the_wavesinger | FAD letter

Dear Femslash After Dark Creator,

So hi, dearest creator. Apologies for the super-late letter; work has been crazy recently. I will totally understand if you go ODAO given how late this letter is.

I’ve requested both fanart and fanfic, for all my requests.

If you want to know more about me , I’m The_Wavesinger, the-wavesinger and The Wavesinger (Silmarillion Writers’ Guild) on my fannish haunts. You can also find me here on DW, and as the_wavesinger on LJ, but I don’t frequent those places often. I If you want more on my fic preferences (however unlikely that is, after this very long letter!), my fic rec tag on Tumblr and my AO3 bookmarks may be of some use, and for art, my art and fan art tags on Tumblr may be of some use You may also want to poke through my previous exchange letters.

This letter has a list of DNWs and general likes, and also fandom-specific prompts. However, please don't feel obliged to stick to my prompts—as long as you don't include my DNWs, I'm sure I'll love whatever you like.

Navigation

Avatar: the Last Airbender
Harry Potter
Marvel Cinematic Universe
The Silmarillion

DNWs:

Unrequested genderswap (i.e. please don’t genderswap non-requested characters unless I’ve specified in optional details)
Gore/guro/vore, necrophilia.
Torture of animals. (Humans/humanoids/other sapients being tortured is more than fine!)
Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting.
Reader inserts.
Mundane AUs, unrequested depowered/non-powered AUs, unrequested modern AUs.
Non-femslash A/B/O; femslash for this trope is fine!
Crossovers/fusions between fandoms I haven't asked for. (Crossover within any fandom in my letter or previous exchange letters, along with mythology and folklore, are more than fine!)
Please no age regression, de-ageing, or AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
Girl!penis. (Trans characters are fine, just please no inexplicable g!p.)
For smut, I'd prefer not to see bloodplay, scat, watersports, age play (including daddy/mommy kink), and any sort of permanent marking/scarring/body modification (scarring and permanent markings outside smut is perfectly fine) unless I've prompted these things for the specific pairing.
H/C fics centering on characters with depression and/or anxiety, and/or characters who self-harm or have eating disorders are not my favourite thing. (All of these things are more than fine in non-H/C fic, but not as things which can be hugged/cuddled better, please.)
Unrequested relationships. (Canon relationships and background relationships are fine unless otherwise indicated.)
Unrequested parent/child incest.
Extreme underage (pre-pubertal children), unrequested smut for underage relationships
Anachronistic discussions of sexuality and/or characters lecturing other characters on SJ issues.

General Likes:
Genderswap-specific Likes

Character design changes! For art especially, but for fic, too (descriptions of the m! or f! character).
Especially playing with hair/outfits.
Genderswapping het to F/F or M/M! (This is the majority of relationships I’ve requested.)
Smut with the genderswapped characters!
For fic, playing with names of genderswapped characters.
For art, changes to hair and clothes specifically, in addition to general character design stuff. Or nothing in the character’s style changing is great too! (For modern canons where it’s relevant, I’m always a fan of pantsuits.)
Playing with gender—I adore genderfucks in general.
I’ve only requested ‘Always a Different Gender’ so I’d love it if you stuck to that, and explored what changes and what doesn’t if the character(s) is/are born a different gender.
For genderswapping male characters to female (this is completely 100% optional but) I would love explorations of how misogyny would affect their character if they live in a misogynistic world. If not I’d love ‘[Character] is a woman but nothing else changes’ for fic.
Similarly, for genderswapping het to M/M or F/F, I would love explorations of homophobia if the world is homophobic, or if not nothing changing in the relationship (except for the smut).

Tropes, Genres, and (for fic) Story Elements

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
Philosophical ponderings!
I love canon divergence AUs, and For Want Of A Nail and other what-if scenarios. I'd love both longer fic (for fic) and art/ficlets as snapshots of what could have been, all the things that could've happened, but didn't.
Soulmates! Not necessarily soulmate AUs (although that'd be more than fine), but soulmates as in 'I knew you the moment I saw you', or 'I felt you in my soul' or any other version of that—the electric connection is something I adore. Soulmate things I love include in every version of every reality, in another life, fated to be separated again and again.
Regency AUs.
Fake dating within the canon setting.
Arranged marriage within the canon setting.
Time travel and time loops, especially timefuckery where everything is fucked up!
(For femslash only) A/B/O
In-world mythology.
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
Worldbuilding in general.
Battle couples!
Lovers to enemies.
Enemies to lovers.
Trope subversions.
I have A Thing for sister/sister, and focusing on the sister aspects of the relationship—how they're alike and how they're different, and just how they're sisters.
Competence porn!
I also adore people being messes and general failboats, because, uh, contradictions?
I have zero problems with fics dealing with misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, racism etc. I like realism, but not overly-depressing fics or fics centered on issues at the expense of characterization. (I define 'overly-depressing' as continuous angst focusing on Issues and Only Issues.)

