlers differ? She is comfortable with Gabriel and was antagonistic toward Claudia, but has that changed? Is Gabriel different in S3 compared to how he was precanon? Did Elizabeth's relationship with Claudia and the betrayal of trust that period involved change any of how she sees handlers and Moscow Centre in general? Does Elizabeth feel differently toward Gabriel after the glanders scare and his letting them "vacation" in S4? Will her relationship with Claudia be different now that Claudia knows she wants to wind things up and now that Philip is apparently semi-retired?
Elizabeth & Young-hee; Elizabeth/Young-hee: I really loved Young-hee in S4, and I felt so extremely bad for her (never knowing what would become of "Patty") and, yeah, bad for Elizabeth for having to do something she really, aggressively did not want to do there. I loved how you could tell that Elizabeth—Nadezhda—genuinely liked her as a person, not just within the Patty persona and how it got to tear Elizabeth up, emotionally, while also giving us such a good side character in Young-hee, how they could relate over being immigrants (even though only Elizabeth knew they were both immigrants). Any scenes of their evolving friendship and its duplicity would be fantastic, and if you want to Go There and have them make-out/fuck/whatever, I'm also completely on board.
Elizabeth & Paige: Elizabeth and Paige got to bond over beating people up in S4 and over Elizabeth’s rape in S5, even as Elizabeth (and Philip) are low-key running Paige into the ground by bringing her in on the double act. How does mother-daughter work (or not work) after Paige learns the truth? More self-defense lessons? Teaching Paige how to use a gun? Paige learning violence from someone aside from Elizabeth and how Elizabeth feels about it? Scuttlebutt suggests that Paige will be doing missions of some sort in S6—I’d love to see that, or to see Elizabeth with a young Paige before the series starts, dealing with her very American daughter and her very American interests.

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BLACK SAILS

I got into canon because it was Caribbean ocean porn and pirates and period clothing and canon gay, and it was such a glorious, rollicking ride, sexy and deeply thoughtful and emotional and full of politicking and filthy women and attempts at creating a better life than that the British Empire leaves for so many of them. I love the duplicity of almost everyone involved, the gruesomeness of their behavior at times, the swagger and posturing required and yet also the deep bonds that develop among people who rely so intensely on others for their own survival in such a precarious world.

