regshoe

Dear RMSE Creator,

Thank you for writing me a fic for one of these lovely m/m ships! I'm

regshoe on AO3. I've said a little bit below about why I love these fandoms and ships, and given some prompts, but if you have a different idea you'd love to write then go ahead—I'll look forward to seeing whatever you come up with!

Some things I like:
—A strong sense of place; relationships between characters and places
—Descriptions of nature, especially birds
—Loyalty: characters who are unfailingly loyal to each other; characters facing conflicting loyalties, or caught between their existing loyalties and their feelings for another character
—Comfortable connectedness and 'fitting together' between the characters in a pairing; a sense that they're 'each other's people'; characters finding comfort and rest in each other amidst a hostile world or plot-related struggles
—Quietly significant physical intimacy: handholding, long hugs, cuddling, hair-stroking, etc.
—Characters who are emotionally closed-off, defensively cynical after getting hurt in the past, a little too self-reliant, etc., opening up emotionally as they slowly come to trust another character; learning to love, and learning to be loved
—Hurt/comfort! Characters seeing the person they love get hurt and realising how much they care about them, or revealing their feelings in their reaction; characters receiving comfort and realising how much they're loved
—Historical detail; exploration of historical societies and events and how the characters fit into them
—Religion and its meaning in characters' lives, especially the place of religion in society and how that interacts with characters' places in society
—Magic and the supernatural, especially otherworldly fairy-folklorish stuff, ghosts and hauntings

Do Not Wants:
—Graphic violence or body horror
—Explicit sex (implied/fade-to-black is fine)
—Rape/noncon/dubcon
—AUs that place the characters in a different setting (canon divergence is fine, as is adding supernatural/fantasy elements to a mundane canon setting)
—Requested characters in unrequested ships (where there's a canon love interest other than the ship I'm requesting, please either ignore them or write the relationship as only-ever-platonic)
—Pre-relationship fic

All requests are for fic.

Armadale - Wilkie Collins
Main Allan Armadale/Ozias Midwinter | Allan Armadale

Ah, the joys of a fandom where half the characters have the same name :D Anyway, I love Allan and Midwinter; I have a thing for pairings where one character is a cheerful ray of sunshine and the other is a sad woobie and they love each other devotedly, and this is such an adorable example. Allan cheerfully trying to give Ozias all the good things he can think of, Ozias worrying about Allan all the time, their loyalty to each other—it's just the best. I also enjoy the sensation-novel drama of the book, and its ideas about fate and the shadow of the past that hangs over the story. One of my favourite moments is when Ozias says that what persuaded him out of believing in his father's superstition was 'my love for Allan Armadale'.

So: tell me more about this fascinating situation! For all its dramatic importance, Allan never finds out very much about the mystery of the past—but what if he did? Perhaps Ozias chooses to confide in him about the murder and the real meaning of his dream, that night on the wrecked ship or afterwards, or he finds out some other way, and they decide what to do about it together. (And the curse of the past is defeated by the power of True Love!) How would it affect their relationship, and how might things go differently from then on? Or perhaps Ozias confides in Allan much later, after everything is resolved—I can see him still having occasional spells of anxiety about Doom in the future, and of course Allan would want to find out what's going on and comfort him.

I love Lydia Gwilt too, and would be happy to see her get involved in the story if you'd like to go that way (without her canon requited relationship with Ozias). Perhaps she tries the 'marry Mr Armadale and get his fortune' scheme on one or the other of the Allans, but fails because they realise they prefer each other! Or what other schemes might she concoct? Her diaries could provide a great opportunity for an outsider POV on their relationship, as she figures out what's going on—given her darkly hilarious contempt for Allan in canon, I think it could be very funny.

Alternatively, I'd love anything where these two just get to be happy together for a while, regardless of the canon mystery plot. They could go exploring the beautiful Norfolk broads together, or get into exciting and dramatic adventures on a yachting tour somewhere off the coast (perhaps they end up in some sort of trouble, leading to a daring rescue and/or a hurt/comfort scenario!). Or you could write about their future life together post-canon, in domestic happiness at Thorpe-Ambrose—perhaps bringing in Ozias's literary career, about which I can imagine Allan being enthusiastically and adorably supportive.

The Flight of the Heron - D. K. Broster
Ewen Cameron/Keith Windham

I love this book for the beautiful landscape descriptions, the historical detail, the dash of the supernatural in a mostly-mundane setting—but most of all for the brilliant slashy, hurt/comfort-laden relationship between Ewen and Keith, with all their eighteenth-century gentlemanly honour and anguished conflicts of loyalty. Anything taking them the rest of the way along the 'enemies to friends to lovers' path, or exploring what happens after they get there, would be lovely.

