FemslashEx letter 2021

[regshoe]

Dear Femslashex Author,

Thank you for writing me a fic for one of these lovely femslash pairings! I'm regshoe on AO3. I've written 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 general likes: A strong sense of place; relationships between characters and places; descriptions of nature; birds; historical detail; magic and the supernatural, especially otherworldly fairy-folklorish stuff; ghosts and hauntings.

In shipfic I like:
—Characters finding comfort and a sense of rest in each other, especially amidst a hostile world or plot-related struggles; a sense that the characters are 'each other's people'
—Loyalty: characters who are unfailingly loyal to each other; characters facing conflicting loyalties, or struggling to choose between their existing loyalties and their feelings for another character
—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
—Quietly significant physical intimacy: handholding, long hugs, cuddling, hair-stroking, that thing where one character sits in a chair and the other curls up on the floor and rests their head on the first character's knee

Do Not Wants: Graphic violence or body horror; explicit sex (implied/fade-to-black is fine); rape; AUs that place the characters in a different setting (canon divergence is fine, as is adding supernatural/fantasy elements to a mundane canon setting); infidelity; poly ships that add unrequested characters to my requested ships

A note: I realise several of the characters here are in canon ships that conflict with the ones I'm requesting. I would rather not receive either infidelity or unrequested poly ships, but otherwise deal with canon love interests however you like—ignore them entirely, write an AU where they were only ever friends, say they broke up, kill them off offstage, etc. A few more specific suggestions in the prompts.

All requests are for fic.



Jill - E. A. Dillwyn
Gilbertina "Jill" Trecastle/Kitty Mervyn, Gilbertina "Jill" Trecastle/Sister Helena, Gilbertina "Jill" Trecastle/Kitty Mervyn/Sister Helena

This book is so much fun! Jill—selfish, outrageous, bold—is a very engaging narrator, and I love reading her accounts of her adventures. I like how, while generally light-hearted and a bit silly, the book touches on serious issues like women's place in society, medical abuse and the troubles of domestic servants. I especially like how Jill's relationships with both Kitty and Sister Helena introduce a more serious emotional aspect to her independent, don't-careish character—and I think the one thing that could make all this even better is some femslash!

Jill and Kitty's relationship could well have gone in a femslashy direction at various points in the book, as Jill practically admits to us readers with all her talk of that strange, unaccountable fascination Kitty has for her. What might overturn Jill's resolve to 'put a check upon the inclination to be fascinated by her' and lead her to act on that 'sentimental, impractical folly' after all? Perhaps things get a bit more serious while they're escaping from the chapelle together—further peril, or a hurt/comfort situation of some kind, might lead to a confession... And then there are the post-canon possibilities—those ambivalent final lines deserve some more development. Perhaps Kitty, widowed a few years later, meets Jill again (has Jill decided to reveal herself, or does Kitty recognise her accidentally?), the true story of her erstwhile travelling-maid comes out and Kitty discovers that 'romance' can 'come to life again' after all...

I would love to see an AU where Sister Helena lives, and she and Jill get to develop their relationship a bit further! I'm interested in the place and meaning of religion for characters and their relationships, and I especially like the ways in which Jill's relationship with Sister Helena isn't a conventional 'bad character finds religion and undergoes a complete moral transformation' plot: Sister Helena introduces Jill to more serious moral ideas and she regretfully decides that tormenting her stepmother is wrong after all, but she's still very much herself, independent and self-willed. And Helena is independent too, in her own way, with her career in nursing. I'd love anything exploring more about her backstory and personality, as well as her feelings for Jill. Perhaps they remain friends after Jill leaves the hospital, and snatch a few more private moments in the time allowed by Helena's busy professional schedule and Jill's continuing adventures.

And with all this in mind, what would Sister Helena and Kitty make of each other, if they met? They both have very strong moral principles, but very different personalities, places in the world and views of Society—I can imagine things beginning a bit unpredictably, especially with Jill having brought them together and introducing her own decided personality to the mix, but I think they might end up all liking each other very much. So, in a version of events where Helena survives, Kitty is unmarried or a widow and Jill, keeping up or re-discovering her friendships with them both, is back at Castle Manor as a responsible landowner, what do these three remarkable ladies do together...?


Lord Peter Wimsey - Dorothy L. Sayers
Agatha Dawson/Clara Whittaker

I read Unnatural Death recently and, much as I liked reading about Lord Peter and the murder mystery, my favourite thing about it was the wonderful lesbian backstory of Agatha and Clara, that 'remarkable pair of old ladies' whose history provides such an interesting counterpoint to the grimness (and much less optimistic take on relationships between women!) of the main plot.

I'd love to receive anything developing that backstory in more detail and exploring what their lives are like as an f/f couple in the 19th-early 20th century. How did their school friendship first develop into something more? How did they set up their horse-breeding business, and what's the story of Clara's conflict with her family? On the whole they seem to have got on very well with their friends and neighbours, and the residents of Crofton tell Wimsey and Parker some intriguing things about them. Perhaps you could tell the story of a foolish neighbour who tries and fails to 'get the better of [Clara] twice'; or the suggestion that timid Agatha goes out hunting despite it not really being her thing, because Clara loves riding to hounds so much and she wants to stay close to her, could make for a lovely fluff fic—what does Clara make of that?

