AU Exchange Letter 2021

Thank you for writing or drawing for me! I’ve requested fic and art for all of my fandoms. I am within_a_dream on AO3, and you can read my previous letters here if you want to see some of my previous exchange requests! I have requested both fic and art for all fandoms. Please feel free to include anything I don’t DNW – I have very few kink/smut turnoffs (and they’re all in my DNWs), I’ll enjoy pretty much every plot or trope that you feel goes along with my requested AUs, and I’m down for any ships (canon or noncanon).

DNWs

• Noncanonical pregnancy, any childbirth - any canonical pregnancies are fine, just don't put the actual childbirth on the page/in the art


• Trans characters having PIV sex - other types of vaginal penetration or uses of dicks are fine!


• Oviposition


• Breeding kink

General Likes

• I love all tenses and POVs!


• Fic about canonical children, Accidental Child Acquisition of OC children (especially for characters who are not at all parental and have no idea what to do with kids)


• Casefic, with a loose definition of "case" that encompasses mysteries for mystery fandoms, paranormal investigations for fantasy canons, espionage for spy canons, etc


• Ghost stories! Particular favorites include the "ghostly hitchhiker" urban legend and the setup where characters need to spend the night in a haunted house for Reasons


• Recovery or aftermath – of canonical traumatic events or noncanonical torture, rape, murder attempts, etc


• Whump, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort


• 5+1 fics


• Epistolary fic


• Trans headcanons/character-is-trans AUs


• Internal or external homophobia

Art Likes

• I love any art styles and media!


• Ships sharing each other’s clothes


• Disheveled characters (whether from fights or sex or anything else)


• Clothing/costume porn


• Clothed/unclothed, or discrepancies in level of dress, for shippy art


• Limited color palettes


• Blood, bruises, marks

Smut Likes

• Feel free to include any of your favorite kinks if you are writing or drawing me smut! My only squicks are in my DNWs – anything else goes.
  
• Any and all sex acts (vaginal, anal, oral, manual, frottage, intercrural, fisting, double penetration, sounding, etc) are great! I have no top/bottom or dom/sub preferences.


• My favorite words for genitals are cock and cunt, but I have no objections to whatever you’d like to use


• Pretty much anything under the BDSM umbrella. I am especially into unnegotiated or undernegotiated kink, and characters falling into kinky dynamics or things they enjoy (especially with the younger characters). I have no dom/sub preferences


• I would love noncon for any of my requested characters or fandoms – if you want to know more about what I like in dubcon or noncon I have a general list of kinks and tropes here in my Consent Issues letter. I generally prefer noncon with an OC or canonical antagonist as the rapist, and "fuck or die" setups between my requested characters are also great!


• Roleplay – I am into both serious roleplay and goofy scenarios that the characters can’t quite take seriously, and I am especially fond of rape roleplay/consensual non-consent


• Group sex, orgies, and gangbangs


• Gunplay, especially fucking someone with a gun


• Watersports – I am mostly into it for humiliation or marking aspects, and am neutral about drinking piss (and would prefer if any drinking happens it’s someone having their mouth pissed in directly rather than just drinking a glass of pee/etc)

Benjamin January Mysteries – Barbara Hambly

Characters/Ships

• Ayasha January/Rose Vitrac January (Benjamin January)


• Benjamin January & Rose Vitrac January & Hannibal Sefton (Benjamin January)


• Benjamin January & Rose Vitrac January & Hannibal Sefton & Abishag Shaw (Benjamin January)


• Benjamin January/Abishag Shaw (Benjamin January Mysteries)


• Benjamin January/Hannibal Sefton (Benjamin January)


• Benjamin January/Rose Vitrac January/Hannibal Sefton (Benjamin January)


• Benjamin January/Rose Vitrac January/Hannibal Sefton/Abishag Shaw (Benjamin January)

AUs

• ALL: Different character dies in canon dead character's place – AUs where it’s Ben who dies in Paris and Ayasha who goes to New Orleans are always fun (have I been gifted one before? Yes. Do I want allllll the takes on this AU? Also yes)
  
• All: a character is transgender (binary), All: a character is transgender (nonbinary) – I just really love historical trans characters! Any character is great, go wild, maybe throw Augustus Meyerling in?


