Yuletide Letter 2022
Oct. 14th, 2022 11:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sadlikeknivesDearest Yulethor,
AO3 user sadlikeknives here, really excited to find out what you're going to write for me! I'm sure it's going to be great.
(For the record, since apparently AO3 changed some settings and now we have to specify: I am very open to treats, if anyone should be so inclined.)
Basic likes: I strongly prefer third person prose in fic, including for canons originally in first person. I like pining, hurt/comfort, people using other people's prejudices and expectations of them to their own advantage, loyalty kink, competence kink, scars, soulbonds and soulmates, sexy-type biting and related bloodplay, size kink (I really like both the bigger party manhandling the smaller party and the smaller party loving it, and the smaller party bossing the bigger party around and the bigger party loving it), praise kink. If you want to write wintery, Christmasy fic (or other-winter-holiday fic) I'm totally into that for any of these fandoms!
DNWs:
- bestiality (including sexual content involving shapeshifters in animal form)
- scat or watersports
- cannibalism/vore
- noncon
- infidelity/cheating involving requested characters: if they're married or in a relationship in canon, I'm fine with either 'the canon couple never got together for whatever reason' or some kind of poly situation, however you want to handle it! Just please no bashing of the canon partner.
- omegaverse, aka a/b/o, or any other type of mpreg
- graphic animal harm (for example: mention of a werewolf eating a bunny: fine; graphic description of what happened to the bunny: not great)
- permanent death of requested characters
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Abishag Shaw, Livia Levesque
If you've been around this fandom for a while, you may know me as a longtime stalwart Ben/Shaw shipper, and I still am, and if you want to indicate in some way that they're a thing in your fic, I'd be into that (and if you'd like more info on that, here's a letter from a previous exchange!). But we're not here for that today, and whether or not you want to include that ship in your fic is totally up to you! No, we are here to make Livia Levesque and Abishag Shaw...talk to each other.
If you just gasped, good. We're on the same page.
So here's what's amazing: they both clearly hate each other, and I don't think we've ever really seen them interact because LOL as if Livia willingly would, and also that is something Ben is willing to go to great lengths to prevent. Livia is still calling Shaw an animal over a dozen books in, and I'm pretty sure Shaw has called Ben's mom 'a real piece of work' at least once, and, I mean, he's not wrong. And they are both very intelligent people who excel at using other people's perceptions against them and figuring out why other people do the things they do, and using that, and so I really want them to have to deal with each other. I don't really have specific prompts here, just a nebulous notion: maybe Livia has a problem and she's like, "Ugh, fine, I guess I'll summon Ben's pet American policeman," or maybe she's (however peripherally) involved in a case Shaw is investigating and he's like, "Fuck me gently with a not-yet-invented chainsaw, I have to interview Ben's mom." And then they are forced by circumstance to work together and/or use and/or respect one another's skill sets and forms of intelligence, and it's kind of horrible for both of them. And maybe one or both of them gains insight into What The Other One Thinks They're Doing Here that rattles the other, because...most people don't see that deep.
If Ben and Shaw are an item in your fic, you can write that from the standpoint that Livia knows and deeply disapproves, Livia knows and thinks they don't know she knows (Shaw probably does, Ben is blissfully oblivious), or she is the blissfully oblivious one despite thinking she knows everything. I think any of these could be delightful.
Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Augustine Montgomery
So I have...several ships for everyone's favorite Pancakes, so let's get into it.
Augustine Montgomery/Arabella Baylor
Yeah, okay, he's way too old for her and there's the whole thing where he held professional power over her family, but Arabella's an adult now, she can make her own decisions, Catalina says herself in Ruby Fever that she trusts Arabella's decisions about men, and I feel like this would be a really interesting dynamic. Very Beauty & the Beast, except they can both be either. And Augustine is so tightly wound and closed off, I could totally see our maturing wild child getting him to loosen up a little bit, while I can totally see Arabella being drawn to someone a little bit more reserved and calm. The children would be very blond.
1. How does this even happen? Like, I have a couple of ideas. Maybe Arabella uses her Beast senses to see through Augustine's illusion at an event (Illusion mages never think of scent, after all), and decides to fuck with him by flirting for a while before he realizes she knows exactly who she's talking to. Maybe they run into each other on vacation and wake up married. Maybe it's somehow a business decision. Maybe they hook up while trapped in a supply closet after assignments they're both working that turn out to intersect go horribly wrong, and then they're like, "...Nevada and Connor must never know." Maybe one of them is minding their own business having a nice day and gets dragged into the other's catastrophe (can't let Connor's sister-in-law or best friend get kidnapped on MY watch, after all).
2. It was supposed to be a one-time fling but now it keeps happening, with increasingly complicated hijinks to keep Arabella's family from finding out.
3. Nevada and Connor (and the rest of the Baylors) Find Out. (Cut to: Catalina somewhat reluctantly wrestling a sniper rifle away from her mother.)
4. Arabella has ideas for sexytimes applications of Augustine's illusion magic that he hadn't even thought of.
5. Something with Arabella getting Augustine to loosen up and have some fun. Probably he's not convinced that whatever activity she has in mind will be fun at first, but she's so enthusiastic. And then he ends up having a great time!
6. Does Augustine know what Arabella's magic is? Like, I feel like he would be desperately trying to find out if he doesn't, and he's smart enough to have put it together after the freeway incident if nothing else, but there's probably some leeway to play around with here as far as whether he knows, she knows he knows, and how any of those scenarios play out.
Augustine Montgomery/Cornelius Harrison
In Sapphire Flames when it's mentioned that Augustine came to the warehouse and picked Matilda up, everyone sort of brushes it off as, "Well, MII has a personal security division," which is true, but doesn't explain why the owner of the company is chauffeuring a random second grader, and so my brain helpfully decided that he's dating her dad, and him sitting with Cornelius's family at Runa & Bern's wedding sure didn't make me not think that, let met tell you!
And I know there was that whole, "Cornelius will never truly love again," thing, but maybe that's not, like, definitive. Maybe science magic turns out to be wrong about that. Or maybe it's an FWB thing and that works for them, or something! Maybe somehow it all works out.
1. Thinking back to Augustine manipulating Nevada into taking Cornelius' case after Nari died, maybe Augustine has been carrying a torch for Cornelius for a while, but he knew it was hopeless and it was never going to be a thing. And now...it is a thing, and he's sort of freaking out, but trying to keep it cool because Augustine Montgomery does not freak out. (Cornelius? Charmed.)
2. Maybe Augustine's illusion magic goes haywire somehow and Cornelius has to help him get out of a situation. Or maybe the illusion magic has, uh, sexytimes applications. (NOT "I can look like your dead wife" applications. Fun applications!)
3. Or maybe Augustine does make the 'I could look like your dead wife' offer, considering how realistic his illusions apparently are (clothes in different sizes fit him!), and Cornelius is appropriately horrified and now they have to sort through, like, Augustine not thinking he's enough as himself, and also him thinking that's something Cornelius would go for because what the fuck, Augustine?
4. I almost died at Cornelius saying he would "ferret out" Tatyana's secrets in Emerald Blaze, so: something with Cornelius being a terrible maker of animal puns and Augustine NOT being charmed by it, not at ALL, he SWEARS (he is MELTING on the inside).
5. Augustine needs Cornelius's help with a job. More specifically, he needs the ferrets' help with a job. This isn't an excuse to spend time alone with Cornelius in an enclosed space, what are you talking about? (It is also that.)
6. Using your animal sidekicks to figure out who Augustine is impersonating at society events is cheating, Cornelius, and Augustine is going to withhold his (sexy) forfeit until you apologize (no he's not).