Tone, Setting, and Miscellaneous Things

Characters dancing and spending time outdoors.
Characters in situations that shouldn't be funny, but are.
Characters who're comfortable around each other, and who tease and laugh with each other.
Slice-of-life fics and, for relationships, a look at all the quirks/annoyances of cohabitation.
Banter! I feel like I've repeated this a million times in this letter, but I adore banter!
Casual situations and everyday annoyances
Drama interspersed with humor.
Characters sleeping on each other, making out for hours, drinking from the same cup, and generally being cohabit-y.
Characters solving mysteries and going on journeys together!
Bittersweetness.
All the hard questions with no answers, characters trapped in unsolvable dilemmas, loss and grief and moving on.
Gallows humour, and humour in otherwise dark situations generally.
And just humour in general.
And if you want to go in the crack-y direction, I wouldn't mind that as well!
I adore OFCs and textual ghosts, for many, many reasons.
I'm more than fine with most side relationships, unless stated otherwise.
Transgender characters would be amazing, as would non-binary characters and just fucking with and/or ignoring traditional gender roles in general.

Character and Relationships Dynamics.

Characters who and relationships which fall just short of the mark, the almost-most-not-quite. I think the closest word to this would be hamartia in its original sense?
Hurt, and not necessarily comfort.
Fucked-up families and messy friendships which really, really aren't good for the characters, but they love each other very much anyway. I don't mind either characters finding ways to move past the fucked-upness and the relationships end up flourishing, or moving past fucked-up-ness and leaving what they don't want behind, but I also don't mind a constant cycle of messing up.
Found families!
Intense friendships which play a central role in the characters' lives.
For longer works, plotty fics are always welcome!
Stoic and/or emotionally incompetent characters
Characters finding ways to come to terms with themselves, with their pasts, and with their loved ones and/or finding their place in the world (think Circle of Life).
Characters who're broken, characters who're tired, characters who're lost, characters who refuse to be found, characters who're hurt over and over again, characters who never ever win, characters who've given up. And characters who love, characters who give, characters who're selfless and kind even after everything they've been through, characters who give their all and then some more to people they love, characters who never give up, characters who keep on hoping and keep on fighting even beyond the bitter end. And characters who're a mixture of both types.
I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities! Awesome ladies can be awesome and flawed :).
I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy, but I also really don't mind a pinch of humor with my angst, if that's your thing.

Stylistic Things for Fic

I like all kinds of fic, so go wild—linear narrative, flashbacks, epistolary…whatever you think of is lovely, the more daring the better. I especially adore faux-historical documents and faux academia.
Relatedly, interactive fiction!
Characters teasing and bantering with each other.
I don’t mind any type of POV (including second person!). In fact, POV switches and outside POVs on relationships would be lovely.

Smut Likes

I will always want F/F or M/M smut, even if I haven't explicitly requested it! Femsub is preferred for F/M D/s smut, though I'm down for femdom if that's your thing, too.
I prefer a balance between sensuality, emotions, and physical sensations. Anything from playful to creepy is more than fine (although there are a few things I'd prefer not to see, as outlined in the kink DNWs).
Helplessness and humiliation. These are the two main things I love in kinky smut, and everything else derives from there.
Bantering and laughing during sex is lovely, as is gentleness.
And banter between the dom and the sub in D/s scenes (which can edge towards slightly cruel on the dom's part!).
Angry sex/hatesex, smut that gives off vibes of slightly creepy but in a way that can't be pinpointed
Dubcon and emotional manipulation!
Explorations of power dynamics. I especially like service submission, and power dynamics based on the characters' titles/positions! (I do confess to having a kink for honorifics and titles!)
Doms having control over the sub's everyday minutiae (although for short periods of time—24/7/365 high-protocol D/s is a turn-off)
Punishment play, especially unusual forms of discipline! (I don't like erotic spanking in and of itself, but spanking as punishment is great! And whatever interesting punishments you can come up with.)
Corner time, especially kneeling on rice/somehow having to display themselves/after a spanking.
In general, being put on display/having to put themselves on display.
Tickling! Both playful tickling and tickle torture (bondage + tickling = yessss).
Gags and other ways to prevent speech. And weirdly specific, but fingers of one character in the other's mouth.
Groping, especially pulling breasts out of tops (and sometimes letting them just hang there, if you're into humiliation).
Orgasm denial, especially chastity devices.
Fuck-or-die scenarios.
Creative bondage (including predicament bondage. No, strike that, especially predicament bondage, and especially if the predicament is partly psychological).
Similarly, ordering a partner to stay still/hold a certain pose.
Incest kink.
Hairpulling.
Directed masturbation (one character instructing the other how to masturbate).
Dirty talk (including long distance dirty talk).
Navels, inner things, ribs, and kinks for these body parts.
(Not really a like, but I'm afraid my AO3 bookmarks won't say much about my smut likes, because I have a separate account for smutty bookmarks. Sorry.)

