the_wavesinger | [In Progress] 5k Letter

This letter is not yet finished!

Dear Fandom5k Author,

This is the first exchange I’ve participated in in ages, and I’m super excited! 😊.

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 sections of this letter are longer than others, but I’d be equally delighted to receive fic for every single fandom/character/relationship I’ve requested! Also, please don’t feel like you need to stick to my prompts—they’re only suggestions, and I’d love to see your own takes on the characters/relationships I’ve requested. If a different idea strikes your fancy, I’d love to see it!

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DNWs

General Likes

A League of Their Own

Avatar: The Last Airbender

Bridgerton

Chicago Med

House of the Dragon

Jurassic World Trilogy

Muhteşem Yüzyıl | Magnificent Century

The West Wing

The White Queen

Vikings

DNWs:

Horror, or any kind of spookiness involving the supernatural.
Zombies, vampires, werewolves etc unless specifically requested.
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”).
Unrequested depowered/non-powered AUs, unrequested modern AUs.
A/B/O
Age regression, de-ageing, or, unless requested, AUs in which one character is suddenly older than a previously older-than-them character (ageswap?).
Girl!penis. (Trans characters are fine, but not cis women possessing penises.)
For this exchange, PWPs. (My definition of ‘plot’ is pretty broad—smut is great as long as there’s something else going on in the fic, whether that’s a noncon situation, a character coming to an emotional realization, etc. Basically, for this exchange I’d prefer not to get anything that’s purely smutty.)
Tentacles etc.
Unrequested smut for underage relationships (i.e. no smut for any relationships below the age of consent in their culture, or below 15)
Anachronistic discussions of sexuality and other issues.
PIV sex.

General Likes:
Tropes, Genres, Story Elements

Angst. Drama. Politics. Tragedy.
I love canon divergence AUs, and other what-if scenarios. In particular, I love one tiny change making waves down the road, and exploration of fall-outs of canon divergence.
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.
Living beyond the end of your myth.
Time travel and time loops, especially make-it-worse versions of the trope.
M/M or F/F pregnancy! I’m especially interested in fic which explores pregnancy as body horror/being stuck in your own body and having something growing inside you/hating pregnancy but enduring it for Reasons/pregnancy as a result of rape/complicated feelings about pregnancy. (For the aforementioned tropes I prefer pregnancies in F/F and M/M to pregnancies in F/M.) I’d also be interested in fic where characters get an abortion, by their choice or as body horror (M/M only for the latter, please).
In-world mythology.
Cultural differences and clashes that occur due to cultural differences.
Lovers to enemies and enemies to lovers.
Trope subversions.
Competence porn! I also really like stories where characters try, and fail, and try again.
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.
Stylistically speaking, I like a broad range of thing, especially faux-historical documents and faux academia; if you want to play with stylistic stuff (including IF) please feel free!

Character and Relationships Dynamics

Hurt, and not necessarily comfort.
Fucked-up families and messy friendships and codependent relationships which really, really aren't good for the characters, but they love each other very much anyway.
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 love characters with flaws and unpleasant qualities!
I like relationships that are fated to end in tragedy, and bittersweet relationships where the characters know there’s an expiration date for the relationship.
Emotionally abusive relationships (not necessarily just romantic relationships).
Relationships where one characters is in love, but the other isn't.

Darker Likes

Child soldiers, trauma, and really ugly, messy wars.
Characters trapped in vicious cycles (cycles of abuse, time travel etc).
Characters who think they're 'not good enough' for their partner(s).
Perversion of the 'good' side of magic to do evil things.
Mindfucks and powerplay.
Fic dealing with the emotional/psychological impact of noncon and the trauma afterwards (and especially if the trauma lingers and/or the noncon doesn’t end when the fic does).
Consent issues/situations where the character feels like they can’t say no.
Characters safewording out of BDSM scenes and the safeword being ignored.
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.)
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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A League of Their Own (1995)

