the_wavesinger | rmsex letter

Dear Rare Male Slash Author,

Apologies for this late letter—I didn’t realize I forgot to unlock it, I’m so sorry! But I’m really looking forward to this exchange, and I’m super excited to see what you write for me.

If you want to know more about me, you can find me on AO3 The_Wavesinger, and Tumblr the-wavesinger. My previous exchange letters are all in this tag.

Some of my prompts are far longer than others, but this in no way indicates a preference for a particular fandom/character/ship. I’m just lazy and C&P’d most of my prompts from other letters so the length of the prompts is solely dependent on my old letters and nothing else.

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DNWs

General Likes

All Rise

A Song of Ice and Fire

Chronicles of Narnia

Star Wars Current Canon

The Borgias

The Dragonfly Pool

The West Wing

DNWs:

Horror.
Zombies, vampires, werewolves etc unless specifically requested.
Gore, necrophilia.
Torture of animals. (Humans/humanoids/other sapients being tortured is more than fine!)
Graphic descriptions of nausea/vomiting (i.e. anything beyond “X was feeling nauseated/threw up”).
Reader inserts.
Unrequested depowered/non-powered AUs, unrequested modern AUs.
A/B/O
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!)
Age regression, de-ageing, or, unless requested, AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
For this exchange, PWPs (smut is fine, but I’d prefer no PWPs).
Extreme underage (pre-pubertal children), unrequested smut for underage relationships
Anachronistic discussions of sexuality and other issues.

General Likes:
Tropes, Genres, and (for fic) Story Elements

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
I love canon divergence AUs, and For Want Of A Nail and other what-if scenarios.
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.
Fake dating and arranged marriage within the canon setting.
Time travel and time loops, especially timefuckery where everything is fucked up!
M/M mpreg! Especially (but not limited to) mpreg as body horror
In-world mythology.
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
Worldbuilding in general.
Lovers to enemies and 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 really like characters struggling with the mores and norms of the societies they live in, whether involving some form of societal bigotry or not.
And characters struggling with morality and right and wrong, whether their own internal code of ethics or external expectations.
Generally I love seeing how characters are shaped by the time and place they live in and how it interacts with the core of their identity.

Character and Relationships Dynamics

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
- Characters finding ways to move past the fucked-upness and the relationships end up flourishing
- moving past fucked-up-ness and leaving what they don't want behind
- 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.
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?
I love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities!
I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy.

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.

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 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.

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All Rise (2019)

Joaquin Luna/Luke Watkins

(Spoilers for all of season 2 ahead!) I came away from last week’s episode shipping them somehow, and now I can’t get it out of my mind.
Luke and Joaquin both end up not working things out with Emily, and they end up turning to each other instead.
AU where they have a different first meeting. Maybe Joaquin asks Luke about the photo from the protest? Maybe they run into each other somewhere, and realize they get along?
After Emily leaves, they find themselves gravitating to each other.
Joaquin is somehow involved in a case Luke is investigating (as a witness?).
They both have really strong concepts of what’s right and wrong, and strong beliefs, and a drive to do the right thing and he;p people, but they don’t necessarily align on what the right thing is. Maybe something about that?
Please no Emily bashing! I’m fine with her being featured as an important character or ignoring her existence completely, but either way, please no Emily bashing.

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A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin

Arthur Dayne/Rhaegar Targaryen

Arthur was Rhaegar’s closest and oldest friend; I would love to see something more between them!
Loyalty! Even with what little we know of Arthur and his and Rhaegar’s relationship, the fact that he was very loyal to Rhaegar comes through so strongly. (If you want to bring in show canon for this I’m totally fine with that too.)
I would love angst related to Rhaegar being the crown prince and needing heirs and a marriage, while Arthur is a knight of the Kingsguard, and all the barriers that lie between them.
Their last parting before Rhaegar’s death.
Rhaegar and Arthur training together, or competing against each other at a tourney.
I would be very interested in canon divergence AUs where Rhaegar and Arthur end up together, whatever form that takes.
Growing up together—I imagine Arthur as being somewhat older than Rhaegar (though of course), and I’d like to see them growing up, and how their separate roles begin to define them. (And maybe politics or plotting?)

Jaime Lannister/Rhaegar Targaryen

Young impressionable knight/crown prince of the royal family he’s sworn to protect is apparently my jam!
I would love to see something about loyalty and being a Kingsguard, or Jaime’s thoughts about Rhaegar, and the complicated feelings he has about Robert’s Rebellion?
Rhaegar returns from the Trident that fateful day. Do things change, as he promised, and if so is that change good or bad?
AU where Jaime doesn’t join the Kingsguard, for whatever reason.
Jaime is one of those who accompany Rhaegar to the Trident; this may or may not change things.
Jaime is a warrior, but Rhaegar takes being a warrior upon himself as a duty, and I’d love to see an exploration of that difference.
Cersei discovering their relationship (or Jaime’s feelings), maybe. What’s her reaction? How does her discovery that her brother is in a relationship with the man she wanted to marry blend into politics?

