Hello directors and groundlings,
all stories are in, so now it's madness/prompt claiming time! Under the cut are all the prompts.


For mific
General likes/dislikes:
I like AUs a lot - happy with any setting no matter how unusual. Modern day, in Spaaace, coffee shop, it's all good. Or a fork in the road, like what if some crucial thing in canon went differently. Any rating's okay. Prefer M/M or F/F.

Triggers/DWNs:
Ideally not too grimdark or intensely angsty. And at least a hopeful ending even if not everything's okay would be great. Also, fix-it's are excellent.

Request 1:
Macbeth with the focus on Lady Macbeth being linked to the witches in some way. Could be fantasy, horror, drama - oh, wait, that's canon! :) Also happy with an AU take where she's a modern power broker, manipulating away. What's her back story? Why is she driven like this?

Request 2:
A fix-it for Othello, and the setting can be AU, e.g. modern, or set in WWI or WWII, for example. If modern, maybe he's a general at the Pentagon? What's Desdemona's story, and her background? And Iago - what might his ending be in another setting, especially one where Othello has more resources at his disposal like the internet and private detective agencies.

Request 3:
Midsummer's Dream, but darker. Maybe a non-faerie court setting, with a poison/potion causing Titania to hallucinate that Bottom is part-animal for darker motives like to ridicule her and oust her so Oberon can wed a floozy (shades of Henry VIII). Shakespeare couldn't risk those implications, but we can!

Request 4:
Hamlet in spaaace! Elsinore is a moon, somewhat isolated, and he travels by spaceship to university on a world nearer the hub of the galaxy. Give Ophelia a better role, with actual skills and agency, or maybe make her an android, treated as a second class citizen by everyone except Hamlet. Or maybe she's an independent spacer with no interest in him and he's in love with Horatio. Hamlet can still be messed up about his father dying and his mother remarrying, but he has more options to check out his suspicions, like electronic recordings he can track down with the AI's help. Maybe Hamlet's aro-ace and Horatio's the AI! :)

For marcelo:
General likes/dislikes:
I like AUs of all kinds, specially those that are still about the same themes of the play (but could well disagree with what the play says!). Cross-play crossovers are also fun. I'm not much into PWP, but if that's where the plot leads, lay on.

Triggers/DNWs: No non- or dub-con or gore.

Request 1:
Hamlet - Everybody - Go nuts. Change genre, genders, plot beats, focus. Have fun.

Request 2:
Macbeth - the Macbeths - Joke aside, I always loved how _cursed_ is the world of the play. Go dark (more spiritually than gore, perhaps), switch times and places, poke at the world, their minds, both. Or make it a sitcom, if the sitcom shows the dark thru.

Request 3:
Henry V - Henry - With all due respect, he's a little shit and I very much enjoy when that's foregrounded. I'm not so much into Falstaff's style of humor, though.

Request 4:
Much Ado About Nothing - Everybody - I find the misunderstanding plot really upsetting, but I love the romantic comedy side of it. For this play I'd love something like comedy, really *really* alternative universes, etc.


For smallhobbit

General likes/dislikes:
I like AUs in different time periods, especially modern times, but am equally happy with canon settings. I'm a big fan of detective stories, and in general would like some plot rather than a simple relationship. I'm happy with characters from one play straying into another. I do like a bit of humour if it fits with the plot, and have no problem with crack!fic.

Triggers/DNWs:
DNW: Graphic sex or violence; incest

Request 1:
Hamlet - pairings up to you - maybe a family determined to hang onto power, but where the power is a country house/small bakery/etc - modern or 1920-1950

Request 2:
Macbeth - canon pairings or none - what if Banquo was hailed as king hereafter, but Macbeth doesn't like the idea?

Request 3:
Romeo & Juliet - any pairings - I like stories where Juliet has more agency, whether modern day or in the past. I also like Juliet/Ophelia as a crossover.

Request 4:
King Lear - any pairing - Cordelia is not disinherited, but in France. Correspondence between the sisters about having father to stay - a modern AU


For ardyforshort
General likes/dislikes:
I enjoy non-traditional relationships, especially relationships that involve more than two people; a focus on friendships; and relationships that can't clearly be labelled romantic or platonic. I like characters expressing intimacy through touch physical affection, especially snuggling, braiding/combing/styling hair, writing on skin, kisses on body parts other than the mouth. I like tattoos, both permanent and temporary ones. I like trans, non-binary, and gender creative characters. I like LGBTQ+ characters, especially aromantic-spectrum characters!

Triggers/DNWs:
I am fortunate enough to have no triggers, but here is a list of things I don't want in my gift: non-con, graphic violence, kinks involving excrements.

Request 1:
Hamlet - Hamlet/Guildenstern and Hamlet/Rosencrantz, maybe Hamlet/Guildenstern/Rosencrantz if you like - There are quite a few productions that imply or outright state past romantic and/or sexual relationships between Hamlet/Rosencrantz and Hamlet/Guildenstern, either concurrent or one after the other. So something that explores this. An educational setting would work well if you want to make it an AU - up to you whether that's highschool/secondary school, boarding school, university, or something else.