Dottie Hinson

Geena Davis as Dottie was a Formative^TM gay moment for me, and I’d love any and all fic about her!
I like that she’s intelligent and self-aware and no-nonsense, but can be persuaded sometimes to let loose. And I love how she commands a room and has a talent for leading. (And post-movie, does she use that talent in another arena? Does she go on to do other things? I wouldn’t say no to a Commander-in-Chief crossover.)
Her and Kit after the end of the movie—what’s their relationship like? Does being far away from each other, possibly for the first time in their lives, affect their relationship?
Or maybe something exploring how Dottie’s really really good at baseball, but it’s not her life’s passion, whereas for Kit it is.
I don’t ship Dottie and Jimmy together, but I do love their dynamic and I’d love to see more of it—do they keep in touch? Do they meet accidentally years later? Or maybe and AU where Dottie ends up becoming a baseball coach or otherwise staying involved in the baseball world?
AU where Dottie chooses to stay instead of leaving with Bob at the end of the movie—what might have changed to prompt her decision to stay? How does her staying affect the League, and if/when it’s shut down what does she do?
I’d also love any kind of femslash involving Dottie! I mostly ship her with Mae, but if you have any other F/F Dottie ships I would also love fic for those.
For Dottie/Mae, they’re such opposites to each other, and that’s part of the draw for me. Do they get closer to each other on the road? Do they reunite post-canon, somehow (maybe because of an unexpected tragedy or happy event)?
This movie always has an air of nostalgic sadness to me, all the could-have-been futures and how the end of the League was coming, even when the players didn’t yet know it, and I’d also love anything playing with that theme!

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Avatar: The Last Airbender

Zuko & Iroh

(I haven’t read beyond the first few comics, as a heads up!)
I find this relationship really interesting because they both love and care for each other and yet there’s a lot of things unsaid and space left to explore.
Fire Nation politics before and after the end of the war—does Iroh try to teach Zuko how to navigate politics during his exile and before it? And post-canon, there must be a lot of people, including very powerful people, in the Fire Nation who still support the war. How does Zuko deal with that? How does Iroh help (or not help, if you want to go in that direction!)?
What would happen in a canon divergence AU where they aren’t discovered when they were in Ba Sing Se? Given more time to grow and reflect (and see the effects of Azula’s occupation of Ba Sing Se), how would Zuko have changed, and his relationship with Iroh changed?
What happened in the years between Azulon’s death and Aang being unfrozen? How did their relationship grow and evolve?
Something that’s stayed with me is Iroh looking away but not doing anything/being unable to do anything when Ozai burned Zuko in the Agni Kai, and I’d love to see your take on that.
Would love any fic involving Zuko, Iroh, and dragons, turtleducks, and/or air bisons!
I find Iroh’s past and his involvement and complicity in the Fire Nation’s conquest of the world interesting—he didn’t snap out of it until the war affected people close to him, and until then (and even perhaps after), he was one of the people who was teaching Zuko (and Azula) to accept Fire Nation propaganda. I think that during Zuko’s exile Zuko can’t have been the only person who had some unlearning to do, and I’d love to see an exploration of that and how that might affect their dynamic.
Iroh had a far longer career in the Fire Nation military than Zuko, and was involved in the war for much of his adult life—how does that affect Zuko’s efforts to rebuild and change the Fire Nation post-canon? How does Iroh living in Ba Sing Se square with that and with his conquest of Ba Sing Se? (And what did Iroh do between Lu Ten’s death and the start of canon, anyway. Was he a part of the Order of the White Lotus already? How does he reconcile that with accompanying and helping Zuko? What are his priorities, and do they ever come into conflict with Zuko’s.)
For a lot of canon, Iroh and Zuko seem to fundamentally misunderstand each other’s personalities and push each others’ buttons even as they love and care for each other (Zuko not understanding any of Iroh’s metaphors for a long while is both funny and angsty to me ngl), and I’d love an exploration of that!
Or an AU where Iroh still has the same personality—genial and kind—but never stops believing in Fire Nation propaganda for some reason (and possibly becomes Fire Lord). How would Iroh’s and Zuko’s relationship change?
And of course I’m here for all of the interesting canon divergence AUs and worldbuilding. I’d especially love explorations of firebending (and bending in general—I would love anything interesting and creative involving bending!), Spirit World stuff, the dragons and the Sun Warriors, politics and traditions and cultural differences between nations, and the lore and history of the A:tLA world. (Which is to say, I’d love every kind of worldbending haha.)
I’m also here for taking canon in darker directions. There are already hints and suggestions and background elements which are very dark (elemental deprivation in Fire Nation prison, Earth Kingdom armies crushing firebenders’ hands, the darker sides of bending, the Dai Li mindbending, the general inequalities both in Ba Sing Se and explorations of the divides there, Zhao’s general creepiness and Zuko being encouraged to be nice to him despite that etc.) and I’d love to see takes on that!
Note: especially for this fandom, I’m not a big fan of fic with little to no internal and/or interpersonal conflict.

