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If you want to promote your fandom or the relationships you want to request/create for, this post is for you!
How you write your your recommendations, enthusiastic squeeing, or manifestos is up to you, but please put the name of your canon in the subject line of your comment. Here--with liberal borrowing from Yuletide's promo setup--are some other things you may want to include:
Please post a separate comment for each promo you do, so the canon title can always be highlighted in the subject line.
How you write your your recommendations, enthusiastic squeeing, or manifestos is up to you, but please put the name of your canon in the subject line of your comment. Here--with liberal borrowing from Yuletide's promo setup--are some other things you may want to include:
- Title
- Medium (e.g., Book Series, Podcast, TV Show, etc.)
- Approximate Length (e.g., page count, runtime, etc. This is also a good place to mention if only a specific installment of the canon is relevant to the relationship(s) you're requesting.)
- Where to (Legally) Find It
- Brief Description
- What You Love About the Canon
- What You Love About Your Ship(s)
- Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For
- Content Notes (e.g., incest, period-typical attitudes, noncon, torture, etc. These notes are optional and may not cover everything even if they're included.)
Please post a separate comment for each promo you do, so the canon title can always be highlighted in the subject line.
Tags:
From:
Dial M for Murder (1954)
Medium:Movie
Approximate Length::One hour, forty five minutes
Where to (Legally) Find It: Available for rent on YouTube, AppleTV, Amazon, and Fandango
Brief Description:Retired tennis player Tony Wendice finds out his wife, Margot, was having an affair with American crime writer Mark Halliday, and devises a 'perfect murder' so he inherits her fortune. However, things don't go according to plan....
What You Love About the Canon:This is my favorite movie of all time, and I'm just so deeply fascinated by the true crime angles and the love triangle at its heart. I think any fan of whodunnit style mysteries would have a ball with Dial M for Murder.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Mark/Margot are really sweet, despite (or, I'd argue, because) of the infidelity angle. He's utterly devoted to her, and it's obvious she's still in love with him when the movie begins despite also trying to work things out with Tony. And speaking of, Tony/Margot is such a dark dynamic even without the murder attempt; he's old enough to be her father while financially relying on her, and I think you could make a compelling argument their dynamic is a fucked up father/daughter one more than husband and wife.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Missing scenes, exploring both relationships pre, during, and post canon, and a few "what if?" scenarios
Content Notes: Misogyny, gaslighting, and the attempted murder has intentional sexual assault vibes.
From:
The Fiancée Farce by Alexandria Bellefleur
Medium: Book, one off
Approximate Length: 416 Pages
Where to (Legally) Find It: If not at your local library, can be purchased off Amazon digitally and physically (though please consider seeing if there's an indie bookstore near you that has it too!)
Brief Description: Bookseller Tansy Adams lies to her stepfamily that she's dating romance book cover model Gemma West, not knowing that same Gemma is Gemma van Dalen, cousin of her stepsister's best friend's awful husband. Gemma needs a partner to inherit the family business, and convinces Tansy to go along with the scheme, but sparks fly between the two as Gemma's backstabbing family tries to pull strings so she won't inherit what's rightfully hers.
What You Love About the Canon:This is suuuch a cute and underrated sapphic romance with wonderful chemistry between the main couple. Tansy starts out so shy and awkward and blossoms, and Gemma learns she's long term lovable after all! Very sweet book.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): They bring out the best in each other and make each other see they're able to trust and love, and their chemistry is just SO GOOD from the start. I was cheering when they got their happy ending.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Anything post-canon; I wanna see them enjoying their married life and thriving in their careers. Maybe they adopt a kid or two down the line? I'm game.
Content Notes: Tansy goes into detail of having her nudes leaked when she was sixteen early on, and the book has some spicy sex scenes.
From:
The Big Country (1958)
Medium:Film
Approximate Length: Two hours, forty five minutes
Where to (Legally) Find It: Rentable on YouTube, Amazon, and Fandango; free on PlutoTV and Roku
Brief Description:In the 1880s, retired sea captain Jim McKay moves out to a small town in Texas to marry his fiancee Pat Terrill, but discovers a feud is going on between Pat's and another family's over land that belongs to schoolmarm Julie Maragon. Jim buys the land, hoping to maintain a sense of peace, but that's easier said than done.
What You Love About the Canon:This was my comfort movie in 2020, and I love how it explores themes of toxic masculinity even before the term was coined as well as the sweet, subtle romance between Jim and Julie who are two peas in a pod!
What You Love About Your Ship:Jim and Julie are two of the only characters NOT trying to start a mini civil war in the community, and the scene where they bond on Julie's ranch is so, so damn charming. A wonderful couple that are just in the beginning stages of their romance!
Kind of Things You're Planning to Ask For:Post-canon shenanigans, missing scenes, character introspection/exploration through the relationship.
Content Notes:Attempted sexual assault on Julie by another character
From:
A Matter of Life and Death (1946) dir. Powell and Pressburger
Medium:Film
Approximate Length:One hour, forty five minutes
Where to (Legally) find it:YouTube, Sling TV, may or may not be on Criterion right now?
Brief Description:Air pilot Peter Carter accidentally escapes death and falls in love with Allied radio operator June, who he thought would be the last person he spoke to alive, when they meet. The afterlife isn't pleased, and puts Peter on a heavenly trial to fight for his right to a life with her.
What You Love About the Canon:Achingly romantic with the most gorgeous cinematography you'll ever see paired with wonderful performances from everyone involved.
What You Love About Your Ship(s):They fight HEAVEN for the right to be together, and there's a moment towards the end where June offers to sacrifice herself so Peter can live that brings a tear to my eye every time I watch. They're just super sweet!
Kind of Things You're Planning to Ask For:More exploration of them as characters, what they get up to after the movie, etc!
Content Notes:Unfortunately a blink and you'll miss it blackface moment (not from either of the leads).
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
Medium: TV show
Approximate Length: 6 episodes, each about 1 hour I believe
Where to (Legally) Find It: BBC iPlayer is currently the only place streaming it
Brief Description: (pulled from wiki) John Taylor (David Mitchell) is a reclusive puzzle maker who publishes puzzle books under the pen name "Ludwig". His identical twin brother, James Taylor, is a successful Detective Chief Inspector in the Cambridge police force. James has gone missing, and his wife Lucy (Anna Maxwell Martin) enlists John's help to solve the mystery. Pretending to be his brother, John infiltrates the local police station to investigate, and becomes inadvertently embroiled in solving other cases.
What You Love About the Canon: A really well done detective show that weaves the murder of the week, the overarching mystery, and the interpersonal relationships well. I love the puzzle solving of it all too, and David Mitchell is as much a delight as always (I really do forget he can act). He is, unsurprisingly, deeply neurodivergent-coded.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Lucy and John's vibes are off the charts and I genuinely do not know how much I'm supposed to be shipping it (which is VERY fun). There's clearly some tension between them but it is so WILDLY complicated by the fact that she's married to his brother?? But I'm so intrigued by their friendship too. They seem to be each other's best friend despite the fact that they don't see each other often and I want to know More.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: I want any exploration of their relationship, romantic or platonic. I especially love it when people get into the weeds of the tension and backstory, and would welcome receiving shippy fic (including infidelity, if that appeals). I think there are a lot of intriguing layers to the ways they matter to each other, and I'd love to see more about why he's so important to Lucy and what he brings to her life, and more of them navigating John's reclusiveness etc.
From:
Time Master Series by Louise Cooper
Medium: A three-book series.
Approximate Length: Each book has roughly 300 pages.
Where to (Legally) Find It: archive.org has each of the books (The Initiate, The Outcast, The Master).
Brief Description: This 1980s high fantasy series follows Tarod, former god of Chaos and current human sorcerer of Order. He is haunted by dreams sent by his still-a-god brother Yandros (who can no longer enter the world). In a very messy and public way, Tarod learns that he is meant to bring the forces of Chaos back into the world, and things quickly go sideways for him.
