RarePairFest 2015
Hello! Welcome to my RarePairFest letter. It contains information on the things I want for RarePairFest. Er. Yeah. Let's get on with it, shall we?
General stuff: I like when ship fics have some kind of action or non-romance plot elements going on, not because romance on its own isn't interesting enough for me, but because I have a thing for the characters in the pairing protecting each other, saving each other's lives, and things like that (if this leads to hurt/comfort, that is also A+). That said, if you want to write something more completely focused on the development of the relationship or do a vignette about the characters going on a date or doing some kind of domestic thing together, that is also great! I am also down for PWPs, but I'm going to put my smut-related likes and dislikes in a separate paragraph at the end of the letter so that anyone who doesn't want to peer that deeply into my id doesn't have to.
There are a couple fandoms where I've requested ALL THE SHIPS and in the interest of being done with this letter sometime this century, I'm not going to be able to go as in-depth about my feelings on each individual pairing (which doesn't mean I love them any less!), but if you have questions, find a way to contact me and I'll be happy to elaborate.
The Count of Monte Cristo - Eugénie Danglars/Louise D'Armilly
I wasn't sure what, if anything, I was going to do with my sixth request slot once I'd requested all the things I nommed, but as soon as I saw this pairing had been nominated, it was an easy decision. I nominated it for Femslashex a couple years ago, but I don't think anyone even offered it. Anyway! There was enough of these two in the book for me to be totally charmed by them (how cute is the scene where they're getting ready to run away together, oh my god), but little enough that there's a lot of room to fill in the gaps. Pre-(their section of) canon stuff about the development of their relationship, something set during the course of the book in one of the moments we don't see, their further adventures in traveling around Europe hanging out with artistic types post-canon-okay, I guess this is unhelpful in that it's not narrowing anything down, but I would seriously love to see anything about them. I mean, there are nine fics on AO3 and I've read them already.
Fire Emblem: Awakening - Lissa/Maribelle, Kjelle/Severa, FeMU/Tharja, Noire/Severa, Sumia/Cordelia, Tiki/Say'ri, Sully/Sumia
Yeah, I played a game where you have to pair everyone up heterosexually for gameplay mechanics reasons and came out with a list of f/f ships as long as my arm, well done me. I'm going to try to keep this on the shorter side, so apologies for the lack of detail.
First-generation ships: Lissa/Maribelle is just... Maribelle is so devoted to and protective of Lissa, and I love Lissa sort of gently encouraging her to actually think about herself and what she wants sometimes. Tharja/FeMU is largely played as a comedy stalker thing, I know, but then I got the support where Robin gets sick and Tharja takes care of her, and I was sold. Plus I feel like a running theme with a lot of Tharja's supports is that she's really more caring and less scary than she would like people to think. Sumia/Cordelia are childhood friends and became Pegasus Knights together and they've clearly been supporting/looking out for each other for a long time, so that's cute, although I think their various insecurities would make it not 100% a perfect problem-free relationship either. Sully/Sumia might not have that kind of history, but I liked their bonding over horses, and Sully is supposed to be popular with the ladies, and I just think it would be fun. For these four, it's up to you whether you want to just set things before their getting married or not would be an issue or write it such that they never do get married (you don't have to worry about not having enough children for your army in fic!) or what, but I would rather not have angst about being unable to be together or anything.
Tiki/Say'ri is also gen 1, I guess, but neither of them can get married in any case, so they're kind of in a separate category from the above four. Anyway, I liked their sort of lady/knight dynamic--I mean, it's technically goddess/warrior-queen, I know, but it has that element of loyalty and protection going on, which is catnip to me. And their A-support was so gay cute. Again, I would rather keep the angst (in this case about the fact that Say'ri is mortal and Tiki is not) to a minimum.
Severa/Kjelle... well, basically every interaction they have reads like Severa going "I'm attracted to you and I'm VERY ANGRY ABOUT IT!" and I kind of read Kjelle's "oh no, now you have to teach me how to fight!" in the A-support as not just messing with Severa but also finding an excuse to keep spending time together. And then there's Harvest Scramble, which, I don't know what even needs to be said about that. As for Severa/Noire, Noire messes things up worse around Severa because she wants Severa to take care of her! And Severa grudgingly admits that she likes it! Noire may need to learn to take care of herself a little better if things are going to work out in the long run, but it's sweet.
Long Live the Queen - Brin/Elodie, Briony/Elodie, Alice/Elodie, Julianna/Selene
Brin/Elodie gets fairly little screen time even if you go that route, so it's hard to talk about the relationship as a whole, but Brin is such an interesting character--kind of sharp-edged and brittle and angry and very bitter about her past failed relationships, but in a way that suggests that she feels things very deeply and gets very attached to people even though she keeps getting burned. (I can see her needing a certain amount of reassurance that Elodie really does care and isn't going to ditch her for a guy, or another woman, anytime soon, though I don't think she'd outright ask for it.) I also think it's kind of an interesting dynamic that Brin is significantly older and more experienced, but Elodie might well (depending on how she's played, I mean) be the more level-headed and responsible one of the two. I would love either post-canon fic or missing-scene type stuff showing more of the development of their relationship, though I do ask that you not base your fic on the ending where Elodie marries Banion and Brin marries Elodie's dad, because that just got too quasi-incestuous for me.
