Rare Male Slash Exchange 2020 letter

[skazka]

Likes:

- historical details, material culture, pop culture for the era the fic is set in, historical politics (feel free to pick and choose, embroider, and ignore historical reality as desired)
- allegiances and loyalty (especially loyalty kink!)
- dreams and nightmares (dream sex and dream symbolism are both a+)
- trauma and PTSD, memory and personal baggage, literal and metaphorical haunting
- friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers-while-remaining-enemies
- pining both reciprocated and unreciprocated
- hurt/comfort: post-whump h/c, battle aftermath, h/c where a powerful/prickly/difficult person is the recipient of the comfort whether they like it or not, h/c where a villain is doing the comforting (for mindfucky sinister reasons or otherwise), h/c where the 'hurt' is embarrassing or a chronic condition with no easy fix
- sex happening before feelings and then feelings show up to the party and make everything weird: characters in denial about their developing feelings, or reluctantly finding themselves feeling something real
- bulletproof loyalty, whether or not it's deserved, and all kinds of loyalty kink
- pet sociopaths -- morally fucky characters doing heinous ruthless things for the one they love, with or without their permission
- infidelity -- guilt, rationalizations, the thrill of the forbidden
- conversely, I'm fine with open relationships/background relationships/"x and y are on a break"/anything to facilitate characters boning down with people other than their canon love interests so long as it's not character assassination of said love interests.
- all different kinds of historical/genre AUs. Film noir AUs, theater company AUs, 70s horror movie AUs, AUs setting canon in the 1980s corporate world or the English Regency -- any high-concept AU you want to write I want to read.

Side pairings, background pairings, and unrequested characters are all welcome. The prompts I list below are definitely not comprehensive or hard-and-fast -- if nothing here inspires you or if you're inspired to mix and match or write a role-reversal of something I've laid out feel free.

Smut Likes:

- size differences
- age differences
- aggressive inexperienced characters
- body worship -- scars, hands, body hair, muscles
- blowjobs, handjobs, frottage, intercrural and non-penetrative sex
- clothed/semi-clothed sex, or where only one party is naked
- fancy clothes, uniforms, layers, dressing and undressing
- hatesex and fighting-turned-fucking, arguments, verbal abuse, insults, physical roughhousing and wrestling
- erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation
- breathplay, choking
- cuddlefucking, lazy sex, affectionate post-sex hangouts, pillow talk
- inhibitions and interpersonal baggage in the bedroom
- anonymous or pseudo-anonymous hookups
- sex that's both clumsy/painful and tender
- wound fingering/wound fucking/kinking on the pain and power involved in historical medicine
- rope bondage
- caning and flogging
- characters with physical imperfections (scars, bad joints, body parts that won't necessarily cooperate)
- characters seeking sex for comfort (and finding it)
- sadomasochism, pain, rough body play -- grabbing/shoving/yanking/hitting/punching/etc.
- smoking, sharing cigarettes, cigarette burns
- drug and alcohol use (relaxation and altered states of consciousness during sex as well as substance abuse and dependency)
- time-period-specific sexual practices and meeting places
- head-shaving or hair-cutting, especially nonconsensual/dubiously consensual or degrading/clinical hair-cutting -- I don't know how to work this into any of my fandoms but if you'd like to write it I'd love to read it.
- noncon and dubcon -- especially fucked-up sexual bargaining, villains menacing protagonists, dark!protagonists menacing villains, antagonistic characters mutually attempting to dubcon one another. (For more about my noncon/dubcon likes you can check out my 2020 smut4smut letter.)

I'm not specifically requesting art this year, but if you feel a visual treat coming on I would love to receive it. My art likes can be found in last year's Trick or Treat letter.

DNWs: Self-harm due to psychological distress; eating disorders; child sexual abuse; unrequested incest; teacher/student AUs; pregnancy; omegaverse/BDSM AUs; focus on coming-out or gender transition; outright noncon where the victim comes around to wanting it by the end; urban fantasy werewolf tropes like packs and alpha; scat. I'd rather not read explicit sex with characters under 16.

