dear eat, drink, and make merry writer

[subjunctive]

Thanks so much for writing me a story! I love all of these ships to death and I'll be elated to read about them. :) Even though this is a shipping exchange, I don't necessarily expect a happily ever after. Happy-for-now, ambiguous/open/sad endings, UST, and breakups are welcome too. What I'm into the most with all these ships is the characters being important to each other's development in some way.

For this exchange in particular, I love lavish descriptions of food and food being connected to characters' memories and pasts (in good OR bad ways).

FYI, my tumblr is at subjunctivemood. I link to some of my relevant tumblr tags below, where they might help give you extra insight into what I enjoy about these canons and ships, if you're interested.

The prompts below are suggestions; if you think of something I didn't list but which seems like something I'd like, or if you are inspired to combine prompts in some way, that's fine.

General Do Not Wants: rape, explicit smut (fade to black/M-rated suggestiveness is fine), pregnancy/kidfic (exception below). The rest of my DNWs are pretty fandom-specific.


Theon Greyjoy/Jon Snow (ASOIAF)

tumblr tags: asoiaf, jon x theon

I adore these two narrative foils and I think they have a lot to offer each other even if they never interacted on the page. Each wants what the other has: Jon wants Theon's legitimacy and Theon wants a real place in the Stark family (not that he'll ever admit it). They have significant common ground as outsiders in Winterfell, but their coping mechanisms (Theon pretending not to care about anything and deliberately trying to make people hate him; Jon caring too much and trying to prove himself good and worthy of respect) prevent them from seeing it. I also love a dynamic where Theon is someone whom Jon is “allowed” to be angry at and even hate, unlike Robb–-with the result that it is perhaps unfair (it brings out a not-super-nice side of Jon, which I always crave more of–-but then on the flip side, it’s also appealingly genuine) and, again, obscures whatever connection they might have. (Until it doesn’t.) When they were young, they didn't get along (to say the least) but after growing up a little maybe they'll gain a little insight into each other--and even themselves. Self-recognition through the other, baby!

I would love something set in canon, including canon AUs. This is also a fandom where I love all other kinds of AUs, including modern AUs (our world or Westeros) and lawyer/barista/royalty/military/historical/etc AUs; anything is fine, I would just like to have Theon and Jon to have something resembling the childhood relationship/background they have in canon. Feel free also to fuse the story of ASOIAF with other genres: urban fantasy, steampunk, space opera, cyberpunk, etc. I'm a total sucker for that if it's up your alley!

DNWs: I really don't want to read about uber-traumatized post-Ramsay Theon; something before that or disregarding it/pretending it didn't happen would be best. If you want to write something post-canon, feel free to just glide over the details of what happened, and even though I understand his experiences change him, I hope there's still some original-flavor Theon in there. Book descriptions > the show actors.

Prompts:

• a canon AU scenario where Jon Arryn wasn't killed/Ned didn't go to King's Landing/Jon didn't go to the Wall would provide a great background for Jon and Theon to grow up together a bit more, maybe relate to each other in a different way.
  
• Jon encountering the cuisine of the Iron Islands for the first time. Or maybe Theon's fraught relationship with Northern food and/or missing the food back home.
  
• Post-canon, beyond the Wall together--survivalist stuff, foraging, hunting, gathering, etc. I ate up Clan of the Cave Bear, so hit me with everything you've got!
  
• Jon and Theon raising dead Robb's kid together (modern AU?) and navigating baby food and feedings.
  
• Another modern AU--homebrewing misadventures!

Edric "Ned" Dayne/Arya Stark (ASOIAF)

tumblr tags: asoiaf, arya x edric

I love the idea of this ship, partly because I think Dorne would be a cool place for Arya to be post-canon, and also because I like the bits of Ned we see; he seems like a sweet kid (and I have a soft spot for legacy heroes). I would love to see them (married or not) together after the war is over. I would really prefer for Arya to actively choose to be with him rather than have her hand forced by arranged marriage or something similar. I have always had a soft spot for the idea that Arya and Sansa would get each other's desired happy endings in a role reversal situation, so pregnancy and kidfic are fine for this ship (though of course Arya being Arya, I can assume she'd put her own spin on being Lady of Starfall).

