Yuletide Letter 2026

[withinadream]

Thank you for writing for me! 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! 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 characters, and I’m fine with any ships or friendships involving my requested characters. Length of prompts is not a reflection of which fandoms I want more!

DNWs

• Unrequested pregnancy


• Omegaverse


• Unrequested modern/mundane AUs


• AUs of my historical canons with no homophobia


• Fics that are entirely poetry rather than prose


• Trans characters having PIV sex (other vaginal penetration or use of dicks is fine!)


• Death of my requested characters (deaths of other characters are totally fine)

General Likes

• I love all tenses and POVs!


• Unusual formats very welcome


• 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


• Characters with disabilities, chronic pain, chronic illnesses


• Whump, hurt/comfort, hurt/no comfort


• 5+1 fics


• Epistolary fic


• Trans characters, trans headcanons, character-is-trans AUs


• Internal or external homophobia

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)

Darlene Series - caroline_easom (Web Series)

What is it? A series of TikToks following the titular Darlene, a young woman escaping fundamentalist Christianity and exploring her newfound lesbianism. Also teases a never-created plot arc (so much as any TikTok skit series can be said to have a plot arc) about finally taking down Darlene's father. I watched this fandom via Youtube compilation, located here. (Be prepared for exploration of fundamentalist Christianity and escaping abusive/controlling parents)

Characters: Darlene

• I am so into Darlene getting out of her restrictive family life and getting to live her best life with her girlfriend! Show me the movies, books, events, food, etc her girlfriend introduces her to


• I also love Darlene helping her sister and mother, and would love fic about her going up against her father and/or helping her relatives adjust to life outside of their religion! (The compilation I watched stopped at Darlene's mother telling her to follow the money, so if there are further Tiktoks I missed where Darlene actually does take down her father, forgive the prompt redundancy)


• I would be very into fic exploring Darlene's adjustment period to life after fundamentalism - guilt, learning how to do things she's never experienced before, what her therapy sessions look like, gaining job skills/taking her GED/maybe taking classes


• If you want to write smut, I am very here for Darlene getting to explore sex with her girlfriend, whether its' pure fluff, angst (maybe involving panic attacks or other anxiety at having sex at all, having sex with a woman, etc), or anything in between

The Radiant Emperor series – Shelley Parker-Chan

What is it? A two-book series based on the Red Turban Rebellions and the founding of the Ming Dynasty, featuring political machinations, lots of queerness, gritty violence, and lowkey fantasy elements. Books, ebooks, and audiobooks available wherever you usually get them! (Be prepared for gore, sexism, homophobia, and a POV character who's a eunuch with a lot of dysphoria about that)

Characters: Ma Xiuying, Zhu Chongba | Zhu Yuanzhang

• First off, I am so down for post-canon politics and scheming. Draw as much or as little on actual history as you would like.


• I'd especially love politics-y fic focusing on international relations (feel free to cross over any other canons, whether they fit into the general timeline of the duology or not), learning new languages/linguistic nerdery, or both


• And I am also down for any and all shippy fic you want to create about these two! Anything along the spectrum from G-rated fluff to raunchy smut is welcome.


• Niche and specific prompt: I think it would be fun if after becoming emperor, Zhu and Ma either hook up with one or more of the last set of concubines or gather their own harem of noblewomen (possibly specifically targeting women who want more freedom and/or are queer)


• I didn't request Ouyang because I only have this one prompt for him, but if you want to write an Ouyang-centric post-canon AU where he lives and ends up being one of Zhu's advisors or something adjacent, and recovers from both the "what do you do after you've completed your life's mission and it didn't fix your trauma" thing and his misogyny, I would adore it

War on Everyone

What is it? Buddy cop action-dark comedy starring Alexander Skarsgaard and Michael Peña as asshole buddy cops, featuring a surprisingly-RTMI exploration of childhood trauma + traumatized-teen-acquisition (think accidental baby acquisition but it's not accidental and the baby is a teen), some really delightful character dynamics between not only the leads but also love interests and family, and Skarsgaard shirtless and covered in blood. Can be streamed on HBO Max in the US, and also has a DVD release. (Be prepared for pretty much every type of bigotry imaginable [not always sensitively handled] including racial slurs, offscreen but plot-critical CSA, and gore.)

