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Entry tags:
Just Married 2020 letter!
Hello, gifter. I have tried to strike a balance between providing enough detail for inspiration, and not restricting your creativity too much. I hope you enjoy writing this story as much as I enjoy anticipating it.
The Dragon Prince
Amaya/Janai
Marriage As Clemency At Public Execution, Marrying Your Enemy, Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close, Politically Disastrous Marriage For Love, Political Marriage Meant to Save Country/World/etc. Only Leads to More Disaster, Marriage As Political Tool, Politically Arranged Marriage Based On Mutual Hate/Attraction, Mistakenly Thinking Your Spouse Hates You, Getting Married To Avoid A Diplomatic Incident, Rivals Forced Into Unwanted Marriage To Bring Peace, Getting Married To Avert A War, Magical Marriage Required to Bring Prosperity and Growth to Ruined Land, Elaborate Courtship - Strange Alien/Supernatural Courtship Rituals, Helping New Spouse Settle Into Their New Clan/Village/City/Country
I'm interested in the implications of human/elf marriage. This can be within the show's canon (as of season 3) or an alternate universe. I'm interested in either side of how marriage interacts with politics - either Amaya and Janai forming an unlikely connection and having to deal with the complications of their love match, or being mutually pushed into a political marriage and catching feelings.
"Enemies" here can mean they start out fighting and hating each other, or it can mean they're political enemies and wary of getting attached.
I'd be especially interested in a threefold situation: the marriage arranged to bring about peace, the arranged wives falling gradually in love, and then the situation becomes fraught when the peace falls apart.
All world building details are welcome, from small things like food and wedding clothing, to the relationships between the elven nations of Xadia, and the mystical implications of peace.
Although I'm not particularly looking for smut, if you want to write a sex scene, my tastes are mostly pretty mild. A little light bondage or spanking is cool. I like pain play, I don't like humiliation, and I'm beige on Dom/sub. Dirty talk, role playing, costumes and toys are all cool. If you want to write something totally vanilla, that's also cool.
Not interested in canon atypical violence, gore, or grimdark. No sexual violence, either on the page or in back story.
Pride and Prejudice
Lydia Bennet/George Wickham, Mr. Bennet/Mrs. Bennet
Courtship, Unconventional courtship, elopement, First Time in Public Together After Elopement, Family disapproves of marriage, Dealing with In-Law(s), Forced to remain married despite falling out of love
Somehow, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet found themselves married. We only see them after twenty years plus of getting on each other's last nerve - mostly on purpose. What were they like before? Did they have a happy courtship that led to an imprudent marriage? What was Mrs. Bennet like as a young woman, and what drew Mr. Bennet to her? Why did she accept him? What did the people around them think of the match? Possibly someone could see that their personalities were disastrously ill-suited. Maybe to an outside observer their inability to see each other's faults until after the wedding was an unfolding tragedy.
The adaptations I've seen tend to imply that Lydia will eventually become disenchanted with Wickham over his bad financial habits and presumed indifference to her. I'm intrigued by the possible parallels here between them and the Bennets, as Mrs. Bennet often indirectly compares herself to Lydia and seems more simpatico with her, compared to her other daughters. Alternatively, perhaps Wickham and Lydia can find some kind of tumultuous peace with their respective impulsivity. Maybe they're actually perversely well-matched, once they get past the initial hurdles. Not what their relatives would call a prudent marriage, but maybe prudence isn't what either of them wants or needs.
I think it's possible to write Wickham sympathetically, without retconning or contradicting his relationship with the Darcies or his canon misbehavior.
For the Bennets, placing the blame for their unsuccessful marriage completely with Mrs. Bennet. For Wickham, trying to reverse or redeem his sedcution and manipulation of Georgiana. For Lydia, making her an uncomplicated emblem of modern sexually liberated feminism. Don't mind violence if you feel the story needs it, but I'd prefer no detailed gore.
