suburban_sun

Dear Chocolatier,

Thank you for signing up for Chocolate Box this year! I always have fun participating in this one, and I hope you have a good time this year too :-)

Below you’ll find the following:

General Likes/Kinks

General DNWs

Fandom Specifics/Prompts

9-1-1 Lone Star - TK Strand/Carlos Reyes
Carry On - Tyrannus Basilton “Baz” Pitch/Simon Snow
Crooked Media RPF - Jon Lovett/Ronan Farrow
Harry Potter - Remus Lupin/Sirius Black
How I Met Your Mother - Barney Stinson/Robin Sherbatsky
Mad Men - Peggy Olson/Stan Rizzo
Red White & Royal Blue - Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor
Ted Lasso - Beard & Ted Lasso, Keeley Jones & Ted Lasso, Rebecca Welton & Ted Lasso

I’ve tried to list some varied prompts for each fandom, but please don’t feel like you have to stick to what I’ve come up with. If the rest of my letter gives you another idea you’d like to write, I’d love to read it! Also, if you notice some fandoms have more detailed info or prompts, please don't think it means I want some less than others! I just ran out of time! :-D

a little about me to start:

My AO3 name is SuburbanSun; you can also check out my Tumblr if you’d like, and my tags for each of my requested fandoms or ships here:

general likes/kinks:

I’m a big trope fan in general– faves include rivals/enemies to lovers, friends to lovers, bed-sharing, trapped together, mutual pining, secret dating/sneaking around, slow burn, FWBs that turns into something more. Subversions of tropes are also great, so don’t feel like you have to go the obvious route if you choose to write something tropey!

I have a great love for Secret Service/bodyguard/witness protection AUs and private eye AUs, and these days I’m (perhaps unhealthily) invested in US politics/news in my everyday life, so if you want to have any of my requested characters run for office or work on a campaign, I’d never turn that down. And I’m always a sucker for a vampire slayer AU.

Epistolary fic, either as part of a story or as all of it, is always fun to me, if it’s up your alley. Phone calls! Emails! Letters! I love it all!

Smut is cool and fun and here are some kinks that I like to read: Teasing. Phone sex/sexting. Semi-public sex (not actually getting caught though). Workplace sex. Dirty talk. Oral sex. Playfulness/joking around during sex.

general dnws:

Superangst and sad endings. Babyfic/kidfic/pregnancy in general. Self-harm. Abuse. Noncon/dubcon. A/B/O, mpreg, incest, bestiality, hard kink. Poly/threesomes. Members of my ships being paired romantically with other people (unless it’s just briefly, on the way to an OTP-happy ending). First person POV (except in epistolary elements).

fandom specifics/prompts:

9-1-1 Lone Star

Carlos Reyes/TK Strand

I was so hesitant to give this show a try, but some fandom friends were watching it back in January when it began, and I figured why not watch along with them? And wowww it is so ridiculous but so much fun. And actually has some pretty solid character and relationship building! I love TK and Carlos so much, both separately and as a couple. TK is such a sweet, loyal puppy who always just wants to be better, and Carlos is so open and honest and sensitive, and together they’re just so cute (and hot). I’m really excited that in season 2, we’re going to hopefully get to see more of their courtship phase, and especially more development of Carlos’ character and backstory!

Note: I will be watching the new season week-to-week, so I’ll be all caught up if you’d like to incorporate season 2 elements.

Prompts:

I love the found family aspects of the show too, and I really love anything where the Fire Fam (or on Carlos’ end, Michelle) are playing matchmaker or teasing the boys about each other.
They seem to be together in some capacity at the end of season 1, but how comfortable is TK with their relationship status? Is he ready to call Carlos his boyfriend, or does he get a little freaked out at his own feelings, or when someone calls them out for acting like a couple?
They both have such challenging schedules— what happens after a long stretch of time when their work schedules just didn’t sync up, and they’ve been missing each other?
What happens the first time Carlos brings TK home to meet the family?

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Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell

Tyrannus Basilton “Baz” Pitch/Simon Snow

I just read Carry On and Wayward Son within the last month or so, and really couldn’t put them down! I loved Simon and Baz’s dynamic— it hits all my rivals to lovers buttons, while also being all sorts of soft and cute.

Note: Not super into true AUs for this one— canon divergence is fine.

Prompts:

I’d love something set in the time just after their first kiss, either while they’re still at Baz’s family’s house, or once they’re back at school. I love the space in which they are kissing and having feelings but not fully certain of what those feelings are or mean.
Pre-getting together, roommates Simon and Baz find that they can only really talk to each other— and only be honest with each other— half-asleep in their individual beds in the dark of the night.

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Crooked Media RPF

Jon Lovett/Ronan Farrow

Oof these two. I’ve been indoctrinated into the Crooked Media way of life since early 2017 and I remember how for so long, we subsisted on little tiny crumbs in ad reads— were they actually together? Were they just golf buddies? Then, much later, I got my Catch & Kill pre-order on my Kindle at midnight and DIED at the “For Jonathan,” and then was resurrected when I flipped to the proposal. I think I was happier for them than I ever would be at any hypothetical engagement of my own. They seem so well-suited for each other, smoothing out each other's edges and offering up what the other needs (unless it’s basic household management, in which case, who needs it, anyway?). Anyway, I just love them.

**I love everyone in the Crooked universe so all are welcome, but if you were to mention any background relationships, I’d prefer them to be paired with their real-life partners. And if you do write for this fandom, I would appreciate it if you archive-locked the fic!

Prompts:

I’d be super interested in reading about how they may have met— whether it’s an account based on things we actually know (I’ll never be over the idea of Ronan just sliding into Lovett’s DMs), or a completely fictionalized version of how they COULD have met back in DC in that era.
Bicoastal life lends itself well to building a love story in phone calls, text messages, Zooms before Zoom was cool, mismatched time zone videogames, etc.
Maybe Ronan finally makes an appearance on one of the cooking IG lives?
Wedding on the moon! Pundit in a spacesuit!