What You Love About the Canon: It is immensely entertaining to watch Yandros navigate what is essentially amnesia on Tarod’s part: the plan Yandros unfolds is so clearly set up by both of them, but Tarod won’t cooperate because he has different priorities as a human. I quite like two of the primary secondary characters: Cyllan is the primary love interest and Keridil is Tarod’s childhood friend-turned-reluctant enemy. I also appreciate the ultimate nuanced conclusion the series ends on in regards to Chaos/Order.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): This ship really hits the “incredibly menacing and powerful supernatural creature holds genuine affection for one person in particular” dynamic that I love. Though they’re at odds for most of the series, Yandros clearly sees the two of them as a team and values Tarod (and his opinion) immensely. You get the sense that their relationship is quite sweet when they both have all their memories.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Things that fill in more of their dynamic, including pre-, during- and post-canon, smut, and Yandros POV of moments in the series.
Content Notes: Sexual assault in the second book begins the main couple’s relationship.
From:
Anything for Jackson (2020)
Medium: Movie
Approximate Length: 1.5 hours
Where to (Legally) Find It: Available for rent on Amazon & Apple TV and for streaming on Shudder.
Brief Description: Black-comedy supernatural horror. After their grandson dies, mild-mannered Satanists Henry and Audrey kidnap a pregnant woman with the intent of bringing him back to life via a “reverse exorcism”, aka putting his soul inside the woman’s unborn child… except they screw it up, bad, like “accidentally opened a portal to Hell” bad, and now every lost soul in the underworld is trying to drag them down into the abyss.
What You Love About the Canon: It’s a witty, disturbing take on grief, with some really brilliant scares. And if there is any truly bulletproof trope for me, it’s “terrible people who are also fiercely, desperately in love with each other fondly bicker like an old married couple as they do horrible things together and gradually realize they’re in way over their heads”, and Anything for Jackson DELIVERS. They’re just so fun to watch together.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Any sort of relationship study that captures Henry and Audrey's dynamic in the film would make me very happy. Maybe a pre-canon missing scene, or a post-canon AU?
Content Notes: Child death (discussed). Pregnancy horror. Horror-typical graphic violence, gore, creepy demon monsters, etc.
From:
no subject
Medium Film
Approximate Length 117 minutes
Where to (Legally) Find It on either Max, The Criterion Channel or the TCM Ap.
Brief Description: To quote my own canon promo: It's 1907, and Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham Carter) has embarked upon a tour of Italy before coming into her majority the next year. With her is her older cousin Charlotte (Dame Maggie Smith), who is dithery and anxious about proving herself a good chaperone. Things go immediately sideways when Lucy takes a look out of her bedroom window and realizes that it opens onto an alley instead of the splendor of Florence, as the signora who owns the place promised.
Complaining about the situation in the pensione's dining room draws the attention of fiery retired journalist Mr. Emerson (Denholm Elliott) and his morose railway worker son, George (Julian Sands). In spite of the weight of social propriety, Mr. Emerson cajoles an offended Charlotte into swapping rooms with the father and son, providing Lucy with the view she desires. There is, it seems, a reason behind this - Mr. Emerson is aware of George's depression and begs Lucy to be his son's friend. Shocked when Mr. Emerson reveals their family's atheism, Lucy demurs.
Fate sweeps the young couple together: first, George catches Lucy mid-faint in a piazza when they both witness a murder. Then, Lucy's poor Italian results in her cabdriver taking her to George during a group picnic. George is so moved by the sight of her in the springtime sunlight he kisses her. All of this finally restores George's wish to live and causes him to fall in love with Lucy. Lucy, in turn, begins to warm to George. But Charlotte sweeps Lucy away from George's reach before they can further act on their feelings.
Back home on Summer Street in Surrey, Lucy and George are once again brought together. But they have two big problems: Lucy's still in denial about her feelings for him, and she has agreed to marry Cecil (Daniel Day-Lewis), a foppish society maven ruled by his mother who sees Lucy as someone to sharpen into the perfect hostess in spite of her nouveau riche country girl background. Which man will win her affection, and will Lucy ever learn her own heart?
What You Love About the Canon: It's beautiful, it's poetic, it's romantic, it's comedic in all the right ways.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): George and Lucy: They're young, half-baked rolls waiting to become their fully formed selves, so there's much to write about. I ship many others but they're my mains.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For I have so many prompts from my Yuletide Letter I'm planning on recycling!
Content Notes One bloody on-screen murder; full frontal and rear cis male nudity; some sexual content; smoking; period-typical (and untypical!) attitudes about being a spinster.
From:
Hellboy (Comics)
Medium: Comicbooks.
Approximate Length: Many series, but meant to be able to pick up and start wherever you want.
Where to (Legally) Find It: Wherever fine digital comics are sold as well as physical comics. Comics titled: Hellboy, Abe Sapien, and BPRD all include these characters.
Brief Description: Hellboy is an agent of the BPRD (after appearing in a flash of light at the very end of WWII and being adopted by an occult scientist) and it is his job to deal with supernatural forces. Abe Sapien is another member, a fishman from the Civil War era, and Kate Corrigan is a director in the BPRD and a respected colleague of both.
What You Love About the Canon: I love how it's set up that you can set up any supernatural threat (vampires, redcaps, unicorns, jersey devil, etc) and have them encounter it. It's great if you're a huge folklore buff like me.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I love how they all have a great amount of respect for eachother and camaraderie and in the case of Abe, I also really like fishmen. They're just fun characters and I enjoy their work, as it were.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Casefic (monster of your choice, whether dangerous or not), stuff done around the the base, interacting with Hellboy after he leaves BPRD, vacations, smut.
Content Notes: Nazis are recurring villains in these comics and there is a great deal of horror-based violence. Children die.
From:
Four Assassins (2011)
Medium: film
Approximate Length: ~1.5 hours
Where to (Legally) Find It: You can stream it on itunes and Tubi, and there is a DVD you can get for fairly cheap.
Brief Description: Marcus Nang is an assassin who's in a lot of trouble with his boss, the nameless Man Upstairs—after finishing a hit, there's a missing body and possible witness. He holes up in a Hong Kong hotel but is tracked down by Cordelia, a fellow assassin who used to be his girlfriend, and Chase, a "young gun from Gibraltar." They are soon joined by Eli, Cordelia and Marcus' former mentor. The three of them try to convince Marcus to tell them what happened to that missing body. Marcus declines. Things escalate.
What You Love About the Canon: I love that for an action movie it's not afraid to slow down. There's a fair amount of downtime, where the titular assassins are discussing life and love (and money). I love the core cast—as you can probably tell from my nominations for this year's Candy Hearts, I'm a big Miguel Ferrer (Eli) fan, and Will Yun Lee (Marcus) is great too.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I love the relationship between Cordelia and Marcus and Eli; Eli's so fondly paternal to them while never quite letting them forget he's acting on behalf of the Man Upstairs. The movie hints at a traumatic but loving past between Cordelia and Marcus, and she lets him see a little of her sense of betrayal while he's quietly remorseful, but not in a way that satisfies her.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: I'm asking for Cordelia & Eli & Marcus genfic. I'd love some whump or hurt/comfort (two of the three, Cordelia and Eli, each relate a hit gone wrong that ended with them hurt, and Marcus gets tortured in various ways toward the end of the film, so there's a basis for it in canon, I think.
Content Notes: violence; there's a lot of that lol. scenes of torture, though not incredibly graphic (mostly just beating up on Marcus and dunking him a couple of times in the tub). there's a scene where Cordelia gets sexually assaulted, because of course there is. the sexual assault isn't by any of our leads, and said assaulter gets promptly murdered, but still.
From:
Solstice (MoaCube Visual Novel)
Title: Solstice
Medium: Visual novel (for PC)
Approximate length: 4½ hours for the main story according to How Long to Beat, 7½ hours for main + side stories.
This is the kind of visual novel that makes you want to try different routes; however, this is not necessary to write my ship (M/M between a main character and his canon love interest). It's fine if you only finish the main story once! Suggestion: after your first play, you can use CTRL to skip fast the dialogue you already saw; this way you'll be able to see different routes without replaying the entire game. If you have time and you like the story, I'd recommend to do it!
Where to find it: On Steam. There's also a shop on the official site.
A few Let's Plays are available on YouTube.
Brief Description. A mystery story in a dystopian/fantasy setting where a group of characters spend the entire winter in a city inside a dome in the middle of a frozen wasteland. There are two main characters who are trying to solve the mystery and you play as both: Yani (the woman in the first picture) and Galen (the man on the left in the second picture).
