Yuletide 2019 letter

[minebyrights]

Happy Yuletide! 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 fandoms, as well as desperate for content 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 do that doesn’t hit squicks/DNWs, go for it! In general, all ratings from gen to depraved NC-17 porn are good, and all gender combos are fine for background ships or whatnot.

Any differences in length of section below are mostly due to writing this piecemeal over a couple days and not because I'm more excited for some canons over others.

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

And with that, on to the letter itself!

Likes and Dislikes | The Favourite (2018) | Harlots (TV) | Mum (TV 2016) | Portrait de la jeune fille en feu | Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019) | Rocketman (2019) | Rocketman (2019) RPF

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, intoxicated sex, 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, sexual degradation of women for kink (exception is some femslash--see below where relevant)

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THE FAVOURITE (2018)
Sarah Churchill Duchess of Marlborough

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This was probably my favorite film of 2018, and as my sign-up this year makes clear, gay period dramas are my bread and butter of late, especially when there’s a heavy dose of irony/satire/bitterness/black comedy. I love so much about this movie, from the entire cold and yet lush palette to the fact that most of the men are fairly backgrounded laughingstocks to sexual power games to duck racing, and while I love all three of the central women, the one I most instinctively vibe with is Sarah, all her domineering calculation and bad-at-emotions-ness and her long connection to Anne and her attempts to beat back her own insecurity. Any fic that centers Sarah in some way would be just fine with me, and although I don’t know the actual historical figures well at all, you’re welcome to draw on Real History for some stuff if you like, as long as it doesn’t totally contradict the film’s version.

What I Love: I love this film’s absurdity, its teetering-on-the-edge-of-camp raucousness wrapped in tight corsets and bottled emotions, its levels of metaphorical and literal poisonings and politicking, Sarah Churchill riding horses dramatically, shooting pigeons/hunting in extremely intense ways, foppishly dressed men, its extremely dramatic harpsichord soundtrack (and the cut into Elton John’s “Skyline Pigeon” at the credits, something ironically appropriate to my other Yuletide interests this year). I love Sarah in particular, in part because I love Rachel Weisz’s everything and in part because I love seeing bitchy, domineering, intelligent women attempting to wield power and being unable/afraid to let themselves feel genuine emotion and trying to navigate that trap of being a woman holding power in a world meant to make such a thing impossible. That Sarah holds on for as long as she does is pretty remarkable to me, and her relationships with Anne (an almost childhood interest in one another?) and Abigail (how well did they know each other/how often did they see one another in the past) both intrigue me, as does the seething morass of all three of them together.

More Prompts/Ideas:

• Anne and Sarah’s childhood/teenagerhood/etc. together would be super intriguing to look at--were they both softer then, somehow, before the world ran them down? Has Sarah always had this burning ambition/need to control? What was Sarah doing while Anne was pumping out doomed children? How did she react to Anne’s marriage? What was their first sexual encounter like?
  
• Similarly, Sarah and Abigail: did they meet ever as children, or just know of each other as relatives? How well did Sarah know Abigail’s useless father? If you want to Go There and have them fuck, for some reason, in the movie’s time or before, I’m very down for that, be it hatesex or something slightly less bitter at some point.
  
• The inevitable threesome, either platonically or literally, is completely Good for Me, in almost any way at all you can think to make it happen. Sarah trying to watch and control Abigail and Anne together? Anne instructing her two favorites to fuck one another and/or use their combined powers to fuck their queen simultaneously?
  
• In general, how does Sarah’s marriage to Marlborough work? Is there genuine affection there at all or is it just a marriage of power/convenience? (Them being mutual beards for one another--Marlborough’s “I must sleep with my men” line always makes me laugh and speculate--would be especially intriguing, regardless of how conscious they are of it or whether they ever discuss their proclivities with one another in so many words.)
  
• After being dethroned and exiled, does Sarah manage to get her own back on Anne and/or Abigail, even obliquely, somehow ruining their bittersweet coupling from afar? (They already seem to be doing it themselves, to judge by the ending, with the ghost of Sarah poisoning their partnership, but exploring that further would be very interesting to me.) What does Sarah do in general with Marlborough? Does she take up with other women romantically?
  
