All stories are now in or in hand. Thank you so much everyone!

This means now is MADNESS TIME! Under the cut are all prompts sorted by requester's AO3 name. Pick one or more, write a story of any length, post to the collection. For a reminder about how to post please see this post. Madness finishes on October 31 and I will open the collection on November 1.



For indigostohelit

Likes: witty banter, darkfic, loyalty, competence, epistolary fic, horror, references to mythos or media Shakespeare would've known (or commonly known fairy tales, Grimm's is ahistorical but g r e a t.) Dislikes: kidfic, pregnancy, marriage/curtainfic, ABO, drunk sex.

- Hamlet! Hamlet/Horatio is where my heart lives, but it also lives with Ophelia (especially Ophelia&Laertes and Ophelia&Polonius, the latter being much more horrifying than anyone gives it credit for, I think). AUs are highly encouraged. These characters are my faves and my biases, and I don't want them to get any sort of happy ending at all. Bonus points for Horatio as the most important character in the play (and narrator?) I'm not a big Fortinbras fan, but if you love him, go for it.

- Julius Caesar!! especially my guy, the worst man in the world, Marc Antony. Antony/Caesar and Brutus/Cassius are ideal; I've also wanted an extremely unhealthy Antony/Brutus/Cassius for ages. AUs again highly encouraged (though nothing based on the most recent Shakespeare in the Park production, please, I actually was at one of the ones that protesters interrupted and it freaked me out fairly badly and I don't much want to revisit it). Anything involving Antony's skill with words. If you've seen HBO Rome, characterization based on that is strongly encouraged as well, though ofc no fuss if you haven't.

- Romeo and Juliet - I'm going to be extremely an predictable Internet Queer Person and request Mercutio, but in my defense, he's wonderful. Mercutio/anyone; the best pairing, pairing of my heart, is Mercutio/Tybalt, followed shortly by Mercutio/Romeo and Mercutio/Benvolio. Likes: actual fairies (Queen Mab??), AUs (again), duelling, magical realism, Verona feeling like an extremely frightening place. Dislikes: "Romeo and Juliet are just silly teens!" takes, Friar Laurence being a good dude. I personally love the Baz Luhrmann, so anything inspired by/bouncing off of that is very welcome.

- As You Like It - okay, I won't lie, this is specifically about "when a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a man's good wit seconded with the forward child understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a great reckoning in a little room", it's about Marlowe, it's about Shakespeare/Marlowe, I am exactly so hyperfixated as this, I am sorry. Look: please write me Shakespeare/Marlowe. Please write me Shakespeare mourning Marlowe five years after his death via As You Like It? Please write me Shakespeare/Marlowe flashbacks. I want them to banter wittily. I'm sorry. Thanks.

- Twelfth Night - okay, if you've seen the recent National Theatre production, it's VERY good, I don't have a bootleg but it was aired internationally so one's probably available. Anyway, this is Olivia/Viola/Orsino/Sebastian, obviously. What I'd love is if Sebastian and Viola actually pulled the bed trick on Orsino - straight up "we look the same, he won't notice" - and he straight-up doesn't notice. Comedically! I love Orsino; I think he's a very wonderful and very stupid man.


For jungle_ride

All the information needed on my likes/dislikes can be found in my dear writer letter.

- A Midsummer Night's Dream: Helena, Helena/Demetrius

- Hamlet: Ophelia, Ophelia/Hamlet, Ophelia & Laertes, Ophelia/Laertes

- Macbeth:Lady Macbeth, Lady Macbeth/Macbeth

- Romeo & Juliet: Mercutio, Mercutio/Tybalt, Mercutio/Benvolio, Mercutio & Romeo


For Komadori

General Likes: fluff, angst, gen, enemies-to-lovers, friends-to-lovers, hurt/comfort, happy families, found family, unhappy families, pre-canon, post-canon, character studies, bad weather, adventure, USt, sharing a bed, unrequited love, AUs, supernatural elements, canon divergent AUs, mutual pining, reincarnation, soulmates.

For more details, please see my letter.

- Hamlet – Hamlet/Horatio, Hamlet/Ophelia, Horatio/Hamlet/Ophelia, Claudius/Gertrude - Please see my letter for more details.

- The Tempest – Miranda/Ferdinand, Prospero/Sycorax, or Sycorax, Ariel, and Caliban by themselves or in a family situation.

- A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Oberon/Titania, Puck, and basically any and all of the fairies - Please see my letter for more details.

- Twelfth Night – Orsino/Viola, Antonio/Sebastian, Malvolio, Olivia/Sebastian/Antonio - Please see my letter for more details.


For lexigent

General likes and dislikes: I'm easy, though quite vanilla. Would prefer no explicit sex but I am big on romance, angst, friendship, tension. I’m happy with darkness and leaving things unresolved - there is some more detailed info on darker themes in the prompts.
Character-focussed pieces are GRAND, but plotty things are also fine. AUs are welcome and extremely encouraged!

