SWRarepairs 2019 Letter

[elsajeni]

Hi! Thanks for checking in! You’ve seen my general likes/DNWs in my sign-up already, but let me restate it here so it’s all in one place, and then we’ll get to the ship-specific stuff…

Likes: adventure and action; bantering or bickering; moments of humor even in the darkest situations; misunderstandings that turn out all right in the end; poly relationships; casual relationships; hurt/comfort; rescue missions; "undercover as a couple" trope.

Sexy Likes, if you go in that direction: light bondage; lots of talking during sex, both sweet and dirty; realistic funny or awkward moments; inappropriate use of Force powers. If you’re writing about teen characters (since some relationships I’ve requested would lend themselves to that), I’d rather not have anything explicit on-page, as noted in my DNWs, but I’m fine with offscreen or fade-to-black implied sex.

DNWs: rape/non-con unless specified; incest; explicit scenes with underage characters; detailed description of bodily fluids; drastically different AUs (what-ifs and canon-divergent fics are fine, this is about coffeeshop AUs, A/B/O, etc.); infidelity; pregnancy, miscarriage, or infertility; unrelentingly dark and grim stories (I like a glimmering of hope).

Star Wars canon preferences: I’m sure you can tell from my request list that I love and miss the old EU/Legends content. For any request that features Legends characters, I’d be very happy with a purely Legends-based fic, but I also love gluing the loose ends of Legends continuity into the loose ends of sequel trilogy continuity; please feel free to mix and match Legends and canon material. (One area where I do have a strong preference: if you're writing Wedge for me, I like Legends Wedge best.)


On to the relationship-specific prompts!


X-Wing Division:

Biggs Darklighter/Luke Skywalker

• I like this best as a teen relationship that grows a little awkwardly out of their friendship, is fun while it lasts, and transitions pretty easily back into friendship when it ends.
• That said, whatever you do with this pairing, it's going to be a little bit tinged with sadness; if you prefer it a LOT tinged with sadness, I'd also be delighted with a fic taking place in the brief window between when they reconnect in the Rebellion and the Death Star run.
• Alternately, get weird with it -- find a way for Biggs to survive, or bring him back from the dead. Write that Space Winter Soldier AU that I secretly kind of love, or Luke being haunted by the literal ghosts of his past.

Wedge Antilles/Luke Skywalker

• I would really like something that brings Wedge into the sequel trilogy timeline, and especially a look at what Luke's choice to isolate himself means for their relationship. Was Wedge ever on Ahch-To with him? Have they been in contact at all since he disappeared? When he's found, is Wedge in a rush to see him again, or are his feelings more complicated?
• (Perhaps you have guessed this, but I am EXTREMELY fine with Luke not actually being dead! If you like a more tragic tone, though, of course feel free to go with the canonical ending of TLJ.)
• I'd also love this as a more early-relationship fic -- if you go that route, I'm interested in the pressures that their respective positions and commitments put on the relationship, and especially the difficulty of maintaining a relationship with someone who keeps disappearing on incomprehensible Jedi business.

Wedge Antilles/Wes Janson

• Let's be honest, I'm mostly looking for more Wraith Squadron/Starfighters of Adumar-style shenanigans here. I'd love to see some silly undercover-as-a-couple type of stuff, or just some pure stress-relief casual fun.
• Alternately, this is a pairing that lends itself to hurt/comfort -- both of these guys have more than enough canonical close calls, let's see the aftermath of one of them.
• If you're feeling ambitious, you could fix Isard's Revenge for me by writing their reunion post-Distna, after they've both believed each other to be dead for weeks.

Myn Donos/Gara Petothel | Lara Notsil

• Listen: just hurt me.
• I cry through 90% of Solo Command. Make me cry some more.
• What really works for me is those agonizing scenes where Lara is trying to convince Myn that he really doesn't want to get involved with her, and clearly trying to convince herself as well -- I'd love a fic that puts them in a situation where it would be SO easy to give in, or a fic where she does give in and then has to try to figure out how to take it back.

Garik "Face" Loran/Ton Phanan

• This is a long shot, but: GHOSTS.
• Give me Ton hanging around after death -- where else does he have to go, after all?
• Haunting all the Wraiths, or just Face, or trying to figure out how he can weaponize haunting and go ruin some Imperials' day.
• Making Face miserable, or still making him laugh (and is he real, or is this some kind of coping mechanism, and does Face really want to know which?), or not seeming to know he's dead.
• If ghosts aren't for you, I'm also very happy to see them getting into shenanigans and having lots of casual sex during happier days!

