Trick or Treat 2019 Letter

[seinmit]

My ao3 if you want to investigate: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seinmit

Hello! Thank you for writing for me, I’m very excited. In general, your brief should be to write the best story you can. I like a bunch of different things and a lot of different takes on characters. The MCU section of this letter is longer than the rest, but that's not because I want other things less--it's mostly because when you request that many characters, I wanted to make sure I said something about each and gave prompts for each.

General Likes: I like characters who are in over their heads and struggling to get their shit done. I like action, angst, and high drama. It is almost impossible to be too melodramatic or intense for me. Some of my favorite stories are those that give badasses time and space to be badasses--complete with loving descriptions of weaponry and cunning plans. I like whump and h/c, I love when my faves get tortured and broken down. I like for those faves to respond with a combination of roaring rampages of revenge and cuddles by those they love. I like when my fave wears black leather and smoke cigarettes and drinks whiskey while contemplating their mortality.

At the same time, I also like stories that are soft and slow and contemplative. I like curling up in a slice of existence and getting to know all the details of daily life. I like fluff, mpreg, soul bonds, found family, and finding spaces for comfort within difficulty. (I also like angsty versions of things like mpreg and soul bonds!). For me, with most of my canons, what I like is the contrast between the drama and the ways they can find small spaces of comfort.

I like characters finding themselves and making choices about what type of person they want to be. I like embracing authentic living and overcoming struggles. I love stories about trauma recovery and the revelation of deep dark secrets. I like struggling against the world that is against you.

I like formal experiments and unusual formats--different tenses, documentation styles, nonlinear storytelling, drabble series. Feel free to go super high concept and to bring in Big Ideas. I like ambition. In general, I want you to tell the story you want to tell and make the choices you need to make in that context.

Weird specific thing I like: male omega parents being referred to as mothers and female alpha parents referred to as fathers.

Shippy Likes: I like friends-to-lovers and even when the ship is enemies-to-lovers, I like for there to be a sense of intimacy. I love when the characters are the most important people in the world to each other. I love when there’s a sense of “us against the world,” where they have to put each other first. I love one character going crazy-eyed and deciding to tear down the world for the other one. I like secrets and in-jokes. I have a passionate love of the “coming out” scene, where the world or just their friends realizes a relationship is romantic. In more complicated relationships, I like when the people are the most important person in each other's emotional life, even if they don't really like each other. Think obsessive hatred or obsessive interest. I like fucked up, dub-cony relationships too--I like when sex doesn't solve problems, it just makes them more fraught. I like hatesex and "you drive me nuts" sex. I love hurt/comfort and rescuing each other. One of my favorite tropes is someone getting kidnapped and the other one busting in and killing a bunch of people to get them safe.

Porn Likes: I love porn with feelings, kink, rough sex, D/s, dirty talk, bondage, kink discovery, breeding kink, feminization, objectification, mpreg, praise kink, xeno/non-human sex, tentacles, humiliation, hair pulling, comeplay, inflation, marathon sex until it hurts, public sex, gangbangs, unrealistically high sex drives, and more. I’m pretty kinky and into most types of kink fic. For an established ship, I’d like for the kink to grow out of love, though I don’t need complicated negotiations of the scene happening actually in the fic. I do like dub-con and non-con versions of these things, too. I love A/B/O and D/s universes. In general, if it plays on breeding/come/fertility, I'm there with bells on, doesn't have to be physically viable. M/M breeding kink is pretty common, but I'd love F/F breeding kink too. I love big things being put into tiny holes (which then might become bigger holes.) So that means DP, object insertion, all of that: a+

Darkfic Likes: government conspiracies, torture, kidnapping, evil versions of characters, twisted versions of shippy relationships, monsters, being captured as a breeder, unspeakable eldritch horror, self-sacrifice, being forced to sacrifice yourself for your partner, being forced to watch your partner sacrifice themselves for you, shared capture and torture, being totally broken down and accepting one’s status as an object, grooming, manipulation, gaslighting, sinister authority figures taking advantage of power, going on the run, making a last stand, mind control, forced sex work, sexual slavery, forced feminization, public use, dehumanization, sex addiction, mental conditioning, bestiality