• Exploring Sarah’s sexuality in general would be interesting to me--one critique I’ve seen is that she can be read as not actually being sexually into women, necessarily, just willing to use them sexually for power. I somewhat prefer readings where she does have genuine sexual interest in other women but cannot really lean into it because that would endanger the iron control over herself she needs to have to maintain power, but I’m game for other readings of her, including ones where she’s more asexual/aromantic (though of course I don’t think she would think of it in those terms, since they’re anachronistic).
  

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HARLOTS (TV)
Lydia Quigley

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I absolutely love the setting, the trappings of the clothing and stockings and ribbon garters and foolish jewelry and makeup and wigs. I love the focus on women and their relationships, the foolish and not so foolish games they must play with each other and with the men who are their clients and would-be rulers, the endless politicking all wrapped in sex. And while I love Margaret and her attempts at more ethical prostitution and solidarity with other sex workers, I also love Lydia as a wonderfully characterized antagonist/villain, her utter shamelessness as the series goes on, her competence at being as terrible as she must to keep and improve her social position, the rarefied society she runs in and the viciousness it induces in her (and vice versa), and the effects that Bedlam has on her. I’d absolutely love more of her, just more of her in pretty much whatever way, from her horrible childhood to the end of season 3 and beyond. (Note that while I was….okay with season 3 because of my love of Lydia, and I LOVED her storyline specifically, I very much get the rage a lot of people felt with it, so if you want to retcon and/or ignore some of the season 3 fuckery, I’m fine with that.)

What I Love: Lydia is the worst, and it’s the best. Her emotional ties to the Wells women make her the most effective antagonist in the series, for my money, and the hints of her fucked-up childhood were intriguing as hell to me. (I’d love to know the explanations for why she is the way she is, even though explanations are of course not excuses for continuing the cycle of abuse.) I love her competence porn, of a sort, her ruthless efficiency and constant shenanigan-ing that’s always just a hair short of boiling over into insanity and that’s so fun to see onscreen, but I also like weaker Lydia and seeing her at the mercy of other women, particularly the victims of her nastiness. (I’m not so keen on seeing her brutalized by men, however, just other women.) I like her ridiculous costumes and jewelry and wigs, her generally dramatic ass, and her quick mind, even if she’s ultimately doomed by her own inability to form lasting bonds of any sort with other women. And yeah, I love Lesley Manville and her face in all its instantiations.

More Prompts/Ideas:

• Backstory, of course. What on earth were Mrs. May and Lydia’s father up to? There’s tons of implied sexual assault and rape there, and I’m okay with mentioning and using it so long as it isn’t described in super lingering detail, as I know it’s pretty important to Lydia’s development as a person and character. I’d also just love more of young!Lydia, Lydia attempting to gain control over her own life and get her own brothel, and more earlier adventures.
  
• Canon never really explains how the hell Lydia knows Isabella’s secret, so please, help canon out with this. Does Isabella have friends who ran in Lydia’s circle somehow? Did Isabella herself run into Lydia often in her past for some reason or another? (Did Harcourt’s involvement in the Spartans or some similar earlier group inadvertently put Isabella in contact with Lydia back in the day?) I honestly don’t know, but I’d love to see more of how Lydia knows this and got her hands all over Isabella in the first place. (If you want to have her literally put her hands all over Isabella in a sexual fashion, please do so.)
  
• I love Lydia’s weird-ass relationship with Margaret. What did Margaret and Nancy say to get Lydia whipped back in the day? How controlling and terrible was Lydia over them? Why did Lydia love Margaret (and/or Charlotte), in particular, so much, considering all the women Lydia’s had and used before? Platonic pseudo-mother bullshit (“you always tell Mumma the truth in the end” I SCREAMED in delight, and the same with her letting “Little Maggie” escape in season 3) in line with canon is of course fine, but if you want to Go There and add in a sexual element at some point, I’m cool with that too. (Please have Margaret be at least 16 or so, and hatesex between canon-aged Lydia and Margaret would be just absolutely *chefkiss*, no matter how flimsy the set-up is.)
  