Ned Stark/Rhaegar Targaryen, Oberyn Martell/Rhaegar Targaryen

So turns out I ship Rhaegar with the brothers of the women he was involved with, lol.
I would be really interested in seeing what would happen if one of these men took their sisters’ place! For Ned, maybe Rhaegar runs off with Ned and not Lyanna (and maybe even Ned being the one given the crown of blue roses)? An AU where being gay isn’t an issue for Oberyn/Rhaegar, maybe, or maybe when Rhaegar marries Elia he realizes he actually really likes her brother.
Rhaegar lives, and one of them encounters him—their feelings towards him would probably not be great given how he royally fucks up wrt their sisters, so I’d be very interesting in seeing how that meeting goes! (Ned seems to have some level of respect for Rhaegar, but Oberyn absolutely does not, so anything about those dynamics.)
AU where Rhaegar tries to get rid of Aerys by teaming up with one or multiple Great Houses, and it’s not a purely political alliance?
AU where Rhaegar becomes king after Duskendale (or later), and politics and plotting.
Unrequited love, with nothing changing from canon.

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Chronicles of Narnia - C. S. Lewis

Aslan/Peter Pevensie (Narnia - Lewis)

This is pretty much the crack ship of my heart, please go wild!
Aslan visits Peter in a dream, or on the battlefield (or on the battlefield in a dream).
Aslan in human form, in Narnia or on Earth, would be interesting to see—would Peter recognize Aslan right away, or even at all?
I think it’s Peter we know the least about, at least in the books, with regard to his connection to and relationship with Aslan and with Narnia, and I would love explorations of that (and how his relationships with Aslan and Narnia tie into each other).
Complicated mixes of devotion and loyalty and love are my jam.
Narnian rituals invoking Aslan, or Aslan showing up in a time of need (or not showing up).
This is extra super optional, but if you want to do anything playing with the religious themes of canon go wild. (I’m very atheist and will not be offended with any direction wrt the religious stuff, if that helps.)

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Star Wars Current Canon

Bail Organa/Cassian Andor

Maybe Cassian being sent off on one of the missions where he does terrible things, or maybe a mission report afterwards ~~and he's pretty banged up~~? Or Bail has to send Cassian into a situation where there's a high chance that he'll be captured and tortured? (And then, of course, Cassian is captured and tortured, and all the hurt/comfort.)
Or I'd love to see strategy meetings, behind-the-scene workings of the Rebellion.
Or maybe Cassian and Bail working to remain professional despite their relationship? Or do they bring the Rebellion command hierarchy to bed with them?
Or Cassian being in the Rebellion since he was six—does that have anything to do with Bail? Is Bail a mentor to Cassian and does their relationship change into something else as Cassian grows up?
Or does Cassian meet Bail as an adult and they become fuckbuddies/fall for each other/etc. at that point?

Cassian Andor/Davits Draven

All the hierarchies and power dynamics here, please!
I love the obedience Cassian gives to the Rebellion and, by extension, to Draven, his CO, and I love all the horrible things he must have done carrying out orders for the Rebellion. Draven must have been the one giving him those orders, so anything on that.
Does Draven attempt to get Cassian to deal with his guilt/PTSD (subtly or not-so-subtly), and fail? Does he have his own issues that he's not dealing with? Does he genuinely care about Cassian despite the sometimes unsavoury things he has to get Cassian to do? (What does he think when he's deliberately sending Cassian off to kill someone or to be captured and tortured?)
Or is he manipulating Cassian for his own purposes? Does he take advantage of his position fo authority over Cassian? Or maybe he doesn't think he's taking advantage but Cassian feels obliged so it's fucked up?

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The Borgias (Showtime TV)

Cesare Borgia/Giuliano della Rovere

I love enemies to lovers (or enemies to lovers-but-still-enemies), and they just both of them have so much contempt for each other, it’s so much fun!
Della Rovere accepts Cesare’s offer at the end of season one. (Of course he plots on the side, but…)
Or he doesn’t offer but they keep coming back to each other somehow, and keep meeting, and, well, if it’s fated…
Post-canon, maybe something to do with how IRL Cesare supported della Rovere’s bid for the papacy but was then imprisoned by him? I would love to see this being played out with the Showtime characters
Or a what-if scenario where it doesn’t happen for whatever reason (Alexander lives longer and Cesare has time to shore up his support? Pius III doesn’t die? Cesare throws his support behind someone else/expends his political capital to stop della Rovere from winning? Della Rovere decides it’s better to keep Cesare as an ally or has second thoughts/regrets?).
Noncon! Would prefer della Rovere nonconning Cesare, in whatever situation (though suggestions of it happening vice versa on the occasions he was at Cesare’s mercy would also be great).

