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Dear Fic in a Box creator
Dear Gifter: Thank you so much for making something for me! \o/ I hope I've given you enough to work with here, but if not, please see my exchange letters tag for more of what I like.
General likes: hurt/comfort, fluff, angst with a happy or hopeful ending, found family, curtainfic/domesticity, characters hanging out together (getting drinks after work, playing games, etc), casefic/action, presumed dead, missing scenes, futurefic, loyalty, antagonists/rivals/enemies to friends, bickering/banter, AUs, forced cohabiting (tents, hotel rooms, only one bed). In general, two of my VERY favorite relationship dynamics are characters evolving from being hostile to friendly, with all the intermediate steps in between; and characters being "weird" about each other (ship or not) in a slightly codependent/up-in-each-other's-space way that outsiders don't quite understand. I also really love tropey fic (sex pollen! bodyswap! soulbonding! amnesia! werewolves!). I don't mind violence/gore/horror, but want an optimistic ending.
Canon pairings are always fine to include.
DNWs: major character death or terminal illness unless canon (death fakeouts with happy endings or characters being cured from a nearly terminal state are fine), mention of current real-world events/politics/pandemics, tragic or hopeless endings, A/B/O.
As you can see, I'm going all in on Falcon & Winter Soldier here.
I didn't request these separately as a main gift, but I would also be very happy to receive treats, or individual parts of my ficcish gift basket, focused on any of the following relationships:
Sam/Bucky, or Sam & Bucky
Bucky/Sarah
Bucky & Sarah & Sarah's kids
Or just Sarah or Sam or the kids, generally
James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson & Helmut Zemo
James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo
I completely fell for their three-way dynamic in the show! Sam and Bucky are a delight, and Zemo is an incredibly fun wildcard to throw into the mix. I love the uneasy-allies thing that they have going on, and the slight hints of their feelings about each other warming up, and I would be 100% here for watching that thawing continue.
As for relationships, I'm fine with any variant: completely platonic, deeply weird about each other but not particularly sexual/romantic, sex happened once but never again, fuckbuddies, fuckbuddies catching feelings, full-on OT3, etc.
- Zemo is released from prison into Sam and Bucky's custody, but officially this time, with some kind of kill switch/control device. You can go full pain/shock collar if you want; maybe it's something they don't entirely have control over, so it punishes him when he says or does certain things, or gets outside a certain radius, whether they want or not.
- Sam and Bucky find out about something terrible happening in the Raft (terribly cruel experiments, that kind of thing) and have to break him out.
- Zemo shows up on the run, in deep trouble and needing their help. Badly hurt, or pursued by a death squad, or the always-a-classic "poisoned with 24 hours to live" scenario ... I'm not picky.
- Dimension slip! They meet alt versions of one or more of them. Maybe it's a universe where Sam or Bucky is a supervillain, or where Zemo's family never died and he's living a quiet life with them. Maybe they end up on the run in a dystopic AU reality where nice guy Zemo is the only person they can trust - or is he? (However this goes down, I'd prefer not to have the story end up with a "new improved Zemo" vibe in which our Zemo is replaced with a nice-guy version of him and the old one becomes expendable. Maybe Zemo from our reality is with them all along, maybe an AU Zemo makes them think differently of their own, maybe they help out some other universe's Zemo but he can't come back with them, etc. Bonus: Zemo *thinks* he's expendable because they'd rather have the nicer one but they prefer the original.)
- I really love dubconny scenarios (sex pollen, drugging, bad guys made them X, trading sex/rape for partner's release, etc) as long as it isn't one member of the pairing actually causing it, e.g. Zemo drugging Sam and Bucky into compliance for example. I prefer the dubcon/noncon to be out of their control and imposed by a third party, and the involved parties to actually want to have sex with each other, whatever the scenario that gets them there.
- For sex pollen, I'm down with the regular porny variety for sure, but even more down with variations that produce different unpleasant effects, maybe even with no sex at all - making someone desperately skin-hungry, or producing total sensory overload, or something of that nature.
- Drugging, similar to the above, but with different effects. It could be an overdose of something, or a truth drug that makes someone extremely emotionally open and suggestible, or just heavy-duty painkillers or something similar making them loopy. Basically I am always here for characters being drugged and out of it, with the implied "you are the only person/people I trust to take care of me like this."