Darker Likes

Dark places and enchantments which entrap people without their knowledge
Getting lost in creepy surroundings
Corruption and decay
Explorations of the darker side of magic (or its equivalent), especially magic that's considered 'good'.
Exploration of the supernatural aspects of the canons.
Nature being eerily alive and dangerous.
Child soldiers, trauma, and really ugly, messy wars.
Characters trapped in vicious cycles.
Characters who think they're 'not good enough' for their partner(s).
Situations where characters are blackmailed/coerced into doing things they don't want to do.
Fucked-up families and friendships and relationships; people codependent to the point of almost-insanity, and far beyond anything healthy.
Looking into messed-up characters' thought processes.
Terrible things being done in the name of good by characters who see themselves as good.
Perversion of the 'good' side of magic to do evil things.
Mindfucks and powerplay.
Torture for the sake of torture, and characters being stoic through torture.
Noncon. I like both works focused on sexy (for fic and art purposes) noncon as well as more seriously-dealt with noncon and noncon aftermath.
Pregnancy due to F/F or M/M noncon.
Badtouch that doesn't lead to noncon, it's just there and creepy. (Especially when coupled with emotional fuckery and mindgames.)
Relationships where one characters is in love, but the other isn't.
Partners doing terrible things to each other.
Characters who hate themselves and lash out at the world and do fucked-up things as a result.
Really, really dark stories which end in the 'everyone dying' sort of tragedy.
AUs where everything goes wrong.
For darkfic especially, I love outsider PoVs—it makes everything 100% more terrible for me.

Art-Specific Likes and Prompts

I adore all kinds of jewellery—the more elaborate the better!
And elaborate hairdos! And elaborate clothes! And elaborate makeup!
I do, however, also enjoy seeing characters in their workaday attire, doing everyday things.
Characters with visible height differences from each other!
Elaborate weapons
In-universe art. (Famous portraits, posters for events, propaganda/health-and-safety leaflets, handwritten notes, maps etc.)
In-universe statues and tapestries and architecture
Court settings with pomp and circumstance or everyday life are both things I enjoy seeing.
I also enjoy seeing outdoor settings. Lakes, mountains, spooky forests, bustling cities, rivers, tiny hamlets, cottages, forests...
Specific canon locations (like the Withywindle for Tolkien, the Spirit World for A:tLA etc.)
Studies in opposites
Limited palettes
Non-traditional art mediums would be welcome.
Characters doing things they love together (I know this sounds very pairing-specific, but I'd lovelovelove this for friends and/or parents and children and/or siblings, too).
Ceremonies and events (coronations, balls, feasts, weddings etc.)
Picnics, garden parties, outdoor events, riding, hunting etc.
Characters arguing or debating with each other.
Starlight and warm colors and pastels.
Colour palettes that fit the character (golds and greens for Goldberry in Tolkien, for example, or shades of red for Natasha Romanov in MCU)
Characters passionate with and about each other and about things they love
Seasonal settings (falling leaves or snowed-over land or flower-filled meadows or golden fields etc.)
Characters fighting and having each other's backs, and, for A:TLA, bending!
Bloodied and bruised characters leaning on each other on on the nearest available upright surface after a hard battle
Characters facing each other across the battlefield (especially friends-turned-enemies)
Gift-giving, both literal and metaphorical
Characters reading or writing
Characters in libraries/otherwise surrounded by books
Characters who've fallen asleep (in bed, on a pile of books, sprawled across the sofa, on the floor, on another character—anywhere, any place, any time)
Characters in meetings/teams seated around tables or in lounges
For modern-era canons, airports!
Characters who look messy and/or rumpled and tired and way too fucking busy why is this my life
Possessive touches (one character having their arm around another, hand at the small of back, cupping another character’s face etc)
Characters in a private moment.
Casually intimate gestures, like handholding or hands on shoulders or arms around waists/on shoulders, or just reaching out to adjust the other's clothing
Kneeling and hand-kissing for pairings where I specify loyalty kink, or for gen or shippy combinations which involve a superior and subordinate in a setting where kneeling would work
Forehead kissing!
Kissing and making out, especially making out in bed/in unusual places and/or a significant height difference between characters
Tickling and playful tussling
Day-to-day activities (eating, bathing, morning rituals etc.)
Characters being cheesy or tender or dorky or awkward with each other (or all or some of these!).
All the smutty things I've indicated in the smut section! For art especially, a visual focus on power difference (standing/kneeling, clothed/unclothed etc.), looking well-fucked and/or humiliated, straining against bondage, decorative bondage.