Augustine Montgomery/Connor "Mad" Rogan(/Nevada Baylor)
I was talking to a friend a while back about these books and I was like, "Basically at this point Ilona Andrews could reveal that Augustine and Rogan were actually together romantically and had a really bad breakup when he left for the military, and I feel like no one would be surprised," and just, that's it, that's the vibe. I'm really into the concept of them having broken up messily back in the day and then maybe Nevada finding/figuring it out and having to deal with this mess and them still being in love with each other in the present. I feel like the character dynamics of this trio are really interesting because they're all such prickly people, and they all have such clear reasons for friction in their interpersonal relations--Nevada & Augustine's professional dealings, Rogan & Augustine's rocky past, Rogan's whole psychological deal in general--but even when Rogan and Augustine don't seem to like each other that much they'd still throw down for each other. And my God, what a power trio this would be. And I feel like Nevada/Connor/Augustine would be a really interesting relationship because just...how do I phrase this? Picture the rotating pivot point of any two of them siding against the other one on any one petty issue. Picture the absolute terror that is the three of them united against you. It's glorious.
Re: the infidelity DNW: I'm pretty into the poly option here but also you could easily make the argument Nevada deserves better than to have to deal with these assholes and their issues, so if you do want to write some form of poly that would be awesome but also: Nevada and Connor broke up, never got together, it's set in the period before they met, whatever you want to do, it's all good. Just...anything but cheating, yeah. (Good luck cheating on a Truthseeker anyway lol.)
1. I'm thinking soulmates AU? Like, Rogan seems like just the kind of asshole that he'd ditch Augustine and run off to the military anyway because he was bucking against his whole life being lined up for him, and now it's ten years later and he's got to deal with the mess he made if the city doesn't burn down first. He might be hoping the city burns down first a little. (I have always sort of thought that part of the reason Augustine recruited Nevada for the Pierce case was that he realized Rogan would probably get involved and he was willing to do absolutely anything to avoid him a little longer, so...meanwhile Nevada is just standing here holding the brain cell.)
And Rogan totally seems like the kind of special that would have two soulmates. (If you go with something like 'soulmate-identifying marks,' Augustine could even suspect Nevada is the other soulmate before he sends her after Pierce, which would be interesting.) How does he feel about his soulmates unionizing against him, and why is the answer 'turned on?'
2. Until recently, I assumed (even though we've been told they'll fool things like retinal scanners) that Augustine's illusions were visual, but in recent Q&As Ilona Andrews have said things that make them sound like they're also physical--like that Augustine has clothes tailored in different sizes to make things easier on himself. I'm going to be honest, this is sort of bending my brain trying to figure out how the clothes fit without Augustine being an actual shapeshifter, but let's not stress the details of magic and let's just get right to the sexytimes possibilities of Augustine's illusions being that real. And combined with Rogan being a tactile? Yowza.
3. Augustine has finally started interviewing for a potential bride and Rogan can't figure out why he's so mad about it until someone, possibly one of his soldiers, possibly his mom, possibly Nevada, hits him with a clue bat.
4. Maybe Rogan and Augustine never broke up/fell out when Rogan went off to the military. Maybe they've been on again/off again for over a decade and they snipe at each other as a form of foreplay. Maybe they're Houston's secret or not at all secret power couple. Whatever you want to do with it!
5. Either Rogan or Nevada has some unskippable social event they're supposed to go to with the other and something comes up that means they can't make it, and need to not be seen not making it, so Augustine impersonates the missing partner. If it's Rogan I feel like he's slightly sarcastic about it all night and Nevada has to keep trying not to laugh. If it's Nevada Rogan is probably weirded out by how good he is at it. And then they all meet back up at home and *cough* debrief.
6. Rogan sees Augustine without his illusions for the first time in more than ten years and there's some sort of significant change he wasn't expecting. Maybe Augustine's hairline is, in fact, receding and Rogan's more upset about this than Augustine is ("I was joking about that!" "It's just hair, Connor.") Maybe the scar Konstantin could see in Ruby Fever is new, and Augustine refuses to tell Rogan how he got it so he can go kill the person who gave it to him ("They're already dead anyway." "There has to be SOMEONE I can kill!") Maybe Augustine distracts him with sex. Maybe Augustine just has new crinkles around his eyes and Rogan is alarmed by how attractive he finds them.
7. Rogan teaching Nevada how to play 'Spot the Pancakes' at society functions. His illusions are flawless, his impersonations impeccable, but Rogan will find him. (Possibly the forfeits are sexual?)
8. Anything with some bad guy realizing at the worst possible time that the power couple is actually a power trio and now they're screwed. Possibly:
Bad guys: and now we are going to kill you
Nevada and Rogan, bored: Oh no. Please don't.
Augustine: Oops there is an Illusion Prime with a knife in this room.
But it could also be like a business deal situation or literally anything.
7. Maybe an AU where the Rogan-Baylors had the good sense to get their on-call Illusion Prime to consult on that disgusting sex tape Victoria Tremaine had made and sent to them, and Augustine gets to hold the brain cell for once: "You are both going to sit down and not do anything rash because here are all the reasons this is a clear fake. I mean they didn't even get your cock right, Connor, it's much nicer than that."
Just Augustine
First off, I feel like several of my prompts for Augustine/Rogan(/Nevada) could totally work platonically, like I could fully see Rogan platonically wanting to murder whoever gave Augustine that scar, or trying to spot Augustine at society events for shits and giggles.
Secondly, I would really like a fic about what a job for an Illusion Prime of Augustine's caliber looks like, since he obviously at some point got down and dirty and wasn't just sitting behind a desk all day, and probably still does during some of the time he's offscreen. (Oooooh, was Augustine involved in the war? Is he assiduously keeping this information from Rogan?) Go as James Bond as you like with it!
Or whatever other ideas you have, I'm open!
Kate Daniels - Ilona Andrews
Christopher Steed, Hugh d'Ambray
Okay, so after the part in Magic Triumphs where Christopher tells Kate that A) unlike pretty much everyone else outside the Iron Dogs, he paid enough attention to figure out what Roland was doing to control Hugh pretty early on and B) Hugh took better care of him when he was in the cage than previously thought, and possibly than he was supposed to, considering it's mentioned he fed and talked to him only at night when no one else was around, and Hugh's guilt-flashback re: Christopher in the cage in Iron & Magic and how he thinks about Christopher as the only Legatus he could ever stand, I went back and reread Magic Rises and I realized that maybe Hugh set Kate up to rescue Christopher accidentally-on-purpose with the 'anything in this courtyard' wording (not consciously because of Roland's conditioning and because he really didn't expect to lose that match, but on some level I really think he knew what he was saying there, because Hugh is not wired to withstand someone suffering on his watch like that and he had to fix it somehow).
And now I ship it. Or at the least I want to see them interact. It's a whole mess of history and dynamics to dig into and I'm into it. Like: they were horrible men, and they were equals. And then one of them kept the other one in a cage. And now they're both different people in some ways, living in the aftermath of all of that, and it's just...really interesting to me. And yet we never really get to see them interact. There's that one really tense moment in Magic Triumphs, and then their actual conversation takes place offscreen and that's it. I need more. (I need them to kiss.)
Note: If you're going shippy, and you're writing something set during the era of the books, as opposed to the pre-canon Preceptor/Legatus era, please nothing sexual during the period when Christopher was mentally unstable. As far as the canon relationships go, I'm happy for Hugh's marriage to Elara to remain a professional business arrangement, or with some form of polyamory, whatever you want to do there. As far as Christopher's relationship with Barabas, I can't really see Barabas sharing Christopher with Hugh d'Ambray of all people, but, I mean, maybe? Or maybe they didn't get together. However you can make it work!
