Fandom 5k 2020 Letter

[summerdayghost]

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Likes
DNWs
Fandoms
Ancient Greek Religion & Lore
Romeo and Juliet
Sharp Objects (TV)
Sucker Punch (2011)

Hello! Signing up was a very last second decision, and I’m cutting it pretty close. I usually don’t sign up for something until I’ve finished my letter but I was afraid of running out of time. I will finish my letter before assignments go out for sure. I’ve never done this exchange before, but I think it’ll be fun. My AO3 is summerdayghost, and if you have any questions or need anything in this letter clarified feel free to ask through the mods. I hope you have a lovely exchange!

EDIT #1 4/11/20 10:50 PST: I didn’t expect assignments to come out so soon! I will have this letter done within the next few hours. I have a few things I have to do first. <3

EDIT #2 4/12/20 4:37 PST: So I was wrong about the next few hours thing in my first edit, but I am working on this right now and will update sections as I finish them.

EDIT #3 4/12/20 7:25 PST: This letter is finally finished! Sorry for the delay. I hope you have a fun exchange and thank you for reading!

Likes

Terrible people in love
Drifters
Violence
Blood
Bruises
Casefic
Fluff with disturbing subtext
Horror presented as fluff
Straight up horror
Straight up fluff
Fridge horror
Roadtrips
Character study
Guilt
Anger
Begging
Taunting/Teasing
Dirty talk
Internal Conflict
Villain or criminal AUs
Historical AUs
Complicated and/or messed up relationships
Codependency
Loyalty
Being brought over to the dark side
Dramatic irony
All levels of consent
Manipulative relationships
Secrets
Dirtybadwrong
Power dynamics
Power imbalance
Mentor/protégé
Grand gestures (both of the poorly and well received variety)
Understated love
Oral sex
Frottage
Riding
Roleplay (the more tongue and cheek while also kinda sincere the better)
Characters being put on pedestals they can’t live up to
Frantic fully clothed take me now sex
Slow deliberate love making
Possessive sex
Cuddling

DNWs

Recreational drug use (alcohol and cigarettes are fine as are depictions of drug addiction)
Watersports/scat
Bestiality
Unrequested m/f
Unrequested trans headcanons
Pregnancy
a/b/o
Requested characters as Nazis or members of the KKK

Ancient Greek Religion & Lore

Achilles/Troilus

Wasn’t sure where else to put this so I’ll put it here. I am kinda fascinated by Troilus and he’s an old favorite research rabbit hole of mine. Because he originally appeared in Cypria… which has been lost, and then there was a play about him by Sophocles… which has been lost, and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So much has been lost. What we are left with is a character that we only know from sources talking about the lost works from before they were lost that contradict each other and adaptations of parodies of works inspired by lost works. Troilus is a character that continued to appear in new art throughout the centuries with his role constantly shifting with the era (to the point where Shakespeare's version of him doesn’t even die), but due to the gaps in the historical record the motivations and nature behind these shifts aren’t always clear. There are elements to the story where it isn’t clear when that was added and why, a good example being Achilles raping Troilus. Look this is a character where if he was Apollo’s son or lover or actually not really connected to him at all is something that is debated. And I love this because of storytelling and history reasons. It’s a reminder how incredible it is that we know anything about old stories at all, let alone as much as we do. So basically there are a lot of places you can pull from for Troilus’s characterization and I’ll geek out about all of them because I love how many choices there are. Also canon compliance or complete canon divergence would both work for me here (as nebulous as canon is in this circumstance).

AU - Genre Shift

I would love a fic set in antiquity, but I do have a fondness for updating the setting for old stories. Especially with something this ancient. Its permanence has given it a timelessness that makes it feel like it belongs in every era it has survived through. Also I am interested in the way values and morality and stuff like that changes over time and how what’s heroic in antiquity has become monstrous in the modern era and vice versa in some respects and I think updated settings are a good way to explore stuff like that in placing people whose actions and core are based on ancient values in situations closer to today to see how that feels or turns out differently. I will say if you do go this route picking a setting with something that can stand in for the Trojan War would be a good idea. The two actual wars I most associate with The Iliad due to the allusions present in the literature set in these wars I’ve read are WWI and the Vietnam War, although if you wanna write about a different war you can. Although the war doesn’t have to be an armed conflict between two nations, it can be a smaller street level thing like a rivalry between two groups of criminals and the like or it can be in a setting where there is no war beyond the metaphorical which is pressures that make it feel like they are at war. For updated settings my only line in the sand is the final item on my list of DNWs.