Characters: Any [Bob Bolaño (War on Everyone), Terry Monroe (War on Everyone), Danny Reynard (War on Everyone), Jackie Hollis (War on Everyone)]

• I tried to prompt for each character separately but all of the character prompts started bleeding into each other, so I'm just doing one long prompt list. But if you have an idea for one of these characters that isn't covered by the prompts below, go wild! There is so little fic for this movie and I love all the nominated characters so much. (Last year Delores Bolaño was also in the tagset – I have left her in my prompts and feel free to include her!)


• So here's the thing – if you give me a traumatized youth I will love them forever and also want alllll the fic about them coping with their trauma. And to that end, I would love any and all hurt/comfort about Danny, and also about Terry being a weirdly good parental figure to Danny, and also also Terry recontextualizing his own childhood trauma by comforting Danny and realizing he would never blame Danny for the things he blames himself for.


• Also like, Terry definitely has a tragic backstory, right? What was with that whole speech to the thugs telling them that he's been through worse torture and rape before? Pls give me tragic Terry backstory


• I am so enamored with Terry and Bob's friendship, and I would love pre-canon works about them being asshole cops or post-canon works about what they do with their lives post-quitting/being fired. I am always a hurt/comfort fan, so one of them being injured and the other patching them up would be great. And I am also down for them to kiss, if you are into Terry/Bob. I am also very interested in how they ended up being partners in the first place!


• Delores and Bob's relationship is also so fun to me! I didn't expect to come out of a buddy cop action comedy loving the canon het relationships so much but I deeply enjoyed their dynamic, and their philosophy-related arguments. I'd also love to see a Delores-POV look at the events of the movie. (And I'm curious as to whether Terry dragged Bob into the sorts of disasters we see them get involved in, or if Bob was Like This pre-Terry.)


• And Jackie! I also would love to see a Jackie-POV look at the events of the movie. I also love how she and Terry and Danny end up as this weirdly heartwarming little family unit by the end of the movie, and I'd love to see the three of them post-canon. And not gonna lie, I don't have much to hang this ship on but if you are down for some femslash, I would love to see Jackie and Delores kiss solely on the basis of I love them both.


• And on the subject of niche ships, I think Terry, Bob, Delores, and Jackie should have a foursome. This can go as well or as disastrously as you see fit.

Some Like it Hot - Shaiman/Wittman & Shaiman/López & Ruffin

What is it? A musical adaptation/re-imagining of the 1959 film featuring two musicians disguising themselves as women and joining a jazz band to escape the Mob, a jazz singer with big dreams of being a movie star, a millionaire looking for a wife, tap-dancing chase sequences, and a gender-realization plot for one of the "cross-dressing" musicians. The cast album is available for streaming, and here is a link to a bootleg that still worked as of October 2026.

Characters: Any [Jerry | Daphne, Osgood Fielding III, Joe, Sugar Kane]

• So this musical was like, made in a lab for my specific musical theater interests, and really I just want whatever fic you may want to write about any or all of these four. I haven't seen the movie, so my only context is the musical. If you're feeling shippy, I enjoy the canon ships as well as Daphne/Joe and a Daphne/Osgood/Joe/Sugar foursome. I'm using the name Daphne for simplicity, but I'm down with any pronouns/names in your fic (I read Jerry | Daphne as genderfluid in canon but I think the musical supports several readings)


• I'm down for works delving into race, gender, and/or canon- and era-typical bigotry, but also down for keeping things lighter if that's more your speed