Anne/Jack, Anne/Jack/Max, Anne/Max: This entire threesome web ended up being possibly the most surprisingly good relationship for me over the course of canon, anchoring so much of the show. I love Anne and Jack’s longstanding reliance on each other, how well they know each other and how well Jack is able to give Anne the space to be herself, while offering some measure of nonpatronizing extra protection in a very sexist world. I adore Anne and Max, the bitter circumstances that bring them together, drive them apart, and allow them to come back to one another again (I cried at the scene of them reconciling in the bench in the snow). I love the three of them being open to explore where things will go, all remarkably tolerant of each other’s proclivities and the differing levels of affection amongst the three of them. (I’m also very much interested in exploring the Jack&/Max leg, especially after Anne’s injuries and then postcanon.) I’d love precanon Anne/Jack, or more of Anne and Max attempting to take Jack apart together, or Anne between the two she loves the most, or them attempting to operate Nassau postcanon, or Max going out to sea with either Anne or both of them, or pegging, or luxurious bath sex, or...
Eleanor/Max: I loved Eleanor/Max in S1 and found their estrangement and their role reversal, of sorts, in later seasons to be beautifully done. How often did they meet/potentially have sex before canon started? What if Eleanor had survived and been subject to life on the island under Max’s control—would she have been able to handle a Max thoroughly in charge of Nassau and submit to her (literally, sexually, emotionally, whatever)? Does Max think of Eleanor often while she’s in control and Eleanor is elsewhere; does Eleanor think of Max whilst imprisoned?
Flint & Madi, Flint/Madi: I loved these two as ideological mates, both willing to give everything, uncompromising and principled and willing to get their hands dirty. I’d love Flint teaching more sailing/watercraft to Madi, or Madi teaching more about the maroon life and the horrors of slavery/the racial caste system to Flint, but they also can just...exist, already knowing each other so instinctively. I do ship them also, but it’s in a mostly casual/for relief way (perhaps Madi wants to let go, and cannot with Silver for whatever reason, so she trusts Flint to help?). What does Madi think about Flint’s apparent death?Does she ever find out it wasn’t quite the truth?
Flint/Miranda/Thomas, Miranda/Thomas: I loved the Hamilton threesome, Flint charming both ends of the spectrum, grounded by Miranda’s pragmatism and spurred into delirious contentment with Thomas. More of them in London would be wonderful, raising polite hell amongst polite society and truly enjoying themselves and their intellectual hopes and dreams. And I’m super fascinated by the Hamiltons’ marriage—how often did they have sex themselves? Was Miranda mostly a beard or did Thomas also have deeply sexual feelings for her as well? How did they first meet and fall in love? How does she negotiate life without him when she and Flint first come to Nassau?
Idelle/Max: Their partnership in attempting to control the brothel was wonderful to witness, the trust there and at the same time the necessity of being wary of one another on an island full of pirates and schemes for control. Do they have sex just to practice, at times, or for an entirely different emotional release outside of the requirements of their work? Does one teach the other the art of prostitution at various points in time?
Jack/Vane: Jack’s devotion to his captain, through everything, was really touching to me and I’d love more of their story. How did they first fall in together? Them having sex onboard a ship, or sharing brothels and women together, or beach sex, or Jack comforting Vane after his various beatings/punishments/floggings….
Teach/Vane: Teach’s devotion to Vane, despite all of vane’s moves against him, really startled me at first and felt incredibly deep, far more so than the basic “like a son” explanation given. How were they together, precanon, tearing up the seas? (Captain/scut boy behavior and the like welcome, showing Teach’s command over Vane but also Vane’s loyalty at the time and Teach’s own devotion to his protegee.) What if part of gaining control back with Anne and Jack, however fleetingly, and falling in with Vane and Flint again required Teach to again have sex with Vane, this time with Teach attempting to please/placate/charm him back, however disarming such behavior is coming from Teach?

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GOD’S OWN COUNTRY (2017)

I adore this movie, its strong sense of place and its quiet and passionate emotion against the bleak but gorgeous Yorkshire backdrop, all the bits of farming and life amongst animals, both happy and gruesomely sad, the claustrophobia that manages to occur under such a wide and open sky. I love Gheorghe and Johnny’s relationship, the bitterness and uncertainty with which it begins, the mud sex, the confused emotions boiling over, Johnny facing up to what he wants and needs and beginning to truly mature through his love for Gheorghe, Gheorghe’s apparent sunniness and yet also his willingness to take what he wants and needs and not to hang around waiting for Johnny to put his shit back together.

Gheorghe/Johnny: I’d love anything with them, to be honest—more of them having sex in inappropriate places? Their first few days back together after the end of the film? Them integrating themselves in with Deirdre and Martin and helping to care for Martin? How do they divide duties on the farm now that they’re settled in together? What about cross-cultural interactions and concerns—what does Gheorghe find interesting about Yorkshire, and what does Johnny want to know about Romania? Do they ever go back to visit Gheorghe’s family, or is that too dangerous (in terms of possible homophobia and the like)?

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THE 100 (TV)

I love the bizarre worldbuilding of the show, how intensely (if improbably) compact everything is, relatively speaking, be it on the Ark or on the ground. I love the claustrophobia Ark residents had to grow up in and the vicious stakes they were forced to know—and then learn how to break, to some degree, on the ground. (And now after S4 that claustrophobia is back in many ways, below ground or back in the stars!) I love the culture exchanges with Grounders once they're on Earth, language games and exploring Earth, all sorts of culture and worldbuilding porn. I'd love to know more about the Grounders, how their children are raised, how their warriors are trained, just about anything.