• GodDAMN, but fuck me if Charlotte’s simultaneous working with/working against Lydia in season 2 wasn’t a treat from start to finish. Lydia begging Charlotte to work for her, her weird motherly affection for Charlotte that seems to threaten to overrun her business sense/her usual modes of practice, was fascinating to watch, and Charlotte’s own conflicting feelings/the seductive pull of Lydia’s luxury were perfect. More of them dressing each other? Lydia teaching Charlotte further lessons (business and/or sexual, whatever), before Charlotte finally breaks and leaves? Straight-up hatesex? The fact that Lydia was the witness to Charlotte’s last moments really fucks me up emotionally, too, so if you want to expand on that, feel free. (And if you want to somehow retcon Charlotte’s whole mess of a season 3 plot and have her go after Lydia or something, I’m also down for that.)
  
• Ditto for above, but with Kate. Any and all Kate vs Charlotte vs Lydia comparisons are welcome, and a weird Kate/Lydia sex component is also perfectly fine with me if you want to go there.
  
• The best part of the extremely messy s3 for me was probably Lucy’s entire subplot and its intersections with Lydia’s. I loved them ending Harcourt together, even in such a bizarrely rapey way, and the idea of them attempting to run a brothel together is kind of hilarious to me. Their relationship as presented by canon seems a little underbaked and tenuous currently, so feel free to run with it and explore how they interact, whatever tenuous forms of trust they do (or don’t) create with one another as time passes, and more.
  

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MUM (TV 2016)
Cathy Walker, Michael Roberts

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My first impressions of Mum were kind of shock at some of the cringiest bits of secondhand embarrassment involved, and yet I’ve become so very fond of all the characters and their weird relationships with one another, and particularly about how, at the center of it all, is Cathy and her burgeoning life after her husband’s death. She and Michael are wonderful together as friends, and the intensity of their slow, slow burn into actual romantic/sexual relationship is delicious. I’m pretty much looking for allllllll the Cathy/Michael here, their friendship but most particularly their crashing into love with one another as Cathy gains a whole new lease on life after age 60. (And while that last scene/sequence to end series 3 is perfect, I very much want to see more of them actually together.)

What I Love: I love that awkward family comedy set-up and how perfectly it spirals into exploring actual issues of grief and growing older and taking responsibility for one’s life. I love Cathy’s fundamental goodness at heart, but I also love the wry aspects of her that so often go unnoticed by the others around her (except for Michael). I love Michael’s devotion to her (for so, so long! Perfect pining angst) and yet how willing he is to let her have her life as she wants it, even if it doesn’t involve him. (His pushing her to try going on dates if she wants to in season 1 is low-key adorable—he really just does want the best for her, even if it isn’t him, and his lack of possessiveness/presumptuousness is lovely.) I love how Cathy and Michael share the same vaguely stupid sense of humor and how they were friends for ages and ages before any of this even began. I just love late-in-life romances, and friends-to-lovers, and theirs is such a good example of that, of using grief and death as a springboard for new life, slow and tentative though it may be, and Cathy continuing to grow to be less of a doormat to Jason and company (to continue to be the Mum of the title, but also, more than just a mother). I love Cathy taking the goddamn reins in 2x06 and just laying it out there and Michael cloistering himself in the bathroom in dazed disbelief that this could really happen after all, while simultaneously not wanting to force her into anything. I love her giving the figurative finger to everyone and just claiming her man and walking off in 3x06. I really love the image of them learning how to romantically and sexually please one another (and the potential comedy aspects, of course, as well as the more straightforward erotic bits).

More Prompts/Ideas:

• When and how did they first meet? How instantaneously did Michael realize he was falling in love with Dave’s girlfriend? What was the Cathy/Dave wedding day like and the smoking in the car that Cathy mentions in the pilot? How was the Cathy/Dave/Michael friendship over the years? What were Cathy and Michael doing to support one another through Dave’s illness?
  