• If you want to roll with my niche headcanon, I'm in love with the concept of t4t Daphne/Osgood with transmasc Osgood. The musical takes places right around the time estrogen was first synthesized (1933) and right before testosterone was synthesized (1935), and I feel like Osgood is well-placed to be on the cutting edge of HRT for Daphne and/or him


• I also love the Osgood backstory reveal, and would love Osgood backstory fic! Would love to see his parents, either during his childhood or him interacting with them during/post-canon, and what living with his two names and dual identities was/is like


• Sugar is also delightful. What's her life as a movie star like post-canon? How do she and Joe move forward after he confesses his lies? Or show me more of her life pre-canon! She's clearly a great vocalist, but also struggles in both her professional and personal life, and I'd love to see more of the details we get in canon fleshed out


• Tip-Tap Twins backstory! I would love to see these two at any point from their childhoods to immediately pre-canon. I do ship them and would especially love to see them have a friends-with-benefits type relationship precanon. When did they pick up their respective instruments? What other trouble has Joe (or Jerry?) gotten them into?


• And/or, I'd love to see Joe and Daphne's friendship (or friends-with-benefits-ship if you're down) post-canon. They've known each other for so long that I imagine it's a bit weird for Joe that Daphne has discovered this huge facet of their identity without Joe there by their side, and I'm down for Joe being a bit of a dick about his feelings before he adjusts. Or, if you're down to get shippy with it, would love to see their first time together post-Daphne's realization, and/or some smut after Daphne starts estrogen if you're down for historical HRT


• Really I would just love to see Daphne post-canon. The wedding! Their new stage show with Joe, and what stays the same vs different with their newly-realized gender! What it's like suddenly being a millionaire!


• And if you want to get smutty, I would really love a foursome, especially with a context of past Jerry/Joe hookups and how things are different now that they've both got new partners

Operation Mincemeat: A New Musical – SpitLip

What is it? A comedy musical about Britain's Operation Mincemeat, a WW2 espionage mission involving a disguised corpse. It completely cracked me up but also had some moments that were far more emotionally moving than a comedy musical about a corpse has any right to be. It also has some great usage of cross-cast roles as commentary/exploration of 1940s sexism. It's still showing on Broadway and the West End if you happen to be in the area with ticket money, currently on a US tour, the cast album is streaming, many of the big musical numbers can be found in video form on YouTube, and I can provide you with a bootleg that was still up as of October 2026. (Be prepared for era-typical sexism, Nazis, and some grim corpse-related dialogue, and be warned that if you do even cursory research on the IRL Operation Mincemeat, a photo of the RL corpse used is fairly unavoidable)

Characters: Jean Leslie, Hester Leggatt

• So I love pretty much every character in this musical, but Jean & Hester had me hooked from the first time I heard Useful. So fascinated by the way Hester works within the confines of gendered expectations versus Jean's more open rebellion, and the way they move towards a middle ground throughout the show. I would so love to see more of them working together post-canon. I do love a good spy story, but I would read and love these two in a mundane office slice-of-life as well


• I know absolutely nothing about the RL history of the people used as characters in the show, and am happy for you to likewise use only knowledge from the musical, write me a scrupulously-researched fic with more footnotes than a doctoral thesis, or anything in between


• I am fascinated by the small glimpse of Hester's otherwise-inscrutable personal life that we get through "Dear Bill", and would love to see her open up to Jean about her past or current personal life. Jean wears her emotions on her sleeve and Hester is so buttoned-up, and I would really like to see more of that contrast in interactions between the two of them.


• I would also really love to see what Jean and Hester do post-war, now that they've had this taste of being useful. (Presumably there is RL history to draw on, which you can use or ignore as you wish.) Do they chafe against the sexism of MI-5 even more now that they know they were instrumental in a vital operation that they can never tell anyone about? Do they find success in operating behind the scenes, or perhaps win glory and get their plaques while they're still alive?


