Trick or Treat Letter 2018
Dear Trick or Treater,
Thank you so much for writing/drawing one of these fandoms! I love all the characters requested here, so if you already have something in mind and want to go ahead and write or draw that, I’m really open for anywhere you’d like to go with them. But as always, I love getting a chance to flail about the things I’ve requested, so if you’d like a non-exhaustive guide to what I love about these characters and some of the things I’d like to see in fic or art, here is my letter. I really hope there’s something here that inspires you, and that you have an amazing exchange (and Halloween)!
General
General Likes: fic and art of all ratings, all POVs/tenses, characters from everywhere on the moral spectrum, fairytale vibes, supernatural elements, introspection and character studies, distinctive settings and worldbuilding, mythology, literary references and allusions, symbolism, characters going to hell and back for each other (literally or figuratively), hidden depths and dimensions (as both a character thing and a worldbuilding thing), love stories of all kinds, slow burns and slow builds, little details, hopeful endings (even for unconventional values of hopeful).
Smut Likes: first times, oral sex (especially cunnilingus and face-sitting), dirty talk and dialogue, bondage, non-lifestyle D/s, blindfolds, sensation play, holding hands during sex, wrists pinned to things, ordinarily restrained or composed characters getting wrecked, intimacy, vulnerability, emotional intensity of all kinds, touch starvation, edging, body worship, kissing, lingerie and other beautiful clothes, slow undressing scenes.
DNWs: non-canon character death, rape/noncon as the main focus (although references to canon events are fine), pregnancy/kidfic, explicit content for characters under 16, omegaverse, onscreen animal harm, ace/aro/trans/non-binary headcanons, humiliation kink, maiming/torture/mutilation of requested characters.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Lucille Sharpe
I love Lucille as the dark heart of Crimson Peak -- her grandeur and her vulnerability, her slight feralness under her very gothic aristocracy, her morbidity and her rage. Any kind of character study would be incredible, in fic or art.
Solo Prompts:• Trick or Treat: Anything about Lucille in Edinburgh, Paris or Milan. A travelogue fic or snippet about what it was like for her on any of the wife hunts. Art of her in the sun or in the middle of some ancient ruins in Milan or in the Paris catacombs (or anywhere else you'd like to take her!). Did she ever have a moment of happiness outside of Allerdale, however fleeting, or was it always straight-up horrific for her to be out in society?
• Trick: Lucille as a ghost. I'd love to see art of her ghost at her piano, or out in the snow, or anywhere else in Allerdale Hall, or any post-movie fic that explores her afterlife and how she spends it. Does it feel any different to her, to be dead? Is it a kind of peace for her to be part of the house that way?
• Treat: Any little scene of Lucille carving out a sanctuary for herself at Allerdale Hall. A drabble sequence about the things she hoards in the attic? Art of her writing by candlelight or taking a bath with her hair down over the edge of the tub? A character study about what it was like for her to come home after so long in the asylum?
• Trick: Lucille and the hauntedness of Allerdale Hall. Could she see ghosts anywhere before the murders? What kind of encounters did she have with the ghosts before she died herself? I'd love any kind of claustrophobic, intimate take on what it means to be haunted for Lucille, or any kind of art that touches on that -- maybe Lucille surrounded by red ghosts while she's in her own red ballgown?
• Treat: I love all the "likes" Guillermo del Toro mentioned in his original character biography for Lucille (https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/834653958861967360/), so if you'd like to do anything based around any of them in fic or art, that would be amazing (especially love: good tobacco, sunlight on her skin on a cold autumn day, scones with jam, a good fire on a winter's night).
Optional Ships:
• Edith/Lucille: I love all the morbid attraction between these two, the contrasts between them with Edith as the butterfly to Lucille's formidable black moth and how much they're each drawn to the dark or the light embodied by the other. All the delicate touches and feverish confrontations they have throughout the movie are very iddy to me, and I'd love to see anything for them in fic or art.Treats: Fic or art for any moment at Allerdale Hall where Lucille indulges her taste for the romantic -- hair-brushing or hair-braiding, kisses, fierce hand-holding. Anything based on their "beautiful things are fragile" conversation about moths and butterflies that explores Lucille's attraction to Edith's light and beauty, or Edith's attraction to dark things -- is Edith's presence ever comforting to her in Allerdale Hall, or does Edith's fascination with her make her think of herself in a different light? Any scene from Buffalo where Lucille's courting Edith just as much as Thomas -- maybe fic or art of them together at a park, or a museum, or a garden party?
Tricks: Anything post-movie with Lucille's ghost -- art of them together (maybe with Edith in her gold dress, to contrast against Lucille?), or fic about Edith returning to Allerdale Hall. Fic or art for an AU where Edith died in their final confrontation and haunts Lucille (eta: as a totally welcome exception to my non-canon character death DNW!). Fic for an AU where they both survive the movie that explores how their relationship changes when they know how brutal they can get. Art inspired by the death-and-the-maiden archetype.
• Lucille/Thomas, Edith/Lucille/Thomas: I don't have as many individual prompts for Lucille/Thomas and Edith/Lucille/Thomas, but I wanted to put it out there that I love those ships as well and would be totally happy to see anything with them, if you'd like to go there -- I love Thomas and Lucille's whole clinging love for each other, and all the ways they could triangulate around Edith, so any take on them would also be incredible. Treats: A Lucille/Thomas take on any of my treat prompts for Lucille. A scene with Thomas and Lucille dancing together. An AU where all the Sharpes left Allerdale Hall together. Bed-sharing scenes. Any Edith/Lucille/Thomas fic that focuses on the strangeness of Lucille having two people in her life.
