Dear Rarepair Author
May. 25th, 2023 11:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bustedxflushHi, I’m great_whatsit at AO3! First and foremost: THANK YOU! I am so lucky to be getting a gift from you, and I’m immensely grateful for the time and energy you're putting into this. Taking the time to do something like this is a huge deal.
In terms of narrative I’m pretty easy to please, and any rating and/or combination of gender identities and bodies is cool with me. That said, I do have a few DNWs, mainly: extreme or explicit violence and torture, noncon or dubcon (unless specified for the fandom), horror, and A/B/O.
Things I love (but in no way require) in fic: found family, sex that is urgent, angry, awkward, or familiar and full of laughter (or all of the above), complicated or fucked up power dynamics (please never think anything in this department will be Too Much), quiet devotion, humor, bittersweet endings, day in the life snapshots, tragically stoic characters who only one other person understands, damaged people who are trying, whether it's just to do as little harm as possible, or to heal themselves, even a little (😭😭😭😭😭😭).
All of that said: everything that follows is mere suggestion, nothing more. I am already over the moon that anyone else shares any of these interests, and is willing to write something about one of them for me. Anything you come up with will be incredible.
REQUEST #1: Briarpatch (TV)
Currently available on Criterion Channel, and also here (ok.ru) and here (YT) for free.
Just, look at the first conversation between McLyntock and Coe! I have never seen two allegedly heterosexual dudes look at one another more hungrily in my entire goddamn life. Like, seriously fellas, get a room! And it basically never stops — like, they know they'll eventually probably be on different sides, but they really don't care cos they're not yet, and whoa that guy is hot and he's also a little evil like me so I think we're boyfriends now? (Give me them in a room, or in the woods, or in a covered wagon or, I dunno, saving one another from quicksand, or being soulmates, or fucking witches, or auto mechanics or vets. ANYTHING, as long as they're sweaty and horny and touching one another. Also, the sweating is optional.)
Request #6: Charleston (1977).
Dubbed version here (ok.ru).
Ok, so, Bud Spencer, who is a mountain of a man, plays the title character, a grifter who is smarter than everyone he meets and totally unflappable (like all Bud Spencer characters). And Herbert fucking Lom, who looks like a toy next to Spencer, plays this cop with whom Charleston allies, but who also is basically being manipulated by him from start to finish. It's magnificent, seriously. These two are amazing alone no matter what they're in, and together the magic is more than doubled! Charleston is so smooth and confident that he can essentially manipulate anyone, and the cop is an amazing mix of egotistical dolt and smoothie who quite likes to be flattered by giant gentlemen, thank you very much. Anyway, just looking at the two of them together (hello, ridiculous height difference) is amazing, and their dynamic is, dare I say, delicious?
As with literally all of my requests, anything that brings them together will thrill me, I'm truly down for whatever, whether it's in-universe, another grift into which the cop finds himself pulled (because Charleston is irresistible), or Charleston fucking with his wee friend just because he can or, like, long distance fuckery, in which Charleston stops by when his grifts bring him to town, and the cops tries to be mad but can't be? ALL OF IT IS GOOD.
Request #7: Rear Window (1954).
Available free here (ok.ru) and for $ at the usual places.
Listen, I know it's just me, but I seriously think Jeff has better chemistry with his cop pal Doyle than he does his ladyfriend. Like, the look they exchange when Doyle realizes that her overnight bag is in the apartment? HOO BOY. Plus, they have this deep history together from the war, and I just feel like they've been through some shit that brought them, like, together-together. I would love a look at that history — how they were together, what Jeff was like before he started holding the world at the length of a telephoto lens (or if Doyle even know him them), how they both ended up in NYC after the way. What their life is like together off-screen, since we don't see them THAT much really getting to talk and be them. Like, are they totally cool with being dudes who like dudes, or do they try to pretend they don't? If so, how do they get from that to banging? TELL ME EVERYTHING (ANYTHING!)
REQUEST #1: Briarpatch (TV)
Here is my old Yuletide promo post for this amazing show, here is the trailer, and here is a short featurette about the main characters; it runs 10 one-hour episodes and is on Amazon Prime.
I cannot tell you how much I love this show, or how much sexual tension is running through its veins. If you've watched it and are familiar with the characters, please feel free to write whatever you want for any of the pairings I've nominated! If it helps, here are some specific ideas/details about why I am obsessed with each of them.
