desertscribe (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
desertscribe) wrote2014-06-28 11:07 am
desertscribe) wrote2014-06-28 11:07 am
Entry tags:
Rare Pair Fest 2014
Dear Rare Pairs Writer,
All optional details are optional, and a story that you had fun writing will probably turn out better than one where you had to torture yourself trying to shape it into something against the will of your muse. If you already have an idea that you really want to write for whatever pairing we matched on, then you should go with that. Otherwise, keep reading for some general preferences of mine and some random story prompts.
Some of my likes:
- happy endings
- bittersweet endings
- tragic endings which happen because they are unavoidable, instead of because everyone suddenly turns stupid
- stories that give a good view of a character's thought process
- women who aren't afraid to ask for what they want in bed
- sex which occurs as a natural progression of the plot
- fading to black if the sex would disrupt the flow of the rest of the story
- cuddling
- found families
- creative problem solving
- partnerships of equals (or at least something close)
- characters being at least as competent as they were in canon
- character growth
- people learning from their mistakes (and then sometimes going on to make completely different mistakes)
- people playing to their strengths and acknowledging their weaknesses (at least to themselves, unless that level of self-awareness would be OOC)
- people attempting to communicate with each other even if they don't always succeed
- good-natured verbal sparring/banter
- earned respect
- a sense of place
- situations where what a person doesn't say is just as important as what they do say
- backstory
- missing scenes from canon
- post-canon adventures
- AUs exploring what would have happened if a character made a different decision at some point
- genre-savvy characters
- occasional moral ambiguity
- subverted tropes/clichés
- fictional characters interacting with historical figures
Dislikes:
- porn without plot
- scat/watersports
- intentional sexual humiliation
- rape/non-con/dub-con portrayed in a positive light
- alpha/beta/omega dynamics
- 24/7 lifestyle D/s
And now, on to my fandom/pairing requests:
3:10 to Yuma (2007) (fic)
Alice Evans/Ben Wade
Alice Evans/Dan Evans/Ben Wade
Alice Evans/Dan Evans
Emma Nelson/Ben Wade
For Alice/Ben, I'm a sucker for stories where Ben returns to the Evans ranch post-canon and hooks up with Alice because he both thinks she's hot and feels like he needs to act as a replacement for Dan, so any variation on that theme would be great, especially if it involves other characters not being immediately accepting when they find out about it. Alternatively, I would also be interested in seeing an AU where, for whatever reason, Alice ended up being the one to help take Ben to Contention instead of Dan, and how events spun off on different path because of that. The idea that maybe Alice really did meet Ben in San Francisco before she married Dan could be interesting to see explored too, though I don't really like the theory I've seen suggested saying that this happened and resulted in William being Ben's son instead of Dan's.
My wants for Alice/Dan/Ben are pretty similar to my prompts for Alice/Ben, only this time Dan is participating too. Either Alice can show up at the hotel in Contention like she did in the 1957 version, only with more polyamory, or you can take things more AU by either having Alice accompany Dan and the rest on the journey to Contention from the beginning or by having Dan survive (once again, the 1957 version is good for this, or you could just claim that Dan survived his wounds somehow, or William preemptively shot Charlie, or whatever) and Ben rejoins them on the ranch sometime later. If you write Alice/Dan/Ben, I would prefer to see them as a balanced triad instead of one person alternating between two partners who don't really have anything to do with each other romantically.
For Alice/Dan, I would be interested in seeing a look at their life pre-canon, back before times got quite so desperate for them. There must have been some good times interspersed with the bad. What were they like as young lovers/newly-weds? What was the journey from Boston to Arizona like? How did they handle the complete lifestyle change of going from a major Northeastern city to an isolated ranch ten miles away from a tiny town? How was life on the ranch before the drought started? Did they ever consider having more children after Mark? Or you could do a "Dan survives" AU and explore whether the money from Butterfield (and Dan's newly acquired notoriety for walking Ben Wade to the train) would be enough to change their luck for the better or if it would cause the family a whole new set of problems instead.
