Thanks so much for writing for me! Sorry it took me a few extra days to complete this post. I promise that's not a reflection of my enthusiasm; this is one of my favorite exchanges, and I'm very much looking forward to every part of it. I hope you have a lot of fun with your story, and I'm sure I'll love whatever you come up with!
General likes: I like happy (or at least hopeful) endings, family (including chosen family), friendship, loyalty, determination, cooking and/or eating, people being smart, people being competent, platonic bedsharing, non-platonic bedsharing, pining, unrequited love that turns out to be requited, hurt/comfort, kissing, masturbation, mutual masturbation, frottage, intercrural sex, oral sex, talking during sex (not dirty talk, just ordinary conversation), first-time fic, established relationship fic in which there's some sort of shift in the dynamics of the relationship, character- and relationship-driven gen, mild angst with an eventual happy ending, BDSM, watersports, worldbuilding, cultural differences, historical details, werewolves, backstory, missing scenes, future fic, third person POV, and past tense.
The things I don't like include breathplay/asphyxiation, vore/cannibalism, scat, emetophilia/vomit, heavy angst, parent-child incest, dialogue-only fic, no dialogue, epithets (e.g. the blond, the taller man, the younger man), the phrases "to his [or her] credit," "had the grace to," and "took him[self] in hand," PWPs, and second person POV.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios/Hilarion
I adore both these characters. Alexios is hands down my favorite Sutcliff protagonist, and Hilarion is awesomely funny and endearing. And I purely love how open their canonical relationship is to shippy future fic.
I don't ship Alexios/Cunorix, though I think there's basis for reading one-sided romantic attraction from Alexios, which makes for a very reasonable source of angst in a later Alexios/Hilarion relationship.
For more specific ideas: 1) Werewolves are completely awesome in this fandom. I'd love to see werewolf!Hilarion in particular, but there are plenty of other options, as well. (And I realize that this pairs an unusual trope with an unusual kink, but Frontier Wolf werewolves + watersports would make my year.) 2) It's been done before, but I'm always up for another variation on the theme of why and how Hilarion came to be stationed with the Frontier Wolves.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios's mother
As much as I adore this book, the narrative is not kind to its female characters. Alexios's mother in particular gets a bare few lines in which she's depicted (in Alexios's eyes, and most likely Sutcliff's as well) as weepy and a bit silly, and yet... She left her home and her friends and most of her family in Greece to move to Britain; that's not a small or a cowardly choice. Her insistence that Alexios be grateful for his posting to the Frontier Wolves could be read as her wanting him to have the chance to redeem himself. She's written as easily dismissible, but how much more could there be to her story when it's viewed from her POV rather than her son's? (Answer: Quite a lot, I'm certain.)
More specific ideas: 1)![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
melannen has written an intriguing piece on Alexios's mother in the "Meeting the parents" section of this comment. I'd definitely be interested in seeing her interact with Hilarion, whether in the context of gen fic or as part of an Alexios/Hilarion story. Not necessarily when Alexios is recovering either; I very much hope Alexios would invite Hilarion to visit the farm with him at some point. 2) After Alexios's father died, did Alexios's mother consider returning to Ephesus? Why or why not? What kind of life does she lead on the farm now; how does she spend her days; what hopes and dreams does she have (other than wishing success for her son)? Her half-brother is decidedly unsympathetic towards her, but does she have other family--including relatives of Alexios's father--with whom she has a closer relationship? 3) Alexios's mother could totally be a werewolf, too. :-)
The Truce of the Games
Amyntas/Leon
What I most want is future fic in which they (post-Peloponnesian War?) become romantically involved. But really anything about Leon and his life would be awesome; I love the story, but in a way it seems too easy to have it be from Amyntas's perspective, and I'd really like to see more from Leon's/the Spartan POV. Actually, if you were interested, you could just do a remix of Sutcliff's story from Leon's perspective, and I'd be happy as a clam.
General likes: I like happy (or at least hopeful) endings, family (including chosen family), friendship, loyalty, determination, cooking and/or eating, people being smart, people being competent, platonic bedsharing, non-platonic bedsharing, pining, unrequited love that turns out to be requited, hurt/comfort, kissing, masturbation, mutual masturbation, frottage, intercrural sex, oral sex, talking during sex (not dirty talk, just ordinary conversation), first-time fic, established relationship fic in which there's some sort of shift in the dynamics of the relationship, character- and relationship-driven gen, mild angst with an eventual happy ending, BDSM, watersports, worldbuilding, cultural differences, historical details, werewolves, backstory, missing scenes, future fic, third person POV, and past tense.
The things I don't like include breathplay/asphyxiation, vore/cannibalism, scat, emetophilia/vomit, heavy angst, parent-child incest, dialogue-only fic, no dialogue, epithets (e.g. the blond, the taller man, the younger man), the phrases "to his [or her] credit," "had the grace to," and "took him[self] in hand," PWPs, and second person POV.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios/Hilarion
I adore both these characters. Alexios is hands down my favorite Sutcliff protagonist, and Hilarion is awesomely funny and endearing. And I purely love how open their canonical relationship is to shippy future fic.
I don't ship Alexios/Cunorix, though I think there's basis for reading one-sided romantic attraction from Alexios, which makes for a very reasonable source of angst in a later Alexios/Hilarion relationship.
For more specific ideas: 1) Werewolves are completely awesome in this fandom. I'd love to see werewolf!Hilarion in particular, but there are plenty of other options, as well. (And I realize that this pairs an unusual trope with an unusual kink, but Frontier Wolf werewolves + watersports would make my year.) 2) It's been done before, but I'm always up for another variation on the theme of why and how Hilarion came to be stationed with the Frontier Wolves.
Frontier Wolf
Alexios's mother
As much as I adore this book, the narrative is not kind to its female characters. Alexios's mother in particular gets a bare few lines in which she's depicted (in Alexios's eyes, and most likely Sutcliff's as well) as weepy and a bit silly, and yet... She left her home and her friends and most of her family in Greece to move to Britain; that's not a small or a cowardly choice. Her insistence that Alexios be grateful for his posting to the Frontier Wolves could be read as her wanting him to have the chance to redeem himself. She's written as easily dismissible, but how much more could there be to her story when it's viewed from her POV rather than her son's? (Answer: Quite a lot, I'm certain.)
More specific ideas: 1)
melannen has written an intriguing piece on Alexios's mother in the "Meeting the parents" section of this comment. I'd definitely be interested in seeing her interact with Hilarion, whether in the context of gen fic or as part of an Alexios/Hilarion story. Not necessarily when Alexios is recovering either; I very much hope Alexios would invite Hilarion to visit the farm with him at some point. 2) After Alexios's father died, did Alexios's mother consider returning to Ephesus? Why or why not? What kind of life does she lead on the farm now; how does she spend her days; what hopes and dreams does she have (other than wishing success for her son)? Her half-brother is decidedly unsympathetic towards her, but does she have other family--including relatives of Alexios's father--with whom she has a closer relationship? 3) Alexios's mother could totally be a werewolf, too. :-)The Truce of the Games
Amyntas/Leon
What I most want is future fic in which they (post-Peloponnesian War?) become romantically involved. But really anything about Leon and his life would be awesome; I love the story, but in a way it seems too easy to have it be from Amyntas's perspective, and I'd really like to see more from Leon's/the Spartan POV. Actually, if you were interested, you could just do a remix of Sutcliff's story from Leon's perspective, and I'd be happy as a clam.
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