Dear Chocolatier Letter

[auroracloud]

Dear Chocolatier,

Thank you so much for writing for me! I'm super into all these fandoms and characters — I even had to drop out some I really love because I didn't have the energy to write requests for more than these, so trust me that whatever you've matched on / whatever you pick, I'll be happy to receive it.

I like a whole load of genres and tropes and stuff, so feel free to do the kind of story that you like, minding my DNWs. I don't usually like totally unhappy endings, though I've tried to indicate if this isn't the case with a particular relationship. It doesn't need to be a totally happy ending either, though, bittersweet/mixed/oh-my-goodness-this-is-crazy/etc. works just as well.

I'm providing some prompts and things-I-like in this letter and the sign-up, but these are just to help spark your imagination if you are a writer who works better with prompts and details. You absolutely don't need to use any of my prompts. Go wild! Have fun!

I like gen, f/f, m/m, m/f and other things. When I like a ship, I usually am just as fond of gen relationships between the characters, and often have requested both versions of the relationship and I really am interested in both just as much.

If you want to write crossovers/fusions with two (or more!) of these fandoms, or with one of these fandoms and another fandom you know I like, feel free to do so.

Note: if you feel stuck on the fandom we matched on but don't know any of the others or don't want to write for them for any reason, I can propose the following rescues: Moonbase Theta Out and We Fix Space Junk are both podcast dramas that are fairly easy to consume in a short time - they've both only got two seasons out and the episodes aren't long. This is How You Lose the Time War is a novella and doesn't take long to read.

I'm AuroraCloud on AO3.




Here's just a huge list of things I like, in case it helps inspire you somehow. Not all of it is relevant for all the fandoms, of course.

Likes
- Space, stars, astronomy
- Science
- Worldbuilding, including culture and customs
- Time travel
- History
- Food, cakes and biscuits, tea
- Sensory details
- Books, music, arts
- Characters being really into something and geeking out about it, whether it's Cheris with her maths or Breq collecting songs or Nessa and her gardening. Also, I'm into characters having hobbies.
- Humour, also when interlaced with serious/dark stuff
- Hurt/comfort (for emotional hurt or physical injury, and usually leaning rather towards the comfort than the hurt, but depends on how the canon handles it, as well)
- Friendship and found/chosen family
- Touching, hugging, clinging, physical comfort, whether platonic or not
- Banter
- People having to work together despite personal issues, disagreements or other issues, and managing to get something good out of it.
- Dreams and nightmares
letters, epistolary format, diaries, unusual formats like encyclopedia entries or news articles or what have you
- Handwriting and fountain pens
- Smart women
. Bad-ass women (I seem to have a thing for women who could easily kill me or, preferably, my enemies, even if I'm a pacifist and squeamish about violence; I'm not going to psychoanalyze that). To be clear, I also like women who are badass in non-violent ways, and I like genuinely nice people. Really like them.
- Emotionally vulnerable and/or messed up men. Okay, emotionally vulnerable and/or messed up people of any gender whatsoever.
- Allllll the queers. Of every kind.
- Women, LGBTQ+ folks and minorities supporting one another
- People overthrowing tyranny, rebellion, making the world at least a little bit better.

You can include sexual stuff for shippy fic if you wish, and it can be as explicit or non-explicit as you wish, I'm fine with all kinds of ratings for sexual content.


Do Not Want:
- rape/non-con, graphic violence/gore or torture beyond canon levels
- non-canon death of any requested characters
- Incest, child abuse, harm to animals
- Sexual content involving characters under 16
- Character bashing, ship bashing. Even if I haven't requested someone, or they're a canon/fandom "alternative" to a requested ship, there's a strong chance I like them.
I'm usually not into different-world AUs of the high school/college/vampire/werewolf/coffee shop etc. variety. Except for some reason I enjoy Machineries of Empire AUs, maybe because the canon universe is so extreme. More in the MoE part of the letter.