Prompts! Most of these are shippy but some of them can go either way, I think.
1. Some kind of FWB arrangement set during their days as Legatus and Preceptor that maybe gets more serious than either of them meant it to, or mutual pining and both of them aware that it's a REALLY BAD IDEA as far as Roland is concerned, and then maybe after everything they meet up again and realize they have a second chance.
2. Or in that same period, something with Christopher and Hugh working together to salvage a situation, possibly one that's gone south thanks to Roland's meddling/not listening to Hugh/maybe even brainwashing Hugh. Like, when Omaha got broken, was that...was that what was supposed to happen? Or were they both pretty sure for about five minutes there that they were super going to die (and then possibly "I can't believe we survived that" sex?)?
3. Something to do with Christopher losing his wing in Magic Triumphs, because I have this notion that Hugh is the healer you call in to deal with the situation when you've got an actual avatar with an extra-crispy appendage, and then you've got Christopher, of course, devastated, and Hugh feeling really guilty about being unable to save the wing and yes good angst. (I mean, we now know it grew back, but that was still very much in doubt at the end of Magic Triumphs.
4. Something set during the preparations to face Neig, with Hugh and Christopher both being weirded out by how easily they fall into a groove of working together again and the Iron Dogs enthusiastically embracing Christopher because it's always nice when someone they used to know A) is alive and B) isn't trying to kill them, and possibly also ragging the hell out of Hugh for having A Type, because haha wow are there some similarities between Elara and Christopher.
5. The whole situation with Christopher crazy and being kept in a cage, from the POV of the guy who loved him and was keeping him in a cage, and apparently feeding and talking to him in secret in his own castle.
6. So oops it turns out Hugh can't marry Elara to seal their alliance because he and Christopher are already married. Maybe they didn't realize that thing they did as a quick way to solve a problem one time was legally binding. Maybe it was entirely on purpose and a secret. Maybe they're trying to get a quickie divorce and absurd romcom style obstacles keep falling in their path. Whatever just run with it.
7. I noticed on reread that Hugh grows throughout the course of the series—something in the range of four to six inches. While I'm pretty sure this is just another authorial inconsistency like his country of origin switching from England to France, it could also be fanwanked as the result of his stint healing in a phoenix egg, so something with Christopher reacting to his new height (and Hugh to Christopher's new shoulders?) could be a thing.
8. Anything to do with them after the series ends, dealing with the fact that they were both really horrible people who did horrible things (and that Hugh did some of those things *to* Christopher), and now...here they are in the aftermath, in some ways very different people but in some ways still who they always were, just with a chance to be better now.
9. Once upon a time there was an ambitious, smart, wildly talented young twink of a necromancer who was bound and determined to climb Roland's warlord like a tree. This is his story.
Sons of the Fallen - Jaclyn Osborn
Any
Okay, look, I know we're flying close to the sun on this one with Alastair coming out on December 27, especially considering Raiden randomly dropped a couple of months early. If Alastair comes out early, you can safely assume I will have read it as soon as humanly possible, but please do not feel any pressure to rush anything as far as your own reading or writing experience goes on my silly account. "Canon compliant up to [wherever]," or for some of my prompts not canon compliant at all lol, it's all good. A lot of these prompts are apt to be jossed shortly, but we love an AU, right? So don't worry about it, we're all here to have fun!
Let's get to some prompts!
For any of these characters, I would love to see some wing kink. Like, actual wing kink, not the wing slit kink we see in the text (although that is also hot). But like touching someone's wings being intimate and pleasurable for the one being touched, trying to avoid the sharp edges of the feathers, mutual grooming, etc. I would also like to see sexy biting/blood-drinking, because...hot.
Alastair/Lazarus
Honestly, even in book one I thought there was something hinky going on with how opaque Alastair is in general, and specifically how Alastair could contact Lazarus at any time, but only behind closed doors and his brothers don't even seem to know how, but for a couple of books now I have been going, "Uh, are these...are there hints here? Is this--is she going to pair them up?" And then a few weeks ago (I apologize if this is a spoiler) Osborn confirmed via social media that she is, indeed, going to pair them up, and I'm gonna be honest: I have some trepidation here, considering all of the, you know, child abuse. But I've been thinking about it a lot and I feel like it's also a pairing rich with possibility for fic purposes, even if, you know, we're fully about to be jossed. (It's just more cake!)
For one thing, assuming they are, in fact, soulmates, which they pretty much have to be in this series, how long have they known? Everyone else knew pretty quickly, and a couple of things Alastair says about how the bond gets stronger and more impossible to ignore the more time you spend with your soulmate stood out to me, and in Bellamy he says something along the lines of, "I have no wish for a mate," when his brothers are ragging on him about how soon it'll be your turn, Al, that really stood out to me as...very specific phrasing, considering. They have to know. So what is going on? It makes an insane amount of sense that they're pretending they're not soulmates, considering how the rest of the angels would react to that--and even moreso back when Lazarus was seemingly the only one not on Team 'Let's Just Kill Them'--to say nothing of how the other Nephilim will react, which I think we can pretty well predict will just be the word 'no' shouted over and over, occasionally modified by various expletives.
Was the whole thing with Lazarus taking them somehow because of this in the first place? Did either of them know then, before all of the beatings and trauma? Yikes, but also: rich angst fic fodder. And like, I could totally see how it could have gone down that way: making everyone hate their sergeant to help unit cohesion is a basic boot camp concept, but these weren't boot camp recruits. These were eight-year-olds. Or did they figure it out later, after Alastair was an adult, and then somehow it was worse, because if Lazarus had known, he could have done things differently? Or does only one of them know (I think probably Alastair in this case) and the other one (Lazarus lbr, I could totally see him being deep in denial) is about to get a sledgehammer to the face? How would you keep the other party from finding out?
The more I think about this the more I think of ways it could go, and canon is only going to take one. It's kind of exciting. (And, like, if you manage to nail exactly what canon ends up going with, then wow! You're a wizard! Also exciting!) Did they do something to the bond, cut it or block it somehow? Is there just an insane amount of pining and yearning going on that we have not yet been privy to? What does Lazarus think about Alastair having other lovers? Like, does he think he's above all that and he doesn't care (he totally cares) or does he think that he's made himself unworthy of Alastair via all the child abuse, and they can't be together anyway, so of course Alastair seeks affection elsewhere, it's fine (cue angst)?
Or you could go AU! What if Lazarus managed to collect all the other brothers, but he wasn't able to pry Alastair out of the heart of Lucifer's army, so they meet as adults, across a battlefield, the same way Bellamy met Phoenix? Now it's enemies to lovers! Without all the child abuse! (I mean, presumably the others still got...yeah. Lazarus has a lot of work to do no matter how you slice it.)
To talk about sex for a moment, I have kind of a thing for Alastair being submissive in bed. Like, he has to be in charge and so in control all of the rest of the time, I could see him just wanting to let someone else take over for a while, and obviously he knows that Lazarus can do that for him...but then the role reversal with Lazarus kneeling at Alastair's feet would also be insanely hot, and feels very fitting.
DNW anything involving punishment or like, whipping or spanking in a sexual context for this pairing. I think there's way too much baggage for that to be sexy here, and though I could see a role reversal scenario with Lazarus as the punished party being cathartic, it's not something I'm looking for in a Yuletide gift. References to their canonical history involving those things in a non-sexual context is a-okay, and I'm okay with face slapping? IDK why, brains and ids are weird. Maybe the snap-out-of-it slap in Raiden did things to me. But, yeah. Lazarus can slap Alastair to snap him out of a Pride meltdown or whatever, or just because they're into it (although ideally Lazarus should be conflicted at first in this case before he's like "...no okay that's really hot."). But not that other stuff.