Or how about something set during the time frame of the novel? A story about murder could surely be developed into one about ghosts: perhaps, as Agatha is dying, Clara comes back, and either saves Agatha from being murdered or appears to her from the beyond as she approaches death and comforts her. I do like stories that combine the eerie and slightly horrible with the sweet and comforting; what canon gives us here is a lovely story with a rather horrible ending, so I'd love something that takes that further but gives them a bit of happiness at the very end.

A note: I have read Whose Body? and Clouds of Witness but not any of the later Lord Peter Wimsey books. I don't imagine it'll come up here, but just in case, please avoid spoilers for the later books!


Return to Night - Mary Renault
Lisa Clare/Hilary Mansell

Return to Night is both lovely and very weird, and I think the way the different elements of it fit together is one of the loveliest and weirdest things about it. There's so much darkness and emotional complexity, and an element of sort of wryly ironic farce, in the main plot and Hilary's relationship with Julian (and Lisa's with Rupert)—and fitting into the midst of it all is Hilary and Lisa's relationship: a sweet domestic oasis, yet still complicated in its own way. Anyway, I think I shipped them from the coffee flask onwards, and I'd love a story developing their relationship further.

Those few lines near the end of the book about Lisa and Rupert's death, where we suddenly see into what's otherwise a very uncertain future, are intriguing—but things might have gone differently. How about an AU where Lisa survives, and later on she and Hilary raise her daughter together? I think they'd make good parents! How do they get on together, and what is the daughter like? What does Hilary do during the war—I'm sure there'll be plenty of important work for her—and how does it affect their relationship?

What else might have happened that fateful night in chapter 12 when Rupert comes back? Perhaps in a version of events where he and Lisa are no longer together at this point (and they could so easily have decided it wasn't going to work out—I think that's an interesting possibility in itself), Hilary gets back from Cheltenham with her 'one clear wish, to spend the evening talking to Lisa'—and finds Lisa there. What happens—perhaps something a bit more emotionally dramatic than the uneventful domestic evening she was envisaging?

However, I'd also love any of kind of small, quiet scene with them together, where the kind of cosy domesticity we see in canon develops into something more. Lisa takes such good care of Hilary, with that coffee flask and everything—perhaps one day Hilary decides to do something special for her in return? Or a quiet evening curled up by the fire, gossiping, listening to the radio, perhaps talking about their pasts, 'sleep[ing] well'? :)


Crossover: Sir Isumbras at the Ford - D. K. Broster/The Yellow Poppy - D. K. Broster
Raymonde de Guéfontaine/Valentine de Trélan

D. K. Broster's historical adventure novels are so much fun—I love the beautiful descriptive prose, the attention to historical detail and, of course, the characters. Raymonde and Valentine are two of my favourites of her female characters: I love how Raymonde, courageous and resourceful, takes an important part in the Royalist politics and adventure of the book's plot, and that she gets involved in the dramatic loyalty-honour-revenge tangles that Broster does so well; Valentine, self-aware and steadfast, gets such an interesting emotional plot as well as getting to show her ingenuity in her concierge disguise. I think they'd have a lot of interesting things to say to each other if they ever met; and, their books being set so close together in history, they might well do so...

So, after the ending of The Yellow Poppy, what does the widowed Valentine do next? And where is Raymonde, five years after her own book—still working for her cause as an agent de la correspondance, or something else? Perhaps Valentine takes up some kind of Royalist work too, and she and Raymonde meet in the course of this; or perhaps, forced to flee France, they meet in the Channel Islands or in England. As mentioned above, you might ignore La Vireville entirely; or perhaps he's died in the intervening years and Raymonde is also a widow. Might she and Valentine, facing gloomy personal and political situations, find some hope and comfort in each other? Or, for some political history they'll like a bit better, where are they at the Bourbon Restoration?

D. K. Broster's talent for writing complicated and emotionally fraught misunderstandings involving loyalty, honour, duty, revenge and so on is one of my favourite things about her writing, and so I would love it if Raymonde and Valentine somehow got into such a situation together. Perhaps the necessity for Raymonde's concealing her identity in her work as an agent leads to some misunderstanding? I would also love any kind of hurt/comfort scenario, this being another favourite feature of Broster's writing! Dangerous Royalist intrigue provides lots of opportunities for dramatic injuries and resulting nursing back to health in loving detail, I'm sure.

Comments

[luzula]

Oooh, the idea of Raymonde de Guéfontaine/Valentine de Trélan is such a good one! Now I want to read that, too. I'll let it percolate in my head and see if I can come up with anything, if you don't get any gifts for it...but also I must say it intimidates me. I mean, I've done so much research that I can easily write stories set in Scotland in the mid-18th century, but writing something set fifty years later in France is entirely different! Also one would have to come up with a plot, hmm.

Or you could write it yourself. : P

I like your Jill ideas, too! It would be a pity of she and Kitty never met again...

[regshoe]

Hehe, I'm glad you like the ideas! Well, the things I put in exchange letters are often ideas that intrigue me but which I don't want to write myself—I kind of feel the same way about the research and plotting for this one, but we'll see...

Of course Jill and Kitty must meet again :D