- Hamlet. This is my "anything goes" play. Some ideas for you to bounce off of:
I headcanon Hamlet as either gay or bisexual depending on the production. I loved Maxine Peake's recent exploration of Hamlet as a trans man, if you want to pick up on that. Or anything about how his/her/their sexual and gender identity affects how their about his position in the royal family. (If a woman, would she still inherit the throne?) Feel free to transpose this to any setting you like – any period in history for example, or a non-Western society maybe?

Another thing that fascinates me is how is life at university is so different from life back with his family, so you could dig into that and tell me about how he met Rosencrantz, Guildenstern, and Horatio.

There’s also a part of me that loves the darkness that is Ophelia/Laertes/Hamlet. Think three people growing up in very close proximity but with a status difference (how aware are they of this as children? Is there a moment where they start to realise and then things change, or was it always something that stood between them?) and all the feelings that come with that and possibly get magnified once puberty hits.

If you want to do something relationshippy, feel free to write/ship him with any of the younger generation – Ophelia, Horatio, Laertes, heck, even Rosencrantz or Guildenstern.

- The Two Gentlemen of Verona. We don't really get told a lot about Silvia. She must really love Valentine, to give up everything she has in Milan and follow him to Verona. Maybe tell me more about what happens after the play ends. Do Proteus and Julia find their way back to one another? How does Silvia feel about Proteus and Valentine still being friends? How does she navigate life in Verona?

- A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Again various ideas:
Oberon/Titania. They're the kind of couple that has a very strong relationship that is also very explosive. A version where Titania doesn't give in to Oberon at the end of the play would be AMAZING, but anything that explores their relationship is cool, either from before the play or afterwards. I saw a production recently where Titania and Bottom found each other again at the end of the play and that was a really cool idea.

If you’re into dark things, this is the play to go dark. When you think about it there’s a lot of darkness there: the relationship between Demetrius and Helena is dodgy consent-wise, Lysander all but sexually assaults Hermia in the woods, the lovers go through a real ordeal and can’t tell what’s real and what isn’t. How do they come out of it afterwards? Does the spell on Demetrius have side effects that they discover after the play?

- The Tempest. My favourite character in this play is Ariel. Something about what happens to him after Prospero's power over him is broken and he is free. Can be shippy or not, if you want to go shippy I love Ariel/Ferdinand or Ariel/Miranda/Ferdinand. The Globe production from a couple of years ago (with Colin Morgan as Ariel) really leaned on that, or at least heavily implied that Ariel had a fascination with Ferdinand and with his and Miranda’s relationship, and there was just this vague but very intense longing that Ariel did. What’s that longing about? Tell me!


For mamculuna

I'm open to lots of things, but not especially turned on by m/m graphic sex, especially as the main course.

- MacBeth--maybe a little more about the Three, or Lady M.

- Hamlet--backstory on Hamlet and Ophelia

- Othello--Desdemona before Othello, but can include meeting Othello

- Merchant of Venice--Portia's later life


For Small_Hobbit

No graphic sex please, and no graphic descriptions of violence - end result is fine. I am more than happy with crack.


- Hamlet - any/no pairings - AUs welcome

- Macbeth - any/no pairings - AUs welcome

- Titus Andronicus - any/no pairings - historical AU set in a different period would be interesting, but not obligatory

- King Lear - any/no pairings - AUs welcome

- Julius Caesar - any/no pairings - historical AU set in a different period would be interesting, but not obligatory


For tigrrmilk

i don't like graphic sex or fluff. enjoy AUs of many kinds and historical fic, and I enjoy get-together fic most of all.

- As You Like It - Rosalind/Orlando (including/or Ganymede/Orlando), or Celia/Rosalind if you'd rather. An AU version of the romance plots playing out in an AU setting would be super - space, or a modern fantasy world, or another historical setting... i don't mind! Or a fic focusing on the forest as a magical space would be pretty great also.

- Twelfth Night - Orsino/Cesario and/or Olivia/Viola, and/or Antonio/Sebastian - I like the reading that Orsino is already Very Keen on Cesario... when he thinks... he is... Cesario rather than Viola. Would like a fun queer examination of the whole situation. Or something sad about Sebastian/Antonio (or a happy ending for them after all).

- Much Ado About Nothing - Beatrice/Benedict - some kind of AU retelling of their romance would be wonderful. actually WOULD love it in the world of academia. or museums. but anything along those lines would be grand.

- A Midsummer Night's Dream - honestly pairings up to you, but i want some queerness - focus on the lovers or the fairies, whichever you fancy (would rather not have a story about Bottom etc), or both. very into the forest as a queer magical space - any kind of exploration of that would be great.


For twistedchick

Dear Author letter for likes, dislikes, and further info on prompts.

- Macbeth: Macbeth/Lady Macbeth. Lady Macbeth and her women (who are also the Witches), talking about anything relative to the play. Lady Macbeth is pregnant. Before the play starts.

- Twelfth Night: Olivia/Sebastian, Viola/Orsino, all on holiday anywhere, some time after the play. Any time period. Any holiday destination.

- As You Like It/Twelfth Night crossover. No pairing. Jacques meets Malvolio in a bar, somewhere.

- Much Ado About Nothing AU: Don Pedro/Beatrice. "Will you have me, lady?" Beatrice accepts Don Pedro's proposal, giving up on Benedick. What happens next?