Darkfic, Horror

I like reading about violence and dark stuff. Horror is one of my favorite genres. So if you wanna go that way please do. Also Achilles is a character that is often defanged (in my experience of more contemporary interpretations of him with few exceptions) and I find him most interesting when the darker and less pleasant elements are allowed to remain. And that can very much veer into dark territory. Also this is more of a side note but I found Chaucer’s version of Troilus SUPER CREEPY. I know Troilus and Criseyde was a product of ideas about romance from the time, but still. Creepy. So if you wanna go with a darker interpretation of Troilus that’d work for me.

Romeo and Juliet

Quick note on my unrequested m/f DNW for this fandom: usually that DNW would very much apply to canon couples including a requested character, but since this is goddamn Romeo and Juliet, you can include Romeo having feelings for Juliet if you want but I would not want that to be the focus of the fic or how the fic is resolved. I want the main pairing to be my requested pairing. Also that DNW would usually totally apply to non canon m/f background pairings, but in this case if you wanna have Juliet with another man as a background pairing (like say Paris or Tybalt) I’m cool with it. I’d also be cool with Juliet in Shakespeare crossover femslash in the background or m!Juliet in slash for settings where it would be appropriate for Juliet to be a boy, just saying.

Mercutio/Romeo Montague

AU - Genre Shift

Okay I really love Shakespeare and have my entire life (this is not hyperbole, my parents started taking me to Shakespeare plays when I was an infant). My username is a Shakespeare reference for a reason. I think a big part of why Shakespeare has claimed such a permanent spot in my heart is that you can truly do anything with it. Because of how established it is you can rip it up and turn it upside down and stage things however you like as long as you stick with the outline the script gives with its words and keep the heart of the story as you understand it. Like don't get me wrong I like traditional stagings of Shakespeare set in the period they were written about that don’t play with the text much, and if you wrote this to take place in 1300s Italy I’d be into it, but I have a special place in my heart for stagings of Shakespeare that change the setting entirely. They don’t change the text, they still call it Verona, but you know it’s not that anymore. Sometimes these setting changes are done to add meaning and sometimes they are done because they wanted to spend time in that setting. I love it both ways. So WWI? 70s musicians? Poets from the Romantic era? The Weimar Republic? Prohibition era gangsters? Mallrats? Edwardian era boarding school? 1950s Cuba? Prison? Great Depression era Hooverville? Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War? 1980s Berlin? Teen heartthrob actors? These are just a few ideas. Look, the sky's the limit. Go with any crazy specific AU you want because I love just about everything and there’s something I can appreciate about any era. My only line in the sand is the last item of my DNWs list. Otherwise go wild.

You can take these characters in a lot of different directions and still have them feel like Romeo and Mercutio to me. There hasn’t been too much wild variation in the Romeos I have seen over the years (entirely local productions, I’m not very fancy), they’ve all been completely ruled by passion, while I’ve seen Mercutio that are absolutely nothing like each other on the surface but all worked because they had the same core (a core that is hard to describe but definitely includes a sense of humor, a pain below the surface, and gay… okay I don’t know if that last one is essential but it’s been present to some degree or another in every staging I’ve personally been to that it feels like it is to me at this point and well I am asking for slash fic). So for the minute details of their characterization feel free to go with whatever visions of the characters best suit the direction you’ve chosen to take this. That being said, some things about Romeo and Mercutio I think are underutilized for you to take or leave. Romeo has a sharper edge to him and propensity for violence then he is often depicted as having (#StopCuttingParis’sDeath2k20), although it rarely comes out I am interested in what motivates that part of him. Mercutio being related to Prince Escalus and Paris and that family being technically neutral in the Montague Capulet feud adds an interesting layer to the dynamic between Romeo and Mercutio. I don’t believe the exact blood relation specified so you can go more than one way with it if this comes up in your story. Mercutio as Paris’s brother and Escalus’s son? Mercutio as the distant cousin? But since this is a Mercutio/Romeo story this is an interesting potential created by that for Mercutio to foil Paris. Also I’ve seen stagings where Mercutio is older than Romeo and while I have no quarrel with it and it works just fine my head defaults to them being the same age. Which is of course young. This is very much a play about youth.

AU - Canon Divergence

Considering the plot of the play your options are completely pre-canon, post-canon ghost/afterlife fic, and canon divergence. I would totally read the first two, but for canon divergence maybe Romeo meets Juliet but simply doesn’t fall for her. Maybe Romeo falls for Juliet but his feelings are unrequited. Maybe they fall in love and no one dies but Romeo and Juliet’s love does after a while. Or any other idea for a turning point to change things so that Romeo/Mercutio can happen that you can come up with.