Horror Likes: (This feels meaningfully different than darkfic to me, but I might be splitting hairs and there will likely be some repeats. stick-tap to snickfic here for collecting a wonderful list I'm getting inspiration from). I like all sorts of ends, bad/bittersweet/and hopeful. I do like for them to be some sort of arc to the fic, though. I love psychological horror and the sense that one's mind is outside of one's own control. I love horror that occurs after some sort of reveal--someone wasn't who they seemed or something was radically distorted. One of my favorite things is existential horror--mindfucks and gaslighting. I like cosmic horror, eldritch horror, Cthulu mythos. I love body horror, both of the type where your body is outside of your control and where horrible things happen to bodies. I love ghost stories and urban legends; spooky forests and abandoned ruins; murderous creatures and haunted houses. I like the idea of creepy rural locations and places a little "outside" the normal sphere. I love when you can smell that something is wrong in the psychosphere. I love scientists getting over ambitious and people accidentally-on-purpose summoning demons/making a pact with hell-- Dr. Faustus was very influential for my id on that front. I love finding out the hard way that there are things more important than knowledge and power.

DNW: mundane AUs, “littles,” children being called “pups,” scat, first or second POV.

Opt-In: basically anything that is not a DNW I am willing and happy to read, but I wanted to make a specific point to opt-in to in-narrative racism/homophobia/sexism/biphobia/classism/ableism etc. You shouldn't feel the need to go out of your way to put it in, but if it makes sense for the story or the character, feel free to include it. That includes slurs, upsetting imagery, and anything of that nature. I'm also generally opting in for gore, upsetting things about consent and agency, and torture. Opting in for cannibalism, necrophilia, bestiality, as appropriate for the fic, character, and request. I opt-in to character death, physical and mental illnesses, and permanent disability. Any and all "magical realism" tropes, whether or not they fit the canon: time travel, soul bonds, soul mates. You can mention past relationships and canon ships.

Tags for all requests:

Marvel Cinematic Universe/MCU

Treat - Fic
Trick - Fic
You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts, You may ignore my Trick/Treat preferences for extra gifts.

DNWs: mundane AUs, “littles,” children being called “pups,” scat, first or second person POV, fluffy Pierce/Bucky that is not deeply fucked up.

Characters Requested

Erik Killmonger
I am fascinated by all parts of his life story. What was his time at MIT and Annapolis like? How the fuck did an orphaned kid from Oakland end up graduating from MIT at age 19? What was his time in the military like? Tell me about his assassination adventures and the fucked up shit he did for the US government. It would particularly cool to put him in a ghost story of some type--I think his POV would be a great one when paired with the supernatural. I'm fascinated by the intersection of his rage and the love he has for Black people, his father, and himself. I'm interested in the question of his many names and what they mean to him, how he code-switches and what that looks like. Feel free to lean into the political themes of his story.

Erik Killmonger’s Mother
We know almost nothing about her, not even her name. I'd love to know more. Did she know about Wakanda? What did she go to prison for? What was her effect on Erik? We know a lot about his emotional attachment to his dad, give me more about his mom.

James “Bucky” Barnes
I am interested in every moment of Bucky's story--pre-war, pre-Azzano, post-Azzano WW2 with Steve, Winter Soldier, on the run in Bucharest, and in Wakanda. I want it all and everything about it. I think the Winter Soldier encountering the supernatural would be great. I am particularly interested in the intense ritual of HYDRA and stories leaning into the supernatural/magical elements of Schmidt's vision. I want culty nonsense. Feel free to lean into the HYDRA Trash Party, particularly if it includes the culty nonsense. I like Bucky recovering and learning the art of self-care, too! I ship him with just about anybody.