- Survival scenarios of all sorts, in the wilderness or on an alien planet or wherever you want to strand them. Maybe they're on the run from a more-dystopian-than-canon police state government that's out to get them, or they crash-land in the wilderness, or any other sort of "us against the world" survival scenario you might enjoy writing.
- Amnesia would be a great trope for these three, especially if they've already developed some level of trust between them. Maybe they all wake up with total amnesia and have to figure out what kind of relationship they have; maybe Zemo thinks he's back in 2016, or Sam or Bucky forget that he's not their enemy anymore and there is ANGST.
Vids: I'm opting into fanvids on this request! I love vids! I didn't opt in on the other pairing options because I'm not sure how easy it would be, especially for something like Ayo & Zemo where they hardly ever interact, although feel free to go for it if you have an idea. I'm totally fine with bringing in other MCU footage (e.g. from Civil War) but I'm generally not a fan of constructed-reality vids using footage from other movies where they're playing other roles.
As for the kind of vids I like - I'd enjoy just about anything, from something thoughtful focusing on their relationship, or their arcs across their various appearances in the MCU, to a fun exciting vid focusing on the "rule of cool" aspects of their characters (Sam flying! Zemo making big explosions!). I like most kinds of music, especially pop/rock/alternative for vids, but I'm not picky and if you think the music suits the characters, I think I'll love it!
Sarah Wilson & Helmut Zemo
Ayo & Helmut Zemo
Shuri & Helmut Zemo
So basically I just really like the idea of Zemo interacting with different people than the ones he's normally paired up with in fic! Preferably with some warmer feelings eventually rather than pure animosity. It doesn't have to end up as actual friendship (although it could!) but I just would like something more than outright hate.
Gen is lovely, but you also can feel free to include (as background pairings) any of the ships I've requested in this exchange, or Sarah/Bucky, which I also really like, or canon pairings. And also, in general, you can have Sam and Bucky or other characters show up as much as you like.
Sarah & Zemo
Although I understand why canon didn't go this way, I really wished that Sam had (for reasons) ended up bringing Zemo back to his family home and was disappointed that we never got to see Zemo interacting with his family. So I would love to see that, on whatever pretext you want!
Zemo with kids is always a lot of fun for me, so if you want to have him interacting with her kids for whatever reason, I'm 100% here for it.
- There's some sort of situation in which she's being threatened (because of Sam's Captain America thing, maybe?) and Zemo has to protect her, or perhaps he infiltrates some kind of enemy base to get her out? Sam and Bucky are both way too recognizable, but it would be really interesting to see Zemo use his chameleonic nature for a good purpose. (If he gets hurt in the process and Sarah has to help get HIM out and they escape together, all to the good!)
- Or maybe the ones in danger are Sam's nephews, and Zemo works with Sarah (and/or Sam & Bucky as well) to get them back?
- It could also be something more low-key. Maybe he's badly hurt or on the run and has to lie low at Sam's place for a while, and Sarah ends up being thrown into closer contact with him than she planned for. Bonus for either of the above: Zemo really does seem to like kids and ends up getting along WAY better with the kids than anyone expects or is entirely comfortable with.
- Or maybe it's just a series of instances of Zemo showing up with Sam and Bucky under various circumstances, maybe a five things or similar sequence of Sarah being kind of an outside POV on her brother and his BFF working with this guy. I just like the idea of Zemo being a complete outsider to Sarah's quiet domestic life but kind of orbiting around the edges of it and maybe being drawn in a little sometimes, too.
- Any slice-of-life with Sarah meeting Zemo, or weighing in on the whole Sam-Bucky-Zemo working relationship, is also very welcome!
Ayo & Zemo
This is obviously an extremely fraught relationship, and I don't want Ayo's very legitimate grievances with him to be completely downplayed - that is, Ayo finding out that Zemo has more depths than she believed and perhaps developing grudging respect and even friendship would be lovely, but she *does* have legitimate reasons to hate him, her people were greatly wronged by him, and so I'd hope any change of heart would be well earned and not "Ayo was wrong all along and must apologize," if that makes sense. That being said, I really love enemies working together and developing some grudging friendlike feelings.