For Emma/Ben, I would be interested in seeing what would happen if they ever crossed paths again post-canon. Alternatively, in the commentary track on the DVD, during the part where Ben is asking Emma to jump out the back window with him, James Mangold says that if Emma had said yes instead of laughing it off, then the Ben Wade gang would have broken up right then and there without any bloodshed, and none of the subsequent events of the movie would have happened. It made me want to see an AU where Emma does go "shinning down to Mexico with Ben Wade on her arm," as she put it, instead of just imagining it for a moment. Would life down there really be as easy as Ben suggested, or would other complications (**coughcough**Charlie**cough**) arise?
Justified (fic)
Ava Crowder/Boyd Crowder
Wynn Duffy/Mike
Helen Givens/Arlo Givens
Rachel Brooks/Tim Gutterson
Unfortunately, I happened to miss the last two episodes of season five, and I don't expect to have the opportunity to see them before they come out on DVD, so I would appreciate it if any story you wrote in this fandom did not have any spoilers for them. Sorry. Anything up through episode eleven of season five is fine.
For Ava/Boyd, I find the long and varied history between Ava and Boyd to be fascinating. I would be interested in seeing a story set at any point during their long association, from when they were kids, to during Ava's marriage to Bowman (with bonus points for foreshadowing what Boyd could/would eventually be to Ava once he got a clue and learned how to stop being so creepy), or something set during ay point of canon. I'm especially curious what the two of them got up to during the various breaks between seasons. I would also be interested in seeing an AU in which Ava called bullshit during Boyd's speech in S2 about how the world wanted him to be a criminal, leading the two of them to abandon Harlan and seek their fortune together elsewhere.
I freely admit that I ship Wynn/Mike. How did they meet? Did they go shopping for the RV together, or did Wynn already have it? Which came first, their professional or their personal relationship? What kind of trouble/adventures were they involved in before their employers sent them to Harlan? What unshown lengths did they have to go to while dealing with Quarles? What was the roadtrip (there's no way they would have gone through airport security) to and from Detroit with Boyd and Jimmy like? Do they ever just sit around, drinking and complaining about how much Raylan (or anyone else for that matter) always messes things up for them?
Helen/Arlo is another one of those relationships with a fascinatingly long history, and we were only ever given little glimpses of what things were like pre-canon. I would be interested in seeing anything that fills in some of those blanks. What was their relationship like while Frances was still alive? How did Helen handle being Raylan's step-mother? How much did things change for Helen and Arlo once Raylan was grown up and out of the house? Helen said she liked to maintain deniability when it came to knowledge of Arlo's criminal activities, but how in the dark was she really? Did she ever try to influence Arlo regarding any of his doings to try to keep him from getting into too much trouble?
For Rachel/Tim, I like Rachel, and I like Tim, and I like the idea of the two of them together, as anything from a one-time hookup which they don't plan on repeating but can look back and laugh about it together, to friends with benefits, to a long-term relationship after Rachel's marriage falls apart. How do they balance work and their personal lives? How do they keep from becoming the main subject of office gossip? How do they keep from shooting Raylan? Casefic would be awesome but is not required. The one thing I don't want to see is Rachel and Tim having sex while they're supposed to be on a stakeout, because I think they would both be more professional than that. Instead, I would prefer for them to catch their bad guy and then celebrate with sex afterward.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (fic)
Brisco County, Jr./Dixie Cousins
Lenore Raymond/Lord Bowler
Lord Bowler/Brisco County, Jr./Dixie Cousins
Dixie Cousins/Big Smith/Pete Hutter
Pete Hutter/Aaron Viva
I like how Brisco/Dixie are both strong people, neither of whom is going to abandon their identity/lifestyle to be with the other, but they were making the relationship work anyway. I would be interested in seeing any kind of futurefic for them, either an adventure where they team up or something quiet and domestic, or maybe the letters they wrote to each other while Dixie was in China, or maybe something with canon-typical levels of crack, like Dixie and Brisco's courtship told from Comet's POV.