Other Stuff I like (i.e. a very skippable section)

Action/Adventure:fight scenes between individuals ◈ big battle scenes ◈ going on quests/missions ◈ fighting bad guys together ◈ period-typical/canon-typical weapons ◈ characters being very very good at fighting/tactics/strategy ◈ strategy and tactics in general ◈ movements of large armies ◈ end-of-the world scenarios ◈ high-stakes battles or missions ◈ covert operations ◈ supernatural elements being involved in the mix in canons with supernatural/magical elements ◈ fighting techniques ◈ plotty missionfic
Angst: musings on futility □ hopeless situations and things falling apart □ characters' flaws getting the better of them □ battles being lost □ stuck in situations without support □ forced to deceive loved ones □ unhappy endings □ everything that could go wrong going wrong □ (internalized or otherwise) homophobia □ struggles with religion/faith/belief □ ethical/moral dilemmas □ misunderstandings □ feeling unloved □ being forced to hurt loved ones and do other bad things □ having to compromise on their ideals □ Hobson's choice situations □ betrayals of trust □ star-crossed lovers or the platonic version of this □ the world changing and leaving the characters behind □ things being lost to the ravages of time
in spaaaace ◎ different canon format (eg: musicals –> TV scripts) ◎ tone changes (eg: drama to comedy, tragedy to romance) ◎ crackification ◎ adding magic/supernatural elements to canons ◎ focusing on a different aspect of a story than the canon does
Established Relationship: arguments and fights ○ vicious cycles ○ drama ○ compromising and learning to live together ○ date nights ○ banter and flirting ○ falling into bed together after a long day ○ characters organizing their lives around each other ○ unhealthy, obsessive relationships ○ smut ○ meeting the family ○ acquiring pets and/or kids and/or property
Getting Together: meet-cutes (including canon divergence AUs) ◌ angst about each others' feelings ◌ obstacles that have to be overcome ◌ A is convinced B doesn't like them ◌ characters who haven't met in canon meeting for the first time ◌ fake dating leads to real dating ◌ fucking for the greater good ◌ something makes them do it ◌ enemies to lovers ◌ friends to lovers ◌ soulmate AUs ◌ reincarnation AUs ◌ slow burn ◌ hey I just met you this is crazy ◌ one night stands to lovers ◌ angst over not being allowed to be together ◌ A has been hurt by other people in the past and has to slowly fall for B ◌ unrequited love turning requited ◌ A falls for B, who's been nursing a crush on A since forever
Hurt/Comfort: noncon aftermath ◘ torture aftermath ◘ recovering from an abusive relationship ◘ other kinds of post-abuse trauma ◘ injury aftermath ◘ characters stitching themselves together ◘ partner/other person hurting character and then comforting them ◘ PTSD (in a canon-appropriate way) ◘ contrast between current gentleness and past violence ◘ the comfort not helping with certain instinctual reactions (touch aversion, flinching, hyperawareness, hypersensitivity etc.) ◘ comforter feeling helpless in the face of comfortee's issues ◘ two hurt/fucked-up characters trying to comfort each other ◘ attempts to comfort/make things better backfiring ◘ comfortee refusing to accept comfort
miscommunication ◍ wanting different things in life ◍ wanting different things from each other ◍ betrayal ◍ lying to friends/partners ◍ arguments ◍ blow-ups that have been a long time coming ◍ deliberate miscontsructions ◍ deliberately hurting each other ◍ unintentionally hurting each other
Slice of Life: I love seeing glimpses into character's everyday lives in canon-appropriate ways. I love slice-of-life fics as insight into characters' backstories and histories, as well as as looks into their heads and as ways to figure out what's making them tick, or to make it clear that the characters' everyday lives are immensely atypical/fucked up. I also love these kinds of fic as worldbuilding vehicles.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