• Their first date (between s2 and s3, I guess). What did they do? How awkward is it to go out to dinner or something with your best friend, but it’s more than just friends at last? How fast do they decide they want to have sex? What is their first time together like? (I’d imagine it’s somewhat awkward but also intensely emotional, in a low-key way, and of course because I love Cathy and want only extremely good things for her, I want her to receive extremely detailed attention from Michael if that’s what you also want to write.)
  
• In general, what is their sex life like? (Hilarious comparisons to Jason/Kelly or Derek/Pauline allowed, even encouraged, if you want to hit hard on the comedy aspects of the series—part of me loves imagining that it’s the two old folks who are having extremely good sex while Jason and Kelly are just doing Jason’s bog-standard missionary he’s apparently so fond of and Derek’s lost in Pauline’s breasts.) If you want to go full NC-17, I love them having thoughtful and creative sex to get around the whole old dude/probable erectile dysfunction thing, and I love Cathy just getting to, like, get luxuriously eaten out for ages. But I also love the idea of her taking control, maybe without really noticing, and Michael being super into the normally quiet and reserved Cathy knowing what she wants and when.
  
• Spain. Perfect set-up for both glorious romance (frolicking on beaches! Exploring foreign countries! Traveling together!) and pining for when Michael is there and Cathy can’t be. (Long phone calls or Skype sessions? Phone sex? Amusing WhatsApp conversations and Cathy discovering the eggplant emoji’s many uses? Navigating post-Brexit bullshit with owning property in the EU? [That one’s a joke, but also, if you can work that into a Cathy/Michael fic, I’m impressed and all for it.])
  
• How soon do they inevitably move in together (see: into Cathy’s house) when they realize they’re tired of even pretending to live separate lives? What do other people think? (What do Michael’s girls think about Cathy? Do they roll their eyes like the teenagers they are at their dad’s attempts at being a romantic lover?)
  
• Any sort of holiday fic, if you like, with them doing Christmas together or similar and having to deal with the shenanigans the rest of the cast inevitably brings in on their heads. Or them navigating some big event in other peoples’ lives as a couple: a Jason/Kelly wedding, Maureen and/or Reg passing away, one of Michael’s girls graduating….
  

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PORTRAIT DE LA JEUNE FILLE EN FEU | PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE (2019)
Héloïse, Marianne

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When I saw this in the tagset, having just seen the film at a local film fest, I gasped in delight, because, yes. Such an absolutely gorgeously shot and designed film, and queer period dramas are so far up my alley it’s insane. A seaside romance involving art, doomed gay women, sisterhood of a sort, and two women reenacting the Orpheus/Eurydice myth? Sign me up. I’d love almost literally ANYTHING involving Héloïse and Marianne, their relationship, in the present time of the film or even them somehow meeting again years down the road, anything getting even a fraction of that lush tension that permeates the entire movie and makes it both luxurious and yet bleak.

What I Love: God, I just loved so much about the aesthetic of this entire movie--the sweeping ocean, the claustrophobic house, the Greek mythology shout-outs and allusions and outright appearances, the lush textures of fabric and atmosphere, the strange and yet comfortable sisterhood that springs up for a bit, the bread and wine and cheese consumed, the entire conceit of attempting to paint someone without her knowing (and how relatively soon it’s dispensed with and yet how that only pushes the film further forward, into higher and higher emotional stakes). It’s happy and bleak all at once, and so bittersweet, and I just. Yes. What a gorgeous, gay period drama. I love the contrasts, visual and otherwise, between Marianne and Héloïse, the looking-at-you-but-not games they play, their burgeoning connection, every moment spent painting Héloïse, them getting stoned together, them attempting to hide away from the world for stolen moments of freedom in bed before it all comes crashing down, and the beautiful heartache of page 28 and finding Héloïse (Eurydice) again and again in art and yet not being able to connect with her again.

More Prompts/Ideas:

• What were their childhoods like? Did either of them have any sort of gay encounter with other women before they were thrown together at the beach house? Do they discuss this at all with one another during those idyllic few days together?
  
• More of them drunk and/or stoned together would be very amusing to me, either sitting around just talking or having sex again or Marianne attempting to paint something or someone while high.
  