• ALL: Always A Girl, ALL: Multiple canonical men are actually women in disguise for Reasons, ALL: Genderswap to all female cast, ALL: Genderswap to femslash – I am down for deep-digging explorations of how things would change if one or more male characters were women, genderbending as an excuse for hot women/femslash, or anything in between!


• ALL: Character Journeys To The Underworld to Rescue Their Dead Lover, ALL: Character plays a game with Death in exchange for their/somebody else's life – folklore/mythology AUs just fit so well with this canon in my opinion… For the first tag, maybe Olympe has a ceremony that allows someone to journey to the underworld, and they’re not sure if it will actually work or not but they’ve got nothing less to lose. And for the second, any game is great, or you could bend the tag a bit and do a ‘Devil Went Down To Georgia’-style competition with Hannibal or Ben


• ALL: Folk Horror – there’s been times in the book where things nudged a bit against the supernatural, and I’d love to see fic/art that goes all the way and has Ben & friends facing something incontrovertibly supernatural. New Orleans and the surrounding bayous are a very fertile ground for folk horror, or you could have the characters travel anywhere else


• ALL: Ghost Whisperers AU – I don’t have a preference for which character is the ghost whisperer, I’d just love to see how it interacts with solving murders (or just any of my requested characters interacting with ghosts in general). And it’s always fun to see Ben and Rose’s skeptical mindsets come up against something that science can’t explain


• ALL: Jazz Age AU – Ben and Hannibal are New Orleans musicians, so we’re halfway here already! Just gotta shift canon forward a century or so


• ALL: Pirates – I don’t even have a plot in mind, I just love pirates so much and would love to see Ben & friends sailing the high seas


• ALL: Sense8 psychic connections – i’ve already been gifted one lovely Sense8 AU but Sense8-style psychic bonds are everything I love and I want a million and one fanworks where Ben and various characters are psychically connected


• ALL: Songs/Music inherently hold Magic – I love how the series portrays music, and I’d love to see some music-based magic however you want to portray it


• All: Soulbond – Accidental/Involuntary – I especially love soulbonds that make the bonded parties share emotions/pleasure/pain, and the accidental soulbond making the ship reveal their feelings for each other is very fun


• All: Old Guard-Style Immortality – I’d really love to see you choose different time periods for each of the characters to have gained their immortality. A plot idea that you can run with or ignore: I’m picturing Ben’s first death being of cholera in Paris, and when he returns to life and Ayasha does not, he finds himself inexplicably drawn to New Orleans and having dreams of three strangers...


• ALL: Eldritch Western, All: Western/Wild West with powers/magic – perhaps Ben as a frontier doctor and Shaw as a sheriff? Maybe characters get caught up in a murder investigation or bounty hunt?

Doctrine of Labyrinths – Sarah Monette

Fandom-specific DNW: If you’re setting the work in canon era, I love Mildmay/Felix, but for modern AUs I DNW Mildmay/Felix. (This is why I didn’t request the ship, but as long as you’re not doing a modern AU, feel free to do a Mildmay/Felix work!)

Characters/Ships

• Mildmay Foxe & Felix Harrowgate (Doctrine of Labyrinths)


• Solo: Mildmay Foxe (Doctrine of Labyrinths)

AUs

• DoL: Mildmay is not nearly as straight as he keeps insisting – whoever nommed this, you are a fan after my own heart. I just have a lot of feelings about Mildmay’s repeated insistence that he’s not molly combined with the flashbacks we get to his time with Kolkhis where she threatens to send him to a brothel if he’s turning molly when he doesn’t perform well enough in bed. I just want him to have a Big Bisexual Janus Realization, with any man in canon (although I am especially partial Kay, Simon, and Felix), or with an OC.


• DoL: Mildmay takes offer to teach at Corambis school – I just want Mildmay to realize that he’s smart and his skills have value :,( You can go full worldbuilding and show me one of his lectures, or explore who he meets and how he interacts with his audience


• ALL: Community College AU - Perhaps the small college is the Corambis analogue in Felix’s exile in this universe. Felix loves teaching, and I’d love to see him still teaching in a modern AU. I’d love to see what reasons you’d come up with for Mildmay having to come along with him. How did Kay and/or Mildmay get injured in this AU, and how do they feel about their disabilities? Are all of the characters professors? What subjects do they teach? And honestly I’d love to see how any of the characters’ backstories would translate to a modern AU; don’t feel obligated if you don’t find this sort of thing fun to write, but I’d love to see what you come up with.