Affairs of the Court: Choice of Romance
Luis de Vega/Main Character, Gabriel De Mendosa/Main Character
Royal Court Reaction to Marriage. Marriage to Confer Status, Character A Not As Over Traumatic First Marriage As They Thought, Widow's Second Chance Wedding to Inappropriate Past Suitor, Second Marriage for Someone whose First Marriage was Abusive
I love the idea of a very calculating MC doing everything in their power to become Royal Consort, and surviving all the way through their marriage to Agustin/Agustina as a cunning political player. And then taking the opportunity as a widow/er to not only marry for love, but be generally more open, more emotional, and acting more as a private person and not just as a political actor. But still having that shrewdness to fall back on, when necessary.
For Gabriel specifically, I like the idea that his very open and outrageous impetuousness contrasts with the more careful calculating MC, without contradicting it. Basically, that they complement each other like that.
Note that although the pairing lists male Gabriel, I'm equally open the f/m, f/f and m/m pairings, as in the game canon.
Violence and torture are definitely part of the game world, but I don't want or need to see them in graphic detail. No biphobia surrounding the Luis romance, regardless of whether it follows a marriage to the Queen or the King.
Créme de la Créme
Delacroix/Max, Delacroix/MC/Max, Mr Blanchard/Miss Dalca/Mr Griffith, Blaise/MC, Karston/MC, Auguste Renaldt/MC, Auguste Renaldt/Freddie Crawford
For matching reasons, I rendered this fandom as three different requests. I'm collapsing them in the letter to make things less complicated.
I'm interested in the poly relationships within the framework of how they work in canon, and post-canon, but also alternative ways they might have worked out, for example in a world where poly marriages are more accepted (but perhaps not totally unscandalous). A triad relationship can be a stable vee where two people are in a relationship with a third person, but not romantic with each other, and I'd be more than fine with that. I'd like the poly relationships to be basically successful, but not flawless.
Auguste and Blaise are both left in an incredibly difficult position post-canon, so I expect that to affect any canon-compliant post-canon story, but not necessarily AUs. I'd like to see complicated feelings towards the MC and their role in the scandal, and resentment conflicting with love and affection. Happy, unhappy, or bittersweet endings all work for me.
For arranged matches or soul marks, I'm interested in the inherent conflict between two social systems that don't always align with each other. A soul bonded marriage between two people of disparate social situations can fall somewhere between acceptable and accepted, especially when the requirements of soul bonds and high society directly contradict each other. How do the two matched characters react to their families' ambivalence? Maybe it fills them with doubt, or maybe conversely it makes them even more devoted in the face of external judgment.
Not interested in canon atypical violence, gorse, sexual violence (including back story), or post-canon WWI analogous scenario. If writing smut, not interested in class-related sexual roleplay, or 24/7 Dom/sub.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem
It's a small fandom, so I'm just putting it all under one cut tag.
I tried to split my attention between fringe pairings and more canonical ones, to keep things interesting. On the whole, I'm interested in stories with happy or bittersweet/complex endings, except when otherwise noted.
Corval/Hise and Wellin/Skalt pairings: these can be done within the framework of the canon Summit, as either unlikely love matches, or as political matches that eventually grow to become more affectionate or friendly. They can also be done in AU scenarios where the imminent threat of war is even more imminent than canonically, for example, Zarad is actually captured by a Hisean ship, and the marriage comes about as part of the negotiation of his ransom. I'd especially like to see Cordelia in an AU scenario because the canon time frame is so short. And I deliberately listed a general MC in the last pairing, so this AU can also have Corval at war with one of the other kingdoms.
Revaire siblings: canon hints at the possibility of secretly romancing Gisette while arranging a dispassionate political marriage with Jarrod. You can use this scenario, or an alternative one. MC can fall in love with Gisette before or after getting engaged/married. MC can later fall in love or like or lust with Jarrod, but not following the canon romance (as it conflicts with Gisette and makes Jarrod a jealous, controlling husband). How much you want to address the rebellion or the political situation in Revaire is up to you. You could make all three of them utterly ruthless villain protagonists, you could end the story with them all falling to the rebels, or you could have the MC be a moderating influence and brokering some kind of peace. Sedoretu could also work here, if they find themselves in a three-person marriage looking for a fourth.
