cousinshelley | Rare Pairs Exchange Letter

I am in love with these things. So I go on about them, a lot, in the hopes of someone else falling in love with them, too. I can't resist pushing my favorite rare things as much as possible while I have the opportunity!

I've tried to give a lot of detail about what I like and what I find endearing about this show and these movies, and I've offered a lot of potential prompts, but please don't feel obligated to use anything I've suggested if you have an idea you like better.

LIKES: Friendship, found families, loyalty, love whether it's sexual or not, deep emotional connections and devotion, supernatural elements where appropriate, third person POV, humor, people figuring things out together, gray areas and difficult choices, displays of affection and respect, characters sacrificing their own comforts to help others, hurt/comfort, forced proximity, missing scenes and fix-its, first times, happy endings, unrequited love finally realized, fake couple/marriage to real romance, snark and banter.

DO NOT WANT: Non-con, AU (coffeeshop, school, space, historical canon characters in modern day, A/B/O, etc.); First and second person POV (sorry, don't read them in fanfic except in journal or epistolary stories); Holiday stories; Unrequested ships; Kidfic and pregnancy; Unrequested identity headcanons; Focus on gender identity or sexuality; Genderswapping; Character death; Cruelty to animals; Original major characters except where noted; Crossovers; Crack; Fluff; Surprise serious illness that's not canon. Overall, if you stay pretty much within the bounds of the source material canon and in that spirit, it's hard to go wrong.

As far as sex, if you choose to write it for any of these (and that's welcome but not necessary, so do what you're comfy with) none of them lend themselves to anything particularly kinky. Hands and fingers, intercourse, oral sex. I do like when a person gets overcome and pushes the other against the wall or bends them over something, I like lots of face touching during oral sex, I like cuddles and snuggling to spontaneously become intercourse. I like when someone's riding the other and the one on the bottom sits up and pulls them close and sort of takes over .For threesomes, two people committing all their focus to the third is fantastic. But again, don't feel like if you don't write sex I'll be disappointed, because I won't as long as the caring and affection are there.

Strange Angel

Ernest Donovan/Jack Parsons
Maggie Donovan/Susan Parsons
Alfred Miller/Susan Parsons

This CBS All Access show was cancelled after two seasons. It's about real-life Jack Parsons who founded two of the biggest rocket labs and advanced rocket and rocket fuel technology to the point that he's considered a major reason we eventually made it to the moon. We get to see things through his eyes in the show, and the bits of his imagination shown on screen are some of the neatest scenes, from him imagining himself being attacked by a War of the Worlds alien ship to seeing himself becoming a beast. It follows him from working at a chemical plant to getting a contract with the DoD to work on rockets and rocket propulsion, all happening as he's being recruited by next-door-neighbor Ernest into Thelema, an occult philosophy created by Aleister Crowley.

His career in rocketry is interesting, but the most engaging parts of the show for me are the relationships, particularly his friendship (and Susan's) with Ernest. I hate-hate-hate the direction they took Ernest in season 2, aside from a couple of tender moments with Jack and the revelation about the lover he had while he was gone, so we will handwave all that away and roll in their season 1 dynamic, yes we will.

(I’ve been working on a compilation of their scenes and those immediately relevant (as well as Maggie and Susan scenes both for context and because I adore them too) for each episode in season 1:
http://www.mediafire.com/folder/kpds36ib3futy/Strange_Angel. Hope to have them done soon. If you're at all interested, I recommend watching full eps either through CBS All Access or movies123.net (use a proxy). You get a lot more context that way and some other interesting plot moments.)

I enjoyed the show a lot, though my favorite things are Jack and Ernest, and Susan's journey. I think she's the character who grows and changes the most, with the best arc, and it's fun to watch. I love the idea of Susan/Maggie (and really three or four of them in a pig pile, maybe with Magus Alfred thrown on top because I ship that, too. And Alfred/Susan ends up actual canon in S2).

Jack/Ernest

Jack and Ernest have such a strange and intense relationship. I really thought in the first season the relationship between these two might go a little differently, and wanted it so badly. It's obvious Ernest wants him, what with surreptitiously watching Jack get a blowjob, his reaction when called on it, and of course the awesome scene of him following a Jack look-a-like into a gay bar. All were more than enough for me to feel like his desire for Jack is super clear. Add in his expressions, the touching...yup.

I'd love anything set in the first season that gets them together, whether a new scene or changing an old one, whether in the context of Thelema sex magick or a spontaneous encounter while they're alone together. Go full sexytimes or have one of their intimate friendship scenes or even when they're fighting lead to a kiss and/or some tension and no further, up to you. There doesn't have to be explicit sex for me to love it, but that's great, too!