There's plenty of room for even more hurt/comfort in fic! Perhaps Keith is merely injured by Lachlan at the end, and Ewen finds him; how does Ewen balance the urgent necessity of escaping from Scotland with taking care of Keith? Or perhaps it's Ewen who gets hurt protecting Keith from Lachlan, and Keith has to take care of him, no doubt facing his own conflicts of duty and loyalty along the way.

Speaking of which, Keith's conflicting loyalties—his military duty versus his love for Ewen, as well as his own moral sense—fascinate me! He takes his duty as an officer seriously, and military ambition is his one passion in life; but he's horrified at the Army's actions after Culloden, and what we're told about his backstory suggests he was pushed into the career he has by the chance circumstances of his mum's connections and perhaps wouldn't have chosen it (at least in the specifics) for himself. What if this interestingly ambivalent relationship was disrupted further—by another meeting with Ewen (perhaps Keith somehow gets lost on the way to the coast in Part V and runs into Ewen, or they meet some other way); or by Keith actually making the choice to warn Ewen instead of summoning the patrol at the end; or even by a severe injury that puts an end to his military career? How would he and Ewen deal with these interesting conundrums together?

I also love the supernatural elements in the book, especially in the context of Ewen/Keith (fated to be together by the heron!). Diana Wallace in The Woman's Historical Novel argues that Broster, in a mostly-realistic historical novel, uses fantasy 'to turn history 'wrong side out' and to allow the intrusion of elements which have been traditionally excluded and repressed: desire, the irrational, the feminine, and the homoerotic', and thus to give expression to the hidden desire between Ewen and Keith. This idea fascinates me, and I'd love a story doing something with it! So, what does the heron know about the message it's bringing Ewen and Keith; and as their relationship develops, what do they learn about the heron and its significance? Or you could introduce new supernatural elements—what if the description of Loch na h-Iolaire as 'like a fairy pool come upon in dreams' wasn't just a simile?—and explore the opportunities they present for Ewen and Keith's relationship to develop.

Kidnapped - McArthur & McCarthy & Stevenson (i.e. the recent National Theatre of Scotland adaptation of Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson)
David Balfour/Alan Breck Stewart

I love the book, and Alan and Davie's relationship in it; my feelings upon getting to see an adaptation that makes my OTP canon are more easily imagined than described. ♥ The play's Alan and Davie are utterly adorable; I love Davie's earnestness and courage, and Alan's dashing, romantic audacity, and I love how much they just go together and how deeply they care about each other despite their quarrels and culture/political clashes. In their relationship and in general I love how much fun the play is, and how it combines irreverence and silliness with real emotional depth and seriousness where it matters. I would love to read anything more about this version of Alan and Davie!

Anything exploring their canon romantic scenes together in more depth would be lovely. I can imagine Davie lying there alone in the heather before the first kiss, thinking about his goofy half-oblivious crush on Alan in the early scenes on the ship and about how much more serious everything has become since then, and what he's going to do about it now... or how about exploring Alan's thoughts after Davie refuses to betray him to the Campbells (and when he bridal-carries Davie across the stage—more detail on the hurt/comfort here would be lovely :D ).

Or you could follow one of the other characters for an outsider POV on their relationship. What do the ex-sailors, re-encountered at the Queensferry ~~inn~~ gastro-pub, really think about them? (I am fond of Bloody Karen...) I especially love the play's take on Frances Stevenson, and I'd enjoy a story bringing her in: perhaps you could do something with the parallels between Alan/Davie and Frances/Louis, or with the multiple layers of fiction in the play as Frances presents the story to the audience.

There's plenty of opportunity for fic in that lovely reunion at the end! Alan's appearance is a total surprise to Davie, but Alan must have been planning and travelling for some time; you could follow him on board a ship bound for Scotland, thinking longingly about Davie and wondering how he's doing. Perhaps after he arrives Davie shows him round the house of Shaws, and they reminisce about the past and look forward to their future together. If you want to get into more historical detail: How has Alan managed to return to Scotland now (whenever 'now' actually is)? Or how does Davie—the successful and fortunate Lowland laird of the finale, who loves this Highland Jacobite outlaw—reconcile the two sides of the 'big country' of Scotland, and bring something of both into his future life with Alan?

As I say, I know and love the book; if you'd like to use any details from the book that are not mentioned in the play but that are compatible with it, please feel free.