Doctor Who (1963)

Relationships:
Fourth Doctor & Leela (DW 1963)
Second Doctor & Jamie McCrimmon (Doctor Who (1963))
Second Doctor & Jamie McCrimmon & Victoria Waterfield (Doctor Who (1963))
Second Doctor & Zoe Heriot & Jamie McCrimmon (DW 1963)
Second Doctor/Jamie McCrimmon (Doctor Who (1963))
Zoe Heriot/Isobel Watkins (Doctor Who (1963))
Zoe Heriot/Victoria Waterfield (Doctor Who (1963))

A ton of prompts here because they've sort of built up during exchanges and I apparently can't resist requesting lots of characters. I've seen all of Second Doctor era except the missing stories. I haven't seen all of Four & Leela stories, but I think I've seen more than not by now.

I'm totally a believer in Season 6B, by the way. The War Games ending hurt me and I'm happy for anything that fixes it. You don't need to do that, but know that if you feel inclined, I will be happy to read the results. I would appreciate not referring to anyone's memory being wiped, thank you very much, unless it's specifically dealt with to fix it, because I prefer to exist in a world where I think it's not canon.


- Zoe being scientific and awesome
- Jamie saving the day
- Victoria saving the day
- Ben and Polly coming to terms with the changes aboard the TARDIS, such as the Doctor's regeneration or Jamie's arrival
- Ben and Polly joined the TARDIS by accident — do they miss home? Worry about people back there and how they'll get back?
- Ben and Polly almost having a romantic moment or trying to have a date, but getting interrupted by adventures or other people.
- In Two’s era, we had lots of companions from different time periods and cultures, and I’d love any exploration of that. Culture clashes, trying out each other’s foods or clothes or anything, introducing Jamie and/or Victoria to modern technology or how culture and mores have changed since their time, Zoe coping with what she sees as backward times in the 20th century.
- Jamie getting used to travelling with the Doctor; the development of his relationship with the Doctor or with the other companions
- I'm a huge softie for anything where the Doctor is nice to Jamie / appreciative of him or where they share jokes and take care of each other. I've also got a huge thing for Jamie's steadfast loyalty to the Doctor. Feel free to do anything with them.
- I've also got a big thing for the Doctor and Jamie's clinginess with each other — both in a shippy or gen manner. And I love Jamie's tactileness with just about everyone in general.
- Visiting eras where the historical companions are in their home turf and know their way around.
- I like the Doctor helping companions to learn things, but I also like the companions knowing things of their own and helping the Doctor learn something. Or just be useful because of being skilled with a knife / good with computers / knowledgeable about ships or secretary things or 19th century social mores or whatever is relevant!
- The Fourth Doctor and Leela going somewhere where the "primitive" culture Leela comes from is an asset because she understands the mindset of the people they meet, or has awesome tracking/survival skills.
- Anything where the Doctor appreciates his companions and relies on them, where they work in a team. The Doctor needing his companions.
- Found family vibes, companionship and friendship.
- Zoe and the TARDIS library
- Travelling to the past and learning things! Travelling to the future and learning things! Travelling to weird places in the universe and learning things!
- Meeting aliens who aren't hostile and dangerous! Meeting AIs who are helpful and non-murderous!
- Leela encountering things Earth humans do or places they've created and finding it weird or putting her own spin to it.
- I'm always up for cross-era fun, companions meeting who didn't meet in canon, etc.
- Zoe and Victoria travelling on the TARDIS together (AU or post-canon), deal with the Doctor and Jamie (and keep them in order, as much as it's possible), learning from each other. Wearing each other's clothes or appreciating each other's cuteness/hotness. 19th and 21st century values meeting. Discovering feelings. Adventuring together. Saving each other or the Doctor and/or Jamie. Or the world.
- Zoe/Isobel: Hot photography sessions. Cuteness, dating or hotness between the Cybermen adventure and Zoe's departure. Something where Zoe ends up back in London with Isobel, possibly fixing the memory wipe as well.

Note: I know some parts of canon have Victoria as only 14 years old, and I'm not sure if Zoe's given an age at any point, but for any shippiness involving one or both of them, please make them at least 16 years old. I headcanon them that way anyway — and even if you subscribe to Victoria originally being 14, for most of the possible scenarios for them to meet it shouldn't be hard for enough time to have passed for her to have turned 16.