Just Alastair
While of course once we get in his head things may be completely different, I think about this quote on selfishness from the Tiffany Aching books a lot when it comes to Alastair, considering that Pride as a sin is all about selfishness, and I would sort of like to see him with that sort of mindset: these are his brothers, and his world, and therefore he has a duty to them. Or, to put a completely different and no less accurate tone on it: this is his circus, and these are his monkeys.
This could also tie into an Alastair/Lazarus fic, but: I think we all can agree that Alastair is nooooot doing well mentally. The man tried to stay in a burning house, for fuck's sake, and yeah, it wouldn't have killed him, but still, the house was on fire. And, I mean, it's not that surprising: he's under a lot of stress, he's grieving, he's probably trying to keep his secret fated bond with this asshole angel under wraps...someone please help him. (I know it's tricky because of Pride, but please.) Maybe Phoenix knows more than he should after whatever went down while Alastair was convincing Lazarus to leave the scene in Ireland and is extremely awkwardly and reluctantly like, "Hey...if you want to talk..." Maybe Kallias is like, "Hey, bro, speaking as the avatar of fucking Melancholy: yikes." Just something.
I love the running thing about how Alastair is basically a grandpa in the body of a young man. He loves his books and his classical music and his tea and, in the best under-the-radar joke in Raiden, Werther's fucking Originals. And at this point in the story I feel like he just really deserves a nice day off, maybe a trip to a rare bookstore...maybe his brothers frantically trying to crisis manage and keep him from finding out A Thing Is Happening in the background, because they all agree that Al needs this.
Or I would love to see Alastair spending family time with his brothers. Their Christmases seem fun, how about that? Or just anything, really, in canon he's so closed off, and while he's really busy and has been grieving and the Lazarus thing has to be part of it, too, I'd just like to see him with his family in a more relaxed way.
Bellamy
I feel like there's a lot of unexplored potential with Bellamy and Lust. There are some things that aren't really touched on in canon that I wonder about, and some things that are stated outright that I'd like to see fic going in a different direction from.
First off, the whole thing with Bellamy's real eye color feels like it deserves a deleted scene where his brothers find out about it, because in everybody else's POV we've gotten no indication that anyone knows Bellamy has a secret eye color he's angsting about, and at this point someone has to have seen Phoenix look at him and his eyes turn blue at least once. I want the fallout from that, because while it's by no means on the level of the Alastair/Lazarus thing, it's a secret he's been keeping from his brothers for thousands of years, and it feels like the reaction would be epic.
Second, we're told that Bellamy's never had sex with any of his brothers, but I don't really...buy that. Like, it doesn't seem to jive with how he gets sick if he doesn't have sex regularly, and the fact that they were isolated until they turned eighteen. I've been around teenaged boys, there is no way Lust didn't wake up until after Bellamy was eighteen. (And while it's possible, considering they were eight when they met and didn't automatically see each other as brothers, a strong incest taboo just doesn't...fit, especially when we know Castor and Galen had a fling.) I also find it kind of implausible there's never been a dry spell where there weren't really other options around in all the time since. So maybe something with one of those scenarios, or just even like, sex as comfort. Maybe at a different period in history, Bellamy was less all up in his head about it and saw things more like Raiden's worldview: orgasms are nice. Bellamy gives great orgasms. Who wants some?
Third, I'm interested in the darker side of Lust, both in the bloodlust that's been sort of touched on but not really explored--I'd like to see Bellamy go over to that for a longer, more cohesive period of time, both what that looks like and the fallout from it for everyone to deal with--and the fact that any time he goes out in public Bellamy must be exposed to all kinds of mental filth. I have a headcanon, completely unsupported by the text, that Echo Bay's vampire population mainly feeds on pedophiles and rapists Bellamy tips them off to, but basically anything dealing with those drawbacks of Lust instead of, "Oh, woe is me, I must have all the sex," would be interesting to explore, I think.
Also, I feel like Bellamy could be perceived as Lazarus' favorite, from how he was the only one who didn't hate or at least dislike him from the word go as far as we've seen so far (who knows what Alastair's deal was), and how he always tries to see the best of his motivations and whatnot. And I know no one else would care but, boy, all things considered, Alastair could, and considering how little the others can read him, he could well be hiding a lot of resentment about it. That bit in Bellamy where Lazarus is ripping into Alastair over his handling of Bellamy's kidnapping in front of everyone is...honestly pretty ugly, when you consider that Bellamy's already been safely retrieved at that point, and, again, all things regarding Alastair and Lazarus considered. I also wonder if Bellamy being pro-Lazarus at first had something to do with how harshly Lazarus cracked down on the whole group, to prevent him and say, Castor, from splitting the boys into factions. And I would kind of like to see some sort of blowup over all of that after everything's out in the open.
OR I'd like to see Phoenix (or someone else, as we've already established I think Bellamy should fuck his brothers) be like, "I know Lust makes you always be all about whatever your partner wants, but tonight it's all about YOU," and then just like, cater to Bell and help him figure out what he likes.
Gray
I love this sleepy ball of sunshine, and real talk, I remain somewhat surprised that his focus book did not go to even a little bit of a somnophilia place. "Oh, no, Gray is getting sleepy, now we cannot have sex." Yes, you can! I expect more initiative and can-do spirit from a marine. Gray doesn't even have to be fully asleep, you could go with sleepy, warm and relaxed sex or something during one of his bad lethargic periods, where he can't really do anything except lay there and take it, but that's okay because he's still mentally into it and his partner loves manhandling him. His partner doesn't have to be Mason, you could go with that pirate captain he used to roll with (love a pirate fic), or maybe he has an ongoing arrangement with one of his brothers, like he's Bellamy's go-to partner during a dry spell (he can totally come in his sleep!) or a stress relief thing with Alastair. Or maybe it's all of them, from time to time! I know Raiden seems to be the other exclusive bottom in the bunch (I think we only see Daman bottom on the page, but he mentions at least once that he would like to fuck Warrin sometime), but I'm willing to ignore that for porn's sake. Go wild!
I'd also like to see fic about Gray just, like, navigating the world with Sloth. Oh, no, he's asleep again. In the middle of this battle. Or just in the middle of this Target. It never gets old to me. I love him. So just anything with Gray being Gray and everyone else fondly coping with that: A+.
Or how about, since Gray is the brother who really loves Christmas, Christmas fic? Maybe that Christmas that everything went wrong that...I think it's Daman talks about in the books, in more detail, or just another cozy family Christmas. What do you even buy Greed for Christmas, anyway? Hell, what do you buy Galen? And now there are all these soulmates and we've gotta shop for them, and fuck me, do I have to get Lazarus a Christmas present?
Just Lazarus
Originally I was like, "IDK that I know Lazarus well enough as a character to have much in the way of prompts for him," but I turned out to be wrong about that lol.
1. Maybe an AU where when he suddenly found himself a single parent to eight kids who hated him to various degrees it was more funny and awkward and less of a total fucking nightmare for everyone involved?
2. Maybe something when he was stuck at Clara's after he injured his wing in Bellamy and he just had to put up with this human witch being casually mean to him because she was also helping (and also, she's right).
3. Five times Raiden talked him into trying human food and one time he actually liked it.
4. Something with the 'Bellamy may be perceived as his favorite' thing I went into above.
5. In Bellamy it's revealed that Lazarus at one point agreed with/followed Lucifer, so, like, AU where he fell?
AO3 user sadlikeknives here, really excited to find out what you're going to write for me! I'm sure it's going to be great.
