Chocolate Box 2019 Letter

[kay_obsessive]

Dear Chocolate Box Creator,

First of all, thank you so much for making something for me! I really love all of these fandoms and relationships I’m requesting, so I’m sure I’ll like anything you make for any of them!

If you’re the journal stalking type, my previous exchange letters can be found here and here, my AO3 account is here, and my tumblr is here. Other than that, I don’t have much of an online presence, but I will try to give you everything you need to know right here.

General Likes/Dislikes

Likes: A strong sense of character and character relationships. Characters who know each other better than anyone else, whether they are friends, lovers, colleagues, enemies, or any combination of the above. Trust and loyalty. Competence. Intimate body language. People who have no sense of personal space with each other. Outsider POVs. Interweaving plots. Slice of life. Roadtrips. Mission fic. Future fic. Canon divergence AUs. Supernatural/fantasy/______punk/in space! AUs. Backstory. Interesting worldbuilding details. Undercover as a couple. Friends to lovers. Developing relationships. Culture clashes. People who are bad at communicating finally managing it. Drabbles and drabble sequences. Stylized designs. Limited color palettes.

Dislikes: Non-canon permanent major character death. Explicit, onscreen non-con. Extreme underage. Parent-child incest. Unrequested crossovers. ‘Modern mundane’/high school/coffee shop AUs. Love triangles where everyone acts immature and no one communicates. First person POV, unless the original canon is in first person or if it’s an in-universe letter or article or something. Creepily invested matchmaker friends. Anything A/B/O, dom/sub world, soulmates, or soulbonds.



Requests

Any prompts listed are just ideas and suggestions, and if you have your own super great idea for any of these fandoms and relationships you should totally go for it! I haven’t tried to separate out fic/art prompts, so feel free interpret anything in either direction.

Dishonored

Daud/Billie Lurk

This is one of those relationships that was basically tailor-made for me. Mentor/student, leader and their close subordinate who can get away things others can’t, age gap, complicated issues of trust and loyalty and betrayal and forgiveness – these are a few of my favorite things. I love everything about these two and their messy, complex history with each other. I was doomed basically from Billie’s first line, and it only got better from there.

• Something from the Whalers’ heyday: Daud and Billie fighting together, training together, running their gang of assassins together. Maybe blowing off steam after a particularly tough job.


• AU where they meet up again earlier than in canon, before or during the events of Dishonored 2. Maybe one was looking for the other; maybe they stumbled across each other by accident, and now they have to deal with all their issues on top of the plot going on.


• Daud and Billie together on the Dreadful Wale.


• Anything to do with the Fugue Feast. This is one of the most interesting little details of Dishonored’s worldbuilding to me, and it doesn’t get expanded on much in canon. How do people already living outside the law spend their time on a day without laws? Or just use it as an excuse to put them in neat masks and face paint – that’s cool, too. Or go the porny route, also cool.


• Everyone survives Death of the Outsider and Billie and Daud go retire somewhere with their weird adopted former god child that neither of them really wants, but what else are they gonna do with him?


• Or they kill the Outsider but Daud survives, and now they have to deal with the aftermath of that decision.


• I am always down for werewolf/vampire/monster AUs for this canon.

Daud/Jessamine Kaldwin

So, this one is a little bit complicated, given that Daud’s hired killing of Jessamine is the inciting incident for the whole series, but I think there’s some interesting potential here. Daud has a clear respect for Jessamine, and her death affects him in a way none of his other victims has. And Jessamine gets the rare opportunity to assess her murderer after her death, and she finds herself a little conflicted about what he deserves, despite her justified anger. And before all of that, they were both prominent, powerful figures running different parts of the same city – who’s to say they never had any dealings with each other in all those years before the murder?

• Daud has obviously been hired by nobility before – did the Empress herself ever need an assassin? Jessamine negotiating a contract with Daud, whether for a killing or something else, whether she went through with it or not.


• Or any other kind of pre-canon interaction: Jessamine trying to put an end to the Whaler presence in her city, Daud working at a high-profile assassination that has them crossing paths, the two of them negotiating some sort of truce (that gets tested when the pay is too good to refuse).


• Jessamine as the Heart being picked up by Daud. Or given directly to him by the Outsider.


• Any sort of AU that sees Daud deciding not to go through with killing Jessamine and the fallout from that.


• Fugue Feast again! Where even Dunwall’s most recognizable citizens can let their hair down and make bad choices.


• The above prompt about werewolf/vampire/monster AUs for this canon? Still totally applies here.