I'm just so taken by Ernest's devotion to Jack, and Jack's belief that Ernest has helped him break through to another level. Ernest is so sure that Jack in his life is somehow going to reveal his own true path, and getting Jack's dreams to come true is going to help him. His level of belief is so damn endearing and incredibly intense. Each man is so important to the other, and they make no bones about it (mostly). Love that. More of that! Ernest is so screwed up and lost (and I do have a thing for broken characters). The guy needs about a million hugs and to be needed and any story where Jack fills that emptiness for him, smutty or not, is good for me.

Prompts:

While I don't want Ernest the betrayer in S2, I do like the idea of either changing things so he doesn't disappear for a couple of years after acting like he was going to fly the plane into Jack at the end of S1. Let him land it, and let their relationship go on from there. OR, let him steal it and disappear for a shorter time, have his lover and go through the torture and trauma he did, and come home broken for Jack to take care of him without Susan's stepfather interfering and convincing Ernest to betray the Agape.
The scene where Jack found Ernest in the desert after their peyote trip, Ernest's expression during the second hug, the way he sort of melted and looked so happy, that scene could use expanding. What was he thinking? What did they talk about after the hug before they went back to camp? What if they kissed afterward? Ernest was so happy and close to Jack then, and I'd love to see that expanded.
I love the scene where after they've fought Jack recruits him to help with his rocket project in the desert, even though Ernest is put out with him, and says love is the law no matter what form it takes, and of course Ernest is going to help him. The gentle touching there! The looks! Deep dive into it. That's the kind of thing I love.
The whole love is the law philosophy and the fact that Thelema puts no restrictions on with whom or what gender you have sex. That should have made it so much easier for Ernest to show his true feelings to Jack. And it's canon that once you're part of the Agape you'll have sex with other women, men, groups. They should have gotten together on the show, damn it. Make it happen! Let them both get so exhausted or relaxed or drunk/high that truth comes out with an unexpected kiss or a longing look and Ernest has to face his fear of being that vulnerable to someone whose rejection could crush him.
Hurt/comfort such as Jack being the one to bail him out and nurse his wounds after the fight and arrest at the gay bar, or Ernest helping Jack through a rocket-related injury. Jack comforting Ernest during one of his more lost moments. One caring for the other in some way.
What if instead of watching secretly when Jack went into the room to get a blowjob, Ernest followed him? Would he stand there and maintain eye contact with Jack? Would he touch himself? Would he shove the woman out of the way and take over? Jack's reactions to any of those, shocked at first but then going with it, the way he does with Ernest no matter what pretty much all the time, would be great.
At the lodge, when the ceremony has ended but people break off into couples and groups for sex, the two of them can pair off, maybe reluctantly at first, maybe encouraged to by the Magus, but whoo boy, I'm not ashamed to admit that them getting into it and being full of feelings and banging away in some kind of religious and sexual euphoria sounds pretty damned delicious. I can see Jack being the more reluctant and Ernest having to coax him into doing something he really does want to do anyway, but that's okay. That's their relationship.

If you don't want to write sex, ship away without it. Sexual tension is mighty fine! If you write something that showcases their unique dynamics, and I'll be excited to read it. I love these two awful, selfish dumbasses so much.

Maggie/Susan

Maggie showing up was amazing. As Ernest's wife, you get a better sense of him, and also it says a lot about her that she's stuck with him despite some obvious betrayals and what is a pretty obvious sense that he prefers men even though I think he does love her. She's so dynamic and strong and no bullshit, and I loved her immediately. Susan describes her to Jack as someone who dresses like Audrey Hepburn, and it's so telling. Susan only wears dresses and skirts, not pants like Maggie.

Susan, on the other hand, starts out as a wife who lies still while her husband is pumping away and once she's agreed with him that they should put off having children won't have sex with him. She's the good Catholic girl, brought up to believe that sex for anything but procreation is a sin, and that procreation is her sacred duty. At one point Jack goes down on her, and when she catches herself enjoying it she flips out. Her journey is amazing, because she goes from a repressed Catholic afraid of sexuality to someone who's in touch with her desires and not afraid to give into them. From lying back and taking it to fulfill her husbands needs to riding him like a champ, fucking him in a ritual in front of everyone and partner swapping at the Agape. I think the show is worth watching just for Susan's journey alone.

Susan and Maggie's friendship is a big part of Susan starting to open up and see another way of life, and I love all their moments together. Anything with them, either rolling in their blossoming friendship or something more, would be awesome.