Darkfic, Horror

So I have always wanted to see a staging of Romeo and Juliet that plays it as a horror thriller type of thing. You’d need a vice grip on tone but I think it can work. Playing the romantic beats with uncomfortable levels of intensity and emphasizing the violence would be the first steps. There’s a couple different routes you could go with the comedic beats. I see the potential even if people usually look at me like I have grown a second head when I mention this. But if having this kind of darkness as a part of things is something that would interest you I say go for it. Please.

Sharp Objects (TV)

Amma Crellin/Camille Preaker

AU - Genre Shift

One aspect of this canon that I really appreciate is how well it deconstructs a very specific subgenre of murder mystery. I don’t know what it’s called but you know those canons where if it’s a television show then an entire season is dedicated to a single case and a troubled in some way but ultimately still a net positive as a person outsider goes into the community and unravels its dark secrets and learns the truth behind the crime? This absolutely flips that sort of thing on its head. So this is an idea that might only work in theory but not in practice but if you wanted to put them in a different subgenre of murder mystery/thriller (like a cozy mystery or gritty noir or conspiracy thriller or whodunit or any other type of thing) to try and deconstruct that, as long as Amma and Camille are still their fucked up selves, I’m here for it.

If you wanna go historical AU my two suggestions are like 1870s-1910s because that just feels right in my heart (probably because of the whole Calhoun Day thing and there is an inextricable connection in my mind between midwestern America in that time and stuff like axe murder) and 1950s because that was an era with some real darkness running through it and it is remembered as this idealized, wholesome, and simplistic thing that never was and I have a soft spot for stuff that exposes the fucked upedness underneath that aesthetic and I feel like the themes of this canon would be great for this.

Also, serial killer AU. Yes, I know Amma is already a serial killer, but I talked to someone who had misosmosed that this was about lesbian serial killers having a torrid love affair that revolves around killing pretty girls and hurting each other, and I have wanted that ever since. Whether Camille is already a serial killer when she meets Amma or becomes one after they meet is up to you.

Darkfic, Horror

I don’t have much to say here for fear of being repetitive, but just include all the violence and twistedness you want.

Slice of Life

Look I love these two and their dynamic so much that a fic simply composed of them just living their day to day life that’s totally mundane would still enthrall me. With these two even curtain fic would feel twisty and I love it. However I have decided to copy paste my prompt from a Chocolate Box for this ship in this section because maybe it contains useful babbling (even though it doesn’t quite fit with slice of life). So that’s what the paragraph below is.

Amma fixating on Camille, idealizing her. Amma’s murders all being in some way about Camille (even before they met because her first two victims were girls that Adora paid attention to because they reminded her of Camille). Camille’s self harm and Amma violence. The way their mother fucked them up. Amma trying to manipulate Camille. Amma getting insanely jealous about Camille. Camille trying her best to be there for Amma and do right by her and the motherhood related baggage that comes with that. Amma wanting to sleep in Camille’s bed always. All the obsession and possession. The way Camille connects Amma to dead girls she has loved in her mind. I really love basically the everything about this ship so just fuck me up tbh.

Sucker Punch (2011)

Amber/Blondie

Quick note about my unrequested m/f DNW: Blue Jones being canon typically creepy is a-okay and would not count as something that hits that particular DNW for this fandom.

Canon-Style Plot - Freeform, Character Development, Worldbuilding

So I got the DVD for this in the bargain bin a few years ago, but only just now got around to it and really enjoyed it. I was happy to see this in the tagset! I liked the interactions we saw between these two and would like to see these characters and their relationship fleshed out (as well as the world’s around them). Blondie as the tough girl with vulnerabilities beneath and Amber as the kindest of the group. Something about them just fits together. Established relationship or them becoming a couple would both work for me. Them going on a campaign in the battle reality could be a lot of fun. Just the two of them or them in the whole group. I am kinda curious about the history of that particular world and how they became a part of that fighting unit, and would love to see more of their fighting dynamic and battlefield romance is true romance. Stuff from brothel/dance reality would be interesting although I don’t have much in the way of plot ideas for that beyond vague stuff like pre-canon. I think the world I’m most itching to see them in would be the asylum reality/reality reality because it’s the one we see the least of. We only see that version of Blondie briefly and I’m not sure we see that Amber at all. How did these two end up in the asylum? How long have they been there? What did the events of the movie look like in real life (for example the director said they didn’t die in the real world, but then that leaves the question of what did happen in the real world instead)? Might they ever get out? Is there anything about the dynamic there that doesn’t appear in the realities where we do see them interact.