• Did I request Glyndwr Michael? No. Would I be very into a fic from the POV of ghost!Glyndwr Michael observing the shenanigans being gotten up to by Jean, Hester, and the lads with his corpse? (And possibly the friendship or romance between Jean and Hester?) Very much so.


• I do ship these two like burning, and am very happy to see more Hester/Jean fic popping up (there was not a single fic for them when I first saw the musical a few years ago!) Hester says she will need to break Jean in! They have a duet! They both chafe in different ways against the sexist societal norms of 1940s Britain! Hester's got a secret tragic backstory and may think she will never love again! I think they should kiss and/or fuck and/or continue to do espionage-y stuff or other work activities together while kissing/fucking.


• If you're going smutty, I love office sex, historical clothing, and nearly getting caught. I'm also very into the age difference and potential experience gap in either direction (I could see Hester having been around the block with women vs Jean just realizing her queer attraction, or Hester being a virgin vs a more sexually experienced Jean)

Copper Script – KJ Charles

What is it? Stand-alone historical m/m romance novel set in 1920s London, featuring a straight-laced police officer falling despite himself for a disreputable graphologist with a supernatural ability to interpret people's handwriting during the course of investigating blackmail and then a murder. Available in hard copy, ebook, and audiobook format through Amazon. (Be prepared for era-typical sexism and homophobia, shitty families, and offscreen rape & child abuse.)

Characters: Any [Aaron Fowler, Joel Wildsmith, Helen Challice, Sarah]

• First off, I've read all of Charles' other books and am happy for you to cross over Copper Script with any of them, if you feel so inspired! They're very cross-over-able, and I would especially love to see Joel's graphology fit into the supernatural worldbuilding of any of the fantasy series.


• I'm always down for casefic, either pre-canon with Aaron and/or Helen investigating crimes, or post-canon with Joel along for the ride. I think it would be fun if Aaron and Joel went into business as private detectives post-canon! Certainly Joel's graphology would prove very useful.


• I believe Charles has said that there used to be a bunch of Joel backstory that got cut, and I think it shows in the book – I would love to see more of Joel's past (relationship or life in general) fleshed out.


• I love Aaron and Joel as a couple and will eat up any and all shippy fic you wish to write about them! If you're feeling smutty, I would love to see Joel's graphology used for sexy purposes – perhaps Aaron writing him a note while jerking off so Joel can enjoy the sensations that evokes later on. I'd also love more of the promised cutting the laces of Aaron's metaphorical corset (and would be down for literal corset-wearing on either of their parts, come to think of it.) I'd also just love to see what their relationship looks like when it's more established and they're more settled in, and not under threat of death from gangsters and corrupt cops!


• And Helen! I love herrrrr and I will enjoy any Helen-centered fic. You can give me one of her cases (I'm down for graphic detail in terms of rape or abuse, but it isn't necessary to include), or show some pre-canon interactions between her and Aaron or how she fits in with Aaron and Joel post-canon. I would love to see Helen finding out about their relationship, whether they tell her or she figures it out or both. I would also love you to set up Helen with a femslash or poly ship of your choice - my favorite spun-out-of-nothing ship for her is to pair her with Aaron's sister Sarah, with or without Sarah's canon husband along for the ride, but I'm down for anyone including OCs or crossover ships. Not super into shipping her monogamously with a man, though.


• I would also really love more Sarah fic! As I said above, I am hooked on my no-canon-basis ship of Sarah/Helen should you wish to get a little wild with me. I am also really interested in her relationship with Aaron and their family dynamics. I would also love to see Sarah finding out about the events of the book, or honestly, if you have a Sarah plot you've been dying to write, I am down to read it.

Doctrine of Labyrinths – Sarah Monette

What is it: A four-book fantasy series featuring juicy magical worldbuilding (including cultural differences between magical practice that I love to dig into), ghosts, and the saddest main characters ever being put through frankly implausible levels of misery that I eat up with a spoon as a whump-lover. You'll need to get your hard copies used, but at long last they're in print again in ebook and audiobook form (under the author's other pen name, Katherine Addison). (Be prepared for onscreen rape, CSA, abusive relationships, torture, homophobia, violence.)