Doctor Who (1963)

Seventh Doctor/Ace McShane

Seven/Ace hit all my mentor/student buttons from the start. I love how there’s a real apprentice-y vibe to their interactions that isn’t there for every Doctor and Companion. I love how that goes a bit dark sometimes, with the Doctor pushing Ace well outside her comfort zone and being willing to hurt her to help her, and with Ace lashing out in response and calling him on his more dickish behavior. On the lighter side, I also just love how comfortable they are with each other, lots of friendly teasing and casual contact.

• The Doctor and Ace having classic time and space adventures. Maybe with a little extra unnecessary closeness and touching.


• What happened when Ace left? Did they have a falling out, were they forced apart, did she stay behind somewhere where she was needed?


• Ace’s (and possibly the Doctor’s) time on the Cheetah Planet having long-term consequences with some lingering animalistic behavior.


• Anything digging into that whole “The Doctor was grooming Ace to become a Time Lord” thing. That’s a real fun and messy concept.


• A lot of the Seven and Ace stories had almost a grand, mythic feel, between the Merlin references and the Fenric storyline, and I always loved that. I would love anything that explored that a little more.


• I would also be down with Ace with one of the other Doctors. Nine or Thirteen would be favorites, but I like them all! Or maybe Ace dealing with Seven regenerating.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga

Olivier Mira Armstrong/Miles

I’m a sucker for leaders and their close subordinates; I love that kind of loyalty and trust, especially if it goes both ways as is clearly the case for Olivier and Miles. We don’t get a ton on their relationship in the series, but I love the glimpses we do get: Olivier explaining to Miles why she needs someone like him at her side, Miles saying that Olivier was the one to convince him he could make a difference from within the military, Olivier releasing Miles to help with the Ishval restoration at the end. I’d love to see that relationship expanded on in fic or art.

• Moments along the way to Olivier and Miles earning each other’s extreme loyalty and respect. How did Miles wind up working under Olivier at Briggs? What kinds of conflicts and tensions did they have before figuring each other out?


• Do they keep in touch while he’s working to rebuild Ishval, and does the relationship change at all now that he no longer reports directly to her? Maybe Olivier visits to check on the progress being made.


• Miles coming back to Briggs after his work in Ishval.


• Quiet moments on the Wall.


• What happens after one or both of them retires?

Lackadaisy

Ivy Pepper/Viktor Vasko

Here comes my love of age gaps again, oops. Ivy and Viktor have my absolute favorite relationship in the comic. Big, strong, curmudgeonly characters who have a not-so-secret soft spot for small, sweet, perky characters are a weakness of mine. I love that he can be murderously protective of her, but she also has a clear power over him, to the point where others will bring Ivy along as a shield if they think Viktor might be unhappy with them. I love how Ivy reacts to Viktor being in danger by being aggressively cheerful and unwilling to let him mope alone, while Viktor reacts to Ivy being in danger by being an asshole and trying to drive her away – and neither of them quite understands what the other is doing and they just wind up arguing.

• Working through their last argument, reconciling, and moving forward.


• Ivy dealing with everything she’s learned about Viktor recently, figuring out why she feels so weird about the whole ‘estranged wife and daughter’ thing.


• Viktor, however reluctantly, teaching Ivy the skills of their trade.


• Ivy using Viktor for his warmth in winter.


• Ivy and Viktor down the road, after prohibition ends.


• Or maybe something terrible happens to everyone else around them and they wind up doing their own cat people version of the movie Léon

Psychonauts

Sasha Nein/Milla Vodello

Superstar Psychonauts Sasha Nein and Milla Vodello! They don’t actually have a ton of direct interaction in the game itself, but I love the implied relationship between the two. They are psychic secret agents! They go on ridiculous missions together and fight crime - psychic crime! One of these missions involved being undercover in elaborate costumes at a fancy party! They have had at least one clichéd instance of falling down and landing on top of each other in a ~romantic~ pose! I eat this stuff up with a spoon.

• Early days in the Psychonauts: recruitment, training, first missions, first missions as a team, first summer working the camp.


• More on the dark backstories of either character and how they learn about each other’s past.


• Sasha and Milla in each other’s mental worlds.


• Having that “I need to tell you something” conversation after the end of Rhombus of Ruin. Or just comforting each other after everything.


• Sasha and Milla in their winter gear from that Psychonauts 2 poster.


• A normal day at the office at Psychonauts HQ, dealing with bosses, coworkers, interns, paperwork, and office gossip.


• Psychonauts HQ does various holiday parties. Attendance is mandatory.


• Milla teasing Sasha about his obsession with aliens.


• Sasha and/or Milla and their opinions on the fictionalized comic book versions of themselves.

Well, that about sums it up, I think. Again, thank you so much for creating something for me! If you like prompts, I hope what I gave you is helpful. If you prefer to work without them, I look forward to seeing whatever you come up with. I’m sure whatever you make will be awesome!