*



Get Out (2017)

Chris Washington/Rod Williams

- Chris and Rod spending a weekend together either pre-canon or post-canon. Being dog dads, getting breakfast, fucking around, drinking a couple beers, going to meet Rod's parents -- I like the canonical suggestion that Rod's a little jealous of Chris' time and company, so feel free to write crazy friend-pining.

- Chris and Rod vs. other heavily allegorical movie monsters -- vampires, pod people, shapeshifting alien fuckups, Lovecraftian cults! Either literal supernatural/sci-fi threats or just an exploration of the wild world of metaphor. I really liked Us (2019) as well, and if you'd like to write a crossover with that film or a fusion with Chris and Rod battling their alternate selves and grappling with those crazy horror-movie metaphors, I would love it.

- Chris and Rod falling in love over a cross-country road trip to rescue other victims of the Coagula procedure or spread the word. (Successfully, please!) Filthy car sex optional. I love everything about road trip fic, from the logistics of cramped quarters to the chances for weird roadside attractions.

- Chris and Rod have to get married because of reasons and wind up married for real.

- Angsty fic where Chris needs to unpack all the shit that happened to him and Rod is there for him -- what would Chris do if someone tried to hurt Rod? What would Rod do if someone messed with Chris? For all the ass-kicking both of them do in canon, I don't get the sense that Chris (or Rod) are remotely comfortable with violence -- what would the aftermath be like if they had to fight and kill for one another?

- AU where Chris and Rod are true crime podcast hosts (in love) and no one tries to kidnap them and steal their bodies. Leverage Rod's obsession with Jeffrey Dahmer for the purposes of good! If you want to do any genre riffs or epistolary-type fic using the podcast format, I'd be crazy about that; feel free to parody specific genre conventions or just write these guys unraveling or exploring mysteries. Or an AU where the events of canon take place and they're still true crime podcast hosts in love, using the medium to get their message out and disseminate the truth about the Armitage family.

Fandom-specific DNWs: scenarios where the Armitages win; higher-than-canonical levels of police violence; Rose or Jeremy being brainwashed by the Armitage family.

Fandom-specific smut prompts: desperate sex for comfort; brojobs; lazy Sunday-morning fucking around; Rod's inappropriate pillow talk/Rod running his mouth during sex; tipsy/stoned sex; long-distance sexting; quarantined together and sex ensues; cuddlefucking.


Henry IV Part One - Shakespeare
Henry IV of England/Prince Hal

- My eternal kryptonite is middle-aged men yelling, and Henry giving Hal such a brutal dressing-down in Act 3, Scene 2 absolutely hits the spot. I'd love anything about the fucked-up ways these two use speech, both on their own and toward one another -- it's fascinating to me that Hal seems to know he can't use his words (or at least not his wit) to defend himself against his own father, and the push and pull between them seems ripe to be both complicated and combative.

- … on that note, a bunch of the stuff Henry attributes to Hal's delinquency and God's divine punishment for their respective sins sounds, uh, really dirty. If you want to do anything fucked-up and/or filthy with penance, sin, divine judgment, and the rod of heaven!!!! I would love to read it. I'd love to read Henry being in denial about his incestuous feelings, Henry feeling deep guilt and shame but not enough to not do what he's already planning on doing, or Henry finding dubious workarounds for how he's not actually being as evil as he could be. Ins and outs of medieval Catholic ritual: optional but extremely welcome.

- Henry compares Hal to Richard II in this play, which is… fraught, given the whole play that just came before this one. Does Hal assume his father had Richard killed on purpose? If there was ever anything between Henry and Richard, or the specter of a potential something, does that color his feelings for Hal? If so, is Hal aware of it at all? What would it take to make him broach the topic?