Characters: Mildmay Foxe

• I love everyone in this series, but Mildmay is my super special fave. Gen is great, feel free to include any other characters you like, and if you're feeling shippy, I'm into pretty much any Mildmay m/m (not as into Mildmay het)


• I am so deeply in love with the series' worldbuilding, and would love a Mildmay-centric worldbuilding fic. Would love to see Mildmay telling more stories, more encounters with ghosts, Mildmay ending up teaching a class in Corambis, Mildmay getting embroiled in more magic either alone or through Felix's bad magic decisions...or anything else you are itching to write!


• I also love Mildmay whump! Noncon, dubcon, physical injury, sickfic, delving into his baggage about his speech and his limp and his intelligence, or anything else


• If you're feeling shippy, here's my request from a prior exchange where I requested Mildmay/Any Male Character: All I want is to see Mildmay’s Big Bisexual Janus Awakening. His insistence that he’s not molly seems very tied to his past with Kolkhis and I would love to see him having a trauma reaction to realizing he’s attracted to/in love with a man. I’d also love to see someone force him to lie back and enjoy himself in bed instead of being so giving (which also seems tied to his past, so you could go hurt/comfort and/or traumatic backstory exploration with that too). Mildmay’s shame about his intelligence and scar and speech difficulties and limp made me love him so much, and I would love to see a lover who maybe helps him work through some of that self-hatred.


• And to finish us off, here's a couple specific AUs or tropes I've requested for this fandom in the past, if either inspires you (some were for ship requests for Felix & Mildmay, so feel free to focus on just the Mildmay portions if you don't want to include Felix):
  
• Characters deaged to age at loss of virginity; {Character X} is upsettingly young: A lot of the other characters know intellectually what happened to Felix when he was young, and a few about Mildmay and Kolkhis, but there’s a difference between knowing and seeing unsettlingly young Felix and/or Mildmay (feel free to deage only one, or both). Up to you if they remember their adult lives or not. I do think it would be fun to make an adult character or two wrangle the deaged character/s until they figure out how to reverse the effect


• Community College AU, Small Liberal Arts College AU - Perhaps the 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.

The Forgotten City

What is it: A video game in which the player character (from modern times) falls through a hole in the ground into a mysterious ancient Roman city governed by the Golden Rule – should any resident sin, everyone will be turned to gold by the gods. You can buy the game on Steam, or if you're bad at video games like me, watch a Let's Play (I like Keith Ballard's). (Be prepared for explorations of ancient Roman society & bigotry, slavery, familial abuse, sexism, homophobia, ableism, and some disturbing fantasy violence.)

Characters: Any [Sentilla, Iulia, Ulpius, Vergil]

• I had to pick only 4 characters to nom, but I do love the whole cast – feel free to include other characters! Aside from the characters in the tagset, I am especially fond of Galerius, Equitia, Duli, and Lucretia. Gen is great, canon ships are great, and feel free to go for noncanon ships (including with OCs) as well.


• Spoilers ahead! The thing that really made me want fic for the game is the ending where all of the city's residents end up in the modern day. I am so fascinated by what their lives might look like after that. All of them have experienced trauma and weird shit, and now they've been transplanted into a world that must seem unimaginably foreign. I am a big fan of stories about historical characters time-traveling to the present and having to adjust to it, and will love anything and everything along those lines. My prompts skew along those lines, but feel free to set something in the city or in any of the other endings if you wish. If you go for the Sentilla-kills-Sentius-and-escapes ending, feel free to kill some or all of the other characters, even my requested ones (I believe there's a variant where only Sentilla escapes and a variant where she can take any of the characters the player character can gather with her.)