• The two of them dancing, playing around with who is the “man” and who isn’t, getting handsy while doing so or not.
  
• I was delighted their first kiss, of sorts, happened on the beach, but consider: heavy petting and/or sex on the beach. Picnicking on the beach. Both of them swimming (possibly in shifts, possibly naked, possibly both). Painting Héloïse on the beach. Héloïse watching while Marianne attempts to paint a landscape scene of the ocean or the beach in general or something. Just: Beach. Ocean. Them.
  
• Can Héloïse paint at all? I’d love to see Marianne attempting to teach her, or just watching Héloïse do something crafty and/or creative (embroidery? Sketching? Writing a poem?) in some sort of bit of role reversal from how the film generally has them.
  
• Héloïse attempting to learn the harpsichord to play the song that Marianne plays for her, long before the opera not-encounter, and maybe getting a chance to show it to Marianne way in the future (tying in with some sort of fix-it option, I guess, as below).
  
• The abortion scene intrigued me--not only was it gorgeously shot, but it being reenacted later For Art was bizarre but interesting, and throughout it there was a certain tenderness in Héloïse that intrigued me. Could she end up being a healer of some sort later on? (Maybe as a casual thing a Good Noble Wife/Widow does for charity or something, and it somehow brings her into contact with Marianne in some sort of down-the-line fix-it?)
  
• The fix-it option, where somewhere down the line Marianne ends up in Milan or something and they meet again. Life being what it is, it probably isn’t entirely possible to have them together again romantically, especially as Héloïse appears to have a child, but even them meeting up again in a salon somewhere or something would be excellent, and if you want to work it out so that they can Go There again (Héloïse’s husband dies?), I’m 1000% there.
  

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ROCKETMAN (2019)
Bernie Taupin, John Reid

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I love this film, and I love its camp absurdity, its glorious costumes (both for stage and for everyday), its gayness, its music, the coke-and-booze-and-orgy debauchery, everything about the 70s rock/pop music scene, the poor decisions made, the potential for change, just the whole sparkly drugged-out almost-soapy aesthetic. And one of the things I’d love to see explored more in fic is the Bernie & Reid leg of the whole Bernie & Elton & Reid triangle, which was mostly unexplored in the movie itself but has a ton of potential for drama, absurdity, and more. Feel free to throw in other characters, especially Elton, of course, to populate the background, but most anything focusing on these two is welcome. (I’m fine with all levels of drugs, sex, intoxicated sex, and implied partner abuse/violence as shown in the film, though I’d prefer Reid not become a full cartoon villain--he’s plenty awful as is without either excusing his implied manipulation/abuse or making him into a cackling maniac who beats Elton bloody 24/7.) Also, obviously the RPF vs fictional line is blurry here, but I'd prefer this stick mostly to the film universe wherever possible, though drawing on some bits of RL are fine.

What I Love: I’ve loved Elton’s music since I was a kid hearing my parents listen to it, and while I went into the film very tentatively, since music biopics have been hit or miss lately and I’m usually not a big fan of straight-up musicals, I absolutely loved it and went into a full summer-long Elton binge afterward (and now have tickets to see him on the FYBR tour this spring, ooooops). I love the costumes (both the extreme stage absurdities and the everyday wear, from Elton of course but from everyone else too, especially all the bits Reid wears in “Honky Cat” and Bernie’s sleazy 70s drunk outfit on the plane), I love the shots of pianos/piano playing/hands/rings/jewelry (my hand and men in jewelry kinks are fully fed by this film), I love the high-flying partying bullshit and drug/alcohol use and exploration of mental health and various self-medicating attempts, I love how remarkably gay it is for a big-studio production. And while I love Elton’s characterization in the film and absolutely adore his ride-or-die almost-but-not romantic friendship with Bernie, one of the biggest questions I had coming out of the film, especially after multiple viewings, was how the Bernie and Reid portion of that triangle worked out. Bernie is almost all rock-solid sweetness, of course, whereas Reid pretty quickly descends into being a manipulative snake, and yet they both were in Elton’s entourage for a long time. I love Bernie’s warmth and solidity, but I also kind of love Reid’s absolute shitheadery and riding the line of just how much he actually cares about Elton and how that evolves over time; there’s a lot of interesting potential to explore in his head that the film doesn’t really get into (understandably, since it’s about Elton’s story and his brotherhood with Bernie above all else, and Reid makes a perfect villain against that).

