Ship Swap Dear Author Letter

[tielan]

shipswap is open for sign-ups!

First things first - I'm always about the female characters, their goals, their hopes, their dreams, their wants and desires and agency. So I hope this is in line with what you can write, because I love me the female characters and their stories.

Secondly, my preferences tend towards het pairings, but not ‘romantic’ ones. The traditional roses, dinner dates, jewellery, etc., are not really the thing for any of the women in my requests, although that doesn't rule out gifts, surprises, or nice little things that the guys can do for them.

relationship tropes I like
Girl Saves Boy: He's in trouble, she comes to the rescue and either outwits, outfights, or just plain takes out the enemy.
Battle Couples: They're in a tight spot and they take out the baddies together. Love-in-a-foxhole kind of stuff, before they come out all guns blazing.
D/s: Headgames, bedgames - always consensual and careful, but hot, intimate, and revealing - character study through sex - love it!
Learning Boundaries: Different people have different expectations of a relationship: behaviour, standards, time together. I like seeing the negotiation of these boundaries - she doesn't think twice about touching other guys, but he sees it as flirting. They have to learn how far they'll stretch for the other person.
Falling In Love: I love reading fics about characters falling in love. Not necessarily in a romantic sense - in fact, I'd strongly prefer you avoid any flowers, chocolates, dinner dates, or anything that might be considered conventionally "romantic" - but how they come to appreciate each other and get together. Points on a line, the high points (and low) of their interactions - especially the arguments and conflicts they have.
Quiet Angst: I like the jealous male trope but only if he's quietly jealous. Displays of jealous rage? I would advise the femmechar to run – RUN AND NEVER LOOK BACK. Buttoned-down angsting is the way to go, but only for the guys. Or open confrontation – because these guys are heroic characters for a reason. They’d rather take the hit on the chin and know.

relationship tropes I don't like
silly misunderstandings: Anything that could be cleared up simply by confronting and clarifying the other character. You know - she saw him kissing another woman and goes away and sulks, or he misheard part of a conversation and got butthurt. ARGH. NO.
babyfic: It frustrates me when a baby is used as a reason to get a couple together. I can buy the idea of caring for a child bringing people together (with them falling in love as they work with each other over the child), but I dislike the idea of a child being the symbol of 'perfect love'.
conventional romance: None of the women I've picked are 'conventional'. Avoid conventional romantic tropes: chocolates, flowers, jewellery, etc. Go wild, be different!
female jealousy tropes: I hate hate hate hate hate jealousy tropes for females about their rivals for guys. Not that I don't think women get jealous, just that the tropes are inevitably horrendously done. No temper tantrums, no angry confrontations that turn to embarrassment – I have a major embarrassment squick. MAJOR. Please do not humiliate the women for laughs (or even just for the plot).

In setting, I like stories where a whole bunch of things are happening, and the relationship is going on in the background, outlined by the interaction between the characters (and any others in their 'verse) but with moments snatched out of the middle of a situation, not a situation around the moments. All four requests I've made have pairings that met through the course of their everyday life - there’s a context in which they exist, and I love hearing about the contexts and not just the relationship.

I’d prefer in-canon scenarios for all of them, however, I’m okay with AUs in Pacific Rim and MCU, just not high school AUs – I want a level of maturity to the characters.

I’d like a happy ending – happily-ever-after, or happy-for now, I don’t mind, so long as it’s not bitter and angsty.

Final thing: these are all preferences - things the way I like it best. However, if you have an idea that you think is BRILLIANT and which isn’t any of these ideas (except for the “I Don’t Like It” group – those are Hard No), then write it. I'm always interested in new takes on my old faves!

And I hope you have fun and don't stress out writing for me. I will enjoy what you write for me because none of these pairings are common (at least, not anymore).

MCU – Steve/Maria

Do you realise that Maria Hill is the woman who has had the most on-screen interaction with Steve Rogers after a) Natasha Romanoff, b) Peggy Carter – both of whom are emotionally spoken for in their main narratives? And Steve’s a serious guy (no matter how much of a goofball Chris Evans is) – as shown when looking at his mental state in Age of Ultron.

So: these two crazy kids. Professional and controlled, they’re not easy to write. There’ll be no floridly romantic gestures, no public declarations of love, no flowers-chocolates-promises-you-don’t-intend-to-keep; they’ll be buttoned down and cool as cucumbers, with maybe a little more tension when they cross each other, or when one or the other is in danger. Public displays of affection? Nuh-uh. Rushing to the bedside when injured? Absolutely out. Traditional wine-and-dine-and-bedding? More likely to be a clink of beers and a ride home to fuck up against the closed front door with a, “we were actually going to make it to the bed one of these times, weren’t we?”