(For the record, since apparently AO3 changed some settings and now we have to specify: I am very open to treats, if anyone should be so inclined.)
Basic likes: I strongly prefer third person prose in fic, including for canons originally in first person. I like pining, hurt/comfort, people using other people's prejudices and expectations of them to their own advantage, loyalty kink, competence kink, scars, soulbonds and soulmates, sexy-type biting and related bloodplay, size kink (I really like both the bigger party manhandling the smaller party and the smaller party loving it, and the smaller party bossing the bigger party around and the bigger party loving it), praise kink. If you want to write wintery, Christmasy fic (or other-winter-holiday fic) I'm totally into that for any of these fandoms!
DNWs:
- bestiality (including sexual content involving shapeshifters in animal form)
- scat or watersports
- cannibalism/vore
- noncon
- infidelity/cheating involving requested characters: if they're married or in a relationship in canon, I'm fine with either 'the canon couple never got together for whatever reason' or some kind of poly situation, however you want to handle it! Just please no bashing of the canon partner.
- omegaverse, aka a/b/o, or any other type of mpreg
- graphic animal harm (for example: mention of a werewolf eating a bunny: fine; graphic description of what happened to the bunny: not great)
- permanent death of requested characters
Benjamin January Mysteries - Barbara Hambly
Abishag Shaw, Livia Levesque
If you've been around this fandom for a while, you may know me as a longtime stalwart Ben/Shaw shipper, and I still am, and if you want to indicate in some way that they're a thing in your fic, I'd be into that (and if you'd like more info on that, here's a letter from a previous exchange!). But we're not here for that today, and whether or not you want to include that ship in your fic is totally up to you! No, we are here to make Livia Levesque and Abishag Shaw...talk to each other.
If you just gasped, good. We're on the same page.
So here's what's amazing: they both clearly hate each other, and I don't think we've ever really seen them interact because LOL as if Livia willingly would, and also that is something Ben is willing to go to great lengths to prevent. Livia is still calling Shaw an animal over a dozen books in, and I'm pretty sure Shaw has called Ben's mom 'a real piece of work' at least once, and, I mean, he's not wrong. And they are both very intelligent people who excel at using other people's perceptions against them and figuring out why other people do the things they do, and using that, and so I really want them to have to deal with each other. I don't really have specific prompts here, just a nebulous notion: maybe Livia has a problem and she's like, "Ugh, fine, I guess I'll summon Ben's pet American policeman," or maybe she's (however peripherally) involved in a case Shaw is investigating and he's like, "Fuck me gently with a not-yet-invented chainsaw, I have to interview Ben's mom." And then they are forced by circumstance to work together and/or use and/or respect one another's skill sets and forms of intelligence, and it's kind of horrible for both of them. And maybe one or both of them gains insight into What The Other One Thinks They're Doing Here that rattles the other, because...most people don't see that deep.
If Ben and Shaw are an item in your fic, you can write that from the standpoint that Livia knows and deeply disapproves, Livia knows and thinks they don't know she knows (Shaw probably does, Ben is blissfully oblivious), or she is the blissfully oblivious one despite thinking she knows everything. I think any of these could be delightful.
Hidden Legacy Series - Ilona Andrews
Augustine Montgomery
So I have...several ships for everyone's favorite Pancakes, so let's get into it.
Augustine Montgomery/Arabella Baylor
Yeah, okay, he's way too old for her and there's the whole thing where he held professional power over her family, but Arabella's an adult now, she can make her own decisions, Catalina says herself in Ruby Fever that she trusts Arabella's decisions about men, and I feel like this would be a really interesting dynamic. Very Beauty & the Beast, except they can both be either. And Augustine is so tightly wound and closed off, I could totally see our maturing wild child getting him to loosen up a little bit, while I can totally see Arabella being drawn to someone a little bit more reserved and calm. The children would be very blond.
1. How does this even happen? Like, I have a couple of ideas. Maybe Arabella uses her Beast senses to see through Augustine's illusion at an event (Illusion mages never think of scent, after all), and decides to fuck with him by flirting for a while before he realizes she knows exactly who she's talking to. Maybe they run into each other on vacation and wake up married. Maybe it's somehow a business decision. Maybe they hook up while trapped in a supply closet after assignments they're both working that turn out to intersect go horribly wrong, and then they're like, "...Nevada and Connor must never know." Maybe one of them is minding their own business having a nice day and gets dragged into the other's catastrophe (can't let Connor's sister-in-law or best friend get kidnapped on MY watch, after all).
2. It was supposed to be a one-time fling but now it keeps happening, with increasingly complicated hijinks to keep Arabella's family from finding out.
3. Nevada and Connor (and the rest of the Baylors) Find Out. (Cut to: Catalina somewhat reluctantly wrestling a sniper rifle away from her mother.)
4. Arabella has ideas for sexytimes applications of Augustine's illusion magic that he hadn't even thought of.
5. Something with Arabella getting Augustine to loosen up and have some fun. Probably he's not convinced that whatever activity she has in mind will be fun at first, but she's so enthusiastic. And then he ends up having a great time!
6. Does Augustine know what Arabella's magic is? Like, I feel like he would be desperately trying to find out if he doesn't, and he's smart enough to have put it together after the freeway incident if nothing else, but there's probably some leeway to play around with here as far as whether he knows, she knows he knows, and how any of those scenarios play out.
Augustine Montgomery/Cornelius Harrison
In Sapphire Flames when it's mentioned that Augustine came to the warehouse and picked Matilda up, everyone sort of brushes it off as, "Well, MII has a personal security division," which is true, but doesn't explain why the owner of the company is chauffeuring a random second grader, and so my brain helpfully decided that he's dating her dad, and him sitting with Cornelius's family at Runa & Bern's wedding sure didn't make me not think that, let met tell you!
And I know there was that whole, "Cornelius will never truly love again," thing, but maybe that's not, like, definitive. Maybe science magic turns out to be wrong about that. Or maybe it's an FWB thing and that works for them, or something! Maybe somehow it all works out.
1. Thinking back to Augustine manipulating Nevada into taking Cornelius' case after Nari died, maybe Augustine has been carrying a torch for Cornelius for a while, but he knew it was hopeless and it was never going to be a thing. And now...it is a thing, and he's sort of freaking out, but trying to keep it cool because Augustine Montgomery does not freak out. (Cornelius? Charmed.)
2. Maybe Augustine's illusion magic goes haywire somehow and Cornelius has to help him get out of a situation. Or maybe the illusion magic has, uh, sexytimes applications. (NOT "I can look like your dead wife" applications. Fun applications!)
3. Or maybe Augustine does make the 'I could look like your dead wife' offer, considering how realistic his illusions apparently are (clothes in different sizes fit him!), and Cornelius is appropriately horrified and now they have to sort through, like, Augustine not thinking he's enough as himself, and also him thinking that's something Cornelius would go for because what the fuck, Augustine?
4. I almost died at Cornelius saying he would "ferret out" Tatyana's secrets in Emerald Blaze, so: something with Cornelius being a terrible maker of animal puns and Augustine NOT being charmed by it, not at ALL, he SWEARS (he is MELTING on the inside).
5. Augustine needs Cornelius's help with a job. More specifically, he needs the ferrets' help with a job. This isn't an excuse to spend time alone with Cornelius in an enclosed space, what are you talking about? (It is also that.)
6. Using your animal sidekicks to figure out who Augustine is impersonating at society events is cheating, Cornelius, and Augustine is going to withhold his (sexy) forfeit until you apologize (no he's not).