Tricks: Lucille and Thomas as ghosts. Fic or art that touches on how Lucille and Thomas end up torn apart as Thomas is drawn away from Allerdale Hall -- maybe fic set during the wife hunts, or art with Lucille in the shadows of Allerdale Hall, reaching for Thomas in the light?
Penny Dreadful (TV)
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Hecate Poole
Hecate just makes me hurt inside in the best possible way: the cold porcelain pragmatism of her violence, her hunger and ambition and her moments of wistfulness. I’d love to see anything that celebrates her in all her fucked-up witchy contrariness.
Solo Prompts:• Trick: Anything about Hecate coming into her own as a witch, pre-series. I'd love to see art of her working in the doll room or performing some kind ritual, or fic that explores her relationship to her powers and her evolution as a nightcomer, growing up as Evelyn's daughter and all the deeply fucked-up ways this shaped her feelings about her place in the universe.
• Trick: Anything that touches on the duality of Hecate as a nightcomer and as someone who could have been (and sometimes needs to pass as) a human girl. Art that contrasts the scarred witch with her human face (maybe a mirror scene?), or fic that explores how what she feels when she tries to present herself as a plausible nineteenth-century woman -- how often does she go out in the world, and does it feel totally alien to her, or does she ever wish she had this life for real?
• Trick: Hecate and the afterlife. Where is she now, and what's she doing? If she's in hell, like she said, does this become a place of empowerment for her, or is she looking for a way out? Any kind of fic would be wonderful, and I’d also love art of Hecate in the underworld -- maybe something with her looking defiant in her nightcomer form, or Hecate as her own Orpheus, leading herself out of hell?
• Treat: Hecate and animals! I loved her scene with Ethan and the horses, and any fic or art that builds on "I adore all the honest creatures of this world" would be amazing. Hecate with her steeplechase horses, or having a moment with an alley cat, or visiting the Natural History Museum? Art of a very witchy snake-wrapped Hecate, or a missing scene from s3 with her charming a fox or a mountain lion in America? (I'd prefer no visual representations of spiders, but otherwise, go wild!)
• Treat: Any kind of Hecate Lives AU. Art of what Hecate would wear if she was alive for the twentieth century (maybe as a flapper witch?) or fic about her coming into her own as a witch for a new world? Fic where she comes back from America with Ethan and gets recruited to Team Grandage Place?
Optional Ships:
• Ethan/Hecate: I've loved Ethan and Hecate together ever since "I think those brigands better watch out for you, Hecate Aphrodite Livingstone," and then they got the s3 road trip! I love how much they came to care for each other even as part of a tempted-to-the-dark-side storyline, and I'd love to see more of them together any way at all. I love the monster-to-monster side of their courtship and all the unexpected tenderness/protection/loyalty kink moments that came along with that, so any take on them would be incredible. Tricks: Post-canon fic or art where Hecate is resurrected, or reaches out from the afterlife, or where Ethan derails his adventures with Malcolm to march down to hell and rescue her from the master she never truly got to choose. Scenes from an AU where Hecate does get to rule the darkness with Ethan as Lupus Dei. Blood-smeared kisses, or art of them together as a nightcomer and a werewolf.
Treats: Cavesex or the cavesex aftermath (I've also written more smut prompts for them in my Smut Swap letter, if you'd like to check that out). A gentle moment in the desert. More scenes with Ethan brushing dirt off Hecate. Art of Hecate with her head tucked under Ethan's chin, or getting carried around bridal style. Anything for a Hecate Lives AU -- futurefic or art where get a ranch together?
• Hecate/Vanessa: Witchy almost-stepsisters caught in a cosmic war! I loved their hallucinatory ballroom encounter in s2, and Hecate kissing Vanessa, and would love anything that taps into their femslash potential a little more. An AU where Hecate was Vanessa's honeytrap? Or where Evelyn and Malcolm stayed together a little longer and they became stepsisters for real? Hecate breaking away from Evelyn and Lucifer and trying to carve out a new grey witch identity with the help of Vanessa? Anything post-canon where Hecate and Vanessa may be dead, but they're not done with each other? Treats: Enemies-to-allies-to-lovers fic would be incredible, and so would any kind of art based around the kind of enemies-to-allies arc they might have. Hecate coming up against Vanessa’s relentless compassion for all the beautiful monsters of the world? Hair-stroking? Body worship? A very intense closer-than-sisters embrace? Becoming protective towards each other?
Tricks: Any kind of post-s3 encounters in the afterlife -- maybe a sketch or a snippet of a moment where they break through the boundaries between heaven and hell to meet again? Fic or art for a slightly canon divergent take on Dorian’s ball where they end up dancing with each other in the blood. Anything where they do magic together, or where Hecate tries to recruit Vanessa as a nightcomer. Really visceral witch sex.
Twin Peaks
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Audrey Horne
Audrey breaks my heart with her dreaminess and her yearning, and all the ways her radiance and her warmth makes a case for the positive side of fire. I'd love to see anything that explores her place in the universe.
Solo Prompts:• Treat: Literally any little scene where Audrey does something she loves -- as a high school girl, or between seasons, or post-s3. Art of her putting her records on, or smoking a cigarette at her window or under the stars? Having the most perfect martini of her life after she breaks free in s3?
