Smut Swap Letter 2019

[narya_flame]

 Dear Smut Swapper,

 

Hi! I'm sorry this letter is late; if early inspiration has struck and you've made a start then don't worry, anything in here is only for ideas and I'm sure I will love whatever you write for me.

 

I'm really happy that we share a love for these characters and would be equally thrilled with a story about any of them. I have a few DNWs but it's not a long list (character bashing; crack fic; focus on scat, vomit or bodily fluids (blood is OK) or pregnancy; A/B/O or 24/7 D/S) – outside of that, follow the call of your heart. I love all kinds of fic – romance, PWP, hurt/comfort, darkfic, horror, angst, fluff – and all sorts of relationship dynamics, so basically you can't go wrong!

(Please note these are all fic requests only.)

 

General Likes

 

• Complex character dynamics and complicated motives
• Worldbuilding details
• Original characters
• Pubs and inns
• Food, drink and celebrations
• Candlelight
• Sunrises and sunsets
• Music and musical instruments
• Found families/families of choice
• Ghosts
• Magic
• Storytelling
• Myth, folklore and fairytale
• Games/contests/competitions
• Objects and places with special significance – a “sense of history”
• Battle scenes and/or aftermath
• Physical imperfections
• Shapeshifting
• Unreliable narrators and quirky narrative structures – for example, epistolary, fragmented narratives, stories told through found documents, framing devices, stories told out of chronological order
• AU, especially canon divergence and “fix it”
• Grief and tragedy
• Hope, redemption and reconciliation

 

Ship Likes

 

• Developing friendships and budding romances
• Pre-ship feeling navigation
• Bedsharing – platonic or otherwise
• “The little things” - light brushes with fingertips, smiles across a room...
• Forehead kisses
• Fierce loyalty and devotion
• Deep platonic friendship (especially male-female)
• Hurt/comfort (feel free to go heavy on the hurt, e.g. slow recovery from a serious illness or injury)
• Situational relationships – enemies having to work together, or people who wouldn't normally be drawn to each other forming a bond through circumstance
• Occasional hookups/“friends and a bit more”
• Emotional reunions after long separations
• Friendship developing into romance
• Friends or lovers working together in battle
• Navigating bumps (or major mountains) in the road
• Tempestuous, complex or unhealthy relationships (see section on darker stuff); passionate encounters between individuals who would be terrible together long term, but can't resist each other in the here and now
• First times
• Quiet moments
• Depictions of happy, long term relationships/growing old together/very old friends looking back on their shared history

Smut Likes

 

• Breath play
• Blood play
• Knifeplay
• Helplessness
• Bathing
• Swimming
• Sex in or near water
• Hair brushing/washing/braiding
• Sex exploring power dynamics and/or deeply informed by characters' history together
• Comfort sex
• Post-battle sex (or post-other difficult event)
• Sex between friends
• Gags
• Blindfolds
• Feathers
• Ice
• Differing experience levels
• Enthusiastic consent
• Orgasm delay/denial

Darker Stuff

 

• Whump/hurt without comfort, including terminal illness or fatal injury
• Mental illness, including depression and suicidal thoughts
• Substance abuse
• Death and grief
• Torture
• Psychological manipulation and abuse
• Unhealthy relationships/relationships with troubling dynamics, including obsession, jealousy and co-dependency
• Possession
• Dark magic and curses
• Corruption and decay
• Resurrection and necromancy
• Being trapped in a small dark space, possibly with something terrifying lurking nearby
• Ghost and horror stories
• Dubcon
• Noncon (for certain ships – see requests)

Requests

 

The Fall of Arthur

 

Ships: Agravain/Gawain; Guinever/Arthur/Lancelot; Lancelot/Agravain; Mordred/Guinever

Tags: "Thank god you're alive" sex; Chivalry; Enemies to Friends to Lovers; Enemies to Lovers; Lovers To Enemies; Kneeling; Forced to Kneel; Loyalty Kink; Rivals to Lovers; Sex After Fighting/Battle

 

I've taken a bit of a punt by throwing a couple of less popular Tolkien canons into the mix; I'm not expecting to match on them, but if you are inspired to create something, then - yay!

 

I found Tolkien's foray into the Arthurian cycle fascinating, and there's so much potential for smutty goodness as most of the relationships are only sketched or skated over. The politics of the round table could come into play, or the mores of chivalry, or the betrayal and devotion woven through all of the legends. Feel free to draw on other Arthurian sources as well as Tolkien's poems – and, as with the Middle-earth canons, violence and death are integral to the story, so don't be afraid of including them.

 

The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun

 

Ships: Itroun/Corrigan; Aotrou/Itroun/Corrigan

Tags: Use of Magic or Superpowers During Sex; Intentional Magic During Sex; Blood Magic; Non-consensual Orgasm; Non-Consensual Somnophilia; Dubious Consent; Blood Drinking

 

Oh my God, this poem! I read it recently and I'm in love. (If you haven't read it I thoroughly recommend it; it doesn't take long to read through.) The Breton setting! The creepy Corrigan! Curses! Bargains! Magic! There's so much you could do with this, and I'd be thrilled to get something really dark here – non-con is more than OK for these ships, and I'd love to see blood magic explored through the lens of sex.