I love the mix of darkness and humor in A:TLA—it's one of my favourite things about it. Also how deeply fucked up it is. Give me all the fucked-up childhoods and child soldiers and dictators! Fucked-up childhoods especially are a Thing for me.
Spirits and the supernatural and all the otherwordly aspects of the A:TLA world! I especially love the spirits' inability to distinguish between different humans.
Worldbuilding—the past of the A:TLA world and the politics of said world are things I always love to see being explored.
I love the character arcs for basically all the characters, and I'd adore something set in the future, because I want to see what happens to them! Bridging the gap between A:TLA and LoK would be particularly lovely.
Speaking of LoK, LoK and A:TLA sometimes have wildly different interpretations of events (lion-turtles and the origin of the Avatar comes to mind), so something about that, maybe?

Azula/Katara

I very much adore how the two of them are placed in opposition to each other, and I'd love foeyay, hatesex, slowly falling for each other, or anything in between.

I love the aspect of opposites attracting, and how they're kind of each other's mirrors in a sense but also each other's foils, and how neatly that mirrors their bending (fire and water!). Anything playing with their differences and their different natures would be great, especially for art.

I'd love to see any situation where Katara tries to find good in Azula, somehow, or doesn't try to find good in her but shows her some sort of mercy or kindness that starts to slowly change Azula's perspective. (Post-canon, visiting Azula in prison?)

<>A situation where they fall for each other but hold on to their worldviews would also be great. It probably wouldn't end well and it would probably result in a lot of misery, but for everyone involved. But. Think of the hatesex. (Clandestine encounters in the middle of battle, anyone?) And think of Katara pleading for mercy for Azula after Azula's defeated, or having the power to grant Azula mercy and having to choose whether to exercise it.

Or noncon/dubcon! What if Katara is captured by Azula at some point? (After the eclipse?) Azula menacing Katara, maybe (leaning over her, all up in her face?), and threatening to torture her/actually torturing her with her flames? Interrogation sessions that lead to sex? Sex as an interrogation session? Using Katara as a hostage to capture Aang?

Azula/Ty Lee

Dark ship of my heart! And by dark, I mean dark. Dubcon, powerplay, mindfucks—throw them all at me, and I'd love it! Loyalty, of course, and tests of loyalty, and tragedy and betrayal, and anger and passion and also auras, and I just want dark, dark fic and art. I love the loyalty and power aspects of Azula/Ty Lee, and I love Ty Lee's eventual betrayal and all the angst because of that, but I love that Ty Lee and Azula care for each other very much despite the betrayal.

How did the they become lovers? Was it a twisted test of obedience or did they really love each other, or both? What would happen to Ty Lee, who betrayed Azula, if the Fire Nation emerged victorious after Sozin's Comet? Does Azula get visitors post-canon, and are those visitors Ty Lee? If you follow comics canon, I would also love anything exploring the events of the comics, too. Or, for smut, playing dangerously with fire, and smutty tests of loyalty. (This is a thing for me for this pairing.)

Or maybe an AU where the Fire Nation wins and Azula becomes Fire Lord? Ty Lee kneeling to her Fire Lord? Or an AU where Azula doesn't go crazy and loses anyway? What would that mean for Ty Lee?

For art: Azula making Ty Lee stand still while she runs flame (she controls the heat of) over them? Or post-canon, meeting each other again (side 'ships are fine) and fucked-up things in that direction? Or something showing their childhoods?

Katara/Yue

We know Katara has a special connection to the moon (and I resisted making a joke out of it! ~~So proud of myself~~), and it's not difficult to extrapolate from there! Yue visiting Katara in her dreams, maybe ~~and dreamsex~~? Or Katara visiting the Spirit Oasis post-canon, and communing with the moon? Or post-Hama, how does Katara thank Yue? Either way, I'd love something about the moon and about waterbending, please!

Or maybe an AU where Yue falls for Katara instead of Sokka? Would that end the same way as it did in canon? Would Katara's lover watch over her (more closely than in canon, even!) and protect her?

And for smut: incorporeal sex? (With Yue not having a proper body or Katara in the Spirit World) Or waterbending + sex, or the power that must be involved when the Moon Spirit orgasms!

We've seen from both A:tLA and LoK that the Spirit World can be both fluffy and terrifying, so explorations of the Spirit World from Yue's perspective, whether she's telling Katara about it or Katara is in the Spirit World with Yue accompanying her, would be great. For art especially, the Spirit World would be interesting to explore, especially since Yue is a spirit herself. Or maybe Yue gets caught in some sort of spirit-trap and Katara has to rescue her?