• Trick or Treat: Audrey reads as very "was mostly raised by the old movie channel" to me, and I'd love to maybe see fic about that, her influences and idols and what inspires her -- a five things/drabble sequence about things Audrey learned from film noir (or pulp novels)? Or a movie poster/pulp novel cover-style portrait of Audrey?
• Treat: Audrey making friends with any of the other card girls at One-Eyed Jack's -- sharing cigarettes, teaching someone the cherry stem trick, some relatively successful investigation hijinks.
• Trick: Any take on Audrey and the supernatural. I love the parallels between One-Eyed Jack's and the Black Lodge, and I'd love fic or art for Audrey having a supernatural experience while she was there -- visiting the Black Lodge in dreams or while she was drugged, maybe even timeline fuckery where she meets her older s3 self while she's between worlds? Anything about Audrey in the Black Lodge during her s3 storyline, learning more about the dark, mystic side of the world and her place in it (is Charlie another face for the Arm?). I'd also love anything that explored her dreaminess as it relates to the mystic side of the show -- fic or art of Audrey having an out-of-body experience while she's dancing? Something that links Audrey to what Hawk says about dream souls, and the places they wander?
• Treat: Anything that celebrates all the resilience that got Audrey through to the Roadhouse scene in s3. I loved her Roadhouse dance and the way she gets free from at least one level of what's hurting her because she's still the Audrey we saw in s1/s2, and I'd love any kind of fic or art that shows moments of Audrey fighting to live on her own terms between seasons or post-s3. If you'd like to incorporate her file in The Final Dossier, I'd love anything about her running the salon (and maybe getting closer to Norma as the two most apocalyptically lonely small business owners in Washington?). Or maybe some kind of one-and-the-same portrait art that parallels an older Audrey with the Audrey of s1/s2?
Optional Ships:
• Audrey/Cooper: I loved them right from "I imagine you can sit anywhere you'd like," and their whole relationship captures so much of what I love about this show in microcosm: the way they spark off each other as retro misfits who suddenly make sense in their mutual strangeness, and how effortlessly noir and old Hollywood romance melts into the romance of the everyday when they're together. I love their intensity and affection, all the wonderful things they see in each other and how much they miss each other over a separation of two days or twenty-five years, and I always want to see more of them from any era of the show -- AUs that bring them together in s1/s2, or encounters between seasons, or the post-canon hurt/comfort they both totally deserve. Tricks: Fic or art for any encounters they might have had between seasons or around s3 -- meeting in dreams over the years, or anything where Audrey was at least partially trapped in the Black Lodge for her s3 storyline. Rescuing each other from the Black Lodge/alternate universes (maybe through something that plays with the whole occultism theme of the Lodge with a romantic take on "love is the law, love under will"?). Giants bring them together again. Anything that riffs on the Lynchian fairytale vibes that some of their scenes have, like the One-Eyed Jack's rescue.
Treats: Any kind of unabashedly romantic art for them or fic for small romantic scenes -- kisses, face-touching, slow dancing, undressing each other. Pillow talk. Date nights. Any kind of post-canon reunion -- art of them sharing their first kiss in the real world after twenty-five years, or fic of them fervently making up for lost time with lots of mutual hurt/comfort. Post-canon road trips or scenes from an AU where they left Twin Peaks together in s2. All the smut -- first times, loss of virginity, kink exploration, reunion sex (more smut prompts in this letter, too).
• Audrey/Laura: I feel like Audrey wouldn't say she sort of loved Laura unless she meant it, and I love all the loaded negative space around their relationship -- "I understood her better than the rest," the shivery way Audrey feels when she thinks about Laura at One-Eyed Jack's. I'm also fascinated by the little hints of Laura's perspective on Audrey that we get in secondary canon like The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, especially the scene where she tries on Maddy's clothes and likes things that make her look like Audrey. Anything that focuses on their relationship would be incredible - pre-series, or set between s2 and s3, or post-s3 reunions. Treats: Fic or art exploring any time they genuinely manage to connect with each other or look out for each other -- listening to records together, dancing in Ben's office, snowy ski holiday kisses, or moments where Laura was drawn into Audrey's world as a respite from her double life. Anything for an AU where Laura never died -- would they have got closer after high school, as runaways, or college students, or just as two women still stuck in Twin Peaks?
Tricks: Any supernatural encounter after Laura's death. Laura on the fringes of Audrey’s s3 storyline. Fic or art of Laura visiting Audrey in her coma, or the two of them in the Black Lodge together. An AU where Laura took Audrey to the Pink Room. I'd also be interested in anything that explores the more jagged side of their relationship -- does Laura deliberately cultivate Audrey's resentment because it's a relief to her to feel like somebody hates her?
• Audrey/Cooper/Laura: Something I really love about s1 is how it plays with Audrey and Laura as two different embodiments of the woman of Cooper's dreams, the weirdness that comes from Cooper and Audrey meeting each other through Laura's death and how all three of them have so many tangled connections to each other. Although obviously there are issues with getting everyone alive and in the same universe at the same time, I'd really love to see any kind of OT3 take on them all together -- in dreams, in the Black Lodge, or post-s3 with the whole universe split wide open around them. Tricks: Any kind of three-way encounter set in any of the show's otherworlds -- more kisses in the Black Lodge, or scratchy records and evening dresses and threesomes in a giant-sized four-poster bed at the Fireman's, or even some kind of White Lodge encounter. Audrey wakes up in the Odessa universe. Fic where trippy world-turned-upside-down threesomes somehow save the world from Judy.
