Exchange letter!

[tweague]

Oh, golly, it's been a long time since I've done one of these, and I think I've actually got worse at them @_@

Dear Exchange Creator,

First of all - thank you so much for offering to make something for me! Second of all - I wrote this letter hoping to show you the sort things I liked and spark some ideas about what you might enjoy making for me, but fundamentally what I most want is for you to have fun creating something, and if you do I’m sure I’ll love it ^_^ Everyone who writes in this fandom is great, so please don’t worry if your inspiration takes you far away from my suggestions.

By the way - most of this letter is couched in terms of writing / fic stuff, just because that’s what I’m most familiar with - but if you happen to be here to draw for me, or make a mixtape, or a mood board, or compose an album of folk music, then go, fly free, I can’t wait to see what you do! I hope you’ll still be able to find something in here that helps prompt your creativity.

Note on gen and ship fics
I’d say that most of what I enjoy in fandom is exploring the relationships between the characters in greater depth and in a wider variety of circumstances than canon can offer. A lot of the relationships I’ve requested are between quite unusual pairings or groups of characters, because one of my favourite things in fic is taking characters who don’t get to meet much in canon and pushing them together to see what happens. Please feel free to take this in whichever way you like! Show me what happens when two characters who you think would get on in interesting ways but who’ve never met in canon actually meet; show me what happens when two characters who interact a lot are put in a situation that strains or alters their relationship; show me how a character changes when interacting with different people or groups; show me what makes a relationship (of whatever kind) tick. I often read and write shipfic, but I enjoy gen too, so whether you’d like to write casefic where Gimlet and von Stalhein are forced to cooperate on an Intelligence case in 1950s Shanghai, or comedy smut where Copper and Algy go on an awkward date in the orchid house at Kew, I’d be delighted either way. For each of my requests I've thrown in both ship and gen relationship tags, and I’d always be perfectly happy with a friendship version of a ship tag, so please write for whichever suits you! Please, however, if you don't fancy writing for any of the ships I've suggested, don't write for an unrequested one, as I can imagine a few pairings in canon that I don't think I'd enjoy.

Note on sexually explicit content
If you want to write ship fic, I'm happy with any rating, and I read (and write) a fair range of smut so will probably be happy with most content - feel free to look over the tags on my fics to see what I've written for. Please no noncon within the ship (dubcon eg sex pollen, fuck or die etc generally fine) and no explicit noncon outside it - I'll read eg about the aftermath of sexual assault if it's really important to the story you want to tell, but I don't want to read about the act. Please don't include more ‘extreme’ kinks (scat, vore, water-sports etc etc - the usual dead dove stuff) unless you're fairly confident I'll enjoy them - if I've written for it, I'll probably like it! A random selection of sex-specific stuff I have enjoyed reading could include talking/narration/description/verbal reaction during sex, size kink including size difference, threesomes-and-more, overstimulation, edging, rimming, object insertion / sex toys, public / risky sex.

General Likes
I love finding out what makes characters (or combinations of characters) tick. I love seeing how familiar dynamics operate in unfamiliar contexts. I love emotionally-unavailable characters being forced to confront how much they care for someone (Gatty once teased me that this scene imprinted on my brain at an impressionable age, and you know what? She was right), and seeing how badly they cope with that. I love physical proximity and minor physical contact as a proxy for feelings they find it hard to express otherwise. I love stoical characters lashing out to protect or avenge their loved ones. I love all the twisty complicated feelings between characters. I love characters that know one another better than anyone else does yet still somehow fail to understand how much they mean to each other. I love big expansive drama that draws out the big feelings, and I love how the big feelings are also expressed in the tiny minutiae of everyday life - leaning against someone's shoulder when tired, distracting them when they're worried, sharing a favourite piece of music.

A specific thing I love in fics is when the author brings in their own particular interests and knowledge to help flesh out the world the characters are inhabiting. Give me a story about Gimlet and Bertie and von Stalhein and their love of horses, or tell me about Bertie’s (probably haunted) antique coin collection! Do you live somewhere or have you visited somewhere that we never hear about the character going to? Tell me about Gimlet in Australia, or Algy on Orkney! What do they make of the landscape, the food, the people? Which plants and animals do they get implausibly menaced by? Give me six pieces of violin music von Stalhein plays through his life, give me a recipe book with the cakes he bakes for his various prisoners guests with a star rating for how well each cake went down and a snippet of fic about the circumstances when he served them. Show me stuff that you know about and I don’t!