Harry Potter – J. K. Rowling

I haven't watched Fantastic Beasts or read The Cursed Child, and, while I don't mind spoilers for the former, I'd prefer not to read or see anything about the latter. I'm sorry, but it's just not my thing.
Magic! I adore magic, and all the wackiness of the magical world. I'd love to see explorations of both the dark, not-so-dark, and in-between magics, especially the inbetweens (how do you call something Dark Magic? Where do you draw the line? And how blurred is the aforesaid line?).
I'd love to see more about how the wizarding world works, particularly the Ministry of Magic. Are there any commercial centres other than in Diagon Alley? How does the wizarding world work in other countries? How does the Order work? Basically, the nitty-gritty details we didn't see in the books. We only got a general overview of how magical society functions (I imagine Hogwarts is very isolated from the rest of society), and that through Harry's limited PoV, and I'd love to know more.
Several of the characters are, ahem, magical beings, magical creatures (except obviously not, because they're people, and even that word is a perfect embodiment of prejudice against them). An exploration of the magic and mechanics of this would be lovely. How do other people see them? How do they see themselves? And, of course, dealing with prejudice and discrimination is more than fine
HP is rife with weird, wacky, and wonderful(ly spooky) settings and magical artefacts, and I'd love to see them incorporated into your story/artwork. Ghosts, Inferi, Dark Creatures—I'd love to see them all!
War, especially if you're writing the First War with Voldemort. It was a war run from the shadows, and I'd love to see something about that—perhaps Order missions and meetings? I'd love to see how the war fucks everything up, and people dying and suspicions cast on each other.

Fleur Delacour/Nymphadora Tonks

I confess, I adore this ship mostly for its visual potential, and yes, this is a more art-heavy prompt than fic-heavy. For once! I love Tonks' Metamorphmagus abilities, and something playing with that would be wonderful. I just want to see them laughing together! And something playing up their differences, perhaps? (And maybe Tonks pining not for Remus, but for Fleur in HBP? And them getting together at the end?)

Again, if you go with the AU situation, I'd love to see them fighting together at the Battle of Hogwarts (although hopefully not with a tragic ending). Or maybe the two of them are the ones at Shell Cottage? Or even f!preg (or Fleur/Tonks/Remus/Bill, if you're so inclined). Or maybe Fleur and Tonks get together after DH because of [reason]?

Tonks using her Metamorphmagus abilities for sex! Roleplay, perhaps (maybe fake kidnapping and/or interrogation, or maaaaybe selfcest roleplay), or some sort of guessing game? (Or tentacles! Tentacles are always good.)

Marvel Cinematic Universe

I'd prefer not to see Darcy Lewis at all except if there's Darcy/Jane, and I'd prefer that Coulson, Loki, Tony, Peter Parker, and Vision aren't main characters, please. Please no BuckyNat, as well.
There's such a vast world to play in in the MCU, and so much of the characters' lives we don't know about because of the way time works in the movies! There's a lot of room for exploration and worldbuilding. My favourite MCU movies are the Cap movies, and I'd love to see what happens between them (and the. Avengers movies)! Between Avengers & TWS, between TWS & AoU, between AoU & CW—I'm really curious as to what happens in the in-between years where obviously important stuff has happened.
I'm very interested in politics for this fandom, because so much of the storyline is influenced by in-world politics which we don't get to see. For example, HYDRA's ideology, the politics behind the US supersoldier program, Project Insight being authorized, the Accords—there's so much to explore.
CW brought up some interesting questions about the fact that the majority of the problems the Avengers deal with are things they've caused, albeit sometimes necessarily, so maybe something about that.
For this fandom especially I'd love to see outsider POVs, whether that be people who are working closely with the characters or people who only see the characters on TV.
I love the sheer scale of the events of the movies, so maybe something about that?
There's a common thread of the end not justifying the means across the Cap movies, so something about that, maybe?
With so many supervillains floating around, there's plenty of room for lots of H/C (or H without C) with characters being captured and tortured and injured.
I love fun and asskicking and just superheroes being superheroes too.
I adore the fact that the characters have very individual senses of humour!
Other things I'm not fond of include AoS in general, the way AoS handled SHIELD in particular, all the Avengers living at the Avengers tower (especially post-Avengers but pre-TWS; I don't really mind pre-AoU since there's some element of canon to it).