Mara Jade/Gara Petothel | Lara Notsil

• Is this ridiculous? Yes. Do I love it anyway? Yes.
• The most plausible version of this is maybe Mara/"Kirney" during Lara's Intelligence training -- the timeline is ambiguous, but it doesn't seem crazy to say that they might have been on Imperial Center at the same time, or that the Emperor's Hand might have been sent to the kind of society parties where Kirney made herself at home.
• Alternately, I think they could have some very interesting things to say to one another later on, after they've both changed sides (a few times, in Lara's case) and are making progress on sorting out what the Empire did to their heads.

Other Original Trilogy Ships:

Oola/Leia Organa

• There wasn't a LOT of time for dancers to hang around unsupervised at Jabba's palace, and they were only there together for a couple of days, at most. But sometimes it only takes a couple of days, and sometimes all you need is a few bright stolen moments.
• (Honestly, to make them overlap at all takes a little timeline-fudging; feel free to fudge as far as you need, or even to work out a way for Oola to escape safely! But whether she makes it out or not, I'd rather this stay a short-term circumstantial fling.)

Lando Calrissian/Han Solo

• Like they haven't
• The fic where, the last time they saw whatever contact they're meeting, they were undercover as a couple, and now they've got to either pick up the cover again or explain how they split up.
• The fic where they are married, but only for tax or planetary immigration purposes, and now they're being audited and have to prove the legitimacy of the marriage.
• Or give me a sadder one in the sequel-trilogy timeline. Han and Leia have separated, their kid has run off to join the Dark Side -- maybe he's just looking for some comfort, or maybe they're rekindling something more serious, but either way, it's a good thing Lando came looking for him.

Wedge Antilles/Leia Organa/Han Solo, Lando Calrissian/Leia Organa/Han Solo

• What can I say, I love a threesome.
• With either of these, what I'd most like to see is Leia and Han inviting a friend (or, in Lando's case, a friendly ex) into their bedroom as a one-time fling or an ongoing, but casual, FWB arrangement; I'm less interested in a long-term triad.
• If it's Lando, I'd love to see a little tension between him and Leia as they sort out the boundaries of their respective claims on Han, but ultimately I do want this to be a happy, fun encounter for everyone involved.
• If you go with Wedge, I've always been very fond of his close friendship with Leia in the EU, and I'd like that to be his closer tie to her and Han.

Other Legends Ships:

Wedge Antilles/Mara Jade/Luke Skywalker

• I'd love to see this as a V (with Luke at the point) gradually changing shapes into a more even triad, as Wedge and Mara come to see more in each other than Commander Square Corners and a barely-trustworthy semi-reformed Imperial assassin.
• I'm most interested in this as a getting-together or early-relationship fic, with everyone still sorting out their feelings and their respective claims on each other.
• If you want to tie this into the sequel trilogy timeline, the same stuff as mentioned for Wedge/Luke applies -- have they been in contact since Luke pulled his disappearing act, did one or both of them ever join him on Ahch-To, are they in a hurry to see him again when he's found or is it more complicated than that?

Winter Celchu/Mara Jade

• What I'm really interested in here is Targeter and the Emperor's Hand, meeting by chance -- both on separate missions, neither one aware of who the other one is, but hey, they've got a little extra time and there's nothing in their mission parameters that says they can't take one night out to spend with an interesting new friend.
• Or, maybe one or both of them did know who they were dealing with -- hatesex? Pure curiosity about the other side? A honeypot act, trying to coax some information out of their counterpart?
• (What must they both be thinking when they meet again, formally this time, as representatives of the New Republic and Karrde's organization? Do they talk about it? Does anything rekindle?)

Winter Celchu/Leia Organa

• I'd like to see this as a youthful experiment between friends -- something casual that doesn't last, but remains a fond memory and a little bit of an in-joke.
• I'd love something purely sweet and fluffy and silly -- schoolgirl romance, before the Senate and the Rebellion really intrude. Staying up all night talking and giggling. Sneaking out of the palace to go on a regular teenage date. Awkward first kisses.
• I'd also love more of an early-Rebellion adventure fic -- getting into trouble and watching each other's backs. (Undercover as a couple? A rescue mission when one of them gets into a little too much trouble?)

Lando Calrissian/Mara Jade

• I liked Lando and Mara's EU relationship, and wasn't too happy with the "it was all just a cover" retcon -- show me the time, or times, that it wasn't just a cover.
• Or, how about an earlier meeting in their lives -- maybe when Mara was brand-new to Karrde's organization? Maybe during the couple of days they must have overlapped at Jabba's?