- I am completely in favor of any and all scenarios in which Zemo is released to work from prison with the Wakandan equivalent of an exploding collar/kill device (or something less lethal is fine too) and Ayo is his handler. Maybe they have a control device that can cause him pain and Ayo has the control, with possibly mixed feelings about that. Anyway, a caseficcish scenario with the two of them working together would be great.
- A survival scenario would work really well for them! She's transporting him somewhere and there's a crash, perhaps? Or some kind of dimensional malfunction strands them on another planet/reality?
- The Wakandans find out that something really bad is happening in the Raft and show up on a rescue mission (of sorts). Perhaps Ayo finds herself responsible for an extremely damaged Zemo at that point, and they have to go from there.
Shuri & Zemo
As with Ayo, I don't want Shuri's legitimate grievances with him to be completely ignored. He killed her dad! So obviously there is a lot to work through, and they don't have to be too friendly with each other, especially right off. But as with the other relationships in this section, some sort of awkwardly growing respect and perhaps even friendship is something I would really enjoy.
- Instead of the Raft, at the end of canon Zemo is brought to Wakanda to work off his sentence by serving the royal family somehow. Perhaps Shuri is involved with making some tech to keep him under control, and ends up slowly getting to know him as she makes adjustments to it or something like that.
- Stranded somewhere together. They're a difficult couple of characters to do this for, due to their lives not really intersecting that much, but I'm good with handwaves. Lab accident, alien attack, captured together to fight in an alien gladatorial arena, diplomatic situation goes Wrong and they get stuck in a hostage situation together, etc. Seeing them get to fight together and both be badass in their own way would be great; hurt/comfort would also be very enjoyable.
- Shuri makes Zemo's rehabilitation her new pet project. Writing to him in prison, coming up with diplomatic solutions for getting him released early, that kind of thing. He doesn't quite know how to deal with it, never having experienced Shuri in Full Problem Solving Mode.
Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo
Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo
The individual ship version! I ship basically every configuration with these characters; I will never be over the cautiously friendly tone of that conversation between Sam and Zemo on the couch in 1x04, and Bucky and Zemo have their whole weirdly intense eyefucking thing going on.
I'm fine with anything from occasional fuckbuddies with feelings, to full romance/happy ending. First times or established relationship are both fine. I am a big sappy sap for warm squishy emotions when neither of them knows how to cope with feeling that way about THIS PERSON, pining, fighting their feelings and trying to convince themselves it's just about the sex (it's totally not just about the sex), etc.
I also really appreciate the Sam-Bucky friendship still being important, if it works with the story you're telling.
- I really love dubconny scenarios (sex pollen, drugging, bad guys made them X, trading sex/rape for partner's release, etc) as long as it isn't one member of the pairing actually causing it, e.g. Zemo drugging Sam into compliance for example. I prefer the dubcon/noncon to be out of their control and imposed by a third party, and the requested pairing to actually want to have sex with each other, whatever the scenario that gets them there.
- Fake marriage grows into real feelings. Maybe one of them has to marry Zemo to get him out of the Raft, so they're genuinely married - temporarily! for work reasons! - but still have an initially adversarial relationship with each other. Extra bonus iddiness for me: he is Really Super Not Okay from being in the Raft, but tries to hide it. Or maybe it's an undercover fake marriage (I loved all the identity stuff in the Madripoor episode! more like that, please!) and they inadvertently fake their way into an actual relationship.
- Hurt/comfort leads to feelings revelation. I love h/c and if you want to hurt one or both of them, then make them deal with FEELINGS, I am super here for it.
- On the run together. This could be in a more-dystopian-than-canon reality where the government is seriously out to get them. Or maybe breaking Zemo out of the Raft causes Sam or Bucky (or both) to become a fugitive.
- Basically anything I prompted in my Sam & Bucky & Zemo section that you want to do as Sam/Zemo or Bucky/Zemo instead is A-OK with me (survival situation, amnesia, meeting alternate universe versions of themselves, etc).