Abby & Clarke: I love Abby and Clarke’s relationship, from the stormy “you let my father die” hatred to their better moments later in canon to Clarke’s failed attempts to be able to say goodbye before the second apocalypse. What do they think of each other while separated? Does Abby learn that Clarke is in fact not in space but roaming the earth? What does Abby think of Madi? Earlier moments from them, before or after Jake dies, are also welcome.
Abby/Indra, Abby/Indra/Marcus, Abby/Marcus: I love Abby in general, and I love her with Marcus, and I love Indra and her friendship with Marcus, and I’d love it all in a bit of a melange after S4. Did Abby and Indra have any serious contact before the bunker? How do Abby and Marcus integrate Indra into their relationship? (Them being a leader threesome of sorts, advising Octavia, would be brilliant.) Or if you just want Abby/Marcus, there’s a huge range—did they have sexual contact/hatesex precanon? Did they have extensive sex in the City of Light? What is their relationship like after Marcus saves Abby against her will, especially now that she cannot escape him in the bunker?
Abby/Raven: The mentor/mentee, working-through-self-hate/learning-not-to-hate-yourself with these two is pretty strong, as well as the mutual respect that develops. Precanon (them knowing each other at all before the attempt to go to Earth) is okay, but I'd especially love S2/S3/S4 fic, be it weirdly tender fixing up after their shared ALIE experiences, their brief shared time in the City of Light, trying to rebuild themselves and save Arkadia, attempts at reuniting after the huge time skip and how different they are, whatever. It can be casual or more romantic, and you can include background Abby/Marcus and Raven/Others or not as you like.
Bellamy/Raven: I loved Bellamy and Raven’s canon hookup early on, and I love their continued friendship/attempts at leadership together, especially as they believe Clarke is dead and their trio is down to the two of them. The fact that they’re now locked together in space is excellent—how long would it take them to turn to one another again for comfort? What happens to that bond after they eventually return to earth? Do they have run-ins with the space prisoners group and leads to peril and their preemptive separation somehow? How do they navigate their belief that Clarke is dead and the impact that has on them both? (Either one—or both!—having requited or unrequited sexual feelings for Clarke would be great, though I’m not particularly fond of Bellamy/Clarke on its own beyond a casual/FWB thing.)
Clarke & Madi: I was surprised by how much I enjoyed the tease of Clarke having mothered a Grounder for 6 years—the opportunities for cross-cultural learning are enormous, as well as language teaching, scrounging for their existence, and the general idea of it being apparently just the two of them against a vast, dead world. How do they keep hope, aside from Clarke’s daily radioing? What does Madi make of the return of the space prisoners/the crew from the Ark ring/the bunker inhabitants? What is Madi’s backstory—how did she come to be alone in a post-post-apocalyptic world, and how did she and Clarke met?
Indra & Octavia: I really love Indra, and I love the confusion but loyalty she can show Octavia, even though Octavia is not always a fully committed Grounder/is torn in two by her loyalty to her brother. I also love Octavia kicking Indra's ass in 3A and getting her to come back to life, so to speak, and would love more of this supportive-warrior dynamic now that they’re locked together in a bunker. Indra mentoring Octavia through her commandership, flashbacks to them training in earlier seasons, pretty much anything welcome, and if you do happen to want to include a romantic/sexual element as well, I’m totally down for that too.

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LES LIAISONS DANGEREUSES | DANGEROUS LIAISONS - CHODERLOS DE LACLOS

I love the decadence of the underlying society, the grotesque riches involved, the constant social posturing and boredom that leads to the amoral insanity in the first place, the aesthetics of letter-writing and affairs and disgusting luxury and long hair on men and crazy balls and dresses. Everyone is an actor in an enormous play, with public vs. private personas and vicious stakes hidden underneath the laconic witticisms exchanged, and that is so fun to play with. I particularly love Merteuil, so richly characterized, protofeminist in a sense (her search for agency/respect/revenge) and yet self-serving and horribly wretched toward other women, but I also love and feel bad for Cecile’s earnestness and naivete and find Valmont’s utter depravity (and his arrogance) amusing. I’m familiar with the book, the Frears movie, and the Hampton stage play and like all three, though I’m personally partial toward the Hampton ending when it comes to Merteuil’s specific fate. Epistolary fic, as well as first-person fic, is welcome for this canon, though not at all required, and feel free to use Isabelle and Sebastien as first names if you like, though overall I have no name preferences.