Treats: Anything where Cooper finally brings Laura home and they're both reunited with Audrey would be really beautiful -- fic or art of their first meeting? A bed-sharing scene? All three of them on the road or celebrating their homecomings in Twin Peaks? A smut take on a treat would also be amazing (and I wrote some prompts for it in my Smut Swap letter here). I'm always here for a sweeter take on any of the trick possibilities too -- a Black Lodge interlude that was a rare moment of happiness for all of them, or everyone learning to live again in the Odessa universe?
Laura Palmer
I love Laura in all her bright-dark complexity, with her light and her courage and self-annihilation all bound up together, and I’d love to see more of her: moments from her pre-series life, or her afterlives, or her alternate lives.
Solo Prompts:• Trick: Laura in the Black Lodge. I'd love any fic about Laura in the Black Lodge with a focus on her perspective -- the way she bridges the living, dreaming Laura and the dead Laura and the Laura who is alive as Carrie Page, "sometimes my arms bend back" and whether she's haunted by a death that should have been but never was, her identity issues, what it means for her to be a "cousin" of a Lodge entity. I also love the entire noir chic aesthetic of Laura in the Black Lodge, and would love to see art for it -- maybe a portrait of Laura with one of the Venus statues?
• Treat: Laura and the positive/neutral side of the Twin Peaks mythology. I'd love anything based on the scene with her angel in Fire Walk with Me -- art of her ascending in her Black Lodge dress, or a fic that explores what transcendence feels like to her? I'd also love to see anything that brings her together with the Fireman and Senorita Dido or explores their relationship to Laura as supernatural sort-of parents -- art of Laura in the Fireman's auditorium, or getting a homecoming kiss from Senorita Dido, or any kind of fic that looks at Laura learning more about the supernatural side of her existence and her place in the universe?
• Trick or Treat: Laura in the woods or in the mountains. I'd love to see fic or art that focuses on her connection to Twin Peaks as a place: the lakes, and trees, and mountains, and mist. A dark, twisty forest scene, or art of Laura at the entrance to the Black Lodge? Fic or art of a time Laura was alone in the mountains? Art of Laura sitting or sleeping peacefully under a tree, or maybe a fic that looks at different things the natural world around Twin Peaks has meant to her at different points in her life (or afterlife)?
• Trick: Laura's life as Carrie Page. Art of Carrie out in the bleak, flat desert, or riding a white horse. Anything about Laura (or a version of Laura) trying to build a life in Odessa with all the southern gothic vibes, or anything that explores her ongoing connections to the supernatural world -- what is it like to work at Judy's? Fic that looks at how she originally came to be Carrie, or a post-canon character study that explores how her life as Carrie has changed Laura, after her awakening in s3.
Optional Ships:
• Audrey/Laura, Audrey/Cooper/Laura: As above. :D
• Annie/Laura: I love Laura's dream in Fire Walk with Me, I love it when Annie gets to do spooky things, and then Annie's alternate backstory in The Final Dossier made me really want to see some Annie/Laura: the longing for angels, the overlapping traumas, the possibility of them finding a balance between peace and worldliness together. I'd love anything set in an AU where Laura was still alive when Annie left the convent, or any take on the Laura side of "I've been with Dale and Laura," or any encounters they've had based on the Final Dossier take on Annie's life after s2. Treats: Annie and Laura meeting at the Double R, or low-key falling in love while they're doing a Meals on Wheels route together. Laura showing Annie around town and looking out for her while she readjusts to life outside the convent. First times. Any scene of them in the woods together. Getting each other to smile.
Tricks: Fic or art of Annie meeting Laura in the Black Lodge after Miss Twin Peaks. Recognising each other as survivors or dealing with their trauma together. Anything that has Annie picking up on the more supernatural/messianic side of Laura. The Final Dossier's Annie living between worlds and meeting Laura again somewhere. Fic or art that explores their journeys from (homecoming or pageant) queens to supernatural martyrs.
• Cooper/Laura: I love all the ways Laura and Cooper reach out to each other, the way their connection runs through everything and the way they're practically a full-on myth of devotion by the time Cooper tries to undo her death two decades after the fact. Also, how are they so good at kissing. I love them as a weird, sad, Orpheus-and-Eurydice kind of love story, and it would be incredible to see more fic or art for them -- especially anything that focuses on their Black Lodge encounters, or what could happen between them after s3. Tricks: Anything that riffs on the Orphic side of their relationship -- maybe a doomed love take on them with Cooper restoring Laura's death for her at her choice/giving her to her angel after s3? More encounters in the Black Lodge between seasons. Sex in the Black Lodge, or post-s3 sex that builds on the slight femdom vibes their reunion kiss had and the yieldingness it brought out in Cooper (more smut prompts here, if you'd like to do a trick/treat along those lines). Soulbonds.
Treats: A kiss in the Odessa universe. Any kind of bed-sharing scene -- asleep in the back of a car or in a hotel/motel room after s3? Fic or art of any time Laura gets Cooper to loosen up a little. All the hand-holding. Laura coming to terms with exactly how much Cooper sees her as someone worth saving. Anything that explores how different Laura's kisses with Cooper are to any of her other kisses that we see.