For Lenore/Bowler, I would love to see backstory expanding upon the brief summary/hints we got about their history together. A missing scene set during canon would be good too. I wouldn't be opposed to futurefic about them either, as long as it doesn't make Lenore give up being mayor or go against her wishes not to be stuck waiting for Bowler while he is gone all the time. Maybe when Bowler finally retires from bounty hunting and starts a vineyard like he had been dreaming about, he does it near Hard Rock.
I would be interested in seeing anything featuring Bowler/Brisco/Dixie as one big happy threesome. It could be established relationship for all three of them, or it could be something that shows how Dixie and Brisco brought Bowler into their romantic orbit, with bonus points if it takes a lot for them to convince him that they're serious. I would prefer a balanced triad instead of Brisco just alternating between Dixie and Bowler. Adventures and/or canon-typical weirdness would be appreciated but are not required.
Dixie/Big/Pete started out as a joke about how Big Smith only kept Pete around because he was pretty, and then it blossomed into a full-on headcanon that I like far too much to bother trying to get rid of. Unlike the other threesomes I have requested, this is one where I would equally happy to see them as a balanced triad or with Big sleeping with both Dixie and Pete while Dixie and Pete don't have much to do with each other. Please show me these three in all their pre-canon criminal glory, whether actively planning or committing a heist of some sort or just trying (and possibly failing) to lie low between jobs. I really like all the potential narrative conflict that could arise from just their contrasting personalities even before you figure in the dangers of their lawless lifestyle. Don't feel obligated to try to make this one seem like a healthy relationship if you don't want to.
For Pete/Aaron, I would be interested in seeing any sort of missing scene from "High Treason 1 & 2" or futurefic. Does Pete try to take advantage of the presidential pardon and make a fresh start or does he go back to his old ways? How does Aaron reconcile his job as a lawman with having a relationship with someone with as much a criminal history as Pete does? Do they go on any more adventures together, either on their own or with the rest of the main cast? Do Pete and Aaron ever get mentioned in the dime novels? Does Pete ever try to get Aaron to be a little more discerning in what he eats? Does Aaron find excuses to touch Pete's Piece as often as he possibly can?
All optional details are optional, and a story that you had fun writing will probably turn out better than one where you had to torture yourself trying to shape it into something against the will of your muse. If you already have an idea that you really want to write for whatever pairing we matched on, then you should go with that. Otherwise, keep reading for some general preferences of mine and some random story prompts.
Some of my likes:
- happy endings
- bittersweet endings
- tragic endings which happen because they are unavoidable, instead of because everyone suddenly turns stupid
- stories that give a good view of a character's thought process
- women who aren't afraid to ask for what they want in bed
- sex which occurs as a natural progression of the plot
- fading to black if the sex would disrupt the flow of the rest of the story
- cuddling
- found families
- creative problem solving
- partnerships of equals (or at least something close)
- characters being at least as competent as they were in canon
- character growth
- people learning from their mistakes (and then sometimes going on to make completely different mistakes)
- people playing to their strengths and acknowledging their weaknesses (at least to themselves, unless that level of self-awareness would be OOC)
- people attempting to communicate with each other even if they don't always succeed
- good-natured verbal sparring/banter
- earned respect
- a sense of place
- situations where what a person doesn't say is just as important as what they do say
- backstory
- missing scenes from canon
- post-canon adventures
- AUs exploring what would have happened if a character made a different decision at some point
- genre-savvy characters
- occasional moral ambiguity
- subverted tropes/clichés
- fictional characters interacting with historical figures
Dislikes:
- porn without plot
- scat/watersports
- intentional sexual humiliation
- rape/non-con/dub-con portrayed in a positive light
- alpha/beta/omega dynamics
- 24/7 lifestyle D/s
And now, on to my fandom/pairing requests:
3:10 to Yuma (2007) (fic)
Alice Evans/Ben Wade
Alice Evans/Dan Evans/Ben Wade
Alice Evans/Dan Evans
Emma Nelson/Ben Wade
For Alice/Ben, I'm a sucker for stories where Ben returns to the Evans ranch post-canon and hooks up with Alice because he both thinks she's hot and feels like he needs to act as a replacement for Dan, so any variation on that theme would be great, especially if it involves other characters not being immediately accepting when they find out about it. Alternatively, I would also be interested in seeing an AU where, for whatever reason, Alice ended up being the one to help take Ben to Contention instead of Dan, and how events spun off on different path because of that. The idea that maybe Alice really did meet Ben in San Francisco before she married Dan could be interesting to see explored too, though I don't really like the theory I've seen suggested saying that this happened and resulted in William being Ben's son instead of Dan's.