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Bridgerton (TV)

Anthony Bridgerton/Edwina Sharma

Anthony Bridgerton & Violet Bridgerton

Simon Basset/Anthony Bridgerton

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Chicago Med

Will Halstead/Connor Rhodes

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House of the Dragon

I’d prefer if Rhaenyra/Daemon wasn’t a big part of the fic, please. (Daemon/Laenor is more than okay, as is Alicent/Rhaenyra!)

Rhaenyra Targaryen & Laenor Velaryon

I found Rhaenyra and Laenor’s relationship one of the most interesting in the show—they respect and like each other, are good friends, and are on similar wavelengths, and want good things for each other, but also fundamentally just want different thing—I’d love any exploration of their dynamic!
How would their relationship have changed, if at all, if Joffrey hadn’t been murdered at the start of their marriage? Would they have been closer and more open with each other emotionally without that shadow lying between them?
Rhaenyra’s kids do seem to consider Laenor their father, and I’d love anything playing with that—how do the two of them (and Harwin) feel? How do the rumors (and the knowledge of their truth) affect their relationship?
Laenor and Rhaenyra defending each other, either with weapons/dragons or politically.
The times when Laenor was absorbed in drinking and men and wasn’t a great husband, and Rhaenyra was with Harwin and struggling with being at Court without Laenor’s full support/attention—I would love an exploration of that.
How does Laenor feel about Harwin? Are they friends? Have an uneasy truce? More than friends?
What if one of their attempts had resulted in Rhaenyra becoming pregnant, and at least one of her children had also been Laenor’s? Would that have altered the course of canon in some way, made less people eager to join Aegon’s side if Rhaenyra had indisputably Targaryen heirs? (Or what if Rhaenyra’s children are Laenor’s too, but they’re still black-haired because of Laenor’s grandmother on his mother’s side?)
What if Laenor stays instead of his death being faked? How would that change the events of canon, if Rhaenyra and Daemon don’t get married and shore up the Targaryen claim? How would Laenor being present affect his family’s support of Rhaenyra?
Dragons! Dragons and Targaryens and all that entails are welcome—I’d love to see worldbuilding about the prophecy and Old Valyria and the Targaryen dragonriding (and how Velaryon lore fits in to all of this).
Court politics and war politics, and Rhaenyra and Laenor finding solace and strength in each other.
Honestly I’d be happy with 5k of Rhaenyra and Laenor being friends and caring about each other in any way.

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Jurassic World Trilogy

Fandom-specific dislike: Owen or Claire/Owen as the focus of the fic (having them as a background relationship is more than fine!)

