sincereously

Hello, creator!

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. Please also feel free to check out any of my past exchange letters for prompts and inspiration, if you want!

General Likes and DNWs

General Fic Likes:
Worldbuilding (especially magical, religious and cultural worldbuilding)
Unusual formats, including in-universe documents and IF/Choose Your Own Adventure
Canon divergence
Outsider POV
Dramatic irony
Moments of quiet intimacy during breaks in the action (especially good for missing scenes in between what we see in canon)
Slowly building intimacy/respect together - slow burn in general
Taking care of injured people
Hair care, washing, and styling as bonding
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/the Dark Side
Five + one things structure

General DNWs:
Canon-divergent death of requested characters (canonical deaths are fine)
Non-canonical child death
Setting change AUs (ex. coffeeshop, high school, modern AU, etc.)
Time travel AUs
Explicitly stated sexuality labels for characters whose sexuality is not canonically defined
Formalized dom/sub relationships
Ageplay
Raceplay
Omegaverse
Mpreg
Excretory kinks
Rape/noncon (dubcon - sex pollen with both/all characters dosed, sex in arranged marriages, fuck-or-die, etc. - are fine, as are references to canonical rape/noncon.)
Underage under 15 and unrequested non-canonical ships with 20+ year age gaps (mentions of canon examples are fine, but please don't make them the focus of the fic)
Cross-gen incest
Animal abuse
Hopeless endings (endings can be dark, but not without any shred of hope)

Please keep the violence level at about what it is in canon.

FANDOMS

Cat Ballou (1965)

Tags: Cat Ballou, Kid Shelleen, Cat Ballou & Clay Boone & Uncle Jed & Kid Shelleen & Jackson Two-Bears, Cat Ballou/Jackson Two-Bears, Cat Ballou/Kid Shelleen, Clay Boone & Uncle Jed, Jackson Two-Bears & Kid Shelleen, Kid Shelleen & Tim Strawn, Professor Sam the Shade & The Sunrise Kid, Cat Ballou & Professor Sam the Shade & The Sunrise Kid

Additional Info and Prompts:

Such a fun movie! And it's a movie about stories, first and foremost - the legend of Cat Ballou, of course, but also the stories that built the myth of the Old West and the Western movie. It's fun to see where those legends contrast to the real (or real-ish) story, but also where the characters work to make the legends real themselves.

- Further adventures of Cat Ballou, queen of the outlaws, and her gang! What other heists do they pull off? How does the gang interact with the other residents of Hole-in-the-Wall? Do the relatives or associates of Sir Harry Percival try to take revenge against Cat, and how does she react? Do they run into other situations that require their justice? Can they adapt their Old West Outlaw Gang identity even as modernization rapidly approaches? I'd also love any of these stories as in-universe pulp stories or as ballads by Professor Sam the Shade and the Sunrise Kid.

- What did Clay and Jed get up to pre-canon? What drove them to become cattle rustlers? Jed's priest disguise seems to be a favorite of his - what was it like the first few times he tried that out?

- What were the other adventures of Kid Shelleen, real or imagined? What were the in-universe stories of Kid Shelleen like - the ones Cat read on the train and based the train robbery on, as well as new stories - and how did Shelleen tell the stories to others? What was Kid Shelleen and Tim Strawn's relationship like growing up, and what precipitated the final break between the two of them?

- I have a soft spot for Cat/Jackson - it's one of the sweetest relationships in the movie, with Cat defending him against the bigoted townsfolk and Jackson being so ride-or-die for the Ballous. What kind of a life could they build together? (Clay can head to St. Louis more-or-less amicably or just not be mentioned at all per your preference).

- I also like the idea of Cat choosing Kid Shelleen and going even further into a wild life of crime, ruled only by her own sense of right and wrong and Kid's dubious guidance. Can he impart useful heist planning skills and marksmanship techniques (once he's reached the right level of drunk) and help her embrace her sense of freedom? What havoc could they create together? Could they save each other, in their own way?

- Jackson and Kid Shelleen had a remarkably fun relationship, with Jackson as squire to Kid's knight-errant (especially in the dressing scene before Kid goes to fight Tim). Could they have gone off to have their own adventures, either post-canon or in a world where Tim and Harry were defeated before they could kill Frank Ballou? (There's also an interesting tension of Jackson Two-Bears as a Native American taking up the role of an Old West gunslinger).

- Professor Sam the Shade and the Sunrise Kid are a great framing device, but I'd also love to know more about them personally. How did they meet and start working together? Do they go from place to place singing outlaw ballads? Were they the ones that wrote the ballad of Cat Ballou, and what was the process of writing the song like? If they did write the ballad, was the "real" story different from the story we get in the movie? (I also like the idea of Sam the Shade and the Sunrise Kid manipulating and changing the story while the characters of the movie can still interact with them, or like a more benevolent version of the Player in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Could Cat hear her story and come to them to demand a different ending?)