Cecile & Merteuil, Cecile/Merteuil:I really love the underlying affection, of a sort, here—though probably the more correct word is “fascination,” describing Merteuil’s amusement at Cecile’s antics until the spell finally breaks and she realizes how comparatively dull (read: moral after all) Cecile is. Any sort of look at Merteuil’s manipulation of her, and Cecile coming to recognize it for what it is or not, is welcome, especially playing with that pull of fascination and subsumated lust that come out at certain lines in Merteuil’s letter. More fun with them at the opera? Merteuil teaching Cecile sexual practices? Cecile managing to inartfully seduce Merteuil, in a way? Borderline dubcon is fine here, considering how brutal canon is on those points and how badly Merteuil mindfucks Cecile in canon, including Cecile being naive and/or overwhelmed by Merteuil’s experience.
Danceny/Merteuil: I found it interesting how Merteuil is able to use Danceny as a boytoy in a way she doesn’t with anyone else—there’s a certain comfort there, perhaps because Danceny means so little to Merteuil emotionally compared to Valmont or even to Cecile. What does she really think of him? Danceny sexually servicing her, and she teaching him further tricks of a sort, would be fascinating. And does Danceny really care at all about Merteuil, considering how his heart is with Cecile? What is he getting out of it—fascination? Education? Her initially seducing him would be great, as would his opinion of her behavior and how he sees her (Does he know exactly how depraved she is? Does he come to know over time?)
Danceny/Merteuil/Valmont: I’d love to see the tension in the three of them interacting, the deep history of Merteuil/Valmont overlaid with how casual and utilitarian they are toward Danceny and Danceny’s awareness (or not) of how little they seem to rate him. Danceny and Valmont servicing Merteuil, with Valmont barely controlling his jealousy and Danceny ignorant of most of it? Merteuil watching Valmont teaching seduction in a hands-on way to Danceny?
Merteuil/Original Female Character: Surely Merteuil has had some sort of run in with other women before—another young girl she practiced with before they began seeing men? (Sharing beds with other young women?) AU where Merteuil is at a convent (before canon? Or she gets sent there as some sort of penance postcanon?) and becomes involved with another woman there in all sorts of fucked up ways? I’d also love to see a Merteuil (probably younger/precanon in this situation?) who is not as sure of herself yet and gets taken under some other powerful woman’s hand and/or is manipulated by another woman herself and how that might affect her self-development. Or even Merteuil having a relatively egalitarian (though still probably somewhat spiky/manipulative, Merteuil being Merteuil) relationship with another woman her own age during the canon timeline.
Merteuil & Tourvel, Merteuil/Tourvel: Any interaction of the two would be amazing, triangulated through Valmont or not—what do they actually think of one another? Merteuil managing to seduce Tourvel instead of Valmont (or doing so while they’re both at Madame de Rosamonde’s?) would be fascinating. Some sort of hatesex? (Is Tourvel super guilty? Does she think of it differently from how cheating with a man would be due to societal interpretations/not being taught to take female sex desires seriously or something?) Merteuil having mentored Tourvel at some point like how she currently has Cecile? AU where Tourvel survives and comes to Merteuil to bitch her out for getting Valmont killed and then they have...angsty hatesex of some sort, or Tourvel manages to weaken Merteuil the way she appears to weaken Valmont?
Merteuil/Valmont: I really love their combined awfulness, the base level of amoral manipulation each has and how it combines into an enormous mess, the underlying emotions from their past that Merteuil successfully manages to leverage against Valmont while not remaining unaffected herself (IMO, anyway). Anything continuing in that canon vein is great, be it more friendly/based in camaraderie or more savage/vicious/jealous like at the end of canon when the wheels finally come off the carriage. Their first time meeting? Merteuil domming Valmont? Merteuil’s more private thoughts of Valmont when they’re not together? Other people they’ve teamed up to attempt to ruin over the years?