Cesare Borgia/Juan Borgia

They have such intense tension on the show (that one scene where Juan got all up in Cesare’s face, mmmm), and a love-hate relationship!
Growing up together—what was their relationship like? Cesare is ready to defend Juan at the start of the show, and they seem on good terms at least. But Cesare is supposed to become a priest, and is passed over for the Dukedom of Gandía in favour of his younger brother (since Pier Luigi doesn’t seem to exist in the Showtime ‘verse)—how does that affect their dynamics?
What changed between season one and two to go from mutual envy but still friendship to them absolutely hating each others’ guts?
Something about Juan’s insecurity and jealousy of Cesare, and Cesare’s own envy for Juan’s martial positions, maybe?
AU where Cesare decides to fuck some sense into Juan instead of killing him in Season 2.
Their complicated relationship with their father spilling over into how they treat each other.
Juan makes his confessions to his brother the priest.

Cesare Borgia/Niccolò Machiavelli

I really loved Cesare’s and Machiavelli’s mutual admiration society in the show, and I loved everything about their dynamic and would love to see more.
I’m delighted the show didn’t skimp on showing us Machiavelli’s fanboyishness about Cesare and I would love to see more of that!
Post-show, Cesare plotting to take over Italy and Machiavelli quietly assisting and advising him from the sidelines!
Machiavelli giving Cesare fashion advice was delightful, and I’d love to see more casual moments in a similar vein.
An occasion where Cesare’s interests clash massively with the interests of Florence and the two of them work against each other would be interesting to see.
Machiavelli after Cesare’s death—what was his role in, and what did he think of, the beginning of the creation of the Borgia myth?

Cesare Borgia/Rodrigo Borgia

I love their intense, complicated relationship, and how it changes over the course of the show, how fucked up it is, and I would love to see it turn into actual incest.
Rodrigo wants to keep Cesare tied to the Church, wants to keep him as a cardinal—is it only so he’ll follow Rodrigo’s footsteps, or are there ulterior motives?
I would love something exploring the tension between them, how Rodrigo is always demanding of Cesare, wants his absolute loyalty, has no qualms about manipulating him and is generally oblivious of what Cesare wants or needs, but, by the end of the show, he’s fearful of and for him too. And Cesare doing what he must to protect his father and family, and his longing and craving for his father’s approval and trust and affection even when he strikes out on his own and carves his own path. What Cesare wants most in the world is his father’s unconditional love and trust—is Rodrigo ever able to truly give that to him?
Reconciliation between them over Juan’s murder—how absolute and unconditional is the forgiveness Rodrigo offers at the end of the show? And does Rodrigo ever offer apologies for the many times he’s been a massive dick to Cesare, or is that something that’ll always lie between them? (Does Rodrigo even realize he’s fucked up in more ways than just ‘my ambition turned you into a monster’?)
In general I love how fucked up and complicated their relationship is, and would love to see the incest being just another part of that fucked-up mess.
Post-canon where Rodrigo doesn’t die so quickly as he does IRL, maybe?
Fucked-up religious-themed imagery would be amazing! (Especially the ‘he is made in your image’, which I find really interesting because at the start of the show it feels to me like Cesare is actually more like Vanozza.)

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The Dragonfly Pool - Eva Ibbotson

Matteo von Tarlenheim/Johannes of Bergania

I love the tragedy of how they meet again after so many years, but were torn apart mere minutes later. (What were they saying to each other when Johannes was shot?
I'd love to see Matteo grieving and trying to deal with Johannes' death. We know that Matteo talked to Magda a lot about Johannes—maybe one of those conversations? And Karil—how does Matteo see him, entangled as Karil must be in Matteo's feelings about Johannes?
And Matteo maybe finding a lover during/after the war, but everything about that lover reminds him of Johannes, or nothing does, and everything is messy and terrible?
And I very much wouldn't mind seeing a canon divergence AU where Johannes wasn't killed (not shot? Shot, but not fatally?), and they do get to ~~have sex~~ speak to each other later. How do they sort out all the painful things that must lie between them? Do they go back to their individual lives, or do they find a way to stay with each other? What would happen to their relationship during WW2, what with Matteo's work as an intelligence agent (although would that happen if Johannes hadn't died) and Johannes being King?
Or maybe something about their childhoods—I'd love to see Matteo and Johannes doing everything together, maybe including fumbling together as boys?
Or the two of them at university, discovering that their care for each other extended beyond friendship? Or dealing with the fact that they can't be together fully, because Johannes is going to have marry (and maybe him actually falling for his wife feels like betrayal to Johannes, and it's very complicated there)?
Or Johannes becoming 'cut off', and Matteo's feelings of betrayal at the pamphlet incident and him leaving? Or Johannes' feelings on Matteo leaving, and the two of them learning to live without each other? All the politics and/or angst, really, and the two of them figuring out their relationship together.