Augustine Montgomery/Connor "Mad" Rogan(/Nevada Baylor)
I was talking to a friend a while back about these books and I was like, "Basically at this point Ilona Andrews could reveal that Augustine and Rogan were actually together romantically and had a really bad breakup when he left for the military, and I feel like no one would be surprised," and just, that's it, that's the vibe. I'm really into the concept of them having broken up messily back in the day and then maybe Nevada finding/figuring it out and having to deal with this mess and them still being in love with each other in the present. I feel like the character dynamics of this trio are really interesting because they're all such prickly people, and they all have such clear reasons for friction in their interpersonal relations--Nevada & Augustine's professional dealings, Rogan & Augustine's rocky past, Rogan's whole psychological deal in general--but even when Rogan and Augustine don't seem to like each other that much they'd still throw down for each other. And my God, what a power trio this would be. And I feel like Nevada/Connor/Augustine would be a really interesting relationship because just...how do I phrase this? Picture the rotating pivot point of any two of them siding against the other one on any one petty issue. Picture the absolute terror that is the three of them united against you. It's glorious.
Re: the infidelity DNW: I'm pretty into the poly option here but also you could easily make the argument Nevada deserves better than to have to deal with these assholes and their issues, so if you do want to write some form of poly that would be awesome but also: Nevada and Connor broke up, never got together, it's set in the period before they met, whatever you want to do, it's all good. Just...anything but cheating, yeah. (Good luck cheating on a Truthseeker anyway lol.)
1. I'm thinking soulmates AU? Like, Rogan seems like just the kind of asshole that he'd ditch Augustine and run off to the military anyway because he was bucking against his whole life being lined up for him, and now it's ten years later and he's got to deal with the mess he made if the city doesn't burn down first. He might be hoping the city burns down first a little. (I have always sort of thought that part of the reason Augustine recruited Nevada for the Pierce case was that he realized Rogan would probably get involved and he was willing to do absolutely anything to avoid him a little longer, so...meanwhile Nevada is just standing here holding the brain cell.)
And Rogan totally seems like the kind of special that would have two soulmates. (If you go with something like 'soulmate-identifying marks,' Augustine could even suspect Nevada is the other soulmate before he sends her after Pierce, which would be interesting.) How does he feel about his soulmates unionizing against him, and why is the answer 'turned on?'
2. Until recently, I assumed (even though we've been told they'll fool things like retinal scanners) that Augustine's illusions were visual, but in recent Q&As Ilona Andrews have said things that make them sound like they're also physical--like that Augustine has clothes tailored in different sizes to make things easier on himself. I'm going to be honest, this is sort of bending my brain trying to figure out how the clothes fit without Augustine being an actual shapeshifter, but let's not stress the details of magic and let's just get right to the sexytimes possibilities of Augustine's illusions being that real. And combined with Rogan being a tactile? Yowza.
3. Augustine has finally started interviewing for a potential bride and Rogan can't figure out why he's so mad about it until someone, possibly one of his soldiers, possibly his mom, possibly Nevada, hits him with a clue bat.
4. Maybe Rogan and Augustine never broke up/fell out when Rogan went off to the military. Maybe they've been on again/off again for over a decade and they snipe at each other as a form of foreplay. Maybe they're Houston's secret or not at all secret power couple. Whatever you want to do with it!
5. Either Rogan or Nevada has some unskippable social event they're supposed to go to with the other and something comes up that means they can't make it, and need to not be seen not making it, so Augustine impersonates the missing partner. If it's Rogan I feel like he's slightly sarcastic about it all night and Nevada has to keep trying not to laugh. If it's Nevada Rogan is probably weirded out by how good he is at it. And then they all meet back up at home and *cough* debrief.
6. Rogan sees Augustine without his illusions for the first time in more than ten years and there's some sort of significant change he wasn't expecting. Maybe Augustine's hairline is, in fact, receding and Rogan's more upset about this than Augustine is ("I was joking about that!" "It's just hair, Connor.") Maybe the scar Konstantin could see in Ruby Fever is new, and Augustine refuses to tell Rogan how he got it so he can go kill the person who gave it to him ("They're already dead anyway." "There has to be SOMEONE I can kill!") Maybe Augustine distracts him with sex. Maybe Augustine just has new crinkles around his eyes and Rogan is alarmed by how attractive he finds them.
7. Rogan teaching Nevada how to play 'Spot the Pancakes' at society functions. His illusions are flawless, his impersonations impeccable, but Rogan will find him. (Possibly the forfeits are sexual?)
8. Anything with some bad guy realizing at the worst possible time that the power couple is actually a power trio and now they're screwed. Possibly:
Bad guys: and now we are going to kill you
Nevada and Rogan, bored: Oh no. Please don't.
Augustine: Oops there is an Illusion Prime with a knife in this room.
But it could also be like a business deal situation or literally anything.
7. Maybe an AU where the Rogan-Baylors had the good sense to get their on-call Illusion Prime to consult on that disgusting sex tape Victoria Tremaine had made and sent to them, and Augustine gets to hold the brain cell for once: "You are both going to sit down and not do anything rash because here are all the reasons this is a clear fake. I mean they didn't even get your cock right, Connor, it's much nicer than that."
Just Augustine
First off, I feel like several of my prompts for Augustine/Rogan(/Nevada) could totally work platonically, like I could fully see Rogan platonically wanting to murder whoever gave Augustine that scar, or trying to spot Augustine at society events for shits and giggles.
Secondly, I would really like a fic about what a job for an Illusion Prime of Augustine's caliber looks like, since he obviously at some point got down and dirty and wasn't just sitting behind a desk all day, and probably still does during some of the time he's offscreen. (Oooooh, was Augustine involved in the war? Is he assiduously keeping this information from Rogan?) Go as James Bond as you like with it!
Or whatever other ideas you have, I'm open!
Kate Daniels - Ilona Andrews
Christopher Steed, Hugh d'Ambray
Okay, so after the part in Magic Triumphs where Christopher tells Kate that A) unlike pretty much everyone else outside the Iron Dogs, he paid enough attention to figure out what Roland was doing to control Hugh pretty early on and B) Hugh took better care of him when he was in the cage than previously thought, and possibly than he was supposed to, considering it's mentioned he fed and talked to him only at night when no one else was around, and Hugh's guilt-flashback re: Christopher in the cage in Iron & Magic and how he thinks about Christopher as the only Legatus he could ever stand, I went back and reread Magic Rises and I realized that maybe Hugh set Kate up to rescue Christopher accidentally-on-purpose with the 'anything in this courtyard' wording (not consciously because of Roland's conditioning and because he really didn't expect to lose that match, but on some level I really think he knew what he was saying there, because Hugh is not wired to withstand someone suffering on his watch like that and he had to fix it somehow).
And now I ship it. Or at the least I want to see them interact. It's a whole mess of history and dynamics to dig into and I'm into it. Like: they were horrible men, and they were equals. And then one of them kept the other one in a cage. And now they're both different people in some ways, living in the aftermath of all of that, and it's just...really interesting to me. And yet we never really get to see them interact. There's that one really tense moment in Magic Triumphs, and then their actual conversation takes place offscreen and that's it. I need more. (I need them to kiss.)
Note: If you're going shippy, and you're writing something set during the era of the books, as opposed to the pre-canon Preceptor/Legatus era, please nothing sexual during the period when Christopher was mentally unstable. As far as the canon relationships go, I'm happy for Hugh's marriage to Elara to remain a professional business arrangement, or with some form of polyamory, whatever you want to do there. As far as Christopher's relationship with Barabas, I can't really see Barabas sharing Christopher with Hugh d'Ambray of all people, but, I mean, maybe? Or maybe they didn't get together. However you can make it work!