 

 

The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)

 

Ships: Tauriel/Original Female Character(s); Meludir/Original Character(s); Tauriel/Meludir/Original Mirkwood Elves; Tauriel/Meludir

Tags: "Thank god you're alive" sex; Casual Sex while Secretly Pining; Casual Sex Sex Between Friends; Friends to Lovers; Friends With Benefits Doesn’t Become Romantic; Hand Holding during Sex; Knifeplay; Piercings; Nipple Piercings

 

I was delighted that PJ included a capable female Elven warrior in the films (less thrilled about the love triangle, but hey). And Meludir...I have a weakness for walk-on characters and one-line wonders. Maybe they were childhood friends, or rivals? I can definitely see something casual and a little wild/dangerous happening in the Greenwood, although I'm always down with secret feelings and pining too.

 

 

The Lord of the Rings

 

Ships: Éomer/Éothain (Rider of Rohan)

Tags: Sex Between Friends; Friends to Lovers; Casual Sex while Secretly Pining; Casual sex leading to feelings; Casual Sex; Experienced/Inexperienced; First Time; First time with a man; First Time Bottoming; Loyalty Kink; Oblivious to Attraction; Rivals to Lovers

 

The horselords were my first fandom love, and I have a disproportionate amount of ideas and feelings about Éothain, the member of Éomer's éored who scoffed at the existence of hobbits. I'd be up for anything here from a long-running romance to rough, quick relief while out on patrol.

 

Ships: Éowyn/Faramir (Son of Denethor II); Éomer/Lothíriel

Tags: Experienced/Inexperienced; First Time; Playful Sex; Seduction; Sleepy Sex; Virgin makes the first move; Character study through porn; Hand Holding during Sex; Kneeling; Neck Kissing; Strength Kink

 

A couple of canon ships I adore, and I like to think that both Éowyn and Lothíriel tend towards dominance. PWP is absolutely fine, I don't mind when in their relationship you want to set it, and (for Éomer/Lothíriel) no preference on whether it was a love match or an arranged marriage.

 

The Silmarillion

 

 Ships: Fingon/Finrod/Maedhros; Fingon/Maedhros; Elemmakil/Voronwë

Tags: "Thank god you're alive" sex; Banter While in Bed; banter as foreplay; Blindfolds; Bruises; Careful Sex Because Partner Is Bruised; Comfort Sex; Gags; Held Down – Consensual; Ice Play; Neck Kissing; Orgasm Delay/Denial; Pinned by the Wrists; Protectiveness; Reading Erotic Literature; Sex After Serious Injury; Sex while injured; Sharing a Bed; Seduction

 

Two OTPs and an OT3 here! (That said, don't feel obliged to go down the “old marrieds” route with any of them; I'm fine with things being more casual or more complicated than that, I love different takes on these ships.) Sex after battle, reunion sex after a long separation, sex after surviving something difficult and traumatic, or just a night of fun and experimentation – it's all good. Preferably no pity-puddle Maedhros, although I'm fine with his cousins helping him work through some of his issues, or...ahem...distracting him if he's getting too broody.

 

Ships: Inziladûn/Gimilkhâd; Celegorm/Finrod

Tags: Aftercare; banter as foreplay; Banter While in Bed; Blindfolds; Bloodplay; Bruises; Careful Sex Because Partner Is Bruised; Gags; Grief Sex; Emotional Sex; Inappropriately timed emotional conversations; Emotional Manipulation; Jealousy; Knifeplay; Pinned by the Wrists; Political Debate as Foreplay; Reconciliation Sex; Sex while injured; Sex After Serious Injury; Unexpected feelings

 

So much to play with here! Family politics, differing ideologies, conflicting motivations – and what sits underneath all that? Reluctant attraction? Middle-earth's messiest love story? Pure, straight-up UST? I'd be fascinated by anything about either of these pairings; both of them are potentially difficult and complex, so feel free to go to some dark places (dubcon, violence, death, betrayal...) – but I love redemption and reconciliation too, if that's something you'd like to explore.

 

Ships: Arien/Balrog(s)

Tags: Lovers To Enemies; Enemies to Friends to Lovers; Enemies to Lovers; Frenemy lovers; Enemies With Benefits; Enemy Lovers; Jealousy; Playful Sex; Reconciliation Sex; Unexpected feelings; Seduction; Seduction to the Dark Side

 

Sex, love and betrayal among the Ainur? Yes, please! Did Arien's lover (or lovers) try to seduce her to the dark side? Is Arien a crueller, scarier character than canon depicts? I find this ship intriguing but have no specific wants or ideas outside the selected tags, so I'll be really interested to see what you come up with. I'm not attached to any gender for the Balrog or Balrogs, I'll leave that totally up to you.

 

Ships: Finarfin/Eärwen/Anairë

Tags: "Thank god you're alive" sex; Banter While in Bed; Comfort Sex; Grief Sex; Hair Braiding; Hair Brushing; Hand Holding during Sex; Laughter During Sex; Sharing a Bed

 

In my head I'm picturing this as something that initially happened in the aftermath of the Darkening, but if your idea is different then by all means run with it! I like the idea of the three of them comforting one another and eventually settling into a steady, loving relationship together. (Up to you what the Valar and other remaining Elves make of it, or just don't have it come up if that isn't something you're interested in exploring – PWP is totally fine.)