Lando Calrissian/Talon Karrde

• Like they haven't
• Listen, they're both classy, urbane independent businessmen. They like the finer things. Sometimes "the finer things" includes each other.
• What I'm looking for here is basically Business Colleagues With Benefits -- maybe they plan these rendezvous out carefully, maybe they just take advantage of chance meetings, but one way or another, they're going to have a very nice and fairly hedonistic time.

DJ/Talon Karrde

• I'll be honest, I don't really have a plan here, I just think this is a fantastic idea. I was thinking about Karrde the whole time DJ was on screen, and half-expecting him to turn out to BE Karrde, and I am delighted by the idea of this pairing.
• I think there's something interesting here about grey areas, and the "rogue with a heart of gold" archetype, and what it means, realistically, to play both sides against the middle when one side is clearly and dramatically evil.

Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo/Original Art Forger

• The fic where Thrawn keeps a forger in his employ, because sometimes he needs to reflect on a work of art that simply can't be obtained in its original form, even with all his power and connections -- and when there's only one person in your life who really understands your interest in art...
• The fic where some of Thrawn's finest acquisitions are discovered to be forgeries, and Thrawn decides he needs to know more about this exceptionally skilled artist.
• The fic where some of Thrawn's finest acquisitions, unbeknownst to him, are forgeries, and the forger decides they need to know more about this mysterious buyer with exceptional taste.
• I have no particular preference about the gender or species of the art forger -- suit yourself!

Gilad Pellaeon/Thrawn | Mitth'raw'nuruodo

• Pellaeon clearly has got a lot of Feelings of SOME kind about Thrawn. Give me the fic where sometimes those feelings spill over into action, whether it's true love or pure lust or some grey area in-between.
• I'm also into this as a one-sided/unrequited dynamic, or as a fantasy of Pellaeon's that doesn't ever really happen in real life.

Uncomfortable Power Dynamics Division:

Below this line: we are getting into the potential exceptions to the "no rape/non-con" clause. These are pairings that lend themselves to questionable, compromised, or coerced consent, and I like that about them. The line between "dubcon" and "non-con" is blurry, but as much as possible, I'd prefer that you stay on the "dubcon" side of it. Deceit, coercion, and uncomfortable power imbalances: yes! (VERY yes. Look... I am who I am.) Violence, physical or Force-based force, or explicit non-consent that's ignored: no.

Flim/Gilad Pellaeon

• The way I see this pairing, it all comes down to REALLY being about Pellaeon and Thrawn -- whether he believes Flim is Thrawn and Flim takes advantage of that, or he knows Flim isn't Thrawn but accepts him as close enough (as long as he stays in character).
• With the latter, you might go with Flim not knowing that he's been found out and thinking that he has to stay in character, and apparently Thrawn would have done this, so...
• Or, you could make participation in the fantasy an explicit condition of Flim's continued freedom -- "Thrawn" is valuable to the Empire, but if he's not cooperative, he could be "killed" again, and the conman behind the mask could disappear into a deep, dark hole...
• (Whether anything did ever happen between Pellaeon and Thrawn, or whether it was a fantasy that Pellaeon never got to act on, I leave entirely to you -- both are great!)

Mara Jade/Darth Vader

• I'm interested in Mara's childhood and youth, and the sort of... just-under-the-surface yawning horror that we know is there, but that's not really dug into much in Legends. Surely she and Vader must have encountered each other -- as rivals for Palpatine's attention, as tentative allies, as student and teacher?
• This could go in a lot of different directions, from something as relatively innocent as an uncomfortable attraction between two people with no one else to talk to, to something as dark as the Emperor straight-up ordering one of them to the other's bedroom. Whatever you do with it, I'd like you to treat the power dynamics and age dynamics here seriously, and lean into the darkness that's present in what we know about Mara's upbringing -- no one here is really having a good time or doing something they'll be happy to look back on.
• Please note that this is NOT an exception to the "no explicit scenes with underage characters" clause -- if you write this with Mara as a teen (let's assume basically anytime before ANH), please keep anything explicitly sexual off-screen.

Lando Calrissian/Darth Vader, Han Solo/Darth Vader

• Sometimes you have to make a deal -- to keep your city and the people who live in it, the people you promised to protect, safe. To keep your friends, or the princess you're hoping might be more than a friend, or the last hope of the Rebellion, safe. Sometimes you have to make a really uncomfortable deal.

Joruus C'baoth/Luke Skywalker

• Same as above, basically: sometimes you have to make a deal to protect the people you care about. To keep an unstable Dark Jedi from continuing to pursue your sister, or your unborn niece and nephew, or your new Force-sensitive frenemy, as his next apprentice -- and maybe that deal is a little more complex than just "I'll stay here as your apprentice if you leave them alone."