Prompts! Most of these are shippy but some of them can go either way, I think.
1. Some kind of FWB arrangement set during their days as Legatus and Preceptor that maybe gets more serious than either of them meant it to, or mutual pining and both of them aware that it's a REALLY BAD IDEA as far as Roland is concerned, and then maybe after everything they meet up again and realize they have a second chance.
2. Or in that same period, something with Christopher and Hugh working together to salvage a situation, possibly one that's gone south thanks to Roland's meddling/not listening to Hugh/maybe even brainwashing Hugh. Like, when Omaha got broken, was that...was that what was supposed to happen? Or were they both pretty sure for about five minutes there that they were super going to die (and then possibly "I can't believe we survived that" sex?)?
3. Something to do with Christopher losing his wing in Magic Triumphs, because I have this notion that Hugh is the healer you call in to deal with the situation when you've got an actual avatar with an extra-crispy appendage, and then you've got Christopher, of course, devastated, and Hugh feeling really guilty about being unable to save the wing and yes good angst. (I mean, we now know it grew back, but that was still very much in doubt at the end of Magic Triumphs.
4. Something set during the preparations to face Neig, with Hugh and Christopher both being weirded out by how easily they fall into a groove of working together again and the Iron Dogs enthusiastically embracing Christopher because it's always nice when someone they used to know A) is alive and B) isn't trying to kill them, and possibly also ragging the hell out of Hugh for having A Type, because haha wow are there some similarities between Elara and Christopher.
5. The whole situation with Christopher crazy and being kept in a cage, from the POV of the guy who loved him and was keeping him in a cage, and apparently feeding and talking to him in secret in his own castle.
6. So oops it turns out Hugh can't marry Elara to seal their alliance because he and Christopher are already married. Maybe they didn't realize that thing they did as a quick way to solve a problem one time was legally binding. Maybe it was entirely on purpose and a secret. Maybe they're trying to get a quickie divorce and absurd romcom style obstacles keep falling in their path. Whatever just run with it.
7. I noticed on reread that Hugh grows throughout the course of the series—something in the range of four to six inches. While I'm pretty sure this is just another authorial inconsistency like his country of origin switching from England to France, it could also be fanwanked as the result of his stint healing in a phoenix egg, so something with Christopher reacting to his new height (and Hugh to Christopher's new shoulders?) could be a thing.
8. Anything to do with them after the series ends, dealing with the fact that they were both really horrible people who did horrible things (and that Hugh did some of those things *to* Christopher), and now...here they are in the aftermath, in some ways very different people but in some ways still who they always were, just with a chance to be better now.
9. Once upon a time there was an ambitious, smart, wildly talented young twink of a necromancer who was bound and determined to climb Roland's warlord like a tree. This is his story.
Sons of the Fallen - Jaclyn Osborn
Any
Okay, look, I know we're flying close to the sun on this one with Alastair coming out on December 27, especially considering Raiden randomly dropped a couple of months early. If Alastair comes out early, you can safely assume I will have read it as soon as humanly possible, but please do not feel any pressure to rush anything as far as your own reading or writing experience goes on my silly account. "Canon compliant up to [wherever]," or for some of my prompts not canon compliant at all lol, it's all good. A lot of these prompts are apt to be jossed shortly, but we love an AU, right? So don't worry about it, we're all here to have fun!
Let's get to some prompts!
For any of these characters, I would love to see some wing kink. Like, actual wing kink, not the wing slit kink we see in the text (although that is also hot). But like touching someone's wings being intimate and pleasurable for the one being touched, trying to avoid the sharp edges of the feathers, mutual grooming, etc. I would also like to see sexy biting/blood-drinking, because...hot.
Alastair/Lazarus
Honestly, even in book one I thought there was something hinky going on with how opaque Alastair is in general, and specifically how Alastair could contact Lazarus at any time, but only behind closed doors and his brothers don't even seem to know how, but for a couple of books now I have been going, "Uh, are these...are there hints here? Is this--is she going to pair them up?" And then a few weeks ago (I apologize if this is a spoiler) Osborn confirmed via social media that she is, indeed, going to pair them up, and I'm gonna be honest: I have some trepidation here, considering all of the, you know, child abuse. But I've been thinking about it a lot and I feel like it's also a pairing rich with possibility for fic purposes, even if, you know, we're fully about to be jossed. (It's just more cake!)
For one thing, assuming they are, in fact, soulmates, which they pretty much have to be in this series, how long have they known? Everyone else knew pretty quickly, and a couple of things Alastair says about how the bond gets stronger and more impossible to ignore the more time you spend with your soulmate stood out to me, and in Bellamy he says something along the lines of, "I have no wish for a mate," when his brothers are ragging on him about how soon it'll be your turn, Al, that really stood out to me as...very specific phrasing, considering. They have to know. So what is going on? It makes an insane amount of sense that they're pretending they're not soulmates, considering how the rest of the angels would react to that--and even moreso back when Lazarus was seemingly the only one not on Team 'Let's Just Kill Them'--to say nothing of how the other Nephilim will react, which I think we can pretty well predict will just be the word 'no' shouted over and over, occasionally modified by various expletives.
Was the whole thing with Lazarus taking them somehow because of this in the first place? Did either of them know then, before all of the beatings and trauma? Yikes, but also: rich angst fic fodder. And like, I could totally see how it could have gone down that way: making everyone hate their sergeant to help unit cohesion is a basic boot camp concept, but these weren't boot camp recruits. These were eight-year-olds. Or did they figure it out later, after Alastair was an adult, and then somehow it was worse, because if Lazarus had known, he could have done things differently? Or does only one of them know (I think probably Alastair in this case) and the other one (Lazarus lbr, I could totally see him being deep in denial) is about to get a sledgehammer to the face? How would you keep the other party from finding out?
The more I think about this the more I think of ways it could go, and canon is only going to take one. It's kind of exciting. (And, like, if you manage to nail exactly what canon ends up going with, then wow! You're a wizard! Also exciting!) Did they do something to the bond, cut it or block it somehow? Is there just an insane amount of pining and yearning going on that we have not yet been privy to? What does Lazarus think about Alastair having other lovers? Like, does he think he's above all that and he doesn't care (he totally cares) or does he think that he's made himself unworthy of Alastair via all the child abuse, and they can't be together anyway, so of course Alastair seeks affection elsewhere, it's fine (cue angst)?
Or you could go AU! What if Lazarus managed to collect all the other brothers, but he wasn't able to pry Alastair out of the heart of Lucifer's army, so they meet as adults, across a battlefield, the same way Bellamy met Phoenix? Now it's enemies to lovers! Without all the child abuse! (I mean, presumably the others still got...yeah. Lazarus has a lot of work to do no matter how you slice it.)
To talk about sex for a moment, I have kind of a thing for Alastair being submissive in bed. Like, he has to be in charge and so in control all of the rest of the time, I could see him just wanting to let someone else take over for a while, and obviously he knows that Lazarus can do that for him...but then the role reversal with Lazarus kneeling at Alastair's feet would also be insanely hot, and feels very fitting.
DNW anything involving punishment or like, whipping or spanking in a sexual context for this pairing. I think there's way too much baggage for that to be sexy here, and though I could see a role reversal scenario with Lazarus as the punished party being cathartic, it's not something I'm looking for in a Yuletide gift. References to their canonical history involving those things in a non-sexual context is a-okay, and I'm okay with face slapping? IDK why, brains and ids are weird. Maybe the snap-out-of-it slap in Raiden did things to me. But, yeah. Lazarus can slap Alastair to snap him out of a Pride meltdown or whatever, or just because they're into it (although ideally Lazarus should be conflicted at first in this case before he's like "...no okay that's really hot."). But not that other stuff.