- Canon-divergent AU where Rumor's proclamations are partly true and either/both of them is injured or captured at Shrewsbury instead of triumphing -- how does that impact Hal's position in his father's esteem?

- Hal tries to use his Eastcheap acquaintances to make his father jealous, either in self-defense or active provocation; Henry makes it weird. Jealousy, wild suppositions, Henry's actual opinions on the likes of Falstaff and not just Hal's daddy LARPing, etc.

Henry IV Part Two - Shakespeare
Henry IV of England/Prince Hal

Once more, with crown monologues!

- Something that takes the genre of the play and takes it someplace else: dad murder. Incest plus dad murder. Basically, I want the Jacobean revenge tragedy AU of this play, in whatever direction that takes you.

- Hal makes some concessions with his time and person under the assumption that his father will die soon, only for "soon" to come less quickly than expected and for their remaining time together to be increasingly fraught. I'm interested in the shape that this pairing might take as Hal passes out of the whole "youthful shithead" phase into a level of adulthood where being under his dad's thumb is increasingly inconvenient.

- Henry and Hal being cruel to each other! I know this is a fairly fucked-up desire, but Hal's ability to be nasty at his supposed friends' expense is one of my favorite things and I'd love something where his ostensible growing reconciliation to his father (or a scenario where they end up spending more time together across the board) ends up breeding some contempt between the two of them on top of their respective desperate needs for [approval, praise, etc.]/[vindication, control, etc.]

- Historical AUs set in different eras are totally fair game to mix and match with any of my prompts, but I'm especially craving an interwar British AU for these two. An AU where the family drama has played out in just another rich terrible family rather than the royal family of England is probably in order, but if you can swing the latter I would also love it. I just want fucked-up intergenerational cultural shifts and impending threats and societal shifts and also Hal doing a little bit of cocaine and fucking his dad.

- I'm a simple soul, I love an incredibly fraught power-struggle ship between one (1) current monarch and one (1) future monarch. I'd love something about these two and how their political positions make their relationship more complicated -- does the way they're already in a precarious position make it easier to rationalize violating multiple massive taboos? What does their clandestine relationship look like from the outside?

Fandom-specific smut likes for both plays: late medieval clothing porn, especially untied points/yanked-down hose; dressing/undressing; fully or partly-dressed sex; intercrural sex; wound fingering; face-slapping; choking; sexual jealousy.

Fandom-specific DNWs for both plays: past Richard II/Hal, sexual abuse/sexual contact beginning when Hal is <16. Hal's age in Part One is pretty nebulous, so as with Rome I'd just prefer no fic that explicitly stipulates he's under 16 or in which he's essentially helpless.


The Little Stranger - Sarah Waters
Roderick Ayres/Roderick Ayres' Navigator

'It was a bad, bad time. All Rod’s injuries were at their worst, his scars ghastly, his leg so bashed about it really seemed as though he might be more or less a cripple for the rest of his life. But he wouldn’t do anything to get himself better, that was the maddening thing. He just sat in here, brooding, and smoking—drinking too, I think. You know his navigator died, when their plane came down? I think he blamed himself for that. It was nobody’s fault, of course. —No one’s but the Germans’, I mean. But they say it’s always hard on the pilots when their crews are lost. The boy was younger than Roddie; only just nineteen. Rod used to say that it ought to have been the other way around: that the boy had had more to live for than he did. That was fun for Mother and me to hear, as you can imagine.’ [The Little Stranger, Ch. 5]

- So Roddie's late navigator is out of the picture by the time of canon, due to a small case of being dead, but I find the suggestion of what their relationship was like really interesting and I'm a huge sucker for WWII-era doomed military romances so I'd love anything filling in what their relationship might have been like. Go full depressing foreshadowing or just speculate a little about what happened between these two.