I was under the impression for a while that Brin was the f/f romance option, so I was pleasantly surprised when I finally did Elodie and Briony's ill-fated forest adventure and it turned out to lead to romance. Nothing like rescuing a girl from death by tentacle monster to win her love, I guess! Seriously, though, they were completely adorable and I loved the stuff in the epilogue about their incredibly unsubtle courtship with the moonlight serenades and all. It would be really great to see some of that in more detail! I think they have less room for fic set during canon than Brin/Elodie, since we know that Elodie doesn't even really consider Briony a friend until after the party, but if you can fit something in there-or want to write pre-canon fic about them being at school together, even- that's cool too.
As for Alice/Elodie, I would be really interested to see how this ship would play out with a non-evil Elodie. I mean, good Elodie can romance a male commoner, and Alice seems like a sweetheart, so I don't see why the two of them couldn't bond. And it might be nice for good Elodie to be involved with someone who's not part of all the crazy political game-playing. But if you'd rather write about evil queen Elodie ruling the world with her pet maid by her side, that's cool too.
And finally, Julianna and Selene seem to have been together for a while and just seem to have a sort of comfort with each other (despite having somewhat different ethical boundaries, which is interesting), and I love that they basically get married if you raise Lumen acceptance high enough. So I'd love to see them dealing with either external or internal issues as an established couple, but if you would like to go and fill in the back story instead, I would enjoy that as well.
Persona 4 - Shirogane Naoto/Kujikawa Rise
This nomination was inspired by the small surge in this pairing that seems to have come out of the promos for Dancing All Night, although "they look cute together and Rise faints in Naoto's arms in that one promo video" is, I guess, not great material for an exchange letter. (They are cute, though.) Anyway, I enjoy pairings where a more outgoing character draws a more reserved character out of her shell, so that's part of the appeal of Naoto/Rise for me--Naoto is awkward and Bad at People and Feelings and would probably take a secret crush to her grave before making a move, whereas Rise has zero qualms about going for what she wants. That said, while Rise may be social and flirty, she's also not necessarily good at genuinely letting people in, so the drawing-out-of-shells may be more mutual than it looks at first. Once again, I've failed to come up with any specific helpful prompts, but I'd really be happy with anything. I don't know, maybe Rise drags Naoto into some kind of school shenanigans, or Naoto needs Rise's help to solve a mystery for some reason, or... whatever, really, as long as they kiss at some point, you know?
Professor Layton vs. Ace Attorney - Eve Belduke/Espella Cantabella
I was really not expecting this ship-I mean, we don't even know that they know each other until the last act of the game-but once it hit me, it hit me hard. I mean, if spending years of your life orchestrating an elaborate ruse to ensure the happiness of a person you think doesn't even remember who you are isn't (slightly unhealthy) devotion, I don't know what is. And then Eve flings herself off a tower to save Espella! And it also turns out that Espella did remember her, kind of, even though she wasn't supposed to! And I had a lot of feelings.
Anyway, at the end of canon I feel like they still have a lot to work through-Eve has let Espella believe she's responsible for something terrible that Eve actually caused, and Espella doesn't seem to mind about it but I can imagine Eve feeling bad, and Espella's got all those recently-recovered memories to deal with. But I really think they can work it out and be happy in the end, and I'd really love post-canon fic along those lines. I would especially be interested in the two of them getting off the island, at least temporarily, and maybe helping each other adjust to the "real world" they've been disconnected from for so long. But really, anything is fine! I have found a grand total of two fics and three pieces of fanart for this pairing, so there's a whole lot left to be explored.
Samurai Flamenco - Maya Mari/Morita Moe
I was a little dubious about this ship at first because it seemed so one-sided, but Mari does get some significant development over the course of the series, and by the end I think they could work it out. Mari's got to work on considering other people's feelings and Moe's got to work on standing up for herself, but, you know, I believe those crazy kids can muddle through together. So, as this would suggest, I'm mostly interested in fic set post-series, whether it's broadly focused on how their relationship progresses or just one scene between them or what. Beyond their relationship, I imagine they've got a lot of adjusting to do with regard to not needing to mete out quite as much vigilante justice anymore (or fight aliens), so maybe they could help each other through that.
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And the promised elaboration on smut preferences: Honestly I'm not hard to please here. A lot of people may complain about f/f always being soft and sweet and gentle, but I will take all the fluffy vanilla smut that those people don't want, please. If you want to get kinkier, though, I do enjoy light BDSM (no heavy painplay or permanent body modification or consent play or anything--also, no humiliation, please) with an emphasis on service and loyalty (you know how I said I had a thing for lady/knight dynamics? Sort of like that). I also like service-topping/topping-from-the-bottom dynamics where it seems to fit the characters (like, Mari probably wants to be handcuffed and punished, but I think she'd also like to be in charge of how that happens, and Eve might have domme-y vibes, but I think she'd rather have Espella be the one who ultimately calls the shots). I also like cross dressing, which is canon for a few characters here, but I have zero objections to it being introduced into pairings where it's not. I think that about covers it--my tastes are pretty boring.