Clarmont/Revaire widow pairing: I freely admit this is my OTP for the game, but I love to see as many different variations on it as possible. The widow's canon back story says her family benefited from the new regime, and hints that they are a part of the same "new nobility" as Jarrod and Gisette. However, you can slide a little to the left of canon, and make her family part of the old nobility (like I did with Allegra). I play my MCs as knowing (or guessing) Clarmont's involvement from early in the game, but that's up to your discretion. I love the canon romance but I'd also welcome any AU you can come up with, no matter how wild.
For the widow's first marriage, I have no preference over whether she killed him or not. the widow's back story is traumatic and I want that trauma to be a part of the story, but I'd rather the story focus on her present recovery, rather than detailed scenes of past abuse. Sexual coercion can stay implied, not graphically detailed. No child bride widow, please. Likewise, no widow who was romantically in love with Baron Namaire.
When it comes to soul mark universes, one of the tropes I listed allows that the widow was soul-bonded to the Baron Namaire, but they were unhappily married. The soul mark here can be part of the oppressive framework that pushes her into an unhappy marriage for reasons of social acceptability. Conversely, maybe soul marks are part of the old Revaire empire culture that the new regime has de-legitimized, and the soul-bonded Clarmont/widow marriage is tied to the success of the rebels. Possibly they knew each other by different names before the coup, and those are the names that appeared on their soul marks, which they only realize years later.
7KPP sedoretu: we spitballed on Tumblr back in the day about an AU where the summit arranges four-way sedo marriages with two spouses from each kingdom. I didn't list any foursomes among my ships, but you can extrapolate from any of the pairings that I did list.
Sex scenes: include them or don't, the level of heat is up to you.
Bottom line DNWs: three things, 1) no Jarrod as a bad boy redeemed by the love of a good woman, the canon explicitly deconstructs this trope for a reason; 2) no Revaire!MC/Baron Namaire marriage as a romantic love match; 3) no erasure of Hamin and Gisette's bisexuality.
This letter took two hours and is almost 2K words long, I'm so so sorry.
The Dragon Prince
Amaya/Janai
Marriage As Clemency At Public Execution, Marrying Your Enemy, Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close, Politically Disastrous Marriage For Love, Political Marriage Meant to Save Country/World/etc. Only Leads to More Disaster, Marriage As Political Tool, Politically Arranged Marriage Based On Mutual Hate/Attraction, Mistakenly Thinking Your Spouse Hates You, Getting Married To Avoid A Diplomatic Incident, Rivals Forced Into Unwanted Marriage To Bring Peace, Getting Married To Avert A War, Magical Marriage Required to Bring Prosperity and Growth to Ruined Land, Elaborate Courtship - Strange Alien/Supernatural Courtship Rituals, Helping New Spouse Settle Into Their New Clan/Village/City/Country
I'm interested in the implications of human/elf marriage. This can be within the show's canon (as of season 3) or an alternate universe. I'm interested in either side of how marriage interacts with politics - either Amaya and Janai forming an unlikely connection and having to deal with the complications of their love match, or being mutually pushed into a political marriage and catching feelings.
"Enemies" here can mean they start out fighting and hating each other, or it can mean they're political enemies and wary of getting attached.
I'd be especially interested in a threefold situation: the marriage arranged to bring about peace, the arranged wives falling gradually in love, and then the situation becomes fraught when the peace falls apart.
All world building details are welcome, from small things like food and wedding clothing, to the relationships between the elven nations of Xadia, and the mystical implications of peace.
Although I'm not particularly looking for smut, if you want to write a sex scene, my tastes are mostly pretty mild. A little light bondage or spanking is cool. I like pain play, I don't like humiliation, and I'm beige on Dom/sub. Dirty talk, role playing, costumes and toys are all cool. If you want to write something totally vanilla, that's also cool.
Not interested in canon atypical violence, gore, or grimdark. No sexual violence, either on the page or in back story.