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ROME (TV 2005)

I love the visual aesthetics of canon, the glorious Roman cityscape and the costumes and jewelry and elaborate hair teasing and social posturing and sprawling cast and scope and mythology/religious/political rites/rituals and the strong sense of family and vengeance. I love the women of the series and the almost underworld in which they live, the schemes they run for their own attempts at some sort of power and their relationships with one another, both those more purely emotional and those more obviously tainted by their heavily patriarchal society. I love Servilia in particular, her Lady Macbeth-ing of Brutus and her attempts to gain agency/respect/revenge, all wrapped up in a more stoic and matronly outside with a strong undercurrent of fascination and seduction, albeit in a much less flashy way than with Atia. I am familiar with but rusty in the historical period and the Latin language, so if you’re really into that and want to throw other stuff in, that’s great, but I’m also fine with just sticking to history and characterization as canon presents it, including the relatively soapy tone and scope.

Atia & Octavia: Atia is a terrible parent to her children, and yet she loves them deeply (selfishly, generally, but deeply). One of my favorite bits of the end of season 2 after Servilia’s death was the tightening relationship between Atia and Octavia, especially in the face of Octavian’s increasing grandeur and hauteur. Them ganging up on him, so to speak, or banding together to try to protect themselves from him, would be great, as would Atia attempting to teach a younger Octavia something. Feel free to be as dodgy in terms of emotional and physical fuckery as canon is—Octavia doesn’t escape her mother unscathed in any case, and I like the horrible knottiness of it all.
Atia & Servilia, Atia/Servilia: They’re so awful, and so witty, and so desperately reaching out for whatever agency they can grab a hold of, and I can’t help but wonder about their past and their potential for vicious hatesex of some sort, or even some sort of more amicable relationship before they became entirely bitter. The contrast in how they try to carry themselves—spitfire/chaotic vs. dutiful/patrician—is delicious to play with, as is the overriding obsession they have, and how even after her death, Servilia manages to unsettle Atia and, indeed, appears to take away a lot of the joy she might have gotten from Octavian’s successes by managing to poison Atia’s mind. Them playing fucked up dubconny hatesex games? Them playing with bondage and the like in borderline dub/noncon ways? Them scheming with and against each other at dinner parties and other social events?
Brutus & Servilia: What was Servilia’s relationship with Brutus like when he was a child? Has she always been domineering and controlling, or has that gotten worse over the years? How do she and Brutus relate to Caesar when Brutus is still a child? Does she attempt strongly to get him married off, or does she secretly somewhat like having him to herself to control?
Caesar/Servilia: More of Servilia’s relationship with Caesar at the high points, before canon starts, would be great—how do they interact? What does she offer him that Calpurnia cannot, both sexually and in terms of companionship? Why is Caesar drawn to her despite his better instincts even at the beginning of canon? Does she have him wrapped around her finger, or is it more of a meeting of curious/similar/desperate minds? How did they meet and begin their affair to begin with? ( I love Servilia beating Caesar at dice and kicking over the dice board, that moment of high-spirited freeness and wantonness before it’s all crushed.)
Eleni & Servilia, Eleni/Servilia: I love Servilia and Eleni, the strange tenderness that’s spread between them despite Eleni’s place as a slave and Eleni acting to protect her mistress down until the very end, Servilia often using Eleni as a sounding board (for Caesar’s letters, for fashion, etc.) and seeming to consider her advice fairly seriously. When did Eleni first come to Servilia? How long have they been together? Does Servilia use Eleni for sex? (More dubcon-ish is fine, obviously.) At the same time, it is of course a mistress/slave relationship, so if you want to deconstruct it, explore Eleni’s probable resentments toward Servilia and the Junii, or create an AU where Eleni survives Servilia (and is freed? Manages to escape in the chaos? etc), I’m also down with that.
Octavia & Servilia, Octavia/Servilia: Servilia corrupting Octavia is amazing to witness, but even more so for me is the question of how much Servilia was just playing her and how much it was genuine interest/lust/affection (and how much of that might have been sublimated lust/fascination with Atia). If I’m not misreading canon, they seem to have been some sort of fuckbuddy-type relationship for quite a period of time before it finally fell apart, so exploring how that developed (even though we didn’t get to see too much of it on screen due to time jumps) would be great. What else do they do besides weave? How much experience with women does either have before they start fucking each other? How much is anyone else aware of their sexual relationship? Do they fuck again somehow even after Octavia realizes she’s been played? What is their relationship like after the fucking falls apart—what does Octavia think of Servilia’s death? Does she think of Servilia later in her own life?
Servilia/Original Female Character: Does Servilia have a random slave woman she uses for (mostly) consensual sexual release/sort of loves/is somewhat affectionate toward? Have there been other younger women a la Octavia she’s been fascinated with despite herself? Does she have a love from childhood, some other woman she was raised with or grew up near? Did she have an older female (sexual) mentor somehow herself she was entangled with when she was younger? (Newly married, or just before marriage?)