Relationship-specific DNW: Zemo's interest in his romantic partner being entirely manipulation (I prefer actual feelings to be there); demonizing the other member of the Sam-Bucky partnership to make the pairing look better (e.g. Sam being a complete asshole in a Bucky/Zemo fic)
General likes: hurt/comfort, fluff, angst with a happy or hopeful ending, found family, curtainfic/domesticity, characters hanging out together (getting drinks after work, playing games, etc), casefic/action, presumed dead, missing scenes, futurefic, loyalty, antagonists/rivals/enemies to friends, bickering/banter, AUs, forced cohabiting (tents, hotel rooms, only one bed). In general, two of my VERY favorite relationship dynamics are characters evolving from being hostile to friendly, with all the intermediate steps in between; and characters being "weird" about each other (ship or not) in a slightly codependent/up-in-each-other's-space way that outsiders don't quite understand. I also really love tropey fic (sex pollen! bodyswap! soulbonding! amnesia! werewolves!). I don't mind violence/gore/horror, but want an optimistic ending.
Canon pairings are always fine to include.
DNWs: major character death or terminal illness unless canon (death fakeouts with happy endings or characters being cured from a nearly terminal state are fine), mention of current real-world events/politics/pandemics, tragic or hopeless endings, A/B/O.
As you can see, I'm going all in on Falcon & Winter Soldier here.
I didn't request these separately as a main gift, but I would also be very happy to receive treats, or individual parts of my ficcish gift basket, focused on any of the following relationships:
Sam/Bucky, or Sam & Bucky
Bucky/Sarah
Bucky & Sarah & Sarah's kids
Or just Sarah or Sam or the kids, generally
James "Bucky" Barnes & Sam Wilson & Helmut Zemo
James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo
I completely fell for their three-way dynamic in the show! Sam and Bucky are a delight, and Zemo is an incredibly fun wildcard to throw into the mix. I love the uneasy-allies thing that they have going on, and the slight hints of their feelings about each other warming up, and I would be 100% here for watching that thawing continue.
As for relationships, I'm fine with any variant: completely platonic, deeply weird about each other but not particularly sexual/romantic, sex happened once but never again, fuckbuddies, fuckbuddies catching feelings, full-on OT3, etc.
- Zemo is released from prison into Sam and Bucky's custody, but officially this time, with some kind of kill switch/control device. You can go full pain/shock collar if you want; maybe it's something they don't entirely have control over, so it punishes him when he says or does certain things, or gets outside a certain radius, whether they want or not.
- Sam and Bucky find out about something terrible happening in the Raft (terribly cruel experiments, that kind of thing) and have to break him out.
- Zemo shows up on the run, in deep trouble and needing their help. Badly hurt, or pursued by a death squad, or the always-a-classic "poisoned with 24 hours to live" scenario ... I'm not picky.
- Dimension slip! They meet alt versions of one or more of them. Maybe it's a universe where Sam or Bucky is a supervillain, or where Zemo's family never died and he's living a quiet life with them. Maybe they end up on the run in a dystopic AU reality where nice guy Zemo is the only person they can trust - or is he? (However this goes down, I'd prefer not to have the story end up with a "new improved Zemo" vibe in which our Zemo is replaced with a nice-guy version of him and the old one becomes expendable. Maybe Zemo from our reality is with them all along, maybe an AU Zemo makes them think differently of their own, maybe they help out some other universe's Zemo but he can't come back with them, etc. Bonus: Zemo *thinks* he's expendable because they'd rather have the nicer one but they prefer the original.)
- I really love dubconny scenarios (sex pollen, drugging, bad guys made them X, trading sex/rape for partner's release, etc) as long as it isn't one member of the pairing actually causing it, e.g. Zemo drugging Sam and Bucky into compliance for example. I prefer the dubcon/noncon to be out of their control and imposed by a third party, and the involved parties to actually want to have sex with each other, whatever the scenario that gets them there.
- For sex pollen, I'm down with the regular porny variety for sure, but even more down with variations that produce different unpleasant effects, maybe even with no sex at all - making someone desperately skin-hungry, or producing total sensory overload, or something of that nature.
- Drugging, similar to the above, but with different effects. It could be an overdose of something, or a truth drug that makes someone extremely emotionally open and suggestible, or just heavy-duty painkillers or something similar making them loopy. Basically I am always here for characters being drugged and out of it, with the implied "you are the only person/people I trust to take care of me like this."