More Prompts/Ideas:

• What was Bernie and Reid’s first meeting like? Their first impressions of one another? Did they meet immediately after Elton and Reid hooked up, or did Elton somehow keep Reid a secret from Bernie for a bit, maybe not until Reid showed up again at the studio? Does Bernie immediately know that Reid and Elton are an item or does it take him a bit to realize?
  
• What is Bernie and Reid’s day to day interaction like at the height of Elton’s fame/happiness (roughly the “Honky Cat” period, I guess)? Do they see each other every day because they’re both around Elton every day? Do they try to get to know each other outside of Elton (going for drinks, or dinner, or something)? How does THAT work out? (The image of Bernie and Reid attempting to party together in some club somewhere, with or without other people around, is EXTREMELY amusing to me, especially the idea of Reid taking Bernie to a gay club and Bernie just trying to roll with it. Or Bernie in drag!!!)
  
• Does Bernie know about Reid’s infidelities? About the potential for physical and/or emotional abuse in the relationship? Does he confront Reid and/or Elton about it, either directly or not? Does he ever run interference in the relationship, however subtly, to try to make things better, or does he just stay the fuck out of it all?
  
• After the pool scene/Elton breaking up with Reid, how does the Reid and Bernie relationship change? What does Bernie think of Reid’s behavior by that point/his rage at Elton’s suicide attempt? Do they still interact a bunch, since Bernie is still around on tour (at least for a while) and Reid is still very much around as a manager?
  
• Bernie and Reid together at Elton’s wedding--what on earth are they both thinking? What are they doing together while serving (I guess?) in the wedding? Do they inadvertently commiserate with one another, however grudgingly, about how insane their mutual friend/client/ex-lover is being? Do they get drunk together? Do they try to let Renate know what she's in for?
  
• If you want to go there, I’m very much up for Bernie/Reid shenanigans of all types: drunken assignations (a desperate and/or manipulative Reid sucking off a horny and coked-out Bernie?), more sober hatesex (an enraged Bernie trying to get his own back on Reid for the pain Reid’s caused Elton), whatever. I’m also up for all combinations of Bernie/Elton/Reid, however intoxicated they might have to be to make it work. The dubcon-into-noncon line gets blurry extremely fast here, I know, but I’m okay with super intoxicated sex in general, even if it’s the kind of sex one or more parties might feel some regret about when sober, though not forcible noncon.
  
• I mention this in the Rocketman RPF prompts too, but I’m really intrigued by the idea of how daemons would work for musicians/actors/etc, so some sort of fusion involving daemons in the mix would be intriguing too--what on earth daemon would Reid have? How would highly intoxicated daemons act? How would they feel watching Elton and his daemon perform? Etc.
  

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ROCKETMAN (2019) RPF
Richard Madden, Taron Egerton

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In addition to the film being a delight, these two on their promo tour and all their behind-the-scenes posts/interviews throughout filming were almost equally entrancing, that wonderful mix of sunniness and anxiety, the idea of creating a genuine relationship of some sort even beyond what promo requires of actors. I’d love anything looking at them together, either just as close friends or as an actual ship, digging into them as actors or staying more on the surface, and feel free to throw in others, especially Jamie, if you like, though I ask that you treat any current and/or speculated SOs (Emily, Brandon) with respect (it’s fine to just...ignore them, or write AUs where they weren’t a thing to begin with, or mention break-ups, but please no trashing or just generally dragging them into the fic in any sort of detail).

