Read It And Weep

Hello Writer!!

I’ve completely fallen out of the habit of writing exchange letters, so please excuse me if it’s not very helpful. If you have a clear vision for these characters, please take this opportunity to write what’s in your heart and know you’ll have an appreciative audience with me.

You can include all the requested characters or concentrate on some, or just focus on one of them. Ball’s totally in your court. I'm also open to treats!

So! For a little background for some of the canons requested, I’ve come back to the DC fandom after a long, long break, and initially I was very skeptical about the ~ Absolute Universe, having not-so-great memories of Marvel’s Ultimates (no shade on Miles Morales, of course, best thing to come out of that.) But! I was very intrigued by a set of panels from Absolute Batman — of Batman and Killer Croc in the sewers together, it’s this deeply moving and sad scene, with so much backstory about these characters that I wanted to know more. Also I kinda shipped it. I still sort of do.

Then I threw in a couple of wild cards in there, but if you think about it, it fits the theme. There’s a theme! Guess the theme.

Anyway, let’s just jump in.

Do Not Wants

Do Not Wants: Crossovers to the main DCU universe, eye violence, omegaverse settings unless requested, explicit sexual content involving characters under the age of 16, pregnancy, fic focusing on misogyny, racism, gender dysphoria, homophobia or transphobia (ok for background mentions of period-typical homophobia/transphobia, etc, but please don't make it the focus)

Likes

Narrative Likes/Tropes I enjoy:

• Reluctant friendships between people from different walks of life, which blossom into life-altering relationships
• Road trips, the picaresque, let’s go on an adventure together!
• Doomed romance. A tragic ending doesn’t put me off, although I’m happy with happy or happy-for-now endings as well!
• Canon-divergence AUS, missing scenes, historical periods other than canon (Victorian, interwar, WWI & II, fifties to sixties.)
• Loyalty kink, friends-to-lovers, enemies-to-lovers, complicated relationships.
• Ghost stories and supernatural elements, fairy tale lore, magic, subverted horror movie tropes. What-region-gothic, although I do have a special fondness for the Southern Gothic.
• Emotional manipulation, the manipulator catching feelings / getting caught in their own designs.
• Alternative POVs and experimental styles (but a tight third is always welcome)
• For mythical canons, retellings & reinventions that aren’t just straight modern AUs. For historical canons/settings, feel free to take liberties! Artistic license! So on!

General Art Likes: strong compositions, chiaroscuro, painterly effects, big dicks and juicy thighs, attention to costuming, expressions and tenderness, significant touches, emotions, so on.

Porn Likes: pussy eating, anal sex, being overhead/observed, service tops, unexpectedly bratty bottoms, hand & finger kink, oral fixation, face-slapping, crying during sex, bad/funny sex, caning (to the point of discomfort/humiliation but not abject pain/bleeding), contextual dubcon (due to mistaken identity, altered states such a sex pollen between already pining parties), forehead kisses, uniform kink, A lovingly washing B’s hair when B can’t do it themselves. Tenderness.

OK, enough yapping! Let’s get to the good stuff.

Absolute Batman

Absolute Batman

Tomorrow. Midnight. The old veteran's arena. You. And me. Alone. You win, I'll go back to Ark M and become whatever you want. But you won't win. And you, people of Gotham, you get to watch. And just in case any of you are wondering who I am ... I'm BATMAN
— Batman

Note: I’m caught up with this and AS and will try to stay current as the rest comes out, but don’t worry about spoilers. Write what you’d like, use whatever.

Bruce Wayne (Absolute Batman) - There’s a scene when Bruce is in Ark-M where he’s completely broken down, stripped (literally) bare and has the cape and cowl glaring down at him. There’s a real sense that Batman is an outside force that has imposed itself onto Bruce Wayne’s life (and thanks to Darkseid’s influence) and twisted into a shape that it must be. I’m fascinated by that compulsion, that force, and how that makes Absolute Bruce different than other Batmen.

I’d also enjoy a story that explores Bruce’s relationships with other characters, especially Martha and Waylon, Selina or Alfred. The focus should be on Bruce, of course, but he’s so different with all of them.

I’m open to receiving ship fic featuring Bruce’s canon romantic relationships (with Selina) or Bruce/Barbara (please tell me how that happens because every time they’re face to face, he’s always coming at her with the craziest energy.)

Barbara Gordon (Absolute Batman) - Babs’ journey is just beginning but I’d love to see either backstory or future fic where she’s more experienced in her Batgirl/Batwoman persona. I think Babs’ background as a woman of color and as a legacy police officer (Gordon clearly had pull in the department even though he got into politics) — that surely opens her eyes to the nature of Gotham and its evil.

I like how dogged she is, whether it be running down Bats or trying to avenge her father. Would love to read casefic where Babs ran into maybe some clue about the nefarious dealings with JK, or seeds of her becoming Oracle.