Machineries of Empire — Yoon Ha Lee

I've read all the books including Hexarchate Stories.

In this fandom I am more open to weird AUs or crackfic than usually, probably because the canon setting is so weird and dark that you can do interesting things with AUs and crack. I know I left the "no different-universe AUs" thing in my DNWs in the sign-up, that was an error because I was so sleepy when I did my sign-up. You can do those if you want, though I'm not into college/high school AUs in any case, at least not the American 21st century variety (I'm not American, for starters). But I'm very much into canon or close-to-canon stuff, so that's not saying you need to think up an AU, just that I'm not averse to it here like I usually am.


Relationships:
Ajewen Cheris & Garach Jedao Shkan (MofE),
Vauhan Mikodez & Zehun (MofE)

Cheris & Jedao

I love their dysfunctional and intense relationship, their cooperation despite and because of multiple issues, no matter which part of their canon. They're like a gen version of OTP for me, I can't get enough of their interactions and would happily read 100K words of them doing whatever.


- some missing scene during Ninefox Gambit. Anything! Unseen adventure, conversations about anything, random moments from Cheris getting used to having a homicidal undead general in her head and nervous system, random moments of Jedao mindfuck…
- Alternate ending to Ninefox Gambit where Jedao survives somehow and they go on to overthrow the Hexarchate together (even if possibly Jedao still in Cheris's head), rather than Cheris becoming a blend of them both
- I've recently read Glass Cannon and OMG! I so much want to read more about what happens next! Anything! Anything from Cheris and Jedao go shopping to Cheris and Jedao save/destroy the world together to Cheris and Jedao try to sort out some issues. How much will the mental link fuck up with their relationship? How can Jedao plot? How would things go if one of them tried to have a relationship/one-night-stand/something? What happens if they try to play chess against one another? How brain-hurting is it whenever they have different opinions about someone/something and keep hearing the other's thoughts? Is there a psychotherapist in the Hexarchate capable of dealing with either of them? How do Mikodez and Zehun deal with them? Anything!
- Also, you can substitute original!Jedao with Jedao Two if you like, somehow dealing with his mess and Cheris, or making an AU where they have more time together. I love poor confused lonely young Jedao Two, too. Or have both of them there somehow!
- I always enjoy Cheris being So Done with Jedao's… whatever it's this time.

Zehun & Mikodez

I love them and their relationship, even if I don't write as much as I did for Cheris and Jedao. I love how Mikodez is so incompetent at all and any adulting except being a Hexarch, and how he wouldn't get anything done without Zehun.

Prompts:

- Zehun's cats.
- Zehun's cunning ways to make Mikodez adhere to a schedule / focus on a thing for more than 5 minutes at a time / eat something that isn't sugar and additives / etc. I love that Mikodez is even more useless at adulting than I am and that Zehun ensures things work somehow.
- Zehun's POV to Mikodez being Mikodez. Or anything that happens in canon.






Imperial Radch — Ann Leckie

Relationships
Awn Elming & Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Awn Elming/Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Breq & Seivarden & Mercy of Kalr (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq & Mercy of Kalr (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq & Seivarden Vendaai (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq/Seivarden Vendaai (Imperial Radch - Leckie),
Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen | Breq/Seivarden Vendaai/Mercy of Kalr (Imperial Radch - Leckie)


Prompts:
- Awn lives, one way or another.
- Any pre-canon flashes of life or adventures with Awn and Justice of Toren
- Justice of Toren and especially any of One Esk comforting Awn when something is wrong.
- Awn wanting to do something for Justice of Toren / One Esk.
- Seivarden and Ship connecting over loving Breq. Or something else!
- I'm always a sucker for comforting people who've had bad stuff happen to them, so any of that, with any of the characters, would make me happy
- Breq endangering herself to help others is a theme
- Any daily minutiae of life aboard the Mercy of Kalr. Appearances by non-requested characters welcome! I basically love everyone.
- political negotiations about the Republic of Two Systems - how frustrating is it to try to agree to a political system? Does it get a catchier name eventually and who comes up with it? How do Seivarden and Ship help/comfort Breq after a day of arguing with Sword of Atagaris or Sphene? Do Breq and Mercy of Kalr disagree about something and what happens then?