• Sentilla especially has a boatload of trauma to recover from, and I would love to see some of that recovery process. Being imprisoned in a cistern by your megalomaniac father is not a super common experience, but is she able to find a support group for parental abuse, even if she can't share all the details? What was the process of choosing a new name like? What is her relationship with her sister like? Or in the ending where she escapes the city back to ancient Rome – what does the aftermath of her imprisonment look like in that universe?


• Iulia – I was so excited to hear she has a girlfriend in the time-travel ending! I really just want to hear more about her life in the present. I am very into a cross-era relationship and seeing what misunderstandings and discoveries might ensue – and has she told her girlfriend about her past?


• Ulpius – I am especially interested in what his faith and possibly exploring modern-day Jewish community would look like. I am fascinated by the idea of taking this guy and plopping him down after a couple millennia of religious evolution. I would also really love to see more of his post-canon life with Sentilla in general, whether that's the two of them grappling with what happened to them or a cute slice of life.


• Vergil – I'm very interested in him moving back to Germany in the time-travel ending, taking the complexities of moving home to a place you don't necessarily have fond memories of and adding the time travel. Is there anything familiar left after all these centuries? Does he seek out queer community, and what is making friends as someone so removed from this era like? I can take or leave his canon relationship with Rufius, but if you would like to keep it, I am also here for exploring the miracles of modern medicine with him.

Reacher

What is it: A four-season TV show about Jack Reacher, who recently left a long-time position as an investigator in the Army, wandering the US being ridiculously tall & muscular and getting roped into saving a new group of people each season. Available to watch on Amazon Prime. (Be prepared for some fairly intense gore for an action show, rape threats, terrorism, torture, and probably many other things that have slipped my mind, as it's been a while since I watched a few of the seasons.)

Characters: Jack Reacher

• First off, I've seen Neagley, so feel free to include characters/events from that show if you would like. I'm working my way through the books, and if you want to pull book details that don't contradict TV canon/characterization into your fic, you are welcome to. (If you only know the TV show, also great!)


• I am so here for more Reacher "case-fic" where you plop him down somewhere new to save the characters of your choice – either OCs or I think Reacher is a canon ripe for crossovers (pick any canon, even one I don't know, and feel free to transplant Reacher to a new setting or bring characters from another setting to Reacher's world). Feel free to get weird and wild with these crossovers – I'm toying with a Murderbot crossover where Reacher is a rogue SecUnit and am down for things along that level of diverging-from-the-original-setting if you have a cool idea you want to run with.


• I am very into the autistic Reacher headcanon, and would love a fic incorporating it if you are also into autistic Jack Reacher! There's a bit in Killing Floor, the book adapted into the first season, where he sits in jail playing every single version of Blind Blake's seminal song in his head, making note of the different musical techniques and interpretations, and like, listen. The entire plot only took place because Reacher was following his Blind Blake special interest to a random small town in Georgia and I think that's beautiful.


• I would also really love to see a Reacher hookup-of-the-season-style plot where he hooks up with a man. I'm in the middle of season 1 on my rewatch, so Jasper (the coroner guy played by Harvey Guillén) is the first candidate that comes to mind, but I'm down for any canon character, crossover character, or OC you desire. While we're on the topic of smut, I think the Special Investigators from season 2 should have an orgy while they're all working together (whether Reacher joins in or just watches on the sidelines with Neagley because he feels weird about joining his direct reports' orgy is up to you).


• Reacher whump! Reacher reacting to the death of his brother or his friends, Reacher treating injuries sustained in any of the seasons or an original fight, Reacher noncon, Reacher fuck or die (perhaps with Richard from season 3? Or the ally of your choice).

Dept. Q

What is it: A one-season detective show (so far! It's been renewed for a second season! But no news on release date) adapted from a Scandinoir book series and transplanted to Scotland, following a group of misfit detectives led by misanthropic Carl Mork. Available on Netflix. (Be prepared for violence, exploration of trauma from being shot and nearly dying, rape threats, long-term captivity, and genre-typical Asshole Detective.)