Prompts:

Susan isn't going to the Agape when Maggie starts going with Ernest and having sex with other people. Let's nudge the timeline a little so they're there together, and let Maggie sort of help Susan get in touch with what feels good. Even kissing and get into that if you want to fade to black after would be great (though feel free to let Maggie go further with her).
A scene where Maggie's emboldened because of her trips to the Agape and she and Susan spend some private time together in the afternoon, whether over spiked lemonade or listening to records, or Susan showing her a good recipe, just about anything. Can go as far (or not) as you want.
If you're up to write sex, any situation like these where Maggie gives Susan her first orgasm, either doing it to her or helping Susan touch herself like she'd tried to do and stopped (canon). Euphemisms or explicit, I think it'd be an amazing thing.
What did they do in the desert while their husbands were off hallucinating the moon and hugging trees? Did Susan reveal what her and Jack's sex life was like? Did Maggie say more about hers and Ernest's beyond him calling her lipstick color "bullseye red." Maybe Maggie gave some tips, or showed her some things? I'm certain Susan has never given Jack a blowjob. Maybe they discuss that and Maggie gets her to warm to the idea just a little, demonstrating on Susan's finger or something. I think this kind of discussion with Maggie being Maggie and Susan being a blushing, scandalized good-girl would be sweet.
Maggie could confess her suspicions about Ernest's sexuality one tearful afternoon and in trying to comfort her, Susan ends up kissing her and feeling surprisingly okay with that. Or she can just hold her hands and listen to her and be supportive and sweet. Whatever moves you.
Just about any situation where Maggie lovingly and gently coaxes Susan out of her repressed shell, whether sexual or not, (getting her to sing, dance, play around and be silly--anything) would be fantastic!

Alfred Miller/Susan Parsons

A ship I love that became canon! Magus Alfred, just gonna say it, is sexy as fuck. And he takes a particular interest in Susan pretty early on, and I am there for that. He helps convince her the Agape and Thelema in general aren't evil, that she should get touch with her own feelings and her body (and her pain), and then helps her get in touch with her sexuality.

He also helps her uncover a memory she's pushed aside for years (trigger warning: a perverse stepfather) that explains so much about her attitudes toward sex and intimacy. He genuinely wants to help people be free and enjoy their lives, all within the context of Thelema, of course. And he does help her, and I think later in the show falls in love with her. Who can blame him?

Anything involving both of them, whether it's him leading her through rituals like he did on the show to help her remember things, thick with sexual tension, or a first time that's different than what it seems it might be on the show, I will thoroughly enjoy.

Prompts:

I really like Magus Alfred as a teacher, helping Susan realize her sexuality and her desires, or even just to like being touched in a friendly and non-sexual way. Susan isn't a fan of physical expression in the beginning, and though she becomes a fan with his help later, I'd love to see a scene earlier on where Alfred just holding her hands, stroking her arms, touching her innocently showed her how pleasant physical closeness can be.
If you want to go further than that, Alfred teaching her about sexual pleasure in any number of ways would make a great story. I like him as kind of the opposite of Jack, less concerned about his own needs or doing something to her but allowing her to explore him as she wishes to take any fear she might have away. Something like her agreeing for him to be naked in her presence and she can stay dressed or not, touch him or not, do whatever she wants, so she feels in control and sees how much power she can have over his reactions and his pleasure.
A similar situation where she's facing him, straddling his lap, clothed or not. I just really like the idea that he'd let her learn at her own pace and feel totally in control, with him completely giving himself over to whatever happens and obviously enjoying it.
Like with Maggie, I love the idea of him giving Susan her first orgasm. Oral sex or with his fingers while he's staring into her eyes would be great, but any way works for me.
Just them sitting in separate chairs and him talking to her about being free, knowing herself, desire, good lord.
Another meeting of the Agape where Susan's too uncomfortable and goes to leave, but this time Alfred goes after her instead of Jack, and they go somewhere private. It can stay intimate conversation or become something more.
If you'd like a third, Maggie and Magus Alfred together at the Agape helping Susan enjoy sex? Feel free! Like I said earlier, just about any combo of these characters, most or all, but of course you only need to include the two in whatever pairing we matched on. I love them together in about any way you want to write them.

Any of these pairings or situations (or a situation of your choosing) would be great, but please, please a happy ending.

The Girl in Lover's Lane (1960)

Bix Dugan/Danny Winslow

This is probably the most accessible fandom I've requested because it's a short movie that's easy to get through, particularly if you watch the MST3K version. This movie contains a lot of stuff that was common then but we cringe at now. But the thing that interests me the most is the relationship between the main characters Bix and Danny. Bix is a drifter who comes upon Danny, a young man who's fled home in confusion, who's been attacked by riffraff who want to steal his pretty loaded wallet. Bix finds the wallet and throws an unconscious Danny over his shoulder to toss him into an empty train car.