Double Indemnity (1944)

Tags: Phyllis Dietrichson, Lola Dietrichson, Barton Keyes, Phyllis Dietrichson/Walter Neff, Phyllis Dietrichson & Barton Keyes, Lola Dietrichson & Phyllis Dietrichson, Lola Dietrichson/Phyllis Dietrichson

Additional Info and Prompts:

I love the atmosphere of this movie, the sense of corruption just under the surface, the sharpness of the characters and their dialogue and the way they play off each other - basically, everything this movie exemplifies as a film noir.

- Backstory of Phyllis - before she met the Dietrichsons, while she was nurse to the first Mrs. Dietrichson, etc. How much is she telling the truth about her past? Did she have any other murders besides the first Mrs. Dietrichson? I'd love to see more about how her mind works.

- What was Phyllis' next move going to be if she'd managed to successfully kill Neff in their final confrontation? She's perhaps not as good a plotter as she thinks she is, but she's ruthless enough that she could make a good go of escape, and it'd be really fun to watch whether she succeeds or fails.

- In the book, Phyllis and Walter escape to a steamship bound for Mexico, where they commit suicide by jumping off the ship into the water. What could have happened if this version of Phyllis and Walter had both escaped only to see each other again in Mexico, both on the run from the law and still in the midst of their love/hate/possible murder attempts against each other?

- For either of the two above prompts, you could also have Barton or Lola in pursuit of the criminals, for justice and/or for revenge. What emotions are running through them, now that the horrible truth has come out? How do they track the fugitive(s) down? What's it like if they confront Phyllis and/or Walter again?

- Outsider POV on the movie from Barton's or Lola's perspective - they're both clever enough to get most of the way to the truth, but they're missing a few crucial pieces, and it's be interesting to see where their insights and blind spots are from their own perspective.

- What could have happened if, instead of antagonizing Lola, Phyllis had tried to make an ally of her instead? Between Phyllis' coldness and Lola's fire, you could have this really interesting mix of mentorship and manipulation between them. Would Phyllis succeed in corrupting Lola, or would Lola turn the tables on Phyllis? (Maybe a bit of both?)

Psycho (1960)

Tags: Lila Crane, Marion Crane, Mother, Norman Bates, Sam Loomis, Lila Crane & Marion Crane, Lila Crane & Sam Loomis, Marion Crane/Sam Loomis, Norman Bates & Lila Crane, Norman Bates & Marion Crane, Norman Bates & Mother, Norman Bates/Marion Crane, Norman Bates/Sam Loomis

Additional Info and Prompts:

I enjoy all the things that are not as they seem in this canon, about the sides of the characters that they hide from everyone, sometimes including themselves. There’s a lot of horror, but it’s understated and happens more in people’s heads (including those of the audience).

Shipwise I like Marion/Sam, Marion/Norman, and Sam/Norman. None of these ships have to be portrayed as straightforwardly romantic and can definitely go to dark places (particularly those involving Norman, because, well, dude has issues). I don't mind incorporating aspects of the books/sequel movies but would prefer a focus on this specific movie, and I'm also fine with ignoring the books/sequels if you'd like to explore something different.

- What was Norman's life like in that spooky house and that run-down motel with only Mother for company? What did the other townsfolk, including Sam, think of him? It's not unlikely that the knife that killed Marion came from Sam's hardware store...

- Mother's perspective on the events of the movie, or on living in the mental hospital after canon. How much is she aware of the things she's done and/or the things Norman blames her for? How much does she see herself as separate from or a part of Norman, and how does she express that understanding?

- Marion's ghost appears - haunting her killer, leading her sister and/or lover to the truth of what happened to her, just taking out her frustration on everything in sight, etc.

- Marion isn’t attacked in the shower, and later comes to live in Fairvale with Sam without telling him what she did. She and Norman now have the weird position of having shared some secrets with each other but kept plenty of others - what happens when she runs into him again? Does Lila or Sam ever suspect what happened? Are the police still after Marion, or do they ever get suspicious about Norman?

- Anything about Lila's grief, and Sam's, post-canon. Marion was one of the few people either of them had left and she died a couple of weeks before Christmas, poor guys. I'd also be interested in seeing Lila confront Norman/Mother, or making a desperate attempt to reach Marion beyond the grave.

The Russians Are Coming The Russians Are Coming (1966)

Tags: Solo: Yuri Rozanov, Solo: Elspeth Whittaker, Alexei Kolchin & Yuri Rozanov, Alexei Kolchin/Alison Palmer, Muriel Everett & Alice Foss, Yuri Rozanov & Walt Whittaker, Yuri Rozanov/Elspeth Whittaker/Walt Whittaker

Additional Info and Prompts: So this is actually the movie I got my username from, with Kolchin being so sincereously sorry about all the nonsense that's going on. It's so delightfully madcap (and so very '60s) and I enjoy both the hijinks and the heart underneath it.

Although this movie is built on Cold War tensions, for fic of this canon I'd prefer a lighter touch with the politics of the era (you don't have to avoid them, but you also don't have to write an actual realistic CIA/KGB interrogation or anything like that).