Claire Dearing

I think there’s a lot of interesting potential to explore with Claire—there’s so much about her we don’t know—and I would love your take on her!
What was her past before she came to Jurassic World? What lead her to get the job she holds at Jurassic World?
The dynamic between her and Simon Masrani is really interesting to me—he seems like an idealist where Claire is very pragmatic and, at the start, focused on profit. What brought them together? What would happen in an AU where Masrani lives?
And also, in the second and third movies, Claire has become an idealist who, in her role in the DPG, is willing to take massive risks for a cause she believes in, and has grown to genuinely care about dinosaurs—we saw a bit of that change in her character at the end of the first movie, but I’d love some gapfillers. (Bonus for DPG politics!)
One of the things that draws me to Claire is that she’s confident and competent and very together, and I’d love to see more of that, more of her doing her job and being good at it.
I’m always up for canon divergence AUs—what if the Indominus didn’t escape? What if the volcano on Isla Nublar didn’t erupt? Or any other AUs where one small change leads to cascade of things.
I found the scenes where the Indominus was looking at Claire with its one eye and the scene with the T-Rex and the flare fascinating, almost as if they were drawn to each other in both scenes, and I would love to see more.
I love Maisie, but I also would like to see Claire retain some of her awkwardness with kids—is that why she and Maisie have more difficulty settling together than Owen and Maisie do? (This is a very specific scenario, but I also love the idea of Claire loving Maisie and considering Maisie her daughter, but also knowing she doesn’t want any more kids and definitely not biological kids.)
Role reversal AU! Claire is the raptor trainer and Owen is the park manager–how do their different personalities affect the story?
I loved the glimpses we got of Claire’s relationship with Ellie and Kayla in Dominion, and I’d love to see more (gen or femslash!). Do they stay in touch after everything? Do they have more dinosaur-related adventures together? Are there alternate universes where they met earlier? Perhaps Claire meets Kayla on one of her DPG missions, or Ellie when she’s trying to lobby Congress to save Isla Nublar.

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Muhteşem Yüzyıl | Magnificent Century

This is not a DNW, because I realize how hard this would be to actually gauge, but I’d like it if the fic wasn’t itself glorifying slavery. Examples of fics I’d like: Mihrimah and Hürrem going about their lives in a fic which doesn’t focus on slavery at all, fics which push back on the narratives of the show wrt slavery, fic where the main character doesn’t see anything wrong with the situation but there are contextual clues . Examples of fic I wouldn’t like: fic with a focus on slavery where, for example, a slave being punished for not accepting their circumstances is seen positively (not just by an unreliable narrator but by the fic itself), fic where the pop history “well Ottoman slaves led better lives than they would in their home” stuff is accepted uncritically and is a narrative theme. (Again, I realize this is really vague and hard to define! But basically, as long as the narrative of the fic isn’t outright a ‘here’s why IRL slavery is Good and the Ottoman Empire is Amazing, actually’ manifesto, it should be fine.)

Hürrem

Hürrem is one of my faves in this series, and despite the central role she plays, I feel like there’s so much more to explore, especially her as a character outside of Süleyman and her relationship. I love that she’s smart and plots her way up and rewards loyalty and is geniune, but is also prone to gloating and giving herself away too soon and is dismissive and self-centered.
Süleyman wasn’t great to her, IMO (or any of the other women—or people—in the story), and I’d love to see the unhealthy side of their dynamic explored. Hürrem is traumatized and abused and hurt by him, over and over again, and she loves him and Süleyman is the person whose protection shields her from all of her enemies, and that’s such a twisted, interesting relationship to me.
What would change if Hürrem had gotten closer to the other high-ranking women in the harem, especially Mahidevran, Hafsa, and Hatice, instead of them becoming enemies? Hafsa seemed to almost reconcile with Hürrem when Süleyman almost died, and Hatice and Hürrem actually had a kind of sweet relationship before it went off the rails (fuck you Ibrahim), and I’d love to see explorations of AU scenarios based on those jumping points.
A situation where Mustafa and Hürrem work together (or an AU scenario based on their conversation, where they are on the same side somehow, eg if Hürrem ended up fostering him). I’d be into Hürrem/Mustafa or Mihrimah/Mustafa, or Mehmed/Mustafa seen through Hürrem’s or Mihrimah’s POV. Generally, I’d be into all the half-sibling incest.
Hürrem taking a more active role in state affaris, in addition to dynastic politics.
I’d be very interested in F/F, especially Hürrem with Nigar, Hatice, or Mahidevran. I’d love either complicated love-hate relationships or AUs where they grow closer and team up for whatever reason (Mahidevran doesn’t have children and thus has no reason to resent Hürrem? Something changes in the chain of events that lead Nigar to work with Hatice? Hatice isn’t married to Ibrahim, or doesn’t love him, or Hürrem and Ibrahim don’t become enemies?).