• All: Soulbond – Accidental/Involuntary - I realize that the obligation d’ame is basically a soulbond already, but I’d love to see another soulbond accidentally befalling Mildmay or Felix and any other character (or between Mildmay and Felix) that’s less of a magical method of control and more of an equal bond that shares emotions/pleasure/pain/whatever you’d like. There are so many weird magical things that could cause an accidental soulbond, so feel free to go wild with the cause!

Bridgerton Part I – Simon/Daphne

Just gonna clarify that pregnancy and breeding kink are fine here for Daphne (would prefer no noncanonical pregnancies of characters besides Daphne though). I haven’t read the books, but feel free to incorporate book canon that doesn’t contradict show canon!

Characters/Ships

• Simon Basset/Daphne Bridgerton (Bridgerton TV)

AUs

• Bridgerton: Nigel Berbrooke's Attempted Assault on Daphne Succeeds – Daphne came so close to being dishonored, and I’d love to see what would happen if she’d been raped. (I’d also love just some straight-up noncon porn if you would like!) My first idea for a plot is Simon quickly marrying her to avoid her reputation being ruined (and perhaps some gentle rape recovery follows). Perhaps she gets pregnant because of the rape, which would intersect in some very interesting ways with her and Simon’s relationship and Simon’s no-fathering-children policy. Daphne’s lack of knowledge about sex could also lead to some fun/heartbreaking rape aftermath or recovery – I’m guessing she’d assume all sex is just as horrific and painful as her rape. Perhaps Simon could help her realize that’s not true?


• All: a character is transgender (binary), All: a character is transgender (nonbinary) – I’m open to any characters here, but my first thought was Simon. Perhaps his insistence that he will never father a child is because he’s transmasc? Or perhaps she’s transfemme and doesn’t want to be a “father” for that reason. Just like, I love historical trans characters and I’d love to see how you’d make Bridgerton trans


• ALL: Multiple canonical men are actually women in disguise for Reasons – This is again a tag I picked mostly for Simon, and if he’s the only woman in disguise you include that’s totally fine. Or perhaps fem!Simon has a whole friend group of secret women (perhaps Anthony is also?) This could again provide a fun alternate reason for why he tells Daphne he’ll never have kids, and/or why he’s so insistent on never marrying

Bridgerton Part II – Marina

Characters/Ships

• Daphne Bridgerton/Marina Thompson (Bridgerton TV)


• Solo: Marina Thompson (Bridgerton TV)

AUs

• Bridgerton: Nigel Berbrooke's Attempted Assault on Daphne Succeeds – I talked about this AU in relation to Daphne in my other Bridgerton section, and here I’m thinking about Daphne’s social ruin in relation to Marina. Two ruined young ladies (maybe two pregnant young ladies, if you have the rape result in a pregnancy for Daphne) – perhaps they would befriend each other?


• Bridgerton: Marina Thompson's Abortion Attempt Succeeds – I’d love to see what Marina would do if she was successful in inducing an abortion. She wouldn’t have to marry her lover’s brother in this case. Would she go back home? Meet friends in London to live with, leaving high society behind? Perhaps Daphne would invite Marina to live with her and Simon. Perhaps Daphne and Marina would end up falling for each other...(you’re welcome to break Simon and Daphne up permanently, have an open relationship or Simon/Daphne/Marina, or have the Daphne/Marina be a temporary thing while Daphne and Simon are estranged)

Outlander (TV)

I haven’t read the books, but feel free to draw details from them where they don’t contradict the TV show.

Ships/Characters

• Claire Beauchamp/Jamie Frasier/Frank Randall (Outlander TV)


• Jamie Frasier/Frank Randall (Outlander TV)

AUs

• Outlander: Frank Travels to the 18th Century – you can send him back in addition to Claire or on his own. I’d just love to see Frank getting in on the time travel and falling for Jamie! Also Frank coming face-to-face with Black Jack would be amazing (feel free to include some Black Jack/Frank noncon), as would Jamie’s reaction to meeting Frank, who looks so much like the man who’s flogged and later tortured and raped him


• Outlander: Jamie Travels to the 20th Century – again, I would just love to have Frank get in on the sexy 18th century hunk action, and I’m also a sucker for historical characters travelling forward in time. I’d love to see Jamie exploring electricity, 20th century medicine and appliances, 20th century clothing and social norms...