Each main character has their own optional love interest, and they're men in both cases, so F/M for Yani and M/M for Galen (the ship in the second picture is the one I'm going to request). They can also become friends with each other and work together.
There are a lot of choices that will unlock multiple endings. In the same ending, the fate of the characters can also be different depending on other minor choices (for example, a character can survive as single, with their love interest, etc.)
Every character is morally gray in some way. They also all have secrets that you have to find out.
What You Love About the Canon. First of all, the art is stunning! I also love the diverse group of characters and the way they feel real when it comes to their motivations and the way they act in general. They're also all adults with different ages and backgrounds, just the way I like. I love that Galen and Kasiya are gay no matter what you choose to do about their relationship. There are also great female characters and interesting platonic interactions.
What You Love About Your Ship. Well, first of all, I love that Galen/Kasiya is canon! I love that they can kiss on-screen and it's implied they have sex. Both characters have dark secrets and plot twists related to them, so their relationship has so much potential that can be explored in fics! They also have different origins and backstories; Galen is a doctor/magician and Kasiya is a guard/ex mercenary, and it's just good to imagine how they would be in a serious relationship. Also, sometimes they call each other "Doctor" and "Captain", and let's just say that I am very much into that :D
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For. Missing moments and post-canon! Honestly, this ship is so tiny that I'm not really picky, as long as they have a happy ending together. There are a lot of things we don't know about them, and I'd just love more! I'm fine with any rating, and smut is welcome!
Content Notes. Some general warnings about the canon: characters unsympathetic about mental health issues, hallucinations, self-harm, suicide, (optional) main character getting high on magical drugs.
From: (Anonymous)
Midnight Burger
Medium: Podcast
Approximate Length: 40ish episodes of the main show, plus two bonus shows (10-12 episodes each). Runtime is anywhere from 30 min to 90 min per ep. You could probably have enough of a handle on the characters to fill a prompt within just a handful of episodes.
Where to (Legally) Find It: wherever podcasts are streamed, and also https://www.weopenatsix.com/
Brief Description: From their website—Midnight Burger is an audio drama about the adventures of a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner...
When Gloria took a waitressing job at a diner outside of Phoenix, she didn't realize she was now an employee of Midnight Burger, a time-traveling, dimension-spanning diner. Every day Midnight Burger appears somewhere new in the cosmos along with its staff: a galactic drifter, a rogue theoretical physicist, a sentient old-timey radio, and some guy named Caspar. No one knows who built Midnight Burger or how it works, but when it appears there's always someone around who could really use a cup of coffee.
At the Nexus of all things, there is a diner. We open at 6.
What You Love About the Canon: I know the above description sounds like Doctor Who meets Night Vale but hear me out. I’ve never listened to anything quite like Midnight Burger. I got into it because I liked the cover art (the old one, I’m less tickled by the newest one) and tumbled headfirst into some of the best storytelling I’ve ever listened to. It makes the most interesting worldbuilding choices, there’s very little romance (in a positive way) and what little there is is thoughtful, it’s RIFE with found family (like found family is the name of the game) but also periodic feels about blood relations in a way that makes me scale the walls. Every layer they peel back makes it somehow more interesting, not less, and I literally never want to get off this ride.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I asked for…everyone, so. What I love is how thoughtfully crafted these relationships are, and how purposeful they are, and how much everyone chooses every day to still wake up together in that diner (or other ship, or motel, if you’re listening to the side shows). I love the ways the characters are insecure and how it informs their relationships, and how they support one another while also helping strangers they’ve never met.
From: (Anonymous)
Osora
Medium: Webcomic
Approximate Length: 46 chapters and it's still ongoing
Where to (Legally) Find It: Webtoon app
Brief Description: "Prince Osora is destined to rule over the Calaveras Kingdom in a life planned out by his family since birth, when his father presented him to the kingdom as male. However, the magic-wielding race called Sergos has a different plan for Osora: to use him as collateral in a war with the humans. Bound by what others force him to be and trapped in a love triangle between a promised fiancee and his childhood best friend, Osora must recreate his own story."
What You Love About the Canon: The story is still early days yet, so it's a lot of set up for 4 characters at varying stages of understanding and acceptance of their own queer stories and those of the others. Add the backdrop of war and familial duty/pressure/conformity, and that chokehold of heteronormativity just notches up HARD. Transman Prince Osora is a classic tsundere with suave, slutty-but-hopelessly-pining Arias, while Catalina is that classic seething "I'm using my femininity and sexuality as a WEAPON when this seems to be the only thing society will let me have, dammit." Celia is trying so hard to get out of familial duty and hetcomp PTSD/terror by running with the first seemingly amazing opportunity she sees. I'll admit I find the rebellion/revolution/war a bit uhhhh incomprehensible other than a generic bigotry?? reasoning going on from the oppressors' perspective, but unless you're making Arias be biracial in this context, there hasn't been much detail about why the war is happening yet to go off of. I mainly like these characters in relation to each other and their secret desires--how the comic is slowly setting up a break from just what they're allowed to do/be into grabbing *real* agency to strive for *real* happiness.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I asked for Osora/Arias and Catalina/Celia! For the former, I think the tension of being heir to the throne and in love with your childhood bestie turned guard (despite being engaged to Celia!) has a lot of promise, as does the strong hints/foreshadowing in the comic that Arias is biracial—probably part magic-wielding race (aka the group the kingdom is at war with and whose rebel forces have nearly killed them at LEAST once). I love seeing how Catalina and Celia are already struggling with issues like having a sexuality (and trauma) when they're basically only allowed to be sexualized under a male gaze, the way their outfits weaponize the one thing they're allowed to have--their femininity. They don't have any female mentors who could show them how to be honest with themselves, I want them to find solace/inspiration in each other when there's no other safe place for them yet but what they build for themselves. (They are already that classic "do I want to be her or do I want to fuck her" WLW story, but don't really realize queer love is an option between them yet.)
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: I will truly take anything—I'd love some good ol' smut of any sort with either ship! Also great: subtle pining, soft stolen kisses, the moment they realize they love/lust the other person. I'd love deeper dives into gender/sex under hetcomp in a fantasy setting, but I'd really be happy with anything lol. Arias sporting the fantasy traits of the magic-wielding race (horns, super strength) would also be soooo delicious.
Content Notes: Homophobia and transphobia, fantasy racism, genre-typical violence, questioning sexual/gender identity
From: (Anonymous)
no subject
Medium: Webcomic
Approximate Length: 62 chapters/episodes portioned into 3 seasons
Where to (Legally) Find It: Manta app/website
Brief Description: "Struggling to pay his mother's hospital bills, Hakyung receives an offer: the fees will be taken care of. The catch? In exchange, he must pretend to be a girl he once knew in order to deceive the chairman of a powerful company. It's going well until Yoonsung, the chairman's grandson, appears…" Hakyung reunites with Yoonsung years after he dressed up as a girl to trick Yoonsung's grandpa for *handwaves* capitalism/greed reasons from Yoonsung's extended family. Yoonsung is immediately drawn to Hakyung but doesn't know why, while Hakyung tries to avoid him or risk revealing he was the girl from Yoonsung's past. In the past, Yoonsung immediately knows Hakyung-as-a-girl is a trick on his grandpa, but his hatred slowly transforms into something more than either of them expect or can handle amid Family Schemes.