My wants for Alice/Dan/Ben are pretty similar to my prompts for Alice/Ben, only this time Dan is participating too. Either Alice can show up at the hotel in Contention like she did in the 1957 version, only with more polyamory, or you can take things more AU by either having Alice accompany Dan and the rest on the journey to Contention from the beginning or by having Dan survive (once again, the 1957 version is good for this, or you could just claim that Dan survived his wounds somehow, or William preemptively shot Charlie, or whatever) and Ben rejoins them on the ranch sometime later. If you write Alice/Dan/Ben, I would prefer to see them as a balanced triad instead of one person alternating between two partners who don't really have anything to do with each other romantically.
For Alice/Dan, I would be interested in seeing a look at their life pre-canon, back before times got quite so desperate for them. There must have been some good times interspersed with the bad. What were they like as young lovers/newly-weds? What was the journey from Boston to Arizona like? How did they handle the complete lifestyle change of going from a major Northeastern city to an isolated ranch ten miles away from a tiny town? How was life on the ranch before the drought started? Did they ever consider having more children after Mark? Or you could do a "Dan survives" AU and explore whether the money from Butterfield (and Dan's newly acquired notoriety for walking Ben Wade to the train) would be enough to change their luck for the better or if it would cause the family a whole new set of problems instead.
For Emma/Ben, I would be interested in seeing what would happen if they ever crossed paths again post-canon. Alternatively, in the commentary track on the DVD, during the part where Ben is asking Emma to jump out the back window with him, James Mangold says that if Emma had said yes instead of laughing it off, then the Ben Wade gang would have broken up right then and there without any bloodshed, and none of the subsequent events of the movie would have happened. It made me want to see an AU where Emma does go "shinning down to Mexico with Ben Wade on her arm," as she put it, instead of just imagining it for a moment. Would life down there really be as easy as Ben suggested, or would other complications (**coughcough**Charlie**cough**) arise?
Justified (fic)
Ava Crowder/Boyd Crowder
Wynn Duffy/Mike
Helen Givens/Arlo Givens
Rachel Brooks/Tim Gutterson
Unfortunately, I happened to miss the last two episodes of season five, and I don't expect to have the opportunity to see them before they come out on DVD, so I would appreciate it if any story you wrote in this fandom did not have any spoilers for them. Sorry. Anything up through episode eleven of season five is fine.
For Ava/Boyd, I find the long and varied history between Ava and Boyd to be fascinating. I would be interested in seeing a story set at any point during their long association, from when they were kids, to during Ava's marriage to Bowman (with bonus points for foreshadowing what Boyd could/would eventually be to Ava once he got a clue and learned how to stop being so creepy), or something set during ay point of canon. I'm especially curious what the two of them got up to during the various breaks between seasons. I would also be interested in seeing an AU in which Ava called bullshit during Boyd's speech in S2 about how the world wanted him to be a criminal, leading the two of them to abandon Harlan and seek their fortune together elsewhere.
I freely admit that I ship Wynn/Mike. How did they meet? Did they go shopping for the RV together, or did Wynn already have it? Which came first, their professional or their personal relationship? What kind of trouble/adventures were they involved in before their employers sent them to Harlan? What unshown lengths did they have to go to while dealing with Quarles? What was the roadtrip (there's no way they would have gone through airport security) to and from Detroit with Boyd and Jimmy like? Do they ever just sit around, drinking and complaining about how much Raylan (or anyone else for that matter) always messes things up for them?