Thank you so much for writing/drawing one of these fandoms! I love all the characters requested here, so if you already have something in mind and want to go ahead and write or draw that, I’m really open for anywhere you’d like to go with them. But as always, I love getting a chance to flail about the things I’ve requested, so if you’d like a non-exhaustive guide to what I love about these characters and some of the things I’d like to see in fic or art, here is my letter. I really hope there’s something here that inspires you, and that you have an amazing exchange (and Halloween)!
General
General Likes: fic and art of all ratings, all POVs/tenses, characters from everywhere on the moral spectrum, fairytale vibes, supernatural elements, introspection and character studies, distinctive settings and worldbuilding, mythology, literary references and allusions, symbolism, characters going to hell and back for each other (literally or figuratively), hidden depths and dimensions (as both a character thing and a worldbuilding thing), love stories of all kinds, slow burns and slow builds, little details, hopeful endings (even for unconventional values of hopeful).
Smut Likes: first times, oral sex (especially cunnilingus and face-sitting), dirty talk and dialogue, bondage, non-lifestyle D/s, blindfolds, sensation play, holding hands during sex, wrists pinned to things, ordinarily restrained or composed characters getting wrecked, intimacy, vulnerability, emotional intensity of all kinds, touch starvation, edging, body worship, kissing, lingerie and other beautiful clothes, slow undressing scenes.
DNWs: non-canon character death, rape/noncon as the main focus (although references to canon events are fine), pregnancy/kidfic, explicit content for characters under 16, omegaverse, onscreen animal harm, ace/aro/trans/non-binary headcanons, humiliation kink, maiming/torture/mutilation of requested characters.
Crimson Peak (2015)
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Lucille Sharpe
I love Lucille as the dark heart of Crimson Peak -- her grandeur and her vulnerability, her slight feralness under her very gothic aristocracy, her morbidity and her rage. Any kind of character study would be incredible, in fic or art.
Solo Prompts:• Trick or Treat: Anything about Lucille in Edinburgh, Paris or Milan. A travelogue fic or snippet about what it was like for her on any of the wife hunts. Art of her in the sun or in the middle of some ancient ruins in Milan or in the Paris catacombs (or anywhere else you'd like to take her!). Did she ever have a moment of happiness outside of Allerdale, however fleeting, or was it always straight-up horrific for her to be out in society?
• Trick: Lucille as a ghost. I'd love to see art of her ghost at her piano, or out in the snow, or anywhere else in Allerdale Hall, or any post-movie fic that explores her afterlife and how she spends it. Does it feel any different to her, to be dead? Is it a kind of peace for her to be part of the house that way?
• Treat: Any little scene of Lucille carving out a sanctuary for herself at Allerdale Hall. A drabble sequence about the things she hoards in the attic? Art of her writing by candlelight or taking a bath with her hair down over the edge of the tub? A character study about what it was like for her to come home after so long in the asylum?
• Trick: Lucille and the hauntedness of Allerdale Hall. Could she see ghosts anywhere before the murders? What kind of encounters did she have with the ghosts before she died herself? I'd love any kind of claustrophobic, intimate take on what it means to be haunted for Lucille, or any kind of art that touches on that -- maybe Lucille surrounded by red ghosts while she's in her own red ballgown?
• Treat: I love all the "likes" Guillermo del Toro mentioned in his original character biography for Lucille (https://twitter.com/RealGDT/status/834653958861967360/), so if you'd like to do anything based around any of them in fic or art, that would be amazing (especially love: good tobacco, sunlight on her skin on a cold autumn day, scones with jam, a good fire on a winter's night).
Optional Ships:
• Edith/Lucille: I love all the morbid attraction between these two, the contrasts between them with Edith as the butterfly to Lucille's formidable black moth and how much they're each drawn to the dark or the light embodied by the other. All the delicate touches and feverish confrontations they have throughout the movie are very iddy to me, and I'd love to see anything for them in fic or art.Treats: Fic or art for any moment at Allerdale Hall where Lucille indulges her taste for the romantic -- hair-brushing or hair-braiding, kisses, fierce hand-holding. Anything based on their "beautiful things are fragile" conversation about moths and butterflies that explores Lucille's attraction to Edith's light and beauty, or Edith's attraction to dark things -- is Edith's presence ever comforting to her in Allerdale Hall, or does Edith's fascination with her make her think of herself in a different light? Any scene from Buffalo where Lucille's courting Edith just as much as Thomas -- maybe fic or art of them together at a park, or a museum, or a garden party?
Tricks: Anything post-movie with Lucille's ghost -- art of them together (maybe with Edith in her gold dress, to contrast against Lucille?), or fic about Edith returning to Allerdale Hall. Fic or art for an AU where Edith died in their final confrontation and haunts Lucille (eta: as a totally welcome exception to my non-canon character death DNW!). Fic for an AU where they both survive the movie that explores how their relationship changes when they know how brutal they can get. Art inspired by the death-and-the-maiden archetype.
• Lucille/Thomas, Edith/Lucille/Thomas: I don't have as many individual prompts for Lucille/Thomas and Edith/Lucille/Thomas, but I wanted to put it out there that I love those ships as well and would be totally happy to see anything with them, if you'd like to go there -- I love Thomas and Lucille's whole clinging love for each other, and all the ways they could triangulate around Edith, so any take on them would also be incredible. Treats: A Lucille/Thomas take on any of my treat prompts for Lucille. A scene with Thomas and Lucille dancing together. An AU where all the Sharpes left Allerdale Hall together. Bed-sharing scenes. Any Edith/Lucille/Thomas fic that focuses on the strangeness of Lucille having two people in her life.