What You Love About the Canon: SO MUCH YEARNING. SOFT SLOW BURN AND WHEN THEY FINALLY GET TOGETHER IT *STILL* IS SO SO COMPLICATED. THE IDENTITY PORN OF IT ALL. The story is told across "now" and flashbacks to when Hakyung was pretending to be his old neighbor, and it's done SO well. The story and dialogue is delicate yet sharp. Reading the layers of who knows what and how information is revealed each chapter feels like peeling back the petals of a flower to get to get it to a full bloom—at risk of ruining the whole thing by tearing something irreparably, but it could be the most beautiful thing in the world by trying and succeeding.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): they feel so destined but nothing about their lives will let them BE TOGETHER. YOONSUNG IS FALLING IN LOVE WITH SOMEONE HE KNOWS IS A LIE. THIS IS LIKE GAY MTV'S CATFISH BUT HE'S WALKING IN WITH BOTH EYES WIDE OPEN DESPITE THINKING HE'S IMMUNE. SPOILERS: YOURE NOT, YOONSUNG.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: literally anything. some potential ideas: heavy making out in the past; desperate/possessive sex in the present; desperate "don't leave me" sex in the past or present; Yoonsung's family putting things together after the boys get together and the fallout of that; Hakyung experimenting more with femininity on his own terms (cough lingerie and or make up cough); them playing piano again in the present; Yoonsung confronting Hakyung after getting his memories back; Hakyung confronting Yoonsung after realizing Yoonsung already remembers everything about him and put the pieces together ages ago
Content Notes: Mild/Implied homophobia; amnesia; sick/dying family; death of a parent and grandparent; car accidents
From:
Roman Principate RPF/Letters of Marcus Aurelius and Marcus Cornelius Fronto, 139-145 CE
Medium: The "canon" in this case is a series of letters; for a recent translation with commentary I really enjoyed Amy Richlin's book Marcus Aurelius In Love, which also includes commentary/footnotes/bibliography and an index between Richlin's ordering of the letters and their presence in other translations.
Approximate Length: Richlin's book is 177 pages of 46 selected letters. If you want to go broader, there's a lot of additional correspondence out there and plenty of history to dig into.
Where to (Legally) Find It: There's a 1919 translation of their correspondence that's in the public domain via Loebolus and Wikisource as well as available for sale. If you want purely the letters pertaining to their (possible) romantic relationship, which I would recommend, pick up Amy Richlin's Marcus Aurelius In Love at your library. I've also matched Richlin's selected letters with their Loeb translations (among other things) in a Google doc for your ease of reference.
Brief Description: A series of affectionate, gossipy, at times erotically charged, at times densely literary letters between future emperor Marcus Aurelius and the guy who's supposed to be teaching him rhetoric. The letters I'm most interested in range from lightly flirty to pretty overtly romantic. In 139 CE, newly-minted Marcus Aurelius Verus (he gets new names and titles like six different times in these letters, sorry) is 18 years old and his uncle, the emperor Antoninus Pius, has just assigned him a distinguished orator to tutor him in rhetoric. Through this Pius hopes to induce the young man to turn away from the pursuit of philosophy, brush up on his public speaking skills, and get into something more suitable to a future emperor. The tutor is 40something Marcus Cornelius Fronto, a thoroughly Romanized North African who's a traditional sort of man -- resolutely anti-philosophy, including specifically Stoicism, and super into the literature of the good old Roman Republic. Things start to heat up pretty fast when Marcus asks Fronto to share with him a long-ass riff he's written on Plato's Phaedrus.
What You Love About the Canon: The eroticism of language, rhetoric, literature, and words; all the joys and agonies of an epistolary canon (what's happening offscreen? what do certain allusions mean?); old-tyme long distance action as both men write to one another across distances and talk about what's going on in their professional and personal lives. Petty gossip and completely mundane details of life across the centuries.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): A zillion different layers of cultural baggage, literary preoccupation, age gaps, self-consciousness around power and hierarchy, flattery, heartbreak, loyalty kink with serious baggage... both men are at different times messy, fussy, pedantic, annoying, and horny.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Missing scenes! Hurt/comfort related to injuries and illnesses mentioned in the letters; in-person reunions; dirty talk; consummations and missed connections...
Content Notes: Period-typical Imperial Roman attitudes regarding power, sexuality and pederasty, age, class/status/slavery, religion, and gender; age differences and associated cultural baggage (Marcus Aurelius is 18 when the letters and seemingly their relationship begins, Fronto is 44-45 and also his teacher at that time; for more on this, see below). Both men are married to other people at different points in their relationship; they seem to be on good terms with each other's wives and family members, but if extramarital relationships are a no-go for you, be aware of that going in. Some letters touch on the sickness/death of young children.
Then-contemporary literary conventions around Classical pederasty are present in these letters even as the correspondence itself highlights both the younger party's actual voice and point of view (necessarily absent from the poetic version) and the gulf between those romanticized literary conventions and reality. Marcus is already 18 when the two first meet, the uppermost limit of the "beautiful hairless boy" age bracket that's societally acceptable for a Roman man to desire, and even then his social status makes him off-limits for anything other than distant admiration; he's the adopted son of an emperor, earmarked for power and situated right in the epicenter of a bunch of Roman societal baggage (and legal wrangling) around who can and can't be fucked and by whom. Despite his advantage in terms of age, as distinguished in letters as he may be, in the end Fronto's just an employee of a wealthy family, able to be fired at will if he pisses off his employer or debauches his pupil. And then their relationship outlasts Marcus Aurelius' barely-legal-teen years into actual adulthood and everything gets trickier. It's fraught! It's weird! But if you like historical shit that's fraught and weird, join me in hell.
From:
Freshman Magic (Interactive Fiction)
Medium: interactive fiction
Approximate Length: 263,000 words, but you won’t see nearly all that in a single playthrough (and you’d only really need to do one to write for my requests for this. Two at most.)
Where to (Legally) Find It: On the Heart’s Choice website or Steam
Brief Description: This is a M/M urban fantasy romance interactive fiction novel set at a magical college in Tennessee. The main character is a scholarship student in the dueling club which is basically magical dueling as an organized varsity sport. Also there’s a mystery where students are disappearing.
What You Love About the Canon: So much! I love the dueling; it’s really fun. The setting is great. And, well, obviously I liked the romances.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Alistair/MC: They have one of the best meet-cute bits that becomes a kind of continuing motif and also I love that Alistair is protective of the MC (even though he doesn’t really need it). Halim/MC: Halim is more mentor-ish but also has some of the best flirty lines. He’s a lot of fun and has amazing fashion sense, but also I feel like he’s a bit mysterious and would really like to see more of their relationship. And also I ship them both with MC in a trio; I’d ship Alistair/Halim, but I’m not entirely sure how it would happen without the MC.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: smut is always welcome, but I’d also love fluff. Dates off campus, what they do during the summer, getting coffee together, study session, etc.
Content Notes: really the main note is that there is quite a bit of explicit sex in this game if you choose to pursue it (but you can also not do any of that).
From:
Crossing Jordan (TV)
Medium: TV series
Approximate Length: six seasons, but for the ship I'm requesting you can pick up pretty much anywhere. It's a network show, so the overarching story isn't necessarily a big part of individual episodes.
Where to (Legally) Find It: It appears to be on Amazon, Peacock, and apparently has a channel on Roku. There's a boxed set from Australia, but that can run close to a hundred bucks, so definitely make sure you're interested before investing lol.
Brief Description: Jordan Cavanaugh's mother was murdered when she was a child, and the case was never solved. These days she's an angry, sarcastic, but deeply caring forensic pathologist on a mission to make sure that nobody else has to live with that uncertainty.
What You Love About the Canon: Even though it can be very of-its-time (it came out in the early 2000s), it can also be a very thoughtful show. I also very much enjoy Jordan's relationship with her boss, Garret Macy. Which brings us to...
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I love Jordan & Garret, okay? The opening scene has him, fresh off losing his own mother, calling her back to Boston to take her old job (just in time, too—she's taking anger management for kicking her current boss in the cojones. What? He was being misogynistic and her hands were full of brain). The show ends on a scene of him thanking her for coming back to Boston "when I needed you," to which she responds, "No, I needed you." The two of them hug it out while John Hiatt's "Thirty Years of Tears" plays.
I don't know how to explain how much it means to me that the relationship is purely platonic. There's no teasing will-they/won't-they—Garret is Jordan's best friend. He's there for her when her relationship with her dad goes south. He's literally her next of kin when she has brain surgery. Again, the series literally ends not on Jordan and her love interest, but Jordan and her "best girlfriend" Garret. It's just... *clenches fist and sheds a single tear* I don't even know.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: genfic of Jordan and Garret, hopefully whumpy.
Content Notes: typical early-aughts attitudes towards a lot of things, though, again, it can surprise you with some of its nuances.
From:
Roaring Twenties Magic by Allie Therin
Medium: Book series
Approximate Length: 2 books so far, Proper Scoundrels and Once a Rogue
Where to (Legally) Find It: Purchase links on the author's website, or support your local library. The audiobooks by Joel Froomkin are also very good.