T’Challa
I'm fascinated by T'Challa. He is a good, generous man who is fundamentally sheltered about what it means to be Black in the rest of the world. Nonetheless, he makes hard choices and wants to help. I'm mostly interested in him post-Killmonger, but I would also like to know more about Wakandan worldbuilding basically on every level. Perhaps the decision in canon I understand least and want to hear more about is his one to ally himself with Steve and Bucky prior to Erik. What's that about? Possible a source for a T'Challa/Steve or T'Challa/Bucky story, both of which I like!

Alexander Pierce
I like Pierce best when he isn't a cackling Bond villain, but instead a guy who is deeply fucked up and misguided but thinks he is doing the best thing for the world. He is ruthless and committed to his ideology, which is that of a Nazi death cult. I ship him with Bucky, in the sense that I think it makes sense to me that Pierce focused on manipulating Bucky in particular as a way of gaining power within HYDRA.

Steve Rogers
I love Steve's stubbornness and resolve. I don't particularly like the fic characterization where he is a naif, shocked and scandalized by sex and violence. I think he's a determined man who will do almost anything for his ideology and the people he views himself as having an obligation to protect. I would love stories that explore the dark side of that commitment, as much as the fluff.

Natasha Romanoff
I feel like a lot of Natasha characterization is really informed by Marvel 616, which I am totally unfamiliar with, so I'd really like a full-on MCU!Natasha. I want to know more about the Red Room that we learn about in the movies. I really am particularly interested in the time between Infinity War and Endgame. I'd also love any stories where she brings herself back to life out of the Soul Stone.

Sam Wilson
Sam is interesting to me as this guy who seems on the one hand well-adjusted, but on the other, falls over himself in eagerness to go vigilante superhero when Steve bats his baby blues. I'm really interested in that. I'm also particularly interested in his experience of Wakanda--he's a Black man from the US, but he's not Killmonger, so I imagine his perspective would be fascinating.

Ships I Like

Steve/Bucky the OTP. All about it, in any form. Fluffy, a little twisted, anything. My favorite thing about them is how much they mean to each other throughout their entire lives.

Steve/Bucky/Sam I like thinking about how they'd fit a third person into their relationship, how Sam would find his footing and his place in an already established pair of lovers. If they aren't established, what is it liked to be in a relationship with two guys that have all that history?

Steve/Bucky/Sam/Natasha- I love the era of fic where it was possible that these four galavanted around the world killing HYDRA. I never have enough.

Bucky/Erik Killmonger - I have approximately one million thoughts on these two. I love the idea of them as a ship. I love their parallels--shared history of dehumanization, assassin background--and I love the very strong divergences, in that there's a really important difference between being dehumanized by 400 years of Western civilization and being dehumanized by a magic chair.

T'Challa/Erik - I love, love, love this ship, but I want it done in a kind of twisted way. I want them to have an unhealthy relationship where they at least start out not very good for each other. I am totally fine with a happy ending, where they end up having grown into a functional couple, but I’m fine with it not ending that way, too. I would like both of them to remain reasonably authentic to their canon selves. This means I do not want T’Challa to be a pure villain -- I want him to have good intentions and to be trying hard, but unable to deal with the way Erik refuses his worldview and makes him feel. I want Erik to be bitter and angry and prone to lashing out. I want you to take his politics seriously. They can grow to have affection for each other, but it should be hardwon.

Bucky/Pierce- Yeah, bring the HTP. My read on Pierce is that his evil is in his effective manipulation of people, rather than wanton cruelty. I think it is important that his first attempt at manipulating Bucky was trying to genuinely persuade him that he was important and doing good work--that's an odd thing to do to a nearly mindless killing machine and I like it.

Steve/Natasha - I don't ship this super romantically, but I love it as a fuckbuddies relationship. Neither of them have the emotional bandwidth for True Love, but it is good to have intimacy with a friend that you trust entirely and care about fully. I love that dynamic. I don't dislike the romantic ship, though, if that's what you want to write!