Alternatively, Hamlet/Horatio, because these are MY BOYS. But this time, one (or, if you want, both!) of them is/are on the aromantic spectrum. I saw a production once that did a really good job of portraying an aroflux Hamlet and a Horatio that loves him very much but isn't always sure how to go about expressing that - not because he isn't confident in his own feelings, but because loving an aroflux person can be messy because THEY aren't always sure what their feelings are. I love imagining Horatio as someone who is generally very sure of himself and knows who he is, but is a bit (or a lot) out of his depth in Elsinore as an environment, so I enjoy exploring this idea with the thing that unbalances him being Hamlet's identity. Feel free to put this in any AU setting you fancy - I think a modern setting where Hamlet's family are in politics or business would work well for it, but you can take it anywhere you want.

Shipping not your thing? I would ADORE character studies of any of the younger generation (Hamlet, Horatio, Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, Ophelia, Laertes), but MOST ESPECIALLY Ophelia or Laertes. An AU where Ophelia doesn't die, but manages to forge her own path, with or without her brother, her fahterh, or Hamlet (up to you which, if any, of these survive). Something focussing on their brother/sister relationship (include any level of sexual and/or emotional incest you're comfortable with; yes this explicitly includes ""none whatsoever""). Something about Laertes and how he defines himself given the position he's in at court. One question I am always interested in is what happened to their mother and how did it affect them as a family, as siblings, as people?

Request 2:
Richard II - Aumerle/Richard - look, anything to do with these two. Modern AU, magical powers, historical period shenanigans; anything as long as they get to kiss.

Request 3:
Henry IV/V - Hal|Henry/Kate/Poins. Canonically, Poins is one of the childish things that Hal has to renounce when he becomes King Henry, but what if he wasn't? There's a solid historical basis for the ""marriage for business, romance for everything else, including bisexual adventures"" model of relationships which also means that Kate can be happy and know about what they get up to together. Who knows, maybe she likes to watch or even join? Just, give me polycule affection here.

Alternatively, anything involving Lady Kate Percy. She's a badass and gets more shit done than Hotspur could even imagine. Up to you if you want to make it shippy or not - I Like s trong Kate/Hotspur relationship but would be equally happy with something about Kate by herself (during the marriage, after his death, in an AU where Hotspur somehow doesn't die) or Kate/Hotspur, Kate/Kate (H O T) or Kate/Henry. Because this one could be quite a challenge to make consensual depending on how dark your setting is, it's my one exception to my ""please don't go too dark with the consent"" DNW and if you do choose to go this route, please warn for it.

Request 4:
A Midsummer Night's Dream - ships up to you, involving Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander. I feel like this is the play to explore actual romantic and sexual attractions as opposed to societal expectations (or, indeed, love potions, as the case may be).
Soooo many options, but as long as it's queer, I don't care. Gay Demetrius who's actually into Lysander and that's why he keeps rejecting Helena? Aro Hermia who has no romantic interest in either of the men but wants to marry Lysander because the sex is amazing? Aroace Helena who keeps making up a crush because she thinks she has to?Bi/pan Lysander who has definitely had encounters with Demetrius more than once, or wants to? I'm just really interested in how these four navigate their own desires vs. societal expectations vs. whatever the fae are up to and figure out which of their feelings are real and which aren't. You can choose to keep it within the play setting with the fairies and love spell and whatnot, or you can take that concept and put it into an AU of your choice. Whatever works for you, I'm here for it.

Request 5:
The Two Gentlemen of Verona - Julia/Proteus/Sylvia/Valentine polyamorous AU. It's canon that they marry on the same day and then all live in the same house, look I don't make the rules but that is PRETTY QUEER by my standards. The way I see it, Valentine and Proteus are CANONICALLY more into each other than their wives, Sylvia fled her restrictive father who locked her in a tower, and Julia dressed up as a page and explored her gender-creative side. It's a queer polyamorous living arrangement waiting to happen and I am open to any and all ships involving these four. Thy don't all have to be in love with and/or have sex with each other, but I would love to see some relationship negotiation between some or all of them and some exploration of what life is like for them after their double wedding!

Request 6:
Romeo & Juliet - ANYTHING involving Benvolio and/or Mercutio. Mercutio/Romeo or Benvolio/Romeo is sort of an obvious one and I'm happy for you to go with that in whatever way you want, but I also really, really love Benvolio/Mercutio. They're both in Romeo's orbit and they both love him but in different ways, but he's also A LOT, whether he's in love or pining after some lass and maybe they both decide he's too much drama for one reason or another and take comfort in each other. In whatever way you like - it doesn't have to be romantic and/or sexual! Maybe they decide that they enjoy their friendship more than lusting/pining after the golden boy who only comes to them when he's down but stops taking notice of them as soon as there's a girl he fancies!

ALTERNATIVELY OR ADDITIONALLY, if there was one play and one production of a play that really lets you take apart the concept of romantic love, it's a) this one and b) the Baz Luhrmann film version from 1996, where Rome's infatuation with/supposed ""love"" for Juliet is the result of him taking MDMA - romantic love is quite literally a drug in that version. I'm happy for you to write in the setting that's given there or take the ""love is a drug"" concept and run with it in some kind of fantasy or dystopian setting.