Brief Description: Plotty gay romance in a magical 1920s. Pessimistic deliberately-abrasive English lord meets absolute sweetheart with a deeply tragic past who has no interest in posturing whatsoever. And then they have to spend a week in close proximity for magic reasons. Also one of them gets handcuffed to a bed.
What You Love About the Canon: I love romance with a strong plot and lots of things happening other than the romance, and this has heists and kidnappings and magic and so much hurt/comfort. I love how the main characters interact, how they're different with each other from how they are with everyone else, how they change and don't change as a result of their relationship, how they are so obviously deeply into each other in different ways even when they won't admit it. And the side characters are also fascinating and well-drawn and I really want entire books about most of them, too.
The magic worldbuilding is great and interesting and the atmosphere of the 1920s is well conveyed and the author is clearly very into historical fashion. But a lot of it is the tropes and the delicious delicious angst. And also there is some very very good smut.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Wesley Collins/Sebastian de Leon: The main pairing. Sebastian has had so much trauma for years and he thinks he should be over it and he also thinks he should be alone forever because That's Just How It Is, and he is such a sweetheart. And Wesley believes he doesn't have any trauma at all, he is definitely too much of an asshole to have been affected by WWI, he doesn't feel trauma, he inflicts it. And then they both look at each other and each tell the other that that's bullshit and they deserve all the good things and they have to learn to believe it.
Jade Robbins/Jianwei Zhang: She's a Black telekinetic bootlegger and ex-spy. He's a Chinese-American scholar who can walk on the astral plane. They fight magical crime! They are also staggeringly competent and they work so well together and Jade usually wears extremely stylish men's suits.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Either Jade and Zhang's backstory together, or more hurt/comfort and/or smut between Wesley and Sebastian because it's never enough.
Content Notes: Background racism and similar period-typical attitudes. Lots of kidnapping.
From:
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne
Medium: manga and anime, but they’re very different continuities. I enjoy both or a fusion
Approximate Length: ~30 chapters (took me a day or two to read), ~45 episodes (takes about 20 hours for a normal person to watch, took me about 8 when I skipped the op/ed and watched at 2x speed)
Where to (Legally) Find It: a library for the manga. Good luck with the anime.
Brief Description: high school girl Maron Kusakabe balances school, being a phantom thief who fights demons, and her fraught bonds with her angel partner Finn Fish and her mysterious rival, the Phantom Thief Sinbad. Deal with themes such as purity, what makes someone brave, and the darkness in one’s heart.
What You Love About the Canon:
manga: super dark and interesting takes on virginity and love, incredible female characters, decent her romance even if I don’t ship it, and fascinating worldbuilding. I’m a whump fan so it delivers. Also Finn is one of my all time favorite characters, but to explain is to spoil the entire story.
anime: expands on the bond between Finn and Maron, interesting episodic ideas. The lack of SA as a big theme is both a detriment to its themes and a welcome reprieve.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Finn/Maron!!! And ot4 in manga canon fuck you anime Chiaki. I love their bond as partners, how they hide their true emotions. I love how they trust and love each other most, in the end,
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Finn/Maron angst with a happy ending and developing relationships and such, mostly.
Content Notes: there is so much sexual assault in the manga. It’s for thematic reasons but even the endgame love interest gives her so many noncon kisses. Why.
From: (Anonymous)
Benlian - Oliver Onions (Short Story)
Medium: Short Story
Approximate Length: 7,500 words
Where to Find It: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Widdershins/Benlian
Brief Description: A short story (published in 1911) about a sculptor (Benlian) who enlists a photographer in his mission to transfer his essence into his sculpture. The photographer (“Pudgie”), initially put off by Benlian and his ugly statue, becomes obsessed with helping Benlian achieve his goal.
What You Love About the Canon: It is delightfully creepy. Benlian exerts a powerful influence over Pudgie so that he doesn’t think what’s happening is horrifying. I love his adoration of Benlian and his project. I love the concept of passing oneself into one’s art.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Pudgie’s just besotted with Benlian and his great artistic vision, and Benlian doesn’t return that regard. As an uneven ship I just adore it.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Dream sequences, what Pudgie does in the wake of Benlian passing into his sculpture, canon-typical obsession and mind control. Cannibalism. Statuefucking.
Content Notes: Mind control. Character death? In order to “pass” into the sculpture, Benlian starves himself. Pudgie ends the story in an asylum since no one believes what happened to him.
From:
Monster and the Beast (Manga)
Approximate Length: 4 volumes
Where to (Legally) Find It: Available from most major booksellers in print or digital!
Brief Description: Big scary monster (and absolute sweetheart) Cavo rescues slutty old man with questionable morals Liam, who is immediately DTF. Despite the premise, it's actually not a PWP, though there is some great monsterfucking; at its heart it's a really sweet story about healing from trauma.
What You Love About the Canon: Older man protagonist who actually looks older- and is charming and flirty and very promiscuous! Big monster who actually looks monstrous but is also very sexy! The plot and romance are blended really well and it's so lovely to see their character and relationship development. There are also some side characters that are really well fleshed out.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Several things that are major spoilers. But really, they're very sweet together and I love the way they eventually make it work.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Scenes of their relationship post canon. PWP making use of Cavo's monster features. Really anything building off of canon!
Content Notes: Some very fucked consent, including noncon (not between the main couple). One scene of on-page, graphic CSA.
From:
Raising the Demonic Cult's Leader
Approximate Length: 64 chapters so far (ongoing)
Where to (Legally) Find It: Nowhere in English, unfortunately (I'm hoping that this changes!) There is a fan translation that's incomplete. In the original Korean, it's available on Ridibooks, Bomtoon, and several other webcomic aggregator sites (I had the most luck with buying raws on Bomtoon, as someone based in the US). There is an in-progress Japanese translation, which is only available in Japan. The artist often posts bonus art on their socials.
Brief Description: A regular Korean grad student transmigrates into a xianxia novel as the mysterious herbalist Cho Yun, finds the 8-year-old villain after his first major backstory trauma, and goes "I can fix him". Tiny yandere Cheon-oh immediately becomes fixated on his incredibly milfy shizun, who does his best to raise a little freak (positive) and two normal kids with like two years of teacher training. (It did not prepare him for such situations as "Cheon-oh, you actually can't come after your shixiong and shijie with an axe, even though they went up a tree and teased you for being too little to climb it and you just wanted to chop it down".)
What You Love About the Canon: The art is stunning and I'm a sucker for master/disciple stories and transmigration. Cho Yun is trying his best, bless him, and Cheon-oh is deeply strange in a way that's so fun to me. Cho Yun just has such a MILF aura and it's very easy to see why his disciple would imprint on him like a baby bird.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Devotion! Loyalty! Oblivious master spoiling his little yandere disciple; this totally won't backfire on him later! Cho Yun cares so much and is fighting the storyline every step of the way- including the original Cho Yun influencing his outward reactions at the worst of times.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Literally anything canon-compliant. Art of them being pretty (canon compliance not necessary). Art of their cute little animal forms from bonus art.
Content Notes: It's a teacher/student romance and they meet when the student is 8. That being said, grooming generally squicks me and it's really not present here; Cho Yun has absolutely no idea Cheon-oh is obsessed with him and is just doing his best to care for him. There is some blood and violence. Later on there's some underage masturbation and a sexy dream sequence that takes place while Cheon-oh is 16 or so. The comic isn't rated 19+ though, so there are no on-page genitals.
Art bait (all promo images from AraeB's twitter):
From:
King in Limbo
Medium: manga
Approximate Length: 6 vols in Japanese, 3 omnibus vols in English
Where to (Legally) Find It: https://kodansha.us/series/king-in-limbo-omnibus
Brief Description: Years after a memory-eating sleeping sickness pandemic is ended by a dangerous procedure that requires diving into patients' minds and removing affected memories, everyone is certain that it won't be coming back. But after an accident leaves Navy recruit Adam Garfield looking at medical retirement, he's offered a choice: take retirement or convince the most successful (and reclusive) diver Rune Winter to come back and treat a mysterious and seemingly incurable outbreak of the sleep that the US military is desperately trying to keep secret.