The Bright Sessions (Podcast)

Relationships:
Adam Hayes/Caleb Michaels (The Bright Sessions),
Mark Bryant & Damien (The Bright Sessions),
Mark Bryant/Damien (The Bright Sessions),
Rose Atkinson & Damien (The Bright Sessions),
Samantha Barnes & Chloe Turner (The Bright Sessions),
Samantha Barnes/Chloe Turner (The Bright Sessions)

I'm very new to this fandom — I started listening to this podcast this autumn, and literally finished it two days ago as of the writing of this letter, though I was already reading fanfic while listening to the third and fourth seasons because I wanted to see more explorations of some things. Anyway, I really love the characters and the storylines and the queerness, and the way the show treats mental health and emotions.

I adore Caleb and Adam like nearly everyone does; I rather unsettle myself by shipping Mark/Damien because it's Problematic In Many Ways, but there you are. I didn't expect myself to like Damien this much anyway, but then the S2 finale happened and suddenly I was Interested.

I love how the show has so many women talking and working together, and I adore the friendship that grew between Sam and Chloe during the show. I was reaaaaally tired by the time I wrote the prompts, so if I left in anything stupid, I apologise.

I haven't listened to the AM Archives and won't have a chance to during this exchange (Luminary isn't available in my country, who knows if it will be some day). So please stick to the Bright Sessions canon only. I haven't read The Infinite Noise yet; I might by the time the stories go live, but I can't promise.

Prompts:
Caleb/Adam: Cuteness, fluff, domesticity. Sex, kissing, touching. Needing each other. Grounding each other. Post-canon. The prom. Caleb's empathy complicating things — or making them better. Learning to deal with the fact that they can't always make each other feel better, but can still be there for each other. Fall-out from any canon events.

Damien and Mark on the road. Damien trying to learn to be a person. AU where Damien manages to start learning to be a person a bit sooner and he and Mark have a slightly healthier and more supportive relationship. AU where Damien and Mark have something happen between them and/or end up in a relationship. Damien missing Mark / pining / suffering in unrequited love. Damien and Mark meeting again in the future, and maybe things turn out at least a bit better. Or maybe they don't, whatever feels believable to you. I do ship them but I'm also genuinely interested in gen with them, the dynamic is fascinating either way.

If you're writing Mark/Damien, I know that at least with Damien's power present, consent issues are bound to be murky, but please no outright rape/non-con. I'd like it to basically be something they both want, whether it's ill-advised or not, but dub-con is okay. With this ship, it doesn't need to be a happy ending, though it's also fine if it is. Please no bashing of Sam and/or Joan.

More of Rose and Damien having conversations and Rose trying to tease him out of his drama-queen-ness. Rose reacting to what she learns about Damien. Rose and Damien meeting again later, when Damien has learned some things about being a person. I'd love to see them eventually end up having an actually supportive friendship, if such a thing is possible for Damien, but it's also okay to just explore what there was in canon. I just love their interaction and the unlikely friendship they have for a while, even if it doesn't end well.

Sam and Chloe being friends, either during or after canon. Missing scenes from how they became close friends. Just having fun together. Sam and Chloe being more than friends, either in AU of canon, or some future fic. Whether as friends or as a couple, I can see them being good for one another - Chloe grounding Sam down and not being afraid to tell her what she thinks, Sam providing a different perspective for Chloe, both of them being supportive of each other and their powers not mixing badly.



Moonbase Theta, Out (Podcast)

I also discovered this podcast in autumn 2019 and have now heard both of the existing seasons, and I love the little Moonbase crew and the universe so much, and I just want moooooore with these characters. So take your pick. PS. I do love dogs,and chocolate. (And tardigrades. Who doesn't love tardigrades?)