This is an old timey radio show that is COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. The canon (linked above) runs under 30 minutes, and that's with ads — you can finish it in no time, especially if you listen to it at 1.25x or 1.5x! Anyway, the story brings together a gruff bruiser (Henry Eigelberger, played by William Bendix) and a cowardly, idle rich boy (Allyn Joslyn as Walter Gage) as the latter tries to track down missing pearls, which he initially assumes the former stole. The two butt heads but quickly become allies (Gage very much likes having a badass criminal pal), and it's just achingly adorable and very funny.
When the story ends, Eigelberger is in Hawaii, and Gage is at home in CA (I think?) with his pushy fiancée, probably bored out of his mind without his cool bro to hang out with and make him feel smart. Even with the whole betrayal thing at the end, Gage seriously isn't even mad, he's so excited when Eigelberger writes him a letter!
Anyway, I would love anything with the two of them, no matter what is going on — futurefic would be amazing, as would missing scenes from the story itself, and any groovy AU floats your boat. As long as they're together, and bantering and bickering and in love I will be so, so happy. (They're totally soulmates, though I don't need that in the fic. I'M JUST SAYING.)
Forget what the summary says, this movie is about Peter O'Toole (Captain Finch) being completely in love with Aldo Ray (Norgate). Their first fishing date (yes really) is ridiculous, Finch is so smitten he can hardly contain himself and, when they get back to London proper, he starts inviting his new bff to have dinner with him at work (which happens to be The Bank of England, cos he's a rich boy whose job is wearing a uniform and wandering around there) so often that, when Norgate doesn't show up, the ... work butler or whatever is unsettled by his absence. And, when Finch gets all sad, where does he go? TO NORGATE OF COURSE TO POUR OUT HIS HEART. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. I would adore futurefic about how their relationship develops once the movie ends (since with Norgate is going to jail thanks to Finch finally coming out of his swoon and looking around), but also anything from within the movie's story itself would be incredible — all of the fishing and the private dinners and whatnot are rich with ~possibilities~. For real though, as with all of my requests: reading them together is all I need to be thrilled.
Request 4: The Postman Always Rings Twice (movie 1946)
Available free here (ok.ru); also rentable at the usual places.
I am obsessed with the way Cora is with Arthur Keats. (Note: dubcon is extremely ok with these two.) If you've not seen the movie, in this version of the story, Keats is her lawyer, and is literally the only one who can get Cora off balance. She's completely in charge in her relationships with both her husband and her lover, and she's a dominant presence in the rest of her life, too — an authority figure so sure of her own power that no one dares brook it. But Keats does. Not only that, but he expects Cora to obey him — and she does. Y'all, it's so incredibly hot to watch them together: he is almost obnoxiously casual in his command because he knows she'll give in, and she's, like, both furious and angrily curious, because she's literally never met anyone who can do this to her?
As someone who is very (very) into fucked up fictional power dynamics, this relationship is on my personal Old Hollywood Mount Rushmore. I would weep with joy to read anything about these two, the dirtier the better. I'm not even sure that Keats is into girls (a throwaway line tells us he's got a wife, but his relationship with the DA is so casually close I would 100% believe they were a couple), or even if physical intimacy is his thing, but he likes power, and I would love to see him using it on Cora is a more ~private~ setting, whether or not it was explicitly sexual. How does she get her head in a place where she can accept what he can do to her? Or does she never get there, and their relationship is never anything other than deeply unhealthy and badwrong (but also: hot). Either of their POVs would be fascinating, because Cora is not stupid, and she can improvise like the rest of us breathe — can she even handle being at this dude's mercy, no matter how hard she tries to regain the upper hand? And what does Keats think of her? Is she just someone whose mind he wants to fuck with because he can, or is it more than that? Different?
Also, I'm super into evil!hypnosis movies recently, and I love the idea of Keats as a stage hypnotist, and Cora as either his assistant or some girl who ends up interacting with him (extra points if she's all "this shit is so fake come on"), and falls under his sway.
Request #5: Bend of the River (1952). I cannot tell you how much I love this show, or how much sexual tension is running through its veins. If you've watched it and are familiar with the characters, please feel free to write whatever you want for any of the pairings I've nominated! If it helps, here are some specific ideas/details about why I am obsessed with each of them.
Jake Spivey/Allegra Dill. In episode 8 (AKA my favorite Briarpatch episode and one of my favorite episodes of TV ever), when Jake is listing the qualities that made Allegra so extremely hot, and which make him regret not making a move on her in high school (this is a canonical fact with which I strongly disagree btw), he SPECIFICALLY says that she was the "meanest" girl he knew, which is a positive. GOD. Please write me high school Jake and Allegra: her being her usual badass self, and him just, like, panting after her, not knowing why he's so into this mean, impatient girl, only that he very much wants her to do mean things to him. Or Jake and Allegra now — there's so much UST between them — show me how it gets resolved, and how things end up! Or an AU! Give me a soulmate world in which Allegra is so exasperated by Jake being hers, and he's a gooey mess of joy. Or a story set in the old west, in which Allegra is the badass, seen-it-all gambling hall/brothel owner, and Jake is a new arrival in town who thinks he has her number, but has something else entirely coming. Just ... anything!