Tricks: Lucille and Thomas as ghosts. Fic or art that touches on how Lucille and Thomas end up torn apart as Thomas is drawn away from Allerdale Hall -- maybe fic set during the wife hunts, or art with Lucille in the shadows of Allerdale Hall, reaching for Thomas in the light?
Penny Dreadful (TV)
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Hecate Poole
Hecate just makes me hurt inside in the best possible way: the cold porcelain pragmatism of her violence, her hunger and ambition and her moments of wistfulness. I’d love to see anything that celebrates her in all her fucked-up witchy contrariness.
Solo Prompts:• Trick: Anything about Hecate coming into her own as a witch, pre-series. I'd love to see art of her working in the doll room or performing some kind ritual, or fic that explores her relationship to her powers and her evolution as a nightcomer, growing up as Evelyn's daughter and all the deeply fucked-up ways this shaped her feelings about her place in the universe.
• Trick: Anything that touches on the duality of Hecate as a nightcomer and as someone who could have been (and sometimes needs to pass as) a human girl. Art that contrasts the scarred witch with her human face (maybe a mirror scene?), or fic that explores how what she feels when she tries to present herself as a plausible nineteenth-century woman -- how often does she go out in the world, and does it feel totally alien to her, or does she ever wish she had this life for real?
• Trick: Hecate and the afterlife. Where is she now, and what's she doing? If she's in hell, like she said, does this become a place of empowerment for her, or is she looking for a way out? Any kind of fic would be wonderful, and I’d also love art of Hecate in the underworld -- maybe something with her looking defiant in her nightcomer form, or Hecate as her own Orpheus, leading herself out of hell?
• Treat: Hecate and animals! I loved her scene with Ethan and the horses, and any fic or art that builds on "I adore all the honest creatures of this world" would be amazing. Hecate with her steeplechase horses, or having a moment with an alley cat, or visiting the Natural History Museum? Art of a very witchy snake-wrapped Hecate, or a missing scene from s3 with her charming a fox or a mountain lion in America? (I'd prefer no visual representations of spiders, but otherwise, go wild!)
• Treat: Any kind of Hecate Lives AU. Art of what Hecate would wear if she was alive for the twentieth century (maybe as a flapper witch?) or fic about her coming into her own as a witch for a new world? Fic where she comes back from America with Ethan and gets recruited to Team Grandage Place?
Optional Ships:
• Ethan/Hecate: I've loved Ethan and Hecate together ever since "I think those brigands better watch out for you, Hecate Aphrodite Livingstone," and then they got the s3 road trip! I love how much they came to care for each other even as part of a tempted-to-the-dark-side storyline, and I'd love to see more of them together any way at all. I love the monster-to-monster side of their courtship and all the unexpected tenderness/protection/loyalty kink moments that came along with that, so any take on them would be incredible. Tricks: Post-canon fic or art where Hecate is resurrected, or reaches out from the afterlife, or where Ethan derails his adventures with Malcolm to march down to hell and rescue her from the master she never truly got to choose. Scenes from an AU where Hecate does get to rule the darkness with Ethan as Lupus Dei. Blood-smeared kisses, or art of them together as a nightcomer and a werewolf.
Treats: Cavesex or the cavesex aftermath (I've also written more smut prompts for them in my Smut Swap letter, if you'd like to check that out). A gentle moment in the desert. More scenes with Ethan brushing dirt off Hecate. Art of Hecate with her head tucked under Ethan's chin, or getting carried around bridal style. Anything for a Hecate Lives AU -- futurefic or art where get a ranch together?
• Hecate/Vanessa: Witchy almost-stepsisters caught in a cosmic war! I loved their hallucinatory ballroom encounter in s2, and Hecate kissing Vanessa, and would love anything that taps into their femslash potential a little more. An AU where Hecate was Vanessa's honeytrap? Or where Evelyn and Malcolm stayed together a little longer and they became stepsisters for real? Hecate breaking away from Evelyn and Lucifer and trying to carve out a new grey witch identity with the help of Vanessa? Anything post-canon where Hecate and Vanessa may be dead, but they're not done with each other? Treats: Enemies-to-allies-to-lovers fic would be incredible, and so would any kind of art based around the kind of enemies-to-allies arc they might have. Hecate coming up against Vanessa’s relentless compassion for all the beautiful monsters of the world? Hair-stroking? Body worship? A very intense closer-than-sisters embrace? Becoming protective towards each other?
Tricks: Any kind of post-s3 encounters in the afterlife -- maybe a sketch or a snippet of a moment where they break through the boundaries between heaven and hell to meet again? Fic or art for a slightly canon divergent take on Dorian’s ball where they end up dancing with each other in the blood. Anything where they do magic together, or where Hecate tries to recruit Vanessa as a nightcomer. Really visceral witch sex.
Twin Peaks
Trick, Treat, Fanfic, Fanart
Audrey Horne
Audrey breaks my heart with her dreaminess and her yearning, and all the ways her radiance and her warmth makes a case for the positive side of fire. I'd love to see anything that explores her place in the universe.
Solo Prompts:• Treat: Literally any little scene where Audrey does something she loves -- as a high school girl, or between seasons, or post-s3. Art of her putting her records on, or smoking a cigarette at her window or under the stars? Having the most perfect martini of her life after she breaks free in s3?