Just Alastair
While of course once we get in his head things may be completely different, I think about this quote on selfishness from the Tiffany Aching books a lot when it comes to Alastair, considering that Pride as a sin is all about selfishness, and I would sort of like to see him with that sort of mindset: these are his brothers, and his world, and therefore he has a duty to them. Or, to put a completely different and no less accurate tone on it: this is his circus, and these are his monkeys.
This could also tie into an Alastair/Lazarus fic, but: I think we all can agree that Alastair is nooooot doing well mentally. The man tried to stay in a burning house, for fuck's sake, and yeah, it wouldn't have killed him, but still, the house was on fire. And, I mean, it's not that surprising: he's under a lot of stress, he's grieving, he's probably trying to keep his secret fated bond with this asshole angel under wraps...someone please help him. (I know it's tricky because of Pride, but please.) Maybe Phoenix knows more than he should after whatever went down while Alastair was convincing Lazarus to leave the scene in Ireland and is extremely awkwardly and reluctantly like, "Hey...if you want to talk..." Maybe Kallias is like, "Hey, bro, speaking as the avatar of fucking Melancholy: yikes." Just something.
I love the running thing about how Alastair is basically a grandpa in the body of a young man. He loves his books and his classical music and his tea and, in the best under-the-radar joke in Raiden, Werther's fucking Originals. And at this point in the story I feel like he just really deserves a nice day off, maybe a trip to a rare bookstore...maybe his brothers frantically trying to crisis manage and keep him from finding out A Thing Is Happening in the background, because they all agree that Al needs this.
Or I would love to see Alastair spending family time with his brothers. Their Christmases seem fun, how about that? Or just anything, really, in canon he's so closed off, and while he's really busy and has been grieving and the Lazarus thing has to be part of it, too, I'd just like to see him with his family in a more relaxed way.
Bellamy
I feel like there's a lot of unexplored potential with Bellamy and Lust. There are some things that aren't really touched on in canon that I wonder about, and some things that are stated outright that I'd like to see fic going in a different direction from.
First off, the whole thing with Bellamy's real eye color feels like it deserves a deleted scene where his brothers find out about it, because in everybody else's POV we've gotten no indication that anyone knows Bellamy has a secret eye color he's angsting about, and at this point someone has to have seen Phoenix look at him and his eyes turn blue at least once. I want the fallout from that, because while it's by no means on the level of the Alastair/Lazarus thing, it's a secret he's been keeping from his brothers for thousands of years, and it feels like the reaction would be epic.
Second, we're told that Bellamy's never had sex with any of his brothers, but I don't really...buy that. Like, it doesn't seem to jive with how he gets sick if he doesn't have sex regularly, and the fact that they were isolated until they turned eighteen. I've been around teenaged boys, there is no way Lust didn't wake up until after Bellamy was eighteen. (And while it's possible, considering they were eight when they met and didn't automatically see each other as brothers, a strong incest taboo just doesn't...fit, especially when we know Castor and Galen had a fling.) I also find it kind of implausible there's never been a dry spell where there weren't really other options around in all the time since. So maybe something with one of those scenarios, or just even like, sex as comfort. Maybe at a different period in history, Bellamy was less all up in his head about it and saw things more like Raiden's worldview: orgasms are nice. Bellamy gives great orgasms. Who wants some?
Third, I'm interested in the darker side of Lust, both in the bloodlust that's been sort of touched on but not really explored--I'd like to see Bellamy go over to that for a longer, more cohesive period of time, both what that looks like and the fallout from it for everyone to deal with--and the fact that any time he goes out in public Bellamy must be exposed to all kinds of mental filth. I have a headcanon, completely unsupported by the text, that Echo Bay's vampire population mainly feeds on pedophiles and rapists Bellamy tips them off to, but basically anything dealing with those drawbacks of Lust instead of, "Oh, woe is me, I must have all the sex," would be interesting to explore, I think.
Also, I feel like Bellamy could be perceived as Lazarus' favorite, from how he was the only one who didn't hate or at least dislike him from the word go as far as we've seen so far (who knows what Alastair's deal was), and how he always tries to see the best of his motivations and whatnot. And I know no one else would care but, boy, all things considered, Alastair could, and considering how little the others can read him, he could well be hiding a lot of resentment about it. That bit in Bellamy where Lazarus is ripping into Alastair over his handling of Bellamy's kidnapping in front of everyone is...honestly pretty ugly, when you consider that Bellamy's already been safely retrieved at that point, and, again, all things regarding Alastair and Lazarus considered. I also wonder if Bellamy being pro-Lazarus at first had something to do with how harshly Lazarus cracked down on the whole group, to prevent him and say, Castor, from splitting the boys into factions. And I would kind of like to see some sort of blowup over all of that after everything's out in the open.
OR I'd like to see Phoenix (or someone else, as we've already established I think Bellamy should fuck his brothers) be like, "I know Lust makes you always be all about whatever your partner wants, but tonight it's all about YOU," and then just like, cater to Bell and help him figure out what he likes.
Gray
I love this sleepy ball of sunshine, and real talk, I remain somewhat surprised that his focus book did not go to even a little bit of a somnophilia place. "Oh, no, Gray is getting sleepy, now we cannot have sex." Yes, you can! I expect more initiative and can-do spirit from a marine. Gray doesn't even have to be fully asleep, you could go with sleepy, warm and relaxed sex or something during one of his bad lethargic periods, where he can't really do anything except lay there and take it, but that's okay because he's still mentally into it and his partner loves manhandling him. His partner doesn't have to be Mason, you could go with that pirate captain he used to roll with (love a pirate fic), or maybe he has an ongoing arrangement with one of his brothers, like he's Bellamy's go-to partner during a dry spell (he can totally come in his sleep!) or a stress relief thing with Alastair. Or maybe it's all of them, from time to time! I know Raiden seems to be the other exclusive bottom in the bunch (I think we only see Daman bottom on the page, but he mentions at least once that he would like to fuck Warrin sometime), but I'm willing to ignore that for porn's sake. Go wild!
I'd also like to see fic about Gray just, like, navigating the world with Sloth. Oh, no, he's asleep again. In the middle of this battle. Or just in the middle of this Target. It never gets old to me. I love him. So just anything with Gray being Gray and everyone else fondly coping with that: A+.
Or how about, since Gray is the brother who really loves Christmas, Christmas fic? Maybe that Christmas that everything went wrong that...I think it's Daman talks about in the books, in more detail, or just another cozy family Christmas. What do you even buy Greed for Christmas, anyway? Hell, what do you buy Galen? And now there are all these soulmates and we've gotta shop for them, and fuck me, do I have to get Lazarus a Christmas present?
Just Lazarus
Originally I was like, "IDK that I know Lazarus well enough as a character to have much in the way of prompts for him," but I turned out to be wrong about that lol.
1. Maybe an AU where when he suddenly found himself a single parent to eight kids who hated him to various degrees it was more funny and awkward and less of a total fucking nightmare for everyone involved?
2. Maybe something when he was stuck at Clara's after he injured his wing in Bellamy and he just had to put up with this human witch being casually mean to him because she was also helping (and also, she's right).
3. Five times Raiden talked him into trying human food and one time he actually liked it.
4. Something with the 'Bellamy may be perceived as his favorite' thing I went into above.
5. In Bellamy it's revealed that Lazarus at one point agreed with/followed Lucifer, so, like, AU where he fell?
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Date: 2022-10-18 01:05 pm (UTC)