REQUEST #2: Suspense (Radio), episode: Pearls are a Nuisance! (1950)
Jake Spivey/Clyde Brattle (note: dubcon and noncon are more than ok with these two). In case you're not familiar with the show and are reading this, all you need to know is that Alan Cumming plays this shadyass arms dealer/very bad man whose all-male minions HAVE BAR CODES TATTOOED ON THE BACK OF THEIR NECKS (often involuntarily applied). AND JAKE HAS ONE. Jake also experience serious trauma (and did illegal things) while in the military during a Gulf War or two, and Brattle is very much part of that. The two of them are the main reasons I’ve watched episode 8 so many times: there’s so much in their first meeting since they were in the Middle East, not just volumes of terrible history but also absolute oceans of UST. The power dynamic between them is royally fucked up, too, in that Jake gives into no one except Allegra (who he's pretty much canonically in love with), but then Brattle shows up and Jake almost falls apart — just the awareness that Brattle is nearby nearly breaks him. WHY? What happened? Show me all of the awful things that went down between them! Or, if you're more inclined to recovery, show me Jake putting himself back together (Or someone else doing it? God, is it Brattle?) until he's the guy who meet in the show — and is that guy really back together at all?
Allegra Dill/Cindy McCabe. Funny story — Cindy was literally supposed to be in just one episode, but Allegra Edwards was so good in the role they rewrote a bunch of stuff and she ended up in, I think, all but two of the 10 episodes. And with good reason! Cindy is such an amazing character — a woman completely at ease with her body and her sexuality, smart as a fucking whip, spectacularly resourceful, and with no regard whatsoever for what other people think about or expect from her. And she and Allegra have amazing chemistry — Allegra is checking her out as hard as Cindy is checking Allegra out in their first meeting, and I can 100% see them getting together a time or twelve off screen. ANYTHING about them would thrill me.
REQUEST #2: Suspense (Radio), episode: Pearls are a Nuisance! (1950)
This is an old timey radio show that is COMPLETELY WONDERFUL. The canon (linked above) runs under 30 minutes, and that's with ads — you can finish it in no time, especially if you listen to it at 1.25x or 1.5x! Anyway, the story brings together a gruff bruiser (Henry Eigelberger, played by William Bendix) and a cowardly, idle rich boy (Allyn Joslyn as Walter Gage) as the latter tries to track down missing pearls, which he initially assumes the former stole. The two butt heads but quickly become allies (Gage very much likes having a badass criminal pal), and it's just achingly adorable and very funny.
When the story ends, Eigelberger is in Hawaii, and Gage is at home in CA (I think?) with his pushy fiancée, probably bored out of his mind without his cool bro to hang out with and make him feel smart. Even with the whole betrayal thing at the end, Gage seriously isn't even mad, he's so excited when Eigelberger writes him a letter!
Anyway, I would love anything with the two of them, no matter what is going on — futurefic would be amazing, as would missing scenes from the story itself, and any groovy AU floats your boat. As long as they're together, and bantering and bickering and in love I will be so, so happy. (They're totally soulmates, though I don't need that in the fic. I'M JUST SAYING.)
Forget what the summary says, this movie is about Peter O'Toole (Captain Finch) being completely in love with Aldo Ray (Norgate). Their first fishing date (yes really) is ridiculous, Finch is so smitten he can hardly contain himself and, when they get back to London proper, he starts inviting his new bff to have dinner with him at work (which happens to be The Bank of England, cos he's a rich boy whose job is wearing a uniform and wandering around there) so often that, when Norgate doesn't show up, the ... work butler or whatever is unsettled by his absence. And, when Finch gets all sad, where does he go? TO NORGATE OF COURSE TO POUR OUT HIS HEART. Seriously man, it's unreal.
FWIW, the movie is great even away from their relationship, but it's definitely the best thing about it. I would adore futurefic about how their relationship develops once the movie ends (since with Norgate is going to jail thanks to Finch finally coming out of his swoon and looking around), but also anything from within the movie's story itself would be incredible — all of the fishing and the private dinners and whatnot are rich with ~possibilities~. For real though, as with all of my requests: reading them together is all I need to be thrilled.