- Survival scenarios of all sorts, in the wilderness or on an alien planet or wherever you want to strand them. Maybe they're on the run from a more-dystopian-than-canon police state government that's out to get them, or they crash-land in the wilderness, or any other sort of "us against the world" survival scenario you might enjoy writing.
- Amnesia would be a great trope for these three, especially if they've already developed some level of trust between them. Maybe they all wake up with total amnesia and have to figure out what kind of relationship they have; maybe Zemo thinks he's back in 2016, or Sam or Bucky forget that he's not their enemy anymore and there is ANGST.
Vids: I'm opting into fanvids on this request! I love vids! I didn't opt in on the other pairing options because I'm not sure how easy it would be, especially for something like Ayo & Zemo where they hardly ever interact, although feel free to go for it if you have an idea. I'm totally fine with bringing in other MCU footage (e.g. from Civil War) but I'm generally not a fan of constructed-reality vids using footage from other movies where they're playing other roles.
As for the kind of vids I like - I'd enjoy just about anything, from something thoughtful focusing on their relationship, or their arcs across their various appearances in the MCU, to a fun exciting vid focusing on the "rule of cool" aspects of their characters (Sam flying! Zemo making big explosions!). I like most kinds of music, especially pop/rock/alternative for vids, but I'm not picky and if you think the music suits the characters, I think I'll love it!
Sarah Wilson & Helmut Zemo
Ayo & Helmut Zemo
Shuri & Helmut Zemo
So basically I just really like the idea of Zemo interacting with different people than the ones he's normally paired up with in fic! Preferably with some warmer feelings eventually rather than pure animosity. It doesn't have to end up as actual friendship (although it could!) but I just would like something more than outright hate.
Gen is lovely, but you also can feel free to include (as background pairings) any of the ships I've requested in this exchange, or Sarah/Bucky, which I also really like, or canon pairings. And also, in general, you can have Sam and Bucky or other characters show up as much as you like.
Sarah & Zemo
Although I understand why canon didn't go this way, I really wished that Sam had (for reasons) ended up bringing Zemo back to his family home and was disappointed that we never got to see Zemo interacting with his family. So I would love to see that, on whatever pretext you want!
Zemo with kids is always a lot of fun for me, so if you want to have him interacting with her kids for whatever reason, I'm 100% here for it.
- There's some sort of situation in which she's being threatened (because of Sam's Captain America thing, maybe?) and Zemo has to protect her, or perhaps he infiltrates some kind of enemy base to get her out? Sam and Bucky are both way too recognizable, but it would be really interesting to see Zemo use his chameleonic nature for a good purpose. (If he gets hurt in the process and Sarah has to help get HIM out and they escape together, all to the good!)
- Or maybe the ones in danger are Sam's nephews, and Zemo works with Sarah (and/or Sam & Bucky as well) to get them back?
- It could also be something more low-key. Maybe he's badly hurt or on the run and has to lie low at Sam's place for a while, and Sarah ends up being thrown into closer contact with him than she planned for. Bonus for either of the above: Zemo really does seem to like kids and ends up getting along WAY better with the kids than anyone expects or is entirely comfortable with.
- Or maybe it's just a series of instances of Zemo showing up with Sam and Bucky under various circumstances, maybe a five things or similar sequence of Sarah being kind of an outside POV on her brother and his BFF working with this guy. I just like the idea of Zemo being a complete outsider to Sarah's quiet domestic life but kind of orbiting around the edges of it and maybe being drawn in a little sometimes, too.
- Any slice-of-life with Sarah meeting Zemo, or weighing in on the whole Sam-Bucky-Zemo working relationship, is also very welcome!
Ayo & Zemo
This is obviously an extremely fraught relationship, and I don't want Ayo's very legitimate grievances with him to be completely downplayed - that is, Ayo finding out that Zemo has more depths than she believed and perhaps developing grudging respect and even friendship would be lovely, but she *does* have legitimate reasons to hate him, her people were greatly wronged by him, and so I'd hope any change of heart would be well earned and not "Ayo was wrong all along and must apologize," if that makes sense. That being said, I really love enemies working together and developing some grudging friendlike feelings.