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The West Wing

Jed Bartlet/Josh Lyman

Josh is so intensely loyal to Jed (even when he isn’t completely Jed’s guy the way he becomes Santos’ and I’d love to see more of that if you want to go in that direction) and I would love to see that loyalty explored, whether in a romantic or non-sexual way. It’s part of the job description to take a bullet for the President, after all—what bullets has Josh taken, and what is he willing to do?
I’d love to see more of the vaguely familial part of their relationship. I don’t mind it taking on a sexual dimension, either, if you’re going to go in the relationship direction, or perhaps the romantic relationship being separate from the father/son feelings but still there.
Josh and Jed’s relationship is not always smooth despite Jed’s affection for Josh and Josh’s loyalty—anything about that would also be appreciated, especially maybe Jed’s blunt honesty with Josh.
During the transition from the Bartlet administration to the Santos administration, are there in particular skeletons that Josh helps put away? Does Josh keep any secrets from Santos during and after the transition for Bartlet, whether they be of personal nature or related to work?
Post-canon, does Josh ever call Jed and ask for advice, or just talk to him? Or maybe something set ten years or twenty years later, where are they? Do they still keep in touch, or is it an unexpected reunion?
Or maybe a moment from Jed getting to know Josh and gaining his loyalty on the campaign trail of Bartlet for America? Or once they come to the White House, all the joys and pitfalls of their jobs? Or Josh calling/meeting Jed while he’s campaigning for Santos, and all the feelings involved?

Josh Lyman/Leo McGarry

moment from Leo’s and Josh’s past? I get the impression from the flashback to Hoynes’ campaign that Leo and Josh hadn’t seen each other in some time, if that’s something you want to play with, but I’d also love the two of them being close pre-canon. (Did Josh know Mallory well pre-canon?)
I love Josh’s unwavering loyalty to Leo, how he’s really Leo McGarry’s man in every sense of what that means, and I’d love to see more of that loyalty—how did it come about, and how does it play out in everyday life both during the Bartlet for America campaign and in the White House?
Leo’s kind of father-son thing with Josh, but also how he trusts Josh absolutely and it’s Josh who (other than the President) knows most about Leo’s alcoholism and drug problems, and how Josh is willing to take a bullet for Leo but Leo doesn’t want him to—I’d love to see more of that too, the father/son relationship in particular. That dynamic bleeding into a sexual/romantic relationship and all the fucked upness thereof is good!
Or I’d love to see any kind of scene where the two of them are doing some political manoeuvring together, either involving the others or just the two of them.
An AU where Leo lives would be interesting, maybe?
But I’d also love to see Josh grieving Leo and dealing with being in the White House and being Santos’ Chief of Staff without Leo to lean on.

Josh Lyman/Matt Santos

The instantaneous loyalty Josh gives Matt, the strength and scope of that loyalty (how much must you trust a person that you want to literally entrust them with a country and with the world?), the fact that Matt is Josh’s guy in a way that Bartlet isn’t as much as Josh respects and admires and loves Bartlet, hits me in just the right place.
love the intensity of their relationship, how Matt becomes Josh’s guy so so quickly and he puts so much hope and faith in him (the whole thing about not having to know the education plan to know it’d be good, and it being different with a candidate he’s built up from scratch) but is still cautious and a foil to Matt’s idealism. And on Matt’s part, getting to know Josh and learning about him and the faith he puts in Matt, until by the end Josh is the one who can talk him down and the person he goes to for honest advice and to express his doubts. And I love that there’s a note of conflict in their relationship and it never really goes away, but there’s also so much overwhelming trust and loyalty.
I’d love to see quiet stolen moments on the campaign trail, Josh and Matt conferring on something or talking over a decision or strategy or just having a conversation. Or an alone in the crowd moment like they have so many times, where the two of them are in the middle of some bustling thing but it feels like it’s just them there. Or Matt getting to know Josh and learning about Josh and learning to trust him. Or a truly stolen moment, stolen kisses or Josh helping Matt relax.
I’d also love to see anything in the Santos administration with President Santos and his Chief of Staff, working together in some kind of political manoeuvring or in the Sit Room. Or Josh having to talk Matt down from doing something, or a moment where they doubt each other. Or anything about being in a relationship while doing their respective jobs.
Or maybe an AU where they meet and get close earlier than in canon?

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