General DNWs - I'm generally prepared to read most things, including fairly dark / angsty content - but I generally prefer a fairly positive reconciliation / resolution at the end, so I don't leave the story feeling wretchedly sad for my blorbos. So please, no permanent main character death / dismemberment etc.

Fandom-specific DNW - I don't want the focus of the fic to be von Stalhein's career in WWII, though I don't mind if it's treated as a minor aspect of the story or referred to in retrospect; I don't want it glorified (obviously) or excused, but nor do I want von Stalhein to be shown to have had a career that would mean he entirely forfeits my sympathy later on. As WEJ makes this all pretty difficult for us, it’s probably it's best to steer clear.

This is my request for 'I love Bertie and Gimlet together in all ways shapes and forms, please give me more of them' ^_^ I’ve written an unfeasible amount of fic for two characters who barely interact in canon - feel free to make use of any aspects of the continuity I’ve made up if you want to, or to completely ignore it and come up with your own entirely different ideas if you prefer! What I mostly get from their canon material is a sense of their fondness for one another, and the surprising ease of their interactions - they inhabit a shared world and have a shared history that we don’t really get to see in the course of the books, and that’s absolute catnip to me, so I’d love to see more of it. I’d love to see fic from any time of their lives, and from any version of their relationship (so long as it respects their canon closeness).

Here’s a handful of more specific prompts in case that’s helpful to you:

• Gimlet and Bertie learn to fly! We know Bertie was at Cranwell at some point, but otherwise we don’t know much about how or why either of them learned - did they take lessons around the same time? Was one inspired by the other? Who found it easier? What inevitable high-jinks did they get up to?
• Something from early WWII when Gimlet was seconded to the RAF, possibly before Bertie came to 666 (though I know the continuity is a bit of a nightmare - feel free to mess about with history to suit your story, I won’t care and WEJ did it all the time!). Why and how did Gimlet move from the Guards? Were he and Bertie in the same squadron at all? How did the aftermath of Gimlet’s leg injury affect both of them? Feel free to add in whichever other Biggles characters you may feel like including - I’ve always wanted to put Wilks into a Gimlet WWII story somewhere!
• Casefic where Bertie works with the Kittens! (Or any subset of the Kittens that you’re happy with writing. If that’s just Gimlet, I’m fine with that!) How would it compare with working with Biggles & Co? Would Bertie enjoy the greater potential for explosive mayhem, or would he find the commandos’ ruthlessness sometimes difficult to stomach?
• Gimlet and Bertie and animals! I love their extended cast of hounds and horses, and would really like to see more of them.
• I mentioned this one on the Discord, because I think it could be amazing but I’ve no idea how to write it: truth drug Gimlet!
• Further to which: as there’s not very much fic for this pair of characters, I’d be very happy if you filled in some of the trope-y gaps! Only one bed, your classic hurt/comfort (I badly want someone to inflict some actual concussion-consequences on Bertie at some point, and for Gimlet to have to cope with it), temporary amnesia, aroace soulmates, whatever you fancy! Pick your favourite trope and throw it at them.

Feel free to add in more characters as desired! I think Gimlet + Bertie + von Stalhein has great potential, and Gimlet + Bertie + Kittens would be fantastic - I think Bertie and Copper would be pure comedy gold.

This is my request for all sorts of Biggles-related interactions! A lot of the specific relationship tags I’ve requested are ship-focussed, but I would definitely be just as happy with platonic friendship versions of them if you’re happier with that ^_^ Take some inspiration from the suggested tags and just throw some characters at each other to see what happens.
A handful of specific prompts for just some of the possibilities:

• How does that 266 squadron reunion at the end of ‘Flies South’ go?
• Does Algy eventually become reconciled to Marie, and if so, how? (I think they’d actually get on really well - does that make a difference?) And how long does it take for things to really return to normal between him and Biggles, after their awful argument at the beginning of ‘Looks Back’?
• We’re used to Raymond as the safely untouchable member of the & Co team - what happens when he’s put in danger? (Kidnapping? Blackmail? Political pressure? Assassination attempt?)
• I’m a sucker for Algy and von Stalhein having to put aside their differences and work together <3
• That first time Bertie and von Stalhein crossed paths, the one WEJ never tells us about! What did Bertie do, and when, that Erich remembers him as talking ‘more blah than anyone I ever met’ but being a formidable adversary?
• For the shippers: I absolutely adore the current fandom-standard pairing of Biggles/von Stalhein, but I’d love to see some more rarepairs (using ‘pairing’ in the loosest possible sense…) I’d be delighted to receive any of the ship tags I’ve included - or any combination of them, for that matter - and when I say Marcel/Any, I really am prepared to be convinced by anything and everything, though probably Marcel/Biggles or Marcel/&Co are the easiest sells. Also, kudos to the person who nominated Biggles/Ginger/Algy/Bertie/Erich, I’d be delighted to sign them all up for the semi-casual military polyamory orgy <3

This is my King's Kittens request set! Honestly, the Kittens need more love. And yes, I know writing for two characters who use dodgy dialect in canon is a little alarming, but I have faith in you! I’ve put in an umbrella gen relationship tag for our four main heroes, plus a handful of ship tags if you’re that way inclined - I’m very happy with either. Some specific things I’d love could include:

• Trapper love! He started strong in ‘King of the Commandos’ and then WEJ didn’t really know what to do with him. What does he make of London and the Home Counties after growing up in the backwoods of Canada fighting grizzly bears? Does he have family back at home? How does he get on with Copper’s Ma?
• Commando backstory for Copper and Trapper! Give me the ‘me and my pal’ adventure.
• Commando backstory for Gimlet! How does he cope with the training regime, given he rammed a Dornier and smashed up his leg probably only a year before? At what point does he meet the Kittens? How do they react to one another?
• As I said in my general notes - I’d love it if you unleashed your special knowledge on these characters! Take them to some interesting places,
• For the shippers: I absolutely believe Trapper and Copper are married. I want to see how their relationship works. (I’d also love some sweet fun smut where Cub gets to join in a few years down the line and they just have a lovely time together.) I’ve also tagged for Gimlet/Cub, though I have a suspicion that this would be very much a BAD IDEA pairing - I’m definitely up for exploring that though! And the occasion when they lie around on top of a flowery mountain on a Greek island as Gimlet recovers from some hideous trauma is rather begging for some life-affirming smut.

This is my request bucket for crossovers between the Biggles books and the Gimlet series! I’ve put an umbrella relationship tag in for ‘666 squadron & King’s Kittens’ and I really do mean it - I’d love to see any characters from either group interacting. That could be a big wartime adventure where Biggles’ squadron and the Kittens have to work together; it could mean Ginger somehow ending up taking Cub to the pub for his first pint. (I love the idea that Cub looks up to Ginger as a dashing young officer - Ginger’s so often shown as the baby of the group, and I’d love to see him getting to be a sort of mentor figure to Cub!). I’ve put in a handful of more specific relationship tags, in case they spark your interest more - I have absolutely no idea how Gimlet and Marie would get on, but I’d love to find out! - but don’t feel like you have to limit yourself to those options - I’d be just as interested to find out what happens when Tug inevitably picks a fight with Copper. I’m happy with gen or ship fic, and feel free to include as many or as few characters as you want.Some more specific ideas, if you want them, could include:

• As noted at the top, I love the idea of Gimlet and von Stalhein crossing paths in the course of their various intelligence-based bits of skullduggery over the years - what might happen? Were they on opposite sides? Were they reluctant (or not so reluctant) allies? How much did they know about each other when they met, and did they surprise each other? Was it Gimlet, in South America to destabilise some government or other in the late 1940s, who picked a half-starved and fever-ridden von Stalhein out of whatever hole he managed to crawl into after the end of 'Takes A Holiday'? You decide!
• Bertie/Gimlet/Cub. Another one of my 'oh NO' relationships, though I feel somehow that the presence of Bertie might make the whole thing less psychologically damaging for all concerned. 
• I really do want Tug to pick a fight with Copper, a clear foot taller than him and nearly twice his weight. They'll probably bond in the end, it'd be terrifying.
• Algy would climb Copper like a tree.
• The ongoing madcap adventures of B flight, only this time with grenades.

I hope some of that has been useful, and that the sheer quantity of waffle I just produced wasn’t too off-putting! Really, I just want to reiterate what I said at the start - I’ll almost certainly be happiest if you produce something that you enjoy making, so please have fun ^_^