Carol Danvers/Mar-Vell

Carol/Mar-Vell hits all the things I love in mentor/mentee ships, so I started shipping them the moment I walked out of the cinema. I love Mar-Vell giving Carol her chance, and the fact that the Supreme Intelligence manifests as Mar-Vell is just great.

I’d love to see mentor/mentee when Carol knew Mar-Vell as Wendy Lawson. Maybe Wendy Lawson taking Carol under her wing, or Carol slowly growing to fall for her (and requited or unrequited pining is both great for this). Or something dubconny and mindfucky involving the Supreme Intelligence.

Or maybe an AU where Mar-Vell lives? This could go in so many different directions—the crash happened but Mar-Vell lives (and they escaped, or even them being captured by the Kree and not knowing of each other’s existence), or the crash doesn’t happen, or Mar-Vell doesn’t disguise herself as Wendy Lawson and they meet some other way etc.

For art, maybe a happy moment pre-canon, the two of them talking or Wendy Lawson mentoring Carol? Or, I love the colours of the uniform Carol wore when she thought she was one of the Kree, so anything playing with those colours would be amazing.

Nakia/Okoye

I have a Thing for soldier/spy, and Nakia and Okoye's interactions in the movie are wonderful (the car chase! The argument! The hug!), so I ship them like burning (and also because they're attractive I have simple needs okay).

They fight so well together and they seem to be so in sync with each other and know where the other is moving in their fight scenes—do they train a lot together? Do they help each other out during training (because they both have different areas of expertise)? Do training sessions devolve into something else? (Is there torture resistance training? Endurance training?) Or the two of them on a mission together, maybe, post-canon or pre-canon, the War Dogs and Dora Milaje working with each other for Reasons?

Or maybe Nakia training to be one of the Dora Milaje until she eventually decides to follow another path? (Would Okoye see this as a betrayal perhaps? Angst would be lovely either way.)

I love that they're so different from each other, and that they have clear ideological differences but still respect and care for each other. (The scene in the throne room was just damn. Speaking of which, what would happen in an AU where Killmonger's plans took longer to be set in motion and Nakia et al hid out with the Jabari and formed a resistance? Would Okoye remain loyal to N'Jadaka, and angst because of that, or would Okoye eventually defect, maybe along with some of the other Dora Milaje?)

Or post-canon (or pre-canon), the two of them clashing because of Okoye's more isolationist stance, while Nakia is more of a bleeding heart? The two of them learning to reconcile their ideological differences?

Natasha Romanov/Sharon Carter

For this pairing my logic is 'I love these characters and I think the actresses are gorgeous and they'd work well together. (And Nat and Sharon are just great characters, and I wish we'd seen more of Sharon especially, and Nat too in CA:CW.)

They both work for super-secret government agencies (the same super-secret government agency, even, at one point!) but they have very different pasts and very different skillsets and I'd love to see anything to do with that. Sharon being the Director and founder of SHIELD's granddaughter vs. Natasha being a Russian assassin and a lot more of an outsider is a very interesting contrast, in my opinion.

I also think that they probably have very different worldviews, given how they were brought into SHIELD and their roles at SHIELD, and I'd love to see anything about that. Or, post-TWS, they probably both have mixed feelings about the fall of SHIELD (that thing in AoU didn't happen shut up), but different kinds of mixed feelings, and I'd love to see more about that. Or, during Civil War, the two of them are probably the most sane people around, except maybe T'Chaka, (but, again, they do what they do for completely different reasons), and by the end of CW, Nat is on the run while Sharon isn't. (Though I can't see that lasting for long if Sharon's role in the whole fiasco is discovered.)

So maybe post-TWS or post-AoU, the two of them on some mission together? Or maybe they stumble upon each other by accident in some mundane place? Or maybe pre-TWS, they're on a SHIELD mission together, or maybe Sharon's the one who brings Nat into SHIELD (and she's on Steve-duty because Nat asked her to)? Or post-CW, them on the run together, possibly Nat rescuing Sharon after she's been discovered and arrested? Or Sharon still holding her position and helping Nat & co secretly?

Natasha Romanov/Wanda Maximoff

My reasons for shipping them are basically, again, that I love the characters, think the actresses are beautiful, and think that they'd work well together.

I'm kind of disappointed that we didn't get to see Natasha and Wanda interact much, as the only two female Avengers at that point. Wanda in particular has significant relationships with both Steve and Clint, who relate to her in one way or another and they've had experiences similar to hers in one way or another. So the lack of interaction with Natasha is kind of disappointing, since I think Natasha would understand Wanda's determination to make up for her past very much, and also understand how she came to work with Ultron.