I like these two as a battle couple, and a balance. If you want to get Maria involved in the Civil War somehow – if you want her to knock Steve and Tony’s heads together – go right ahead and do it! Just so long as she has her own opinion and keeps it through to the end. However you resolve their personal and their professional, it’s got to keep them in-character. (That’s the part that most people just can’t do.) If you want to write a quiet moment of respite between Crisis A and Crisis N, go for it!

These are basically my favourite couple of the moment, and anything you can give me – whether 1,000 words or 100,000 – will be awesome.


Sanctuary – Kate/Will

Kate Freelander, loose cannon, sharp brain, worldly-wise, but not so cynical and jaded that she fails to appreciate hope and all it can do. I see her and Will as a bit of an oil-and-water mix - but when you do it with the right ingredients – such as vegetable oil and vinegar, you get a lovely salad vinaigrette: sharp and a bit spicy, but sticks nicely.

Give me the negotiation of their relationship; how they work it out in the day to day running of the Sanctuary – or even how it works out after the show. Show me the way they deal with having exes – one very normal (Will’s ex) and one very abnormal (Garrick, I think his name was?) – and the ‘dealing with someone else who has history’. Have them banter and snipe and disagree and argue, but work it out – always with respect and appreciation for the other.

Particular note: don’t ignore Kate’s Indian background – she has a small statuette of Ganesh by her bedside; if you want to tie in Will’s connection with Kali (both as Hindu deity and as massive Abnormal presence) then I would love to read it!


Pacific Rim: Mako/Raleigh

These two! How do I love them: let me count the ways.

Post-Pitfall, how do they deal with each other? I will never tire of these stories, of this narrative. Negotiation, acceptance, love, belonging – so many themes for these two that are not explicitly romantic, and yet very much familial and intimate. I love the implications of Drift intimacy – no secrets, no lies. How does that feed into their sexuality – past and future? How do they rebuild each other and the world after they’ve lost so much? Are there things that grate on each other?

What if Mako has a lover or fuck-buddy from before? (Not Chuck.) Someone she loved without the Drift; and yes, she has Raleigh now, but the tension would be there all the same. I like the idea that Drifting three times isn’t certainty; it’s just enough to show that they’re compatible, but not for them to work out how deep the rabbit hole (RABIT hole?) goes. So, negotiatons of intimacy.


Psy-Changeling: Hawke/Sienna, Lucas/Sascha, Kaleb/Sahara, Judd/Brenna

So, I love all these characters, particularly the Psy – four power couples: powerful Psy, dangerous Changelings. Anything from Domestic Life With Dominant Male, to Women Who Don’t Seem Dangerous (Until You Hit The Wrong Button). I’d particularly love something that involves interaction between any combination of the four couples, but if you want to focus on just one, then that’s fine.

I also love Aden/Zaira, and have a secret little hankering for Kit Monaghan/Beatrice Gault if you want to write that in somewhere, too. (Adolescents! Future Alphas! Broken Psy! Yes, I’m a sad sad bunny, but I love this trope.)

Star Wars: Finn/Rey

[*sings the Star Wars theme*]

Okay, SO MUCH LOVE for this couple. Brought up as orphans, connecting on the run, delighted as friends, and coming back for each other because they care. No, they’re not there yet, but they could be.

I see Rey as touch-starved, although she doesn’t know it, so contact with Finn is a new thing. Also, I imagine that she’s had a few close shaves on Jakku and maybe got some ideas that sex was inherently problematic? Finn, meanwhile, is accustomed to being among people, but isn’t sure how to deal with intimate contact. I imagine Hux’s version of stormtroopers are either medicated or psychologically inhibited not to get sexually involved. Whatever you want to go with, I pretty much want the whole ‘working out how this works’ against the backdrop of the Resistance vs First Order.

Involve Poe, Jessika Pava, Luke, Leia, and anyone else from the good guys that you like! (Chewie. Threepio. BB8. I can’t quite see Artoo giving relationship advice, but BB8 has that ‘adolescent with all the artless info’ vibe going. Hah. LANDO CALRISSIAN explaining to Finn that these people are like fungus: they grow on you.)