Leverage: Redemption

I have seen and enjoyed regular-flavor Leverage as well!

Characters/Ships

• Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer (L:R 2021)


• Breanna Casey & Sophie Devereaux & Alec Hardison & Parker & Eliot Spencer & Harry Wilson (L:R 2021)


• Breanna Casey & Sophie Devereaux & Parker & Eliot Spencer & Harry Wilson (L:R 2021)


• Breanna Casey/Parker (L:R 2021)


• Breanna Casey/Sophie Devereaux/Parker (L:R 2021)


• Breanna Casey/Sophie Devereaux/Parker/Eliot Spencer/Harry Wilson (L:R 2021)


• Eliot Spencer/Harry Wilson (L:R 2021)


• Sophie Devereaux/Alec Hardison/Parker/Eliot Spencer/Harry Wilson (L:R 2021)

AUs

• ALL: Genderswap to all female cast – I’m down for an exploration of how backstories and the cons might change if everyone was a woman, an excuse to make everyone sexy women/add some more femslash, or anything in between!


• ALL: Sense8 psychic connections


• ALL: The Old Guard AU, All: Old Guard-Style Immortality – I just really want the Leverage gang as an Old Guard-style group devoted to heists instead of melee in their quest for justice. I’d love to see what eras/locations you’d put all of the characters as having come from! The immortality would make Nate’s death even more upsetting if you want to do some grief!fic or art. Or you could do something about Breanna and/or Harry as freshly immortal.


• ALL: Pirates – the Leverage characters would transplant very well into a pirate AU, attacking cruel captains, slave ships, etc. I just really love the aesthetics of pirates, and would love to see the characters swashbuckling on the high seas

Inspector George Gently

Characters/Ships

• John Bacchus/George Gently (Inspector George Gently)

AUs

• ALL: Characters pretend to be a couple/married to solve cases so often that they catch feelings – please...Undercover As A Couple for this ship would be amazing...It is my firm headcanon that Bacchus’s outward homophobia is a reflection of his self-hatred for being bi/gay/etc, and I would love to see him reaching the point where he can no longer deny his feelings for Gently


• ALL: On the run from the law – so you know the plot in Season 5 where Gently gets framed? What if instead of things being resolved the way they were in canon, Gently and Bacchus go on the run until they can prove Gently’s innocence? Hiding out in shady motels or camping out in parks, growing close to each other by necessity and also because it’s getting harder to deny their feelings for each other...


• All: a character is transgender (nonbinary), All: a character is transgender (binary) – you’re welcome to roll with writing/drawing Gently or Bacchus as trans however you’d like, my prompts are just my first ideas and I’m totally open to other takes. But for Gently, I’ve been pondering him as transmasc (maybe the reason he and his wife didn’t have kids?) And a transfemme Bacchus would be really fun, and put an interesting spin on Bacchus’s canon misogyny and homophobia, and I’d love to see Gently accepting fem!Bacchus and encouraging her to explore her gender. (And combo transmasc!Gently and transfemme!Bacchus would be very fun too!)


• All: Soulbond – Accidental/Involuntary – listen, I just love soulbonds, especially ones that involve sharing feelings, and especially ones that would, say, prevent Bacchus from continuing to hide his feelings for Gently because suddenly Gently can kindasorta hear Bacchus’s thoughts


• ALL: Resurrection Is Possible But Creates a Soul Bond – perhaps Bacchus died when he was shot in season 5, or you could do a post-canon fix-it. This process can be a known thing, or it could be an accident – Gently or Bacchus wishing so hard for their partner’s death to be undone and suddenly it is, but there are unintended consequences...


• ALL: Soulbonds - Accidentally Formed by Sexual Encounter – I’m picturing Bacchus and Gently hooking up while exhausted from a case/drunk/etc, and Bacchus insists to himself it’ll be a one-time thing, but whoooops, there’s a soulbond now and that makes it very hard for Bacchus to hide his feelings!


• All: Characters are Foster Parents – there are several cases that leave behind unfortunate children, and I’d love to see Gently end up fostering one of those kids, or an OC kid or two from an original case (sssh let’s just ignore the probability of a single man being allowed to adopt kids in the 1960s/70s). Gently/Bacchus could be an established ship, or maybe Bacchus keeps making excuses to come over and help Gently with his new ward/s (he does have parenting experience, after all, and depending on when in canon this is he may be missing his own daughter badly) and ends up falling for Gently