Available free here (ok.ru); also rentable at the usual places.
I am obsessed with the way Cora is with Arthur Keats. (Note: dubcon is extremely ok with these two.) If you've not seen the movie, in this version of the story, Keats is her lawyer, and is literally the only one who can get Cora off balance. She's completely in charge in her relationships with both her husband and her lover, and she's a dominant presence in the rest of her life, too — an authority figure so sure of her own power that no one dares brook it. But Keats does. Not only that, but he expects Cora to obey him — and she does. Y'all, it's so incredibly hot to watch them together: he is almost obnoxiously casual in his command because he knows she'll give in, and she's, like, both furious and angrily curious, because she's literally never met anyone who can do this to her?
As someone who is very (very) into fucked up fictional power dynamics, this relationship is on my personal Old Hollywood Mount Rushmore. I would weep with joy to read anything about these two, the dirtier the better. I'm not even sure that Keats is into girls (a throwaway line tells us he's got a wife, but his relationship with the DA is so casually close I would 100% believe they were a couple), or even if physical intimacy is his thing, but he likes power, and I would love to see him using it on Cora is a more ~private~ setting, whether or not it was explicitly sexual. How does she get her head in a place where she can accept what he can do to her? Or does she never get there, and their relationship is never anything other than deeply unhealthy and badwrong (but also: hot). Either of their POVs would be fascinating, because Cora is not stupid, and she can improvise like the rest of us breathe — can she even handle being at this dude's mercy, no matter how hard she tries to regain the upper hand? And what does Keats think of her? Is she just someone whose mind he wants to fuck with because he can, or is it more than that? Different?
Also, I'm super into evil!hypnosis movies recently, and I love the idea of Keats as a stage hypnotist, and Cora as either his assistant or some girl who ends up interacting with him (extra points if she's all "this shit is so fake come on"), and falls under his sway.
Currently available on Criterion Channel, and also here (ok.ru) and here (YT) for free.
Just, look at the first conversation between McLyntock and Coe! I have never seen two allegedly heterosexual dudes look at one another more hungrily in my entire goddamn life. Like, seriously fellas, get a room! And it basically never stops — like, they know they'll eventually probably be on different sides, but they really don't care cos they're not yet, and whoa that guy is hot and he's also a little evil like me so I think we're boyfriends now? (Give me them in a room, or in the woods, or in a covered wagon or, I dunno, saving one another from quicksand, or being soulmates, or fucking witches, or auto mechanics or vets. ANYTHING, as long as they're sweaty and horny and touching one another. Also, the sweating is optional.)
Request #6: Charleston (1977).
Dubbed version here (ok.ru).
Ok, so, Bud Spencer, who is a mountain of a man, plays the title character, a grifter who is smarter than everyone he meets and totally unflappable (like all Bud Spencer characters). And Herbert fucking Lom, who looks like a toy next to Spencer, plays this cop with whom Charleston allies, but who also is basically being manipulated by him from start to finish. It's magnificent, seriously. These two are amazing alone no matter what they're in, and together the magic is more than doubled! Charleston is so smooth and confident that he can essentially manipulate anyone, and the cop is an amazing mix of egotistical dolt and smoothie who quite likes to be flattered by giant gentlemen, thank you very much. Anyway, just looking at the two of them together (hello, ridiculous height difference) is amazing, and their dynamic is, dare I say, delicious?
As with literally all of my requests, anything that brings them together will thrill me, I'm truly down for whatever, whether it's in-universe, another grift into which the cop finds himself pulled (because Charleston is irresistible), or Charleston fucking with his wee friend just because he can or, like, long distance fuckery, in which Charleston stops by when his grifts bring him to town, and the cops tries to be mad but can't be? ALL OF IT IS GOOD.
Request #7: Rear Window (1954).
Available free here (ok.ru) and for $ at the usual places.
Listen, I know it's just me, but I seriously think Jeff has better chemistry with his cop pal Doyle than he does his ladyfriend. Like, the look they exchange when Doyle realizes that her overnight bag is in the apartment? HOO BOY. Plus, they have this deep history together from the war, and I just feel like they've been through some shit that brought them, like, together-together. I would love a look at that history — how they were together, what Jeff was like before he started holding the world at the length of a telephoto lens (or if Doyle even know him them), how they both ended up in NYC after the way. What their life is like together off-screen, since we don't see them THAT much really getting to talk and be them. Like, are they totally cool with being dudes who like dudes, or do they try to pretend they don't? If so, how do they get from that to banging? TELL ME EVERYTHING (ANYTHING!)