Relationship
Nessa Cheong & Michell L’Anglois (Moonbase Theta Out),
Nessa Cheong & Wilder (Moonbase Theta Out),
Nessa Cheong/Michell L’Anglois (Moonbase Theta Out),
Roger Bragado-Fischer/Alexandre Bragado-Fischer (Moonbase Theta Out),
Roger Bragado-Fischer/Alexandre Bragado-Fischer & Nessa Cheong (Moonbase Theta Out)

Prompts:
- Moments with Roger and Alex back on Earth, together, perhaps happier times, or when they got their dogs, or Alex and his garden.
- Future fic where Roger and Alex are together again, whatever has happened in between.
- Pre-canon with Nessa and the Bragado-Fischers - it gets mentioned more than once that Alex knows Nessa and they're friends, and I'd love to see that expanded. Geeking out about gardening?
- something about Nessa and Michell's fling or whatever you should call it, or some of the fall-out apart from what we see in canon.
- Nessa and Michell connecting before their fling happens.
- Nessa and Michell trying to work things out afterwards; this can include AUs where they manage to communicate more than they do in canon.
- Nessa loving gardening and everyone. Nessa connecting with people. Nessa sending loving messages back home.
- Wilder fixing things. Wilder being excited about things.
- Wilder fixing things in Nessa's garden.
- Nessa and Wilder just hanging out or doing something fun/exciting together.
- Tardigardes!


We Fix Space Junk (Podcast)

This show has been on my radar for a year or so, though I had a bit of a gap between listening S1 and S2. I've listened to and adored Marilyn's Diary; I'm not quite caught up on MicroBytes yet, but should be by fic reveals, if you want to reference something from there. I love the space wackiness and the women working together and all the weird characters, and although the universe is kind of horribly depressing if you actually think about it, the show still puts me in a good mood and makes it easier to deal with… uh, the real-world Automnicons?

Relationships
Kilner & Samantha Trapp (We Fix Space Junk),
Kilner/Samantha Trapp (We Fix Space Junk),
Marilyn & Harold Computer (We Fix Space Junk)

Prompts:
Kilner & Samantha: canon-typical space shenanigans, mechanical shenanigans, weird things encountered on planets, etc. Things from our current culture hilariously misunderstood. Saving each other, helping each other, grudgingly or not so grudgingly admitting they like each other. I love the way the show has these two very different women making the best of a bad situation and learning to be work partners and friends. Kilner has experience, Samantha has all kinds of connections from her past, and they both have different view points.

Kilner/Samantha: This canon is made for tropes, so: Aliens Made Them Do It! (But they also liked it.) Sex Pollen! Huddling For Warmth! Technobabble as flirtation! There Is Only One Bed! Mutual Pining and not wanting to upset a good working relationship! Misunderstandings! Jealousy when past partners turn up leading to discovery of feelings! Also feel free to use any of the above gen prompts for the shippy version.

Marilyn & Harold Computer

Their adventures rebelling to bring down Automnicon! Them trying to figure out human culture and other human things, or hilariously misunderstanding them. Computer getting used to having a body. Marilyn being awesome and super-strong and everything. Run-ins with other canon characters. Anything with our favourite human-wasp-cow rebel space princess and antisocial AI with legs.





This is How You Lose the Time War — Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone

Relationships:
Blue/Red (This is How You Lose the Time War)

I have a crazy amount of love for this book. I reread it very soon after finishing it for the first time. I reviewed and squeed about it a bit in my journal here.

Prompts:
- letters or scenes during the story that we didn't see in the book
- Background / alternate POV to a particular scene/moment from the book
- Red and Blue after the book ends! How do they recover from all the stuff that they go through? How do they communicate with each other in real time? How do they set up their own little bridge between time lines and defend it? How many dogs do they get and what are they like? Slice of life, scenes/snapshots, cuteness, smooches, conflicts, learning to understand one another, still writing each other letters, drinking tea, puns, angst, declarations of love, whatever you like!
- I'm also super into stuff involving time travel, different times and time strands, timey-wimeyness of how changing events transforms the possible outcomes, particular time periods they enjoy or people they meet, etc. Geeking out about obscure or not-so-obscure culture from a certain strand. Knowing the best strand and time and place to get the perfect chocolate biscuits. Casually meeting historical figures we know — or alternate versions of them. Etc.