• Trick or Treat: Audrey reads as very "was mostly raised by the old movie channel" to me, and I'd love to maybe see fic about that, her influences and idols and what inspires her -- a five things/drabble sequence about things Audrey learned from film noir (or pulp novels)? Or a movie poster/pulp novel cover-style portrait of Audrey?
• Treat: Audrey making friends with any of the other card girls at One-Eyed Jack's -- sharing cigarettes, teaching someone the cherry stem trick, some relatively successful investigation hijinks.
• Trick: Any take on Audrey and the supernatural. I love the parallels between One-Eyed Jack's and the Black Lodge, and I'd love fic or art for Audrey having a supernatural experience while she was there -- visiting the Black Lodge in dreams or while she was drugged, maybe even timeline fuckery where she meets her older s3 self while she's between worlds? Anything about Audrey in the Black Lodge during her s3 storyline, learning more about the dark, mystic side of the world and her place in it (is Charlie another face for the Arm?). I'd also love anything that explored her dreaminess as it relates to the mystic side of the show -- fic or art of Audrey having an out-of-body experience while she's dancing? Something that links Audrey to what Hawk says about dream souls, and the places they wander?
• Treat: Anything that celebrates all the resilience that got Audrey through to the Roadhouse scene in s3. I loved her Roadhouse dance and the way she gets free from at least one level of what's hurting her because she's still the Audrey we saw in s1/s2, and I'd love any kind of fic or art that shows moments of Audrey fighting to live on her own terms between seasons or post-s3. If you'd like to incorporate her file in The Final Dossier, I'd love anything about her running the salon (and maybe getting closer to Norma as the two most apocalyptically lonely small business owners in Washington?). Or maybe some kind of one-and-the-same portrait art that parallels an older Audrey with the Audrey of s1/s2?
Optional Ships:
• Audrey/Cooper: I loved them right from "I imagine you can sit anywhere you'd like," and their whole relationship captures so much of what I love about this show in microcosm: the way they spark off each other as retro misfits who suddenly make sense in their mutual strangeness, and how effortlessly noir and old Hollywood romance melts into the romance of the everyday when they're together. I love their intensity and affection, all the wonderful things they see in each other and how much they miss each other over a separation of two days or twenty-five years, and I always want to see more of them from any era of the show -- AUs that bring them together in s1/s2, or encounters between seasons, or the post-canon hurt/comfort they both totally deserve. Tricks: Fic or art for any encounters they might have had between seasons or around s3 -- meeting in dreams over the years, or anything where Audrey was at least partially trapped in the Black Lodge for her s3 storyline. Rescuing each other from the Black Lodge/alternate universes (maybe through something that plays with the whole occultism theme of the Lodge with a romantic take on "love is the law, love under will"?). Giants bring them together again. Anything that riffs on the Lynchian fairytale vibes that some of their scenes have, like the One-Eyed Jack's rescue.
Treats: Any kind of unabashedly romantic art for them or fic for small romantic scenes -- kisses, face-touching, slow dancing, undressing each other. Pillow talk. Date nights. Any kind of post-canon reunion -- art of them sharing their first kiss in the real world after twenty-five years, or fic of them fervently making up for lost time with lots of mutual hurt/comfort. Post-canon road trips or scenes from an AU where they left Twin Peaks together in s2. All the smut -- first times, loss of virginity, kink exploration, reunion sex (more smut prompts in this letter, too).
• Audrey/Laura: I feel like Audrey wouldn't say she sort of loved Laura unless she meant it, and I love all the loaded negative space around their relationship -- "I understood her better than the rest," the shivery way Audrey feels when she thinks about Laura at One-Eyed Jack's. I'm also fascinated by the little hints of Laura's perspective on Audrey that we get in secondary canon like The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, especially the scene where she tries on Maddy's clothes and likes things that make her look like Audrey. Anything that focuses on their relationship would be incredible - pre-series, or set between s2 and s3, or post-s3 reunions. Treats: Fic or art exploring any time they genuinely manage to connect with each other or look out for each other -- listening to records together, dancing in Ben's office, snowy ski holiday kisses, or moments where Laura was drawn into Audrey's world as a respite from her double life. Anything for an AU where Laura never died -- would they have got closer after high school, as runaways, or college students, or just as two women still stuck in Twin Peaks?
Tricks: Any supernatural encounter after Laura's death. Laura on the fringes of Audrey’s s3 storyline. Fic or art of Laura visiting Audrey in her coma, or the two of them in the Black Lodge together. An AU where Laura took Audrey to the Pink Room. I'd also be interested in anything that explores the more jagged side of their relationship -- does Laura deliberately cultivate Audrey's resentment because it's a relief to her to feel like somebody hates her?
• Audrey/Cooper/Laura: Something I really love about s1 is how it plays with Audrey and Laura as two different embodiments of the woman of Cooper's dreams, the weirdness that comes from Cooper and Audrey meeting each other through Laura's death and how all three of them have so many tangled connections to each other. Although obviously there are issues with getting everyone alive and in the same universe at the same time, I'd really love to see any kind of OT3 take on them all together -- in dreams, in the Black Lodge, or post-s3 with the whole universe split wide open around them. Tricks: Any kind of three-way encounter set in any of the show's otherworlds -- more kisses in the Black Lodge, or scratchy records and evening dresses and threesomes in a giant-sized four-poster bed at the Fireman's, or even some kind of White Lodge encounter. Audrey wakes up in the Odessa universe. Fic where trippy world-turned-upside-down threesomes somehow save the world from Judy.