When Danny wakes up, Bix eventually gives him his wallet back and agrees they can travel together. And they hang close throughout, down to Bix keeping Danny away from women, foregoing his own date to take care of Danny after a fight (that's totally Bix' fault, but whatever), and in the end of the movie after the girl Bix fell for has been murdered, Danny takes Bix home with him, honest to Pete.

It's free to watch the MST3K version on tubi, no registration required. It may also be on Youtube. I think the original movie is for rent on Amazon for a couple of dollars, but the free riffed version is really enough. https://tubitv.com/movies/330013/mst3k_the_girl_in_lovers_lane

The MST3K version is enough to follow the movie, I promise, and actually makes watching it a lot more fun. The first time Bix says his name it sounds close enough to Big Stupid they call him that throughout. And Joel and the bots pick up on the slashy elements and lean into them. "Bix saves Danny from a second heterosexual experience." I'm a huge MST3K fan so I enjoy it on those terms. It's one of my favorite Joel-era episodes. But I seriously love the Bix and Danny relationship and all that it could be.

I like older Bix as sort of protector of presumably-18-year-old Danny (his parents have been together 19 years), and I'd prefer that instead of Bix dating Carrie and falling for her (beautiful though she is), a relationship or begins with Danny instead.

Prompts:

I'm okay with the idea that while they're in that first train car, Bix teases him about ways he could get his wallet back if he really wanted it, and Danny potentially goes for it. (Bix is gorgeous, after all, and maybe Danny's instantly got a crush.) I just don't want Bix to be mean about it or force him to do anything.
A redo of the first scene in the diner when Bix pulls Danny away from the woman but this time it's as much his own jealousy as wanting to protect Danny from a prostitute. Let them go back to the single room they're renting and both sleeping in and do something about that jealousy (or not--just the obvious jealousy and Danny figuring it out would be great, too).
Some h/c would be good. What if Bix has dreams of his abusive father and Danny has to pull him out of nightmares and hang onto him while they talk. Cuddling a bit and sharing a bed, good stuff.
Jesse, who's creepy and only has eyes for Carrie in the movie, gets one look at Danny and can't leave him alone. An angry and jealous Bix cannot have that. Maybe even a scene where Jesse gets Danny alone at the lake or anywhere and gets handsy, like he did with Carrie, and Bix rescues him.
Danny has such a crush on more manly, worldy Bix that he embarrasses himself at every turn, but Bix thinks it's adorable.
Let's say Bix got the worse end of the fight and Danny has to take care of him back in their room. And Bix isn't used to anybody giving two shits about him, and can barely believe what he's feeling.
A story where one or the other thinks the other has left town and abandoned him, but of course discovers that's not true. All the pining and angst. All of it.

Just about any scenario you put them in where one is taking care of, protecting, flirting, seducing or being sweet with the other will make me happy. Please leave out the whole lovestruck-then-murdered Carrie storyline and just focus on the guys.

Metropolis (1927)

Freder Fredersen/Josaphat
Freder Fredersen/Josaphat/Maria

This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I love silent films, especially German Expressionist horror/science fiction, and since this is the mother of all science fiction films it has a special place in my heart. I've seen it too many times to count. I love its innocence, its earnestness, its very sweet message despite all the religious heavy-handedness. Since there's no dialogue, the actors have to emote with only their faces and body language, and without color all they had was light, shadow and scale, and this movie makes full use of every one of those things to tell its love story against the backdrop of a message about social and wealth inequality. It's a masterpiece, and I highly recommend it. Right now the full version (including the footage most recently found thought to have been lost--when the shots go blurrier with obvious lines, those are the recently found bits) is on Youtube. https://youtu.be/AvtWDIZtrAE

If you've never seen it, Freder is the son of tycoon Joh Frederson who runs the city. Freder spends his time as the wealthy do, spoiled in every conceivable way, and a considerable amount of it is in the Club of the Sons, a playground for the rich. He's there one day, getting it on with a pretty gal (the women are there to entertain the men) when Maria, dressed plainly, comes in the massive front doors with a bunch of obviously poor children to show them the rich men are their brothers and presumably send the message that deep down they're all the same.

Playboy Freder instantly falls hard for her and follows shortly after she leaves to find her. Instead he finds the "heart machine," the machine that's the beating heart of the city. Without it, everything will collapse. He sees an accident in which many workers are injured, and imagines it as Moloch, with the workers human sacrifices being fed to it to keep it going. He rushes to speak to his father about this horror and ends up in Josaphat's arms (not romantically, this is just an affectation of silent film) carrying on about it.

