regshoe

Dear RMSE Author,

Thank you for writing me a fic for one of these lovely rare m/m ships! 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 things I like:
—Places: a strong sense of place, and relationships between characters and places
—Descriptions of nature, especially birds
—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 finding comfort and a sense of rest in each other, especially amidst a hostile world or plot-related struggles; a sense that the characters in a ship are 'each other's people'
—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
—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; 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
—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.

All requests are for fic.

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

I definitely have a thing for pairings where one character goes through life happily and successfully without a care in the world, while the other has a tragic backstory and is still beset by some sorrow or worry, and they love each other devotedly. I love Allan and Midwinter's relationship—Allan cheerfully trying to give Midwinter all the good things he can think of, Midwinter worrying about Allan all the time, their loyalty to each other—and I also love the drama of the book, its ideas about fate and the inescapable shadow of the past hanging over the story. One of my favourite moments in the book is when Midwinter says that what persuaded him out of believing in his father's superstition was 'my love for Allan Armadale'. :D

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 events go differently from then on? I like Lydia Gwilt a lot, and would be happy to see her get involved in the story if you wanted to go that way (without her canon relationship with Ozias, of course; but perhaps she tries the 'marry Mr Armadale and get his fortune' trick on one or the other of them, and fails because they realise they prefer each other! What other schemes might she concoct?).

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 scenery of the Norfolk broads together, or get into exciting and dramatic adventures on a yachting tour somewhere off the coast (perhaps they get into some sort of trouble, leading to a daring rescue and/or a hurt/comfort scenario!). Or you could write something about their future life together post-canon, in domestic happiness at Thorpe Ambrose—perhaps with something about Ozias's literary career.

The Heir of Redclyffe - Charlotte M. Yonge
Charles Edmonstone/Guy Morville

This book is such good Victorian fun! I love all the drama of the plot, with its mixture of Gothic gloom and edifying Victorian morality, and the characters and their interactions are all so lively. But Charles and Guy's relationship is my favourite thing about it: as Philip puts it, '[Charles's temper] is very far from improvement at present, in consequence of his zeal for Guy. Guy has been very attentive and good natured to him, and has quite won his heart'. :D I love the bit where everyone thinks Guy has been gambling, and Charles defends him so vigorously that he ends up hurting his leg on the stairs and bringing on an attack of his illness. Poor Charles.

So, what with Charles's hip problem and Guy's perilously delicate constitution, there's surely a lot of opportunity for hurt/comfort either way round! I would love a story about Guy caring for Charles during or after an attack of his illness, comforting him and perhaps reading to him from one of those books they both like; or Charles nursing Guy through some grave illness, probably brought on by reckless overly heroic behaviour and/or fated Gothic doom of some kind.

Charles never does get to see Redclyffe, which is a shame! What if he went to stay with Guy there—surely it'd be a good place for 'change of air', if the doctor should think he needed it while convalescing; or, if it's when he's feeling stronger, perhaps he manages to go off to be with Guy there (during the period of Guy's disgrace over the gambling question?). I'd love a story in which they slowly grow closer amidst those beautiful and dramatic surroundings; and I'm sure Guy would appreciate having Charles there to support him while he gets into being a landowner. And possibly they could get into some exciting adventures—perhaps Charles is there when that storm and shipwreck happen, for instance. Or you could explore how the conflict between Guy and Philip might go in a version of events where Guy and Charles are together. Or you could write something set post-canon—if Guy survived, what things might he and Charles do together at Redclyffe in later life?

John Halifax, Gentleman - Dinah Maria Mulock Craik
Phineas Fletcher/John Halifax

This book is such a beautiful mixture of fascinating history and slashy goodness! I love everything about Phineas and John's relationship: their easy and loving friendship, the David and Jonathan references, how John always cheers Phineas up when he's being grumpily self-deprecating or insecure (the scene where John admires his height and compares him to Alexander the Great and Napoleon is adorable) and comforts him in his periods of illness ('he was life and health to me, with his brave cheerfulness' <3); Phineas's utter devotion to John throughout his life, his heartbreaking pining, and the meaning in him ultimately writing the book itself to record John's life and historic achievements.

It's a very good pairing for pining! Phineas's insistence on how right and natural it is that John can't love him as much as he loves John ('God forbid that in any way I should have murmured') breaks my heart; so how would a getting-together story, where it turns out John does, go in this context? I can see actually getting what he wants—and believes so firmly that he doesn't deserve—causing some amount of real emotional turmoil for Phineas, and if you wanted to explore his internalised ableism (and, possibly by implication, homophobia) from this angle, then I would enjoy that. It's an interesting possibility for John, too, in a different way—his general existence being so much that of the perfect nineteenth-century self-made Gentleman, it could be really interesting for him to turn off that conventional path in one vital way by loving another man.

A hurt/comfort story would, of course, be lovely! Either way round—you could write about John caring for Phineas during one of his bouts of illness or his convalescence afterwards, or perhaps John is struck down in the midst of his usual perfect health (braving cold wind and rain while out doing something incredibly heroic/historically important?? overdoing it being the model of the proto-Victorian work ethic??) and their usual roles are reversed as Phineas has to look after him.

Or I'd love absolutely anything else with these two being together and happy. Phineas canonically keeps a diary (and can't help being self-deprecating even about that, poor man...!)—you could write an epistolary fic made up of his diary entries, or a story involving his writing. Or them walking about the slopes of Enderley Hill together, enjoying the beautiful scenery and talking, or reading to each other from one of their favourite books, or...