What You Love About the Canon: This series is part sci-fi mystery thriller, as the two leads try to uncover the secrets around the new outbreak, and part reflection on memories and how what people have experienced (for better or for worse) makes them who they are. The worldbuilding around diving into memories is especially fascinating - it requires one diver who actually treats infected memories and one companion who's both bodyguard and the one who pulls them out of a dive. The pair has to be highly compatible, and the fact that most pairs meet and feel a click that means they'll work well together is a perfect setup for fanfic.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): Grumpy one and sunshiny one is a great dynamic for me, both platonically and romantically, and King in Limbo offers up two possibilities for that dynamic. Rune is a sad standoffish man who doesn't want to get close to anyone but his cat after a lifetime of issues; Angela is his late partner who is a cheery ball of protective sunshine; and Adam is his new partner who's also a cheery ball of sunshine determined to drag him out into the world whether he likes it or not. There are a lot of obvious parallels between Adam and Angela as people, and I love how their relationships with Rune might also eventually parallel.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: More of Rune's relationships with Adam and/or Angela, whether platonic or romantic.
Content Notes: The story (finished pre-2020) focuses heavily on a fictional illness and includes discussions and depictions of symptoms and casualties (some of which are not natural deaths). There are some scenes of child abuse and domestic violence, and the implied murder of a major character.
From:
Crossover - Cliopher "Kip" Mdang (Nine Worlds) & Eugenides (Queen's Thief)
When I saw both Nine Worlds and Queen's Thief already in the tag set during nominations, I thought this might be my best shot at getting this crossover request fulfilled! I am hoping that the pool of writers may include some who are already familiar with both fandoms, but to do the pitch for each:
Queen's Thief - Megan Whalen Turner
If you already know Nine Worlds and don't know these: this is a series of six regular-sized books; they are secondary-world fantasy set in a place that is vaguely like our historical Greece (surrounded by countries/regions that have their own analogues in our world), but is unrelated to our history. If you like the variety of POVs and focuses in Victoria Goddard's books, you may also like the fact that each of these books is told from a different POV! They seriously reward rereading—in each book you learn things that make rereading that book and all the previous books a different experience the next time around as you understand more of what the books are doing. They are so good.
Highlights include the gods telling Eugenides to stop whining and go to bed (two separate incidents!)—but also the shivering profundity of Eugenides realizing the gods are real in the first place, and going forward knowing them to be fact, not story or faith.
Nine Worlds - Victoria Goddard
This one is going to be the harder sell, if you're already familiar with Queen's Thief but not with these XD You don't have to read all of Victoria Goddard's books to be able to fulfill this request...the key ones to read for understanding Cliopher Mdang and the gods in his life are, just, uh:
- The Hands of the Emperor (over 900 pages. but it is a 900-page book multiple people have reached the end of wishing it were longer!)
- At the Feet of the Sun (the even longer sequel)
And if you are reading the two 900-page books anyway (!) I may as well mention the two additional novellas that are relevant while you're at it:
- Those Who Hold the Fire
- Portrait of a Wide Seas Islander
The Nine Worlds series is set across multiple worlds linked by magic (technically including Earth, though it doesn't feature much so far)—so there are plenty of ways for characters to end up in another world, whether already known/expected or not. There are numerous overlapping series and sub-series beyond what I've listed above, and there is not really one set reading order (there are recommendations and passionate opinions among the fandom!); whichever order you wander through them, you will learn things in books you read earlier that turn out to connect with things in books you read later.
Highlights include Cliopher making a deal with a god he didn't realize was a god at the time (and fulfilling this promise involves implementing fantasy Universal Basic Income, another highlight)—and later bargaining the pants off (figuratively) another god who he very much knew was a god, because he didn't feel he had done enough worthy of legend yet.
From:
A New Leaf (1971)
Media: Film
Approx length: 102 minutes.
Where to find it: Currently looks to be available to rent on Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Fandago, but it bounces around periodically. It was available on Pluto when I requested it for Yuletide 2024, so hopefully it comes back!
What is it, in summary?: A New Leaf is a heartwarming black rom-com about planning to marry rich so you may murder your wife. Henry Graham, an aging playboy, suddenly learns that he has absolutely exceeded his income, and he has no way to support himself in the manner to which he is accustomed. He concocts the plan to marry rich then murder. In the pursuit of this, he meets Henrietta Lowell, a clumsy botanist who is absolutely filthy stinking rich. He woos her quickly, and plans to strike. Except. In the process of caring for Henrietta, cutting tags off her clothes, sorting out her finances, supporting her work, will he begin to love her? Has he in fact become a better man because of his marriage? Find out in Elaine May's first directorial debut!
What do you love about it?: It's the most touching love story that ever began with planned murder. It's so--tender? It's terribly funny and the dialogue is marvelous.
What really heightens this film for me is the relationship between Henry and Henrietta. There's something so lovely in how Henry starts out as a playboy bum, no motivations other than wealth and driving his fast car with carbon on the valves. And yet, as he cares for Henrietta, he becomes a much better person. He finds new things in life to care about, loath as he is to admit it. And Henrietta is lovely--not a manic pixie dream girl at all, but a real person who is exceedingly clumsy and in love with her special interests. She's naive, yes, but she's not stupid. I think it's interesting how she doesn't push for Henry to change, but he changes because of her very impact. The ending of this film makes me smile every time.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
I really want something focused around Henry and Henrietta's marriage post-canon. I want to see them working at the university together! Or just domestic life! Anything with them honestly. I adore them, and I want more! I'd also love Henrietta POV of when she realizes that Henry planned to kill her, and why she does what she does. Basically anything involving them I'd be super happy with.
I'm also super obsessed with how Henry continually caretakes her appearance, cutting off tags, brushing off lint, sorting out which way a garment is gone. I think it's both sweet and also makes me go!!! I'd love to see that explored in a smut context, especially with lingerie. I may be the first person to ever want smut for this movie, but I'm valid. XD
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: No, the whole movie must be watched.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): The subject of murder is continually brought up throughout the film, but there is no violence shown. There is a short shot in a sequence where Henry contemplates Henrietta getting killed in the woods in various ways that involves Henrietta being beset by Native Americans stereotypes.
From:
Tea and Sympathy - Anderson
Media: Play
Approx length: About 92 pages.
Where to find it: https://openlibrary.org/works/OL6112306W/Tea_and_sympathy?edition=key%3A/books/OL6206061M
https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/tea-and-sympathy
What is it, in summary?: (TOM's other hand comes up and with both his hands he brings her hand to his lips.)
LAURA (Smiles tenderly at this gesture, and after a moment)
Years from now . . . when you talk about this . . . and you will . . . be kind.
It's a very tender play about homophobic bullying and toxic masculinity in the mid-century, and how one survives that with support and love. It touches sensitive topics such as age gap relationships, repressed homosexuality, and horrible bullying with such care and tenderness. It takes play at a school in New England in the 1950s, and it centers around Tom, a boy who starts to be bullied for not being "manly," enough, and the understanding, kind house mistress who begins to feel trapped by how little she can help.
The movie is very good and well-acted (stars the original cast from the play) but read the play first, as the movie is effected by some 1950s film censorship.
What do you love about it?:
It's so -- it's about this young man, Tom Lee, who is soft, and sweet, and likes music, and has long hair, and is in love with the headmaster's wife, and he doesn't fit in with the other boys. And because he doesn't fit in, they're threatened by him. They start to mock him cruelly, awfully, and it's -- it's something that holds up so painfully well. Tom is not queer as in into men (alas) but it's a story that really showcases toxic masculinity.
It's a story about how the pressure of being a man eats you up and chews you out and crushes you. And how you turn on anyone who isn't man enough, because if you turn on them, then no one will notice the way you fail, no one will notice the ways you don't fit into the tribe --
And it's also about the love between Tom and the house master's wife, Laura Reynolds, how they connect on a soul-deep way, on a level no one else in the play does. It's about how she alone understands this boy's soul, this agonizing almost romance, this deep connection built on shaky ground. It's about how she says "Manliness is not all swagger and swearing and mountain climbing. Manliness is also tenderness, gentleness, and consideration." It's about how there's such understanding, such empathy in this play -- it is so deeply, firmly kind.
It is aching and painful and one of the most beautiful things I've ever read.
I just love how empathetic it is -- how lovingly it showcases its characters. It has love for everyone in this show, from Tom and his non-traditional masculinity, for Laura and how she feels a kinship to Tom in part because of her dead husband his age, for Mr. Reynolds and his own repressed queerness that he expresses by lashing out. I love how it still holds up astonishingly well today -- how what it has to say about toxic masculinity still is sadly relevant. I love what good writing it has -- look at this description!