Bucky/Bucky - I would read every variety of Bucky/Bucky. Winter Soldier/Twink! Pre-War Bucky, with TWS domming the shit out of the cute little bastard. Post-Civil War Sad-Eyed Bucky fucking his Pre-War self while feeling sad about the future that's about to steamroll the guy. The younger Bucky is so cocky and full of himself in the way good looking able-bodied white dudes often are! He's got a sense of humor, and a good heart, but he's also entirely confident that he'll be able to face the world that's coming to him and he's so wrong and the older Bucky knows it. He knows he's going to break, and he can't decide if he hates his younger self or is just so fucking sad for him.

Assorted "Trick" Ideas

The world is a dystopian Nazi hellhole where INSIGHT went through and HYDRA won--what do Our Heroes do about it?

Bucky emerges from his experience at Hydra totally addicted to sex and using violent, degrading sex as a coping mechanism. He doesn’t know how to relate to people except through sexual service. Or, maybe Bucky emerges from his time as the Winter Soldier without a working morality system and ends up doing fucked up things. Maybe somebody takes advantage of residual Hydra Trash conditioning from Bucky to gain sexual favors.

Weird mystical HYDRA death cult! Sacrifices to elder gods and all.

I'd love to read about a supernatural encounter set in inner-city Black Oakland, with Killmonger as a child or Killmonger's mom. I think ghost stories are mostly set in some vague white americana, and it would be cool to have a more specific take on them. If you don't want to set it in Oakland, but are inspired by the idea of Black ghost stories, I've always thought there must be some really good supernatural ghost stories/horror stories set in/around the Dismal Swamp, which isn't that far from Annapolis.

Maybe Erik is brought back to life in some way after he dies in Wakanda and Comes Back Wrong.

I'd also love Wakandan supernatural encounters--what are specifically Wakandan ghosts and legents that could haunt our characters and put them in a shitty situation? In my experience, basing Wakanda off of real cultures is kind of tricky--as best I can tell, MCU doesn't even give much guidance as to where in Africa it is except for the fact that they generally seem to speak Xhosa. Feel free to get creative and mash things up.

Natasha might be a fun source for specifically Russian horror and playing with her Red Room past. As "Dark Swan" taught us, ballet can be creepy as fuck--lean into that.

Assorted "Treat" Ideas

All the mpreg. All of it. Fluffy stuff about pregnancy and babies, please.

Soulbonds! Sex pollen! Accidental marriage! All the fun tropey stuff fandom is known for, I like it all.

Learning to trust again after a hard life, quiet moments of intimacy.

I know this is less elaborate than the trick part, but I really do want it!

Alternate Universe Works

Treat - Fic
Trick - Fic
You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts, You may ignore my Trick/Treat preferences for extra gifts.

Captain America Bucky Barnes, Winter Soldier Steve Rogers

These characters are some of my favorite AUs. I like every variety of them -- when it is CA!Bucky & WS!Steve and also the dual Winter Soldiers. Maybe both Bucky and Steve share Captain America duties in the new century--possibly splitting it with Sam. I'd love shippy fic or gen, here. (You can refer to my MCU pairings for ones that I like--with the possible exception of Bucky/Killmonger, they all apply here. Bucky/Killmonger is only the exception because I am basing that a lot on his canon backstory, which he won't have--probably--if he is Captain America.)

I'm struggling to write specific prompts, because basically every variety of this is something I want. Something I'd love to read is WS!Steve and WS!Bucky together on the Avengers, with their fucked-up codependent past. I think every dual winter soldier fic I've read stops before they get integrated into the rest of the superheroes, so I'd love to read more about that.

I'm also fascinated in the "waking up" moment, both in the context of WS!Steve returning to himself and CA!Bucky waking up out of the ice. What is the culture shock like? How is it possible for them to return to the world?

