Just Married 2019 Letter

[kay_obsessive]

Dear Just Married Creator,

First of all, thank you so much for making something for me! I love silly marriage tropes and I really love all of these ships 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.

Dislikes: Non-canon permanent major character death. Explicit, onscreen noncon (but I am very okay with the dubcon inherent to certain unwanted marriage tropes). 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

All requests for this exchange are for fic only. Any elaborations on the freeform tags are just ideas and suggestions, and if you have your own super great idea for any of these you should totally go for it!

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.

Freeforms:
- Characters Keep "Forgetting" to Annul Accidental Marriage
- Getting Married So You Can't Testify Against Each Other in Court
- Married as cover but unexpectedly have to consummate it in ritual
- Mistaken For Married
- Pretending to be married to access information
- Real Wedding Night for Fake Marriage
- Someone/Everyone Thinks They're Married
- Undercover as Married
- Undercover as Married Leads to Unexpected Feelings
- Woke Up Married
- Woke Up Married After A Drunk Night

I love fake/undercover marriage stuff for any kind of professional partnerships, and scary assassins are no different. Whether it’s early years as part of a job, or later on in life when they’re trying to keep a low profile and move on from their old reputations, or anything else that might require pretending to be married for Reasons. And maybe sometimes it turns out less fake than intended.

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?

Freeforms:
- Friends/Family/Fans/Foes React To Unexpected Or Contentious Marriage
- Marriage for Protection from Criminal Organization
- Marriage to keep enemy under your control
- Married Someone Pregnant and the Baby Isn't Their's
- Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close
- Marrying Someone to Investigate Their Past/Crimes
- Permanently Transported To Alternate Universe Where They're Married To Person Who Is Dead In Theirs
- Political marriage where one partner is under orders to kill their spouse
- Political marriage where one partner plans to kill their spouse
- Royal Court Reaction to Marriage
- Working While on Your Honeymoon
- Worldbuilding through Marriage Ceremony

Idk, I just like the idea of antagonistic, powerful people with grudging mutual respect entering into purely practical arrangements – willingly or unwillingly – that get messy with ulterior motives and emotions and stuff. And that ‘transported to alternate universe’ one was just too good to miss. Crank up that guilt.


Doctor Who

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.

Freeforms:
- Accidental Marriage
- Accidental Marriage Causes Scandal
- Accidental Marriage due to Misunderstanding the Norms of Another Culture
- accidental proposal
- Alien Artifact Creates Marriage
- Alien Cultural Differences Over Marriage
- Alien Marriage Traditions
- Aliens Make Them Get Married
- Aliens Think They're Married
- Characters Keep "Forgetting" to Annul Accidental Marriage
- Disastrous Wedding Ceremony Everyone Will Gossip About For Years
- Getting Married To Avoid A Diplomatic Incident
- Getting Married to Avoid Otherwise-Likely Marriage to Unbearable Third Party
- Mistaken For Married
- Series of Mishaps Prevent Annulment of Accidental Marriage

So, basically I’m here for all of the alien cultural misunderstandings and mishaps.


Fruits Basket

Honda Tohru/Sohma Akito

I never would have guessed going into this series that Akito would wind up being one of the most fascinating characters to me and that her relationship with Tohru would wind up being one of my favorites, but that’s definitely where I am now. I love how drastically their relationship changes over the series and how profoundly they impact each other, especially considering they really only meet face-to-face a couple of times. They’re both just really flawed and damaged people dealing with it in very different ways.

Freeforms:
- Class conflict in marriage
- Forced Marriage Leads to Genuine Feelings
- Friends/Family/Fans/Foes React To Unexpected Or Contentious Marriage
- Marriage to keep enemy under your control
- Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close
- Worldbuilding through Marriage Ceremony

I could see Akito somehow coming to think this is a good idea (or being manipulated into thinking it). If she can’t drive Tohru away without also driving her zodiac members away, why not just bind Tohru to her side as well? That way she can keep everybody in line. Except Tohru is Tohru, and we know the effect she has on people.


Lackadaisy

Mordecai Heller/Mitzi May

I’m really fascinated by the relationship these two have. They’re on opposing sides of the main conflict of the series and don’t really seem to particularly like each other, but there’s a weird understanding and some kind of trust between them. They seem to know each other really well and clearly know each other’s secrets, and they don’t quite seem to consider each other enemies on a personal level, despite the circumstances.

Freeforms:
- Marriage for Protection from Criminal Organization
- Marriage to keep enemy under your control
- Married Someone Pregnant and the Baby Isn't Their's
- Marrying an Enemy to Keep Them Close
- Marrying Pregnant Person So Child (Not Theirs) Will Be Born In Wedlock
- Marrying Someone Pregnant Knowing that the Baby Isn't Theirs To Protect Them Both
- Marrying Someone You Don't Like to Save Them From a Worse Fate
- Political marriage where one partner is under orders to kill their spouse
- Real Wedding Night for Fake Marriage

Some sort of semi-reluctant arrangement – legally binding or just a convincing façade – entered into for practical reasons or out of a sense of obligation to each other after the business with Atlas’s death? Maybe they both think they’re doing the other a favor or protecting them in some way, or maybe there are more sinister motivations.

Mordecai Heller/Nico Savoy/Serafine Savoy

The Savoys slowly dragging Mordecai out of his comfort zone and into their little circle is just a delightful part of this comic for me. It’s hilarious and dark and also kinda weirdly sweet, since they really seem to genuinely like him and want him as part of their world. And he seems surprisingly susceptible to being dragged along by them, whether he likes it or not.

Freeforms:
- Can Only Join Organization by Marrying In
- Honeymoon Heist
- Marriage as part of a con
- Tricked Into Marriage
- Woke Up Married After A Drunk Night
- Working While on Your Honeymoon

I can’t see Mordecai ever going into any of this willingly, but I could see him just kind of dealing with it once it’s happened and the outrage has passed. Or going along with something under the assumption it’s some trickery for a job and not realizing the other two are actually serious about it until it’s too late.


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.

Freeforms:
- Characters Keep "Forgetting" to Annul Accidental Marriage
- Disastrous Wedding Ceremony Everyone Will Gossip About For Years
- Everyone Thought They Were Already Married
- Mistaken For Married
- Secret Marriage
- Secret Marriage Becomes Public
- Series of Mishaps Prevent Annulment of Accidental Marriage
- Someone/Everyone Thinks They're Married
- Undercover as Married
- Undercover as Married Leads to Unexpected Feelings
- Woke Up Married
- Woke Up Married After A Drunk Night
- Working While on Your Honeymoon

Hey, they’ve canonically done full undercover with silly costumes for Psychonauts missions before. Undercover marriage is obviously the next logical step. And I can only imagine all the ways someone could accidentally wind up married in a world with psychic powers. And you know the campers and probably also their coworkers gossip about their relationship.



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!