sincereously

Hello, writer!

I'm so excited to see what you come up with for this exchange! Hope you have a great time with it. Prompts are here if you want them, but if you have another idea that's inspiring you I'm happy to see that too.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact me through the mods. I'm also sincereously on AO3.

General likes:
Worldbuilding (especially religious and cultural worldbuilding)
Canon divergence
Bickering, friendly and not-so-much
Introspection
Unreliable narrators
Moments of quiet intimacy during breaks in the action (especially good for missing scenes in between what we see in canon)
Complicated women, and complicated relationships between complicated women
Slowly building intimacy/respect together - slow burn in general
Taking care of injured people
Forced proximity (undercover together, trapped together, accidental/arranged marriage, fake dating, only one bed, etc.)
Elaborate plans that may or may not work out
Improvising new plans as you go along
"That's an extremely bad plan, of course I'm in" type situations and interpersonal dynamics
Getting in way over your head but throwing yourself headfirst into the plan anyway
Repressed characters learning to let go
Struggling against temptation (and giving into it)
Unusual formats, including in-universe documents
Five + one things structure

General DNWs:
Character bashing
Canon-divergent death of any requested characters (canonical deaths are fine)
Non-canonical child death
Setting change AUs (ex. coffeeshop, high school, modern AU, etc.)
Time travel AUs
Formalized dom/sub relationships
Humiliation during sex
Ageplay
Raceplay
Omegaverse
Excretory kinks
Rape/noncon (dubcon - sex pollen with both/all characters dosed, sex in arranged marriages, fuck-or-die, etc. - are fine)
Underage under 15 and unrequested non-canonical ships with 20+ year age gaps (mentions of canon examples of both are acceptable, but please don't make them the focus of the fic)
Cross-gen incest
Animal abuse
Fic devoted primarily to examining real-world issues/-isms (please don't feel that you have to avoid them, but I'd rather they not be the entirety of what the work is about)
Hopeless endings (endings can be dark, but not without any shred of hope)
Please keep the level of violence at about what it is in canon.


FANDOMS

Dreamgirls

Requests: Effie White, Deena Jones, Lorrell Robinson

Ship and group notes: I'm good with gen, canon pairings, and/or Effie/Deena. I'm also happy to have any combination of requested characters, including leaving one or two of the requested characters offstage or in the background if it makes more sense to focus on only one or two requested characters.

About the canon: See the promo post here!

The summary I gave in the promo post doesn't really do justice to the women and their relationships, which I love. I love how headstrong and indomitable Effie is, and how Deena builds her confidence and comes into her own, and how Lorrell has a snarky streak in her sunny personality. The whole show is about their dreams and their struggles and successes in making those dreams a reality, and it's so fun to watch them grow and change over the course of the show.

I'm also interested in the setting: the 1960s-1970s R&B and pop music industry as interpreted by 1980s Broadway. There's room for social commentary (among other things, the Black leads get one of their early songs covered and buried by a white group), drama (secret affairs and Curtis' payola operations), and Broadway glitz (look at the costumes! often with super-fast costume changes!).

I'm good with basing the fic off of any production you want. In addition, while I requested the stage show for this, the movie sticks very closely to the stage version and I would be fine with more movie-influenced fic as well, if you're having trouble finding/watching the stage musical.

Prompts:

- How did the girls first come together as a group? Were they all friends growing up (Effie talks about her and Deena once being each other's closest friends), or did they meet later on and bond over their shared desire to sing? I'd love to hear about their successes and failures pre-fame, and them sharing their big dreams with each other.

- How did Deena and Lorrell handle the interim time period between Act I and Act II, where they're going on international tours as the Dreams, adjusting to Michelle replacing Effie, and dealing with Deena's wedding to Curtis as well as Lorrell's continuing relationship with Jimmy?

- Effie mentions that she saw Deena at Deena's mother's funeral and wanted to talk to her, but there were "too many people in the way". What would have happened if they had had the chance to talk? What would that conversation have been like?

- When the show ends, they've reconciled but they're also on different paths. What would happen if they reunite again a few years later, while Effie's rising in the music business again and Deena's in her movie career and Lorrell's pursuing a life without Jimmy in it? Anything about them rebuilding their friendships and how them going after their own dreams is turning out. (I didn't request Michelle here, but you can also bring up what she's doing at this point).

- Curtis was supposed to love Effie. So was Deena. (Take that however you will).


Gypsy

Requests: Louise, June, Rose

Ship and group notes: I'm good with gen, canon pairings, and/or f/f pairing one of the requested characters with Tessie, Mazeppa, Electra, or OCs. I'm also happy to have any combination of requested characters, including leaving one or two of the requested characters offstage or in the background if it makes more sense to focus on only one or two requested characters.