(She looks at him a moment. He is to her a heartbreaking sight . . . all dressed up as though he were going to a prom, but instead he's going to Ellie . . . the innocence and the desperation touch her deeply . . . and this shows in her face as she circles behind him to the door.)
Or this bit that says so much about Tom!
https://pureanonofficial.tumblr.com/post/728030662357073920/tea-and-sympathy-1956
It is possibly the most impactful play I have read in a while; I read it for the first time last year, and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it since. It makes me unhinged.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: I am absolutely fascinated by the strange, almost-romance of Laura and Tom. What starts out as just a school boy crush on his end (TOM shuts the door He is deeply in love with this woman, though he knows nothing can come of it. It is a sort of delayed puppy love. It is very touching and very intense. They are easy with each other, casual, though he is always trying in thinly veiled ways to tell her he loves her.) turns into something deeper and more real throughout the events of the play. It's based on the author's own experience with falling in love with an older woman in school, and it shows in how kindly he writes it. They have such a genuine, true connection, and it's just deliciously problematic enough to be intriguing and aching. They connect on music, poetry, art! They're the only ones who appreciate the finer things at this school -- but it's partially her connection to him that makes him an object of scorn. The house mistress is only supposed to offer "a little tea and sympathy," not truly care about the boys, and her connection to him hastens the problems in her marriage. They are lovely and painful and wonderful and --
I want to read about them post-canon. I think the play ends at such an intriguing point, and I can so easily see them meeting later. I can so easily picture them picking up years later, older and wiser, and maybe then --?
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Nope!
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Homophobic bullying and slurs. A main character attempts suicide but does not succeed. The two leads have a romantically tinged friendship that culminates physically on the younger's eighteenth birthday.
From:
The Fantasticks - Schmidt/Jones
Media: Off-Broadway musical
Approx length: One hour and forty-five minutes.
Where to find it:
There are tons of copies online! I recommend reading a script first and listening to a cast recording first though, as I haven't found a recording online that gets the poetry right.
https://openlibrary.org/works/OL4465489W/Fantasticks?edition=ia%3Afantasticksceleb00schm
Here is a pretty good college recording too! The music is spot on, and the cast is pretty decent, but the script is an older one, so there's some outdated aspects to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJjQpC_pzWo
This is the Hallmark Hall of Fame version from 1964! It is very abridged, but a good taste of the show, and has the best cast out of the available options!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvsK_m7nSkI
Here is the original cast recording on youtube! I highly reccomend giving it as listen, as it is one of my favorite cast recordings of all time because the cast is SO good.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVvnj7NnfA_pkbWT-J8DluBiu7l0oWO38
What is it, in summary?:
The Fantasticks is a musical based on the 1894 play, The Romancers by the same author who wrote Cyrano de Bergerac. It is the longest-running musical ever, running for 42 years Off-Broadway. You have probably heard its most well-known song, Try To Remember. It's a very simple, yet very theatrical show -- the characters often address themselves to the audience, and it takes inspiration from commedia dell'arte.
It is about a boy, a girl, their fathers, and a wall. Matt and Luisa, the Boy and Girl, are in love, but their fathers disapprove of their love, and have put up a wall to prevent their love...or so they think. Their fathers are actually secretly encouraging their romance, as they want them to get married, but know they would never agree to an arranged marriage. In order to end their fake feud, they hire a bandit, the famous El Gallo, and his trope of actors to stage an abduction for Matt to rescue Luisa from. All goes smoothly, and they seem to be all set for a happy ending...right?
EL GALLO:
Their moon was cardboard, fragile.
It was very apt to fray,
And what was last night scenic
May seem cynic by today.
The play’s not done.
Oh, no – not quite,
For life never ends in the moonlit night;
And despite what pretty poets say,
The night is only half the day.
So we would like to truly finish
What was foolishly begun.
For the story is not ended
And the play is never done
Until we’ve all of us been burned a bit
And burnished by – the sun!
What do you love about it?:
The Fantasticks is a hard show to describe. There's a melancholic, moonlit quality about it. It's humorous, and sweet, and charming, and also sticks with you long after the show is done. It's about love and growing up--perhaps not very unique topics, but the way this show is done--!
I have never seen such poetry in a musical before. The "There is a Curious Paradox ," speech is so--
EL GALLO:
There is a curious paradox
That no one can explain.
Who understands the secret
Of the reaping of the grain?
Who understands why Spring is born
Out of Winter’s laboring pain?
Or why we all must die a bit
Before we grow again.
I do not know the answer.
I merely know it’s true.
I hurt them for that reason;
And myself a little bit, too.
(He steps back into the shadows.)
This show is hard to pin down, hard to analyze what is so lovable about it--but if you love it, you will always love it, and if you do not love it, you will never love it! This show--Luisa's hopes and dreams, Matt's desperation, the parents' longing to do right by their children, the very concept of the wall and how it calls back to Pyramus and Thisbe, El Gallo's dual nature as narrator and villain, the way it talks about the nature of stories, and stories within stories, the way it is scored so simply, mostly just a piano, the way it makes me dream. It is a gorgeous show, and though I cannot describe it accurately, it is just--please give it a shot.
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
What I find most fascinating about the show is Luisa and El Gallo's relationship. El Gallo is both the narrator and the villain -- Luisa is young and "incurably insane," in the way young people are, and is fascinated by bandits and the romance that they present. And El Gallo's job is to be the villain that hurts her, and forces her to grow up -- only, only that becomes increasingly distasteful to him as he knows her. She breaks through the mask of the villain to what he is underneath. He is not bad, merely playing a role -- but that role begins to hurt him as well as her. And he kisses her upon the eyes, and tells her he will return, and the story must be played out, and the girl must be left, and the villain must hurt her, but that does not mean it does not hurt him too.
L GALLO:
(Taking the mask from her.)
Now hurry. You must back so that we may run away.
LUISA:
Kiss me first.
EL GALLO:
All right.
LUISA:
Ahh.
EL GALLO:
What is it?
LUISA:
At last! I have been kissed upon the eyes. No matter what happens, I’ll never forget that kiss. I’ll go now.
EL GALLO:
One word, Luisa, listen:
I want to tell you this –
I promise to remember, too
That one particular kiss.
And now hurry; we have a lifetime for kisses!
LUISA:
True. You’ll wait here?
EL GALLO:
I promise.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: I would mostly recommend just reading a script and going by that!
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence):
A lot of The Fantasticks is very timeless, but there are two parts of it that aged badly, and I feel they warrant some detailed explanation.
The song "It Depends On What You Pay," in the original version uses the word "rape," in its original context to mean "abduction," as a form of wordplay, and as a reference to the original 1894 play. It is not used in a way to make fun of rape, but it could still perhaps be triggering, so please take care. This aspect of the song has gradually been phased out throughout the years, and modern versions rarely use it, but if you are looking into the show, you will likely come across it.
Another aspect that has aged badly is Mortimer. Mortimer is one of the actors hired by El Gallo to play one of his villains in the abduction. In the original production, Mortimer was dressed in a stereotypical Native American costume. The joke of his character was that he did not speak for a very long time, and when he did, he had a Cockney accent, which was unexpected due to his appearance. This joke was always uncomfortable and never good. This was also phased out of the show, but again, as this is a very long-running show, you may come across versions of it.
For me, it is important to note that both of these aspects were phased out by the original author who was in his 90s, and still reworking the show when he died (quite recently--2023) to make changes like this. I think the willingness to address these uncomfortable, dated parts of the show is admirable considering when it was written, and who wrote it, and for me that means a lot. However, YMMV, and if that does not work for you, I completely understand that and respect it!
From:
Oklahoma! (Rodgers & Hammerstein)
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT:
Where to even begin with this musical. I love it. I just love it so much and I have so much love for it bursting out of me at all times.
Oklahoma! is set in Oklahoma (of course) in 1906, just before Oklahoma becomes a state. It concerns two intersecting love triangles and a box social. That sounds very simple but like Shakespeare's plays, this show takes something simple and does something really great with it. The way it addresses the themes of the fear of intimacy and community is really something.