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SHERLOCK (TV)

Canon is a flashy hyperactive soapy mess at points, but it’s so visually gorgeous, and everything surrounding the sleek amoral dodgy governmental world of Lady Smallwood is delightful to me. I love her icy/commanding veneer, the lowkey humor at points, her determination to do what’s necessary to get rid of Magnussen and her ability to carry on after Lord Smallwood’s demise. I love playing up spy tropes here, in a Le Carre or a Bond sense, as well as the hypercompetency of Lady Smallwood (either Alicia or Elizabeth is fine as a first name) as well as Irene and Anthea and Mycroft, all the opportunities for politicking and stress relief and finding a sort of low-key release/affection/friendship down in the bowels of the nation. I tend to read most of these relationships as more sexual or FWB-ish than solidly romantic, but some more classic romance is okay too as long as it keeps that idiosyncratic touch. Lady Smallwood can be married or not, I don’t mind, though if Lord Smallwood is alive and they're married I somewhat prefer an open relationship here where he knows and doesn’t mind as opposed to out and out infidelity.

Anthea/Lady Smallwood: I love to imagine their interactions outside of Mycroft, them as two highly competent bureaucratic women wrapped in the intelligence world to varying degrees, as well as playing up the May-December aspects. Does Lady Smallwood offer any sort of career mentoring (“mentoring”) to Anthea? Does Anthea help Lady Smallwood to manage Mycroft in some way and that’s how they first begin to interact? Does Lady Smallwood keep Anthea as a sort of kept girl/amicable fucktoy? Are there differences in class status as well as age?
Irene/Lady Smallwood: Surely Lady Smallwood, like all good members of the British government, had her sessions under Irene’s whip? Does she know of Irene’s continued survival post-ASIB? (Does she find out that Irene is still alive and then go for another session?) Does she take roundabout domme-ing lessons from her sessions with Irene? How about an AU where the marriage that Irene broke up by having affairs with both participants at the same time is the Smallwoods'—how would that ripple affect HLV/season 4?
Lady Smallwood & Mycroft, Lady Smallwood/Mycroft: I love the idea of Mycroft being Lady Smallwood’s elegant boytoy/fucktoy, in a sense, part mothering project (playing up Mycroft’s implicit mummy issues is fine, though I prefer no explicit mummy kink) and part sexual release in a stressful world. Mycroft servicing her, or submitting to her, is great, but I also like them being more friendly/casual/”traditional,” for lack of a better word. Their drinks date? Them fucking in the office amongst the chaos of some sort of ongoing operation? And yes, I am also interested in just their platonic coworkers’ relationship as well—Lady Smallwood mothering Mycroft, to a certain extent, them bonding over the disasters of the day, them as some sort of handler/spy combination precanon, Lady Smallwood mentoring a younger Mycroft,Lady Smallwood helping Mycroft through the aftermath of Sherrinford and his feelings about his family, Mycroft attempting some sort of sympathy for Lady Smallwood on the anniversary of Lord Smallwood’s death...
Lady Smallwood/Original Female Character: Lady Smallwood keeps a woman on the side--another government employee? Someone completely unconnected from the spy/government world who doesn’t even really know who/what she is? A professional sub for Lady Smallwood to work out things with? A dom for her who isn’t Irene? Or something from her far past--a friend who was more than a friend in (boarding?) school, despite the more homophobic time period around them? AU with fem!Lord Smallwood, so her foolish philandering love she works to save is another woman?

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