Harley Quinn (Absolute Batman) - I need my girl Harley to check in. What’s happening with her? Are you still rocked by the revelations about her parentage? Isn’t Bruce a fucking idiot for not listening to her?!? Anyway I want everything about Harls, I’d love fic where she interacts with any of the other requested characters in this canon, or members of the Red Hood Gang.

Jack Grimm | Joker (Absolute Batman) - What really makes him laugh? I’m not afraid of clowns so feel free to go buckwild with whatever fucked up shit Joker gets up to. Shipfic with Bruce is welcome. Someone’s gotta dance with the devil in the pale moonlight, right?

Absolute Superman

Absolute Superman

"I’d spent months weeping for Krypton. For everything I’d lost. But that day the tears were different. I wept for the world I’d found. The one I could already tell I wouldn’t be able to save… any more than I had the last."
— Kal-El

Kal-El (Absolute Superman) - Kal-El … My sweet boy, why must you suffer so! ◕︵◕

I’ve always liked Superman but I’ve never really had strong feelings about him, but now here I am, asking for fic for him on Yuletide. But it’s different, you see, because Absolute Superman did this thing that made everything even more tragic for him … By having Kal be a child, witnessing the death of Krypton, witnessing the strength and heroism of his parents (especially LARA, oh my goodness, the panel with her and the big ass raygun, off to rescue her husband did stuff to me) and also their (presumed) death.

I really like the choice of flip flopping the position of Jor-El and Lara-El as not Kryptonian elites but farmers, people whose promise and education were unfairly curtailed by the blinkered and corrupt Science League — but that doesn’t stop them from trying to save as many people as they can. Kal-El’s determination to save everyone definitely comes from them. They’re so … good.

But with all that, it hurts all the more to lose them. Kal thinks even Krypto is dead! Krypto!

At least he has Sol, though. (Also I don’t believe for a minute Krypto is really dead.)

I would really love fic where Kal-El can process at least a bit of the incredibly traumatic things that happened to him, exploring Earth, building relationships with the Kents, Lois, Jimmy and Lana. I want him to be happy … He deserves it, he’s such a sweetheart.

Alternatively: you can definitely torture him more. Maybe some of Brainaic’s simulations were too real (what if Kal is forced to kill/betray his parents in one of them?? Or hurt Jimmy and Lois??? Just terrible.)

Clark/Lois are one my favorite ships, and this version is so fun and crunchy, especially with the (presumed) age/experience gap, the fact that Lois is down bad from almost the jump and Kal really has no idea what hit him. I don’t know if they’re at the point of even considering having a sexual relationship, but man, imagine the hilarity if they try. What is Kryptonian sex ed like? (It’s just Sol dispassionately describing coitus, probably.) But even so — Lois needs to know — you know, for the record.

Lois Lane (Absolute Superman) - I want to know everything about this Lois who followed her father’s footsteps in the military instead of becoming a journalist (who can blame her? Print is dead) — but she’s still curious, determined and willing to change her entire worldview given a compelling reason.

Some quick suggestions: Lois and Lazarus, her … complicated relationship with her father (and how Lois copes with Samuel’s death), introducing Kal to hallowed Earth traditions like — smoking weed, maybe? God knows he needs to relax. Or Lois investigating the other metas and costumed heroes that have been cropping up as Kal-El came to earth, anything!

Lamkin (Long Lankin) - (Child Ballad)

Lamkin | Long Lankin (Child Ballad)

LAMBKIN was as good a mason as ever laid stone;
He built Lord Montgomery’s castle, but payment got none.
He built the castle without and within;
But he left an open wake for himself to get in.
— Anon

Lamkin | Long Lankin (Child Ballad)

OK, let’s be clear. Murder is bad and wrong. I understand that. But you know what’s also bad and wrong? NOT PAYING YOUR CONTRACTORS FOR THEIR WORK. FUCKING OVER THE POOR. BEING A LITTLE BITCH IN YOUR CASTLE, AFRAID OF THE RABBLE OUTSIDE WHO ARE (RIGHTLY) BAYING FOR YOUR BLOOD. Really, there’s a certain helpless rage you feel when you see the rich and powerful go and wreck the lives of the poor, with seemingly total impunity, that makes you — well, think crazy thoughts. Lambkin (or Lankin, or Lincoln) is a great example of letting those crazy thoughts take control. I’m not particularly interested in versions of the ballad where he’s a motiveless serial killer or a monster in human shape. His motivations and his crimes seem very human to me, so I’d love any story to give him some depth and humanity, even as his crimes (and taking the Nurse down with him) — make him irredeemable in the eyes of society.

I’m open to AUs: Lamkin in the French Revolution, Lamkin as a ghost or spirit of vengeance, modern AU where all of Lamkin’s health insurance claims are denied, and what for. Up to you!

Thank you for reading all this ramble. I hope at least some of it proves useful. Happy Yuletide! Keep your head on a swivel.

Please find me at:

havisham @ AO3