But, at the same time, post-CW I think Wanda would be wary of Natasha, because Natasha was Team Iron Man for some time, and I think Wanda would see them as a huge part of the reason that she was in the Raft, where she was basically tortured (I mean, Team IM didn't have any part in the Raft in canon, not even Tony really, but Wanda doesn't know that, I think).

And I love both Nat and Wanda as Avengers, so I'd love to see how they and their relationship fit with the rest of the group, either post-AoU or post-CW.

So, maybe the two of them on the run together post-CW, maybe along with the rest of the Avengers? Maybe Nat helps Steve break into the Raft? Or maybe an AU where Natasha is the one who breaks Wanda out of house arrest? Or maybe the two of them on an Avengers mission pre-CW? I'd just love to see the two of them together, art or fic, in any way or form.

The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth – J. R. R. Tolkien

There aren't enough fics based on the Myths Transformed version of Middle-earth, and if that's something you'd like to explore, I'd love that, especially a more scientifically accurate (and sometimes, to my mind, a more tragic-and-dark-but-beautiful) vision of Middle-earth. (Other versions would also be wonderful, of course! This is just a specific thing I don't see much of.)
I love the fact that Tolkien's canon is a patchwork of different stories and mythologies, both in the Doylist and Watsonian sense, and fic exploring that would be wonderful.
Linked with the points above, I'm interested in lived vs. written stories, and Those Pesky Historians, and how unseen forces affect history.
Nature that comes alive.
The mortals and Elves/free will and destiny debate and the role of the Valar would be a wonderful thing to read about—I'd love exploration of any of the philosophical questions of Tolkien's world, really, but especially this, as detailed in the Athrabeth and writings about the role of the Valar.
All things Darkness and Light, really—I'm very fascinated by how these polar opposites work in Tolkien's world (and you can go back right to the beginning, to the Music, if you like), and how Arda is both grim and uplifting at the same time.
I love the way magic and power operate in Tolkien's world—the work he's done to make it believable is wonderful. Writing a green sun, indeed! Anything you can write about this would be welcome and much-adored.
I especially love the Noldor and Númenor, although every Age of Middle-earth holds my heart.
For interspecies relationships, I'd love to see an emphasis on otherness and trying to understand each other.

Aredhel/Galadriel

Incest kink! Aredhel and Galadriel were the only second-generation Finwions who were female, and I'd love an exploration of that. Did they like each other or despise each other ~~and have hatesex~~? Maybe they hunted together, and those hunting trips turned into more? Or the two of them on the Ice, finding comfort in each other? Or maybe Aredhel was aiming to go to Doriath, not to visit Celegorm? So many possibilities!

Or maybe Aredhel and Galadriel's mutual indifference to each other, and annoyance at being pushed together at family gatherings because they're girls, and of course they have a lot of things in common. This usually Ends Very Badly, possibly, or maybe just Aredhel and Galadriel being snarky at each other and the world in general, with bonus kissing and casual sex.

Or maybe huddling for warmth during the crossing of the Ice? (And just sex, or the two of them falling for each other there). And maybe something about leading their people across the Ice, and the two of them being leaders in general (or leaders and generals, that would very much work too!)?

Ilmarë/Thuringwethil

This ship interests me for the light vs. dark dichotomy. An origin story, perhaps, on the fall of Thuringwethil? Or maybe what happened to Thuringwethil after the War of Wrath? I'd love to see the contrast between the two of them, and maybe something to do with the Ainur and their role in the Music?

And this 'ship is ripe for all the angst and tragedy. Maybe something about Thuringwethil's fall? (And how it came about, and its causes, and maybe late redemption if you want to go in that direction if you're writing fic, or dark/tragedic angst if you don't?) Or maybe if you choose to go with something about Thuringwethil and Ilmarë after the War of Wrath, there must be a lot of betrayal and anger lying in both of them—something about that?

Was Thuringwethil a Maia of Varda or Estë before she fell, perhaps? Or was she one of those seduced by Melkor in the beginning, with the Music, and she and Ilmarë always has a foeyay thing going on? Or was she an embodiment of necessary darkness created to stand against Melkor but corrupted by him? Or was she a Maia of Sauron who went over to Melkor when he did?

I would also very much not mind this going in the fucked-up dubcon or noncon direction, whether that be because one of them is the other's prisoner, or because one of them manipulates the other emotionally (for her own good, of course, or so the manipulator things), or because of any other scenario.