RelationShipping Letter

[copacet]

Dear author/artist,

Thanks for writing something for me! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. The first thing I’d like to say is, feel free to ignore everything in this letter except the DNWs. I tried to come up with a few specific prompts for each fandom/relationship, but while the prompts are all things I’d like to read, I do love surprises! Anything that involves the characters and maybe hits one or two of my likes will delight me. So if any of the prompts happen to grab you, great, but please don’t feel constrained if you have a better idea - I’d much rather read something you had fun writing. Also, any rating is fine.

 

Likes:

competence (physical/intellectual/superpower-related/etc.), plotty casefic, time-travel/Groundhog Day plots, characters being intense about each other, characters rescuing each other, characters rescuing themselves, characters going into Determinator mode when the other is in danger, canon-divergence/for-want-of-a-nail AUs, canon-compliant fic, pining/UST, hurt/comfort, angst, action/adventure, outsider POV, AUs where the characters still have their powers/skills, dimension travel and/or meeting alternate versions of themselves, loyalty kink, self-sacrifice, ethical dilemmas, characters knowing each other really well, complicated relationships, jealousy/possessiveness/co-dependency/protectiveness, us-against-the-world, casual physical affection, bedsharing, one or both characters trying to resist temptation, sex-pollen/aliens-made-them-do-it situations leading to an acknowledgement of repressed feelings, afterlife fic, character studies, forbidden romance.

 

DNWs: 

non-con between requested characters, m-preg, ABO, ageplay/infantilism, vore, explicit content involving characters under 16, graphic depiction of bodily fluids other than blood.

 

Things I am fine with (not necessarily requests, but things some people might DNW that are not a problem for me): 

character death, unhappy/bittersweet endings, dubcon, infidelity, unrequited feelings, violence, darkfic, asexuality, fusions with other canons (even ones I’m unfamiliar with as long as the plot is clear in-story).

 

Requests

 

Debra/Dexter (Dexter)

 

General

 

I was shipping these two right from “If I could have feelings at all, I’d have them for Deb” in the pilot, so I was stunned when the showrunners did decide to go in the incest direction in later seasons, even if they pulled back from it by the end. Anyway, at the beginning of the series, I think Dexter loves Deb more than he’s aware of. That shot of him grinning at a picture of her as he listens to her voicemail, even when there’s no one around to fake a smile for, speaks volumes. Even as a kid, he just wants Deb to be happy - he gets injured climbing a fence to get her ball, feels guilty when Harry takes away her dog because of him, sleeps in her room when she’s scared at night, etc. My favorite parts of the show are when they show their devotion to each other, even when choosing each other means making a sacrifice (Dexter killing Brian and imprisoning Hannah, Deb covering for his crimes, etc.). 

 

Prompts

• Season 2 AU where he does turn himself in to Doakes. Deb has to re-examine their relationship and comes to some badly-timed realizations.
  
  • This could focus on his surrender/the immediate aftermath
  • Or it could be set later, with Dexter in prison, and Deb visiting him either just to talk or to ask his advice about catching another serial killer (like a more helpful version of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs).
• Season 4 AU where Deb talks to Rita, who mentions that Dexter had already told her about his mother’s death, allowing Deb to put together that Dexter already knew that Brian was his brother.
• Season 8 fix-it fic diverging from mid-season
  • One or both of them receives serious injuries in the murder-suicide attempt, so other characters find out about it.
  • Or just something where Hannah never showed back up to ruin everything.
• Some sort of Season 7 AU diverging near or during the finale:
  • They go on the run
  • Dexter turns himself in so Deb won’t have to live with LaGuerta’s death (and all his other kills) on her conscience.
  • They decide to face the legal music together. To avoid being forced to choose between testifying against each other, and potentially getting caught lying under oath, they decide to dissolve Dexter’s adoption and get married for the spousal privilege (neither of them is happy about dissolving the adoption, but if they know they’re siblings regardless of blood, a piece of paper isn’t all that matters either).
• Dexter telling Debra that he killed Brian to save her.
• Outsider POV of someone figuring out their relationship.

Peter/Nathan (Heroes)

 

General

 

I love how even though their relationship is complicated and frequently pretty fucked-up, they are always each other's most important person. Angst is good, either the canonical their-lives-end-up-pretty-terrible kind or the guilt/repression/denial-over their-poorly-repressed-incestuous-feelings-for-one-another kind. Both hopeful endings and dark endings are fine with me. This is also one of those relationships where the "jealousy/possessiveness/co-dependency/protectiveness" part of my likes is very relevant. 

 

Prompts: 

• First-time fic, either pre-series or during (or after!) the canon timeline, depending on how long you think they were able to repress their feelings. 
• I am endlessly open to interpretations of what, exactly, happened in that treehouse. 
• Fix-it fic for Nathan's death would also be great 
  
  • canon divergence where he doesn't die in the first place
  • or an AU/post-series fic where Peter figures out how to bring him back. 
•  an AU where they actually get to use their superpowers together on a regular basis, for whatever heroic (or nefarious, if it's a dark AU) purposes. 
• Or maybe a fic where things don't go to hell quite as badly and they have to navigate hiding their relationship during Nathan's political career. 
• The fallout (personal, political, whatever) if their relationship ever did become public.
• Nathan angsting/feeling guilty over his attraction to his younger brother.

Harry/Thomas (The Dresden Files)

 

General:

 

Between the canonical fake-boyfriends ploy and the fact that Harry describes how attractive Thomas is every single time he shows up, I feel like Jim Butcher is just kind of handing this one to us. Anyway, I love that they’re protective of each other - Thomas mysteriously and repeatedly helping Harry/saving his life was what made me start shipping in the first place - but also that they respect each other’s abilities and feel comfortable calling on each other for backup. Dubious consent due to Thomas’s nature is fine.

Prompts: 

• Something from when they were living together: sexual tension, first-time fic, etc.
• One of them gets hurt while protecting the other - nothing permanent, but serious enough that the uninjured one feels guilty about it.
• Thomas has to feed while they’re trapped somewhere (either alone or with someone who’s clearly uncomfortable with the idea of that kind of violation) and Harry offers himself.
• Thomas POV, especially something where he feels guilty for wanting Harry and assumes it’s unrequited.
• Harry admitting to himself that his appreciation of Thomas’s looks is not just heterosexual manly admiration.
• During a case, they act protective/close to one another in front of another member of the White Council, maybe Ramirez, who concludes that they’re lovers. So they have to keep up that pretense again, and maybe it stops being a pretense (or maybe they both secretly wish it wasn’t a pretense but won’t admit it to each other).
• Just generally, outsider POV from someone who doesn’t know they’re related.
• Outsider POV from someone who DOES know they’re related.