Characters: Any [Akram Salim, Carl Morck, James Hardy, Jasper Stewart, Rose Dickson]

• First off, I would love casefic or work-related fics, anything from a small snippet of a case to a fully plotted case. Feel free to give me your adaptation of one of the cases in the books (I've only read the first, so it will be a surprise for me!) if you have read them. I just love casefic for my crime canons and would love to see our crew tackling more cold cases after their unanticipated success.


• Whump and/or hurt/comfort! We have so many instances of canonical physical or mental trauma to run with, or you can inflict new horrible things on any of my requested characters. I am fond of medical care, broken bones, gunshots, characters refusing to admit they aren't okay until they physically or mentally break down and can't hide it anymore, and noncon/rape aftermath/rape recovery (I would especially enjoy Carl or Jasper as victim for noncon/etc, or any combo of the nommed characters in a fuck or die scenario.)


• If you want to get shippy, I enjoy Carl/Akram, Carl/Hardy, or a Carl/Akram/Hardy/Rose foursome as a fun full-department-hooks-up kinda thing (and honestly you could sell me on Akram/Hardy or a Carl/Akram/Hardy triad). I believe in my heart that Carl is a masochist who deeply wants Akram to dom him (am I reading too much into the panic attack scene or did anyone else get that vibe??), but am down for any dynamic you like. Carl/Hardy is fun with the long history between them and then how the shooting changes their dynamic (and the inherent homoeroticism of being shot with the same bullet…) And I always, always want a full-team orgy lol (perhaps a late night in the office gets a little wild...perhaps they all team up to dom Carl…) Outsider POV on either of these ships is also really fun! Perhaps Jasper trying to figure out who Carl is dating, because it's clear he's getting laid somewhere and he seems weirdly happy, or Rose putting the pieces together. I also enjoy what we saw of Hardy and his wife, and would be down for you shipping any of my requested characters with an OC so long as it's a queer relationship (not so much into OC m/f). Not really into Rose being shipped with any of my other requested characters, unless it's a Dept Q foursome or a fuck-or-die scenario.


• I am so into Hardy's journey from suicidal immediately post-injury to getting back into the game by the end of the season. I love characters experiencing a disabling injury and then seeing them adapt to and deal with that injury and its results, and would love to see more of Hardy's medical, PT, and psychological journey. Also do they ever make the Dept Q office more accessible for him?? Get the man a ramp at least!!


• I am also fascinated by the Rose & Hardy relationship. He saved her life, which gets dropped in one conversation and colors all of their interactions without being explicitly brought up again, and they have such a good mentor relationship, and I would love to see more of them working together and/or how Hardy finding Rose changed their relationship.


• I really love Carl & Jasper's dynamic as well, and how Carl is a better father figure than one would expect given his everything, and would love to see more of them interacting post-canon now that they've come to more of an understanding. Or perhaps more bad things happening to Jasper and Carl having to both comfort him and deal with the guilt, or more bad things happening to Carl and Jasper worrying.


• I love Akram in general, he is such a fascinating character to me and I am constantly rotating him in my mind. I love his switches between his friendly, affable demeanor and being willing to torture people. I love his dynamic with Carl, and would love to see more of them working together now that Carl has had to admit Akram is a good detective. I would also love to see more of Akram & Rose or Akram & Hardy working together, or Akram with his daughters.


• Rose and her sardonic discussing of her breakdown and her slow gaining of confidence throughout the season are a delight. I would love any and all Rose you would like to give me! More of Rose working cases, Rose's dynamics with the other Dept Q members, a psychological study...


• I am again down for any Jasper fic you want to write, but I think he would be especially fun as an outsider POV character on a case, your favorite trope (bodyswap? whump? sex pollen?), or a shipfic. I also love his relationship with and worry over Carl, and his relationship with Martin, and would love to see more of that.