- The atmosphere of the war years sounds like it was incredibly intense, especially for two young men in the RAF -- I'd love fic where that ambient level of constant stress and imminent danger brings these two together, or where they find some consolation with one another. Roddie seems smitten with anything with an engine in it and it's easy to picture him enjoying himself resoundingly well during his reconnaissance work -- did he find a kindred spirit or a polar opposite?

- Wartime supernatural stuff, either while the two of them are serving together or in the aftermath of Roddie's smash -- the presence of spirits in canon is a bit complicated but feel free to go balls-out with weird atmospheric gothic stuff, unwanted apparitions, mysterious phenomena + sardonic gay love.

- Canon-divergent AU where Roddie's smash has one more survivor than in canon, and he and his friend return to Hundreds Hall together -- does it make the business of fighting back the house's decay any easier? Does it just further complicate matters when the house's strange sympathy with Faraday comes into play?

Fandom-specific smut prompts: meeting by chance at a gay bar/queer party and recognizing one another; hooking up like it's your last night on earth; situational homosexuality; hooking up in public or semi-public places.

Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Thomas Cromwell/Henry Fitzroy, Duke of Richmond

- Fitzroy tries to seduce Cromwell over to supporting his low-key dead-man's-shoes campaign against Henry VIII, with actual seduction this time. I love all the ways that Fitzroy takes after his father, as well as the ways he clearly has felt the negative sting of Henry's uneven affections and quick changes of favor, but also all the ways he's more than happy to take that out on other people -- is Cromwell more capable of clocking his king's flaws when they're shared with his son?

- Fitzroy thinks it'd be very thrilling and erotic and pastoral to bang Cromwell while they're traveling together, or on that hunting expedition that never seems to materialize in canon, etc… Cromwell has thoughts. I love all the various mundane occasions that bring them together and any of the spicy banalities and holiday festivities of Tudor life you want to incorporate would make me happy.

- Cromwell somewhat grudgingly tutors Fitzroy on the way fucked-up power relations at court work, or any other messy scene along the line of their canonical encounters where he's shocked and wary at Fitzroy's brazenness regarding his intentions for after Henry Senior's death but still constantly finding some way of commenting on how much Fitzroy looks like a gorgeous younger version of his father.

- Alternately, a canon-divergent (and historically divergent) take where Henry VIII does kick the bucket at some point in canon before Fitzroy's death, leaving Cromwell sprinting to cover his own bases while protecting everyone he's privately sworn to protect and dealing with another terrible prince.

- Anything dealing with Fitzroy's illness, even if it's just to make him linger on a little longer during the last clusterfuck years of Cromwell's life. Fitzroy is acutely aware of his father's dread of contagious disease; something where Cromwell's relative presence during those times of poor health brings them closer, with weird results.

Thomas Cromwell/Henry VIII of England

- Anything to do with weird gestures of ownership and any kind of loyalty kink would make me happy here, going either way. Cromwell's idea of the service offered to his masters has pretty concrete consequences for other people, and Henry's idea of an affectionate gesture can get real possessive, so I'd love anything that dwells a little on that -- the bit in The Mirror & The Light when Cromwell talks about Henry sending him bedhangings got me REAL good. (M&TL: he finds himself thinking of his spectacular bed: the king has given him a set of covers and bed hangings, purple woven with silver tissue, emblazoned with the royal arms. You are mine asleep or awake, Henry is saying: like a lover.) The most recent installment of canon doesn't end on such a warm note between the two of them, but I'd be very happy too with fic set when Cromwell's stocks are riding higher.

- This is my most farfetched of ship desires: fic where Henry and Cromwell meet pre-canon. I have no fucking idea how this would work or when or where but I just love both men's respective bygone youths -- Henry as a gorgeous springy golden beauty, Cromwell as a hard-bitten mercenary -- and how they cast a shadow over their respective adult lives.

- Canon has lots of good bits with traveling, visits, and Tudor court entertainments, but I want more, more, more. If you want to put a developing Henry/Cromwell relationship against the backdrop of mundane life developments, or with awkward courtly spectators alongside the dark undercurrents, I would be super into that.