Helen/Arlo is another one of those relationships with a fascinatingly long history, and we were only ever given little glimpses of what things were like pre-canon. I would be interested in seeing anything that fills in some of those blanks. What was their relationship like while Frances was still alive? How did Helen handle being Raylan's step-mother? How much did things change for Helen and Arlo once Raylan was grown up and out of the house? Helen said she liked to maintain deniability when it came to knowledge of Arlo's criminal activities, but how in the dark was she really? Did she ever try to influence Arlo regarding any of his doings to try to keep him from getting into too much trouble?
For Rachel/Tim, I like Rachel, and I like Tim, and I like the idea of the two of them together, as anything from a one-time hookup which they don't plan on repeating but can look back and laugh about it together, to friends with benefits, to a long-term relationship after Rachel's marriage falls apart. How do they balance work and their personal lives? How do they keep from becoming the main subject of office gossip? How do they keep from shooting Raylan? Casefic would be awesome but is not required. The one thing I don't want to see is Rachel and Tim having sex while they're supposed to be on a stakeout, because I think they would both be more professional than that. Instead, I would prefer for them to catch their bad guy and then celebrate with sex afterward.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. (fic)
Brisco County, Jr./Dixie Cousins
Lenore Raymond/Lord Bowler
Lord Bowler/Brisco County, Jr./Dixie Cousins
Dixie Cousins/Big Smith/Pete Hutter
Pete Hutter/Aaron Viva
I like how Brisco/Dixie are both strong people, neither of whom is going to abandon their identity/lifestyle to be with the other, but they were making the relationship work anyway. I would be interested in seeing any kind of futurefic for them, either an adventure where they team up or something quiet and domestic, or maybe the letters they wrote to each other while Dixie was in China, or maybe something with canon-typical levels of crack, like Dixie and Brisco's courtship told from Comet's POV.
For Lenore/Bowler, I would love to see backstory expanding upon the brief summary/hints we got about their history together. A missing scene set during canon would be good too. I wouldn't be opposed to futurefic about them either, as long as it doesn't make Lenore give up being mayor or go against her wishes not to be stuck waiting for Bowler while he is gone all the time. Maybe when Bowler finally retires from bounty hunting and starts a vineyard like he had been dreaming about, he does it near Hard Rock.
I would be interested in seeing anything featuring Bowler/Brisco/Dixie as one big happy threesome. It could be established relationship for all three of them, or it could be something that shows how Dixie and Brisco brought Bowler into their romantic orbit, with bonus points if it takes a lot for them to convince him that they're serious. I would prefer a balanced triad instead of Brisco just alternating between Dixie and Bowler. Adventures and/or canon-typical weirdness would be appreciated but are not required.
Dixie/Big/Pete started out as a joke about how Big Smith only kept Pete around because he was pretty, and then it blossomed into a full-on headcanon that I like far too much to bother trying to get rid of. Unlike the other threesomes I have requested, this is one where I would equally happy to see them as a balanced triad or with Big sleeping with both Dixie and Pete while Dixie and Pete don't have much to do with each other. Please show me these three in all their pre-canon criminal glory, whether actively planning or committing a heist of some sort or just trying (and possibly failing) to lie low between jobs. I really like all the potential narrative conflict that could arise from just their contrasting personalities even before you figure in the dangers of their lawless lifestyle. Don't feel obligated to try to make this one seem like a healthy relationship if you don't want to.
For Pete/Aaron, I would be interested in seeing any sort of missing scene from "High Treason 1 & 2" or futurefic. Does Pete try to take advantage of the presidential pardon and make a fresh start or does he go back to his old ways? How does Aaron reconcile his job as a lawman with having a relationship with someone with as much a criminal history as Pete does? Do they go on any more adventures together, either on their own or with the rest of the main cast? Do Pete and Aaron ever get mentioned in the dime novels? Does Pete ever try to get Aaron to be a little more discerning in what he eats? Does Aaron find excuses to touch Pete's Piece as often as he possibly can?