- All of the in-universe debriefings and reports after the events of the movie, because you know the officials are gonna want to know what exactly went down here. Bonus for the series of events being just as confused in the retelling as they were to experience, and for all the people involved - from Alice to Yuri - having wildly different perspectives and telling the story in massively different terms.

- I'd also love to see general "views of the movie from their POV" from Yuri, Elspeth, Muriel, and/or Alice. Yuri's POV would be hilarious as he tries to keep on goal and gets increasingly frustrated in it; Muriel and Alice's would be hilarious for how they take what awareness (or lack of it) they have and just take off with it. With Elspeth, she gets to be one of the relatively calmer heads throughout the movie - how is she processing all the antics going down?

- Further adventures of Alexei and Yuri aboard the СпруT, maybe keeping up some kind of correspondence with their Massachusetts friends or talking about the events of the movie afterward or teaming up to keep the captain from going on yet another hairbrained idea because didn't he learn enough the first time?

- Alexei and Alison keeping up a long-distance Cold War relationship and finding ways to meet again. Does Alexei ever send her messages and trinkets from all the faraway places the submarine comes to port? Does Alison make it over to Russia for a visit, or does Alexei get to see more of America? This would also be great for epistolary fic, if you're interested in that.

- Walt and Yuri becoming buddies against their will! Maybe they're the ones who end up tied or handcuffed together at one point and have to figure out a way to get unstuck. Maybe Walt does accidentally wing Yuri when he shoots at him, and afterward guiltily helps bind up his wounds.

- Between Walt and Yuri growing to understand each other and work together and the hand kiss from Yuri to Elspeth, it really got me thinking about Yuri/Elspeth/Walt. Maybe the sailors get to come back on a (sanctioned, this time, or maybe clandestine) visit to the island and they all find that they actually really, really like each other under more relaxed circumstances. Maybe for Reasons Walt and Elspeth have to hide Yuri from the authorities with them in their summer vacation house, and the forced proximity makes them all bond more deeply.

- Newly inspired, Walt Whittaker overcomes his writer's block and finally produces a new musical comedy - and what do you know, it's about a bunch of Russian sailors who are accidentally stranded on a small Massachusetts island. Walt manages to get tickets for the opening night to some of the sailors of the СпруT (maybe the governments or producers think it'll be good PR, maybe he has to pull a few strings to smuggle them in in secret). How do they all react to seeing the story on stage? Are they annoyed or amused by inaccuracies or artistic license? Does it become a date night for Alexei/Alison or for Yuri/Elspeth/Walt?

The Touch of Satan (1971)

Tags: Melissa Strickland, Lucinda Strickland, Melissa Strickland/Jodie Thompson, Melissa Strickland & Lucinda Strickland, Melissa Strickland/Lucinda Strickland

Additional Info and Prompts:

For a movie I first got to know through a MST3K episode, this movie has a LOT of potential. Supernatural powers! Horror! Desperate bargains and the price of getting what you want!

- Melissa has so many fascinating things going on in general - eternally young while her family (unevenly) ages, isolated and world-weary and desperately lonely, looking for an escape, devoted to her family but fascinated by Jodie's freedom. She literally sells her soul to Satan to prevent her sister from burning to death but later burns said sister to death herself for the sake of a guy she's known for two days - what's going through her heart and mind when that happens? Any sort of Melissa character study - pre-canon, during canon, after canon - would be great. How did she relate to her family and to the townspeople as she grew in her powers? (I'm especially interested in how she shifted from daughter to head of the household in the Strickland family because of her powers, and the tensions that brings). Did she ever try to escape the walnut ranch pre-Jodie?

- What kind of things can Melissa do with her witch powers? We mostly see her setting/putting out fires, messing with dreams, casting curses, and magicking clothes off - what are the possibilities and limitations of her powers? How did she experiment with witchcraft? What's it like, day-to-day, to live with the Devil's spirit inside her?

- Could Lucinda ever access witch powers? (The townsfolk assume it's Lucinda who's the witch at first, and Melissa does say "burn, witch, burn" when she kills her). If she could, what did she do with them? Did she have her own bargain with Satan, which Melissa may or may not have known about? Could she have used her powers (or hers and Melissa's combined) to change her fate?

- Melissa and Lucinda's bond is really interesting to me, considering Melissa is ultimately both Lucinda's savior and her killer. What were they like before the attempted burning - did they ever play around with folk magic together before anyone ever thought of selling their soul? What about later on, as Lucinda deteriorates and Melissa tries to hang on to Lucinda's sanity to no avail? What did Lucinda and Melissa do to try to keep Lucinda from losing her mind? What feelings did they have for each other - love, need, care, connection, desperation, resentment?

- How do Melissa and Jodie find their way post-canon? If Jodie does become a lawyer, that's prime material for "lawyer sold his soul to Satan" opportunities, but I could also see them wandering around the country looking for some way to be satisfied and be happy. How does Melissa handle her new freedom? How do they deal with the Devil and see each other in the aftermath? Do they find some kind of happiness together, or even find a way out of their deal with the Devil?

- In all honesty, while I'm looking for more earnest fic for this canon, I wouldn't mind bringing in aspects of the MST3K episode either. The pauses really are long!