Hürrem & Mihrimah

For this fandom, I like the politics and the plotting and the harem intrigue, and the complicated relationships between the two women I’ve requested.
Whether you want to stick to show canon or also incorporate elements of IRL history is up to you.
Their relationship as Mihrimah grows older is fascinating to me, how Hürrem went from vaguely ahistorically being disappointed to have a daughter to relying on and trusting Mihrimah so much.
What would happen if Mihrimah had actually run off with or married any of the other men she was into on the show, and especially Pedro?
Mihrimah never marrying Rüstem (because Hürrem kept her promise), or getting divorce when she first wanted to—what would have changed, both in the personal relationship between the two women and politically?
How would things have changed if Hürrem had died earlier, or later? If Hürrem lived, would the tension between Selim and Bayezid still have reached a boiling point, and would Mihrimah have supported Bayezid so openly? If she had died earlier, would Mihrimah still have plotted against Mustafa?
Mihrimah and her other brothers and Hürrem—they all seem very close, and I’d love to see family moments together (but also the inevitable looming tragedy of someone having to take the throne, if you like angst).
What would change if Mehmed hadn’t been poisoned,
Mihrimah and Hürrem doing political things together, or Mihrimah defending her mother from her enemies.
Mihrimah’s and Hürrem’s relationship in the show changes after Mihrimah’s daughter is born, and I’d love to see more of that
Mihrimah grieving Hürrem after her death (what propelled Mihrimah’s eventual reconciliation with Selim? What political power does she have after her mother’s death, and is it still dependent on her mother(‘s legend)?).
Mihrimah has a streak of cruelty in her that Hürrem, despite her many flaws, never does, and I’d love to see an exploration of how she’s more like Süleyman than Hürrem in this and many other regards, given that so many people in the show compare her to Hürrem.

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The West Wing

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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The White Queen (TV)

Elizabeth of York Queen of England & Elizabeth Woodville

I actually found the witchcraft and foresighy and curses quite interesting in the show, especially the idea of curses growing beyond the spellcaster’s control; I’d be interested in seeing more magic-related worldbuilding.
(If you prefer to follow close to IRL history I’m also totally fine with that!)
Elizabeth of York ending up becoming queen regnant somehow would be interesting IMO, in many possible scenarios.
- Maybe Elizabeth Woodville doesn’t have any male children, so Elizabeth grows up as Edward’s presumed heir—what would happen then?
- Henry dies before Elizabeth has children, or even before they get married, and Elizabeth ends up being queen.
- Or maybe instead of casting their lot in with Henry VII, Elizabeth Woodville decides she’ll crown her daughter queen regnant; after all, she’s the only living heir of the last king as far as the public knows.
- Neither Henry nor Richard survive Bosworth, and suddenly Elizabeth is the only viable contender for the throne.
- Richard survives Bosworth and Elizabeth marries Richard, but they have no children.
- Either way, I would love to see how Elizabeth of York becoming queen regnant changes her relationship with her mother, and to what extent Elizabeth Woodville helps her.
- What would happen if Richard of Shrewsbury turned up again after Lizzie became queen?
If Edward lived longer, until his sons became adults, would things have changed?
On a different note, would Anthony Rivers being named Lord Protector have changed things at all? What if Edward broke tradition and named Elizabeth Woodville (or his mother) to the role, what kind of changes would that have wrought?
(Also I ship Elizabeth Woodville with Anthony Rivers, if you want to go in that direction!)A moment from Elizabeth of York’s childhood, and being the oldest daughter of a king. What lessons does she learn from her mother?
What would have happened if Richard had won at Bosworth?
What if Lizzie didn’t stop plotting with her mother after Arthur was born?
What stories does Elizabeth of York tell her children about their grandmother? What memories, sweet or bitter, does she have of her after her death?

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Vikings (TV)

Aslaug/Lagertha

Lagertha

Lagertha & Bjorn

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