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Harry Potter

Remus Lupin/Sirius Black

Harry Potter is kind of always there in the background as something I love, and as far as ships go, Remus/Sirius is my faaaave. I love the complexity of their relationship in the text, and the subtext (THE SUBTEXT). I love thinking about the Marauder era and how deeply all four of them loved each other, and thinking about Remus and Sirius discovering feelings that went even beyond that. I love the (brief) time between Hogwarts and that Halloween night, when they were potentially happy and in love. I’m much more interested in something within the HP universe for them than a total AU, and not into reading about them in their animagus/wolfy forms.

Prompts:

Hogwarts-era pining! One of them has realized their feelings but thinks the other isn’t interested, and that kind of adolescent angst is so bittersweet.
Post-Hogwarts domesticity! Moving into a ramshackle apartment together, hanging moving photos of the Marauders on the walls, cuddling under three blankets because the heat is on the fritz but it’s their place so they love it anyway.

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How I Met Your Mother

Barney Stinson/Robin Sherbatsky

This show is one I don’t revisit often, but when I do it’s always a Barney/Robin focused episode. I loved their relationship so much, how they fit together despite being so independent and yeah, maybe a little damaged. I wanted SO BADLY for them to end up together (and in my mind, they do, because I don’t acknowledge that finale as a thing that exists).

Prompts:

Any way you can make the show end with Robin and Barney together is GREAT.
I love the episode relatively early on where Barney is sick and Robin is reluctantly tasked with feeding him soup, etc. What if their feelings for each other had started to develop then?
Fake dating-- Barney needs Robin to be his plus one at a GNB event, or Robin needs Barney to pretend to be her boyfriend at a family wedding, or something equally tropey and delightful

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Mad Men

Peggy Olson/Stan Rizzo

I love and miss this show so much. It was so smart and made me feel so many things, and in truth, Peggy Olson is one of my favorite characters in all of fiction.

Peggy/Stan is such a great ship, to me, and one I was on board with from the very beginning. Omitting his boorish behavior early on, once they established a rapport, they were such equals, and he seemed to respect her so much, and vice versa. They got on each other’s nerves and knew how to push each other’s buttons, but that’s just because they connected so well and really got each other.

Prompts:

I absolutely adore the time period where they’re basically phone buddies. Maybe an AU where they get together earlier in the series, during that time? How their phone conversations evolve from discussing work to discussing everything to falling for each other (or realizing they already had)? Phone sex (or getting ever-so-close to it before realizing they’re in the office and it’s inappropriate) is a-okay here too.
In the same vein, epistolary fic could be really fun to play around with here. Maybe a story told through a series of interoffice memos, messages, notes in the margins of copy pitches and along the edges of spec art?
What are things like now that Peggy and Stan are working together and being together (and possibly living together)? It’s got to be frustrating at times but worth it in the end, right?

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Red White & Royal Blue

Alex Claremont-Diaz/Henry Fox-Mountchristen-Windsor

My friend told me I’d love this book, and when the wait at the library was months-long, she decided I shouldn’t wait and shipped her copy to me to read. And it did not disappoint! I’ve since reread it twice, both times during the COVID era, and it has brought me immense joy and delight in light of all the awful shit going on in the world. My favorite part of the book, and of Alex and Henry’s relationship, is the era when they’re flirting and texting and maybe even hooking up but haven’t (at least on Alex’s end) really let themselves acknowledge their feelings for each other; while I adore the whole story, I could LIVE in that time period.

Prompts:

More from that aforementioned time period! Missing moments or scenes, additional late-night texts that turn just a tad flirtier than anticipated, maybe an unexpected phone call in the middle of campaign or royal business.
What if Zahra and Shaan orchestrated another Henry visit to DC to really solidify the bromance— perhaps around Christmastime (so before their first kiss, but after they’d started talking on the phone and texting selfies from bed)? Would they do fun festive things around the city (ice skating! The national tree lighting!) that are totally, definitely, not at all dates?
I love Alex’s POV, but I’d also be interested in Henry’s POV on either moments in the book or new moments you come up with! How hard is it for him to be so attracted to this infuriating American? Does he ever feel like Alex might have some latent feelings for him too?

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Ted Lasso

Beard & Ted Lasso, Keeley Jones & Ted Lasso, Rebecca Welton & Ted Lasso

I’m so in love with this show; it’s the best thing I watched in 2020. Like five minutes ago Ted Lasso was some character from an NBC Sports promo and now I would take a bullet for Ted Lasso. So basically, a huge part of what I love about the show is Ted, and the relationships he has or has developed with the other characters! I love his positivity and “aw shucks” demeanor that disguises some real depths, real sharpness and intelligence.

I love everyone in this bar, so feel free to include any other characters from the show. I generally ship Roy/Kelley, but don’t super-duper ship any other romantic ships for this one, though I could probably be bought into Rebecca/Ted.

Prompts:

I’d love to get a look at Ted and Coach Beard back in Kansas— maybe their convo where Ted asked Beard to come with him to England?
Ted’s having a bad day, and Keeley takes him out for karaoke, or fancy cocktails, or pedicures. Bonus points if Rebecca joins them! (Or maybe Coach Beard too!)
I loved the scene in the pub where Ted showed just how much he’d been underestimated at darts, and would love to see the reverse with Rebecca— what’s something she’s secretly fantastic at (could be more singing, or could be a new talent!) that Ted gets to see firsthand?

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So, that’s that! I really hope you enjoy the whole process during this exchange, and thanks for participating! Happy writing!