Pride and Prejudice
Lydia Bennet/George Wickham, Mr. Bennet/Mrs. Bennet
Courtship, Unconventional courtship, elopement, First Time in Public Together After Elopement, Family disapproves of marriage, Dealing with In-Law(s), Forced to remain married despite falling out of love
Somehow, Mr. and Mrs. Bennet found themselves married. We only see them after twenty years plus of getting on each other's last nerve - mostly on purpose. What were they like before? Did they have a happy courtship that led to an imprudent marriage? What was Mrs. Bennet like as a young woman, and what drew Mr. Bennet to her? Why did she accept him? What did the people around them think of the match? Possibly someone could see that their personalities were disastrously ill-suited. Maybe to an outside observer their inability to see each other's faults until after the wedding was an unfolding tragedy.
The adaptations I've seen tend to imply that Lydia will eventually become disenchanted with Wickham over his bad financial habits and presumed indifference to her. I'm intrigued by the possible parallels here between them and the Bennets, as Mrs. Bennet often indirectly compares herself to Lydia and seems more simpatico with her, compared to her other daughters. Alternatively, perhaps Wickham and Lydia can find some kind of tumultuous peace with their respective impulsivity. Maybe they're actually perversely well-matched, once they get past the initial hurdles. Not what their relatives would call a prudent marriage, but maybe prudence isn't what either of them wants or needs.
I think it's possible to write Wickham sympathetically, without retconning or contradicting his relationship with the Darcies or his canon misbehavior.
For the Bennets, placing the blame for their unsuccessful marriage completely with Mrs. Bennet. For Wickham, trying to reverse or redeem his sedcution and manipulation of Georgiana. For Lydia, making her an uncomplicated emblem of modern sexually liberated feminism. Don't mind violence if you feel the story needs it, but I'd prefer no detailed gore.
Affairs of the Court: Choice of Romance
Luis de Vega/Main Character, Gabriel De Mendosa/Main Character
Royal Court Reaction to Marriage. Marriage to Confer Status, Character A Not As Over Traumatic First Marriage As They Thought, Widow's Second Chance Wedding to Inappropriate Past Suitor, Second Marriage for Someone whose First Marriage was Abusive
I love the idea of a very calculating MC doing everything in their power to become Royal Consort, and surviving all the way through their marriage to Agustin/Agustina as a cunning political player. And then taking the opportunity as a widow/er to not only marry for love, but be generally more open, more emotional, and acting more as a private person and not just as a political actor. But still having that shrewdness to fall back on, when necessary.
For Gabriel specifically, I like the idea that his very open and outrageous impetuousness contrasts with the more careful calculating MC, without contradicting it. Basically, that they complement each other like that.
Note that although the pairing lists male Gabriel, I'm equally open the f/m, f/f and m/m pairings, as in the game canon.
Violence and torture are definitely part of the game world, but I don't want or need to see them in graphic detail. No biphobia surrounding the Luis romance, regardless of whether it follows a marriage to the Queen or the King.
Créme de la Créme
Delacroix/Max, Delacroix/MC/Max, Mr Blanchard/Miss Dalca/Mr Griffith, Blaise/MC, Karston/MC, Auguste Renaldt/MC, Auguste Renaldt/Freddie Crawford
For matching reasons, I rendered this fandom as three different requests. I'm collapsing them in the letter to make things less complicated.
I'm interested in the poly relationships within the framework of how they work in canon, and post-canon, but also alternative ways they might have worked out, for example in a world where poly marriages are more accepted (but perhaps not totally unscandalous). A triad relationship can be a stable vee where two people are in a relationship with a third person, but not romantic with each other, and I'd be more than fine with that. I'd like the poly relationships to be basically successful, but not flawless.
Auguste and Blaise are both left in an incredibly difficult position post-canon, so I expect that to affect any canon-compliant post-canon story, but not necessarily AUs. I'd like to see complicated feelings towards the MC and their role in the scandal, and resentment conflicting with love and affection. Happy, unhappy, or bittersweet endings all work for me.