Treats: Anything where Cooper finally brings Laura home and they're both reunited with Audrey would be really beautiful -- fic or art of their first meeting? A bed-sharing scene? All three of them on the road or celebrating their homecomings in Twin Peaks? A smut take on a treat would also be amazing (and I wrote some prompts for it in my Smut Swap letter here). I'm always here for a sweeter take on any of the trick possibilities too -- a Black Lodge interlude that was a rare moment of happiness for all of them, or everyone learning to live again in the Odessa universe?
Laura Palmer
I love Laura in all her bright-dark complexity, with her light and her courage and self-annihilation all bound up together, and I’d love to see more of her: moments from her pre-series life, or her afterlives, or her alternate lives.
Solo Prompts:• Trick: Laura in the Black Lodge. I'd love any fic about Laura in the Black Lodge with a focus on her perspective -- the way she bridges the living, dreaming Laura and the dead Laura and the Laura who is alive as Carrie Page, "sometimes my arms bend back" and whether she's haunted by a death that should have been but never was, her identity issues, what it means for her to be a "cousin" of a Lodge entity. I also love the entire noir chic aesthetic of Laura in the Black Lodge, and would love to see art for it -- maybe a portrait of Laura with one of the Venus statues?
• Treat: Laura and the positive/neutral side of the Twin Peaks mythology. I'd love anything based on the scene with her angel in Fire Walk with Me -- art of her ascending in her Black Lodge dress, or a fic that explores what transcendence feels like to her? I'd also love to see anything that brings her together with the Fireman and Senorita Dido or explores their relationship to Laura as supernatural sort-of parents -- art of Laura in the Fireman's auditorium, or getting a homecoming kiss from Senorita Dido, or any kind of fic that looks at Laura learning more about the supernatural side of her existence and her place in the universe?
• Trick or Treat: Laura in the woods or in the mountains. I'd love to see fic or art that focuses on her connection to Twin Peaks as a place: the lakes, and trees, and mountains, and mist. A dark, twisty forest scene, or art of Laura at the entrance to the Black Lodge? Fic or art of a time Laura was alone in the mountains? Art of Laura sitting or sleeping peacefully under a tree, or maybe a fic that looks at different things the natural world around Twin Peaks has meant to her at different points in her life (or afterlife)?
• Trick: Laura's life as Carrie Page. Art of Carrie out in the bleak, flat desert, or riding a white horse. Anything about Laura (or a version of Laura) trying to build a life in Odessa with all the southern gothic vibes, or anything that explores her ongoing connections to the supernatural world -- what is it like to work at Judy's? Fic that looks at how she originally came to be Carrie, or a post-canon character study that explores how her life as Carrie has changed Laura, after her awakening in s3.
Optional Ships:
• Audrey/Laura, Audrey/Cooper/Laura: As above. :D
• Annie/Laura: I love Laura's dream in Fire Walk with Me, I love it when Annie gets to do spooky things, and then Annie's alternate backstory in The Final Dossier made me really want to see some Annie/Laura: the longing for angels, the overlapping traumas, the possibility of them finding a balance between peace and worldliness together. I'd love anything set in an AU where Laura was still alive when Annie left the convent, or any take on the Laura side of "I've been with Dale and Laura," or any encounters they've had based on the Final Dossier take on Annie's life after s2. Treats: Annie and Laura meeting at the Double R, or low-key falling in love while they're doing a Meals on Wheels route together. Laura showing Annie around town and looking out for her while she readjusts to life outside the convent. First times. Any scene of them in the woods together. Getting each other to smile.
Tricks: Fic or art of Annie meeting Laura in the Black Lodge after Miss Twin Peaks. Recognising each other as survivors or dealing with their trauma together. Anything that has Annie picking up on the more supernatural/messianic side of Laura. The Final Dossier's Annie living between worlds and meeting Laura again somewhere. Fic or art that explores their journeys from (homecoming or pageant) queens to supernatural martyrs.
• Cooper/Laura: I love all the ways Laura and Cooper reach out to each other, the way their connection runs through everything and the way they're practically a full-on myth of devotion by the time Cooper tries to undo her death two decades after the fact. Also, how are they so good at kissing. I love them as a weird, sad, Orpheus-and-Eurydice kind of love story, and it would be incredible to see more fic or art for them -- especially anything that focuses on their Black Lodge encounters, or what could happen between them after s3. Tricks: Anything that riffs on the Orphic side of their relationship -- maybe a doomed love take on them with Cooper restoring Laura's death for her at her choice/giving her to her angel after s3? More encounters in the Black Lodge between seasons. Sex in the Black Lodge, or post-s3 sex that builds on the slight femdom vibes their reunion kiss had and the yieldingness it brought out in Cooper (more smut prompts here, if you'd like to do a trick/treat along those lines). Soulbonds.
Treats: A kiss in the Odessa universe. Any kind of bed-sharing scene -- asleep in the back of a car or in a hotel/motel room after s3? Fic or art of any time Laura gets Cooper to loosen up a little. All the hand-holding. Laura coming to terms with exactly how much Cooper sees her as someone worth saving. Anything that explores how different Laura's kisses with Cooper are to any of her other kisses that we see.