There he comes to realize that his father doesn't really care about the working poor. They live below the city while the wealthy live on top. But Dad gets pissed that he didn't find out about this big accident from Josaphat, his assistant, and fires him. Which means he'll have to go below. Freder, who has already had a lot of up close and intense conversation with Josaphat, who obviously knows him well, runs after Josaphat and keeps him from killing himself. He wants Josaphat to stay with him at his home instead of going below.

From there he's on a quest to find out what the life of the working man is like and to find Maria, and he does both. Josaphat is loyal to him, helping him, and despite his father's pact with a man who hates him who has a robot he essentially 3D prints to look like Maria to sabotage the work she does, they save the day in the end. Rotwang loved the woman Joh Fredersen married and had Freder with and actually uses Robot! Maria to sabotage <i>him</i>...it's plotty.

When evil Maria convinces the workers to revolt, they cause the heart machine to break and everything stops working. This causes the underground city to flood. If not for Maria, Freder and Josaphat, all the workers' children would have drowned. I love the scenes with the three of them working together to save the kids and get each other to safety.

The whole thing has such charm and such a sweetness to it while telling a good story and being risque in parts when false Maria is dancing--there's a mad scientist turned evil by jealousy! A robot made to look human! "The Tall Man" who's hella creepy and then turns out to have a conscience of sorts! A happy ending!--that I rewatch it regularly just because it makes me happy. I love things like the truly impressive shots of the modern city and its highway ramps and airships, but with biplanes flying between buildings. The clock set to a 10-hour day. The worker's job which seems to consist of moving clock-like hands to point to whatever light bulbs are flickering (which makes no sense but is done with such earnestness). Wonderful.

I love either Freder/Josaphat or Freder/Josaphat/Maria. Just please if you go with Freder/Josaphat, have that been before he becomes a worker and finds Maria, or with the understanding that they're all together and she's just not there at the moment. No erasing her after the end.

Prompts:

Yes, the embracing and close talking are an affectation of silent film, but I like leaning into that when it comes to Freder and Josaphat. And they're more into it than a lot I've seen. Josaphat immediately goes to him, concerned. They obviously have at least a very friendly relationship, and I'd love to see it become romantic, obviously. After he saves Josaphat, instead of going to look for Maria or the workers, he can go home with him and help get him settled. There are so many scenarios from confessing that he'd wanted to invite him there many times before to them ending up having comfort sex. The possibilities seem endless.
I like the idea of Josaphat giving a shoulder rub to Freder who's in a chair talking about all that he's seen and how it upset him, and the massage changing to more intimate touches, then kissing. No need for sex, but if you want to go there I will follow you with bells on.
Freder has nightmares about the machine and what he say, and Josaphat comforts him and shares his bed to keep them from coming back.
Later when he's actually overcome and feverish in bed, let Josaphat be there and provide comfort for him.
For either F/J or F/J/M, I'm a fan of the idea that after all the children are out and safe, one or two of them are on the landing and it gives way, plunging them into the water and the remaining one (or two) has to rescue the other(s) and then care for them at Freder's home afterward.
After Freder rescues Maria from Rotwang and his father and the foreman shake hands, what happens? Do Maria and Freder leave to go to his home, and Josaphat starts to amble away before Freder catches him and insists he come, too? Is Freder's bed big enough for three so that at bedtime they all climb in together because none of them wants to be alone? Sex is grand, but I would also be happy with just cuddles, comfort and affection between two or all three of them.
Josaphat is injured by the mob hunting for Maria, and after Freder has rescued her and all the rest, they find him and take him home to care for him.
Robot!Maria gets Freder alone and menaces him a bit. He knows it's not Maria, but she's strong and has her debauched mannerisms, and maybe tries to seduce him. Josaphat and Maria who have been looking for him find him and rescue him, and get him away from her to safety.
You could also go pre-film and have a smitten Freder invite Josaphat to the Club of the Sons on a date, or take him to a secret club where two men together is acceptable. Freder can be all in or still kind of afraid of his new feelings and exploring that. Anything with the two together will be great. The three of them going somewhere post-movie where they can have dinner and maybe dance together, with the man taking turns passing her between them, and dancing with each other as well, would be great, too. (No, movie Maria wouldn't dance but she wouldn't be part of a threesome either so we can loosen her up just a skosh.)

Don't feel like you have to use my prompts for any fandom. Any story involving the characters I chose will be an awesome gift! I'm so excited to see what you come up with.