DNWs: unwanted arranged marriage

Prompts:

• Differences between Dornish food and culture food. It could go either way--Arya getting used to Dornish food, or Ned trying Northern food for the first time, or both.
  
• Wartime rations during the War for the Dawn--I bet you Arya tries REALLY hard to make sure everyone has something, and Ned notices (and helps).
  
• Modern Westeros AU--food historian(s)? Professional chef(s)? Food truck rivals?
  
• Food preservation techniques like fermentation getting everyone through the Long Night. (Though I bet you can still grow food in a Dornish winter, come to think of it. Does Arya send some pickled greens back home?)
  
• Anything family-related: morning sickness, getting kids to eat (what's Dornish baby food like?)

Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Lee "Apollo" Adama/Laura Roslin

tumblr tags: bsg 2003, madam president cougar

I just began re-watching this a month or two ago, and hoo boy does it hold up! This time around, I saw a lot of potential and chemistry between Laura/Lee that I'd never seen the last half-dozen times I watched it. From beginning to end, I think they're easily one of the most compelling relationships on the show. A lot of their early interactions are gold: saving the human race together, bearing responsibility for tragic necessities (the Olympic Carrier, leaving the non-FTL fleet behind) together, Lee's idealism centering on her and what she represents, the mutiny and being fugitives in the fleet together (!!), but also the human moments they share, like her confiding in him about her cancer. A gentle good humor pervades their early interactions, which I adore.

But at the same time, there's a more conflicted side to their relationship: notably how, in season two, Lee's learning about Laura's role in the Cain assassination plot sends him on a nihilistic spiral that includes a passive suicide attempt (2x12, "Resurrection Ship, Part 2"). I think there's some interesting potential for conflict between his idealism and her pragmatism, if that's something you're interested in. (Confession: At the time of writing this, I have not yet gotten to the season 3 and the trial storyline. I remember it being badly written, but just in case it matters to you, I tend to side with Lee w/r/t issues of civil rights even though I find Laura's venomous hatred of Baltar delightful and relatable. That doesn't mean I want Lee to give her some kind of lecture, though, of course.) Feel free to put them on the opposite sides of an issue and let things explode. (I have the opposite of a loyalty kink, in a way--I love it when characters are disloyal or conflict because of their beliefs.)

DNWs: non-canon AUs or AUs where the Cylons never attacked (e.g., modern Caprica AUs). This is one of those fandoms where I really want the canon situation--although canon-divergence AUs are great (in fact, I love them to death and would be happy to get one).

Prompts:

• Anything related to survivalist themes--New Caprica or new-Earth (if you want to have Roslin survive!). Foraging, gathering, hunting, farming, cooking--it's all so different from the convenience they're used to. I ate up Clan of the Cave Bear, so hit me with everything you've got!
  
• Space food (or alien-planet food like different animals, fruit, etc) vs food from back home.
  
• Nostalgia for delicious food they can never have again--maybe tie it to something important in their past.
  
• The colonies' food culture--different traditions, stereotypes, etc. I love worldbuilding details like this.
  
• Sharing deck-gang hooch together. (Or brewing it!)
  
• Cooking together is sexy. Alternately, cooking together turns out decidedly unsexy.

Female Post-Apocalyptic Diner Cook/Female Gunslinger (Original Work)

I'm obviously not going to have a giant section on what I love so much about the canon/relationship here or any tumblr tags to link to, so apologies for this section looking scanty, but some tropes and other stuff I like that would work here include: trust issues, hurt/comfort, childhood friends who haven't seen each other in forever but still remember the other, interesting worldbuilding details, tragic pasts, survivalism, fluff/happiness/hope among the ruins.

Almost any kind of apocalypse is fine, though I think I've had my fill of zombies. Pandemic is A-OK, btw. Mixing in other genres like magical realism, urban fantasy, science fiction, etc, would be great.