There is not a character in this show that I do not adore. I love them all so much. Laurey Williams is the main female lead, and she's sharp as a whip, charming--and afraid/longing of/for intimacy in a way that causes her to be downright snarky and mean at times. She's afraid of making a decision, and sets off the events that send this show hurtling. I love her so much. Curly McLain is one of the many well-meaning himbos who walks the stage of Oklahoma! He is charming, sweet, dreadfully in love with Laurey, and also unaware of the fact that he is the most privileged man in his community. He means so well, but he's blind to the fact that the opportunities and love he has been given by the community is not something that is open to everyone. Jud Fry is the surly, damaged, yearning farmhand that works on Laurey's farm. He is so angry at the world and at himself--he genuinely believes he is not as good as everyone else. The community fears and scorns him for little reason, and when he does his best to demand his rights as a fellow farmer, he is cheated for it. He is desperately and dangerously in love with Laurey--it's like an infection and the only hope he has. He's very tragic and I love him so much. Aunt Eller is the down-to-earth aunt figure to almost everyone in Oklahoma! She is loved, and for good reasons. She is witty, takes no shit, and is a joy whenever she's on stage. And then the secondary characters are wonderful too! I love Ali Hakim's connery and charm, Gertie Cummings' grating laugh and attitude, Will Parker being the biggest himbo in the world, Ado Annie being unapologetically herself--it's a cast full of characters I love.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT (optional): Since this is a musical, there have been many productions over the years, but by far, the best production I've ever seen? Oklahoma! 1943 Restoration. It is a recreation of the original Broadway production as it premiered in 1943 and it is stunning. The cast is simply the best overall cast I have ever seen. It introduced to me to Oklahoma! and I could not have chosen a better option. If you want to check out this show, please watch this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syM0JtapQ4Q
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS4NuHtiiPE
WHAT I AM THINKING OF REQUESTING: Although Curly and Laurey are sweethearts and are wonderful for each other--I have fallen hopelessly for Jud/Laurey. They never quite understand the other, just keep hurting each other, and it's so delicious to explore. I so badly want an ending where it doesn't quite turn out so tragic for them. I think Laurey and Jud are fascinating both as individuals and in terms of their relationship. Laurey is both longing for intimacy yet frightened of it; Jud desperately needs intimacy but has been cut off from it his entire life. Laurey is scared of him, yet, despite herself, intrigued by him. Jud is a danger to both himself and others, but he’s also so tragic and childish in parts. Laurey uses him for her own gain, and it blows up in her face, which is fascinating to think about. Where Laurey’s dreams are sexual and intense, Jud’s are as simple as wanting to be respected and having his wife hold him. They never come to a point where they understand the other in canon, even in that brilliant confession scene (which I think is the best written scene in the show.) Though I love Curly/Laurey, Jud/Laurey is what haunts me and has me staying up late to obsess over.
In contrast to the heaviness of Jud/Laurey--I want to know more about Gertie Cummings/Ali Hakim! How does she trick him into marrying her? Can he find fulfillment running "papa's store?" Can Gertie, with her smarts, help with that? Could they make the horrific precursor to Walmart in 1900s Oklahoma? Can they find love in their odd situation? Will Gertie ever learn his real name? I first started thinking more seriously about them as a joke, and now I adore them.
Content warnings (ie, rape, incest, racism, gore/violence): Two characters sing a duet about how nice it would be if one of them dies. Casual gun use throughout the story. A violent climax where one character falls on his own knife in the middle of a fight. Depending on the production you watch, varying forms of sexual assault. A fear of sexual assault throughout no matter the production. Ali Hakim claims to be from the Middle East in order to make his wares more appealing, but it's obvious he's not actually Middle Eastern.
From:
Blood Under the Moonlight
Medium: Webcomic
Approximate Length: 76 chapters (completed) plus 15 side story chapters
Where to (Legally) Find It: Available online at Lezhin US here.
Brief Description: What if Twilight was xianxia shizunfucking smut?
What You Love About the Canon: I honestly didn't expect to be grabbed so hard by this one, but something about it is really iddy for me. The art is gorgeous (it improves a lot in season 2, but I like all of it tbh) and I'm so charmed by xianxia vampires (sorry, "blood demons") and their incredibly convoluted lore. Mostly, though, I am very shamelessly in it for the smut and the doting, openly affectionate shizun.
What You Love About Your Ship(s): If you don't know what SVSSS is, ignore this part, but if you do, a pitch: no Abyss AU, what if Luo Binghe was actually an innocent little bun (but still just as obsessed with Shizun) and Shen Qingqiu was actually trying desperately to hold himself back from ravishing his cute disciple? And also SQQ is a vampire and he tops. It is Bunhe's wildest fantasies come to life. He'd be SO intensely jealous of Hwan. What do you MEAN your shizunmommy drinks your blood on purpose and tops you on purpose and gets you mpregnant and atticwifes you a little???
For the non-SVSSS people (and also the SVSSS people who want more info): this is honestly not the type of ship dynamic that usually appeals to me, but something about the gentle caretaking and almost-but-not mommy kink inherent in the relationship, even when it is so many levels of fucked at various points in the story, scratches my brain sooo good. A shizun who tops and a disciple who wants him to! Horny blood drinking that escalates! Sexual instruction! I love an unhinged obsessed disciple as much as the next guy but something about an unhinged obsessed shizun and a disciple who's like okay <3 yay <3 just GETS me. Also, Beom Dan-Ryeong likes to carry his boy around (during sex and also just in general) and I think it's so cute of them. They're both so clingy.
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Iddy smut along the lines of canon. Pregnancy kink. Lactation (in theory this is canon but it was not explored in detail and I would love for it to be).
Content Notes: So many. Uh, age gap teacher/student romance; nothing happens physically until the younger character is of age, but the teacher is more of a pursuer in the relationship, there is definitely a strong power imbalance (and the relationship gets toxic for much of the story) and it might hit on a grooming squick for some. (Somehow, it did not for me, but YMMV.) Vampire-typical horny blood drinking. Martial arts story-typical violence. A bit of atticwifing and general yandere behavior from the male lead. A lot of miscommunication, of the easily-solvable sort that might drive some people nuts. Infidelity, sort of, one time. Mpreg. Babytrapping. Attempted forced miscarriage via secret drugging with abortifacients. Pregnancy-related body horror (the goriest parts are not shown onscreen). In the extras, pseudo-incest (ish) and a second age gap relationship where the older person knew the younger since they were a baby. Lots of very dubious to nonconsensual sex, including while one partner is drugged or asleep. I am probably forgetting some things.
From:
Red Dead Redemption (Video Games)
Medium: Video Game
Approximate Length: 20+ Hours
Where to (Legally) Find It: Available on PlayStation, XBox, and PC, playthroughs for the first game (and maybe the second-haven't looked) are on YouTube!
Brief Description: The games follow the tragedies of the Van der Linde Outlaw gang between 1899 and 1907, followng the gang's fallout and the events that keep the surviving memebers tied to their pasts. Main Characters are John Marston (first game) and Arthur Morgan (second game), and they each have their own complexities and struggles that make them struggle to balance their lives of crime with their desires for good and for redemption.
What You Love About the Canon: The stories are so touching and well-told, and the games are gorgeous (especially the second) and open-world, so you can wander around and really aborb the setting in between intense story-points and themes of strained families, broken hierarchies, and the corruption of a quickly-modernizing 20th-century America! The dialogue is really great, too, and the characters have such great chemistry with each other, one of my favorite things to do is just amble around and talk to the other gang members :)
What You Love About Your Ship(s): I have too many to list in detail here, but the main theme of most of them are the latent aspect of tragedy that colors the relationships! Arthur/Mary are fated never to be, despite loving each other dearly, and John/Abigail try so hard to work out and be good parents to Jack, and their love and stability are hard-won through years of trial and real effort. Any ship wtih Arthur is going to be just a BIT tragic because it is inherently doomed, and I just love that there is that sadness, but also the real possibility for sweetness and AU/ Canon Divergence!!!
Kinds of Things You're Planning to Ask For: Mostly AUs and Alternate Canons/ Canon Divergence situations! They are my weakness :)
Content Notes: Period-Typical sexism and racism and racial violence (mainly by white authorities against Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous peoples, graphic depictions of injury and violence (gun & otherwise), MCD, terminal illness