- Henry's response circa M&TL to Cromwell being compared to Piers Gaveston and Robert de Vere… let's talk about that. For that matter, what does Cromwell think about Edward II/Richard II as precursors and patterns for the whole "kings with uppity minions" thing that bites him and Henry in the ass from time to time? If you want to go deep on Tudor historiography, go for it; if you just want to write these two considering their historical precedents while they bone down, also go for it.- What kind of lawyerly workarounds can Cromwell manage to justify sodomy, or to define what they're doing as Technically Not That?

- Anything to do with Henry's various injuries and health issues -- or on the flipside Cromwell's recurring Italian fever. Cromwell has very good reasons to be highly attuned to the prospect of Henry's impending death (or at least foul temper) and there's a lot of complicated stuff going on there about how Henry understands his power to be reflected in his person.

Fandom-specific smut prompts: fully-clothed/partially-clothed sex; nocturnal visitations; Tudor clothing porn (esp. with Cromwell commentary about the textile industry) abutting actual porn; intimacy while nominally discussing something else; sex while one party is pining for somebody else and the other party is pining for the person they're having sex with; former Italian hustler Cromwell.

HBO Rome
Julius Caesar/Octavian

- Atia's readiness to believe that her teenage son shrewdly seduced his great-uncle for political gain is sure something and her pushiness about it cracks me the fuck up every time -- so what if Octavian decides to mess with her head and her expectations of what that relationship would look like? Does he take advantage of new latitude as a supposed lover, to political ends or personal ones, or just get a kick out of people thinking he has Caesar's special attention? If you choose to take things a counterhistorical/counter-canonical direction with Caesar's assassination, I'd love something where Octavian tries to take the lead in Caesar's defense and Caesar is appreciative but confounded.

- I love the scene in 1x10 where Octavian anoints Caesar with blood before his triumph, and I'd love more scenes of them interacting in that kind of ambiguous state where Octavian is acting from his position of religious authority and Caesar is nominally submitting to him. What's that like for a man with Caesar's track record of achievements? I'd love any fic that deals with Roman state religion, Octavian's skeptical deism, Caesar's history with symbols and omens, astronomy, haruspexy, dream interpretation, really any of it. (All the weird blood stuff in the triumph preparation scene is also wildly sexy, so take that wherever you want.)

- How does Caesar see Octavian's more cold-blooded/borderline antisocial traits? His approach to politics is pretty different from his eventual heir's, but I'd love anything where the two of them size one another up, or where Caesar reflects on Octavian's appetite for ruthlessness, whether it elicits admiration or unease. (Or both!) The series really showcases the mindfucks Caesar's capable of through judicious employment of mercy and forgiveness -- does that work as well with Octavian when he's feeling nervy?

- Octavian wants to top Caesar, Caesar is keenly aware of why this is Not The Thing… but they figure it out. Roman sexual hangups are my kryptonite, especially as they dovetail with the complicated balances of real-life power between these two and their associates; feel free to make the full spectrum of Roman sex hangups take center stage here. (Or omit them as an area of focus, if that's not your speed, though I'd prefer no ahistorically well-adjusted sexual norms.)

- Octavian isn't great in canon at keeping the secret of Caesar's epilepsy -- though with a family like that, secrets seem hard to maintain -- but I'd love something where he's a bit better at keeping that specific element under wraps, and Caesar is a little grateful, or where his slightly more skeptical take on the interference of gods in the lives of mortals prompts him to take a different tack with an illness that's the supposed product of divine judgment.

Titus Pullo/Octavian

- Both of them pet sociopath-ing each other -- Pullo cracking heads for Octavian's sake? Octavian playing the cold-blooded politician/chessmaster to help Pullo out? I'm a sucker for seeing Pullo's flashes of decency and caring (though his bloodthirsty nastiness is also a strong part of the appeal tbh) and I love the bit in 2x09 where Pullo remarks (tbh, fairly) that Octavian has never been the affectionate type -- what's it like for Titus Pullo to still be the more stable, closer-to-earth party in so many of his relationships with men?