What I Love: God, these two had so much fun making this film, and it shows. A lot of their press is just them talking up how they’re now Good Friends, but they must have been through quite a lot on set, given the intense nature of a lot of their scenes together (sex! dancing! screaming matches! slapping!), and I love love love things that look at what that does to actors and to their relationships with one another both in and out of character. I love Taron’s open friendliness at just about everything, his palpable eagerness and pride in the film and What Elton John Means to Culture, and I equally love Richard’s slightly more reserved(/anxious?) outlook on everything and yet his support for Taron. I’ve known of both for a while--Richard since GoT in 2011, Taron since the first Kingsman movie--and seeing them together doing press and promo (especially Carpool Karaoke!) and bullshitting one another over singing/dancing is delightful. I’m especially interested in them as actors and their time on set, since the whole business of acting kind of fascinates me, but them outside of that/on the promo tour/after the film’s release is also fine.

More Prompts/Ideas:

• I know there are like 200000000 fics of them filming the sex scene already, but honestly, there can never be enough of that for my taste. Character bleed and “oh no, feelings” are very welcome, but so is some sort of other set-up where it’s insanely awkward or something and only later, in retrospect, does it become something more/fuel for some sort of relationship. Or, if that’s overdone, how about some of their other kisses (the closet? The extended “Honky Cat” bit?)?
  
• Similarly, awkward character bleed from their filming the more intense scenes (the slap, big arguments, whatever) would also be super interesting to explore, especially for Richard--what is it like to inhabit someone who becomes so unpleasant (and abusive) over time? Internal angst a bit, while outwardly staying professional and in the zone, would be intriguing, especially if he comes close to a break at some point.
  
• Them at award shows/schmoozing up Hollywood, and then returning to one another afterward, comparing how it went and/or kind of getting off on the other’s popularity? Or them having a disastrous time at something (bad interview? way too hungover at some event? Paparazzi all up in someone’s business?) and having to run to the other for bitchery/support/something more.
  
• The fandom seems to have a bit of a trend toward fics involving alcohol and/or weed, and I’ve really been vibing with that, be it just them chilling and getting drunk/high together or them actually having intoxicated sex or what have you. I’m okay with this both in more pleasant ways and as a means for them to have some sort of one-night stand that goes bittersweet afterward.
  
• In terms of pure porn/explicit content, I’m definitely a fan of submissive/bottom Richard, which seems to be something of a rarity in the fandom (perhaps because Richard is older?), so if that’s something that intrigues you as well, please feel free to indulge to your heart’s content (in general, I especially love stuff flipping expected orientations/tropes a bit on their heads, so older, bigger Richard being a power bottom or generally needy and slightly submissive is good). That said, I don't at all mind bottom/submissive Taron, either, or switching, or just nonpenetrative sex throughout where it doesn't matter--pretty much all sex is good sex for this pairing, as far as I'm concerned.
  
• Anything involving them in costumes, either as an explicit kink thing or just them messing around backstage, would be glorious--I love the Rocketman costumes and general aesthetic so much, especially the costumes in “Honky Cat,” so seeing Taron reacting to Richard in those white braces, or the kimono-esque robes, or Richard cackling at seeing Taron in 60s!Elton get-up.
  
• And tangentially, them outside the set, messing around with going to a drag show or a gay bar or similar, despite the risk of paparazzi. Or just them straight up playing with drag on one another for some reason (maybe for a photo to send to Elton? Or as a gag for the wrap party?).
  
• There are like.....2? 3? existing fics I can think of with Jamie/Richard/Taron as a threesome, and I'm extremely about that life, so if you are as well and want to go there, please feel entirely free to do so. In that situation I'd be super interested in the Jamie/Taron and Richard/Taron legs, of course, and I think Taron as the midpoint of some sort of V set up is the natural starting point for that for a lot of people, but I'm very intrigued by the Jamie/Richard angle too, so if you are and you want to put Richard in the middle between Jamie and Taron.....yes. Just: yes.
  
• I don’t generally go for AUs for the most part, and I do like exploring actors and actors, but with RPF I’ve long had an interest in daemon!AUs, if you’re at all familiar with them. What would daemons be like in the acting world? (Do actors have daemons that can still change somehow, to suit the roles at hand, and that’s part of why they become actors? How about musicians/performers in general, a la IRL Elton and company?)
  

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