For arranged matches or soul marks, I'm interested in the inherent conflict between two social systems that don't always align with each other. A soul bonded marriage between two people of disparate social situations can fall somewhere between acceptable and accepted, especially when the requirements of soul bonds and high society directly contradict each other. How do the two matched characters react to their families' ambivalence? Maybe it fills them with doubt, or maybe conversely it makes them even more devoted in the face of external judgment.
Not interested in canon atypical violence, gorse, sexual violence (including back story), or post-canon WWI analogous scenario. If writing smut, not interested in class-related sexual roleplay, or 24/7 Dom/sub.
Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem
It's a small fandom, so I'm just putting it all under one cut tag.
I tried to split my attention between fringe pairings and more canonical ones, to keep things interesting. On the whole, I'm interested in stories with happy or bittersweet/complex endings, except when otherwise noted.
Corval/Hise and Wellin/Skalt pairings: these can be done within the framework of the canon Summit, as either unlikely love matches, or as political matches that eventually grow to become more affectionate or friendly. They can also be done in AU scenarios where the imminent threat of war is even more imminent than canonically, for example, Zarad is actually captured by a Hisean ship, and the marriage comes about as part of the negotiation of his ransom. I'd especially like to see Cordelia in an AU scenario because the canon time frame is so short. And I deliberately listed a general MC in the last pairing, so this AU can also have Corval at war with one of the other kingdoms.
Revaire siblings: canon hints at the possibility of secretly romancing Gisette while arranging a dispassionate political marriage with Jarrod. You can use this scenario, or an alternative one. MC can fall in love with Gisette before or after getting engaged/married. MC can later fall in love or like or lust with Jarrod, but not following the canon romance (as it conflicts with Gisette and makes Jarrod a jealous, controlling husband). How much you want to address the rebellion or the political situation in Revaire is up to you. You could make all three of them utterly ruthless villain protagonists, you could end the story with them all falling to the rebels, or you could have the MC be a moderating influence and brokering some kind of peace. Sedoretu could also work here, if they find themselves in a three-person marriage looking for a fourth.
Clarmont/Revaire widow pairing: I freely admit this is my OTP for the game, but I love to see as many different variations on it as possible. The widow's canon back story says her family benefited from the new regime, and hints that they are a part of the same "new nobility" as Jarrod and Gisette. However, you can slide a little to the left of canon, and make her family part of the old nobility (like I did with Allegra). I play my MCs as knowing (or guessing) Clarmont's involvement from early in the game, but that's up to your discretion. I love the canon romance but I'd also welcome any AU you can come up with, no matter how wild.
For the widow's first marriage, I have no preference over whether she killed him or not. the widow's back story is traumatic and I want that trauma to be a part of the story, but I'd rather the story focus on her present recovery, rather than detailed scenes of past abuse. Sexual coercion can stay implied, not graphically detailed. No child bride widow, please. Likewise, no widow who was romantically in love with Baron Namaire.
When it comes to soul mark universes, one of the tropes I listed allows that the widow was soul-bonded to the Baron Namaire, but they were unhappily married. The soul mark here can be part of the oppressive framework that pushes her into an unhappy marriage for reasons of social acceptability. Conversely, maybe soul marks are part of the old Revaire empire culture that the new regime has de-legitimized, and the soul-bonded Clarmont/widow marriage is tied to the success of the rebels. Possibly they knew each other by different names before the coup, and those are the names that appeared on their soul marks, which they only realize years later.
7KPP sedoretu: we spitballed on Tumblr back in the day about an AU where the summit arranges four-way sedo marriages with two spouses from each kingdom. I didn't list any foursomes among my ships, but you can extrapolate from any of the pairings that I did list.
Sex scenes: include them or don't, the level of heat is up to you.
Bottom line DNWs: three things, 1) no Jarrod as a bad boy redeemed by the love of a good woman, the canon explicitly deconstructs this trope for a reason; 2) no Revaire!MC/Baron Namaire marriage as a romantic love match; 3) no erasure of Hamin and Gisette's bisexuality.
This letter took two hours and is almost 2K words long, I'm so so sorry.