- At some point they hook up (in s2 after Octavian has declared himself a Caesar? back in s1 where Octavian is still a youth?) and there's a conflict of sexual norms: Octavian expects Titus Pullo to treat him roughly as a big hairy coarse former soldier, but Titus Pullo expects Octavian to treat him roughly as an imperious aristocrat and budding sadist, and they're both stymied because they both kind of want it.

- Titus Pullo gets a more hands-on role in Octavian's devirgination than he does in canon -- either at the time of 1x06 (Atia said she wanted Octavian to penetrate somebody, but she didn't specify whom) or later on with the memory of that brothel visit in both their minds.

- After their s2 reunion, Octavian tries to show his old teacher suitable preferments… and Pullo does not like it. Anything with Titus Pullo simultaneously appreciating the better things in life as he knows them and being his usual forthright self would be great for me.

- That look Pullo gives when he sees Octavian for the first time after the actor-shift! Delicious! Anything where they catch up. (I also loved how readily Octavian identifies Pullo as Vorenus' best man later on.) Loyalty kink, road trips, personal service, "personal service", whatever.

Mark Antony/Octavian

- Some scenario where Antony and Octavian are both separately persuaded it's in their best interest to make up… at least for the time being… and have to pretend they're on cordial terms at a dinner party/in public/in front of the Senate/in front of their troops/in front of Cleopatra. Basically fake dating without the dating. Cue ancient Roman gay chicken, hatesex behind the scenes at a social/public/religious event and then having to go back and pretend to be amiable, etc.

- Both of them processing some fucked-up feelings after the death of Caesar, for a rare moment where the immediate fallout of Caesar's literal and metaphorical inheritance isn't getting in the way. Alternately, a fic where Antony is among Caesar's assassins, and the politics get messy.

- If you just want to write more of Antony kicking the shit out of Octavian, I would be very happy. (Octavian managing to kick the shit out of Antony is also very welcome, especially in ways that hurt his pride.) """"Playful"""" sparring gets serious, impromptu rough body play during sex, fighting turning into fucking or "don't look at my boner while we fight!" denial as they both get off on mistreating one another -- listen, I'm sorry, but all the choking in light of Octavian's canon kinks… yeah.

- Fucked up consent issues going every which way! Antony thinks he's dubconning Octavian, Octavian thinks he's dubconning Antony, both of them are right. I love many flavors of dubcon (as evidenced by that way-too-long list up there) and would be happy to read any situation you can contrive to put these guys into.

- Something set during Lupercalia -- the historical Antony seems to have been involved in the festival in some capacity (cf. the whole "offering Caesar a crown" thing) and the tone of those festivities seems like a great backdrop for all hell to break loose. In-group politics, major event-planning logistics, teeth-gritting social niceties while Octavian and Antony are at each other's throats, or just boning down while undergoing ritual purification.

Fandom-specific smut likes: facefucking/anything with the outrageous Roman hangups about oral sex and the mouth; Octavian getting sex-choked/slapped; Octavian doing the sex-choking/face-slapping; rough body play; intercrural sex; fucking in the spoons position.

Fandom-specific DNW notes: This fandom gets wiggle room on my normal guidelines regarding underage sex since the timeline of canon compresses historical events a little; I'd prefer no explicit sex straight-up stating that Octavian is under 16. Fic dealing with Atia's assumption that Caesar and Octavian have sex in 1x04, or the general messiness of Roman sexual norms around age and class are also totally fine. Overall I'd like Octavian to be aware, active, and/or taking initiative in sexual situations, ideally being a bit of a bastard, even in dubcon/noncon situations. Octavian's mommy issues and canonical incest with Octavia are also 100% welcome and fine in the background.