- I am completely in favor of any and all scenarios in which Zemo is released to work from prison with the Wakandan equivalent of an exploding collar/kill device (or something less lethal is fine too) and Ayo is his handler. Maybe they have a control device that can cause him pain and Ayo has the control, with possibly mixed feelings about that. Anyway, a caseficcish scenario with the two of them working together would be great.
- A survival scenario would work really well for them! She's transporting him somewhere and there's a crash, perhaps? Or some kind of dimensional malfunction strands them on another planet/reality?
- The Wakandans find out that something really bad is happening in the Raft and show up on a rescue mission (of sorts). Perhaps Ayo finds herself responsible for an extremely damaged Zemo at that point, and they have to go from there.
Shuri & Zemo
As with Ayo, I don't want Shuri's legitimate grievances with him to be completely ignored. He killed her dad! So obviously there is a lot to work through, and they don't have to be too friendly with each other, especially right off. But as with the other relationships in this section, some sort of awkwardly growing respect and perhaps even friendship is something I would really enjoy.
- Instead of the Raft, at the end of canon Zemo is brought to Wakanda to work off his sentence by serving the royal family somehow. Perhaps Shuri is involved with making some tech to keep him under control, and ends up slowly getting to know him as she makes adjustments to it or something like that.
- Stranded somewhere together. They're a difficult couple of characters to do this for, due to their lives not really intersecting that much, but I'm good with handwaves. Lab accident, alien attack, captured together to fight in an alien gladatorial arena, diplomatic situation goes Wrong and they get stuck in a hostage situation together, etc. Seeing them get to fight together and both be badass in their own way would be great; hurt/comfort would also be very enjoyable.
- Shuri makes Zemo's rehabilitation her new pet project. Writing to him in prison, coming up with diplomatic solutions for getting him released early, that kind of thing. He doesn't quite know how to deal with it, never having experienced Shuri in Full Problem Solving Mode.
Sam Wilson/Helmut Zemo
Bucky Barnes/Helmut Zemo
The individual ship version! I ship basically every configuration with these characters; I will never be over the cautiously friendly tone of that conversation between Sam and Zemo on the couch in 1x04, and Bucky and Zemo have their whole weirdly intense eyefucking thing going on.
I'm fine with anything from occasional fuckbuddies with feelings, to full romance/happy ending. First times or established relationship are both fine. I am a big sappy sap for warm squishy emotions when neither of them knows how to cope with feeling that way about THIS PERSON, pining, fighting their feelings and trying to convince themselves it's just about the sex (it's totally not just about the sex), etc.
I also really appreciate the Sam-Bucky friendship still being important, if it works with the story you're telling.
- I really love dubconny scenarios (sex pollen, drugging, bad guys made them X, trading sex/rape for partner's release, etc) as long as it isn't one member of the pairing actually causing it, e.g. Zemo drugging Sam into compliance for example. I prefer the dubcon/noncon to be out of their control and imposed by a third party, and the requested pairing to actually want to have sex with each other, whatever the scenario that gets them there.
- Fake marriage grows into real feelings. Maybe one of them has to marry Zemo to get him out of the Raft, so they're genuinely married - temporarily! for work reasons! - but still have an initially adversarial relationship with each other. Extra bonus iddiness for me: he is Really Super Not Okay from being in the Raft, but tries to hide it. Or maybe it's an undercover fake marriage (I loved all the identity stuff in the Madripoor episode! more like that, please!) and they inadvertently fake their way into an actual relationship.
- Hurt/comfort leads to feelings revelation. I love h/c and if you want to hurt one or both of them, then make them deal with FEELINGS, I am super here for it.
- On the run together. This could be in a more-dystopian-than-canon reality where the government is seriously out to get them. Or maybe breaking Zemo out of the Raft causes Sam or Bucky (or both) to become a fugitive.
- Basically anything I prompted in my Sam & Bucky & Zemo section that you want to do as Sam/Zemo or Bucky/Zemo instead is A-OK with me (survival situation, amnesia, meeting alternate universe versions of themselves, etc).
Relationship-specific DNW: Zemo's interest in his romantic partner being entirely manipulation (I prefer actual feelings to be there); demonizing the other member of the Sam-Bucky partnership to make the pairing look better (e.g. Sam being a complete asshole in a Bucky/Zemo fic)