About the canon: See the promo post here!

I love how wonderfully complex the women are, especially Rose. It's fun watching her smash her way through all obstacles through a mix of manipulation and just plain grandstanding, but her talent for deception also includes deceiving herself, to the detriment of her relationship with June and Louise. With June and Louise, I love them growing up and figuring out how to break free and find their own dreams, even if it's not what Rose had in mind for them. I love the complex mix of love and self-centered ambition that Rose has for her daughters, and the mix of love and frustration and hunger for approval that the girls feel for Rose. These women all do deeply care about each other, but man, sometimes they have a very dysfunctional way of showing it.

I'm good with basing the fic off of any production you want. In addition, while I requested the stage show for this, the movie(s) sticks very closely to the stage version and I would be fine with more movie-influenced fic as well, if you're having trouble finding/watching the stage musical.

Prompts:

- Any missing scenes of the family, Herbie, and the boys on the road - practicing the routines together, conning their way out of jams, exploring the new cities they perform in.

- Any part of Rose's backstory before the events of the play. So much of Rose's issues in her parenting seem related to the fact that her own mother walked out on her, after all. I'd also love to see Rose as unreliable narrator!

- Rose teaching her daughters the things she thinks they need to learn, and the lessons that they learned from her without her meaning to. (I also like the moments where June and especially Louise are taking a page from Rose's books to get what they want, and where they're more alike than they might want to acknowledge).

- How did June deal with being on her own with Tulsa once she escaped the troupe? For better or for worse it'd be the first time in her life she'd ever been away from Mama and Louise - that has to turn up some intense emotions.

- I'd also be interested in seeing the women reunite and reflect on how their lives have gone at some point after canon, particularly a reunion for the sisters or for Rose and June. (I tend to see the musical characters as separate from the real-life figures, so you can take as much or as little as you want from the real peoples' history here, including inventing something new).


Forever Amber

Requests: Amber St. Clare

Ship and group notes: I'm good with gen or with any pairing that conforms to my DNWs. I feel like if Amber thought she could get something out of a relationship/sex with somebody, she totally Would, so that gives you a wide range to choose from.

About the canon: See the promo post here!

I love Amber. She's breathtakingly self-centered, short-sighted, petty, and not terribly bright, but she knows what she wants and she's going to go for it, dammit. The narrative voice is slightly distant from Amber, and it strikes a good balance of knowing exactly what Amber is but also retaining empathy for her, so that even Amber's worst ideas come across with wry amusement at what trouble Amber's getting herself into now and interest in how she'll get out of it. Amber's overwhelming selfishness also makes the rare moments where she does help someone besides herself that much more endearing. It all adds up for a character I really enjoyed following for 900+ pages.

Kathleen Winsor also did a fantastic job of researching life in London under the rule of Charles II, which comes through in both explorations of places, events, and everyday life in the city as well as characterization for historical figures like Nell Gwynn, Barbara Palmer, and Charles himself.

Prompts:

- In general, I'd be thrilled with any type of missing moments or canon-typical plots. The book richly describes 17th-century England from the pastoral villages to the homes of God-fearing merchants to the London slums to the dazzling court of Charles II, and all of those places have plenty of opportunity for Amber to get herself in and out of trouble. Maybe Amber schemes to acquire a priceless jewel or dethrone a rival in business or affection? Given that it's Amber, those plans may or may not succeed.

- As much as Amber is generally characterized as a selfish-but-determined Scarlett O'Hara type, she does get a few softer moments that stand out in their rarity (paying for a blanket for the Quaker woman in prison, befriending Nan). Seeing more of those types of moments - maybe interactions with her children? - could be lovely.

- I'd love to read more about Amber's life as an actress specifically - I find the history of theatre super-fascinating, with all the drama both onstage and off. Anything would be great, from the mundane aspects of running a show to Amber manipulating a performance to achieve her own ends to offstage fights (and possibly hatesex?) with rival Beck Marshall.

- Super-AU: what if Amber's birth family had found out about her and claimed her? If it's early enough, could she have met Bruce in a different way and subsequently had an entirely different relationship with him (they wouldn't be social equals, but they'd be much closer than they were in canon)? If it happens much later, how would that change Amber's standing in court? The Earl of Radclyffe would definitely get more aggressive in pursuing Amber if he found out - how would she have dealt with him?

- Post-canon (or in an AU where Amber realizes that the message from Bruce is fake before she leaves England), Amber is furious about being tricked and returns to court to wreak VENGEANCE!