If it is a situation where Bucky and Steve (and possibly Sam) all split Captain America duties, what does it look like to have that be something that is now very much a job and not a personal title? How does the outside world respond to a triple threat of Captain America?

In general, I'm also very interested in what the differences are between canon and these AUs. What is Steve like as a Winter Soldier, versus how Bucky reacted? My gut says that he would be much more inclined toward the "roaring rampage of revenge" as opposed to the "quietly going into hiding" that Bucky opted for, but I look forward to seeing your interpretation. AUs like this always give the writer a chance to throw canon into sharp relief.

As far as outright tricks, anything HTP goes. I also love good old-fashioned ghost stories and it would be fun to see these iterations of the characters dealing with them.

Ancient Greek Religion & Lore

Trick - Fic
You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts

Cybele

CW for this request: weird Ancient Greek views on gender/sex/genitalia.

Cybele is a Phrygian Mother goddess, but the Greeks adopted her and had a mystery cult based around her. She's associated with Dionysian worship, which means that you know shit is going to get weird.

The weirdness starts with her "birth" (at least told by the Greeks. The story is that Zeus had a wet dream and ejaculated onto the ground, which sprung up into the intersex Agdistis. But the gods freaked out about the fact that Agdistis was intersex, so they cut off their penis. Agdistis became Cybele.

This penis grew into an almond tree, as it obviously would happen. One day a woman took the almonds and put them in her boobs, at which point the almonds disappeared and she was pregnant. The baby was Attis.

The woman exposed the baby, but a male goat took care of him. He grew up to be enormously beautiful and Cybele fell in love with him. Reminder: she's kind of his father, in the sense that her cut-off penis grew into a tree that impregnated some lady via almonds.

When Attis was an adult, he was sent to marry the Princess of Pessinos. Idk why, apparently some dude raised by a goat is a catch as long as he is super pretty. The marriage was being celebrated, but Cybele was like fuck no and drove Attis crazy and Attis cut off his own dick. Also, the father of the bride cut off his own dick too. Attis went running around the mountains being crazy.

But then Cybele felt bad about it so she asked Zeus to keep Attis pretty forever and then he did. The end.

Catullus has a poem about it. This is how I first learned the story and it is a pretty great poem. Here is a good translation.

Helpful sources:
https://www.theoi.com/Cult/KybeleCult.html
https://www.theoi.com/Phrygios/Kybele.html

My basic request is for someone to write me the psychologically rich horror version of this ludicrous story. Any take on it you have is welcome.

Dionysis:

The Bacchae is my favorite play, if you want context for which iteration of Dionysis is heaviest in my mind, but anything works. Give me all your madness and cannibalism and body horror and debauchery, please. Some outrageous pornography would be fun! I find him thematically fascinating, the way that his stories combine life/death/love into this weird, darkly erotic mix where he's being reborn from his own heart after being eaten by Titans and turning his worshippers mad.

DNW: first or second person POV, mundane AUs (feel free to set stuff in the modern era, but it should be ~magical/imbued with godly energy)

True Detective

Trick - Fic
You may ignore my Art/Fic preferences for extra gifts

Rust Cohle, Errol Childress

Things I like about this canon include: I love the vivid sense of place, how clearly it is set in the petrochemical infused deep south. I love the specific, dated, and placed references. I love the philosophical ambition--if you feel inclined to wax rhapsodic about Schopenhauer, Jung, and Nietzsche, please do, I will love it. I think Rust is a great woobie--he suffers so prettily.

For this one, my basic prompt is that I want the eldritch horror version of the ending/the Yellow King. I like the way the show ends, but I would love to lean into it as a horror story. You can really go wild with this.

If rewriting the ending doesn't appeal, basically any confrontation between Rust and the supernatural is something I'd be super into reading. I imagine that he would be a very interesting POV character for the world going even more strange and surreal.